gregoryjenks

Tag: Grafton Cathedral

  • Two people walked into Grafton Cathedral

    Two people walked into Grafton Cathedral

    Christ Church Cathedral, Grafton
    Pentecost 19(C)
    20 October 2019

    pharisee-and-publican

     

    [ video ]

    Today’s Gospel presents two views of religion.

    It is a great little story by Jesus because it captures the big story in just a few words.

    Let’s tell it again in local terms …

     

    Two people head into Grafton Cathedral.

    They were both going to pray. Maybe to light a candle, or perhaps just to sit quietly and absorb the holiness of the place.

    Then again, perhaps they had come for a baptism service … ?

     

    One of them is very comfortable in the Cathedral. Knows just when to stand, sit, kneel and cross themselves.

    They even know that the green book has the words of the service, while the red book has the songs.

    Their name is on the roster: they welcome people to the Cathedral, they read from the Bible during the services, they say the prayers, they wear red robes and carry candles, or crosses or even incense. Maybe they clean the Cathedral or arrange morning tea after the services.

    They probably volunteer in the OpShop and they work in the Bookshop.

    They know this place so well.

    They are respectable.

    Everyone here knows them and they are very comfortable here.

     

    The other person does not come into the Cathedral very often.

    They are not sure what to do, or where to stand. Should they kneel? Are they supposed to sit? Take off their hat?

    Maybe if they just stand in the back corner it will be OK?

    Yet they always feel good when they come in here. Probably should do it more often. Maybe even come to church sometimes on a Sunday, but they are busy with family stuff on the weekend …

    They hope the other person over there in the nice clothes does not think they are here to steal anything …

    It is just that the Cathedral is such a special place for them, and they like to pop in briefly when they get the chance. Have been doing it ever since they were kids here in Grafton.

    Those big doors just always seem to be open: come inside. You’re welcome here. God loves you. So do we.

    Kind of makes them feel closer to God, which they know is silly because God is everywhere, but this is a special place and kind of feels like a gateway to heaven.

    Once upon a time they had been baptised here. Over there in the corner. In the funny shell held by the angel. Not that they remember it, but they have seen the photos. And the baptism card. and the odd little candle.

    Been to a few funerals here as well. Love the whiff of incense when they come into the Cathedral after there has been a funeral. God’s room freshener, they reckon.

    “Hi, God. It’s been a while. Sorry not to come more often. I’m OK, thanks. Appreciate you caring about me. Sorry about the way I messed up last week. Sure wish I had not done that. I will come back soon. Promise.”

     

    Now, why did Jesus tell that story?

    Because some people thought they were doing just fine, and looked down their noses at some of the other people who did not come as often, or did not look so respectable.

    And which kind of person does God like to spend time with?

    The second person. They’re God’s kind of people.

    They are not especially religious, but they have no tickets on themselves and they really do want to live their life in a way that pleases God and does the right thing by other people.

     

    The prophet Jeremiah, about 600 years before the time of Jesus, said that people like them have the law of God written inside their hearts.

    They do not need other people telling them how to love, they just need to follow the nudge that comes from God inside them.

     

    Of course, there is nothing wrong with coming to church so often that you get to learn the ropes.

    What matters is that you are honest with God, pop in here from time to time or chat with God outside. There is no place you can ever be where God is absent.

    And that, my friends, is what we need to teach Chase who we are about to baptise.

    Teach him to be real with God. And bring him here to this place so it becomes his special holy place as he grows up.

     

    Let’s go baptise the boy …

     

     

     

  • Scripture trumps Constitution​

    Scripture trumps Constitution​

    Given continuing debates around the Anglican Church of Australia and elsewhere about the status of the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 and the Articles of Religion (commonly called “The Thirty-Nine Articles”) of 1571, it may be timely to publish the brief speech I gave to the 2019 Synod of the Diocese of Grafton in response to the following motion:

     

    MOTION 27: STANDARD OF WORSHIP AND DOCTRINE
    That this Synod affirms the authorised standard of worship and doctrine of the Anglican Church of Australia as set out in the Fundamental Declarations and Ruling Principles of the Constitution.

