Third Sunday in Advent

Good News?!

Sisters and brothers,
the Word of God, made flesh in Mary’s womb,
will come forth to heal us
and make all things new.

Let us pray:

Save us, coming God,
from relying on our goodness;
but as we trust in your word,
and turn from sin,
may the fire of the Spirit
blaze among us;in Christ’s name. Amen.

Zephaniah 3.14-20
Philippians 4.4-7
Luke 3.7-18

Things John the Baptist would never say:

‘I’m ok, you’re ok.’
‘Of course, I could be wrong…’
No, really, you’re fine as you are.’
’Tact and negotiation. They’re what get things done.’
‘Yes, it’s a cheeky little merlot and I think you’d be amused by its impertinence…’

What did John the Baptist say? ‘You brood of vipers!…’ I’ve always wanted to start a sermon like that, but at theological college they teach you not to. For some reason.

Today is the Third Sunday in Advent. The season of Advent is about waiting, and preparing, for the coming of Jesus Christ. Actually, Advent is about three comings:

Advent is about the first coming of Jesus at Bethlehem, his birth, the celebration of Christmas, when the eternal Word was made human flesh.

But Advent is about far more than this. We can’t forget that Jesus comes now, in Word and Sacrament, as we meet Sunday by Sunday. He is in the midst wherever two or three gather in his name. He is here—here in his Body, the Church, in his Word and in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

And Advent speaks of the final coming of Jesus, his return to bring about the Reign of God in all its fullness.

Some of our Communion prayers put it this way:

Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.

Or, Jesus came 2000 years ago, the Son of Mary. Jesus comes among us Sunday by Sunday, and day by day. Jesus will come again as Lord of all. And we wait.

But you know, there’s waiting and there’s waiting. How are we waiting? Are we hanging around, loitering, wasting time? That’s one way of waiting.

Or are we waiting by looking forward, anticipating, yearning for the coming of God’s justice and God’s peace, are we ready for Christ as he comes?

This is what it’s about. How are we waiting? Are we lounging about, or are we thirsting for the shalom of God, the peace of God to come in all its fullness? One and only one of these ways of waiting leads to life.

Today’s readings suggest two essential things that should mark our lives as we wait expectantly for Jesus. One is to learn to live well while we wait. The other is to live with joy while we wait.

A History of Christianity

I’m reading Diarmaid MacCulloch’s A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, an amazing and magisterial work. (The subtitle is correct: to grasp the early Christian movement, we need to have a grounding in the Jewish, Greek and Roman histories and cultures of the time.)

It’s way beyond my competency to review this work. Besides, I’m on page 108 right now; only over 900 pages to go… But I do want to point to the wit and insight with which MacCulloch writes, as he does in other books of his with which I am acquainted (The Reformation; Thomas Cranmer: A Life). Take, for example, these words about the Greek pantheon of gods (p. 32):

The pantheon portrayed in both Greek myths and the Homeric epics can hardly be said to exemplify virtue: the origins of the gods in particular make up an extraordinary catalogue of horrors and violence. Hesiod’s Theogony named the first divinity as Chaos; among the divinities who emerged from him, representing the cosmos spawned out of chaos, was Gaia, the Earth. Gaia’s son Ouranos/Uranus (the Sky) incestuously mated with his mother and had twelve children. whom he forced back into Gaia’s womb; Gaia’s youngest son, Kronos/Cronus, castrated his father, Ouranos, before in turn committing incest with his sister and attempting to murder all their children. How unlike the home life of the Christian Trinity. Matters only marginally improved in the generation of Zeus. If one were coompleting a school report on the behaviour of the Olympian gods, it would have to include commetns on their lack of moral responsibility, consistent pity or compassion.

‘How unlike the home life of the Christian Trinity’—just delightfully slipped in. Absolutely sheer unadulterated gold!! This book is well worth the asking price for the wit alone.

A Christmas message from the President of the Uniting Church in Australia

A Christmas of Contrasts

I wonder how those who favour harsh policies towards desperate people seeking haven and hope in this country will celebrate Christmas this year. For their sake I hope they don’t listen to the story at the heart of the season. They might choke on their turkey and gag on their champagne!

With a worrying sense of déjà vu, I have been aware of a disturbing juxtaposition of images. The Holy Family being turned away from the inn is overlaid with child-bearing mothers in boats confronted with gun-bearing navy vessels.

The image of a mother and child surrounded by animals and shepherds merges with images of a fearful mother with a newborn infant in a detention centre in Indonesia, Christmas Island or the Australian mainland.

