How does your garden grow?

June 13, 2015

Pentecost 3 – 2015

Mark 4:26-34

Marian Free

In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. Amen. 

For at least the last forty-five years I have been involved in discussions about the future of the church. In particular, I have observed and been party to a lot of navel gazing in relation to declining attendance on Sundays and a variety of suggestions as to how we might halt that decline. Numerous reasons have been offered for this parlous state of affairs – women returning to the workforce, television, Sunday sport and Sunday trading – to mention a just a few. The liturgy has also been blamed for a downturn in attendance. In particular, there are those who express a concern that our form of worship doesn’t appeal to young people. As a consequence there have been a variety of attempts to address this problem, ranging from Folk Masses in the 60’s to Twitter Masses in the last decade.

Focus on the liturgy has not been the only response to this perceived crisis in the life of the church. Programme after programme has been rolled out, each with a degree of optimism that suggests that this time we have the right formula and one that will bring people back to the church. Sadly, over time, these programmes fall into disuse and distant memory as they fail to live up to their promise. Church attendance remains at best static and worse continues to decline.

The cynic in me wonders whether our concern with church attendance has more to do with maintaining the institution of the church than it does with spreading the gospel message, more to do with us and less to do with God. At the very least it implies that without our help God will simply fade into insignificance, that without the church there will be no God!

A perusal of the Gospels reveals that, unlike us, Jesus was not concerned with the religious practice of the people – how often they went to the Temple, or whether or not they attended the synagogue on a regular basis. Jesus seems to be more concerned that the crowds understand the liberating power of the gospel. The Gospels record that Jesus set people free from their diseases and infirmities; he released them from the power of evil spirits and he liberated them from a false understanding of the scriptures and from the misleading teaching of the leaders of the church. Above all, Jesus was concerned that the people fully understood the nature of the Kingdom of God (or heaven).

Jesus himself proclaimed that the Kingdom of God had come near (Mark 1:15) and when Jesus sent out the disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits. The disciples proclaimed repentance, cast out demons and anointed and cured the sick (Mk 6:6-13). They did not concern themselves with filling church (synagogue) pews.

Jesus’ primary concern was the Kingdom of God and most of the parables relate to this theme. These parables begin: “The Kingdom of God is like – a sower, a seed, a woman, a shepherd ..”. From all of these images, his listeners were able to build a picture of the kingdom of God in which the lost are sought and found, growth is secret and more abundant than expected, weeds will grow together with the wheat, debts are forgiven and the first will be last. Moreover, the kingdom will be worth more than everything that we own and we will give all that we have to possess it.

The parables do not say or even imply that the Kingdom of God will consist of full churches or of dioceses that are financially secure. The signs of the Kingdom are much more subtle and unexpected. More than that the Kingdom, according to Jesus, is not ours to build, but always God’s. It is the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of the church and of church-goers. We seem to have convinced ourselves that the Kingdom is entirely dependent on the existence of the church and lost sight of whose Kingdom it is and that we expend far too much time concerned with the survival of the institution of the church and far too little time announcing the kingdom of God as an alternative to the kingdom of this world.

This morning’s parables are particularly challenging in a climate that is focused on church growth. The first, the parable of the sower, is a stark reminder that the growth of the Kingdom is entirely determined by God and not by human effort (‘the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how’). The second, the parable of the mustard seed, confronts us with the idea that to an untrained eye the Kingdom might look like an insignificant herb or weed – nothing like the images that “Kingdom” usually calls to mind. In other words, whatever the Kingdom is, it will not be as we expect.

In the light of these parables, perhaps it is time that we, the church, stopped looking inwards, trying to tweak what we do on a Sunday morning so that it becomes more attractive to more people; time that we moved out from our beautiful buildings into the communities around us; time that, instead of trying to persuade people to come to us that, we found ways to set people free from the chains of individualism, consumerism, ambition, from oppression, injustice and violence.

Above all it is time to take a deep breath and to remember that it is God (not us) who will cause the Kingdom of God to grow and that in ways that we may not see or understand. It is time to recall that the Kingdom that will be unlike any other Kingdom that has preceded it. If we cannot imagine it, we certainly cannot build it. In other words, perhaps it is time to relax, to stop struggling for survival; to let go and let God and then to watch in amazement to see what God will do and then to go wherever God may take us.

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When good is perceived as evil

June 6, 2015

Pentecost 2 -2015

Mark 3:20-35

Marian Free

 In the name of God whose ways are not our ways and whose thoughts are not our thoughts. Amen.

If you have never read the Gospel of Mark from beginning to end, may I suggest that you take the time to do so. Mark’s account of Jesus is quite short and I think most of us could read it in one or two sittings. This is important, because, it is only by reading the gospel from start to finish that we can gain some idea of the plot development and of the themes that run through the gospel. For example, a prominent theme is Mark’s gospel is that of “conflict”, in particular a conflict regarding who has authority – Jesus or the religious leaders? The question can be narrowed down still further to “who has God’s authority – the authority to represent God before the people?” – Jesus or those who have been given, or who have assumed the authority to interpret scripture and to guard and to pass on the traditions of the faith. When the question is narrowed down still further, we begin to see that the conflict is a contest between good and evil, between the heavenly authorities and earthly authorities, between God and Satan.

The earthly authorities (whether the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, the priests or the Herodians) try over and over again to discredit Jesus, to demonstrate that he not only disregards the law and the traditions of the elders, but that he willfully breaks the law and ignores the traditions. The “authorities” are determined to assert their own authority to represent God, and to expose Jesus as a madman, a fraud, a blasphemer or worse, an agent of Satan. Instead of which they themselves are exposed as self-serving, misrepresenting God, misinterpreting scripture, enforcing a tradition that has reached its use-by date and worse, as blasphemers. Despite the best effort of “the authorities”, in every confrontation Jesus is able to turn the tables on his accusers and to reveal them to be guilty of the very things of which they accuse him.