    The constitution referenced in the motion is the Constitution of the Anglican Church of Australia, and the particular clauses of the constitution seeking to be affirmed by those supporting the proposed motion appear to have been the following:

    (2) This Church receives all the canonical scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as being the ultimate rule and standard of faith given by inspiration of God and containing all things necessary for salvation.

    (4) This Church, being derived from the Church of England, retains and approves the doctrine and principles of the Church of England embodied in the Book of Common Prayer together with the Form and Manner of Making Ordaining and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests and Deacons and in the Articles of Religion sometimes called the Thirty-nine Articles but has plenary authority at its own discretion to make statements as to the faith ritual ceremonial or discipline of this Church and to order its forms of worship and rules of discipline and to alter or revise such statements, forms and rules, provided that all such statements, forms, rules or alteration or revision thereof are consistent with the Fundamental Declarations contained herein and are made as prescribed by this Constitution. Provided, and it is hereby further declared, that the above-named Book of Common Prayer, together with the Thirty-nine Articles, be regarded as the authorised standard of worship and doctrine in this Church, and no alteration in or permitted variations from the services or Articles therein contained shall contravene any principle of doctrine or worship laid down in such standard.

    Not only were clauses 1 and 3 of no particular interest to those supporting this motion, but they explicitly claimed that clause 2 took precedence over both clause 1 and clause 3.

    While the motion referred to the Fundamental Declarations and Ruling Principles of the Constitution, it was actually adherence to the Ruling Principles which they wished to promote.

    Affirming the first three clauses—which the Constitution itself identified as the Fundamental Declarations of the Anglican Church of Australia—would not have served their intention, which is simply to limit the worship practices and the doctrines of the Anglican Church of Australia to those which were developed in the Church of England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

    This is an especially odd position for the Australian Anglican Church to adopt, since neither the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 nor the Articles of Religion have that same status within the Church of England today. Nor do they have any status at all in some other provinces of the Anglican Communion, such as the Episcopal Church of Scotland and the Episcopal Church (USA).

    Adherence to the doctrine and liturgies of the late-1600s and mid-1700s—at which times we were literally killing each other over differences in faith and practice—is not an essential attribute of Anglicanism, but it is a requirement for ministers and other office-bearers of the Anglican Church of Australia.

    In other words, the Constitution of the Anglican Church of Australia is a flawed document that reflects the theological factions who dominated the process when the Constitution was drafted and adopted.

    All of that was too much information for a brief two-minute speech under the Standing Orders of the Synod of the Diocese of Grafton, so my speech was crafted to tease out the essential issues and urge Synod to reject this motion.

    As a footnote, the motion was overwhelmingly rejected by the Synod, and even many of those who supported the motion say they did so only because they could not bring themselves to vote aganst a motion which purported to uphold the Constitution.

    Of course, the motion was not about upholding the Constitution but rather was a tactical move seeking to align the Diocese of Grafton with the extremely conservative views promoted by the Diocese of Sydney and its allies. A similar motion had been brought to the previous session of Grafton Synod and also rejected.

    This is part of an on-going culture war in contemporary western society, and within the religious campaign of that ‘war’ the focus is on sexuality; particularly marriage equality and non-binary understandings of gender. The battle continues in the wider domain with demands from the same groups for special legislation to ‘protect’ them from religious persecution and to allow them to discriminate against other people on the basis of their gender, sexual orientation or marital status.

    My brief speech to the Synod was as follows:

    Mr President, I rise to oppose this motion.

    After more than 40 years of ordained ministry in the Anglican Church of Australia, I have repeatedly affirmed the Constitution of our Church including the Fundamental Declarations and Ruling Principles.

    These are not paragraphs which we have any option to amend at this point in time.

    This motion, therefore, makes as much sense as our Synod being asked to declare that sun will rise tomorrow morning.

    Whether we say so or not, the sun will rise tomorrow.

    Whether we pass this motion or not the Ruling Principles will remain in place.

    Until our General Synod agrees to re-establish itself with a new constitution, there is nothing we can do about the Fundamental Declarations. They remain in place. They define the boundaries within which we seek to live faithfully and generously as one church.

