Ash Wednesday 5th March 2025

 Ash Wednesday

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12   - Psalm 51:1-17  - 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 - Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

 

Ash Wednesday, we begin the season of Lent and we prepare for the journey to the cross, and to resurrection, and the receiving of the Holy Spirit.  The end goal is to restore us as the people of God as God intended before the fall, where His people are not just physically alive, but also spiritually alive.  Being then, so filled with the Holy Spirit, we can’t help but be witnesses to the Good News of God. 

 

The Good News of God is that Jesus Christ came to make atonement for our sin and bring us eternal life.  In doing this he did away with the old system, where animals were sacrificed as a way to cover our sin.  However, the fact that God required a different kind of sacrifice was known about since the time of King David in the Old Testament.  We are told in our psalm; “The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

 

This tells us that there is something in our attitude that is more important to God than the traditional sacrifices.  In other parts of the Bible, such as Isaiah we learn what God would like us to do.  Isaiah 58:6 tells us, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”

 

A broken spirit is not seen as being a desirable characteristic in our modern age, yet we are told in the New Testament, “blessed are the poor in spirit”.  The word for contrite in the original language, means to be crushed. In my mind I imagine the sugar cane.  For us to have sugar the cane needs to be crushed.  

 

I don’t naturally like the idea that perhaps I need to be crushed and broken.  However, in reality, life has a way of crushing and breaking all of us.  What do we do when this happens?  Some people refuse to break, and they harden their hearts towards God.  They don’t understand that God loves them and desires good for them, not evil, but they feel betrayed by life and blame God, so they harden and refuse to be crushed or broken – or at least they refuse to admit it.

 

Do you remember the story about the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet, breaking the jar of expensive perfume?  The jar had to be broken for the perfume to be used.  There was exquisite substance inside, which would never have done anything if the jar hadn’t been broken.  The breaking allowed the good stuff to come out – just like the crushing of the cane brings the sugar out.

 

You and I are like the jars of expensive perfume.  God has a planned purpose for us, but we need to let Jesus in, in order that his purpose can be achieved.  To let Jesus in, we need to confess our brokenness.   We ARE broken.  That is the reality.  We all fall short of the perfection of God, and we need him.  In admitting this, we let God into our lives and our brokenness is not a weakness, it is simply a reality that Jesus understands, and in this brokenness we allow God to work and only in that brokenness can he live through us.

 

God knows all those bits that hurt… those bits that are broken, but he asks us to bring them to him, confessing our need for his saving power.  We continue to be broken, but we are filled with God and as we live our lives, we pray that it is the Jesus leaking out of the cracks that others might encounter as we touch their lives. 

 

During lent we often give up things, but when we look at what God requires, we can see that he would prefer our brokenness, allowing Him to live through us.  He calls us to care for others, to break the yoke that is heavy on them and to share bread with them.  When we do this, God breaks through our brokenness and touches our broken world, transforming it.

 

This Lent perhaps we can choose at least one thing we can do that achieves this breaking someone’s yoke or sharing bread with the hungry.  The power to do this is in God living through us.. and in our brokenness, those around us can experience the love of God.  This is what it is all about.  God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that anyone who believes in him might have eternal life.  Let us happily confess our brokenness and allow God to work in us as we reach out in love to those around us – transforming the world around us.

 

 

Turn the other cheek Epiphany 7C 23rd Feb 2025

 2025  02  23   Epiphany 7C

Genesis 45:3-11, 15    Psalm 37.1-11, 40-41   1 Corinthians 15.35-50     Luke 6:27-38

 

The golden rule is “treating others as we would like to be treated”.  All of society is onboard with that one, but this bit about turning the other cheek, is kind of tough and very counter cultural.  Proof of this, I heard Just the other day, about a shop no longer willing to donate their extra coat hangers in case one breaks, and the sharp edge cut some one, and then that someone sue them for damages.  There is no forgiveness, and understanding, let alone turning the other cheek and everyone is scared to do anything.   As soon as I hear this reading about turning the other cheek, I recall a friend who sarcastically repeats it and adds, so what are we meant to do?  Just let everyone walk over us.  Those who have suffered abuse at the hands of another, are they meant to simply take it? 

