Season of Creation Week 3 - Earth, our friend for the ages to come?

“And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” Luke 16:9

The saying from above comes after the parable of the ‘dishonest’ manager who after being summarily fired by his master, acted shrewdly (and with great speed) in order to make friends of the master’s debtors, who, it was hoped, would cushion the blow of being fired. In the parable the manager is commended by this ‘shrewdness’, and it appears that Jesus is encouraging his followers to do the same!

During the recent Cop26 meeting in Scotland, scientists were overheard saying the following:

‘….up to 1.5°C (increase in global temperature), the Earth is our friend. Beyond that, Earth might not be in a position to be our friend.’

It could be argued that far from ever considering the Earth our friend, over the last couple of centuries, humanity has considered Earth to be at best a commodity to be used, at worst an enemy against which war needs to be waged.

“Making friends with the Earth” would seem to be the least we could do – but even this may not be possible as we learn to live with the results of the dishonest wealth we have pulled from the Earth – it’s seas, sky and land.

Should the path to Net Zero, rather than being seen as costs reluctantly spent in order to appease our conscience, be instead OUR act of faith in ‘shrewdly and with rapid speed’ spending this dishonest wealth in order that Creation and every inhabitant can live into a future, which otherwise may not be available to welcome us?

Food for thought indeed with this intriguing parable.

Ceri

Season of Creation Week 2 - "Look, Listen, Love..."

Reflection for Week 2 Season of Creation – Look, Learn, Love…

From a friend came the following gift:

Believe me, you will find more lessons in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you what you cannot learn from masters.

                                                                          St Bernard of Clairvaux

Look: Tuesday afternoon, a beautiful sunny spring day, found me on the verandah at College…noticing the golden leaves of a nearby Jacaranda tree…

Learn: My friend told me that at the start of autumn (around May) the leaves of the Jacaranda start slowly losing their green. However, they don’t drop from the tree until quite a few months later (around October). So the lovely foliage slowly, slowly goes from fresh green to a winter gold…

Love: And then the magic happens – the beautiful burst of purple from the bare branches – so short (a matter of weeks) – before the new leaves sprout greenly once again from the branches.

Looking, learning and loving turns to a desire to care, cherish and protect.

And to offer grateful thanks and praise to the One who searches for and loves All.

Blessings

Ceri

Season of Creation Week 1 - "Listen to the Voice of Creation"

“Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” Lk 14:34c

We are in the Season of Creation in the liturgical rhythm of the year, and in 2022 the world-wide church, the body of Christ, is being called to listen and respond together to the cry of Creation.

The voices of too many of our co-creatures have been drowned out, diminished or silenced completely by destructive narratives such as humanity is the pinnacle of Creation, with the power to do what it wills with the earth and its resources. And so it is never more important to tune our ears to the voices of those who remain – to listen to the truth, but also the beauty and goodness of these voices of Creation!

Only then will hope replace despair and anxiety turn to action.

In our own backyard of Milton Anglican, the voice of one co-creature carries the weight of all Creation’s longings – if you are privileged to hear it – the Curlew.

So I leave you with this voice:

Curlew

So timid,
      so shy,
            so frail.

You hide
      in the dark
            concealing
                  beauty.

Later
      I hear
            you cry – no wail,

So loud
      I cringe
            but wonder,

how one so
      scared
            can protest

their presence
      so boldly
            with confidence.

©Petrina Gardiner – used with permission

Ninth Sunday After Pentecost - The Uncertain Journey

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1)

By faith Abraham and Sarah obeyed when they were called to set out for a place that they were to receive as an inheritance; and they set out, not knowing where they were going (based on Hebrews 11:8)

A couple of times, travelling overseas, when I said I was from Australia, people would reply “Oh, isn’t that amazing – you Australians always make travel seem easy… I’ve always wanted to visit Australia – but it’s so far away!”

I used to reply that Australians didn’t have much choice – if they wanted to see the rest of the world. But despite the myth that Australians are inveterate travellers, only around half of us own a passport. And I must admit that in those early days of travel, I used to feel definite relief once the plane landed back in Australia.

