Tag: Grafton Cathedral

Christ Church Cathedral, Grafton
Pentecost. Sunday
31 May 2020

[ video ]

 

Everything begins in chaos
Darkness

Tohu vabohu, writes the ancient Hebrew poet

Formless
Empty
Immense swirling oceans (the Deep)
No light at all from any source

Then something happens:
ruach elohim

 

Christians like to translate that phrase: ‘Spirit of God’
Jews prefer to say: ‘a wind from God’
I suggest we read it as: ‘a powerful wind’
In everyday terms we might say “a hell of a storm”

All that we are today has its origins and its explanation in those ancient words that open the Bible we share with our Jewish friends.

To paraphrase:

God was there at the start
God created everything
It was a mess
An amazing storm came through
Hovering above the formless empty chaos
Then there was light!
God had spoken.

 

That is not just a description of our origins.
It also describes our present reality
And it indicates our destiny

TODAY is Pentecost, sometimes called the Eighth Day of Creation
TODAY we celebrate the disturbing and renewing presence of the Spirit
TODAY we pray for the Spirit to hover over our chaos until the light appears

As we observe this Great and Fiftieth Day of Easter, let me offer a simple paradigm for understanding the meaning of Pentecost:

The presence of the spirit of Jesus among us
is the proof of the resurrection
Equally, our commitment to compassionate action
is the proof that the Spirit is among us.

 

The spirit of Jesus among us

This was a major theme in the way that Paul understood the gospel.

He hardly ever refers to the life of Jesus and almost never quotes any teachings from Jesus, but he repeatedly refers to the Spirit as the real, lived experience of the risen Jesus active in the church.

One familiar example, often used in services today, is this:

For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)

However, I think my personal favourite, might be this line from a little later in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:

Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:45)

For Paul and for us, the Spirit present among us is the proof that Jesus has been raised and has gone ahead of us into God, into the future, into eternal love.

Indeed, Paul never mentions an empty tomb. Rather, we find that in the Gospels, all of which were written long after Paul is dead.

For Paul what matters is to have been drawn into the Easter life of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, which has been given to us.

For that reason, Pentecost is indeed the Great and Fiftieth Day of Easter.

Easter does not end with the discovery of an empty tomb nor an ascension into heaven.

Easter has really only fully happened when we have a community of people where the Spirit is found: hovering over our chaos, absorbing our darkness, shaping our formlessness, illuminating our darkness, filling our emptiness.

Today, on the festival of the Spirit,  we know the meaning of Easter; and in our experience of the Spirit of Jesus among us we know the reality of his resurrection.

 

Acting with compassion

In our mission statement on the Cathedral website, we speak of ourselves as “acting with compassion in the heart of Grafton since 1842”

When that description is true, then we have proof that the Spirit of Jesus is indeed active among us.

Jesus was, first of all, a person of compassion: he healed the sick, he cast out demons, he made the blind see, he fed the hungry, he proclaimed a time of liberty and salvation, he had time and compassion for those on the margins of their own communities.

As Jesus people, his Spirit of compassion will be evident among us as well.

Paul one time described this as the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23)

This does not mean that we always get it right.

Nor does it mean that when we mess up we should beat up on ourselves.

But it does suggest that when we get it right, this is what the presence of the Spirit of Jesus among us looks like: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”

We should expect to see evidence of the Spirit of Jesus at work among us.

And we do.

We saw it during the fires during summer.

We have seen it in the care and support during the pandemic.

We see it in the OpShop volunteers.

We see it in the Cathedral Pantry.

We see it in every act of compassion and care.

 

May the disturbing and renewing presence of the Spirit continue to be our experience so that we never doubt the resurrection of Jesus and never lose sight of what it means for us to be Jesus people here and now.

God was there at the start
God is here now
God will be here in the future
It may be a mess
But an amazing spirit-storm is around us
Hovering above the formless empty chaos
There will be light!
God has spoken.
Alleluia!

