Mystery - Miracles or Magic!

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,

either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year B: 

Mystery - Miracles or Magic! 

This week, we leave the Year B Gospel of Mark and read chapter 6 from the Gospel of John for the next five Sundays. Reading this passage all on its own (John 6:1-15), we could miss the major themes in the Gospel of John, and we might wonder why John places this story, which is told in all four Gospels, where it is. In this account there is compassion and communion, but there is so much more. While Jesus' heart is touched by the hunger of the "large crowd", John is teaching us about the power of God in Jesus, about who Jesus is. We learn about who Jesus is by what he does - as actions speak louder than words. The words Jesus said, connect to the actions Jesus did. We have the down-to-earth disciples, overwhelmed by the "large crowd", trying to work out the cost of feeding so many people. "It's Impossible!" they say, but all things are possible with God. This story is about the power of God in Jesus, and about Jesus' compassion for the large hungry crowd. God's power is "far more than all we can ask for or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20b). If the disciples had remembered the story of how the prophet Elisha (found in 2 Kings 4:42-46

- the first lectionary reading) fed a 100 people from "twenty barley loaves" then they might have had greater trust in Jesus - who is the very presence of God. If we can receive this faith story - Jesus' fourth 'sign' - with the eyes of faith, then we can grow in our ability to trust God in mist of the most seemingly difficult situations of life. 

The people who are with Jesus are a people longing and hungry for freedom from the Roman empire that oppresses them. This need leads them to project on to Jesus an easy short-sighted answer to their need. It's certainly understandable, and only human, that they would see Jesus as a miracle-worker and potential king. Even the desire for a king (never God's desire), however, is too small a dream and falls far short of God's dream for the people. Jesus wants to give us what we don't even realise we need; he knows what we need, deep down in our innermost, authentic human selves. Why do we ask for too little, when God can and would give us so much more? Can we see beyond our immediate wants and expectations? How else will we begin to see where God is leading us? 

How do you explain a miracle? The feeding of the five thousand recounts a great wonder that Jesus worked. Many have tried to explain this miracle in rational terms. The most common "rational" explanation of the feeding of the five thousand is that it was an act of generosity. They say the charismatic Jesus inspired many in the large crowd to share them with others there provisions. I strongly object to such a modern reading that misses the point that John is making about God at work in our midst, God's power to completely transform human expectations. However I believe, we're focusing on the wrong thing when we concentrate on explaining the miracle of multiplying the barley loaves and fish, when the more remarkable miracle is the hope that Jesus inspired in the masses who followed him. Jesus' powerful presence and deep compassion for their suffering and need might explain the ability of ordinary, insecure and fearful people to follow him to a deserted place. The scientific arrogant scepticism of our time seeks to provide rational explanations for everything and loses the capacity to wonder at the extraordinary within the ordinary of our everyday lives.

The definition of miracles that we are using here is not just the literal miracle of whether or not the person with a disease is healed. Rather it is about the more ordinary moments, when the power of God’s love and grace overwhelms our sensibilities. It is about see our faith communities becoming immersed in God’s healing love and goodness. A miracle may simply be that people believe that God’s grace has been unleashed. When we do something ordinary, God takes that ordinary act - like offering 5 barley loves and 2 dried fish - and creates something incredible. It seems that we limit the concept of miracle only to physical healing and discount the moral miracles of unity. We still have to be honest about the despair, brokenness and decline that is happening in our church situations but we can’t allow ourselves to believe the statistics that bring despair have the last word. We are called to be a people of hope, who declare by word and example that God is still about God transforming lives. This story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and our stories of change and transformation as individuals and communities have amazing miracle power if they are told and heard and believed. Our stories have to touch the heartstrings in order to inspire change. The God who spoke to Moses and the prophets - still speaks, the God who protected his people and fought their battles - is still at work, the God who feeds the poor who are hungry and thirsty - is still doing so. This is the reality in which we scripture-formed believers 'live and move and have our being'. Each time we do what we thought we could not do, each time a faith-community lives in loving faith unity despite differences, God has been at work. When we recognise God's presence - this is a miracle. Our gift of faith takes us beyond appearances.


