Category: Morsels

SUN – 180930

Title

Draw the circle wide

Body

There is a temptation in life to draw the circle small and close. Perhaps it is a leftover from our evolutionary past? We certainly see traces of it in the recent trends towards isolationism and radical nationalism in so many societies. Xenophobia prefers small circles with thick boundaries. In today’s Gospel Jesus stares down the fearful concern of his disciples for their exclusive rights as the authorised brokers—in their minds at least—of the Jesus program. Jesus sketches a more expansive attitude towards others: “Do not stop them … whoever is not against us is for us …” (Mark 9:39–40). As a Cathedral we draw the circle wide. We are an inclusive community. We welcome people from very diverse religious and personal backgrounds.

SAT – 180929 – St Michael & All Angels

Title

St Michael and All Angel

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While the nation is transfixed with sporting competitions this weekend, the Christian churches are celebrating ancient mythic tradition stretching back in time and known to us in many different versions. Central to many of these memes is a rider on a white horse, engaged in combat with a dragon, so that the maiden can be rescued, a city saved, or a world redeemed. Sometimes the rider on the white horse is St George, other times Michael the Archangel, or even Jesus. Fact and history are not stakeholders in this ancient dream language. Rather our fears (the dragon) are subdued and destroyed by the victorious hero; a character with many names but always on a white horse. This is archetypal myth and it can be very powerful. When struggling with some persistent spiritual problem, it can help to invoke the assistance of the hero on the white horse. As a Christian, I invoke Jesus. His job description reads: “Saviour.” Who better to ask to come to my aid? Who is your heroic archetype?

FRI – 180928 – National Police Memorial Service

Title

National Police Remembrance Day

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At Christ Church Cathedral this morning we will welcome members of the local Police service, along with family and colleagues from other essential services, for the 2018 Police National Memorial Service. Similar services will be held in communities across the state and around the nation. We give thanks for the sense of service that draws people into the Police. We admire their dedication and their courage. We pray for their physical, emotional, spiritual and moral safety as they put themselves at risk for our safety. We pray for those injured in the course of their work, and for the families of officers who lose their lives while seeking to protect ours.

THR – 180927 – Vincent de Paul

Title

St Vincent de Paul

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Vincent de Paul died on this day in 1660, but his legacy continues and his name has become synonymous with compassion for the poor and advocacy for social justice to improve their circumstances. One of many gems from his life of compassion: If God is the center of your life, no words are necessary. Your mere presence will touch hearts. —Vincent de Paul

WED – 180926 – Psalm 23 (1)

Title

Thanksgiving

Body

A friend of mine in the USA wrote the following lines as part of a daily reflection that came through yesterday: What a gift life is. How glad I am To be here For a little while. Simple words, but deep truth. Thanks, Jane Wolfe. And thanks God for the gift of friends like Jane.

TUE – 180925 – journeys to the edge

Title

Reaching for the edges

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Websites that collect “on this day” information tell us that on 25 September 1492 the crew on board the Pinta, one of the ships with Christopher Columbus thought they had spotted land. They were wrong, but soon enough they did indeed find the Americas; and changed the world. Exactly 500 years later the Mars Observer mission blasted off on this day. Although that mission failed when communications with the space vehicle were lost as it approached Mars in August 1993, subsequent expeditions to Mars have offered fascinating insights into this planet. Humans seem insatiably curious about what lies over the horizon. Each morning we encounter a new horizon. Let’s engage the new day with curiosity and hope. I wonder what God has to show us today?

MON – 180924 – Blessed the peacemakers

Title

Beatitude 7

Body

“Blessed are the peacemakers,” says Jesus. “For they shall be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9) Peacemakers are not always celebrated and affirmed, and especially not by those whose violence they are seeking to diminish and even end. Not by those who make huge profits from the sale of weapons and the provision of logistic support to the war machine. Last Friday we celebrated International Peace Day, but our governments invest in “security” (violence and coercive power) rather than peacemaking and reconciliation. Jesus seems a lonely voice in a world gone mad, but he speaks a truth we need to hear.