Jesus is accused of breaking the Sabbath, but whereas his actions (of healing) lead to wholeness and life, the action of the authorities on that same day is to plot Jesus’ death. The authorities try to entrap him with questions about divorce and about the resurrection, but Jesus knows the scriptures so well that he is able to point out that they simply do not understand. They accuse Jesus of breaking the law only to have Jesus point out their hypocrisy and their propensity to twist the law to suit themselves. All their attempts to entangle Jesus or to cause him to lose face before the people have the opposite effect. A result of the conflict – which they have instigated – is that the so-called “authorities” are revealed as loveless, legalistic hypocrites.

Nowhere is the battle between good and evil so clear as in today’s gospel. This is the last of the first series of confrontations between Jesus and the authorities. So far Jesus has been accused of blasphemy, of breaking the laws of ritual purity, of failing to observe fast days and of breaking the Sabbath. At the same time the crowds have identified Jesus as “one having authority” and the evil spirits have recognised Jesus as the Holy One of God. The end result is a conspiracy to destroy him.

In today’s gospel, the scene is set when Jesus’ family, made anxious by reports that he is “out of his mind”, come to restrain him. The idea that Jesus himself might be possessed by an evil spirit is taken up by the scribes (who apparently have come all the way from Jerusalem to Galilee to attack him). The scribes accuse Jesus of having Beelzebul (Satan) claiming that only Beelzebul would have the power that Jesus has to cast out demons.

Such a claim is so ridiculous that it is easy for Jesus to demonstrate that it is utterly baseless. No one would possibly try to defeat an opponent by destroying members of their own team. Jesus points out that is only because he has already defeated Satan that he can now so easily dispense with Satan’s minions. Having dealt with the attack on him, Jesus turns the tables on his accusers. He suggests that by identifying him with Satan, the scribes have revealed their true nature and committed the most serious sin of all – that of the sin against the Holy Spirit which is the only sin for which there is no forgiveness. In Jesus, the scribes have seen evil and not good and in so doing they have confused God with Satan. Their attack on Jesus has exposed just how completely they have come to depend on themselves and on earthly authority and how, as a consequence, they have effectively shut God out of their lives. They cannot recognise in Jesus God’s beauty, love, wisdom and compassion. Instead they see in him only evil and threat.

Worse, what is good has become to them so threatening and so disturbing, that they believe that they have to destroy it. The scribes are so intent on preserving their position and their traditions that anything that shakes the status quo is, by their definition, evil. The goodness and life that Jesus represents is to them the source of evil and death.

This then, is the unforgivable sin, to mistake what is good for evil. The scribes have become so blind to goodness that they have closed their hearts to all that is good and true. Believing themselves to be arbiters of good and evil, the scribes simply cannot see that they are in need of forgiveness. They have so effectively locked God out of their hearts and lives that they have put themselves out of reach of God’s loving compassion. It is not so much that God won’t forgive, but that they will not allow God to forgive because instead of seeing in Jesus an example of God’s goodness, they can only see the destruction of everything that they have come to hold dear.

Seeing evil in what is good is not limited to Jesus’ first century opponents. A willingness to rely on human authority and a desire to maintain the status quo has led to acts of oppression and injustice and that have seen the imprisonment and torture of good and prophetic men and women. It is fear of change and distrust of the other that has allowed humanity to turn a blind eye to the abuse of power and the destruction of innocents discrimination against those who are different and rejection of those whom we imagine would threaten our lifestyles.

My our lives be so focused on God that we are not so afraid of change or so determined to hold on to what we have known and believed to be true that we fail to see goodness when it is right in front of us. May our lives be so driven by God’s love and wisdom and compassion that we do not hear the voice of change as the voice of evil when the change is for the greater good.

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The Trinity and Paul – some thoughts

May 30, 2015

Trinity Sunday – 2015

Romans 8

Marian Free

In the name of God who created us, died for us and enlivens us. Amen.

The Apostle Paul gets a lot of bad press. From the time the author of 2 Peter wrote: “There are some things in them (Paul’s letters) hard to understand”, there have been those who accuse Paul of being difficult, culture bound and chauvinistic. As a Pauline scholar I would of course, contest all such negative comments and claim them to be misrepresentations at worst and misinterpretations at best by those who have not taken the time to study and understand the genius that is Paul[1].

I am not saying that the letters of Paul are immediately transparent, or that there are not some parts that require a certain amount of effort to understand, but I would claim that what Paul has to say is absolutely essential for our understanding of the gospel and that he says it in a way that is quite masterful and compelling.

One of the difficulties that we face when we read either Paul’s letters or the gospels is that they were written in the first century for a first century Mediterranean audience. The letters are even more specific. Paul was not writing for our edification. In fact I think that he had no more idea of his letters being turning into Holy Scripture than we would imagine that our assignments in theology would one day be accepted into the canon.

Paul was writing to specific situations that had arisen in communities that had come to faith as a result of his teaching or, as is the case with Romans, a community that he wished to visit. His intention was not to write theology but to set the recipients straight on matters of faith or behaviour. The communities to whom he wrote consisted by and large of people who had had no grounding in the Jewish faith and who therefore had considerable catching up to do in order to begin to understand the gospel.

What I find remarkable is, that in this context and within twenty years of Jesus’ death, Paul – who never met the earthly Jesus – was able to distil the significance of Jesus’ life and teaching and to give them a meaning that continues to inform us today. The gospels give us the story of Jesus (albeit with interpretation). Paul, writing considerably earlier, tells us what it all means. In so doing he foreshadows ideas which later scholars turned into theology and into doctrine.