What are our expectations for our own church community? What hope do we have in spite of perceived falling attendance? Do we worry about whether we are being true to the gospel, speaking courageously, and acting boldly on behalf of all those who suffer, or are we worried about whether our church will be able to pay its bills? This is a pressing question and we can be tempted to concentrate on survival and maintenance which can distract us from our true mission. We want our church to survive so that it can preach the gospel, minister to the suffering and speak a prophetic word in a world that has little compassion and caught up in self interest. As gospel inspired people, we are challenged to focus not just on the "reasonable," not just on "basic needs," but on "multiplying resources," so that we might experience "a revelation of amazing grace." The words grace, and amazing, belong in any discussion of miracles and wonders. Have you ever witnessed such sharing, such wonders, such grace? Generosity itself is a miracle to me, and it expresses a God given power to completely transform lives. And I don't mean the lives of those who receive as much as the lives of those who give.


 Speaking of those who give: the disciples of Jesus were overwhelmed by the need before them. They did not it seems feel a responsibility to meet the large crowds need, so Jesus raises their awareness. They try to assess the situation, measure their resources, and figure out a solution, but they are powerless in the face of so many hungry people. John draws a contrast between the power of God that was about to burst forth and the power that we think we have today: the power of knowledge. John observes that "knowledge as power," is the opposite to "love's knowledge" which can take what appears to be little and indeed multiply it. It is "loves knowledge" that enables an individual and a community to recognise the power and presence of God in a given situation. God responding to our prayers for the world's needs with the question, "What do you have?" Think of the abundance many of us enjoy, even in the midst of economically challenging times. I often feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of problems and the needs of the world. And yet, what would happen if we trusted in the power of God to multiply in amazing ways the resources we have, and what would happen if we saw this as a communal question? Perhaps our sense of community has been lost in an over-emphasis on the individual. This miracle shows us that there is always enough for all, with plenty left over, "twelve baskets." 

John's Gospel is the one that does not have an account of the Eucharistic meal in the upper room, so this story is John's equivalent of 'the last supper.'" What follows the sharing of loaves is important, because John, unlike the other Gospel writers, draws political meaning when the people start talking about Jesus as their new king. Jesus first performs a "sign," and then will discusses it with those who witness it and then uses it as a teaching moment with his followers as he interprets its meaning. That is John's approach to teaching us about the power of God, and about who this Jesus really is - not a magician but a visible expression of the living God - the same yesterday, today and forever. This story connects us with the celebration of the Eucharist. It reminds me that Jesus does not command his disciples to exclude the divorced and remarried, the pickpockets, the spies from the Temple, the merely curious, or the hangers-on, or those who don't know their catechism, or even those who are unsure about their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Jesus simply responds to human need, as he so often does, above all other considerations. How well does this mirror our celebration of Eucharist sacrament today? It seems that the church wants to protect Jesus-Eucharist from the defiled (sinners) and only let those who are worthy to be fed. The crowds came out from their homes, their towns, seeking something from Jesus. What are we as part of the "large crowd" seeking for today? C.S. Lewis, the 20th century English theologian reflects; "Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see." As we come with our hunger and thirst for love to the Eucharistic table, will we sense a miracle? Will we with faith based on "love knowledge" be able to see the "sign" Jesus works?

Australia Day 2014 - Br. Andrew EFO

St- Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Holy Redeemer

In the care of the Ecumenical Franciscan Order

Homily, 26th January 2014 Australia Day

 Rev Br. Andrew EFO

Gospel  Matthew 5:1-12

Today, is Australia Day, we remember the arrival of the First fleet, of 11 ships, into its anchorage in Sydney Cove, 1373 passengers and crew, in all, including its cargo of 717 convicts.

This day has been known by other names, one such is “Invasion Day”.

Jessica and I never tire of visiting the Botanic Gardens in Sydney and often walk the Gadigal walk where the history of the Invasion is told in panoramic photographs; the history of European attempts to convert the Aboriginal People to Christianity is among them. “A miniature Farm Cove” has examples of garden beds explaining why initial attempts to grow European vegetable stock failed, and strange looking Scare crows keep vigil.

It depends upon, whether we are “arriving” or “greeting” as to whether we are receiving a Promise or the beginning of a nightmare.

·     God promises good things to people, to us, to Abraham, to Moses and the people of Israel.

·      Promises come with the responsibility of obedience

·       

     When we keep our promises what we read in the Beatitudes is God’s reward to us.

For the majority of those first settlers there was the promise and hope of a brand new life of new opportunities, for the Aborigines who greeted them, it wasn’t an opportunity (irony) they expected to receive.