SUN – 180923

Title

Capernaum’s child

Body

Children were not highly regarded in the ancient world. Most of them died before reaching adulthood in any case, and they rarely feature in the stories about Jesus. Yet in today’s Gospel Jesus takes a child and tells his followers to stop obsessing about themselves and to focus on the child. It is always about the child, about the ‘little ones’ … Sometimes the child is indeed an infant or a toddler. Sometimes the child is a school student. Sometimes the child is a vulnerable adult, unemployed perhaps, or homeless. Sometimes the child is a frail older person. But the mission of God is always about the little ones, youth who are at risk, older folks who are being overlooked.

SAT – 180922 – Shabbat prayer

Title

A Shabbat prayer

Body

Bless, O Lord, this food we are about to eat; and we pray you, O God, that it may be good for our body and soul; and, if there is any poor creature hungry or thirsting walking the road, may God send them in to us so that we can share the food with them, just as Christ shares his gifts with all of us. Amen. Celtic Daily Prayer, p. 299

FRI – 180921 – St Matthew

Title

Matthew

Body

Today we celebrate “Saint Matthew”: one of the twelve core followers (disciples) of Jesus and the figure to whom tradition attributes the first of the Gospels in the New Testament. We know little of this character as he seems never to play a role in the stories people later told about Jesus; apart from being called to leave his toll-booth and follow Jesus. In Mark and Luke this character is not even called Matthew, but Levi, although they do have a Matthew among the Twelve. This little-known apostle lent his name (posthumously) to a revision of Mark’s Gospel that seems to have circulated in NW Syria just after 100 CE, in the Christian communities around the Antioch region. The person who edited and enlarged Mark’s account to create the Gospel according to Matthew has greatly enriched the subsequent legacy of the Christian Church, while also reinforcing the Jewish character of our roots. If European Christians had paid more attention to ‘Matthew’ there could never have been the centuries of anti-Semitic violence culminating in the Holocaust during the Nazi era. The Matthean gospel encouraged Jews to welcome Gentiles, and Gentiles to value Jews at a time when suspicion between the two groups was increasing. If only we had listened better. How much evil could have been avoided. The world could have been a better place for millions of people.

THR – 180920 – Rohr, Christianity as lifestyle

Title

Christianity as lifestyle

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Christianity is a lifestyle – a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, and loving. However, we made it into an established “religion” (and all that goes with that) and avoided the lifestyle change itself. One could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain in most of Christian history, and still believe that Jesus is one’s “personal Lord and Savior” . . . The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on Earth is too great. — Richard Rohr

WED – 180919 – Disciples of Jesus

Title

Disciples of Jesus

Body

How does someone follow a person like Jesus? The answer may surprise. Jesus does not ask people to sign up to a creed. Jesus does not ask them to go through some ritual or make a pilgrimage. Jesus does not ask them to hand over money for the church to use. All of those things the church has done, but none of those things were done by Jesus. He simply said: Come and follow me; do what I am doing, go where I am going. So, the secret is how we choose to spend our lives. Not looking after ourselves, but seeking to make the world a better place, a place more like God wants it to be. Those of us who come to the Table of Jesus seek food for the same journey. Make us like you, Jesus!

TUE – 180918 Jesus Movement (action steps)

Title

Jesus Movement (Simple steps)

Body

After sketching his vision for the church as a local branch of the Jesus Movement, Bishop Michael Curry offers these simple tips to help us get active in God’s project of love, liberation and life: TRY THIS: (1) Begin your day by asking: How could my words, actions and heart reflect the loving, liberating, life-giving way of Jesus? Ask God to help you, especially at decision points. (2) At day’s end, with genuine curiosity and zero judgment, ask: When did I see myself or others being loving, liberating or life-giving today? Where do I wish I’d seen or practiced Jesus’ Way?

MON -180917 Jesus Movement (more)

Title

Jesus Movement (more)

Body

Here is a further excerpt from Bishop Michael Curry on what it means to be a participant in the Jesus movement: “Jesus launched this movement when he welcomed the first disciples to follow his loving, liberating, life-giving Way. Today, we participate in his movement with our whole lives: our prayer, worship, teaching, preaching, gathering, healing, action, family, work, play and rest. In all things, we seek to be loving, liberating and life-giving—just like the God who formed all things in love; liberates us all from prisons of mind, body and spirit; and gives life so we can participate in the resurrection and healing of God’s world.” People who live like this transform the world …

SUN – 180916

Title

The Jesus Movement

Body

In the Gospel today Jesus asks his disciples how they understand his mission. In the Dean’s Forum at 10.30am we will be exploring what it means to be disciples of Jesus. Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the USA, has been speaking about discipleship as participating in the Jesus movement. You may remember him as the preacher at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. We will consider several of his comments over the next few days, beginning with this statement: “The Jesus Movement is the ongoing community of people who center their lives on Jesus and following him into loving, liberating and life-giving relationship with God, each other and creation. Together, we follow Jesus as we love God with our whole heart, soul and mind and love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40), and restore each other and all of creation to unity with God in Christ (BCP, p. 855).” For more of Michael Curry in his own words click on the link below.

