• Stories in Stewardship, Part 1

    This is our new series for the next 4 weeks, ‘Stories in Stewardship’

    Focusing in on Jesus’ words in Matthew 13 where he shares a number of parables, these stories Jesus shares to show us what the kingdom of heaven is like

    Not just good STORIES or interesting anecdotes, but actually blueprints for this Christian life, ways God reveals himself to us, images to lean on when we’re thinking about what it means to be STEWARDS, what STEWARDSHIP is in God’s eyes.

    So letting these key words sink in a little bit > 

    What does it mean to be a STEWARD, what does STEWARDSHIP mean??

    I wonder how you’re answering that as you hear it today…

    Here are some different ways we could answer that:

    We might say ‘being a steward is looking after something, maybe a bit like being a shepherd or a servant’ (all things associated with Jesus of course). The sort of answer we might give if we know a bit about who Jesus is and what church is about! We do talk a bit here about shepherds and servants.

    We might say ‘stewardship is about making sure the lights stay on and the doors stay open, all the day-to-day tasks are completed, all the bills are paid and everyone has what they need at the end of the day’ > maybe your mind goes there, managing a household or a group of people like a church or a business or in family life. Being a steward can be compared with being a manager, having a perspective of oversight and making sure things can keep on going

    Plenty in those answers, maybe you align with some of that or you might have a different response.

    Here’s a dictionary definition I found of what STEWARDSHIP is:

    STEWARDSHIP is ‘the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.’

    We’ve got the word ‘management’ in there, also being ‘careful’ and ‘responsible,’ doing that with something that has been passed on to us, ‘entrusted to our care.’

    Now going beyond dictionary definitions, let’s look how Jesus speaks into what STEWARDSHIP is through the parable of the sower that we’ve just heard today, and we can think about what exactly that ‘something’ is for us…

    WHAT’S IN A PARABLE

    Looking at the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, what have we got there?

    We’ve got Jesus sitting in a boat to start with, and he’s speaking to people gathered back on the shore > always interesting the platforms Jesus chooses to use isn’t it!

    And he’s loading up some rapid-fire content to dish out at them – we’re going to progress through some of that in this series – starting with this story about a farmer sowing seed.

    The farmer sows seeds in different places > on the path, on the rocky places, among the thorns, and lastly on good soil. 

    Quick side note here > does anybody watch ‘Clarkson’s Farm?’ 

    We watch it sometimes for a bit of a laugh, unfortunately for poor old Clarkson most of his sowing seems to fall anywhere but on good soil, if you’ve seen the show you’ll know what I mean!

    Back to the parable >

    Of course the only place the seed grows well, in fact very well, is on good soil. Makes sense.

    The Jesus explains what this all means, not only a lesson in good stewardship as a farmer but actually a lesson on what the kingdom of heaven is all about, stewardship in terms of the kingdom of heaven going on here.

    We know what happens next, there are those who are like the path, the rocky places, the thorns even, those who hear the message about the kingdom but it is quickly snatched away, it doesn’t take root or other things get in the way > profound word there for us in our technological age where we always have so much information and content coming at us, potentially getting in the way of what God has to say. 

    And then there are those, like the good soil, who simply ‘hear the word and understand it.’

    That might sound a bit too easy, a bit too simple, but that’s it, this is what it means to be a steward, this what stewardship is > hear the word and understand it. 

    We cannot be stewards of God’s word if we haven’t heard it, if we haven’t understood it.

    What happens when God’s word is heard and understood? 

    Good things! Like good soil that produces a massive crop, a bigger than expected yield. And I’m guessing that is probably the ultimate joy for a farmer right there.

    So Jesus is saying it’s not about being an incredible famer who can make things grow anywhere – that’s God’s work, not ours. He will grow what he wants to grow because he is God, for us we are called to join in with the work he’s already doing. We’re called to be like good soil, to receive his word, to take hold of his word as it takes hold of us, and good things come as God grows them in and through us. 

    WHAT’S OUR ‘SOMETHING’

    Back to the definition of STEWARDSHIP from before, we need to add something in there. 

    If STEWARDSHIP is ‘the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care,’ what’s our ‘something?’

    Is it ourselves, our mind, our body? Our time, our money and our possessions? Our friends and family, loved ones, people around us in our local communities?

    Is it this church building we’re all in together right now, the property, the assets owned and managed by our church?

    Is it our roles and responsibilities as part of this community, if we’re a member here or we volunteer or we’re on a committee or we work here?

    It’s all of the above. Of course all these things make up what’s been entrusted to us, entrusted to us to care for, to manage well, to STEWARD well as God would have us do.

    But there’s a BIG ONE MISSING in that list, and if we’re going by what Jesus says it’s the most important thing – sometimes the easiest to miss, the easiest to forget, the easiest to NOT steward at all. Our human error there, our shortcomings easily exposed.

    The big thing that’s missing is the one who’s sowing the seed in our heart. 

    The one who is sitting in that boat, telling the people all these profound amazing things.

    The most important ‘something’ is Jesus > who he is, what he’s done for us, who he says we are. Our relationship with him is the number one thing here, the key ingredient in STEWARDSHIP.

    Why? Because without Jesus we wouldn’t have this seed to sow. 

    We would only be stewards in our terms and by our own efforts, not stewards who are filled with the Sprit, overflowing with love and hope and peace and all the good things of God.

    Imagine that, being a steward not bogged down in the worries of this world but filled with the joy and hope and promise of who God is, what’s he’s done for us and who he says we are. 

    That’s who Jesus says we are, who we get to be together as church. 

    So we’re going to continue ‘digging into’ some more of these parables, some of these stories of STEWARDSHIP from Jesus in the next few weeks.

    We are called to be stewards, we are stewards of the good news of Jesus, where the Holy Spirit resides and abides. We are called to learn this and share this, as Jesus challenges us to do and also as he inspires it in our hearts and minds. 

    To be good stewards, to do stewardship well, we first have to know the importance, the beauty, the comfort of a real relationship with Jesus, so let’s pray he would reveal himself to us as he has already done, making himself known to us so we can know him more. 

    Lord we thank you your call on our lives, not simply to manage what’s in front of us but to grow in relationship with you. Help us when we miss the main point, when we get distracted or worried or other things come at us that can make life difficult. Help us to know the power of your word, your word that goes and grows where you would have it go. Lead us out as your people, filled with the Spirit and trusting in your goodness. All this we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

    //

  • SENT > ‘Will not return empty’

    Last one today in our series on being SENT, where we are SENT to / what we are SENT from / what we bring with us as SENT people of God – that’s who we are, who we get to be, what a privilege and what an opportunity this is!

    If you remember last week we had a bit on the ‘needs of our local community’ – what are they, how do we know what they are, how do we meet those needs / support people in need / reach out to & connect with people around us…

    Big, important questions for us, for all churches > how this happens, as part of our core purpose of being, which is NOT to simply look after ourselves but to seek out those around us and share the love of God with them.