 

Here we see two extremes; someone who should turn the other cheek, if accidently cut by a coat hanger donated in good faith etc… and then someone who is in real danger if they do turn the other cheek, So, I need to start this with an emphatic, NO, we don’t just let people walk over us, and add that there are plenty of other verses that indicate we need to protect ourselves.  Proverbs 27:12 says, "The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty."  Whenever it seems that the Bible contradicts itself, the truth lies in the tension in between and we are invited, even provoked, to go deeper. 

 

The most important lesson that we need to learn is that God’s ways are different to the ways of our society.  The way of God is far wiser than our ways.  Most importantly, we need to learn what those ways are, because God’s ways, are the way to break through and victory.

 

Today we look at the story of Joseph at the point of victory and break through.  It didn’t happen overnight, but it happened most dramatically.  After being sold by his brothers, and them telling his father that he was dead, thus destroying any hope of rescue, and after many years had passed, here were his brothers given into his hand…. He with the power and them at his mercy.

 

A meme popped up on my facebook that seems quite apt for our readings.  It was a picture of St. Paul and a companion, chained up and in prison, singing praise to God.  The caption read, “there is no excuse not to praise God.”  I was almost going to share it with my own caption; “Easier said than done!”

 

It is natural for us to be angry at those who cause us hurt.  On street Chaplaincy last Friday night, two young men trying to justify themselves, said to me, “If you were really, really angry at a girl, you’d want to hit her, right?”  It seemed that they were wanting to hit some bloke who’d “done them wrong”.   I answered with an emphatic, “No!”  However, why could I say no?  It is only because I have been taught since I was little that laying into someone was not acceptable.  It started when my little sister was old enough to be annoying…. Even if she hit me, I was not to hit her back.  She was little and I was bigger…. But we both grew up knowing that we were not to be physical in our anger.   So, we never hit each other – but I do have to confess that doors were slammed, and the totem tennis got quite a workout.

 

I can’t imagine being as gracious as Joseph was with his brothers.  Joseph truly did love his enemies.  How could he do this?  We learn that he had such faith in God, that no matter what he was going through and no matter how he felt, he never let go of his faith that God was God, and ultimately, he needed to be the person that God called him to be.  Whether it was resisting the temptation of his master’s wife trying to seduce him, or telling the truth to Pharoah about the dreams, Joseph acted with integrity that would have the approval of God, rather than the approval of men – even at the expense of his own safety. 

 

It is worth pointing out that Joseph didn’t just forgive his brothers.  He went above and beyond that and he provided for them.  They did not deserve it.  They did not earn it.  There was nothing in them that should have evoked such a lavish and generous response from Joseph.

 

Joseph was a type of Christ.  Jesus was sold out by one of his close friends, yet his suffering, death and resurrection, is counted as atoning for our sins and bringing us eternal life.   We had not done anything to warrant his actions.  We don’t earn or deserve the grace of God, but he ever so generously lavishes that love and grace on us.  And what’s more, God desires to give us all good things.  Like Joseph, he not only forgives and accepts us, but he gives us gifts and plans for our abundant life.

 

This kind of forgiveness that Joseph showed is not only showing us the love of God, but it is also a miracle.  Who can show this kind of forgiveness and love?  Only God.  This attitude of Joseph is divine, and it is God empowered.  It is not natural.  We are asked to show this same kind of forgiveness and love.  It isn’t natural.  We could even go so far as to say, it is humanly impossible.  It takes a miracle – a gift of God.  We need to be spiritually empowered to have this kind of attitude to each other. 

 

Our letter to the Corinthians tells us that, “Just as we have borne the image of the one of dust, we will also bear the image of the one of heaven.”  This is telling us that we are human and like every human before us, naturally prone to sin and naturally unable to live the way that is perfect.  However, now that we have been born of God, we also bear the image of the one in heaven – that is Christ.  We not only bear his image, but we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, living and working through us.

