Last Sunday after Easter - otherwise known as Whitsunday- Br Andrew

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

  Franciscan Order Homily preached by Br. Andrew at Springwood on Sunday 24th May 2015:

  

 

 

 

Last Sunday after Easter, Pentecost otherwise known as Whitsunday, also Shavuot

Readings Acts 2:1-21, Romans 8:22-27, John15:26-27-16:1 -16,

John 16:16 ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.’

Today is the last Sunday of Easter, also called Whitsunday, a feast of the universal Church dating from the first century. Whitsunday is so called from the white garments which were worn by those who were baptised during the vigil; Pentecost, ("Pfingsten" in German), is the Greek for "the fiftieth" (day after Easter).  We read in the seventh of the (interpolated) fragments attributed to St. Irenæus that Whitsunday was celebrated during apostolic times.

Pentecost is the Greek word for Shavuot and commemorates the anniversary of the day God handed the Torah to the nation of Israel assembled at Sinai.

This year Passover fell on Good Friday and the omer began to be counted on Easter Sunday, the 16^th of Nissan, hence Shavuot coincides with Whitsunday/ Christian Pentecost.

Shavuot is understood to express anticipation and desire for the giving of the Torah.

So it was that the Apostles and the other 108 waited in anticipation and desire for what Jesus had promised them. Jesus was the fulfilment of the Law, and he had gone to the Father so that He, Jesus could send another Advocate to them.

Things were never ever going to be the same again as that rushing wind and tongues of fire augured. The Holy Spirit filled that house much I imagine like a moderate cyclone in my hometown might have done had we given it half a chance, the flaming tongue reversed the confusion of Babel so that everyone present in Jerusalem that day received witness by the disciples in their own languages. Look who was there! People from Northeast Iran, from the entire Arabian Peninsula, Syria, Armenia, Iraq, those from the future Byzantine Empire i.e. many of the Cities and provinces to whom Paul later wrote; Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts, and some from the Isle of Crete. On this very day 3000 were added to their ranks and naturally, after being strengthened in the Spirit and the Gospel, those who didn’t live in Jerusalem took the Good News back to those places I have just mentioned.

What kept the Apostles here, partly the importance of Shavuot more importantly to see the fulfilment of Jesus’ words to them to stay there in the city until they had been clothed with power from on high.’ but not until Jesus had felt that the appointed time for higher teachings had come did they begin to understand they had a higher purpose. But not the Apostles only, 108 other believers were there awaiting the Advocate.

Jesus was leaving them, the Advocate was coming, Jesus would send this One once he was with the Father, and because he was going to the Father they would see Him no longer – and yet in a little while they would see Him????

When the Spirit came they would see Jesus again!

John’s Gospel is more mysterious and enigmatic than the synoptics – the other three, in John’s Gospel it almost seems as though Jesus spoke in higher parables to his disciples and without a written explanation. Yet in the part of that Gospel we didn’t read today Jesus admits to having spoken to them in riddles with the promise to speak plainly so that they will understand. Thank heavens He did because now, so do we.

Jesus must leave before the Spirit could come into this world when there will be a unified oneness (Hebrew “hen” Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29) between these three Persons in the One God, such as if Jesus had never gone away at all. This is what Jesus prayed to his father “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” John 17:21b NRSV

Again – it is the Spirit which brings every Christian into this unified oneness, in the body of Christ this “hen”.  

That same spirit, that Holy Spirit the  Ruacḥ Haqodesh comes upon believers today to fill us with all power, if we will claim this power and use whatever gifts we are given, of Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Courage, Knowledge, Reverence, Fear of the Lord ( Wonder and Awe).

Our reading in Romans tells us that the non- human, even the non-sentient world is eagerly waiting for Humanity to come of age and to achieve our mission to raise the earth to its former glory as it was before the Fall. To come of age – to grasp with both hands the unified oneness that is ours for the taking and to redeem the face of this earth.

We are called to be like God and through the hen, of the Body of Christ, to be in Him as He is in us. And to draw strength from each other to carry out the great Commission.

The ruler of this world has already been judged we just need to keep on to renew the fractured church and our environment over-exposed to the excess and greed of God’s weakest creatures.

Let’s see whether each one of us can find one thing to do this week to help this process move along.

Even when we do not know how or what to pray for God invokes our prayers through Unified Oneness with the Spirit who then prays for us.( Romans 8:27 NRSV)

Br Andrew

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER. YR B.-br. Simeon

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Homily preached by Br. Simeon at Blaxland on Sunday 12th April 2015:

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER. YR B.