    And last week we also brought in some themes from the kids movie Moana, to help us think about this > what happens if we only look after ourselves, we only look and serve and even think inwardly, without considering what’s around us, who’s around us, where we’re located and how we’re called to move into what God is already doing… what happens is the future becomes quite limited if we are not even considering how we’re going to meet it…

    There was a key line at pastors conference and synod few weeks ago, thinking about the ‘posture’ or approach we have in terms of how God works in the world and how we can be part of it: 

    NOT expecting people to come to us, but instead going to them, to join in with what God is already doing. Really important shift in perspective for us there.

    Today we come to a really powerful passage in Isaiah that we can focus in on, 55 verses 8-11:

    God says, ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

    As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.’

    We’ll come back to that, but first we’ve got something else to consider >>>

    Challenges of serving a local community…

    If we think about the needs of any local community, there are going to be challenges – otherwise there wouldn’t be any needs!

    So for our local community – again we might have different ideas of what that is, who that is, where that it is and what our role in that is – for our local community what are the challenges with finding and serving its needs…

    Here are some examples:

    We might not know where to start…

    Like I said what our local community actually is, who that is, where that is and what our role in it even is. More to dig into there but this is a key challenge for churches, we might want to be of service to our local community but we might not know where to start. 

    We might not know what we’re supposed to do…

    We might not think we can actually be any help to the people around us, we might not have things in common or ways to reach out and connect with people that don’t feel forced or awkward or uncomfortable.

    We might have done a lot of work in this space in the past, but the fruits of it don’t seem to be growing when we look around today…

    Really hard one there, when we’ve stepped out in faith many times and we’ve served people in need through the journey, but we don’t see the next generation coming to church, we don’t see young people learning about who Jesus is, we see churches around us more likely to be closing down than experiencing positive growth into the future.

    Those are just some challenges, many more we could add.

    We might hear all that and think we should just avoid those challenges, we should stay away from things like reaching out into our local community because we don’t know where to start, we don’t know what to do, they’re not listening to us anyway… I wonder how you take all that as you hear it.

    That is a valid perspective to have – doubts creeping in are part of our human experience, we all have doubts. 

    But this is not only doubting ourselves, it’s actually doubting God.

    There is NO SHRED OF DOUBT in the words we just heard from Isaiah today > ‘my purposes WILL be accomplished’ says the Lord, not ‘maybe,’ not ‘sometimes’ – WILL be God says!

    Who are we to say ‘I’m not sure about that God, I don’t think so God??’ 

    God’s purposes being accomplished are not dependent on how we see it but what he’s going to do, what he’s already done and what he’s already doing. 

    So how does God help us in this, how does God help us if we don’t know where to start?

    Even if we don’t know where to start, GOD DOES. 

    He is THE starter, the one who creates life and sustains life with his good and gracious provisions.

    Trust in the Lord, take our concerns to him, ask him for help! If we pray ‘Lord where do I start?’ he’s going to give us a few ideas. 

    Practical examples: 

    Read your bible, spend some time in the word!

    Pray, talk to the God who listens to you.

    Receive God’s gifts, live in your baptism as his beloved child.

    That’s always where we start, and then >

    How does God help us if we don’t know what to do?

    Love people, show kindness to people.

    Ask them how they are, and listen to the answer.

    Let someone else go first, hold a door open, thank them for their work or their kindness to you, take an interest in other people and what’s happening around you, just a few steps of ‘how to build relationships’ there, just a few ways we already know where we can start and what to do.

    And the last one >

    How does God help us if we’re disappointed, if we feel like we’ve failed, if we feel like we’ve tried all this before without success?

    Tell him about it. We can unload these difficult things on our God, as the prophets do, as the writers of the psalms do – God can handle our stuff, and he can speak right back to us in those things if we have ears to listen > that takes us back to the start doesn’t it, spending time with God and his word.

    But we also need to remember where our value lies, what our value is to God despite what we do/haven’t done, what we feel disappointed by and what we don’t see around us that we would love to see.

    We can see what our value is to God in what Isaiah says next, the verses after our reading today:

    So we’ve heard this part, about how God’s word will not return to him empty >

    God says, ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

    As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.’

    And then God also says this (12, 13):

    ‘You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands [what an image!].

    [And this bit’s for the gardeners among us] Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.

    This will be the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.’

    God has JOY and PEACE for us, he values us enough to give us his joy and peace, we go out [to serve our local community, carrying the good gifts God has first given us] in JOY and led forth in PEACE >

    Now we might not be seeing ‘mountains bursting into song’ and ‘trees clapping their hands,’ but we know this is an illustration of the ultimate JOY and PEACE God has in store for his people.

    What we might be lucky enough to get a glimpse of in this life, is what God grows > what God has grown, does grow and can yet grow in us, through us and around us, whatever age or life stage we’re in. Amazing to see God at work in those moments, I hope there are some that come to mind for you! There are more and more of these the more we look, good thing to reflect on!

    And we know here and now we have a Saviour who could love us, who could give his life for us, who would love us even when we’re struggling to love him or love others. 

    Even if we feel like we don’t have JOY, we don’t have PEACE, he’s got it – he has it for us and he continues to give it to us.

    So we are SENT, to give freely as we have first received.

    We are SENT to find life in Jesus and join in with God’s life-changing work in the world around us, 

    and we are SENT knowing and being known by our God, having confidence in him when he says what he sends out will not return empty – that goes for his word and for his people! 

    What God sends out will not return empty. Let’s pray.

    Lord we thank you for choosing us, and for sending us. Lead us to give freely, remind us we have life in you and you go with us in all we do. Help us to trust in your word that tells us you have joy and peace for us, and your good purposes will be accomplished. All this we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

  • SENT 2 > ‘Find life’

    Thinking some more about being SENT today, what that means, what we are SENT from and what we are SENT to, those are the guiding thoughts for this series.

    First of all today I want to mention a kids movie – a kids movie I’ve come to know very well in the past couple of years or so, the original and the sequel too. 

    This movie is Moana, you may have heard of it or seen it, one of Norah’s most-requested favourites!

    It’s the story of a young girl in the Pacific Islands many years ago, and she wants to explore. She goes on a journey of discovery to help her people and to find her role in all this. Her people used to be ‘way-finders,’ but they have since stopped doing that and become very protective of their home, afraid to go beyond the reef because the last people who did never came back. As the story goes Moana changes all that, with the help of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as the mythological Maui and her unlikely crew.

    In the second movie there’s a whole song about ‘getting lost,’ getting lost in a good way, about taking a risk, about not knowing exactly where you’re going but stepping out anyway, that sort of messaging. 

    Actually quite profound, as kids movies often can be! Something in there for the adults as much as the kids – especially if you’ve seen it many times!! Can’t help but learn from the things our kids get into.