We seem to be pretty happy and content, mostly, to stay in our own shores. And in our homes.

The travels of Sarah and Abraham, an example of faith held up to the struggling infant church in the biblical book of Hebrews, are very different from our own tourist wanderings. It doesn’t appear that Sarah and Abraham were fleeing from persecution in the land of Ur, but they did indeed set out for a promised land – a better place, a better home – at the call of God. Day by day, living in tents, always on the move. And we are told that they never lost hope or trust in God – even though they never lived to see the promise!

They learnt to deal and live with the ‘never quite home’ feeling in their life together with God. How does that feel? There are many in Australia that could tell us how that feels  - for example the story of Karim who left Afghanistan -  Karim's story. While Karim is settled here in Australia, he still lives with the unsettling worry for family and friends still living in Afghanistan.

Living in faith - even if we have a comfortable home, loving family and friends - seems to require living with vulnerability and uncertainty – not an unrealistic over the top confidence. And if we live with this vulnerability and uncertainty, it is more than likely we will be motivated to act to make it possible for others to have homes, surrounded by family and friends.

The God of Sarah and Abraham, our God, calls us to work with Christ in this world, travelling and following to the home being made for us at our life’s end. So may we live faithfully – and ask for our God to disturb us if we are too comfortable and to comfort us with hope and faith when we most need it.

Blessings

Ceri

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost - This Mortal Coil

Reflection for 8th Sunday after Pentecost – goods and the mortal coil

You may have read in the news this week of a religious leader who, while live-streaming a worship service and preaching on the subject of keeping faith in the face of grave adversity, was robbed at gunpoint.

The robbers removed almost $1million in jewelry from the leader and his wife before escaping in a Mercedes Benz.

Only in New York, you might say.

When I read the parable in Luke’s gospel of the rich landowner (Luke 12:16-20), called a fool by God, for accumulating an abundance of wealth, unknowingly facing the end of his life that night, I wondered…

Did the religious leader robbed this week, who fell to the ground behind his golden lectern, hands over his head, wonder if his life was going to end at that moment?

Did he have a split second to wonder what was the point of his very ‘flashy’ lifestyle? Did he hear a quiet voice say ‘you fool!’? In a terrible and traumatic moment was there a moment where the grace of God might have been present and offered?

For the rich landowner in Luke’s parable, the moment of grace is offered by God’s land that produced so abundantly that the man had nowhere to store the excess.

‘What shall I do?’ he asks his soul.

The grace of God’s abundance is not accepted by the rich man. He does the inexplicable – tearing down his current barns to build bigger ones rather than adding to the barns already there – an outpouring of voracious gluttony.

We know not the exact moment of our death, but the words of Luke’s Jesus ask us to recognize that the wealth we call our own is a gift from God – and in its abundance we are called to turn to the Spirit to ask for it to be used as a blessing, not a curse.

Blessings

Ceri

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost - Give us tomorrow's bread today....

Reflection for Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – Give us tomorrow’s bread today

Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread…” (Luke 11:2-3)

In Luke’s version of the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples the first three petitions/requests are firmly rooted in Jewish themes1:

1.      God as Father

2.      The special nature of the divine name

3.      Something about food

I have found that the request for ‘daily bread’, so early in this prayer, says that God is truly concerned that people having enough to eat. And that in God’s rule, God’s kingdom, everyone has enough to sustain themselves. Our physical nourishment is a top priority for God – this is not just a spiritual need!

So when I read recently that ‘give us our daily bread’ is more accurately translated as ‘give us tomorrow’s bread today, it added even more urgency to my reflection.

Just a cursory internet search is sobering reading. In Australia, land of plenty, going to sleep hungry with no prospect of food for the morning is a reality for:

1.      More than four million (18%) people.

2.      One in five (25%) children.

3.      Women more likely (39%) to suffer than men.

4.      Around 30% of First Nations People.

The list goes on (Top 10 Facts About Hunger in Australia).