Take the notion of the Trinity for example. Over the centuries much ink has been spilt in trying to elucidate the nature of God and what it means for God to be both one and three. Paul simply assumes a Trinitarian God – Creator, Son and Spirit. This is particularly evident in Romans 8:9-11. “But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” Paul is making an argument about life in the Spirit, but in order to do so he also speaks of God and Christ as if they were all one God.

In verse 9 Paul speaks of “being in the Spirit” because the “Spirit of God dwells in you” and adds “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. He goes on to say “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you”, “the Spirit dwells in you.” The Spirit incorporates believers into the life of Christ that in turn incorporates them into the union between Christ and God. It seems that it is perfectly natural for Paul to think of God as the one who raised Jesus from the dead, as Jesus and as Spirit and that as a result he is able to use the expressions interchangeably.

The notion of God being known as God, as Spirit and as Word is not new to Paul. Genesis 1 introduces the Spirit in the form of ruah or breath and in Ezekiel (37:5) it is God’s ruah (breath) that brings life to the dry bones. The same Spirit animates Ezekiel, transports him to the valley of bones and will give life to the people of Israel. (This is not dissimilar to Paul’s idea that it is the Spirit that gives life to the believer (Rom 8:11)). Proverbs introduces Wisdom (sophia or logos) as co-creator with God. So in the Judeo-Christian from the beginning of creation there has been an implicit notion of the complex nature of the One God.

It would be the Incarnation that would give this idea flesh both literally and figuratively. God in human form proved much more challenging than the less concrete ideas of God as breath and wisdom. How could Jesus be both human and God? How could Jesus be pre-existent? Where did the Spirit fit in all this? It would take the church close to four hundred years to express the idea of the Trinity in theological and doctrinal terms that were universally accepted[2] and many more centuries for scholars to continue to explore and name what it means for God to be both one and three and how to express this without diminishing one of the persons of the Trinity.

For Paul and the early church the nature of God was not something to be intellectualized or argued. It seems to have been taken for granted that God could be known as Father, Son and Spirit, the one who sent Jesus, the one sent (Jesus) and the one whom Jesus sent (Spirit), the one who raised Jesus from the dead, Jesus who was raised from the dead and the Spirit.

Instead of worrying about how the Trinity works and which analogies are heretical or not, let us take a page out of Paul’s book and assert that God simply is – Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

[1] When I speak of Paul’s letters I refer to the seven letters that are considered genuinely Pauline – Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon.

[2] Some would claim imposed was a better word.

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Gospel Truth?

May 23, 2015

Pentecost – 2015

John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

Marian Free

 In the name of God who has entrusted us with God’s very word. Amen.

Occasionally I watch an Australian crime drama set in the 1920’s: “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries”. If you are unfamiliar with the programme, Miss Fisher is apparently an independently wealthy woman turned private detective. Phryne (yes, that is her name) has a personal assistant named Dotty. Dotty, under Phryne’s tutelage, assists her employer in the art of detection. Both women are unusually independent and intrepid for their time and place and both take risks that even today some of us would consider foolish. One of the on-going sub-plots is a growing affection between Dotty and a junior Police Officer, Hugh. Like most men, then and now, Hugh is protective of Dotty and would prefer that she keep herself out of danger.

When I caught up with the show last week I discovered that Dotty and Hugh are engaged. Dotty is a practicing Roman Catholic so Hugh needs to adopt Catholicism before they can be married in the Catholic Church. At first, Hugh is hesitant, but his enthusiasm grows when he discovers that a Catholic wife must obey her husband. (Remember it is the 1920’s!) Having clarified with the priest that he has understood this aspect of the faith correctly, Hugh becomes much more engaged in the process. An obedient wife, he thinks, will have to take his concerns and his cautions seriously, an obedient Dotty will stop taking risks and stop engaging in amateur sleuthing.

Unfortunately for Hugh, Dotty is not to be so easily restrained. In a private conversation with the priest, she happens to mention that Protestantism has a lot to offer – implying that if the priest insists on her obedience, she will leave his congregation for another. Poor Hugh is completely nonplussed when, at their next meeting, the priest points out that of course, times have changed, and that in the modern world one needn’t take the obedience clause absolutely literally!

I don’t have to tell you that in the Anglican tradition many things that were once held to be sacrosanct have been softened or even abandoned. It is almost impossible to believe that only fifty years ago people who were divorced could not be remarried in an Anglican church, children of parents who were unmarried were refused baptism and women were not admitted to holy orders. The debates that accompanied these changes were often fierce and uncompromising because those who opposed change found support for their position in the Bible and were unable to see things any other way.

It is tempting to think that there is such a thing as “gospel truth” but the reality is vastly different. What was “true” four thousand years ago for a nomadic Middle Eastern tribe cannot always be applied in a digital, technological twenty first century world. No one today would take all of the Old Testament literally. Medical science has come to the conclusion that circumcision can be detrimental rather than beneficial. The development of refrigeration means that the health risks of eating shellfish have been significantly reduced and I think that I am safe in saying that none of us believes that a woman caught in adultery should be stoned to death.

Even Jesus did not seem to think that the rules and regulations of the Old Testament were immutable. Where the Old Testament counselled: “love your neighbour and hate your enemy” Jesus taught “love your enemy”. Where teh Old Testament demanded “an eye for an eye”, Jesus said: “Do not resist an evildoer”. Where the Old Testament allowed divorce and remarriage Jesus claimed this to be adultery[1]. Just as Jesus did not feel utterly bound by the Old Testament, later New Testament writers did not feel obliged to follow absolutely the teaching of earlier writers. Colossians and Ephesians, then the Pastoral letters seriously altered Jesus’ and Paul’s inclusive view of the role of women. And over time societal values change. Both Jesus and Paul took slavery for granted, something that we find abhorrent today.