    However, there is a deep problem with the existing Ruling Principles, as set out in paragraph four of the Constitution.

    As this motion reminds us, those Ruling Principles elevate the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 and The Articles of Religion as the standard for worship and doctrine.

    Not the Bible!

    In other words, those who promote this motion ask us to affirm that Scripture has less influence in our church than the BCP and the so-called Thirty-Nine Articles.

    As a Reformation Christian, I find that to be a faulty view of authority.

    It is a mistake.

    One day—hopefully soon—our Church will replace the Fundamental Declarations and the Ruling Principles with provisions that better reflect the authority of Scripture in our Church and the diversity of worship and doctrine across the Anglican Communion.

    As someone who takes the Bible seriously, I look forward to the day when the Ruling Principles are replaced. Until then, as duty bound, I submit to these inadequate words and reserve the right to advocate for their replacement.

    And I look forward to the sun rising in the morning.

  • Faithful responses to climate change

    Faithful responses to climate change

     

    In the last couple of days, there has been some controversy around the comments made by the Principal of the Coffs Harbour Christian Community School in a newsletter distributed last Friday, the last day of term three.

    You can read the comments of the CHCCS Principal by downloading their newsletter from the school website.

    Coffs Harbour Christian Community School was founded by—and continues to be operated as an activity of—the Coffs Harbour Baptist Church.

    I became aware of this controversy when I was contacted by the Coffs Harbour ABC radio station with a request that I comment on the CHCCS Principal’s message in last week’s school newsletter.

    My concerns fall under three categories.

     

    Intellectual Rigour

    My first concern is that the Principal seems to think that his views on climate change carry more weight than the collective research undertaken by thousands of independent scientists whose work is reviewed and assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

    Such an attitude would be a deep concern in any context but is especially troubling when it is promoted by someone who leads an educational institution. Schools are essentially places of learning. Wilful ignorance—whether in the form of so-called ‘creation science’, anti-vaxer campaigns or climate change denial—has no place in schools.

    We need to be teaching children to think for themselves and navigate competing truth claims, rather than distract them from the best science currently available to serve some other agenda.

     

    Religious fundamentalism

    In this case, the CHCCS Principal appeals to the ancient myth of a giant flood, which he describes as “the first, and only, complete catastrophic climate change”. Apart from the stunning ignorance in such a claim, this is a naive approach to the Bible which reflects the biblical fundamentalism promoted by the school’s own Statement of Belief. This statement can be found on the back page of the School’s Prospectus, but—oddly—is not easily accessed from the school website.

    Such an approach to the Bible ignores and demonises more than 200 years of critical biblical scholarship. CHCCS and their local Baptist owners are not unique in holding such views. Indeed their form of Christian fundamentalism has a lot in common with other forms of religious extremism which reject the insights flowing from the natural and social sciences, while appealing to ancient traditions with no intellectual credibility. Needless to say, such religious communities and their institutions, neither prepare people for the modern world nor offer safe places for gender-diverse persons. Like all forms of fundamentalism, Christians who espouse such views promote toxic forms of religion and do not represent the best spiritual wisdom of the Christian faith.

     

    Vilification and abuse

    The intellectual and religious objections to the views expressed in the recent newsletter from CHCCS are significant, but the final objection is perhaps even more important.

    While appealing to an indefensible reading of Scripture to support his rejection of the best currently available climate science, the Principal of CHCCS went to an even darker place. Not content to ignore science and twist the biblical texts, he launched an attack on the young Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg, as a “little girl with self declared (sic) various emotional and mental problems”.

    This is unconscionable and especially so for an educational leader with a professional obligation to protect vulnerable children. Neither her small stature, her age nor her mental health are appropriate targets for such an attack by a powerful male figure. What message does it send to young children in CHCCS or in the wider community, let alone anyone living with physical disabilities or mental health issues? And all this while ingenuously claiming to be concerned about unnecessary anxiety among his students and other persons connected with the school.

     

    Happily, another religious school operating in Coffs Harbour offers an example of a ‘more excellent way’ (1 Corinthians 12:31).