    This is really interesting because ‘getting lost’ is not usually a good thing… 

    Usually it’s bad to get lost, we don’t want to get lost because that means we don’t know where we are, we don’t know where we’re going, we might also be uncomfortable or even unsafe if we have gotten lost. Not good.

    But this other angle, of getting lost as part of the journey, as part of the experience of life, is actually really important for us. 

    If we’re always comfortable, if we always have it all figured out, then what are we learning? 

    How are we growing? 

    What is our purpose, where do we find our meaning, what does our future look like?? 

    Big questions for us there, in the movie these questions apply to Moana’s people, but in real life they actually apply to us, to our church, to the body of Christ, to our bearing of witness to Jesus, the work of the Spirit and God’s saving grace for all people.

    This might be hard for us to hear, but being safe and comfortable are NOT actually what church is for. 

    Of course we do all need safety and security, and we hope our church provides comfort and safety for people who come through our doors, but that is not actually the point. 

    The point is Jesus, who he is, what he’s done for us and who he says we are > and these things actually take us into uncomfortable territory at times…

    Parts of our first reading and our gospel reading today are actually very uncomfortable aren’t they >

    First reading from Jeremiah (20:7-13), where he struggles with his calling >

    Jeremiah talks about his own friends wanting revenge on him, he talks about wanting other people to be disgraced and dishonoured, even asking God to bring that upon them – this is heavy stuff! 

    But in the same passage what does he do with this anger, this difficult situation he finds himself in? Step 1 > he lays out how he really feels, and step 2 > he praises God.

    In the midst of all this he praises God for ‘rescuing the life of the needy,’ thanking God for being ‘with him like a mighty warrior.’ Good tip for us there.

    And in our gospel reading Jesus lays out some VERY uncomfortable requirements to be ‘worthy of him,’ to ‘find their life for his sake.’ Here are just a few of them > 

    Must love Jesus more than mother and father, more than son and daughter.

    Must ‘take up their cross and follow me.’

    Must give up their life in order to find it.

    Some very difficult things there, what does all that actually mean?

    There’s a lot of study we could jump into around this, so today I’m just going to pick out two key words: the key words were focusing on are where Jesus says FIND LIFE.

    Not finding life on our own, by ourselves, independent of Jesus, but FINDING LIFE in him and with him, FINDING the LIFE he already has in store for us.

    The new life we step into in our baptism, the life we are renewed in by the Spirit day by day, the life that God calls us to, not the life we come up with ourselves.

    Notice Jesus doesn’t say it’s a choice between ‘who wins’ when he talks about who we love, it’s not ‘love me instead of your family.’

    The fuller picture is actually yes love your family, but through the lens of loving me – which is also ‘as you are loved by me.’ He has fulfilled the requirements, he has made us worthy, he has found life for us! And having done that he calls us to follow him.

    How do we know that’s the full picture? 

    Easy answer there, let’s go to the greatest commandment Jesus gives > love God and love others, love God and love your neighbour/your family/the people in your community. Love people through the lens of loving Jesus, as you are loved by him. 

    That’s the full picture, the full biblical picture of this that brings it all together.

    Jesus says don’t go it alone, don’t try to do this life without me > ‘you’ll be much better off with me’ he says, lean on me as your shepherd he says, I will be with you and I will care for you. 

    In me you will find true life Jesus says, as we know he is the way, the truth and the life.

    To FIND life in Jesus is to discover it, to obtain it. 

    And the LIFE we find there is our soul, our self, our inner being. 

    So put that together and in Jesus we can discover our soul, we can obtain our inner being > that means we can find who we really are!

    We can find life in Jesus, or – as Jesus warns against here – we can find life without him, apart from him.

    What’s the problem with finding life apart from Jesus?

    It’s going to be life in human terms, focusing on what you have/don’t have, what you do/don’t do, where the pursuit of finding ourselves is dictated by yourself – this is only ever a limited view, really a limited life.

    But WITH Jesus, life with Jesus is different >

    Discover yourself IN ME Jesus says > that means who I say you are, what I’ve done for you & what that means for your life – both now and forever. Bigger picture, fuller picture, God’s view is way bigger than ours.

    So we can find life apart from Jesus, which leads to life apart from Jesus.

    Or we can give up our lives into Jesus’ hands, and that leads to life with Jesus, life in him, new life that can’t be obtained or discovered anywhere else. 

    One last thing to finish on today, we’ve covered ‘finding life in Jesus’ but there’s also ‘finding life’ out there, out in the world around us.

    We’re talking about looking for signs of life, signs of the needs in the community around us. 

    I don’t know about you but I think this is difficult in our local area > It seems to be a challenge to find out what the needs are, they seem to be a bit hidden from view… For me there is the VERY CLEAR picture of our school and the people in it, but around that it gets a bit unclear…

    How do we know the needs of our local community if we can’t see them, if we aren’t looking for them, if we don’t have relationships with the people in our community? Short answer is ‘we can’t!’

    We have to know the needs to be able to serve the needs – not only judging what local needs may be from a TV news report or stereotypical accounts of this area, but having a truly informed perspective through personally knowing people in our community and what matters to them.

    How do we do that, how do we seek that out, importantly in collaboration with other people who are also searching to serve their community as well!

    A big one for us, a challenge to take away today as we think about what it means to be SENT.

    How is Jesus SENDING us into our local community, not simply to attend church on Sunday but to live out our faith in everyday life… Living out faith has serious benefits for us and for others as we know, this is the meaning/purpose/future stuff I mentioned last week.

    How are we SENT to serve, who are we SENT to serve, what are we SENT to serve them with?? Big questions, questions to take away and think about – let’s do some thinking and talking about this together!

    We are SENT people, as Jesus was SENT to us and for us we are SENT into the world around us. 

    We are SENT to find life, to bring the life Jesus has already given us.

    Not alone, not in isolation but in community, in togetherness, with Jesus by our side as we take on the challenges and struggles of what we see around us. 

    Loving others through the lens of Jesus love for us, what a privilege and what an opportunity to be called to a life like that.

    Heavenly Father we thank you for your calling on our lives as your SENT people, people who are SENT out to love others through the lens of your love for us. We ask you would reveal the needs of our community to us, so we can know how we can serve and love and bear witness to your work in the world. Call us out of just being comfortable into putting our faith and our hope in you, the one who makes the way, who works miracles, who keeps your promises and who shines a light in the darkness. All this we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

    //

  • SENT 1 > ‘Give freely’

    New series today on what it means to be SENT > 

    How do we understand this, how does it play out among us, where are we SENT from and what are we SENT to do?

    Those are the bigger questions guiding this series, but here are a couple of starter questions for you today:

    Do you ever feel like a ‘sheep without a shepherd?’

    Or maybe even a ‘suffering sheep without a shepherd?’

    Intense line of questioning there, I wonder if and when you’ve felt like that – it can happen in many ways, many contexts, out in the world and even inside church community as well.

    At times in life it can seem we are sheep without a shepherd.

    What does that look like?