The Holy Family fleeing to Egypt seeking asylum from terror, blends with images of hundreds of desperate people being turned away from our abundant shores.

The Christmas storyteller recalls a vulnerable couple seeking refuge in a strange town for the birth of their child. This same little family would later flee to Egypt as refugees to escape tyranny, returning when things were safer. The child of that birth grew up to preach and practice a radical inclusivity and teach about a God whose hospitality knows no limits.

Jesus taught his followers to direct their energies to caring for the lost, the lonely, the little and the least; and that in so doing they would be caring for him. His short life ended, as it had begun, as an outsider. He was crucified ‘outside the city gates’ between two common criminals.

The fear and the ignorance which crucified Christ remains starkly apparent in our world. The fear of the stranger, the other. I recognise it in myself. Would Christ survive this world if he came among us again?

This Christmas, as we welcome Jesus, whom Scripture calls the Prince of Peace, let us recall that he was and remains, a disturber of false peace. That false peace which rests on injustice and indifference to the poor and powerless.

May Christ be born in us again to soften and warm our hearts in the exercise of compassion; to strengthen our will in the pursuit of justice for all; to sharpen our minds to distinguish truth from expediency; and to move our spirits to respond with praise, gratitude and joy to the presence of the Living God, incarnate in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Revd Alistair Macrae

Second Sunday in Advent

Baptised into union with Christ

Luke 3.1-6

I want to talk a little about baptism tonight. In my years as a minister, I’ve heard a lot of quite wrong ideas about baptism.

Like these: ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re baptised or not.’ Wrong! ‘Baptism is about works, not faith.’ Wrong! ‘You can get baptised as many times as you feel you need to.’ Wrong!

Let’s look at baptism. Our Gospel reading tonight says that John the Baptist

went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins…

John proclaimed a baptism of repentance. In other words, people came to him to turn away from their sins and towards God, and be washed clean.

They came to John because they believed that if the whole people of God repented, then God would bring the kingdom down to earth and there would be justice and peace for all.

Notice this: it wasn’t about getting to heaven when you die; it was about God’s perfect will being done here and now, like the Lord’s Prayer says:

…your will be done on earth as in heaven.

People flocked to John, repenting of their sin, turning away from sin, and turning towards righteousness. And then waiting for the Messiah to come.

This morning, we baptised three very young children. How can we do that, if John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance? These three tiny things are hardly notorious sinners. They aren’t old enough to have anything to repent of. How can we baptise them? It’s simple, really: John’s baptism and Christian baptism are not the same thing. When the Lord Jesus Christ was baptised by John, he transformed John’s baptism and gave it a new meaning.

Parliament of the World’s Religions

The Parliament of the World’s Religions starts in Melbourne today, and 8000 people will attend. Topics include Healing the Earth, Reconciling with Indigenous Peoples, Overcoming Poverty in a Patriarchal World, Creating Social Cohesion, Sharing Wisdom in the Search for Inner Peace, Securing Food and Water for All, and Building Peace in the Pursuit of Justice.

Speakers include the Dalai Lama, Jimmy Carter, Joan Chittister and Michael Kirby. A fuller list is here.

It’s time for the world’s religious leaders to talk together, and to be seen to talk together. I’m glad it’s happening, and I wish I could have been there.

First Sunday in Advent

I have been unwell these past two weeks and unable to raise much interest in blogging. I was back at church yesterday, but didn’t take the services; I left that to my colleague, Rev Dr David Rankin.

In the morning, we had a great time starting to build up a Jesse Tree with the children. David preached in the evening, and I asked him to make his sermon available:

1 Thessalonians 3. 9-13; Luke 21. 25-36

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

The first Sunday in the season of Advent – the first Sunday in the Church Year – begins the liturgical journey towards one of the two great feasts of that Church Year (the other being Easter Day), the Feast of the Nativity of the Child, the Coming of the Christ, the Sending of Christ, the Christ-mas.

Purple is the ancient royal colour and therefore a symbol of the sovereignty of Christ and is thereby connected to the final Sunday of the Church calendar (last week), the Feast of Christ the King. [There is a sense in which the Feast of Christ the King both prepares us for Advent and the coming of the King but also is the culmination of the year; the season of Advent at the beginning of the year anticipates the coming of the King, the Feast of Christ the King at the end recognises and celebrates his having come.] Purple is also associated with repentance from sin (which is why it is also the liturgical colour for the season of Lent leading to Easter). Advent is a season of spiritual preparation for the celebration of the birth and the sending of Christ (for Christmas – the Christ-mas – means the sending of the Christ) and looks forward to the future reign of Christ. Eschatological expectation – a waiting for the Last Days when Christ will return in glory and triumph with the gathered saints – rather than personal penitence (again associated primarily with Lent) is the central theme of the season. Advent is a preparation for rather than a celebration of Christmas but it begins the Christmas season.