SAT – 180915

Title

Bless this house

Body

Bless this house and those within. Bless our giving and receiving. Bless our words and conversation. Bless our hands and recreation. Bless our sowing and our growing. Bless our coming and our going. Bless all who enter and depart. Bless this house, your peace impart.

FRI – 180914 – Holy Cross

Title

Holy Cross Day

Body

Holy Cross Day marks the dedication on this day in 335 of the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem, better known to most people in the West as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This impressive complex of buildings was built by the Emperor Constantine (c. 285-337) on the sites of the crucifixion and Jesus’ tomb. It was destroyed in 1009 on the orders of the Fatimid Caliph, Al-Hakim, and only partly rebuilt—on a much-reduced scale—by the Byzantine Emperor under an agreement with Al-Hakim’s son. Despite its present state, the Church of the Resurrection is the holiest site in Christianity and draws pilgrims from around the world. On this day we pray for the witness of that ancient church and for the Arab Christians whose existence in Palestine and throughout the Middle East is more at risk now than at any time in the past 2,000 years.

THR – 180913 –

Title

God of freedom, God of justice

Body

Our final hymn at Grafton Cathedral always has a focus on mission: what God is calling us to do as our part in God’s own mission within our world. Last Sunday our mission hymn was by Shirley Erena Murray and it included these words as its second verse: Rid the earth of torture’s terror, God whose hands were nailed to the wood; hear the cries of pain and protest, God who shed the tears and blood; move in us the power of pity, restless for the common good. This hymn was written in 1980 for Amnesty International’s Campaign Against Torture when Shirley Murray could find nothing relevant to sing at a service for prisoners of conscience. How sad that the churches’ musical repertoire had nothing relevant to such an event. How blessed are we that Shirley Murray crafted these challenging lyrics.

WED – 180912 – Beatitude 6: Pure in heart

Title

Beatitude 6

Body

In Matthew’s version of the Beatitudes, which he uses to open the Sermon on the Mount that he crafted by editing some of the remembered teachings of Jesus, the fifth blessing is for those who are pure in heart: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8 NRSV) For most of us most of the time, this is an aspiration rather than a description. We seem to have mixed motives, divided loyalties, and complex lives. Yet we can also recognise that in those precious moments when we have singleness of focus there is great blessing: perhaps we even glimpse God at such times.

TUE – 180911 – 9/11

Title

9/11

Body

Many of us have vivid memories of first hearing about the attack on the Twin Towers in New York City on this day in 2001. The attack also hit the Pentagon and there was a failed attempt to use United Airlines flight 93 in an additional strike. How much the world changed that day. Fear seems so much stronger in our world now. Yet we also believe that “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). As we focus on our capacities for authentic love, fear loses its grip on our lives and our world.

MON – 180910 – LP: Deliver us from evil

Title

Deliver us from evil

Body

In Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer the request to be saved from the time of trial is followed by, “and deliver us from evil”. This line is not in Luke’s version, which seems to preserve a more primitive form of the prayer, but it is found in the Didache’s version, which is contemporary with Matthew. Both date to around 100 CE. What are the evils from which we seek to be delivered this week? What do we fear most? Can we offer it to God, not just for deliverance—but also for redemption and transformation?

SUN – 180909 – Today’s Gospel

Title

The feisty mother

Body

Today’s Gospel describes a foreign woman demanding that Jesus expand his concept of God’s love to include her sick daughter. It is an interesting story on so many levels as the outsider offers the insider a master class in compassion. The special prayer for our Eucharist today reflects the courage of this feisty mother: O God, whose word is life, and whose delight is to answer our cry: give us faith like that of the woman who refused to remain an outsider, so that we too may have the wit to argue and demand that our children be made whole, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

SAT – 180908 – City of God

Title

City of God

Body

Daniel L. Schutte is an American songwriter whose work has enriched our repertoire of sacred music. One of his classic pieces is the song, “City of God”, whose refrain is a call to action: Let us build the city of God. May our tears be turned into dancing! For the Lord, our light and our love, has turned the night into day! Listen to the whole song by clicking on the web link.

