Parish Of Opawa St Martins Blog

Today is the beginning of Lent. The word Lent is an old English word for “lengthen” relating to the lengthening of days in the northern hemisphere spring. Lent is a time when we think about renewing our relationship with God. The season began as the church’s time for preparing adults for baptism. So today, we will welcome Jessica and Michelle as our baptism candidates for this year. Over the centuries, the season of Lent has acquired other themes. The medieval church emphasised Lent as a season of penitence. Many still think of it as a season for focusing on the cross of Christ. So our modern understanding of Lent brings all these themes together. We will be preparing adults for baptism. Some of us will study the faith in Lent groups. The bishop expects your vicar to begin introducing the practice of “Reconciliation of a penitent” to the life of this parish. That has commonly been called “confession”. I will speak more about that in the weeks and months to come.

You will have noticed some changes in our liturgy to give this season a special feel. There is a change in the tone of the music for Lent. We omit singing “the Gloria” and the singing of “alleluia” for the next six weeks. Don’t think this means we stop giving glory and praise to God. What we are doing is slimming things down to essentials, getting rid of some of the clutter in our worship. Just as people give things up in Lent to focus more on God, that’s what the church does with the Liturgy in Lent, so that we can focus on communion with Christ. In the same vein, we have no flowers in church. The colour we wear is purple, the colour we use for seasons of the year when we are on an intentional journey. The church, you and me, are all on a journey to the cross and to the empty tomb. We are preparing to be joined to Christ’s death on the cross; to be participants in his suffering and death, so that God can raise us up with him into eternal life. That’s why this season of Lent is so important, and why Holy Week and Easter are the most important days of the church year. This season reminds us that being faithful Christians is about being on a journey. Michelle and Jessica will be walking reminders for us all, of this journey of growth and discovery in our relationship with God. It doesn’t matter how old or who young you are; all of us are invited on this journey with Christ to the cross. Faithful Christians will be planning for Holy Week and Easter now. Whether you will be at home or on holiday this Easter, all of us need to be making sure we can get to the key services on Maundy Thursday evening, Good Friday and, of course, the Great Vigil of Easter which is the most important liturgy of the whole year unfolding the mysteries of Easter with such richness.

We have before us in our gospel reading Luke’s account of Jesus sojourn in the desert. Often we hear of Christians talking disparagingly about “wilderness times” in their spiritual lives. They speak of times of dryness; times when God seems to be absent. So it’s not surprising that the bible often talks about the wilderness. All through the bible, though, we notice that the wilderness is a place of encounter with God. Prophets like Hosea and Jeremiah talk about God drawing Israel away into the desert like a lover seducing his mistress. It was in the desert that Moses and Israel experience God’s provision of water and food. It is in the wilderness that we encounter hunger and thirst, and with nothing else to sustain us we become utterly aware of our dependence on God for everything. Wilderness times are time of the greatest vulnerability and they have the potential to be the times of greatest growth in our relationship with God.

So it was for Jesus. In the wilderness he too struggled with the same things that we struggle with in our lives; the same pains, the same tensions, the same wondering about the silence of God, the same frustrations that we live with day by day. Just as Moses and the people of Israel had done years before, Jesus, one greater than Moses, recapitulates Israel’s sojourn through the desert. He faces the same of temptations that Israel faced all those years before. It is in the wilderness he learns about the pitfalls of life and his need of God.

Temptations often appear camouflaged as blessings that offer an exit when there seems to be no way out. Sometimes they come in the guise of goodness for someone who is down. These are the sort of temptations Jesus encountered in his sojourn through the desert. They are the same temptations we too encounter in our every day living. The first temptation has to do with how Jesus will use his divine authority and power. The challenge: turn these stones into bread! This would be an irresistible temptation after 40 days of fasting. Here is the chance to alleviate excruciating hunger and to show convincingly that God is with Jesus. Yet Jesus resisted the temptation, for only God calls forth the power of God. When the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years, they were given manna to sustain them. We are given the bread of life. “I am the bread of life,” says Jesus. “I was once desperately hungry. Come to me all who hunger, and you will never be hungry again.” Jesus experienced genuine hunger. He knows about our physical hunger, and he understands the hunger of our souls. He taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” This prayer is for all who hunger for survival, and, who like Jesus are tempted to compromise their souls to satisfy the hunger within.