Take a moment with me now: what does Advent (the Coming) mean for you? What does the first Advent mean for you? How does it inform, shape, determine your approach to discipleship? What does the second Advent (the Second Coming of Christ, of Christ Risen, Ascended, Glorified, with all the saints) mean for you? How does it shape your present living and your hopes for the future?

Hooray for Rowan Williams on the ordination of women

Speaking in Rome, Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury) is absolutely spot on:

The Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday made his most outspoken challenge to the Roman Catholic Church since the Pope invited disaffected Anglicans to switch to Rome.

Speaking before he meets Benedict XVI tomorrow, Dr Rowan Williams told a conference in Rome that the Catholic Church’s refusal to ordain women was a bar to Christian unity.

“For many Anglicans, not ordaining women has a possible unwelcome implication about the difference between baptised men and baptised women,” he said.

This really needs to be said, said often and said loudly!

Sharing in the mission of God

As we listen for the word of God, let us pray:
God of the poor,
you see the generosity of those with little to give,
and you witness the greed which does not care;
open our eyes to the dignity of each person,
that we may work with you
for the coming of your day of justice;
in Christ’s name. Amen.

Readings

Ruth 3.1-5; 4.13-17
Psalm 127
Mark 12.38-44

Some months ago, we worked on a vision statement for our congregation. Do you remember it? It’s

Living God’s mission
as disciples of Jesus
united in the Spirit.

I’d like to talk about mission today. I want to talk about our vision statement a line at a time.

Living God’s mission

Whose mission is it? It’s God’s mission. Not ours. Sometimes we hear people talk about the mission of the Church. The Church has no mission other than to share in what God is doing in the world.

“There’s no evidence that people want to use these things…”

San Francisco Examiner, John C. Dvorak, 19 Feb. 1984

The nature of the personal computer is simply not fully understood by companies like Apple (or anyone else for that matter). Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why” out of the equation — as in “why would I want this?” The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices.

I saw this in Daring Fireball (original article here), and it’s so ironic…

I’m using a new Apple Magic Mouse to write this, and I’m loving it… I want (and now have!) one of these new-fangled devices…

John C. Dvorak should ask me!

A horizon of hope

Sermon for All Saints’ Day

As we listen for the word of God, let us pray:

God, almighty in love,
you have come among us in Christ,
whose word brings life to the dead;
keep us looking for that day
when tears will be no more,
and all suffering and loss will pass away;
when with all your saints,we shall see your face and be like your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings
Revelation 21.1-6a
John 11.32-44

This past week, many of us have shed tears and grieved and felt helpless as we prepared for N’s funeral, and as it took place on Friday with all the amazing pageantry of a military funeral. And there were tears there too, some in the eyes of soldiers.

In the Lectionary readings for All Saints’ Day, there are two verses about tears.

John 11.35 says, in the old KJV language, ‘Jesus wept.’

Revelation 21 says, ‘God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes.’

Which verse appeals more to you? It’s a hard choice. Each one is of immeasurable help to the Christian believer.

Jesus wept. Jesus wept in the face of death. Some of you may remember Neville Wran, the former Labor premier of New South Wales, who famously said back in 1983, ‘Balmain boys don’t cry.’ Well, Jesus cried, and probably Balmain boys do too these days, now it’s gentrified and in Paul Keating’s words, populated by ’the basket weavers of Balmain’.

If I say it’s good to shed tears when you need to, I am probably going to find general agreement. You may have heard the Jewish proverb, ‘Tears are the medicine of the soul’. That doesn’t mean everyone here will find it easy to cry, especially us blokes.

We males are taught early that crying is girlie stuff. (Is that so bad??!) I read during the week of an eight year old girl who was about to go into surgery. She said, ‘May I cry or should I be brave?’ She wasn’t just having a wart removed. This little girl was about to have her leg amputated. I think it’s very sad that she needed to ask that question, May I cry or should I be brave?

What would you have said to this little girl? And what if it were a boy asking the question—would you have told him to be a brave little man and not cry?

In the story of Lazarus, Jesus wept in the face of death, even though he was about to bring Lazarus back. Jesus wept even though he could say, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’ Tears are the medicine of the soul.

Yet our reading from Revelation tells us that ‘God…will wipe every tear from their eyes.’