The prayer that Jesus gave us, that we pray again and again and again, reminds us of one of the consequences of this prayer – our action – there is always work to be done in God’s kingdom.

Blessings

Ceri

1.      Levine, A-J. and Witherington III, B. (2018) The Gospel of Luke (Cambridge University Press).

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - She has chosen

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - She Has Chosen

‘…Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’ Luke 10:42b

The story of Mary and Martha, with Martha distracted by her many works of ministry while her younger sister, and partner in ministry, is sitting simply listening at the feet of Jesus can strike some discordant notes for readers. A selection follows:

·        Why do so many works of art about this scene portray Martha as bustling round a kitchen, getting a meal ready for Jesus when she was most likely involved in ministry work – the office of deacon - in the very early house churches?

·        Why does Martha need ‘a man’ to resolve her problems – why did she not just go up to her younger sister and say she needed help?

·        Surely, nothing would get done if we all chose the ‘better part’!

With my own prejudices and bias I struggled to find a note of grace in this Sunday’s gospel reading (Luke 10:38-42).

The words – ‘Mary has chosen’ – echoed in my mind.

The note of grace, for me, is there. We have CHOICE. The tremendous gift of God’s love is offered, it is not forced on us. The choice to listen, to learn, to pray, to entreat, and dare I say - demand (thank you Martha).

And again, thank you to both Martha and Mary, partners in ministry, who went out and shared the gospel.

Blessings

Ceri

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost - The Golden Rule

I fielded an interesting call from a young woman with questions about biblical texts this week. Texts such as Matthew 13 (the parables of yeast being used to leaven flour and the mustard seed growing to a tree to shelter birds), the book of Revelation and the account of Adam and Eve in the garden.

I felt a little bit like I was being interviewed and went on at some length about symbols/contexts/ancient cultures and scholarly work on biblical interpretation, but I wish I’d just quoted our sentence for this coming Sunday:

Do to others as you would have them do to you. Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Luke 6:31,35

What is often called The Golden Rule; do to others as you would have them do to you, is common to many of the world’s religions and inspired by the results from the Australian Census 2021 released last week that showed a diversity of religious belief in our land – a reminder:

Buddhism: Hurt not others with that which pains yourself.

Confucianism: Is there any one maxim which ought to be acted upon throughout one’s whole life? Surely the maxim of lovingkindness is such – Do not do unto others what you would not they should do unto you.

Hebraism. What is hurtful to yourself do not to your fellow man. That is the whole of the Torah and the remainder is but commentary. Go learn it.

Hinduism: This is the sum of duty: do naught to others which if done to you, would cause you pain.

Islam: No one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.

Jainism: We should regard all creatures as we regard our own self, and should therefore refrain from inflicting upon others such injury as would appear undesirable to us if inflicted upon ourselves.

Sikhism: As thou deemest thyself so deem others. Then shalt thou become a partner in heaven.

Taoism: Regard your neighbour’s gain as you own gain: and regard your neighbour’s loss as your own.

Zoroastrianism: That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another whatever is not food for its own self.

Luke’s Jesus goes into explicit detail as to how the Golden Rule plays out in God’s kingdom:

1.      Love your enemies

2.      Do good

3.      Lend, expecting nothing in return

How we do this? I would suggest that this is truly only possible with God’s help…..

Blessings

Ceri

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost - from little things big things grow...

Reflection for Fourth Sunday in Pentecost – from little things big things grow…

“The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few…” Luke 10:2

The decision of the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs Wade and the threat from some in the judiciary to repeal other laws such as marriage equality and gay rights has sent shivers of fear through many Americans and others in democratic societies worldwide.

On a personal note I received a distressed call from my daughter who was very worried that things in Australia could take a similar turn.

At the time our Diocese was meeting for SYNOD with several of similar issues being debated: blessing of same sex marriages, the crafting of an apology from our church to the LGBTQiA+ community and fidelity and integrity of ordained people in their relationships.