Jesus endured three temptations when he was in the wilderness. The final two seem entwined. One addresses power and the human tendency to dominate and control other people (the temptation to take power over the nations on earth); the other concerns religious power, the extent to which we try and exert power over God (the temptation to perform a miracle at the temple to prove God’s favour.).

At the heart of temptation is that word “if.” In the story, Satan uses that horrible, seductive, manipulative word “if”. If you really are God…,” Satan said to Jesus. We are prone to say the same to God are we not? “If you’re really there God,” we say, “then answer my prayer,” by which we really mean, “Come on God, do what I want!” Sometimes I wish the word “If” could be taken out of our vocabulary. Jesus resisted that temptation. He let God be God, and resisted putting pressure on God, or manipulating God. What he is showing us is that we need to take our share of responsibility for the way we use the gifts and freedoms God has given us. We need to trust that God loves us and accepts us as we are and wants only good for us. We also need to avoid the temptation of trying anything to get God on side with our agenda. It’s fair enough to be honest with God about our needs and our agendas, but God is not open to manipulation and will not be used as an instrument to help us get our own way.

Brothers and sisters, there is no escaping the wilderness. We all have wilderness times in our lives whether we like it or not. The wilderness may come at times of great sadness and huge suffering. When it comes, it surrounds us with its relentless heat and awesome silence, and it is teeming with loneliness and temptation. If that is where you are now, be on the watch for God. Nothing separates us from God. He will be come to you and be with you. The witness of the biblical writers is that whenever they found themselves in the desert, that was when they encountered God; think of Moses and the burning bush at a time when he thought he run away in shame, defeat and failure. Think of the exiles who had watched their loved ones die and their homes being destroyed. These people all wrestled with the silence of God, the absence of God, the feelings of loss and defeat and shame. Yet God restored them all, every time. God sustained Jesus too, and when he emerged from the desert empowered by the Spirit all were amazed at his wisdom and the authority of his teaching. God will come to you too. He will raise you up and restore and heal, because that is who God us. God is faithful and has never failed to bring the people of God into the Promised Land. Like Jesus, the Spirit of God enables us to emerge in the power of the Spirit to preach the good news to the poor, to free those who are imprisoned, to liberate those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of God. We’re also led to pray: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil, for the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever Amen.

Today, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. It is the day of ashes – a day for us to begin our turning to the Lord – a day for turning of the heart to God.

In the bible, as we know, ashes were a symbol. All through the bible, people put on ash to symbolise their turning to God. When they turned away from their pride, arrogance, their collusion with injustice, and embraced God, they would put on ash. The ash was an outward sign of contrition and penitence, and a new willingness to turn again to the Lord. Can you remember people in the bible who wore ashes?

Ash is a symbol in the bible – it is a Christian symbol for us as well. Here is some ash. What are the images that come into mind when you think of ash?

I think of the wheat and barley fields being burnt off in the autumn in readiness for a new growing season. I recall the bomb fires we used to have at home when I was a child, when Dad cleaned out his study, and we got rid of piles of junk cluttering up the house – so the ash is an image of clearing away the unnecessary and getting back to essentials.

Ash also reminds me of the tragedies and the violent things people have done – the house fire which killed someone recently – the wars we have fought where whole villages and forests were burned, when nuclear bombs on Japan; and so on. These things make us grieve over the plight of our humanity – the great suffering that people go through – the amount of money we spend on weapons of destruction when so many people are starving to death.

Above all, these ashes are a symbol of our human finiteness, from dust we come and to dust we will return. I won’t live forever, there are things I can’t do any more that I used to be able to. The ash is a reminder of the fragility of human life.