 

How does this work, in a practical sense?  Firstly we need to be willing to admit that we have a problem.  Those young boys who asked me about wanting to hit someone that I get really angry with, asked because we all have some people in our lives that we find difficult.  This is step one – we acknowledge that we have a problem with forgiving them.  Step two  - we talk to God about them and us and how we know that He requires us to forgive them and treat them with love and kindness, and then ask God to do what we can’t.  Ask him to bring our attitude into line with his will and help us to forgive and love. 

The big warning here is that, if these people are dangerous to us, God will also want to protect us from these people and need us to remove ourselves from danger.  God loves those people, but he absolutely adores us also and doesn’t want us to be harmed.  It is possible to forgive, but walk away.

 

In Jesus’ culture, turning the other cheek was about revealing the actions of the perpetrator.  Those hearing Jesus’ words knew this.  To turn the left cheek after being hit on the right was a bold rejection of the insult, and a challenge to strike again with an open palm.  Striking with an open palm was not something that was done to a lessor – therefore it forced the opponent to symbolically declare the opponent an equal.  Turning the other cheek, publicly proclaims that the opposer holds no power because the victim’s honour is not dependent on human approval.  You notice also, it does this without causing harm.  There is no room for revenge.

 

Our psalmist has these wise words for us; “Trust in the LORD and do good; live in the land, and enjoy security.  Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.  He will make your vindication shine like the light and the justice of your cause like the noonday.”

 

God’s ways are the ways of life and break-through.  They are not natural, but they are spiritually empowered.  We have free will and we need to submit that will to God and ask for his divine empowerment to live in love and forgiveness.  Our homework for this week is to put this into action.  Think of someone that you have a problem with…. No, not the one that you think you can forgive… the first one that came to mind who you don’t want to forgive… that one…  bring it to God and ask Him to help you forgive like Joseph.  Remember, God allowed distance between Joseph and his brothers.  Distance is okay…. But we do need to forgive and pray for our enemies.  Victory and Break through will come.  God is faithful and helps us to forgive if we ask him.

Here I am, send me! 9th Feb 2025 Epiphany 5C

 2025  02  09   Epiphany 5C

Isaiah 6:1-8, (9-13)    Psalm 138   1 Corinthians 15:1-11    Luke 5:1-11

This year we have been asked by the Australian Anglican Church to join in a united effort to take the message of the Gospel to our community.  At Synod, all churches declared their support for this venture and pledged that they would take part.  We aim to declare the message, “There is Hope in Jesus”.  Today we see, in our scriptures, that this call to step out of our former way of life and into the exciting plan that God has for us, is affirmed. 

 

Last week we celebrated the presentation of Jesus in the temple.  Mary was told, “and a sword will pierce your own soul”.   The sword that needs to pierce all our souls is the word of God which is alive and active and judges thoughts and intentions of the heart.  When we are honest with ourselves and God, we can come to God, ready for our next step.  Jesus was presented in the temple after his circumcision and after the time of purification.  After the presentation, his life journey continued as he grew into and walked according to God’s perfect plan for his life.  This is also a pattern for the way that God calls us.

 

Today we look at the call of others and learn some important aspects.  Firstly, lets talk about purification.   Many people shy away from stepping out and into the plan of God, because they think they are not good enough…. And they are correct.   NONE of us are good enough.   We need to face that fact with honesty, but then we need to know what God has done for us. 

 

In our first reading, Isaiah declared that he was unworthy.  He declared the truth.  Notice that God didn’t say… “Oh yes you are worthy, Isaiah.”, but instead he has a seraph, which is an angelic being, take a coal from a specific fire and touch his lips with it, thus purifying him.  It all seems very bizarre to us, and I must admit, I have images of Isaiah having burnt lips after this, however, that is not what is happening here.  To understand what is happening we need to understand some aspects familiar to the Israelites.

 

This altar was familiar to Isaiah, as the Israelites had regular sacrifices and rituals involving an altar.  Isaiah knew that the altar with which he was familiar was a copy of the one in heaven.  Here, he was having a vision of the one in heaven.   The reason for the altar was a means to connect with God -  to be forgiven and to be purified or made holy.  For us, Jesus is the sacrificed lamb, who willingly died to make atonement for our sins.  In doing this He makes us holy.   That altar in heaven is holy, because God is Holy, Holy, holy….  We say it three times because he is beyond our comprehension of holy, and also, he is three persons, one God.   There is no way that we can ever be in any way shape of form, worthy enough to speak for God, but Jesus has touched us and in that touch is healing and purification, just as that coal, live with the presence of God, purified Isaiah.