Abraham’s tremendous faith had led him and his wife Sarah away from their home land to travel towards another land which was to be their inheritance, God tested Abraham’s faith many times along the way and as the human being he was he eventually came to believe that God could keep all the promises he made.

Abraham’s true hope was for the Heavenly City not made with human hands for he knew that he was but a pilgrim on this earth.

Some 1500+ years later, about 1456 BC they believe, Moses and the Israelites are at Moab, the area where the Jordan flows into the Dead Sea, waiting to conquer the Land promised to them in the Abrahamic Covenant. They will spend the duration of the book of Deuteronomy here, in this place learning the law and constantly being reminded of the “rest” to come, the root-less and homeless delivered from their bondage in Egypt into security and rest in Canaan.

Their charge upon entering the Land was to keep God’s Commandments in deed and in word and to live in Awe of God to bless God for what the land produced for them to eat and beware in case they forgot God!

Glossing right over - We know they got lost and misled themselves, to put it nicely. Lost their wonder for God, took his gifts for granted and were very extremely loose in their interpretation of his commandments. Eventually they would be led away by the workers of iniquity and never did live to receive the heavenly rewards promised to those who are faithful to God – because they attempted to instate apartheid in the Land

With regard for ourselves and the history of the conquest of this land of our adoption many kind and terrible things were done in its taking. Moving forward, because today is a new day and tomorrow has not yet come, we can live the right way, by keeping the two great commandments of the sum of the Law and the prophets, to "Love the Lord  God  with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, and our neighbours as ourselves" and to do so by our deeds.

What we do or did is or was remembered far more easily than the things we may or may not have said.

Like Abraham, we also know that we are strangers and sojourners in a strange land because our true home is the kingdom of heaven and our true reward are the fulfilment of our various needs to complete our personhood as listed in the beatitudes. Each beatitude pairs a value with a promise.

Let’s read them antiphonally, I’ll read the value or trait while you read the promise.

Becoming the complete human being in the kingdom of heaven was available to those in the time of Moses even as today or tomorrow.

And when bad things happen to us in the course of our service trust and know that God always keeps his promises.

Here in the Community of the holy-Redeemer we have begun our journey to meet the living Christ in one another.. To set aside our human constructs and rules about religion and to worship God from our hearts and souls.

• ·        Let us be obedient to the workings of the spirit within the community
• ·        Fulfil our promises to that Spirit
• ·        And so become more fully human in Jesus Christ our Lord

Amen

Baptism of the Lord - 2nd sunday after Epiphany-Br Andrew

St- Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Holy Redeemer

In the care of the Ecumenical Franciscan Order

Homily, 12th January 2014 First Sunday after Epiphany

The Baptism of the Lord Year A, Rev Br. Andrew EFO

 Matthew 3:13-17

Jessica, on more than one occasion has told me the story of her grandfather taking a shower. In his old age he was a wily old man and didn’t often do what he didn’t want to do.

They would send him into the shower and hear the water running and after a suitable interval he would reappear dressed in his PJ’s ready for bed. Yet not really as freshly clean as one would hope after showering.

So one day you know who peered through the key hole to see good old granddad running the shower and standing safely out of the way of the water.

Henceforth he had to be supervised!

Though we find the record of the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan in each of the Gospels, each are recorded differently according to the congregation to which they were addressed.

Matthew’s Gospel was addressed to a Congregation caught in the confusion of post Jerusalem Judaism, a group of Jewish Christians, in Northern Galilee or Syria who were feeling the oppression of the new Judaism controlled by the Rabbinic Pharisees.

Mostly Greek speaking Jewish Christians (it has been noted that Matthew quotes the Septuagint) with perhaps a few Syrian Christians, Matthew is at pains to place his community squarely within its Jewish heritage, everything he writes is to that end. Matthew is determined to obliterate the confusion generated by the cruel and overbearing Pharisees and their manner of keeping Torah and replace it with the softer middle road of Jesus, who came not to do away with the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil them.

Matthew wanted to show them that Jesus is one of THEM!

In spite of what mainstream Church tells small communities like us; Jesus is one of US too!

This is the first time we meet the adult Jesus and he came, just as every penitent did, to the Jordan to be baptised by John for the remission of sins. Both Matthew and Mark indicate that Jesus came down from Galilee to be baptised, we might assume then, that many would recognise him as Joseph and Mary’s son and think nothing other than that he was joining them in turning his life around in preparation for the coming of the Messiah.