It is impossible (when human writers are concerned) to be completely dispassionate and not to allow one’s own views to permeate what is written. It is equally impossible to imagine that someone writing four or even two thousand years ago could envisage and therefore write comprehensively for a situation so far removed from their times as ours. Our scriptures – Old and New – have a great deal to say about love, forgiveness and compassion and about the care for the weak and vulnerable, but they have nothing to say about climate change, genetic modification or IVF. On many of the issues of our time, we are left to our own devices. Rightly or wrongly God expects us to work through the ethical issues of such things as stem cell research and to come up with answers that are right and just. Rightly or wrongly God has given us responsibility to determine how far we should take genetic engineering and other medical advances.

Because nothing stays the same and few things are true for all time, God has given us minds to use and hearts to feel. Far more importantly God has blessed us with the Holy Spirit. Three years were not nearly enough for Jesus to prepare the disciples and thus the church for every possible eventuality. He does not leave them/us unresourced but promises to send the Spirit who then, as now will guide them/us in all truth.

God who sent Jesus, Jesus the sent one, and the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent empower us (the church) to think and act as God the Trinity would act. It is an awesome responsibility and one that requires of us a union with God – Father, Son and Spirit – such that their mind is our mind and that decisions that we make are in accord with decisions that they would have us make. In a complex and ever-changing environment, God has entrusted us not only with God’s word, but also with the power and the resources to interpret that word across time and space.

History has shown that time and again we have abused that trust, yet God has not withdrawn it. In our time and place let us demonstrate that we are worthy of God’s confidence and whatever the cost, let us give ourselves entirely to God, Creator, Redeemer and Holy Spirit so that all our decisions are wise, compassionate and just and consistent with God’s desires for us and for the world.

[1] Albeit to protect women from arbitrary abandonment.

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Causing offense

May 16, 2015

Easter 7 – 2015

John 17:6-19

Marian Free

 In the name of God who with us enters into the messiness of this world and who endures the hatred of those who do not understand and cannot accept God. Amen.

Modern technology is wonderful. On my computer I have a wonderful Bible programme called Accordance. With the push of a button I can find out how many times a word occurs in a particular book of the bible and how that compares with its occurrence in other books. For example, I have just popped in the word “κοσμος” (world). The “hits graph” shows me that this word occurs far more often in John’s gospel that anywhere else in the New Testament – far outweighing its occurrence in the other gospels and most of the other books. Further, the graph indicates that John’s use of ‘kosmos” increases (quadruples) in the later chapters – as you can see for yourselves.

Occurrences of cosmos in New Testament

Occurrences of cosmos in New Testament

For those who are interested in such things, the word “kosmos” occurs 78 times in John’s gospel, 23 in 1 John and 21 in 1 Corinthians. The concordance key tells me exactly where to find each of the 186 occurrences of the word, so were I to be researching this in detail I could examine each usage in its context to determine whether the New Testament writers use the word in the same or different ways which in turn would tell me something about the message that each author is trying to present. Today I am content to note that the majority of occurrences of the word in John’s gospel occur in chapter 17, the portion of the gospel assigned to us this morning.

In John’s gospel the word “kosmos” is used in a number of ways that can be summarised: “the world in contrast to the heavens”, “the created world” and “human society”. It can be used positively, negatively and neutrally. So for example the created world is neutral and the world in contrast to the heavens is negative. When the word is used in the sense of humanity, it can be used in all three senses: “the world has gone after him” (12:19 – neutral), “God so loved the world” (3:16 – positive), “the world has hated them because they are not of the world” (17:14 – negative).

John’s gospel presents Jesus as a divisive figure. The way in which people respond to him reveals their innermost self, their true character. According to John, Jesus does not come to condemn the world but to save the world, however by their reaction to Jesus, people in effect judge themselves. That is, they make a choice to accept or to reject Jesus. In rejecting Jesus, they reject God and in turning way from Jesus they demonstrate that they are not able to accept Jesus’ word (a word that he has received from God). Their rejection of Jesus demonstrates that they belong to the world (that is the world that is opposed to Jesus and therefore to God).

According to John’s gospel, the very presence of Jesus is unsettling. The people who reject him are disquieted by him, either because they don’t understand what he is about, or because they feel exposed (he knows who they really are). At the same they don’t really understand their reaction and this makes them even more uncomfortable. They need to find a reason to be disturbed by someone who teaches what he teaches, does what he does (who is as good as he is). As is so often the case, what they do not fully understand, they hate. The “world” (humanity) thus becomes divided between those who accept and follow Jesus and those who do not. Jesus’ “own” are distinguished from those who are not his own. The disciples are distinguished from the “world”, those who do not believe.

In chapter 17, Jesus’ farewell prayer for the disciples, Jesus warns the disciples that they can expect the same reception form the “world” as he himself received. If his presence was divisive, theirs will provoke the same reaction, if Jesus’ teaching and actions caused disquiet, then the disciples, who teach and do the same things, can expect to cause disquiet. If people responded to that disquiet by hating Jesus, the disciples can expect that same hatred to be directed at them.

It would be wrong, as a result of reading Jesus’ farewell speech (15-17) to believe that Jesus thought that the world was inherently evil. It would be equally mistaken to think that Jesus was urging the disciples to somehow remove themselves from the world, to protect themselves from the taint of all that was worldly. Nothing could be further from the truth – God loves the world and in sending Jesus God hoped to save the world. Nor is the world to be rejected because it has rejected Jesus, God’s desire is still that it be saved. The disciples are only at risk of being hated, because Jesus is sending them into the world. Jesus very specifically says that he is not asking God to take them out of the world, but to give them the strength and courage that they will require to withstand the hatred that their very presence will generate. (If sharing God’s word was difficult for Jesus, it will be just as difficult for those who continue his work – they will only be able to carry out their work with God’s support.)