 

The fishermen, especially Peter, knew that he was not worthy.  Peter suddenly realizes that he is in the presence of holiness, and he cannot stand.  He is overwhelmed he falls down at Jesus's knees, and cries out, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!"  Jesus doesn’t say, “No, you’re not”.  It is the truth.   Peter has acknowledged it, and we all need to have had that kind of moment in our own lives so that we can then move on to the next step. 

Jesus said to Peter, “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching people.”  After this, we are told that those men left everything and followed Jesus.  (somewhere else, we are told that these followers were made “clean” by the word that Jesus spoke to them).

 

Isaiah and the apostles, especially Peter, knew that they were not worthy, but we know that they were mightily called and used to bring God’s message to the people.   We are asked by God to go out into all the world,  making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that Jesus commanded us.   How are we going with this?  We have some baptisms, but that is only one part of this great commission.  Are we making disciples?  Are we going out to all the world… or even, are we going out into our community?  That is what Hope 25 is getting us to do… to go out into our community, to our neighbours, friends and family, with the message that there is hope in Jesus.

 

Our reading from the letter to the Corinthians tells us about the important points in the message that we take to the world.  Saint Paul explains point number one -  that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.    Some people would say, we are not really sinners… no one is really bad… it is all just poor circumstances.  Absolutely, this is nearly always the case, but it doesn’t make us any less a sinner.  There but for the grace of God go I, and yet all of us…. Isaiah and Peter included are not worthy of God…. We are not and cannot ever be worthy in our own strength.  We might be admirable in the eyes of men, but that sword of the spirit that convicts of truth knows our heart and compared to God our righteous acts are as filthy rags.  That sentiment comes from the book of Isaiah also; Isaiah 64:6  “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”

 

God so loved the world that Jesus came to die for us.  If he didn’t need to do this because of our sin, he would not have said that he did.   We focus on the love of God, but we need to be careful that we don’t dismiss sin because we are trying to be loving.  Even if there is a good reason for sin, it is still sin… and sin, according to our scriptures, is something we all share because all fall short of the glory of God and scripture also tells us that anything that is not of faith is sin.

Step one is that we agree with God.  We are not worthy, and we need him, but the good news is that Jesus died to make atonement for sin, so that we can be redeemed…. In other words, bought back to the family of God.

 

The second part of the message we proclaim is that Jesus was buried (really and truly dead) and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.  This was no ordinary man who died for us, but God incarnate.   He rose from the dead.  As man, Jesus could suffer and die, but as God, Jesus is eternal, and he conquered death and rose on the third day.   He rose… he properly and fully rose.  It wasn’t a figure of speech or some kind of parable.  We know that he rose because he appeared to Peter and the disciples and then to more than five hundred people at one time.  This is what we are told in the letter and these people testified to this fact.

 

God was a man who lived among us.  Because of his great love for us he paid the spiritual price for our sins – death – the wages of sin is death.  This is more than a nice philosophical religious idea and Jesus proved the truth by rising from the dead.  This is how we have hope and faith in God.  This is not blind faith, there were eye witnesses – many of them.

 

In the year 2025, there are more people with mental health issues than ever before and more people with depression.  Young people feel that there is no hope.  They think we are destroying the climate and everywhere they turn there is division over ideology and violent protests.  No one thinks that they are a sinner, but I suspect they can all tell you someone who is.  Deep down we know we are not as good as the image we try to project, so how might it make a difference if we could confess, “Lord I am not worthy!”? 

 

Our world needs desperately to know Jesus.  When we come to him, we find that he makes us whole.  He takes us, as we are and through his blood we are cleansed… we are healed.  This is hope… the only true hope.  There is only hope in Jesus… hope for now and hope for eternity, but the world will never know the truth unless we do something about it.  The voice of the Lord is saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"

Can we all right now, in prayer… turn to God and like Isaiah say; "Here am I; send me!"