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

Easter 6B: Not A Suggestion but A Loving Command.

“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

Not A Suggestion but A Loving Command.

We are getting close to the end of the Easter season. Soon we will celebrate the disciples receiving of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and their being sent out to preach what they experienced and learned from the Risen Lord. If they were asked to sum up what their experience with Jesus was, what would they say? I am sure they would respond by saying: 'in the end, HIS LOVE triumphed'. Sin and death and brutal powers did their best to Jesus, but his love both human and divine was the winner. That realization would enable the disciples to say that even though death and sin seem to have the last word in our world, but because of Jesus' victory, love will triumph. It feels at times that good and evil are battling it out. How can the forces of love win out over so many destructive brutal displays of sin in the world? Still, God's love for us, shown in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, has won the victory over sin and death.

In the gospel reading of John (15:9-17) we find a summary of what has been given to us as disciples of Christ. It also holds a promise we can trust while we wait love's final victory. The love Jesus had for those he calls "friends," moved him to lay "down his life" for us. He remind us that; "You did not choose me, no, I chose you." He freely "chose" us, and gave us concrete signs of his love. That love has the power to transform our lives and then, through us, the life of the world. Robin Maas in her book Crucified Love, offers a wonderful insight: “Few, if any of us, will be called to martyrdom; but all of us are called to a series of little deaths in the form of invitations to restrain or deny self….The sending of God by God was the sending of Love – a crucified Love willing to lay down its life for friends and enemies alike. Your mission and mine – which we can only perform insofar as we are in communion with God and with one another – is to submit, out of love for one another, to countless, daily ‘little deaths’ until we have yielded every least and last remnant of self to the purpose of Christ.” (pages 98, 121)

Jesus is saying, 'I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another' (15:17). The Beatles sing the song, "All You Need Is Love" and many who hear it will hear different messages. It is true that all we need is love - but who's love? and what love? When we get past all the sentimental feeling and greeting card sweetness we have the teaching of Jesus. All you need is love is true - his type of love. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (15:12) As I have loved you??? No one has greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (15:13). Oh! Yes!!! That type of love. John reminds us that the kind of love Christians are called to embody takes a particular, cruciform shape. We hear this truth in Jesus' words, "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love."(15:9) The experience of Christ's love for us makes it possible for us to love others, even our enemies. The phrase "... as I have loved you ..." refers not only to his gentle generous giving but also to his willingness to bravely lay down his life by suffering for others. The first letter from John (4:7-10), our second reading, announces a similar truth. "Let us love one another, since love comes from God." We can love one another because God's love is at work in us transforming our lives, and moving us from being self-centred to being other-centred.

From the moment we are created, God constantly offers himself to be with us. In the mythological accounts of the Book of Genesis God dwells with humans in the garden of Paradise, wanting to be close. But they/we try to hide from God, not responding when God calls. It is only when Jesus came that we realised that it was not God who forbade our access to the tree of life, but our own stubbornness and disobedience. It was necessary for us that Jesus the Word of God should start anew a conversation with us, to breach the distance, to restore God’s presence to us. The desire of God to share divine life and love with us is expressed by Christ who says: ‘I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you’. In Christ, God gives us a sign of true love and friendship. There is no end to this great love even if we are faithless, ‘He remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.’(2 Tim 2:13) Doesn't friendship require giving not just receiving? Yes, it does require mutuality and sharing, so God gives us the Holy Spirit; the Gift from above of love's power, so we can return love for love. And we are made heirs of the Kingdom by being made one with Christ, who emptied himself to become one of us, to become our equal - to be our friend. Now he prays that our joy may be full; that is, as love-driven-disciples we may achieve loves fulfilment of the vision of God, by DOING day-by-day through our 'little deaths' loves work of selfless service. (See: Matthew 25)

8th Sunday after Pentecost - Br. Simeon

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Homily preached by Br. Simeon at Winmalee on  Sunday 3^rd August 2014:    

8TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.

Gospel:   Matthew 14: 13-21

Jesus withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself . . .
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, Jesus said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord my strength and my redeemer. Amen.

This Gospel reading is one in which we can use our imaginations of this setting of the feeding of the five thousand. Can you possibly imagine, being in the midst of Jesus and his disciples and hearing Jesus say to them “ you feed them”! “Excuse me, you said what.... how, by what means Lord, we have nothing and certainly nothing that will feed this amount of people, all we have is five loaves and two fish”.  Just imagine as you read this passage, and through your imagination  see Jesus taking the five loaves and the two fish, and with  your own eyes, seeing the miracle that take place, that all these folk have been fed, awesome! Through this act of Jesus, we have the second act as the Eucharist, when Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper.

The multiplication of the loaves and fish is the only one of Jesus’ miracles recorded in all four Gospels. The early Christian community especially cherished this story because they saw this event as anticipating the Eucharist and the final banquet in the kingdom of God.

This miracle also has strong roots in the First Testament.  For the peoples of both the First and New Testament, the image of a great banquet was an important visualisation of the reign of God: the gifts of the land were unmistakable signs of their God’s great Providence; the Messiah’s coming was often portrayed as a great banquet with choice food and wines.

The miracle of the loaves and fishes is a clear affirmation in God's providence.  Just as the merciful God feeds the wandering Israelites with manna in the desert, Jesus, “his heart moved with pity,” feeds the crowds who have come to hear him.

In Matthew’s account, Jesus acts out of his great compassion on the crowds. First, he challenges the disciples to give what they have -- five loaves and two fish.  Then he performs the four-fold action that prefigures the Eucharist:

Jesus takes, blesses, breaks and gives the bread and fish to the assembled multitude, making of them a community of the Lord's banquet.

More astounding than Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand is Jesus’ transforming them into a community, a community who becomes one in their need, one in the bread they share, one in the love of Christ who has brought them together.