 

Fourth Sunday in Lent (Year A)
Grafton Cathedral
22 March 2020

[ video ]

The gospel set for today is strangely apt and yet it strikes a chord that spells fear, not hope.

Jesus is in Jerusalem and he encounters a man who has been blind since birth.

Note the very different attitudes of the key characters in this story:

 

JESUS NOTICES A BLIND BEGGAR

HIS DISCIPLES WANT PHILOSOPHICAL EXPLANATIONS

JESUS ADDRESSES THE NEED OF THE PERSON

BECAUSE COMPASSION GIVES GLORY TO GOD

THE RELIGIOUS EXPERTS REJECT JESUS’ CREDENTIALS

THE PARENTS OF THE MAN WANT NO MORE FUSS

THE HEALED MAN SEES CLEARLY

AND NOT JUST WITH HIS EYES

 

We can also notice that Jesus was clearly not under the current COVID-19 health requirements when he spat on the ground and made a paste from the dirt …

 

Fast forward around 2,000 years and here we are on the edge of a whole new way of being church, worshipping God and serving others.

We have never been in this space before.

Easter is just around the corner and almost certainly there will be no public church services during those most holy days.

Passover will be scaled back for Jews.

Ramadan will be quiet and subdued for Muslims when the daytime fasting ends.

 

Some of us have experienced part of this in our lives due to illness or other life events that have kept us away from church for a time. But we always knew that church was happening, and that people of faith were gathering for worship, learning more about their faith, and getting organised to make the world a better place for everyone.

Not anymore.

The pause button has been pressed.

So, what do we have left during these weeks when not just church but so many other aspects of our lives will be so very different from anything we have experienced before?

Let me unpack that around four (4) key words:

• Faith
• Community
• Compassion
• Generosity

 

FAITH

Faith is something that seems to be in short supply these days.

People who strip the shelves of household supplies and food are demonstrating a profound lack of faith in the capacity of our system to sustain us as it does in normal times.

People who pack our beaches and ignore the advice to maintain safe social distances are also showing their deep lack of faith. They do not trust the health authorities. They do not believe the government. They have no faith in science.

These are not normal times, but we can respond to these times with faith rather than fear.

We can be people of cautious optimism and quiet hope.

We can do all this because we are Easter people.

We do not deny the tragedy and the evil of Good Friday, but we affirm that light conquers darkness, love defeats hatred, hope destroys fear, and life overcomes death.

Faith does not halt the pandemic, but it stops us falling apart as our routines dissolve around us.

Faith nudges us to look beyond, to the love which at the very centre of the cosmos and which came to us in the person of Jesus.

Faith is practical hope; not whistling in the dark but lighting a candle to shatter the deepest darkness.

 

COMMUNITY

As people of faith we are community, the Body of Christ, those called together to make a difference in the world.

For as long as any of us can remember, our community has been grounded in gathering around a table, the Table of Jesus.

But that table is out of reach for a while.

We are going to find other ways to build and sustain community.

One part of that is the technology which has transformed our lives, and which now allows us to gather without being in the same place.

We have online communities and we can make better use of them.

But we also need to make the phone calls and knock on the doors of isolated people.

Make list of people and find ways to check on them. Make a list of 10 names and pray for those people every day. Maybe give them a call. Check how they are doing.

If you have concerns for them, let us know and we shall try to make contact as well.

Download the Cathedral app.

Join the next few Dean’s Forums as Zoom meetings!

Get onto Facebook and join the Grafton Anglicans private group. Share your thoughts. Ask questions. Reflect on what is happening. Explore the Bible. Begin to imagine what church will be like on the other side of this pandemic.

We are a resilient community and we shall come out of this stronger than ever.

 

COMPASSION

Some people are going to be hurt by the pandemic.

Many people will become ill and some will die. Some of us may die in the next few weeks.

Businesses will close.

Jobs will be lost.

Some essential household items and certain lines of food are still going to be hard to get.