FRI – 180907 – Hymn

Title

Pray not for Arab or Jew

Body

This prayer written by a Palestinian Christian invites us to see people, and not enemies: Pray not for Arab or Jew, for Palestinian or Israeli, but pray rather for ourselves, that we may not divide them in our prayers, but keep them both together in our hearts.

THR – 180806 Beatitude 5 – The merciful

Title

Beatitude 5

Body

In Matthew’s version of the Beatitudes, the fifth blessing is for the merciful: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7 NRSV) It is a sad index of the dynamics of modern life that this seems like a concept from another world. Our leaders aspire to be popular, powerful, strategic, successful, clever, tough, and strong. It seems that the focus groups have not alerted their minders to the value of compassion and mercy. What is a merciful person? For starters, this is someone who does not insist on their rights to the extent of causing harm to someone else. Even if they could. Even if they have the right to do so. This is not just a political concept. It also applies in our own intimate relationships and at the grassroots of our local communities.

WED – 180905

Title

Save us from the time of trial

Body

In the traditional version of the Lord’s Prayer, the words “lead us not into temptation” were sometimes a cause of confusion. As the comic level, some young London ears heard this as “Lead us not into Thames Station”. On a more serious level, it seemed to suggest that God would entice us into some kind of trap, like a divine sting operation. Not the gospel in any sense. The modern version of this ancient prayer helpfully clarifies what this petition is about: Save us from the tough times! Our farmers know what that means, and so do journalists jailed by authoritarian regimes. This is a prayer for battlers: Be with us in the bad days. Better still, keep the bad days away from us!

TUE – 180904

Title

And the point is …

Body

To be a solitary and self-sufficient figure—even if we could do that, which mostly we cannot—is to be lonely and pointless. To survive at all costs, might mean that we die without any meaning to our existence at all. The point of being alive is not to survive, but to serve. This was a theme to which Jesus and his first followers returned time and again. For more, see the sermon from last Sunday by clicking on the web link.

MON – 180903

Title

The Martyrs of PNG

Body

Yesterday in church we commemorated the martyrs of Papua New Guinea. These 333 Christian non-combatants were killed by Japanese forces in PNG in 1942/43. They included Anglicans, Catholics, Lutherans, Salvation Army, Seventh Day Adventists and United Church people, both indigenous and expatriates. The Anglican missionaries had been told by their Bishop to remain with their people and not accept offers of evacuation by the Australian government. The others made similar choices. Their murders constituted one small atrocity among all the evils of the war, but their courage inspired decades of generosity and service. May we never forget them and may our lives always be spent for the sake of others.

SUN – 180902

Title

Fathers’ Day

Body

From today’s intercessions at the Eucharist: We pray today for the health and wellbeing of families across this city and valley. Grant wisdom and strength to every man who is a father to someone else: fathers and grandfathers, husbands and friends, brothers and uncles.

SAT – 180901

Title

Caim Prayer

Body

The ‘caim’ (circling) prayer involves our bodies in the act of praying. It can be especially helpful when words get in the way or it seems impossible to focus. Draw a circle around yourself using the right index finger as you offer this prayer, or imagine a circle wrapping around those for whom you seek God’s blessing. Here is one example of a caim prayer, which you can adapt as needed: Circle (name), Lord. Keep (comfort) near and (discouragement) afar. Keep (peace) within) and (turmoil) without. Amen. SOURCE: Celtic Daily Prayer from the Northumbria Community, 297

FRI – 180831

Title

The God beyond words

Body

The following remark by Professor Kevin Hart of Virginia University, made during a recent podcast in the “On the Way” series from St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane, caught my attention: “When we stop trying to talk about God and we talk with God, God is there and we can talk with God. This paradox, it seems to me, is at the heart of the Christian life—and not just the Christian life, but the religious life—and is something we can never overcome.” Expertise is not required, just a willingness to open ourselves to the God beyond words. For the podcast, see the web link. For the context of this quote, go to 19 minutes and 30 seconds into the audio.