We, too, can perform wonders in our own time and place by imitating the four “Eucharistic verbs of Jesus: to take humbly and generously from what we have been given by God, to ask His blessing on it, to break by offering it to others in God’s love, to give with joy-filled gratitude to the God who has blessed us with so much.

The bread of the Eucharist, which we share together in charity and faith, today, is a prelude to the great banquet of the next world to which our loving Father invites us.

Christ calls us to become a Eucharistic people: to become the Eucharist we have received.

Amen.

7th Sunday after Pentecost

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Homily preached by Br Andrew  for 27th July 2014

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Gospel Matthew 13:44-58

Last Saturday Jessica and I went with the Adventurer’s group from Spinal Cord Injury Australia to the YHA in the rocks which is a working archaeological site known as the “Big dig”. There we had the chance to examine some of the artefacts and to hear some of the history of our convict ancestors’.

One of the artefacts was a little doll known as a ‘Frozen Charlotte” doll the story being that Charlotte was off to a winter ball and all dressed up in her finery had refused to wear a cloak for her ride in the open carriage; her father had said ‘Charlotte, you will surely freeze to death’ and so she did. These little dolls were made of porcelain  without clothes so that little girls might dress them to suit themselves.

"Frozen charlie 2" by Wampile - Own work. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

After countless years this series of parables can become too familiar to us for us to appreciate the teachings hidden within them; especially after traipsing around in a muddy field for a day and a half looking for priceless treasure with a metal detector. Hence my little story at the beginning: archaeologists are treasure hunters in their own way and while not always being successful on a dig, when they do discover something it is of immense historical, even theological value not only to themselves but to others right down the ages.

When we first encounter the Gospel, giving up that we have to obtain it means that we change our lives in keeping with the words of Jesus, we become followers of the Way. We reach that point in our lives when we realize that to comply with the treasure of the Gospel we must abandon the things in our lives that separate us from God, that impede us from growing in our faith and be willing to place ourselves at Christ’s disposal……

Having exhausted myself of anything further to give I offer the following sermon by 

Martin G Collins

The Parable of the Pearl

The first four parables of Matthew 13 are darkened by an ominous cloud. In contrast, the last four cast light on the assurance of a positive future for the saints. In this second of the chapter's third pair of parables, Jesus reveals more secrets to His disciples regarding the high value God places on the church. The Parable of the Pearl (verse 45) particularly reveals the high cost to God of acquiring potential members of His Kingdom.....read on

http://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/BS/k/1153/Parable-of-Pearl.htm

29th May Ascension Day - Br. Simeon

Andre-Rublev's Saviour 

Sermon for Ascension Day By Br Simeon efo.

29/05/2014

Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20

"I am with you always - to the close of the age"

There is an ancient legend about Jesus’ ascension into heaven.

He is met by the angel Gabriel who asks him, "Now that your work is finished, what plans have you made to ensure that the truth that you brought to earth will spread throughout the world?"

Jesus answered, "I have called some fishermen and tax-collectors to walk along with me as I did my Father’s will."

"Yes, I know about them," said Gabriel, "but what other plans have you made? "

Jesus replied, "I taught Peter, James and John about the kingdom of God; I taught Thomas about faith; and all of them were with me as I healed and preached to the multitudes."

Gabriel replied, "But you know how unreliable that lot was. Surely you must have other plans to make sure your work was not in vain."

Jesus quietly replied to Gabriel, "I have no other plans. I am depending on them!! "

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my strength and my redeemer. Amen

The Gospel lectionary reading for today, Ascension Day and the celebration of the ascension of the Lord, offers us the opportunity to break open a most familiar text within the church.

Why did Jesus leave his disciples forty days after his resurrection? Forty is a significant number in the scriptures. Moses went to the mountain to seek the face of God for forty days in prayer and fasting. The people of Israel were in the wilderness for forty years in preparation for their entry into the promised land. Elijah fasted for forty days as he journeyed in the wilderness to the mountain of God. For forty days after his resurrection Jesus appeared numerous times to his disciples to assure them that he had risen indeed and to prepare them for the task of carrying on the work which he began during his earthy ministry.

Jesus' departure and ascension into heaven was both an end and a beginning for his disciples. While it was the end of Jesus' physical presence with his beloved disciples, it marked the beginning of Jesus' presence with them in a new way. Jesus promised that he would be with them always to the end of time.

He assured them of his power - a power which overcame sin and death. Now as the glorified and risen Lord and Saviour, ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven, Jesus promised to give them the power of his Holy Spirit, which we see fulfilled ten days later on the Feast of Pentecost (Luke 24:49 and Acts 2:1-4).

When the Lord Jesus departed physically from the apostles, they were not left alone or powerless. Jesus assured them of his presence and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus' last words to his apostles point to his saving mission and to their mission to be witnesses of his saving death and his glorious resurrection and to proclaim the good news of salvation to all the world.

Their task is to proclaim the gospel - the good news of salvation - not only to the people of Israel, but to all the nations as well. God's love and gift of salvation is not reserved for a few or for one nation alone, but it is for the whole world - for all who will accept it. The gospel is the power of God, the power to release people from their burden of guilt, sin, and oppression, and the power to heal, restore, and make us whole.

This is the great commission which the risen Christ gives to the whole church. All believers have been given a share in this task - to be heralds of the good news and ambassadors for Jesus Christ, the only saviour of the world. We have not been left alone in this task, for the risen Lord works in and through us by the power of his Holy Spirit. 

Today we witness a new Pentecost as the Lord pours out his Holy Spirit upon his people to renew and strengthen the body of Christ and to equip it for effective ministry and mission world-wide. Do you witness to others the joy of the gospel and the hope of the resurrection?

Amen.