Like Jesus, the disciples are not to withdraw from the world, but to be fully engaged in and with the world no matter how uncomfortable or how costly that might be. The world will not be impacted by their presence if, to ensure their comfort and safety they hide themselves away. The world will not come to know God if God, through the disciples, is not made known to the world.

In the twenty-first century we, Jesus’ modern day disciples, are not concerned that world might hate us. Jesus’ prayer seems to us to relate to a past time and situation. For centuries the institution of the church has been so embedded in the world, that we have not had to think about being sent out by Jesus, nor have we had to endure the consequences of being misunderstood.

In a changing situation, it is important to revisit Jesus’ prayer and to ask ourselves:

How well do we represent Jesus/God in the world today?

Have we become so indistinguishable from the world that we no longer cause offense?

Are we so complacent about God’s word that we barely disturb the complacency of those around us?

If our lives and our presence are not disquieting how can we expect to unsettle and change the lives of others?

How do we need to change such that Jesus’ prayer for the disciples is Jesus’ prayer for us today?

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It still doesn’t depend on us

May 9, 2015

Easter 6 – 2015

John 15:9-17

Marian Free

In the name of God – Lover, Friend, Enlivener. Amen.

Today will be the third time in three weeks that I have had cause to preach on John 15:9-17 – at the service to dedicate the windows, on ANZAC Day and now today. That tells you at least three things. One is that our scriptures are often put to uses for which they were not originally intended, a second is that they are to some degree pliable (that is they can withstand more than one interpretation) and a third is that our biblical texts contain so much depth and complexity that they can be viewed from a wide variety of angles and through an array of different lenses and so continue to reveal new and rich insights. This is certainly the case with John’s Gospel. Apparently simple, transparent texts contain layers of detail that only become obvious when we make the effort to really familiarize ourselves with them.

Take John 15:1-17 for example. Jesus declares himself to be the true vine – an image that he expands on in two ways. In the first few verses (those we heard last week) he elaborates on the image by comparing himself with the vine – the source of life for the branches. That seems straightforward enough until the reader begins to explore questions such as: to whom is Jesus referring when he speaks of the branches and whom does he mean by the branches that have withered? What does sort of fruit are the branches to bear? Does he mean doing good works or does he, as the reading suggests mean discipleship? If bearing fruit is discipleship what does that look like? [1]

Jesus expands on the question of discipleship in his second explanation of the vine. Discipleship according to this image is evidenced by self-sacrificial love for one another – love that like fruit flows from a believer’s abiding in him. This discussion is no less complex than the first. Here, Jesus turns his attention to the theme of love but he confuses the issue by adding instructions about keeping his commandment, about servanthood (slavery) versus friendship, about being sent and about answered requests.

In a ten minute sound bite, such as a sermon, it impossible to follow and elaborate on all of these different threads much as I would like to! I alert you to them so that you are aware that I am skimming the surface of and not plumbing the depths of Jesus’ analogy.

When John 15:9-17 is read on ANZAC Day, it is usual for the preacher to focus on just one of the verses: “Greater love has no one than this, that they lay down their life for their friends” (John 15:13). In that context of ANZAC Day, it is appropriate think of all those who, in times of conflict, have risked or given their lives so that others might live and it is comforting to understand that their lives were given not only for a good cause, but in response to the highest Christian ideal.

Jesus setting was not that of wartime, nor do I imagine that he spoke these words with that particular context in mind. In trying to come to grips with the text today it is important to ask: “What is the context that Jesus is addressing? To whom was he speaking? and What did he mean by that line?

A number of factors make it clear that Jesus is talking to believers,those who are already disciples. In the first instance, the setting in the gospel is Jesus’ last meal with the disciples – presumably the twelve minus Judas who has already gone out, but certainly an inner circle of followers. Secondly, Jesus is addressing those who abide in him – those who have not already withered and died. Thirdly, he calls the listeners “servants” a term that implies they are his disciples or followers. Jesus is speaking to his followers in the context of saying farewell to them and preparing them to be the church in his absence.

This is an essential detail in terms of working out the meaning for us today. Jesus is NOT encouraging us to do good works. The fruit we are called to bear is that of discipleship and discipleship is to be demonstrated in self-sacrificial love – not for the nation, not for those in need, but for our fellow church members, those with whom we meet week by week, those whom we take for granted and those whom we let get under our skin, those who agree with us on issues such as music and furnishing and those who want to turn everything upside down, those who encourage us and those who let us down, those whom we have known for years and those whom we have only known for hours. In one sense it is a much more homely love (less noble) than dying for another in battle and yet in another sense it is a much more difficult love because it means that issues that arise need to be properly addressed, differences recognised and dealt with and rifts mended. It entails recognising when to hold one’s ground and when to give way, when to be firm and when to be gentle. In one sense this sort of love is incredibly difficult, in another it is the easiest love in the world, because above all it not our love – it is God’s love, God’s love expressed through Jesus to us.

In the end then, love has little to do with us and everything to do with God. Our primary responsibility is to abide in the vine, to abide in Jesus and in Jesus’ love for us such that Jesus’ self-sacrificial, life-giving love flows through us, filling us, fulfilling our every need and freeing us such that we cannot help but to give that love freely and abundantly to others. We are called, each and every one of us to be in a relationship with God, a relationship with Jesus that is so all-embracing, so intimate that it is as if we are branches that are fed and nurtured and empowered by the life-giving love of the vine that produces the fruit of discipleship which is our love for each other.