Christianity is a religion that remembers and keeps the stories alive of redemptive memory. In our tradition, we remember great suffering. We remember the saints – many of whom died terrible deaths for their faith. And we remember above all death of Christ – who came into this world – and who at great cost offered God’s love and forgiveness and made available the new life of the resurrection to us all.

Do not take lightly the imposition of ashes today. Don’t come just because the vicar thinks it’s a good idea. Don’t come to appease God, or out of some sense of obligation. Come to receive these ashes today, because we are recalling the costly love shown us by Jesus, who loves each and every one of us, and knows the number of hairs on our head – the same Son of God, who has become one with our humanity, and who shares our joys and sorrows now.

As you come to receive the ashes – remember the ways Jesus resisted human evil and hatred and violence; the ways he laid down his life for those he loved. Come to be joined to his dying so that he can raise you up into the new life of his resurrection; come because he calls each of us to a new lives of love and compassion.

As the ashes are put on all of us today then, they remind us to turn again to the Lord. We come repentant, in an attitude of sorrow for our part in adding to the suffering of the world. May the ashes remind you of your deep need of God. Come because of your commitment to being renewed and made holy and because you wish to make a new start with God again. Be sealed once again with the sign of the cross of Christ as on that day when you were baptised and made a child of God – when with this same sign you received the promised forgiveness of God, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Return to the Lord your God, for the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in love. Return to the Lord, for a close relationship with God is the purpose of our lives, which means our repentance is a decision to devote our will and our attention to strengthening our relationship with God. Do not take God’s goodness for granted, but “return to the Lord with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning.” The beginning of Lent is a good time to reassess our relationship with God, to review the last year, where we have squandered opportunities or lacked commitment. Now is a good time to make up for these lost opportunities and to do something about them. Matthew suggests we practice the unobtrusive form of spiritual exercises. Jesus tells us which spiritual exercises will make us spiritually fit. They focus on what is essential and what will bring us closer to God. These include alms giving, praying more, and fasting. And if we go about these in secret, from the depths of our being where all important things happen, then God will come to the party and reward us at a deep personal level where our relationship with him is to be found.

So, this Lent, make time to be more fervent in your life of prayer. If you give something up, do so to realise your dependence on God for everything. Whatever money you save, give away to the needy. Every major religion practices the discipline of fasting. Christian fast days are traditionally Wednesdays and Fridays. Those could be non meat days when you eat vegetarian food. So, come to God with fasting. Come with a renewed willingness to give to others in need. And your heavenly Father, who sees what you do in secret, will reward you.

Jeremiah 17:5-8; 1 Corinthians 15: 12-20; Luke 6: 17-26

During a film festival here in Christchurch a few years ago there was a French movie in the comedy section called The Valet. This was French farce at its best. The story contrasts the lives of two men who are desperate to live the good life. Both want to win the hearts of the woman with whom they are in love. The first man is young and poor. He lives in a one bedroom flat with a friend and his job is to park cars for the rich and powerful at one of Paris’ exclusive five star hotels. The woman he loves is his childhood sweetheart. She is beautiful and intelligent; but she is deeply in debt, having just taken out a Euro34,000.00 loan to set herself up in business. The poor man sums up his situation as hopeless when he discovers that the lady of his dreams wants a man with much better career prospects to provide security in case the new business struggles.

The other man in the movie is wealthy. He is the CEO of one of France’s biggest multinationals. He is already married and highly successful and rich, but this is not enough. He is desperately in love with his mistress; one of Paris’s top 10 models. The problem is that divorcing his wife will cost him hundred’s of millions. He wants to avoid this huge cost, yet he is desperate for the affections of his mistress. While scheming about what to do about all this, a newspaper photographs him with his mistress and publishes the photo on the front page. So begins an elaborate plan to convince his wife that his mistress means nothing to him. Of course, everything goes wrong. In the resulting fiasco the rich man looses everything he has ever valued. His wife uncovers the plot and dumps him, his mistress realises she is being used and his Board of Directors decide to sack him and get a new CEO. Meanwhile, the poor man, presented with huge temptations, the possibility of enormous wealth, the chance to blackmail one of France’s richest men and having other top ten models throwing themselves at his feet, turns away from all of these temptations and remains totally faithful to his first love. By twist of fate, he ends up engaged to be married to his childhood sweetheart having paid off her debt in total. The Rich man however, is really the poor man in the story.