THR – 180930

Title

One bread one body one humanity

Body

At Grafton Cathedral last Sunday morning the opening hymn was based on the earliest extant Eucharistic liturgy. It comes from an ancient Christian text known as the Didache, which was composed around 100 CE. The final verse paraphrased a couple of lines from the Didache which are now used in contemporary liturgies across many mainline church families: “As this broken bread was once many grains, which have been gathered together and made one bread: so may your Church be gathered from the ends of the earth into your kingdom.” This is a vision of the church as gathered humanity: diverse and multicultural, yet one in Christ. At a time of rising nationalism and deepening trade wars, maybe such a vision is a gift that is both timely and of immense worth?

WED – 180829

Title

Hungry and thirsty for justice (Beatitude 4)

Body

Beatitude #4 seems to be a good sequel to yesterday’s morsel on forgiveness of real world debts being a key to our own forgiveness by God. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6 NRSV) Am I hungry for justice? Am I thirty to see people treated right? Am I a student of Jesus?

TUE – 180828

Title

Forgive as we forgive (Part Two)

Body

As we saw yesterday, the Lord’s Prayer turns out to have some radical ideas wrapped up inside those familiar words. Here is our key line again, from Luke’s version of the prayer: “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.” The second things to note from this petition is what we promise to forgive. When we say this prayer we undertake to forgive the real debts that people owe us, not just some emotional or spiritual pain they have caused us. Rural debt was crippling ordinary people in the time of Jesus and he links forgiveness of sins to a restructure of the economics of the day. Dare we entertain the idea that forgiveness of our own sins cannot be claimed until and unless we address the structural evils that grind people into poverty and destroy their lives? Who still wants to say this prayer now?

MON – 180827

Title

Forgive as we forgive (Part One)

Body

The familiar Lord’s Prayer turns out to have some radical ideas. In a week when mutual forgiveness might be more needed than usual in our national affairs, let’s consider this line from the Our Father: “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.” I am deliberately using the form of this line from Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer as it is less religious than the version in Matthew and therefore probably closer to what Jesus would have said. There are two things to note in this, but we shall deal with just the first of them today: Forgiveness of our sins is not based on Jesus dying on the cross, but on our willingness to forgive others. Jesus teaches us to ask God—to dare God maybe—to treat us the way we treat others. Are we game to say that to God?

SUN – 180826 (Refugee Sunday)

Title

Refugee Sunday 2018

Body

God bless our eyes so that we will recognise injustices. God bless our ears so that we will hear the cry of the stranger. God bless our mouths so that we will speak words of welcome to newcomers. God bless our shoulders so we will be able to bear the weight of struggling for justice. God bless our hands so that we can work together with all people to establish peace. Amen. SOURCE: Uniting Justice Australia and numerous websites

SAT – 180825

Title

Lives that are holy and hearts that are true

Body

“Gather us in” is one of the most popular of the many contemporary worship songs composed by American Lutheran songwriter, Marty Haugen. The words of verse three have always resonated with me: “Here we will take the wine and the water, here we will take the bread of new birth, Here you shall call your sons and your daughters, call us anew to be salt for the earth. Give us to drink the wine of compassion, give us to eat the bread that is you; Nourish us well, and teach us to fashion lives that are holy and hearts that are true.” Ah to fashion lives that are holy and hearts that are true. That might even change the world!

FRI -180824 – St Bartholomew

Title

Seeking wisdom first

Body

The Old Testament reading from last Sunday now seems very timely in light of the political chaos in Canberra. After Solomon succeeded his father (David) as king over Israel he has a dream in which God invites him to ask for anything he would like to have as begins his reign (see 1 Kings 3:5). Solomon asks for wisdom to govern well. The storyteller continues: “It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life …” (1Kings 3:10–13 NRSV) Do we have any Solomons in Canberra, or in Washington, or in Jerusalem …

THR – 180823

Title

A Celtic prayer for the morning

Body

I will kindle my fire this morning in the presence of the holy angels of heaven; Without malice, without jealousy, without envy, without fear; without terror of anyone under the sun, but the Holy Son of God to shield me. God, kindle thou in my heart within a flame of love to my neighbour, to my foe, to my friend, to my kindred all; To the brave, to the coward, to the man in the street, O Son of the loveliest Mary, from the lowliest thing that lives to the Name that is highest of all. In the name of Christ, I pray. Amen!