Listening to the debates and the gift of personal stories being shared amongst those gathered, the pain-filled voices on both sides of debates resonated in that place. And my daughter’s cry and those of so many others seemed to join in.

At lunch on one day of the meeting I heard in passing a live performance of that much loved song “From little things big things grow” and just recently the ABC published a story about the songwriter, Kev Carmody and his life.

As a member of the stolen generation, Kev recalls the herculean efforts his parents made to hide him for 10 years from the authorities. When the 1967 referendum gave indigenous Australians the right to vote, Kev remembers his father turning to his mother and saying ‘Now you can vote’…and his mother replying “Well, what does that mean?”

In this nation of Australia, we are constantly asking the question – What does being Australian mean at this time and this place? And I guess we were all asking at SYNOD a similar question: What does being Christ followers in the Anglican tradition mean at this time and place?

The magnificent Kev Carmody’s powerful song ends with the following words:

Well, that was the story of Vincent Lingiari
But this is the story of something much more

How power and privilege can not move a people
Who know where they stand, and stand in the law

From little things big things grow….

The discussions and stories I heard at SYNOD this past weekend would have been unheard of when I was first ordained over 11 years ago. And I will take Kev’s story and my SYNOD tale to my daughter to hold onto in hope and encouragement.

For anyone who would like to read the ABC article the link is: Kev Carmody

Blessings

Ceri

Pentecost - Family

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God…heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”      Romans 8:14,17b

My parents used to tell of a story from family life – the time when my younger sister left home, at around age 9 years old. In protest at being made to eat her vegetables, my sister packed a suitcase and trudged down the path at the back of our house. She ended up at a sympathetic neighbour’s place a few doors down. Listening to the tale of woe the neighbour gently asked what my sister had packed in the suitcase. Upon opening it, my sister proudly displayed her running-away necessities. There was one item there – a can of baked beans.

Families can be fragile communities.

And as the first sentence of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina says:

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

When we hear the image of the church, the body of Christ, being described as a family, this can be jarring for many. Rather than a place of sanctuary, belonging and nurturing, families can be the site of the opposites – and children growing up in such families are often affected for the rest of their lives.

And like unhappy families, the church can be a place of dysfunction, where some – expecting a welcoming, nurturing community – are hurt beyond belief and leave, never to return.

But the image of family for the church from our reading from Romans this week is startlingly different.

Firstly, it is completely made up of children! Who, amazingly, Paul describes as ‘heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ’. Who are led by the Spirit.

Yes, we who call ourselves the body of Christ, the children of God, bicker with each other. Yes, we hurt each other. And yes, like my younger sister, we want to leave – and quite often do so.  

The children of God belong to a family that struggles with the tensions required to stay together – through thick and thin – a way of living together with all the messiness and chaos of earthly life. Belonging to this family is not to be taken for granted – we may call ourselves children of God, but we have an immense responsibility to care for each other, to be truthful even when it might hurt, to say sorry. And this is never more needed than when we feel like giving up and leaving this family.

Like the wind blowing fiercely this first week of winter, the Spirit of God cannot be contained by our will and conception of what it means to follow Christ together. But it is only together that we may be graced with the awareness of the presence of the One who promised to be with us till the end of the ages.

Happy Pentecost to my fellow sisters and brothers!

Ceri

Seventh Sunday in Easter - Reconciliation

The Sunday After Ascension

This Sunday in our yearly liturgical rhythm we are celebrating and remembering the Ascension. A difficult theme for many of us to embrace if we’ve been brought up with images of the risen Christ ascending to heaven borne on a white fluffy cloud, or even more fantastical, just the feet of Jesus poking out from beneath a cloud with the followers wistfully watching Christ disappear.