Imagine a church community that truly and completely bound itself to God as branches in a vine, a church in which God’s love was abundantly and transparently clear. Who would not want to belong to such a church? Who would not want the love that its members showed to one another?

If we live in God’s love, God’s love will live in us and that love will be manifest to the world. It is my belief that in this community we know and live God’s love. Can know and live it better? Are we willing to know and live it better? If not why not?

[1] That is not taking into account the questions as to whether chapters 15-17 are original to the gospel and/or original to Jesus. Nor does it refer to the issue of Old Testament precedents.

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It doesn’t depend on us

May 2, 2015

                                                                                      Easter 5 – 2015

                                                                              John 15:1-8; Acts 8:26-40

                                                                                                                                                                         Marian Free

In the name of God in w  is the source of our being and of all our doing. Amen.

Abiding, discipleship and bearing fruit are among the themes of this short passage from John’s gospel. John’s gospel is both incredibly simply and amazingly complex. Interlocking themes weave their way through a variety of scenarios and images in a way that makes the text repetitive, but also difficult to untangle. This in turn makes the gospel easy to understand (because the ideas are repeated over and over again) and impossible to explain (because so many ideas are included in a very few verses). 

Take today’s gospel for example. It follows on from the discussion on the good shepherd and Jesus’ statement that he has other sheep to bring into the fold. A new image – that of the vine appears to be refer to this new community – one that includes both the original flock and the other sheep whom Jesus has brought in. This new community is described as the branches of the vine, Jesus, who is the source of their life and fruitfulness. By virtue of their decision to ‘abide’ in Jesus these branches have been ‘pruned’ or ‘made clean’ so that they will bear even more fruit. 

In contrast, those who have not responded to Jesus have lost their connection with the source. As a consequence they wither and die – not because they do not bear fruit, but because they do not abide in Jesus nor he in them. Abiding in Jesus, being connected to the vine allows the branches to bear fruit. Bearing fruit in this instance is not related to good works or what a person does or does not do. ‘Bearing fruit’ describes a person’s relationship to the vine – their connectedness or not. The reason for this, is that it is not the branch itself that produces fruit. On its own, the branch can do nothing. It requires the life giving nutrients that flow through the sap that comes from the vine. A grape vine can only produce grapes. A passion vine can only produce passion fruit. The source of life determines what is produced. 

It is this notion that is at the heart of the metaphor of the vine. Followers of Jesus, those who abide in Jesus and he in them, are so intimately connected to Jesus that their lives are not only empowered by him, but  they are, to all intents and purposes, him. What they ask for will be given to them, not because Jesus wants to indulge them or to reward them for their faithfulness, but because they abide in him. If they abide  in Jesus their lives will be so intimately connected with his, that they will want only what Jesus himself would want. 

The connection between Jesus and the disciples is as close as that between Jesus and the Father. By abiding in Jesus (abiding in the vine), the disciples become one with him and therefore one with the Father. Just as Jesus glorifies the Father, so the disciples, by abiding him will in their turn glorify the Father. Fruitfulness then, is not something we do, but something that God (Jesus) does through us. Bearing fruit is for us, as it is for the branch of the vine, something that it passive not active. It involves opening ourselves up to the life-giving power of Jesus so that Jesus can work through us. On our own we do not produce fruit, but if we allow God to work in us and through us, God’s purposes will be achieved through us and that purpose is that God will be glorified.

The story of Philip and the Eunuch is unrelated, but I believe it helps to demonstrate the point that Jesus is making here. Philip is one of the Greeks who has fled Jerusalem following the stoning of Stephen. Philip goes to the road between Jerusalem and Gaza, not to further some purpose of his own, but as a response to the voice of God. Once on the road, Philip again demonstrates his oneness with God. He hears the voice of the Spirit urging him to join the Eunuch who is confused by what he is reading in the book of Isaiah. Led by the Spirit, Philip asks if the Eunuch understands what he is reading. When the Eunuch says that he does not, Philip explains the gospel so convincingly that the Eunuch is brought to faith and seeks baptism. His task done, Philip is ‘snatched by the Spirit’ and finding himself in Azotus where he continues to share the gospel. 

What these two very different texts have in common is the concept that the spread of the  gospel is not dependent on us but on God. The gospel is spread, not by anything that we do, but by what God in us does. This means that more important than anything we do or do not do, is our relationship with God. God can only work in and through us, this is if we are intimately connected to God (the vine) and if our lives are fed and directed by the Spirit within us. In the language of today’s gospel: if we abide in Jesus and Jesus abides in us our lives will be so completely aligned with that of God that what we want will be what God wants and God’s will will be achieved through us and  fruit that we bear will be the spread of the good news.

For decades now we have been anxious  about declining congregation numbers and worried by the increasing secularisation of the world around us. As a result we have tried all kinds of programmes and invested huge amounts of energy in trying to attract people to the faith. In other words, we allow ourselves to think that the future of the gospel depends entirely on  us. Today’s readings remind us that the opposite is the case. It doesn’t depend on us. The gospel always was and always is in God’s hands. The very best that we can do to progress God’s mission in the world is to allow ourselves to be so utterly and completely swept up in God’s ambit that God can and will work in and through us. To further God’s kingdom in the world all that is necessary is for us to surrender ourselves to God’s greater wisdom and open ourselves to God’s life-giving, life-directing presence and leave the rest up to God.

How can we possibly allow ourselves to think that the kingdom of God depends entirely on us? All we need to do is abide in the vine and  leave it to God to do the rest.

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Our life to live

April 25, 2015

Easter 4 – 2015

John 10:(1-10) 11-18

Marian Free

 

In the name of God, Shepherd, protector, liberator. Amen.