    Bishop Druitt College is a large Anglican school based in Coffs Harbour and serving the same region as Coffs Harbour Christian Community School. BDC encouraged students to participate in the recent school strikes for climate action. More than that, they also provided buses to transport students to and from the rally.

    More recently, the Principal of BDC has issued a statement on the school’s Facebook page about the approach which his school takes on the climate change issues. I will quote just the final couple of sentences from that statement:

    At Bishop Druitt College, we applaud Greta’s integrity, courage and her sense of social justice. It should also be noted that these three values are part of our set of college values.

    This coming Sunday at Grafton Cathedral we will be hosting a seminar on faith-based responses to climate change, presented by the Revd Peter Moore. The seminar is open to the public and free of charge. No need to be anxious about climate change, come a learn how people of faith can respond to the crisis with courage, hope and science.

    Fr Moore is an accredited climate change workshop facilitator and a member of ARRCC (Australian Religious Response to Climate Change). In this session, we will be updated on the latest data as well as practical ways for people of faith to respond to the crisis our planet is now facing.

  • Season of Creation: 3. Storm Sunday

    Christ Church Cathedral Grafton
    Season of Creation, 3: Storm Sunday
    15 September 2019

     

    [ video ]

    storm-port-macquarie
    A thick storm cloud over Lighthouse Beach shows rain falling over Port Macquarie and Bonny Hills in 2017. Photo: Ivan Sajko (Ocean Drive Images)

     

    As you will have already noticed, in church today we are paying attention to the theme of storms: real ones.

    We are not talking about personal crises, tough times in relationships, or ‘storms in a teacup’.

    All those are real enough, and painful as well.

    On this third Sunday in the Season of Creation we are talking about those wild weather events that trigger emergency alerts, threaten to destroy homes, and can even take away our lives.

     

    Season of Creation

    If you have not been here for the last couple of weeks (or even longer) you may need a brief heads up.

    During September we are observing a special series of services, the season of creation, as we explore various aspects of the web of life; that complex and subtle web of relationships between all of us and all of existence.

    So far we have had Ocean Sunday and Fauna & Flora Sunday, with the focus today turning to storms. Next Sunday we will go bigger with the Cosmos as our chosen theme. On the final Sunday of the month, we wrap up the series with the blessing of the animals in the Cathedral gardens at 10.30am.

    Bring your creatures great and small that day …

     

    Storms

    Storms have been in the news lately.

    Last weekend the focus on the fires really grabbed all our attention, but the week before that we were watching with awe as a massive storm—Hurricane Dorian—bore down on the Bahamas and then headed towards the US east coast.

    We have had some massive cyclones in this part of the world as well as seeing them active in other places.

    Right now, when it is all so dry, we are desperate for rain. But we can also remember those times when the rain and the wind have been so bad that we just wanted them to stop.

    In their own way, even the fires of last weekend were storms, as their ferocity and speed were partly driven by the winds that were blowing so strongly.

    There is a huge difference between a fire on a calm day and a fire when a storm wind is whipping things up.

    We might admire the power of a storm from a safe distance, but they have a way of putting us in our place. They remind us that we are small-scale life forms, and very vulnerable to major natural events.

    • Cyclones / hurricanes
    • Hail storms
    • Thunderstorms
    • Lightning storms
    • Tornadoes and twisters
    • Snowstorms and blizzards

     

    Spirit, wind and breath

    In ancient times we see that people were fascinated by the dynamic relationship between breath, wind and spirit.

    In fact, often we find the same words being used in the ancient Hebrew or Greek text, and only the context telling us which English term to choose.

    Perhaps the classic example is in Genesis 1, the great creation poem which opens the Bible.

    There we read that the “spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters”

    וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם

    wᵉrûaḥ ʾᵉlōhim mᵉraḥep̱eṯ ʿal-pᵉne hammāyı̂m

     

    Depending on the Bible translation you pick up, that line may be translated as:

    KJV: And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

    NJB: with a divine wind sweeping over the waters.

    JPS: and a wind from God sweeping over the water

    NRSV margin: while a mighty wind swept over the face of the waters.