But the Ascension, of course, has a much deeper meaning. The risen Christ, visible and interacting with his closest followers for a short while during the resurrection, is returning to God. But not alone.  And his closest followers are not left alone, neither are those followers who will come after and believe. The prayer of Jesus to God is:

“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us…” John 17:20-21

We are also in the yearly rhythm of our National Reconciliation Week. Non-indigenous Australians are implored to sit and listen to the truth telling from our First Nations People. Such as the 85-95% decline in Aboriginal populations in just 150 years of settlement by Europeans. The stories, the truth tellings are sobering, harrowing and gut-wrenching for those of us who are not indigenous but call Australia home.

As Rowan Williams remarked one Easter:

“Death does not end relationships between human persons and between human persons and God, and this may be sobering news as well as joyful, sobering especially for an empire with blood of its hands.” Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury’s Easter sermon 2004

May I leave you this week with the wonderful collaboration of author Celia Kemp and artist The Reverend Glenn Loughrey A Voice in the Wilderness  

Blessings

Ceri

Fourth Sunday In Easter - Plainly?!!!

Reflection for Easter 4

“Cold, cranky, walking around trying to keep warm. Surrounding by mutterings and questions – always the same one: ‘Tell us, plainly, are you the Messiah?’”

Plainly?!!!

Isn’t that what he has done – what’s plainer than actions? Actions speak louder than words at any time, in any place. People who are ill are healed, people who are hungry are fed, people who are lonely welcomed, people who feel shamed forgiven, people who are reviled, rejected are accepted. The list goes on. In his actions, Jesus has shown clearer than words could ever do that he is indeed the Messiah.

You can ask the same question as many times as you like, says Jesus, but the answer will always be the same. And on that cold winter’s day, with a tinge of frustration, Jesus declares: ‘it doesn’t matter what I say – or do – you will never believe.’ A sad indictment to those people gathered around Jesus of Nazareth on that cold winter’s day – in the temple dedicated to one of the greatest Israelite kings, Solomon. But of course, it could have been that this was not the answer they really wanted!

Maybe their idea or image of the Messiah, the Saviour, was of a figure of great mighty earthly power who would overthrow the oppressor (Rome), restore the fortunes and prestige of those who were oppressed.

And of course, they were out of luck. The Messiah’s power and authority is based on a bottomless well of love, empathy, kindness, justice – all the characteristics that the questioners did not want to hear.  And maybe, there’s a sneaking wish for us today that the answer be different.

Because God’s good news in Christ, for those who choose to hear the voice of the risen Christ and respond, means an opening up of our own ears to the same cries of help that Jesus heard.

Of listening and responding. Today, the telling of good news, as always, as it always has been, is founded on actions – helping people find jobs, for a roof over their heard, enough food on the table, joy in friends and family, comfort in sorrow and anger – for everyone to have a home.

Christ’s words are Christ’s actions – we who follow can do no less.

Blessings

Ceri

Second Sunday in Easter - My Lord and my God

Reflection for Easter 2 – My Lord and my God

Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” John 20:27

In a real way I can connect with Thomas after my experience of isolation. Thomas had not the advantage of the other followers of Christ. He hadn’t been there when the risen Christ had appeared to the others. He had missed out – rather like I missed out on Easter this year! And he wanted the same experience his friends had!

In that closed and locked room after the crucifixion, Jesus appears suddenly to his closest followers for the second time. And it was the invitation from Jesus to Thomas that opened Thomas’ eyes. In all the pieces of art work that I have seen about ‘doubting Thomas’ (including the one shown from Caravaggio c. 1602), Thomas is pictured as poking his finger in the hole in Jesus’ side as Jesus calmly looks on.  But the reading from John’s gospel does not actually say that Thomas did this.  But Thomas has been saddled with the prefix ‘doubting’ for many centuries.

What Thomas says is much more important! Immediately after the invitation from Jesus he says with the deepest of conviction:

“My Lord and my God.”

My Lord and my God. The wonderful moment when everything changes for this human being. And for many, many others as Thomas lived from then on determined to bring to others the good news of the risen Christ – Lord and God.

So I give thanks to that Thomas from long ago. For his demand to share the same experience his friends had.