Most of us would, I think, agree that the Internet is a marvelous tool. That said, we cannot ignore the darker side of this form of mass communication. Just week I heard about a social media site on which Year 8 girls can post pictures of themselves wearing bikinis. Innocent enough you might think until you learn that the photo only stays on the site if enough other girls vote for it to stay. It makes you wonder what sort of arrogance would lead to someone setting up the site and what sort of insecurities would lead to twelve and thirteen year old girls exposing themselves to the sort of large-scale rejection that might follow. That, of course is only one of many sites. There is, in the United States at least, a site called “Revenge”. Men, who have persuaded girlfriends to send photos of themselves in various stages of undress, upload those photos on to the site when the relationship goes sour. The young women discover that they are recognised wherever they go and are mortified to realise that they whole world has seen them naked. Then there are those who use the internet to prey on young people with promises of love, but whose real intention is to use and abuse them.

The Internet is wonderful, but it can be a minefield for the vulnerable, the inexperienced and the naive. It offers fame and fortune but can be sordid and soul-destroying. It can provide a sense of belonging yet also be the source of the most awful social exclusion. People, like sheep, are not always discerning about whom they follow whether it be fellow teens, an over-bearing boyfriend, an employer who plays fast and loose with the law, a Hitler, or an Idi Amin. The human need for affirmation and approval is sufficiently strong that it is possible for some to ignore the small twinges of disquiet that alert them to the fact that all is not well – that they are being used, bullied or taken advantage of. When people are desperate to fit in, they do not always notice the warning signs. They take risks that may have disastrous consequences and they place their trust in those who are only interested in exploiting or taking advantage of them, of using them for their own gain or gratification. They follow people who in the end are not interested in the personal, emotional or social needs of those whom they ensnare but come – as do the thieves in today’s gospel, to steal, kill and destroy.

Sadly, some people are so deafened by the din of the world around them and so anxious to belong to that world that they are either unable or unwilling to listen to their own hearts. Instead of being true to themselves they follow those who offer false hopes and a false sense security. Instead of finding freedom and wholeness they discover that they are constrained and they remain unsatisfied, unfulfilled.

It is in contrast to the thieves, and robbers, (the hired hands, those who exploit), that Jesus describes himself as the “good shepherd.’ The good shepherd does not seek followers to use for his own nefarious means and he does not want to exploit those who follow him in order to achieve his own purposes. The good shepherd has no regard for his own needs, In fact, rather than demand anything of those who choose to follow, the good shepherd wants only what is the best for the sheep to the extent that the shepherd would lay down his life to ensure the well-being of the sheep. In the context of the verse that precedes today’s passage, the good shepherd has come so that the sheep may have life and have it abundantly. This is not a half-life in the shadow of the shepherd, but a life that is rich and full, in which every opportunity is provided for the sheep to achieve their own potential. In other words, the good shepherd does not entrap or limit, but liberates and encourages those who follow to be confident in themselves and to live their own lives.

The good shepherd is selfless – the sheep always come first. The good shepherd is also inclusive. No one has to behave or dress in a certain way to belong. To be part of this flock does not require compromise or a willingness to bend the rules in order to fit in. In fact, so far from being selective, the good shepherd is clear that there are other sheep who do not yet belong – those who live in fear, those who are lost and defenseless, those who are trapped in unhealthy ways of perceiving themselves, those who are enslaved to fads and fashions, those who are struggling to fit in and in so doing become what they are not. The good shepherd wants to bring these into the flock so that they too might “have life and have it abundantly”.

Hearing and responding to Jesus’ voice does not mean being bound by rigid rules or being forced to behave in particular ways. It does mean means hearing the shepherd above the cacophony and demands of the world, it means understanding that we can rise above the need or desire to conform to trends and fashions and it means having the courage to be our own selves knowing that we are so precious, that Jesus would rather give up his life than see us put upon or used,or be what we are not.

The good shepherd wants us to hear his voice, to draw us into his fold, not because he wants us to conform to certain ways of behaving, not because he wants full churches, not because he afraid that we will be condemned at the judgement, but purely and simply because he loves us. Jesus loves us unreservedly and unconditionally and longs for us to make decisions that will lead to our wholeness. Jesus wants all people to know that there is no need to conform to external, worldly measures. It doesn’t matter whether a person is beautiful or plain, clever or not so clever in the eyes of the world, in Jesus’ eyes they are unique and valued.

Thirteen year olds who know that they are precious and loved will not need to expose themselves to rejection, young women will know that their bodies are their own will not be coerced to share them in ways that make them uncomfortable, young men will not need to boast of their conquests in order to impress their mates. Those who follow the good shepherd will discover that the world and it values will lose its hold on them and they will know that their life is their own to live. They will know as Jesus knew that their life is theirs to give and to take up and that no one can take it from them.

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How do you know someone is alive?

April 18, 2015

Easter 3 – 2015

Luke 24:36-48

Marian Free

In the name of God whose mysteries we can never fully fathom. Amen.

 There was a fascinating programme on the radio yesterday. The presenter was raising the question: “how do you know that someone is alive?” One hundred years ago the answer would have been obvious, if there was no heart-beat and no breath, then a person could be considered to be dead. Fifty years ago, even thirty years ago the answer became more complicated, but was still reasonably clear. If a person had no brain function then they were to all intents and purposes already dead. However, there are always complications. Families who hoped against hope and refused to turn off life-support systems were rewarded when someone who had been declared brain-dead resumed functioning normally. At least one person with a condition that I know only as “shut-in” syndrome was suddenly restored to normality. Our definitions of death have become more fluid in recent decades.

Jesus was really dead. Unlike those who were crucified with him, Jesus did not need his legs broken. He had died some hours before as the spear in his side confirmed. The question in Jesus’ case is the same: “how do you know that someone is alive?” This is a question that obviously exercised the minds of the first disciples and of the gospel writers.