That movie sums up a great deal of the bible’s teaching about what it is that really makes us rich. The question before us in today’s gospel could be phrased this way: What is living the good life really all about? The gospel text before us today uses the language of blessings and woes, contrasting two different approaches to life. Luke’s gospel today is asking us to understand what the good life is really all about in terms of the Kingdom of God, to see it from God’s point of view. We might be tempted to think that the good life is really about being the CEO in the movie with a bit of religion tacked on. If only he want to church occasionally, sorted out his private life and lived with a bit of compassion, all would be well.

But what if living good life is about something else all together? This is where Jesus is going with his ‘Sermon on the Plain’. Jesus is steeped in the tradition of the prophets of the Old Testament. The prophets understood God’s creation as gift, God’s provision of a world of abundance and fullness. All through their proclamation and poetry their prayer is that God’s people would open their eyes and see that reality, instead of seeing the world’s resources as a scarcity to be hoarded. Jesus wants his disciples to see this, to learn to trust God’s providence and that he will provide a fullness and a plenty that we can only begin to imagine. Disciples of Jesus will learn to see the world as God’s gift, with life in abundance. Then they will be willing to share one’s possessions and goods; this willingness to share will be a sign of whether or not the gospel has taken root in our lives.

Blessed are they who this day hunger for God, who love with a spirit of sacrifice, and who act for the coming of the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven; sharing our possessions, working for justice. This is the emphasis in Luke’s Sermon on the Plain. Following the Lord is done every day. “Blessed are your poor… who hunger now… who weep now… who are hated now… and woe to you who are rich now, who are full now, who laugh now…” The gospel couldn’t be clearer. It’s almost as if the movie makers were thinking of Luke’s gospel when they made their film. Those who hunger for what is right, who seek the best for ones they love, who share what they have with others; these are the ones who live the good life, who really are rich. Whereas those who abuse their power, who care only for their own needs and walk over everyone else, these end up living in a hell of their own making.

Therese of Avila is arguably one of the greatest thinkers and spiritual directors of the church in the West. She describes the human soul as an interior castle, a house with many rooms. In the centre of the castle is a special room; a place for God. The spiritual journey for every person is to enter that room and to become comfortable communing with God. Living the good life as a disciple of Christ is more than sharing possessions and seeking what is right. These are the outward signs that the kingdom has taken root in you heart. We need first of all to encounter God. Jesus is the revelation of God, but he comes to lead us to God, to reveal what living the Christian life is all about. At the centre of his life is an intimate relationship of trust in God. We need that trusting relationship with God to be fully human. When we find ourselves fully loved by God, there is a sense of being “filled up” with God. At that point, all our other needs dissipate and seem no longer to matter. Now we can lift the focus of our attention from self to loving others as much as ourselves. Now we can share. Now we can trust. Just as Christ gives of himself to us and to the world, so we begin to give of ourselves to others. We carry that attitude of love and trust into our human relationships. At the heart of the Christian way we are called to love God and others as much as we love ourselves. The more we do this, the more we live the good life of the Kingdom.

Even the most pious among us struggle on this journey. One of the biggest motivators in human behaviour is the fear of loss, the fear of missing out on what others have got. That’s often what makes us hoard possessions and prevents us from sharing. A real estate agent on of those TV real estate programmes noted that people will keep bidding in an auction way beyond the point they had agreed to just because they hate loosing to that other guy over there or because of the fear of missing out on something they think they desire more than anything else. And so it is that the space within each of us that is reserved for God is easily crowded out by consumerism, the need to be seen as one of the beautiful and successful people of our culture. The fear of loosing is or missing out on what others have is what makes us distrustful and puts love of ourselves at the centre.