    Being on our own, without a guide or leader to help us. Relationship breakdowns, even a lack of relationship can be part of this sense of being sheep without a shepherd. Maybe even competing voices and different motivations too…

    I’ve seen this in some of the soccer teams I’ve been part of > 

    Where there are competing voices, some interested in the overall performance of the team and others more interested in their own performance at the expense of the team, and a lack of clear direction or guidance coming from the coach or leadership of the team to bring the team together and align towards the same goals together. 

    As I said a few weeks ago talking about the best teams, the best teams are collectively working in the same direction, towards the same goal, and when it all starts to click we know what that looks like – we can think of the Brisbane Lions in the past two AFL seasons, the Broncos of 2025 (not so much 2026 as yet but that’s ok!)

    And stepping back into church space, do we want to be a team that works together with the same goals in mind? Of course there are some big differences in church where God is already at work and he works through us through the Holy Spirit and the gifts given to us, but a team of people working together towards a common goal that serves the needs of their community is always a good thing! Working together to serve the needs of our community – I don’t know about you but that’s the sort of team I want to be part of.

    Back to being ‘sheep without a shepherd’ > 

    This can also feel like being lost, being unsure, lacking a purpose or meaning and even lacking a future… But if there is a clear direction, working together to serve the needs of a local community, that’s where these great things like purpose, meaning and future can all start to come in. 

    What about the suffering sheep, not a nice place to be. A place we would rather not be.

    It’s not good to be suffering, let alone suffering without a shepherd. 

    We hear about this in our second reading today from Romans 5, one of the great passages of scripture we hang our hats on: suffering producing perseverance, perseverance character and character hope. 

    There is and there will be suffering – reality check for us there. 

    And there are different types of suffering > 

    There can be suffering that comes at us like health battles or things we didn’t see coming in our personal lives, relationships, lots of things we could go into there. 

    These things we ask for God’s help in, we find support in our community and loved ones around us, these things we don’t choose, that come at us, and lead to suffering.

    But there are also other types of suffering, types of struggle that we do choose to take on, that we willingly participate in, that are actually part of the Christian life, that are part of doing something and going somewhere as Jesus calls us to follow him.

    There’s a self-help author I’ve read a bit of who says something on this topic, in terms of the struggles of life >

    He talks about the choice we have to avoid struggling in life, or the choice to know or to find out what we are willing to struggle for…

    And this actually ties in pretty well with this line in Romans, when we know what we are struggling for we can see more clearly how that struggle, that suffering produces these good things like perseverance, character, hope. We could add in resilience there too, iron sharpening iron, gaining experience and knowledge that informs us and we can then share to help others. Very good things!

    To avoid this type of struggle is actually missing out on what it can produce, where if we take on a struggle with a clear direction, good support around us, knowing why we’re doing it and where we want to go – then we can see how God produces these good things in us and through us, and in and through other people as well.

    One other sporting example for you today – if you follow the AFL there was the Big Freeze game last week where funds are raised to fight MND, Motor Neuron Disease. 

    The man behind all this – former footballer and coach Neale Daniher – recently passed away after a long battle against the illness, and in his story we can actually see the bringing together of both suffering that comes at us and we don’t choose – his MND diagnosis – but also his significant efforts – the struggle he chose – to raise money to fight the disease, not just for his own benefit but people across Australia fighting it too. Amazing story and one the AFL world continues to be inspired by. 

    Let’s jump across to a few lines from our gospel reading now, where Jesus – the ultimate suffering servant as he is sometimes known – does something and he also says something, two very significant things for us to know and remember:

    First > he sees the crowds, and what does he do? 

    He has compassion on them, because they were ‘harassed and helpless,’ like sheep without a shepherd.

    Jesus knows when we are like sheep without a shepherd. 

    He sees it, he knows it, he knows our suffering, whatever type of suffering it might be.

    And he does something about it, he has compassion on his people which leads him to act >

    What does he do? He ‘sends out workers into his harvest field.’

    That’s us – the people Jesus sees, knows and calls to be his own SENT people, out into the world to love, to serve and to share the good news. 

    It’s incredible in this passage where the disciples are sent out to ‘drive out spirits and heal disease’ – amazing to see how Jesus gives them that authority, and the miracles that can and still do occur because of him. We can take this more as spiritual healing that happens for us today, where we are renewed in body, mind and soul by Jesus’ grace, but that doesn’t mean physical/mental/emotional healing doesn’t also continue to happen among us, and we continue to pray for that as we come up against it.

    So Jesus sees the crowds and he sends out people to be among them, and second > he says this line which really stands out to me in this passage:

    ‘Freely you have received, freely give.’

    ‘Give freely, because I have given freely to you’ Jesus says. 

    How else can we take this? 

    Don’t hold back! Be ‘dared to move,’ what I was saying a few weeks ago in our COMMUNITY series. 

    This good stuff you have is not only for you, but is also for them, for others, for people in desperate need out there. Not exclusive to us but inclusive for all people, that’s what Jesus has done for us and continues to offer us and all people. What we’ve just witnessed being ‘freely given’ in Baptism today! Forgiveness of sins, a place as a seen, known and loved child of God, beautiful stuff!

    So if this is what we are called to do – to give freely as we have freely received, in Jesus’ own words, we need to hear it. 

    As individual people we need to hear it. 

    In our everyday lives we need to hear it. 

    As church, we need to hear it. Freely you have received, freely give.

    So as Jesus GIVES FREELY to us, we can be encouraged, supported, inspired even to GIVE FREELY of what has first been given to us. 

    The beautiful thing is that we have access to our good shepherd, we’re not alone, we’re seriously never without a shepherd! Even if we feel ‘without a shepherd,’ Jesus is there, he is with us.

    And that gives me confidence, it can give us confidence as we step out in faith, as we love and serve others as God calls us to do, as we consider the needs of our community and seek to speak life into what we see around us. 

    We’re not doing this alone, even when it feels like it. 

    Even if there are relationship breakdowns or even a lack of relationship with people around us, God cuts through that. 

    He is big enough, his also close enough to us – to cut right through to our core and change us, to be more like him.

    The good shepherd cuts through our weakness, our shortcomings with his strength, his provision, his ongoing presence with us and for us. 

    We are not without a shepherd, Jesus is with us.

    And if we are suffering, chosen struggles or not, Jesus is with us.

    And because of his presence with us we can freely give, as we have freely received.

    Lord we thank you for your free gifts, that you have won for us new life in you, that we can be changed to be more like you, that we have roles to play in loving and serving those around us and in our local community. Help us in the suffering, in the struggles, you know what they are for us. Remind us of your presence with us and your provision for us, and lead us to have compassion as you have had compassion on us, which leads us to step out in faith in what you have done, are doing and call us to be part of as church together. Amen.

    //

  • led by the SPIRIT

    What does it mean to be ‘led by the Spirit?’ 

    Led by the Spirit,’ as we heard today in our second reading from Romans.