But we do not hoard.

It is against the very essence of being people of faith to hoard.

We share what we have and give when we are asked.

It seems impossible to feed 5,000 people with five bread rolls and a couple of small fish, but God can use what we share to make a huge difference in the lives of others. And especially in those in most need.

Instead of worrying about how we will survive as a church with the OpShop closed for several months, let’s begin to imagine what an impact we can have on people as the OpShop becomes a community hub where they find the help they need. And indeed, in some ways, the food they need for each day.

Give us today our daily bread.

We shall be gentle with each other and act out of compassion.

 

GENEROSITY

Recently we sang the beautiful modern hymn, “A Spendthrift Lover is the Lord” by Thomas H. Troeger:

A spendthrift lover is the Lord who never counts the cost
Or asks if heaven can afford to woo a world that’s lost.
Our lover tosses coins of gold across the midnight skies
And stokes the sun against the cold to warm us when we rise.

As people of faith, we reflect the generosity of God in ourselves and in our own actions, and we are going to need generosity as we navigate the weeks and months ahead.

Generosity is as much about openness as it is about funding.

Indeed, generosity is the very opposite of the hoarding which has been so evident in the past few weeks.

It is natural that when we fear that there may not be enough of something to go around, we are tempted to grab what we can before it runs out. We panic buy. We hoard. We are selfish. Other people get hurt.

As people of faith we know the generosity of our spendthrift lover.

We trust the endless capacity of God to bring good out of evil, and life out of death.

We have no deep fear that life lacks what we need to thrive.

Give us today our daily bread.

So we have no need to hoard.

We can share what we have without fear.

And that unlocks a chain of compassionate generosity that turns our world upside down.

As a Cathedral, we will pay what we need to spend, and we will share what resources we have. Even if our reserves are exhausted, God will provide all that we need and then some.

Give us today our daily bread.

So please do find a way to get your gifts to the Cathedral: direct debit, bank transfers, cheques, mobile payment on the Cathedral app, delivering your envelopes to the office.

We may have less coming in, but there will still be lots to go out.

As generous people, we can keep our hearts and our minds open to those who need our help.

 

In among all the strangeness of the coming weeks, hold fast to these four key words:

Faith – Community – Compassion – Generosity

 

Finally, embrace this opportunity for a change of pace. Let’s all slow down for a bit.

With that in mind, let me close with a poem by John O’Donoghue

This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.

© John O’Donohue. Excerpt from his books, To Bless the Space Between Us (US) / Benedictus (Europe). Ordering Info: https://johnodonohue.com/store

First Sunday of Lent (Year A)
Christchurch Cathedral Grafton
1 March 2020

[ video ]

Perhaps not surprisingly on this first Sunday in Lent, the Bible readings chosen for today tends to focus on temptation and sin.

For sure there will be sermons in churches all around Grafton and all over the nation about sin as the great reality at the heart of human existence, and about how we all need to use these 40 days of Lent to turn away from sin and embrace the good news.

I am going to take a different line today.

Most likely that will not surprise you.

Rather than focusing on solidarity in sin, I want to focus in solidarity in blessing.

In doing that I am not blind to sin, although I prefer to call its by its proper names of ANGER, EVIL, FEAR, HATRED, INJUSTICE and VIOLENCE.

What tend to be categorised as ‘sin’ seem mostly to be low level moral failures that cause very little harm but arouse the passion of the theological thought police, while those things that really are evil and which cause devastation to individuals, families, communities and even the planet as a whole tend to escape the label ‘sin’.

To the extent that we want to turn away from sin this Lent, let’s search for ways to address these larger and more potent forms of evil and avoid a self-serving focus on moral failure and religious laziness.

Each of us is flawed—hence the phrase ‘broken things for broken people” as I invite you to the table of Jesus.

But each and every flawed human being is capable of the most amazing acts of courage, generosity and love.