WED – 180822

Title

Beatitude 3

Body

The third beatitude found in Matthew 5:5 is not paralleled in any other early Christian text: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Meekness is not a value we admire much these days, yet it lies close to the heart of the spiritual wisdom that Jesus embodied. Meekness was almost his defining attribute. We might get a handle on meekness by considering its opposite: impatient, assertive, overbearing. Spiritual wisdom is to cultivate patience, to moderate our assertiveness, and to cultivate the best interests of others. Blessed indeed are the meek. The future belongs to such people.

TUE – 180821

Title

Tomorrow’s bread today

Body

The line in the Lord’s Prayer asking for the bread we need day by day, has a hidden surprise tucked inside. All three of the surviving ancient versions in Matthew, Luke and the Didache use a rare Greek word: epiousion. This word is so rare that it seems to have been created by whoever first translated the Lord’s Prayer from Aramaic into Greek. This word seems to have been derived from a more common Greek word (epiousei), which means “the next day” or simply “tomorrow”. So this line in the Lord’s Prayer is not simply asking for the bread we need each day, but at a deeper level is a request to experience each day the bread of tomorrow, the bread of God’s kingdom. This is how the line was translated in the Alternative Services Book published by the Church of England in 1980: “Give us today the bread of tomorrow …” That was too radical for most people in church, so Anglican prayer books reverted to the more familiar words. May we experience the blessings of the future right now, day by day, in our own life. Epiousion!

MON – 1801820

Title

Do not be daunted

Body

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. [While often attributed to the Talmud, this is actually a paraphrase of Rabbi Rami Shapiro’s interpretive translation of Rabbi Tarfon’s work on the Pirke Avot 2 which is a commentary on Micah 6:8. See Rami Shapiro, “Wisdom of the Jewish Sages: A modern reading of Pirke Avot,” 41.]

SUN – 180819 –

Title

Holy Sophia, Lady Wisdom

Body

The alternative first reading in today’s lectionary depicts Lady Wisdom setting a table and inviting people to come to her feast: “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” (Proverbs 9:5–6 NRSV) Each Sunday as Christians gather around the Table of Jesus we hear that invitation renewed: Come and eat; taste and see that the Lord is good.

SAT – 180818 –

Title

Tikkun olam

Body

These two Hebrew words sum up a very important principle for Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The phrase means: “repairing the world”. This challenges those expressions of religion that focus on personal salvation, the forgiveness of sins or winning access to the afterlife. Tikkun olam invites us to hear the divine call to join with God in redeeming and repairing the world. It reflects the ancient wisdom of Micah: “… what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 NRSV)

FRI – 180817 –

Title

Kingdom come

Body

The reign of God was at the very centre of Jesus’ mission and ministry. The Greek is often translated as “kingdom of God” but that is too static a concept. What Jesus intended was more like “reign of God” or “rule of God”; even “God’s empire”! According to Jesus, this dynamic sacred presence was coming and yet it was already present: among us, within us and between us. Jesus taught people to pray: “your kingdom come …” What a dangerous thing to do. What an exciting thing to seek: setting God loose in our lives and in our world. Everything will be different …

THR – 180816 –

Title

What we sing we believe

Body

The songs of God’s people are a treasure trove of spiritual wisdom.

About once a week our daily morsel will be one of the songs of faith; mostly new but occasionally ancient. Here is one of my favourite modern songs, perhaps because I especially like the portrayal of Jesus as the one who upsets religion.

Praise with Joy the World’s Creator

Praise with joy the world’s Creator, God of justice, love, and peace,

Source and end of human knowledge, force of greatness without cease. Celebrate the Maker’s glory—pow’r to rescue and release.

Praise the Son who feeds the hungry, frees the captive, finds the lost, Heals the sick, upsets religion, fearless both of fate and cost.

Celebrate Christ’s constant presence—Friend and Stranger, Guest and Host.

Praise the Spirit sent among us, liberating truth from pride,

Forging bonds where race or gender, age or nation dare divide. Celebrate the Spirit’s treasure—foolishness none dare deride.

Praise the Maker, Son, and Spirit, one God in community,

Calling Christians to embody oneness and diversity.

Thus the world shall yet believe, when shown Christ’s vibrant unity.