    Let’s take a step back first: what does it mean to be ‘led?’

    Dictionary definition: to be led is to be caused to go somewhere, to be taken somewhere, to be directed, set in motion, a ‘route of access to a destination.’ To be brought, to be carried along.

    There can be varying degrees of being led as well – there are heaps of different ways to understand leading, leadership, being led. This is a big topic to get into! Today we’ll just start with the question of what it means to be led, following on from our series on being together in community.

    What are we doing when we are being led?

    We follow, we are following. We follow what we are led by. 

    We are set in motion by the things we follow. Brought along, carried along.

    So the next question is, what does it mean to follow?

    It means to go, to go after, to move or travel behind. Following what we are led by is a logical consequence isn’t it.

    So we follow, we are led. But what are we following, what are we led by? 

    Paul calls us here to be led by the Spirit, but there are many other things we are led by, we follow. There are many things that are heaps easier to be led by, to follow.

    Examples? Paul talks about the flesh, as in being led by, following the flesh. 

    Flesh meaning ourselves, our own desires and wants, being focused on ourselves, our sinful nature takes over. We are all easily led by – we are led astray by – our own selfish interests and desires. There is no way around that, we all fall victim to ourselves! 

    And there are so many things competing for our attention! We are pulled in so many directions, it’s hard to prioritise what we should be being led by, what we should be following. 

    What are some of these things?

    Ourselves, what we want and desire for ourselves.  

    The needs of others, people close to us, the needs of family and loved ones.

    All the noise out there! TV, news, advertising, social media, rumours, gossip

    And of course the devil, who lurks in the shadows and tempts us away from the call God has placed on our lives. 

    Plenty of different things competing for our attention! 

    When you add that all up there’s a fair bit stacked up against us isn’t there. How are we supposed to figure it out, how are we supposed to know how what our priorities are in the midst of all these competing things??

    Something that complicates matters is not knowing what we are being led by, not knowing what we are following in the first place. 

    How can we get our priorities straight if we don’t know what they are, how can we navigate rumours and gossip if we don’t first recognize, acknowledge what rumours and gossip are, the damage these things can cause us and other people?

    We need to equip ourselves for this battle. We need to be prepared. 

    We are going nowhere if we just turn up and see what happens. We need to be aware, we need to seek to learn and grow here. All of us, from the youngest to the oldest, from the most experienced and qualified to the least. We all have learning and growing to do – and learning and growing to share with others, helping others to learn and grow as well – it doesn’t stop! And this is a good thing, none of us can ever be so well prepared that we won’t struggle in the face of all these different things to be led by, to follow. 

    And before we look at what it means to be equipped for this battle, it’s important to remember that this isn’t just about head knowledge.

    It’s good to have head knowledge, as in to know things, to be educated, to know what it says in our bibles – very important  of course – but not the only thing. 

    We need heart too. 

    If God’s word isn’t working on or hearts, our souls, we are left wide open to the devil’s attacks, all these examples of different things competing for our attention. 

    That’s why we pray for God to reach not only our minds but also our hearts, to go right to the core of us. That’s where he has lasting impact, where we can know him deepest.

    So to be led by the Spirit… What does that mean, what does that look like?

    Let’s have a look through some verses that speak this:

    Isaiah 30:21 – ‘Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”’

    That little voice! That little voice behind us, that little voice in our heads. But not just any little voice – pay attention to what it says – ‘This is the way, walk in it.’

    Being led by the Spirit is to hear that little voice, then test that little voice against what God says in his word – not just take it and run with it but to check it against who God is and what he says. Test it against that sure foundation, that’s a solid way to follow.

    Galatians 5:18 – ‘But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.’

    Led by the Spirit means no longer under the law, no longer under the law means we are under grace, as it says a bit earlier in Romans. No longer condemned, no longer guilty. God says innocent, free. God changes our status. To be led by the Spirit is to live a new life, a new life freely gifted by God’s grace.

    2 Peter 1:21 – ‘For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.’

    Peter tells us here how God’s word came about! Not through human will but through being ‘carried along by the Holy Spirit.’

    As church we NEED to be ‘carried along,’ we ARE carried along! 

    Comforting thought there, we’re not working this out on our own or as we go, we are carried along by the Spirit, called to step out in faith, called to trust in God’s provision and follow where he calls us to go.

    John 4:24 – ‘God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’

    This brings it together, a good one for this Trinity Sunday! God is spirit, God is three in one.

    And we, his worshippers, those who receive his good gifts in thanks and praise, must worship in two things: Spirit and truth. Being led by the Spirit, which is to be led by God, by God’s word, by God’s truth.

    And finally back to verse 6 of chapter 8 of Romans:

    Verse 6 – ‘The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.’

    ‘Minds governed by the Spirit,’ good way to be! If we are governed by life and peace we can serve each other humbly, in love. Pretty good result there.

    If we are led by the Spirit, if we are led by life and peace, the results are a network, a community of humble, loving service. That’s what the church should be right! A connected, supportive ‘web of stubbornly loyal relationships’ we’ve had in our minds these past few weeks.

    So we need God to be in control of our hearts – not the world, not our own desires, not the pressures of this life we live, obviously not the devil. 

    We need our hearts to be renewed, time and time again, by God’s word. By the work of the Holy Spirit. 

    By the presence of Jesus in our lives, having a relationship with him.

    And to finish today what does following the Spirit lead to?

    Being God’s children.

    Being heirs, co-heirs with Christ (v17). Which means we share in Christ’s suffering, but also in his glory. 

    The suffering of this world – our own selfish interests and desires, all the different things that compete for our attention, all the things that can mess up our priorities, all the temptations that are easy to fall into – reflects the suffering of Jesus as he died for us on the cross. 

    These things don’t go away, but in Jesus we know that we are equipped to face them. He doesn’t leave us alone in all the mess and complication of life. 

    He has already done the work of saving us and making it possible for us to have new life. 

    He has given us the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us. 

    He has a place saved for us, alongside him, in his glory when he comes again. 

    So as church, as community, as a gathering of people, let’s be people who are led by the Spirit.

    Let’s come back to him, return to him. He remains, constantly with us, through whatever comes. 

    Let’s seek out what it means to be led by the Spirit, let’s dwell in God’s word, let’s be in community together, helping and encouraging each other.

    Let’s call on Jesus’ name. 

    Let’s lean on God’s word as our source of strength, of life, of peace and of hope. 

    Let’s do that right now as we pray.

    Heavenly Father we thank you for the Holy Spirit. Lead us by your Spirit so we can know new life in you, the peace you give and equip us to serve each other humbly in love. Thank you for your amazing grace, your gift that we are called your own children. Help us to live in that gift, and to share that gift with others. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

    //

  • COMMUNITY series.4 – Prayer

    Rounding out our series on COMMUNITY today, we’ve been walking through that the past four weeks, looking at these four key aspects of Christian community: church, wise counsel, accountability, and today we finish on PRAYER >

    We’ve covered how ‘church’ is this “web of stubbornly loyal relationships in complex and challenging situations” yes, but also it exists for the purpose of “practicing the way of Jesus for the renewal of the world.” And the beautiful words from 1 Peter 2 that say God’s church is his CHOSEN people, his SPECIAL POSSESSION and we are ‘called out of darkness and into wonderful light.’ That’s what we get to be!