Contrary to the theological fear-mongers, sin is not what characterises us most deeply. Rather, our true dignity as human beings and as Earth creatures is that we are made in the image of God and have the most amazing capacity for good.

Next time you look in the mirror, congratulate God on her fine work rather than berating yourself for some marginal improvements that may be long overdue.

 

Paradise Lost

Our first reading today comprised two excerpts from the book of Genesis in which the first people make choices about being human:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’
3  Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’  The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;  but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” ’  But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.  Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. (Gen 2:15–17 & 3:1–7)

This is one of two creation stories in Genesis and one of several creation texts in the Old Testament, yet this is the story on which the Christian West has been fixated.

In this story God sets boundaries to the freedom which Adam and Eve may enjoy. They could eat any fruit from any tree, except for the ‘tree of the knowledge of good evil’.

Of course, we know there never was such a tree and that this is a mythical tale about the loss of paradise. Yet we never pause to wonder why God would want to ban humans from knowing good and evil, or whether God was right even to make such a rule.

Let’s stand back and look at ourselves—at our Christian selves for almost 2,000 years—and wonder how we can be so short-sighted in the way that we engage with this story.

We have used this story to explain to ourselves why life is not perfect, and we use this story to put the blame for that reality on ourselves as humans.

I think we can read that story in a more affirming and positive way, but let’s put it aside for now and focus on the other two readings set for this morning.

 

We, not me

When we look at the reading from Romans, we can immediately see why it was chosen for today, but we can also see that at the heart of the text is a concept of human solidarity that we mostly ignore.

If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.  Therefore, just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.  For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:17–19)

Our culture celebrates the individual rather than the whole human bio-system of which every individual is a part: families, households, clans, clubs, churches, tribes, nations, race, humanity itself.

Paul clearly accepted that Adam’s choice in Genesis 2 was a bad move and had inflicted suffering on every human being ever since. Note, however, that in the opening verse from the larger text for today, Paul says this was because everyone else also sinned.

Hmmm.

That’s an interesting correction to the dominant sin-and-death cult of Western Christianity at least since Augustine of Hippo (who died in 430 CE).

According to Paul the same consequences that Adam experienced as a result of his bad choices were experienced by everyone else ever afterwards … because they also all made the same kind of bad choices. Not simply because they inherited bad genes from the first human being.

Notice how Paul sees the choices made by Jesus as also having consequences for everyone else.

Writing to the Corinthians a few years before his letter to the Romans, Paul used the parallel of the ‘first Adam’ and the ’second Adam’ this way:

Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:45–49)

The device of contrasting Adam and Jesus was part of Paul’s theological toolset.

In today’s reading from Romans he is, in effect, saying:

Adam – bad choice ­– everyone dies
Jesus – good choice – everyone lives

Notice, by the way, that Paul says ‘everyone’; not just the religious and not just the Christians. All humanity.

Our job as people of faith is not to scare people out of hell, but to love them into heaven. Jesus has already secured their entry. It is theirs for the taking. Hell will be empty.

 

Jesus makes good choices

Our third reading today from the Gospel of Matthew has Jesus making the right choices.

Like every ancient hero inside the Bible or outside the Bible, Jesus had to overcome a series of tests before he could begin his task.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ But he answered, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’  Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”’

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him. (Matthew 4:1–11)

Again, this is myth not history. It is how people saw reality. And there is truth in the story even if there is very little history.

Like Adam and like Jesus we get to make choices.

Making choices is a sacred human attribute.

Sometimes we make bad choices, and those bad choices may cause hardship for other people, even those who we love.

But sometimes we make good choices, even brave and holy choices. Those good choices will also have consequences for other people; those close to us and even people we may not know directly.

We need to make more good choices and fewer of the bad choices.

The choice is ours.

The consequences will not be just for us.

And this first Sunday in Lent is a good time to ask God to help us make more good choices and to fix the consequences of any bad choices we have made in the past.

Maybe that is our prayer today as we come to the Table of Jesus?