Recall Jeremiah’s message, “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord… and cursed is the one whose heart turns away from God.” It is important to sense this direction of the heart, the magnet that is pulling our hearts. Are our hearts restless because they already know God and desire to seek the Lord more fully? Or are they restless because they wish for that which is more temporarily satisfying? Are we impatient for the next pair of shoes, a better car, and the right make-up for our faces? Do we hunger for the acclaim of our friends and the safeguarding of our reputation? Are these the things that claim the attention of our hearts?

In the beatitudes of Luke, the direction of the heart is a key concern of Jesus. The readings today call us to search our hearts. We are gathered around a table of blessing here, of course. The point of the Eucharist is to sit down to eat and drink with God and experience the cup of blessing, God’s meal of abundance; eating with God who longs to fill us up and who wants us to enjoy the Good Life of the Kingdom.

If you are able to place our needs and desires before God, you can be assured that God will come to the party. But the journey is costly. Admitting our need, even to God, is never comfortable. Differentiating ourselves from the noisy mass culture that surrounds us can be scary. Ultimately though, the way of the gospel is costly not because we must face down our fears and anxieties. The way of Jesus is costly because we are called to love and serve others. We are called to love God, and to love our neighbour, and to love ourselves. Jesus came to reveal the extent of God’s love. Ultimately he was prepared to pay the price of loving to the end, which is what the cross is all about. But those who choose the way of love will find that God makes ours lives richer than we could ever have imagined possible. Blessed are you who hunger, who thirst, who are poor now: yours is the dominion of heaven.

Readings: Isaiah 6:1–8; 1 Corinthians 15:1–11;
Luke 5:1–11

Today’s gospel is one of the best told stories in the gospel of Luke. It is a simple and yet profound tale, with important implications for us. Today we look at the call of the first disciples, and by looking at that call we find our own ability or inability to hear the gospel brought into focus, along with the extent of our willingness to respond to it.

Over the last few Sundays we have reflected much on the holiness of Jesus encountered in places of worship; in the temple and in the synagogue. Isaiah tells us he encountered God there too; in the smoke and incense of the temple liturgy. Lots of people encounter God this way, in a sacred world cut off from real life. But when we come to Luke’s gospel today, Jesus has come out of the holy places of worship into the workplace. He is teaching from a fisherman’s boat. As we noticed in the synagogue, the people who heard Jesus were mesmerised by him. The people pressed in to hear Jesus because of his natural authority and deeds of power. One didn’t have to be a fool to see that there was something different about Jesus. In a world where life was a struggle, it was not hard to see there was something special about Jesus. He was a very attractive character. They were entertained by Jesus winning debates with religious leaders. Some would be waiting to see if he would perform a miracle. Some even hoped they would benefit directly from a miracle themselves. Some of them enjoyed the piercing and clever ways he put down the rich people or those who held power. Those with insight perceived a deeper reality in him; they knew he was of God and they were hungry to discover more of him themselves.

If the people who gathered around Jesus had mixed motives, a mixture of the motives I just described and perhaps some others; so it is with us. Most of us have mixed motives for following Jesus. Some follow Jesus because they like being with the people they meet at church, or so that their children can come to Sunday School or access a Christian education. Some come to church to get away from their normal environment of home or work to find a place of peace and rest and well being, to have their batteries re-charged. Some of this will have something to do with our own relationship with God. All of us have mixed motives for counting ourselves as Christians, and we shouldn’t worry about that; we should be aware of them and be honest with ourselves and God about them.

There were some people, just a few, who found in Jesus something utterly compelling and irresistible. They didn’t just see that Jesus came from God. They experienced the very presence of God when they were with Jesus. In Jesus’ presence they experienced the actualisation of God’s kingdom. When they were with him, it was like touching heaven. They found him disturbing, sometimes a bit frightening, but they also found him fun and enjoyable. In his presence there was an added richness to human existence they had not known before. The first to experience this humbling and exhilarating awe was Simon. Sitting on his boat on the edge of the lake, Simon listened to Jesus and was won, heart and soul.