    We’ve covered in the context of Christian community we’re going to need some ‘wise counsel,’ not only counsel but the wise counsellor himself, the Holy Spirit gifted to us by Jesus himself. 

    And we’ve covered how ‘accountability’ is really essential for church to function as a team, both celebrating each others’ wins and walking alongside each other through the losses as well, many benefits of seeing church as a team, where a culture of accountability to what our God has given us is learned and lived out together.

    And today we’re looking at what PRAYER is > already one of the ‘Big 4’ things mentioned in Acts 2:42, our means of communicating with God directly, hearing from him, a vital way we are called into relationship with him and also with each other.

    And our focus on PRAYER today actually fits very well with it being Pentecost today, this celebration of the Holy Spirit coming over people, uniting people in this miraculous way, and we think of this as the birth of the church, led by the Spirit and overflowing out into the world. 

    We have access to the Spirit through the word, and through prayer > We pray to Jesus, we pray to our heavenly Father, and the Spirit is our means of connection to God and the means through which God works in us and in the world.

    So a question for you to think about as we get into this today, for you > 

    What is your GO-TO personal prayer??

    What are the words you pray the most, what words do you fall back on in challenging times, what are the words you were taught and you have since taught others…

    Maybe your prayers are centred around a particular theme at the moment, like a health or relationship challenge, or something you’d love to see happening but is not happening right now…

    I might have shared this before but this is a form of a prayer my mother-in-law often prays, you may have heard it or used it yourself, only three words long:

    ‘GIVE ME STRENGTH’

    You might not think that’s an actual prayer, but for a person of faith it is actually a prayer > there’s no word count on our prayers – it’s more about what God’s doing than what we’re doing as we know.

    We might categorise ‘Give me strength’ more as a venting of frustration than a prayer, but actually the ‘venting of frustration’ is absolutely part of prayer! Again we don’t have to get all the words right all the time in our prayers, we are allowed – actually encouraged – to tell God how we feel, to tell him how it actually is for us > if you want examples of that there are literally hundreds of them in the Psalms for a start.

    And we know he already knows how we feel and what’s going on > prayer is not useful for God, it’s useful for US > to know him, to spend time with him, to be in relationship with him, for us to notice the work he’s doing in our lives and the lives of those around us. And it’s also useful for us as COMMUNITY, praying together and praying for each other is essential to the life of our church, essential to doing this thing together.

    In the past few years I’ve found myself taking on my mother-in-law’s prayer myself > it’s easy to pray, it can be said anywhere anytime, it applies in more ways than one, this prayer for what I need and what God gives > I need his strength to be a pastor, to be a husband, a father, an uncle, a son, a brother, a friend, all these different aspects of life. And with faith I can trust that God will give me strength, because he says he hears our prayers and will be with us forever.

    So that’s a bit on our GO-TO prayers > I’d love to know what yours is!

    What about our GO-TO prayer as church?

    We’d probably all say the Lord’s Prayer > these words from Jesus, where he tells us how to pray – and what to pray for as well. Solid, reliable, covers everything we need and what God has to give us. 

    And Jesus has more words for his disciples today, we hear about the coming of the Holy Spirit but before this event Jesus had these words for his disciples: 

    Words from John 20: 

    Jesus says, ‘Peace be with you!’

    He says, ‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’

    And he says, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’

    He also talks about forgiving and not forgiving sins, outlining the accountability we have to the forgiveness we’ve received and the forgiveness we are called to give to others. 

    So what did the disciples get out of this, what do we get out of this?

    PEACE, PURPOSE & PRESENCE.

    That’s what we get, that’s we get at Pentecost, that’s what we get through prayer > a lot of P words today! 

    Peace, purpose & presence, at Pentecost, through prayer. There’s a line to remember today!

    We get PEACE very simply because Jesus says so! He gives it to us, it is ours to receive. 

    We get PURPOSE in that Jesus was sent by the Father and now he sends his disciples, he sends us – you and me are sent by Jesus, we are given roles in this story, not alone but with peace and also with the Spirit – that’s the next bit.

    We get the PRESENCE of the Holy Spirit, our own personal wise counsellor, the one who connects to our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus, and the one who holds together this ‘web of stubbornly loyal relationships’ we call our church.

    So there’s a few ‘birthday presents’ to receive on the birthday of the church today! 

    PEACE, PURPOSE AND PRESENCE, literally gifts that keep on giving, gifts that play out among us as we heard in our second reading on the gifts of the Spirit, given out to all those part of his body, the church, practicing the way of Jesus for the renewal of the world.

    I want to finish today with another prayer, some words that we’ve got on the wall above our coffee machine at home > I may have mentioned this before as well!

    This prayer is called ‘The Ritual of Morning Coffee’ – a very important ritual for us in our household – and I’ve tweaked it a little bit to fit our context today, let’s pray:

    Meet us O Christ, in the stillness of this moment.

    Move us O Spirit, to quiet our hearts. 

    Mould us O Father, into who you call us to be.

    Where there is discord, we ask for your peace.

    Where there is discouragement, we ask for your hope.

    Where there is weariness, we ask for your strength.

    Where there is doubt and uncertainty, lead us to put our faith in you.

    Where there are wounds and damage has been done, bring your healing and restoring love. 

    Let us enter each new day aware of our need, and awake to your grace. Amen.

    //

  • COMMUNITY series.3 – Accountability

    Today’s message is brought you by the word ‘ACCOUNTABILITY.’

    How do you take that word, it’s a big word, an interesting word, different ways we might hear it and understand in different contexts… what does it mean, what are we talking about here?

    Responsibility, ownership, accepting and taking responsibility for our words and actions. Who we report to, who we’re accountable to, who we’re working or serving under. How we relate to other people around us > are we accountable for our own words and actions in our own church community for example…

    We might think of accountability in terms of making sure we’re doing the right thing, we’re saying the right thing, we’re being seen to do the right thing in line with who we say we are and what we say we believe. 

    We might have a bit of a negative take on this word, where accountability means we HAVE to report to someone above us or we HAVE to make sure we’re doing the right thing, or else we’ll be in trouble!

    But a really important note on this word today, accountability in terms of our faith and community life together is much more than something we HAVE to do, not just something we’re told we must do to keep someone else happy.

    It’s actually very positive, very helpful, very useful and very important for us, for us as part of this ‘web of stubbornly loyal relationships in a complex and challenging situation’ > we’re continuing to hold that definition of Christian community in our minds through this series.