 

Grafton Cathedral
Epiphany 6A
16 February 2020

 

[ video ]

Between 1997 and 2002, Apple Computers (as they were then called) had a highly successful advertising campaign that transformed perceptions of them and their products, while encouraging people to “think different”.

Hold that thought as we delve into today’s Gospel reading.

 

For the past few weeks we have been hearing excerpts from the Sermon on the Mount, a special collection of teaching material from Jesus.

We shall look more closely at the Sermon on the Mount during the Dean’s Forum in two weeks’ time, but for now let’s just not that this is the classic collection of the teaching of Jesus, an epitome of his spiritual wisdom.

Although only found in Matthew it has been extremely influential over the centuries.

Indeed, Mahatma Gandhi largely drew his inspiration for non-violent resistance to the British imperial power in India from the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. He famously said that if the test for being a Christian was simply the Sermon on the Mount taken at face value, then he would gladly say that he was a Christian!

 

In the Gospel today we heard part of the final section of Matthew 5, a section in which Jesus gives a series of antithetical statement more or less along the lines of:

“you have it said this way in the past … but now I am telling you different!”

In these statements, Matthew is contrasting Jesus with Moses.

For the Jewish Christians who comprised Matthew’s audience this was a controversial idea, even if we have long since become comfortable with the contrast.

It would be rather like a Pope saying, “Well, I know the church has always said this, but now I am telling you we need to think differently about that matter.”

In this series of six antithesis, Jesus ‘ups the ante’ in the following areas of personal relationships:

• no murder (no hatred)
• no adultery (no lustful stare)
• no divorce without papers (no divorce)
• no false oaths (no oaths)
• proportionate violence (no violence)
• love your neighbour (love your enemy)

 

In what many seem a classic example of hyperbole, Jesus begins his series with the example of homicide.

We might think that is a bit extreme, but pause for a moment and think how common domestic violence is around our country and even right here in Grafton where the rates tend to be twice the state average.

How many women die in Australia due to violence by a domestic partner or family member?

The answer is—on average—one woman dies every week in Australia as a result of violence by her current or former partner.

So this is not some extreme example randomly chosen by Jesus, but sadly a part of everyday life in our most intimate and personal relationships. In the places where we should be most secure from harm, immense harm is happening every day every week all year to women and children.

So Jesus picks up the traditional law: no killing

You heard that in the past he says.

Now this is how I am telling you it needs to be:

But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire (Matthew 5:22 NRSV)

No killing—but also no violence (see verses 38 to 42)

More than that—just getting angry with someone else is forbidden.

And more than that—even to insult someone is to fall under divine judgment.

 

Jesus has really raised the bar, and he continues to do that through the whole series of antitheses in the final half of Matthew 5.

Let’s hear that summary list again:

• no murder (no hatred)
• no adultery (no lustful stare)
• no divorce without papers (no divorce)
• no false oaths (no oaths)
• proportionate violence (no violence)
• love your neighbour (love your enemy)

 

As I wrote in the Daily Morsel for this morning, these are the values of the kingdom, not a checklist for compliance.

But the world would be a better place if more people aspired to these values. Our own lives would be as well.

 

In times of stress, we are more likely to lash out and to seek to score points at the expense of another person.

Sadly we see this in the life of the church as people struggle with declining numbers and with changing attitudes towards religion.

We are seeing it as well in the diocesan restructure process as people face the prospect of their special place of worship being closed and sold.

Harsh words are spoken.

Relationships are smashed.

Cruel things are said about the bishop, the Cathedral, the diocese, the priest, the town next door, and so on.

The idea of working together is dismissed and people seek to retain what they still have left of the church which has vanished but which they cannot let go.

 

Such times are hard times for us, just as drought and fire and flood are tough for people on the land.

But we cannot turn on each other when the times become hard for us.

Jesus sets the bar really high: no anger and no name-calling.

We choose love and we choose to care for one another as we navigate these tough times.