Some, or many, would know him as John’s cousin – Jesus wasn’t the total stranger he is sometimes made out to be. John certainly recognised Jesus as you would hope he would, he also knew who Jesus was and tried to change his mind.

“But John would have hindered him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” (3:13, 14. WEB)

Listen to what Jesus says to John “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfil all righteousness.” V 15

So what does it mean to fulfil all righteousness and in the context of Matthew’s Community? In the context of our Community?

The Jewish Christians in Matthews Community were very familiar with the concept of the liturgical use of water as in Ezekiel 36:25 where God says “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.” In 2 Kings 5 we read of the use of total immersion in water to cure Naaman’s Leprosy so Matthew’s Jewish Christians understood the Baptism of John to bring both Spiritual and bodily healing.

Jesus, the Messiah of God began his ministry in the same manner as they began their lives as Christians through the waters of Baptism, in his case they were the waters of that change of heart which, for us, precedes the Baptism of Jesus that, for those early Christians, was yet to come.

Through the fulfilling of righteousness Jesus is acclaimed by his Father in Heaven and anointed by the Holy Spirit and proclaimed the beloved Son of God in whom God is most pleased.

In our context the fulfilling of Righteousness, is I believe to make Jesus known again as he really is someone who knew life as a human being, began life just as we did and lived his life for others, and ultimately died for them.

Unafraid of the injustices within society and the church we try to each of our ability to make Him alive and truly human once more, so that we might then show that he is also the beloved Son of God in whom God is well pleased.

One Body One Lord of All

St- Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Holy Redeemer

An ECCA Parish

In the care of the Ecumenical Franciscan Order

Homily, 19th January 2014 Second Sunday after Epiphany

Br. Andrew EFO

John 1:29-42

Jesus returns to the Jordan

It was just last week that we heard in Matthew’s gospel how Jesus came to the river Jordan to be baptised; how reluctant John was to baptize him; how the heavens opened and John saw the Spirit descend upon Jesus and remain upon him.

Another visit to the river Jordan introduces us to three of Jesus’ early disciples, including the Author of this Gospel and from the Reading from Isaiah and Psalm 40 we understand who this Jesus is that is the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world.

Who is this Jesus?

Isaiah 49-

• He is one called from the womb, whose name was given in his mother’s womb.
• · His mouth is like a sharp sword dividing the marrow from the bone-
• · He is a sharpened arrow close in the quiver and is held safe in the palm of God’s hand.
• ·In the Lord’s eyes He is honourable and is called to gather the remnant of Jacob and the preserved of Israel, to be a light to the nations, that he may be the Salvation of the Lord to the end of the earth.

Why did he come?

To die for the individual and all Nations

Psalm 40, written by king David is one of the Messianic Psalms we Christians associate with the both the triumph and the suffering of Jesus, St Francis makes use of it in the Psalm he wrote for Compline of Maunday Thursday.

And so let it speak:
11 b Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, LORD. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.

12 For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me.

13 Be pleased, LORD, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, LORD.

14 Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. (Psalm 40:11b-14 WEB)

Where do you live? Come and see!

At this the two leave the Baptizer to follow Jesus, they want to know where he lives.

Andrew, however is not ready just to come and see until he has gone to fetch his brother Simon to tell him that they had found the Messiah. As soon as Jesus sets eyes on Simon he says your name is Simon son of Jonah and you shall be called Peter or Cephas which means Rock.

As we journey through the life of Jesus we will come to realise that Jesus changes the names of those whom he has destined to do great or special things. Andrew, Peter and the other disciple stayed with Jesus until the 10^th hour, about 4.00pm. Then they left and the next day Jesus will go to find Phillip.

As we now know Peter was the rock upon which Jesus established the Church, so solidly that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. In these rocky times when so many of us have had to leave the mainstream Church to find succour in smaller Congregations  it is important to mark the experiences of the early church communities for now we are returned to be like them and.

Some twenty or so years after Jesus returned to heaven Paul is writing to the Corinthian Church who await Jesus return to earth, the subject is sectarianism, already the Church is beginning to fracture as groups rise up in favour of the human being who baptised them rather than to the one in whose name they were baptized.

In this new Community of Christ the Redeemer, a non-denominational Christian community seeking to have the courage to open the door to everyone and nurture the belief of everyone to seek the Jesus who was, whom we, too may come and see.

Br Andrew