     

    In the next chapter of Genesis, God will breathe into the nostrils of the new Earth creature that has been created. When the breath of God comes into the Earthling, then the first human is alive and has become a living spirit.

    This life force that we know as storm we also meet:

    • in the first breath of a newborn child
    • in a pleasant summer breeze
    • in a bracing blast of winter wind, and
    • in the destructive power of a cyclone

     

    As we baptise Alexis and Hudson this morning we celebrate the life force which hovered over the waters of creation at the beginning of time, and we open ourselves to the eternal power of God who can be gentle as a dove or fierce as a storm.

    We need to learn to live in sync with this spirit/storm, while Alexis and Hudson look to us to show them how to do that, how to bend with the wind that is God at work in our lives.

    And theirs.

    There is a beautiful hymn that draws all these threads together so very nicely, and since we are not singing it in this service let me read it to you now as we say YES to the wind that blows where it will and transforms all who it touches:

    She sits like a bird, brooding on the waters,
    hovering on the chaos of the world’s first day;
    she sighs and she sings, mothering creation,
    waiting to give birth to all the Word will say.

    She wings over earth, resting where she wishes,
    lighting close at hand or soaring through the skies;
    she nests in the womb, welcoming each wonder,
    nourishing potential hidden to our eyes.

    She dances in fire, startling her spectators,
    waking tongues of ecstasy where dumbness reigned;
    she weans and inspires all whose hearts are open,
    nor can she be captured, silenced or restrained,

    For she is the Spirit, one with God in essence,
    gifted by the Saviour in eternal love;
    she is the key opening the scriptures,
    enemy of apathy and heavenly dove.

    Enemy of Apathy
    John L. Bell (1949–) and Graham Maule (1958–)

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Life in all its abundance​ and diversity

    Christ Church Cathedral Grafton
    Creation Sunday 2: Fauna and Flora
    8 September 2019

    [ video ]

    creation-2-fauna-and-flora

    During this special series, the season of creation, throughout September we are exploring various aspects of the web of life; that complex and subtle web of relationships between all of us and all of existence.

    Last week we reflected on the oceans, that vast body of waters from which all life has emerged.

    This week, our focus moves to fauna and flora, the animal kingdom and world of plants found in all their abundant diversity across our glorious planet.

    In the ancient Hebrew poem which opens the Bible, we observe a symbolic symmetry between the creation of dry land, the sea and plants on day three, and the creation of animal life (including humans)—creatures who live on the dry land and eat the plants—on day six.

    All animals depend on plants, not least for the oxygen they generate. Sea creatures, birds, land creatures are all connected in the fragile web of life.

    The Bible encourages us to see all of this as God’s design.

    The Scriptures also affirm that this is all good. Every aspect of creation is assessed by God and pronounced to be good, while on Day Six we are told that God saw everything that s/he had made and “indeed it was very good”.

     

    Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds! (Psalm 148:100

    It is often easier for us to recognise our affinity with the animal kingdom.

    As sentient beings, we discern a kinship with the animals that is reinforced by our knowledge of evolution, by the study of our skeletal structures and—more recently—by DNA research.

    For many thousands of years, humans have shared our lives with some animals more than others: dogs, cats, horses, donkeys, camels, goats, sheep and cattle among many others.

    We have changed through this relationship and so have they.

    • Companion animals
    • Wild animals
    • Working animals
    • Production animals
    • Dangerous animals
    • Scary animals
    • Pests

    All creatures “great and small”

    The diversity of animal life is one of the great ecological assets of our world, and yet that diversity is threatened by our collective actions.

    A recent UN report advised that one billion species at risk of extinction.

    “Biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people are our common heritage and humanity’s most important life-supporting ‘safety net’. But our safety net is stretched almost to breaking point,” said Prof. Sandra Díaz (Argentina)

    According to the IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson:

    “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”

    The scientists tell us that it is not too late to turn things around, yet we may wonder what all this has to do with religion.

    In fact, for people of faith the future of the planet has everything to do with religion.

