Welcome to Easter at St Philips! If Christmas is about peace on earth and goodwill to all people, what is Easter about? I was reading the account of Jesus’ death in Matthew’s gospel the other day and all manner of things are reported as happening – extra normal things: Earthquake, total solar eclipse, temple curtains collapsing to the ground, ghost- like figures of great sages and saints being seen in and around Jerusalem. If it were a Star Wars movie it would be described as a disturbance in The Force. If Christmas is about the coming of The Prince of Peace, Easter is about that same Prince bringing his kingdom into being. How? Through disturbance! Jesus is the Great Disturber. In the gospel reading for Good Friday Jesus’ accusers argue for the death penalty. On what grounds? That he “stirs up the people”. If you are unwilling to have the living God disturb your status quo you probably won’t like Jesus. You’ll blame the church but it’s Jesus you’ll really have the problem with. Why does Jesus disturb us? The bible is unequivocal: He does it because he loves us. Why do parents stir up their kids to make their [continue reading...]
musings
Weekly published texts from our notice sheet; thoughts and musings from our Parishioners
I wonder what your first response is to the news of a family/all-age-service? “Yay!! – the kids are in!!” OR ”Noooooo – not all-age worship again. Can I sneak out before anyone sees me?” I’m a yay person! Although along with this I certainly admit that worship with all ages together is easy to do badly and hard to do well. BUT this doesn’t mean we should give up in the name of a quiet life! So why should we worship all together, Liz? (“I hear you ask”) Isn’t it better if we are hearing God’s word at an age-appropriate level? Well, yes, if church was only about cerebral learning. But perhaps being at church is actually about being with God and each other, learning how to love God and each other better and then doing it with God’s help. If so, do we do this better by usually being separate or by learning to live together? I’ve been reading a book by Lucy Moore who started ‘Messy Church’ in the UK (an all-age fresh expression of church) and she wonders why it has always been age that has been the separation point in churches. She notes that we [continue reading...]
Did you see the Archbishop’s opinions on marriage this week in the paper? Describing civil weddings as “sentimental fuzz”, he affirmed the central place of God in Christian weddings as an indication that for marriage to work we need help. God is that help for Christians. While the Arch claimed on radio to have been roundly misquoted, in today’s instantly-published-opinion-piece world, opinions are out there irrespective of accuracy or context. And you cannot unfold the power and majesty of 6000 years of the evolution of Christian marriage in a 10-second sound-byte. It’s rather frustrating really! So what about baptism? I’m not sure if there are more or less opinions about baptism? Perhaps we should ask the West to do a piece on what secular Australia is doing by way of rites of initiation/passage – like baptism? My hunch is baptism would suffer from “the sound-byte challenge” much like marriage does. Does it mean the same today as it did in Jesus’ day? What is it about? I was talking to one of our numerous St Pips theology students this week who has an assignment due on the changes in baptism practices up until the Roman Emperor Constantine christianised the world [continue reading...]
Prayer – love it, don’t understand it, want to do it, can’t see the point, wonder if it works, intrigued by it. These are just some of my thoughts and attitudes about this fundamental aspect of my faith. Despite this seemingly ambivalent approach, I have, for many years, longed to have the time to learn more about prayer and to spend more time doing it. After prayerfully and accountably arriving at the decision to change career direction, this year I find myself with a little more time on my hands than before. Actually, that’s not strictly true: what I have a bit more of is both flexibility and the headspace to engage with prayer. Resisting the temptation to read 101 books on prayer and intercession, I came to God and told him that I would like to learn how to pray more effectively and I asked him to lead me and teach me as he saw fit. I was conscious that I could read books, feel encouraged or condemned and actually never move forward in this area. I was also concerned to not limit how God might lead me to pray. This week has been a week of breakthrough. In [continue reading...]
Had one of those You-have-GOT-to-be-joking! experiences this week. You know, those ones where you’re convinced you have made yourself absolutely plain and clear yet the outcome would suggest you couldn’t have done, you have been so totally ignored. This was not some insidious plot by evil people; this was just good people doing what they thought was right but I was so-oo frustrated. I have often wished that frustration was one of the Holy Spirit’s fruit, but it isn’t. Have you ever read Paul’s list of the Spirit’s fruit(Galatians 5)? The inner characteristics of love, joy and peace express themselves outward ly as patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness – and the clincher, self control. Ha! Paul also lists in Galatians 5 the “fruits of the flesh” – the person following the world’s way. That was me! My frustration this week was, on reflection, born out of a lack of control. Self control is very different from just wanting to be in control. It’s being in control of self. You may recall last Sunday in Mark 8, Peter proclaims that Jesus is not just the messenger of God’s salvation plan, he is the Christ, the giver and executor of the plan. Then Jesus [continue reading...]