Gospel: John 20:19-31

"Unless I see - I will not believe"

May I speak in the Name of the One God, +Father, +Son and +Holy Spirit. Amen

God’s story is our story. We have been blessed with the Bible, God’s story of his interaction with his beloved creation. The stories we read in the gospels are our story. In Holy Week we tried to step into God’s story as we looked at the stories of some of the lesser characters in Mark’s gospel. Now we have come to the Easter season and we walk in the most astonishing and delightful part of the story of God’s dealings with his people. So let us again seek to step into this story.

There must be something confronting about facing a friend scarred with the marks of crucifixion. Such a confrontation would be only a fraction of what these disciples are facing. And even more so when Jesus appears to them in person, alive and very much real!

The Risen Lord Jesus revealed the glory of his resurrection to his disciples gradually and over a period of time. Even after the apostles saw the empty tomb and heard the reports of Jesus' appearance to the women, they were still weak in faith and fearful of being arrested by the Jewish authorities. When Jesus appeared to them he offered proofs of his resurrection by showing them the wounds of his passion, his pierced hands and side. He calmed their fears and brought them peace, the peace which reconciles sinners and makes us friends of God.

Jesus did something which only love and trust can do. He commissioned his weak and timid apostles to bring the good news of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. This sending out of the disciples is parallel to the sending out of Jesus by his heavenly Father. Jesus fulfilled his mission through his perfect love and obedience to the will of his Father. He called his first disciples and he now calls each one of us to do the same. Just as he gave his first disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit, so he breathes on each of us the same Holy Spirit who equips us with new life, power, joy, and courage to live each day as followers of the Risen Lord.

The last apostle to meet the resurrected Lord was the first to go with him to Jerusalem at Passover time. The apostle Thomas was a natural pessimist. When Jesus proposed that they visit Lazarus after receiving news of his illness, Thomas said to the disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). While Thomas deeply loved the Lord, he lacked the courage to stand with Jesus in his passion and crucifixion.

After Jesus' death, Thomas made the mistake of withdrawing from the other apostles. He sought loneliness rather than fellowship in his time of trial and adversity. He doubted the women who saw the resurrected Jesus and he doubted his own fellow apostles.

When Thomas finally had the courage to re-join the other apostles, Jesus made his presence known to him and reassured him that he had indeed overcome death and risen again. When Thomas recognised his Master, he believed and exclaimed that Jesus was truly Lord and truly God! Through the gift of faith we, too, proclaim that Jesus is our personal Lord and our God. He died and rose that we, too, might have new life in him. The Lord offers each of us new life in his Holy Spirit that we may know him personally and walk in this new way of life through the power of his resurrection.

As we prepare to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, a question I leave with you to ponder in your hearts as you prepare to come and 'eat his flesh', and 'drink his blood', do you believe in the good news of the Gospel and in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring you new life, hope, and joy, today, and throughout your life's journey?

Amen.

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, year B-Br Luke

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Homily preached by Br. Luke at Blaxland on Sunday 8th February 2015: 

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, year B

Readings:

Isaiah 40:21-31; Psalm 147:1-11; I Corinthians 9:16-23; Mark 1:29-39

" As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them."(Mark 1:29-31 NRSV)

And then they came from everywhere to be healed by him

Jesus cured many people of various diseases and cast out many daemons, and remember what we said at Bible Study last Thursday about Jesus silencing the daemons, he silenced them and cast them out. Mark says again “He would not permit the daemons to speak” and every time he cast a daemon out, he said to the daemon “be quiet, and go! He always said that, when the daemons spoke, he would not let them say who he was, people might think – well, why won't he let them speak? Was he frightened of them, no of course not, what he doesn't want is for them to start telling people who he is because at this point in time he is beginning his ministry and later on he doesn't want the events that unfold to be brought forth more quickly, which is obviously what Satan wants, so they cannot interfere and disrupt his plans, his mission, so he said ‘be silent’! And when God says ‘be silent!’ what do you do? Be Silent.

I won’t speak about Isaiah, this morning because we will do that along with the Psalm at our Parish Bible Study on Thursday.

(Holy Redeemer Christian Community does Bible Study by Skype at 7.30pm AEST each Thursday)

I am going to go to someone many people don't like very much– our friend Paul

“If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe betide me if I do not proclaim the gospel!

What is he saying? It’s no good me going look at me aren't I wonderful I’m proclaiming the gospel! No! Just because he does it doesn’t mean he can boast about it, and say how good I am. You can't puff yourself up and make yourself important:

‘I am such a good Christian for preaching the gospel’- because you have an obligation to do that as a Christian- so you can't run around saying ‘I’m such a good Christian, look at me I'm preaching the gospel’. No, being a Christian is about doing.

We have the obligation to preach the gospel, St Francis of Assisi said how do you proclaim the gospel, you can do it in the way you live, you don’t necessarily have to use words, he didn't actually say it in those words, did he Andrew?