    It is not just we humans who are beloved by God and for whom God has a dream of a blessed future in perfect harmony and peace. That vision extends to all God’s creation: all the animals, all the plants, the earth itself and the oceans as well.

    When we understand our role in the scheme of things, we see ourselves stewards of creation.

    If we take our creation theology seriously then we must do all we can to save the planet from the catastrophe that is about to befall us.

     

    From grasslands to forests

    There is a similar diversity among the plants, but we tend not to relate to our plants in quite the same way we engage with at least some of the animals.

    They mostly seem not to be sentient beings, although some avid gardeners insist that their plants respond to more than light and water.

    From the beauty of a delicate new bud to the grandeur of a mighty rainforest, the plants evoke a response of awe, admiration, connection and presence.

    Some of them have a brief life cycle that makes us seem like the ancient of days, while others live for such a long period that we seem insignificant beside them.

    They feed us and they provide the oxygen we need to survive.

    Yet we have cut them down, cleared them from the land and set them ablaze … almost always in the search for commercial gain.

    We have sold our soul, and what have we achieved?

    As the ancient forests of the Amazon blaze with fire we are not just burning down the house, we are giving the animal kingdom a massive case of emphysema.

    We are destroying the living creatures who create and purify the air we need.

    There is no need to argue about original sin.

    Our latest sin is both foolish and self-evident.

     

    Consider the lilies

    Well might the sage of Nazareth urge us to consider the lilies, to reflect on the ravens … to look beyond our own insecurities and see the bigger picture.

    Do not be anxious, says Jesus.

    Your father knows what you need.

    Relax, focus on what really matters.

    Let God take care of those things we really do need.

    Focus our best energies on the things where we can make a difference.

     

    That is not permission to ignore climate change.

    But it is an invitation to stop and smell the roses, to see the staggering diversity of creation that we mostly rush past in our glass and steel cages, or with our faces turned to our smartphones.

     

    If Jesus were here today, perhaps he would revise those words from Luke?

    Maybe he would say, “There is a good kind of anxiety and a bad kind anxiety.”

    It is right to be anxious about creation, but it is wrong to be anxious about our accessories and our comfort.

    Actually, he did say that even in Luke:

    “Do not keep striving for what you are to eat … and wear;
    … instead, strive for God’s kingdom …”

    Or in even more direct terms:

    “Stop stressing about your first-world problems,
    and look at what is happening in the world around us!”

  • The web of life

    Christ Church Cathedral, Grafton
    First Sunday of Creation: Ocean
    1 September 2019

    [ video ]

    Broken Head Nature Reserve

    Season of Creation: Ocean Sunday

    Well, we have no shortage of themes to consider here this morning:

    • For starters, it’s Fathers’ Day (at least here in the southern hemisphere).
    • In addition, it is the first Sunday of the season of creation and a day when we celebrate the ocean (even though we are many kilometres from the sea).
    • It’s also a day when we will be baptising little Ruby and celebrating her presence among us and all that she is going to become in the wider world.
    • And it’s a day when the family of Jim Harper has gathered so that we can lay his ashes to rest in the memorial garden beside the cathedral.

    Yes, we pretty well have it all today — without even thinking about the topics to be covered in the dean’s forum at 11 AM.

    I want to keep our primary focus on Ocean Sunday but weave into that line of thought various other connections as we go along. So buckle your belts and get ready for the ride.

     

    Season of Creation

    The season of creation is a recent ecumenical and international initiative. It reflects a growing awareness of the ecological dimensions of our faith and also of the religious dimensions of the earth, and our deepest character as Earthlings.

    For those of us in the southern hemisphere, one happy outcome from this initiative is that for once in the year what we’re doing inside the church with our liturgies reflects what is happening outside the church in nature.

    For most of the year our liturgical cycle is based upon the northern calendar, but for the next few weeks what we’re doing inside church reflects what is happening outside in the garden as new life breaks through the soil, plants blossom and many creatures welcome their new offspring.

    Of course, the choice of dates for the season of creation was not made for the benefit of Aussies, Argentinians, Kiwis, or South Africans. Rather, the timing of the season is based on the annual celebration of St Francis of Assisi on October 4. We simply work back the four or five Sundays during September to carve out this special opportunity to celebrate and to reflect upon our place within the web of life.