    Let’s see how that works, what God has for us in his word that tells us how vital accountability is as we do Christian life together >

    We can jump straight to the end so to speak with Romans 14:12, where Paul says – 

    ‘Each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.’

    This is an image of the end isn’t it, the end of our earthly lives where we’re standing in front of God and we’ve got to give an account of ourselves > What we’ve done, what we haven’t done, where we’ve gone wrong etc etc. 

    If we literally had to do that we would struggle! There are too many things to list across a lifetime, too many things that we can’t even remember all of them. Mistakes, bad moments, sins, times when we saw what God was calling us to do but we didn’t answer, the list goes on…

    We might think of this as the ‘final judgment,’ when God decides who’s going to heaven and who’s going to hell… But there’s so much more to this, so much more to how God sees us!

    And it’s clear straight away in this chapter or Romans if we read around this one verse > what does Paul say? 

    Does he say ‘God’s going to judge you, so you should go and judge others’ – no! It’s the direct opposite of that actually.

    If we read on in this chapter Paul says God will judge you, so that means DO NOT judge others! That’s in God’s hands, not ours. We are called to LOVE, not to judge. Very important point there.

    So we are not judges but we do have callings, we have VOCATIONS don’t we! We know this word, our vocations, our callings as God’s people, simply put to love God and to love others, as he has first loved us. We have a responsibility to our vocation, we’re accountable to our God-given vocations.

    In our second reading today we hear what accountability, what a solid network of support, is useful for > it’s helpful for handling the world out there, the fiery ordeal / strange things out there Peter mentions. 

    It’s a fiery ordeal out there for sure, but we shouldn’t be surprised Peter says > we should rejoice he says, as we participate in the sufferings of Christ. Not rejoicing because we like suffering, but rejoicing through suffering ‘so that we may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed’ (1 Peter 4:13)

    And we do this together > if you’ve ever tried to handle a ‘fiery ordeal’ in your life on your own, you will know it’s very difficult to do. And yes it can still be very difficult when we share the fiery ordeal with others, even when we have others with us on the hard road, but what’s still missing there? 

    We also have Jesus with us, walking alongside us through every single ‘ordeal,’ fiery or not, that comes our way. 

    Accountability helps us to remember that, to rest in that, to trust in the presence of God alongside us in all we do. 

    With accountability, with a network of meaningful support around us where we can share how we’re really going, we can share what we’re struggling with and we can share our mistakes and our sins and our wins and anything else in between, God reveals himself to us > 

    This is an extension of the fellowship and breaking bread parts of Acts 2:42, really apostles teaching and prayer too, where we’re stronger together, we’re supported together as we support each other. The team approach, we’re on the same team, we’re on Jesus’ team and he’s on ours! 

    What happens in a team environment? 

    I know a little bit about this having been on many different teams in my time, sporting teams / work teams / volunteer teams > 

    Yes there is encouragement and support and connection and belonging as well in the best teams, but along with that comes the challenge to improve, to get better, to learn and to grow, and to share that learning and that growing with others. Going somewhere together, a sense of intentional movement.

    Teams ‘collaborate together to achieve a shared goal or purpose’ (google definition) > the best teams are marked by a culture of accountability, where mistakes can be admitted and also forgiven (much easier said than done!), where mutual encouragement and care is provided, where people are empowered to bring their best and help each other do the same. The best teams are characterized by hard work > it doesn’t happen by accident! 

    Back to our setting as church, who’s done the hard work for us? Who’s done the hard work for us so we can be on his team? 

    We didn’t earn a spot on ‘team Jesus,’ he won it for us. 

    He won it for us and he also calls us to be part of it, to live as a ‘team player,’ to share in his good gifts together and to share them with others, that’s the shared goal or purpose we have there.

    So some good things about being ‘part of this team,’ being accountable to our God and to each other, having a responsibility to live out of the good gifts he has given us.

    But the hard truth here, the other side of this is:

    If we’re not operating as a team, we’re going to struggle. 

    If we don’t have networks of support or a culture of accountability, we’re going to struggle.

    If we put ourselves and our own comfort levels ahead of the shared purpose we have of being and doing church together, we’re going to struggle.

    Serious challenges for us there, important realities of our context to be aware of if we’re going to know how to live out of God’s gifts for us in our specific contexts. 

    I can tell you it’s a challenge for me in my role, to advocate for a culture of accountability – this is a challenging space, not only for how we do church together but in terms of being a pastor in our district, in our nation – how do you ensure there are supportive networks, channels for finding and giving support, healthy boundaries, good communication – especially when in most cases the only person on staff, certainly full-time staff, at any given church is the pastor! It can feel like a ‘team of one’ at times!

    But that’s where the accountability of the ‘web of stubbornly loyal relationships’ comes in, SO important to have ongoing relationships of support for me as a pastor and just as a person, and I’m extremely grateful to have a few of those in my corner!

    And of course there’s the MOST LOYAL relationship we can have, Jesus alongside us knowing exactly what we’re facing and walking through it with us > this is where our prayer life is so important too, we’ll touch on that to close out this series next week.

    So for us, here in our church, how does a culture of accountability play out in our ministries, our relationships, our church council and volunteer teams, in all the ways we be and do church together?

    God’s grace is the starting point, the point we keep coming back to, the point that goes with us.

    The call our God has placed on each of our hearts, that thing we love to do, that thing we’re good at, that gift we can use to show love and care for others – spend some time with God this week to remember that or even discover what that is if you don’t know!

    Our community being a safe place, where people can find support when they’re doing it tough, they can connect and belong and be part of the same team. 

    And we can also acknowledge when something has gone wrong, when something could be better, working through challenges together rather than letting them slide or avoiding the issue! That’s taking the hard option over the easy one there! Hard option but it is what God calls us to, and he goes with us, leading the way through hard roads.

    I’ll finish with some words from 1 Timothy 6:12, a powerful word on how God calls us to receive his call and live out of his grace:

    Here we are called to ‘take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.’ 

    Not sit back but TAKE HOLD, our God who has taken hold of us calls us to take hold of him as we do life together in this ‘web of stubbornly loyal relationships, in a complex and challenging situation, who are committed to practicing the way of Jesus together, for the renewal of the world.’ 

    Lord we need your help on that journey! Amen.

    //

  • COMMUNITY series.2 – Wise Counsel

    Question for you: Can you think of a piece of ‘good advice’ you’ve received?

    Maybe it was personal, maybe to do with health or finances from your doctor or your accountant, maybe it was in the little things like what team to tip in the footy – I’m backing the Panthers to beat the Raiders today, there’s my hot tip for you! We’ll see if that turns out to be ‘good advice’ or not…

    For me there are two pieces of ‘advice’ I think of, coming from my high school principal and an old footy coach.

    From my principal it was always simply ‘tuck your shirt in!’ 

    He would roam the grounds and he was very hot on this rule, shirts must be tucked in, even at recess and lunch! You had to be ready for when he walked around the corner, you did not want to be caught out!