I don’t know about you, but I hate having someone else tell me how to do my job. When it happens, I usually pull faces and start feeling grumpy and snap back at people. If you are like me, spare a thought today for these fishermen who had fished all night and had caught nothing. If someone, particularly someone who did not fish, told me to have another go after a long fruitless night, they’d be likely to get some fishing tackle wrapped round their neck. But it was not so with Simon. He was already so captivated by Jesus, that although he was a professional fisherman and Jesus was not, although reason, common sense and fisherman’s lore told him to go home to bed; despite all that, when Jesus told him to let down the nets he did just that.

The great haul of fish that ensued was a sign to Simon of the immensity of the task before the church, and the gravity of its responsibility. This was a huge haul of fish, a massive haul, which had nets tearing and both boats at sinking point. This haul of fish is a sign of the future church, encompassing all races, nations and types of people. The real catch was yet to come, but this haul was a sign.

Peter’s response was one of awe and penitence. Aware of the presence of God, and overwhelmed by it, the first thing he did was to acknowledge his sinful state. This is what we do when we gather for Eucharist. We always begin by acknowledging that we gather in the presence of God (“We gather in the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”). The very next thing we do is acknowledge our sin and our human frailty to God. This is why the penitential rite, the confession and the singing of “Lord, have mercy”, properly belongs at the beginning of the liturgy. Like Simon, James and John, when we realise we are in the presence of God, the first thing that happens is that we become aware of our need of God’s mercy and compassion.

Such was the impact of this scene on Simon, James and John, that they left everything they had to follow Jesus. They left their jobs, all their securities, their possessions, their way of life, and they followed Jesus. From now on, nothing else mattered. There was no where else to go than to be where Jesus was, to do the things Jesus did and to speak and think like him. That is what these disciples began to do. It would involve a life time journey of faith. It will involve a radical reorganisation of their lives to orient them toward God.

Those fishermen left everything for the sake of Christ because they believed God was with them, and because they wanted be involved in God’s mission. Jesus needs followers who are prepared to let go of the present reality to follow him. This can be really hard, even painful. Am I prepared to give up big things, which may include my present job, my present identity and securities for God? That is what God’s call may involve. It’s an inspiring call to an adventure with God that will lead us to places and people we can’t even begin to imagine. When God calls us, we might feel a sense of unworthiness, but we are not banished by God. God sees past our hurts and failures and the messes we get ourselves into. He endows us with gifts. By God’s grace, we are made heralds of his word. He calls and sends us out into the deep, into the unknown to make his glory manifest in a needy world. Our prayer each week needs to involve asking God to guide us, to show us our vocation and our call, and to ask for the courage to respond.

If we want to be part of God’s mission, we must be prepared to let go and let God; let go of our insecurities and our fears and our sense of inadequacy; let go of our past hurts and failures. We need to let go of those things that tell us to hold back. We need to believe in God’s presence with us, and back ourselves as God’s people doing God’s work in our places of work, in our homes and when we are at play. The mission is God’s and God will ensure the harvest.

We might well ask why Jesus chose those fishermen people to be disciples. We might well ask, and so will those who follow after us. We can only speculate, but there are some clues. Simon, James and John were no strangers to hard work, and the business of being a disciple was going to be hard, and it still is. They were no stranger to disappointment, and the business of being a disciple would involve much failure and disappointment, and it still does. Jesus needed people like that, people who could sit lightly to the trappings of life and who had the fibre to leave it all and go where they were sent. He needed people like that then and he still does.

Jesus still needs people with those characteristics. Those fishermen were dead and buried long ago. Since then there have been many, some like those fishermen, others quite different, but all with personalities able to hear and respond to his call. Those people done their bit and they have gone to meet their maker. Now there is only us, we are it. If the gospel is to be proclaimed today it has to be done by us, there isn’t anybody else. If the church’s mission is to continue to be like a great haul of fish it will be because we understand that Jesus needed people like those fishermen then, and he still does today.