[John L. Bell, b. 1949]

WED – 180815 – Mary, mother of the Lord

Title

Mary, mother of the Lord

Body

Today is one of several holy days dedicated to the mother of Jesus who, until the restoration of Mary Magdalene to the Anglican calendar in 1928, was the only woman honoured with a “red letter” festival in Western Christianity. The cult of Mary flourished in medieval Europe and she is similarly venerated in the Eastern Churches. In both East and West the mother of Jesus is an ambivalent figure in a theological world dominated by patriarchal gods and male saints. The doctrine of the Assumption of Mary into heaven following her death is the youngest dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, only having been defined as recently as 1 November 1950. The historical Mary of Nazareth was a rather different character than the pious traditions that have clustered around her legacy. Mary was a peasant woman in a pioneer Jewish village with not much more than a dozen families. Having given birth to five sons and at least two daughters (Mark 6:3), she was doubtless a feisty woman who knew how to run the household with limited resources. As we peel away the devotional tinsel on this feast of Mary, we give thanks for the women in our lives: mothers and grandmothers, sisters and aunts, wives and daughters. Let’s honour the mother of Jesus by making our cities and our families safe places for women and girls, and eradicating the scourge of domestic violence.

TUE – 180814 – Martyrs of the 20C

MON – 180813 – Jeremy Taylor, d. 1667

Title

Beatitude 2

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“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” [Matthew 5:4] The second Beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount strikes a dissonant chord. Happy (or blessed = to be congratulated) are those who are mourning some loss that has caused them to feel bereft. Really? Since when? How can such loss be—in any sense—a blessing, a source of deep happiness? Compensation in some afterlife is not going to make me feel blessed here as my life falls apart. How do we rescue meaning from tragedy, hope from despair, life from death? Can it be that in our moments of deep loss God is—or at least seems—closer? When something that we treasure is taken from us, one thing remains: God. Was God absent when Jesus hung on the cross? Some theologians say so. But I think not. Perhaps in his own extremity—as the loss of his own life engulfed him—Jesus found that God was not absent. The victim found deep comfort at the epicentre of his own loss. Sensing the divine presence even in our deepest loss might perhaps be the comfort that allows us to claim a blessing even in the midst of trauma. May it be so.

SUN – 180812 – Pentecost 12B

SAT – 180811 – Clare of Assisi, d. 1252

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When the roses are in bloom

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One of my favourite legends about St Clare of Assisi (whose feast we observe today) celebrates the profound love between her and St Francis of Assisi. According to the story, as they were walking through a forest in winter Francis asks Clare whether she has heard what people are saying about them. Francis declares they must stop seeing each other for a period of time, but does not indicate how long this will be. When—after a period of strained silence—Clare asks when she will be able to see him again, Francis replies: “In the summer, when the roses bloom.” At once roses burst forth from the snow-covered bushes. Clare picks a bunch of the flowers and gives them to Francis. And they were never separated again. This legend celebrates a love that dances on the edge of social acceptance, and yet is affirmed as holy and good by God. May we have the courage to love adventurously, needing no approval beyond the response of the beloved and the blessing of heaven.

FRI – 180810 – Laurence, deacon & martyr, d. 258

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Treasures of the church

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August 10 is the feast day for Laurence, a Deacon in the Church at Rome, who was killed for his faith on this day is 258 CE. A rich set of legends about the circumstances of his death soon developed. While these legends may have little basis in fact, they tell us a lot about what really mattered to people of faith some 1,760 years ago. In the legend, Laurence is promised his freedom if he will surrender the treasures of the church. Three days later at the agreed time for handing over the most valuable assets of the Church in Rome, Laurence arrived with a crowd of beggars, sick people and widows. These, he insisted, were the treasures of the Church. Laurence was promptly put to death, but his legend continues to resonate awkwardly in our churches who have so often disregarded the vulnerable and protected the privileged, as the recent Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has revealed so starkly. The true treasure, the treasure hidden in the field of our lives, are the broken and vulnerable who God entrusts to our care.