I give thanks for the risen Christ, our Lord and our God, who welcomed his closest friends to touch, see and reach out his wounds – an intimate and vulnerable invitation even in resurrection.

May we all have the courage to let/demand that God see our own wounds and ask for the radical kind of healing that the risen life brings with the confession on our hearts, minds and lips:

My Lord and my God.

Blessings

Ceri

Easter Sunday - Let the Ladies Go (and tell the Good News)

Reflection for Easter Day 2022 – Let the Ladies Go (and tell the Good News!)

Well, I should know better, I suppose! My last reflection was a remembering of past Easters – both good and not so good memories.

I could not have anticipated that this one would be spent in isolation – and the subsequent yearning and deep feeling of missing out!

But this is our new normal, and really, why would I expect that everything would automatically go as planned!

Certainly, the women in Luke’s gospel who walked to the tomb in the dawn of that first Easter morning, taking their prepared spices, would not have expected their lives to be completely turned upside down on this day. They had been the only followers to remain at the cross, watching while Jesus drew his last breath. They must have been a sombre but faithful party that early morning as they walked to the burial place, prepared to anoint the body.

But changed their lives were. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women with them – when confronted with the empty tomb and two dazzlingly-clothed messengers - all suddenly remembered what Jesus had told them while he was still alive.

In that instance, everything changed for them – what had been told had come true – or more aptly – what had been promised had come to pass, had been delivered. No wonder they were initially terrified!

And I suppose you could not blame the ‘apostles’ for their disbelief and dismissal of the women’s ‘idle tale’. But at least one – Peter – was disturbed enough to run to the tomb to discover the amazing truth for himself.

Wherever this Easter finds you - particularly if you are like me with my strong case of FOMO - I pray that this Sunday you feel some of that amazed joy of those first witnesses to the fulfilment of God’s promise.

He is risen indeed!

And in memory of those wonderful women – and all things female and Easter ‘eggy’ – catch the wonderful work of Let the Ladies Go! - the rehoming of laying hens considered ‘spent’ after laying every day for 18 months.

Blessings

Ceri

Fourth Week in Lent - A very merry unbirthday to you....

Reflection for Lent 4 – A very merry unbirthday to you

Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” (Luke 15:31-32)

This section from the parable of the prodigal son in Luke’s gospel reminded me of the un-birthday. When Alice (in Wonderland) stumbles across the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party she is told they are celebrating the unbirthday:

A very merry unbirthday
To me?
To you
A very merry unbirthday
For me?
For you
Now blow the candle out, my dear
And make your wish come true
A very merry unbirthday to you

                                                            David Mack / Hoffman Al / Livingston Jerry

It’s explained to Alice that the ‘unbirthday’ is the day of the year that IS NOT your birthday – in other words 364 days of the year! So counting one’s own birthday, this means that every single day of the year is a party!

In Luke’s parable, the obedient and ‘good’ son is jealous and resentful that his father is holding a great feast to celebrate the return of the black sheep of the family - his brother. The father has behaved with wild inappropriateness; firstly by rushing down the driveway to greet the returning son with wide open arms; secondly demanding that the servants bring fresh water and clothes for the dirty and ragged man; and thirdly ordering a huge feast for all to celebrate his son’s return.

When asked by the ‘good and obedient’ son why HE has never been allowed to give such a feast for his friends, the father appears astonished. Because whatever the father has, this good son also has – every day has been a cause for celebration for the good son in being with his father. Every day has been an unbirthday for the good and obedient son! The returning son has been lost in a world that did not recognise the joy and grace of every day –lost in a world where good times could only be had at the expense of goods and services. Which ran out as quickly as the son’s inheritance ran out, reducing him to poverty and enslavement.

It might be a bit of a stretch to imagine our God, or Christ as the Mad Hatter, but Lewis Carroll’s tale makes me wonder what life would be like where people celebrated the presence of each other every single day with the grace of the wildly inappropriate father!

So, a happy unbirthday to you and a happy unbirthday to me?

Blessings

Ceri