The intention behind whatever the words he did say was– “Preach everywhere, if necessary use words” In other words what Paul said is that ‘I have an obligation on me to proclaim the gospel’ so I am doing it. If I do it for my own will I have a reward, but it is not for his own will because he had been subject to the commission. He is following the command given to him by Christ. 

Later in the gospel, in what comes to be known as the Great Commission Jesus says to the disciples go out and make converts of the whole world In other words go out there and spread the Message, spread the Good News, and we all know what the Good News is, the message of the gospel in its fundamental form, God is Love, as John said in his Gospel, he couldn't have made it any plainer, God is Love! 

The whole message of the Christian Gospel is Love and Reconciliation to God.

We are reconciled back to God through the action of Christ.

Paul then says this really complicated thing:

“To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law.” [1 Corinthians 9:20b NRSV]

He is not under the Law! What is he talking about? He has these lovely convoluted arguments, he does that all the time, what he is simply saying is that he is not under the Law, but what law is he referring to here? He is referring to the Mosaic Law, he is referring to the Jewish Law, he is not under the Jewish Law anymore he is not under the Mosaic Law, why not?  Because he is under the Law of Christ and we know that the church in Jerusalem decided that Christians were not bound to follow the Mosaic Law, which is why many Christians are not circumcised.

If we had to follow the Law of Moses every Christian male would be have to be circumcised; because we do not follow the Jewish Law there is no obligation on us to be circumcised which is one of the things discussed by the church in Jerusalem where it was decided that Christians were not bound by the Mosaic Law.

I am not under the Law but for those Jews who are under the Law I will act as though I am under the Law  so that I don’t frighten them, don’t scare them away and I can convert them to the Message of Christ by them understanding that I understand the message of the Law. Which is why he said “To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some 

(1 Corinthians 9:22 NRSV)

In other words Paul is saying he will do anything that is required for him to preach the gospel to convert people to the Faith; what is conversion to the Faith? Bringing them the knowledge of God’s love and the gift of Reconciliation… So it is not really that complicated when you start to unpick him; and you don’t worry about he argues this and then he argues that etc. that is his rhetorician style, the way he was taught to argue.

I want to go back briefly to Mark and then we will stop.

All night Jesus had been healing and casting out daemons so he must have been somewhat tired, I know I would be very tired, wouldn't you?  

”In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” (Mark 1:35 NRSV)

Now that is the other pattern that Jesus followed, you remember that on many, many, occasions after Jesus had preached, after he had done a lot of work like this he retreated to a cave, to a mountain top, a deserted place to a boat to wherever and he prayed. Going to reconnect himself with the Divine, to recharge his batteries, as it were… not that he needs to from the divine perspective but in his humanity, his human body he did. That’s why we find that in the early church the earliest monks went to the desert, we now call them the Desert Mothers and Fathers, they went and they lived, literally, in the desert but they didn't live in Monasteries’ as we know them they lived very much like the Carthusians do, they each had their own cell and came together for meetings. 

That is the pattern of the Desert Mothers and Fathers:-the very earliest type of religious communities would go to the desert, mimicking what Jesus did, he had gone into the desert, stayed in the desert prayed in the desert, where it is different is that the monks and the nuns don’t come back, once they had gone into the monastery in the desert they didn’t come back out again. We Franciscans do come back.

And then Simon Peter says we’ve been looking for you, where have you been, everyone’s gone, what have you been doing? 

Jesus says come on let’s go to the next town, he doesn't even answer them, he doesn't say, “Well this is what I have been doing” …My job is to preach the gospel, proclaim the message, to visit the Synagogues and cast out daemons, come on, let’s go, and off he goes and on to the next town.

Paul is mimicking Jesus, isn't he? Preach Convert, next town. Preach Convert, next town.

I am often asked what is the difference between a friar and a monk. It is Very simple a monk takes a vow of stability and obedience to a Community, the same for a nun, and goes to the Community and lives there and doesn't leave. They go to that Monastery, wherever that might be and that is where they spend the rest of their life. They may move occasionally from monastery to monastery or from place to place but by and large it is to the one Community and one Monastery and that is where they stay.

Dominicans and Franciscans are called Friars and that is because they are mendicants and what we mean by mendicants is that the vows we take are to the Order and so we can be sent anywhere in order to do the Work of the Order, so in some ways a friar is more like Paul who goes from town to town and place to place preaching, converting, next town and so on and so forth and that’s what Francis wanted brothers, who were out and about.(Sisters couldn't go out in those days, for their own protection they had to remain in the monastery otherwise they would be raped and all sorts of things, so they remained inside and are Enclosed Orders.) The Brothers were out and about because that was what Francis wanted.

Francis was following Paul, who Paul was following? Jesus, who was Francis Following? Jesus.

Recorded and transcribed by Br Andrew