     

    The web of life

    We are becoming more familiar with the concept of the web of life.

    This idea has deep theological and philosophical roots, and these have recently been validated and extended by scientific discoveries relating to DNA more generally and the human genome in particular.

    We now have a whole new appreciation of our deep connection with other people as well as with all of the life forms on this fragile planet.

    This sense of deep unity with one another and with all creation is something that we celebrate in the Holy Communion liturgy each and every time that we gather around the Table of Jesus.

     

    Ocean Sunday

    On this first Sunday of Creation we pause and reflect on the ocean, where all life began. We appreciate our intimate connection with oceans, seas, lake and rivers. And we reflect that our own lives took form in the secret ocean of our mother’s uterus. Before the waters broke.

    When we stand on the seashore and watch the immense ocean flowing up to our feet, we are in a sacred space; just as when we hold a new-born baby in our arms. On the edge of mystery. On the edge of the deep.

    For those of us who are fathers, we are conscious of being in a line that stretches back into the distant past and beyond us into our children and their children.

    Our fathers and grandfathers held us in their arms as our life began, and we gently place their remains in the ground after their lives have ended.

    The web of life. We are all connected. We are all one.

    All this and more is swirling around us today as we celebrate Ocean Sunday.

    But our Bible readings this morning nudge us to engage with these dynamics in some different and particular ways. Let’s turn to them now.

     

    Job 38

    The first reading this morning was from the book of Job, one of the classic texts of western civilisation.

    As the story goes, for more than 30 consecutive chapters (chs 3–37) in that book, God has been listening to Job’s complaint. Life is unfair. He has been treated badly. Job is the ultimate good person to whom really bad things have happened. He wants to ‘shirt front’ God. He has had enough.

    Starting with the passage we heard just now, God ‘spits the dummy’. God, for her part, has had enough of Job’s complaints. Enough already! Halaas!

    Note the opening lines from chapter 38 as God calls Job into the conversation which he has been demanding the right to have:

    Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.” (Job 38:1–3 NRSV)

     

    Ouch!

    This does not sound like a gentle conversation, and indeed that it how it unfolds …

    “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?

    “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?— when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?

    “Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.” (Job 38:4–5, 8–11, 16–18 NRSV)

     

    In the ancient text Job remains silent in the face of this divine barrage, but on this Ocean Sunday I suggest we can actually be bold enough to answer God: “Yes, we were and yes, we are!”

    In saying that we are not speaking as particular individuals born in the very recent past.

    But when we understand who we truly are—beings comprised of ancient atoms from the stardust of the big bang at the beginning of time— then we can claim our true identity and respond to God, “Yes, we were there and yes, we are able to plumb the depths of the sea. She is our mother.”

    At the risk of a bad pun, on Ocean Sunday we appreciate the depths of our own existence.

    We—that is, the universe finding its voice in us so late in time—we are 15 billion years old. We come from the first nano-seconds of the cosmos. We were conceived in the oceans. We are not just Earthlings, we are also sea creatures.

    So today—as we baptise Ruby, and as we, celebrate fathers, and as we inter Jim’s ashes—we remember our deep and ancient roots. We appreciate our true selves, and we celebrate the amazing web of life of which we are integral parts.

     

    Luke 5

    Our Gospel reading was—most appropriately—a fishing story. A story set on the lake. A story that celebrates a deep intuitive knowledge of the ways of the sea.

    But this reading is very different from Job.

    God in the person of Jesus asks a very different question. Jesus is not asking, “Were you there?” rather, Jesus is asking, “Will come with me into the future?”

    Will you trust my guidance and let down your nets into deep?

    And that, of course, is the challenge.

    We have some idea of where we have come from, but we have little idea of the future.

    We had no choice about arriving here, but the future is ours to choose.

    As we baptise Ruby this morning we are making a choice to let Jesus guide us into that future which is known only to God, and we are promising to teach her how to live that way as well.

    Let down your nets … the future calls us on this Ocean Sunday.