There are a number of accounts of the risen Christ. As I mentioned last week, the accounts of the Sunday morning are remarkably similar. Matthew and Mark add little else except to report that the angels told the women to remind the disciples that Jesus was going ahead of them to Galilee. Luke and John have fuller accounts and some differences. Both seem to emphasise Jesus’ corporeality and his formlessness. He is able to be touched and to eat, yet he can pass through walls. He is recognizable and not able to be recognised. In John, Thomas seeks proof and in Luke’s gospel the disciples give Jesus fish to eat to assure themselves he is really alive.

Whether by touch or by sight, or even by the feeling of warmth that fills the disciples as Jesus’ speaks, they are absolutely convinced that the grace has been unable to contain him. So convinced are they that they leave their hiding place, and driven by the Holy Spirit, take to the streets, to the countryside and even to different nations to proclaim the resurrection. A foolish, frightened group of men are mobilized by their experience to tell the world that Jesus is risen. Resistance to their message and even persecution does not change their mind or dampen their enthusiasm.

Within three decades of Jesus’ resurrection the gospel has reached as far as Rome and others such as Paul and Chloe, Barnabas and Phoebe have come to share the conviction that Jesus has indeed been raised from the dead. It is hard to conceive that these later believers came to faith simply through the words of others. Enthusiastic as the early apostles were, they were preaching to a society that was not unfamiliar with miracles. There are very few records of the experiences of those who came to believe. We know from the Book of Acts that scripture puzzled the Ethiopian eunuch until Philip provided the answer. We know that Paul had a very dramatic experience of the risen Lord, that Cornelius saw an angel and that some were convinced of their sinfulness are responded by being baptised. Beyond that we know almost nothing.

We are left with conjecture. My guess is this – that in dramatic and not so dramatic ways – those first believers, like Paul experienced the risen Lord for themselves. I suspect that for them the resurrection was not a past event, a miracle reported to try to bring people to a point of view but that it was a lived experience of the risen Lord that convinced people that he was in fact alive.

I believe this because this is what I believe still happens and has happened in every age. We believe, not because the gospels record that the tomb was empty or Jesus ate or did not eat. We believe not because the resurrection is a miracle locked in history. We believe because Jesus, having risen lives for ever, he is not bound by time or space but lives as much in our present as he did in our past. We believe because we know the presence of the risen Christ in our lives – as a quiet strength or as a sense of disquiet, as a comfort or a challenge. Whether our experience was dramatic and life changing, or a gradual assurance, we believe not because Christ rose from the dead, but because the risen Christ continues to be a vital presence in the world today.

We need not other proofs, but what we know to be true.

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

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At peace with ourselves – with the world.

April 11, 2015

Easter 2 – 2015
John 20:19-31
Marian Free

In the name of God who gives us all that we need, if only we were ready to accept what God has to give. Amen.

Of course, I don’t need to tell you that the news is full of bad news stories. This morning for example , I woke to the news that in my own city, less than twenty miles from my home, a man of fifty-five had been killed – his neighbour was upset by the amount of noise that he was making. Later in the day, I heard that a young woman had been arrested for the murder of her father-in-law (her husband having already been arrested for the same offense). The newspaper provided an update on the man who had nearly killed his brother, by knocking him to the ground after they had visited a nightclub together and there was also a report on the guilty verdict for the “Boston bomber”. I could go on – the litany of crimes committed in anger, frustration, greed or need for power is just appalling.

Despite Jesus’ resurrection gift to the disciples, peace and harmony seem to be illusive even on the domestic front. The problem of course, lies with us – with the very human needs to be in control, to feel important and to put ourselves first.

What that means is that as long as there are people who are filled with anger and insecurity; as long as people feel entitled to do what they want and to behave how they want to behave; as long as there are some who are so concerned with their own comforts and own desires that they are able to disregard the concerns and interests of their neighbours: as long as some are filled with self-doubt: as long as there are some who feel that the world owes them something; there will be people who will resent any attempt to limit or curtain their activity, those who vent their fury in violent actions; those who seek to build their own prosperity with little or no regard for the cost to those who labour makes them rich or to consequences for the environment or the wider society and there will be those who will seek to diminish others in order to prove themselves smarter, better, stronger.

It is all too easy to imagine that such people are very different from ourselves – that we are above such petty, nasty, aggressive behaviour. But I wonder, are we really so different? Are we, those who profess the faith, perfect examples of the peace that Jesus gives? When others look at us, do they see our deep contentment with life our satisfaction with who we are and what we have? Are we so secure in our (God created) selves that we have no need to fill our emptiness with possessions, achievements or comparisons with others? Do others looks at us and see in us anything that separates ourselves/our lives from their own? Do we really stand out from the world around us?

Let me be clear that I have enormous respect for members of the Parishes in which I have served. Their life and their faith has often challenged my own. In general though, I suspect that too few of us find our meaning entirely in Jesus, that not enough of us seek above all that peace which only Jesus can give and that not all of us really believe that we can trust God with every aspect of our lives.

For the world to be a better place we would all need to find our meaning, our hope, our security and our peace in the Trinity – in God our Creator, Jesus our Redeemer and the Spirit our enlivener. As long as we look elsewhere we will not be at peace and our striving, our frustration, our fears and our anxieties will be taken out on others (intentionally or otherwise).

As I write this, the words of a well-known hymn are repeating themselves in my head:

Drop thy still dews of quietness,
till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace,
the beauty of thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire
thy coolness and thy balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still small voice of calm,
O still small voice of calm. John Greenleaf Whittier

May we together seek the beauty of that peace which Jesus alone can offer, and in relinquishing our striving to be other than who we are, find our true selves and know the presence of God there.

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