THR – 180809 – Mary Sumner, d.1921

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Healthy families, healthy communities

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Today many people will be remembering with gratitude the work of Mary Sumner, who died on this day in 1921. She was the founder of the Mothers’ Union, a lay movement with a vision of a world where God’s love is shown through loving, respectful and flourishing relationships. There is no more important task and no more rewarding role than nurturing the spiritual capacities of our children and other family members. As a Cathedral community, we work with parents, godparents, grandparents and other members of the extended family to offer our children the best support as they grow in their knowledge, in their sense of connection with God, in their compassion for others and in their care for the fragile web of life. No matter our age or the ‘shape’ of our family, these are attributes we all need for everyday life.

WED – 180808 – Now the green blade rises

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Love is come again

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The evocative hymn by John Crum (1872–1958) elaborates the saying of Jesus about a grain of wheat that falls into the ground, where it is transformed to become many grains. The first verse of the hymn reads: Now the green blade rises from the buried grain, Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain; Love lives again, that with the dead has been; Love is come again like wheat arising green. May our lives be places of transformation, renewal and resurrection. Love lives again!

TUE – 180807 – Pearl of great price

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The priceless pearl

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Matthew 13:45–46 preserves the following parable of Jesus (also found in the Gospel of Thomas): “… the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” This is classic Jesus wisdom: edgy, exaggerated, impractical, but evocative. What is it about the wisdom that Jesus proclaims which makes us discard everything else of value in our lives for the sake of having this great treasure? What is this priceless pearl, the nugget of immense value, that we seek? Are we actively engaged in the search, or just hoping it might fall into our lap?

MON – 180806 – Transfiguration / Hiroshima

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A world transfigured

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August 6. In the calendar of the western churches, today is observed as the feast of the transfiguration of Jesus. For many of us, the world itself was transfigured when the first atomic bomb was detonated over Hiroshima on this date in 1945. We glimpsed new possibilities, for good and evil, that day. In one sense we stepped out of the Iron Age and into the Nuclear Age in that moment of unparalleled destructive power. Most people alive now have never experienced the old world on the other side of Hiroshima. All of us need wisdom old and new to live faithfully in a strange new world on this side of Hiroshima.

SUN – 180805 – Pentecost 11(B)

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Love, actually

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As any parent or grandparent knows, love matters more than anything else. How sad that many people of faith seem to think that having correct beliefs or acting in certain ways matters more than being loving. Yet last time I checked, the “new commandment” Jesus gave his followers was to love one another, not check each other’s beliefs or personal behaviours. And the two great commandments are: (1) love God, and (2) love other people. At Grafton Cathedral we reflect this ancient spiritual wisdom in our tag line: “open doors … open hearts … open minds …” In the end, it is all about love. What else matters?

SAT – 180804 – Stillness

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Stillness

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The ancient Hebrew creation poem that we find at the opening pages of the Bible culminates with these words: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.” (Genesis 2:1–3 NRSV) Coming at the end of the seven momentous days, we might like to think of resting, of sabbath, as the ultimate point of creation, the deepest significance of existence. What matters most is not that we are active, but that we can be still: aware, mindful, reflective, conscious, alive, self-aware.

FRI – 180803 – First Principles

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First principles

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The ancient Jewish prophet, Micah, gets to the heart of things with this classic piece of spiritual wisdom: “what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 NRSV) Not bad as a personal mission statement?

THR – 180802 – Beatitudes 1

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Beatitude 1

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The so-called Sermon on the Mount is an ancient Christian collection of the core teachings of Jesus. There is nothing here about sin and atonement, but a great deal about living in a simple and uncomplicated way. Those who live this way, according to Jesus, will possess the kingdom of God, or the reign of God. This is not a matter of status or power, but of knowing ourselves to be loved by God. Just as we are. At the beginning of the great Sermon is a version of the Beatitudes, a list of people who know deep blessing. Here is the first of those Beatitudes, first as preserved in the Gospel according to Matthew: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3 NRSV) Simplicity of spirit, and uncomplicated openness to God’s presence among us and within us, is a pathway to a life that is truly blessed.

WED – 180801 – Our daily bread

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The first morsel

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“Give us today our daily bread.” This is one of the most loved lines in the Lord’s Prayer. It is also one of the most difficult lines of biblical Greek to translate, as can be seen by the variants in different versions of the prayer. What is this bread that I need each day? What sustains me on the journey? In what sense is this “bread” something I receive as a gift from God, from Life? I trust these daily morsels from Grafton Cathedral will be one of the ways that God provides you with the bread you need for each day. May Jesus be the bread of life for us … today and always.