    And my old footy coach – I may have shared this before – every time we got in the huddle he would always say – without fail – ‘Like I say, the onus is on you blokes.’ Every time, and of course there were a few other colourful words thrown in there as you might expect!

    And thinking of Mothers Day of course today, we might have some good advice we’ve received from mums or mother-figures along the journey – maybe some things like ‘don’t forget to wash behind your ears,’ ‘eat your vegetables,’ ‘don’t forget your lunchbox’ some we may have heard.

    Now that’s a bit from me, but because we’re thinking about COMMUNITY, I’ve actually gone out this week and tapped into the community around us, I’ve been asking people this week in different settings across our community about the good advice they’ve received from mums and mother-figures over the journey.

    Here are some responses I got:

    ‘Do to others what others as you would have them do to you’ > the golden rule! 

    ‘Never give up, just do your best’ > good strong encouragement there.

    One around church things: ‘Don’t stay in the pews’ > as in living out our faith, responding to God’s call, putting our faith into action. Good one.

    And this one is interesting > ‘If you don’t listen to the whispers of your body they will turn into screams’ > powerful one there, a lot of aspects to that!

    The person who shared this also mentioned the classic, ‘do as I say not as I do,’ that we may have heard over the journey as well!

    Mothers may have reminded us the Christian life is not just Sunday morning, it’s 24/7! And songs, hymns, our customs and traditions, faith itself have all been passed on down the generations.

    So why are we talking about this today? 

    We’re in the second week of our series on COMMUNITY today, and we’re thinking about this theme of WISE COUNSEL > not only ‘good advice,’ but WISE COUNSEL. What is that, where do we find it, who can we get it from…

    Two passages to touch on around that today, two passages that speak not only to WISE COUNSEL but to the WISE COUNSELLOR we all have access to, the Holy Spirit is our WISE COUNSELLOR. 

    And this WISE COUNSEL we receive is very useful in community life, in community building, in connecting and belonging together as Christian community.

    _

    WISE COUNSEL

    In our second reading today from 1st Peter 3: 15 & 16 we hear a few good bits of WISE COUNSEL >

    ‘In your hearts revere Christ as Lord’

    ‘Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have’

    ‘But do this with gentleness and respect’

    Good advice there, WISE COUNSEL > and the order of these things is important too.

    First and foremost, we ‘revere Christ as Lord in our hearts.’ 

    This is where we start, where we keep coming back to, what empowers us and strengthens us as we do life in community. 

    To be a community where Christ is revered as Lord in our hearts, that’s the sort of community I want to be part of – same for you?

    ‘Revered’ as in having reverence for, deep respect, even fear of the Lord as in knowing that God is in fact God, he’s the creator of the universe and our own personal WISE COUNSELLOR as well > we’ll hear more on that shortly.

    This is not ‘revered’ as in being ‘scared’ – I was probably a bit scared of my high school principal in the example I shared before! Our relationship to God is not about being afraid as we know, it’s about being comforted in his love, very different things! Comforted but also in awe of how great and how intimate our God is.

    So important for us as a ‘web of stubbornly loyal relationships in a complex and challenging situation’ that we have Jesus is our hearts, we have relationship not only TO God but WITH God. That’s where we start, that’s where we return to, that’s who and what goes with us.

    And then, with Christ in our hearts, then we move to the next point:

    Being prepared, being ready to answer when someone asks a question about our faith, when someone challenges us on the word of God, when we look around at the world around us and wonder how on earth to handle all the challenges we face, all the challenges people are facing.

    Get ready, be prepared Peter says – wise words there – so we can know and live out of the hope we have.

    This is knowing how to use, how to live out the hope we have > it’s not just something we hold in our own minds, even our own hearts. We share this, it’s for all people to know and receive! 

    We are not ‘owners’ of this hope, we are only custodians, ambassadors of hope. This is about community, being in and building community, where hope is not withheld but it is freely and lovingly shared > very important for us as church, as community, as beacons of the light of God in the world!

    So we’re ready, we’re prepared, and we have Christ in our hearts > good! What’s next?

    Gentleness and respect. 

    NOT coming in all-guns-blazing, impatient, anxious, stressed, pressurized.

    We take a breath – remembering Christ is in our hearts and that’s no small thing, that’s a ‘holy charge!’ A ‘sacred calling’ we all have. Serious stuff here.

    This is considering others and their needs, not just our own.

    Meeting people where they’re at, not where we want them to be > that second part very hard to do, we need God’s help with that!

    Remembering this is not about us, but about the hope we have in Christ > of course that’s the perspective we’re going to have when we have Christ in our hearts.

    All COMMUNITY things there, things to depend on, to build community on. 

    Communities of love and hope, of gentleness and respect, with Christ at the centre. 

    That’s where we want to be, where God calls us to be and to go from, very good place to be.

    _

    WISE COUNSELLOR

    Today we’re not only hearing WISE COUNSEL from God’s word, but we’re also hearing about a WISE COUNSELLOR > 

    I mentioned before how God is our WISE COUNSELLOR, so we have the what and the who coming at us through God’s word.

    The WISE COUNSELLOR is not any one person or leader or influential figure in human terms. 

    The WISE COUNSELLOR we have is the Holy Spirit. 

    Jesus says this in our gospel reading today, the ‘Spirit of truth’ Jesus says, the Holy Spirit will be with us forever, wherever we go > 

    The Holy Spirit is our ‘advocate to help us and be with us forever,’ so that means we have an ongoing connection to not only some WISE COUNSEL, but also to a WISE COUNSELLOR. 

    That’s how God’s word goes from head to heart, the Holy Spirit makes that happen!

    So the work of the Holy Spirit here is a bit mysterious, hard to quantify or measure, but this is how the Holy Spirit works.

    Jesus hints at that when he says ‘the world does not see him or know him,’ but who does know him? 

    WE DO. 

    What a privileged position we’re in > We GET to know the Holy Spirit, we are invited into this relationship, this is for all of us. 

    Again this privilege is not just for us, it’s not EX-clusive it’s IN-clusive, for all people. 

    Sharing and growing together and with those around us, essential aspects of what it has always meant and what it continues to mean to be and to do Christian community together.

    Lord we thank you for your wise counsel and your wise counsellor who is always with us. Guide us to hear what you have for us and sustain us in community by your word and Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

    //

  • COMMUNITY series.1 – Church

    Today we’re going to handle TWO WAVES together >

    Have you ever been at the beach and you got bowled over by a big wave you weren’t ready for?? 

    Hopefully we’re not getting bowled over today, but we’re going to navigate two waves, the first wave is a quote about COMMUNITY, and the second wave is a section of our 2nd reading today from 1st Peter.

    So last week we had ‘The Big 4,’ and now we’ve got another 4 things to look at as we kick off this new series on COMMUNITY.

    We’ve had a good set-up last week with a look at The Big 4 things of being and doing church > and they’re always there for us to remember every time we walk into our church building!

    Now we get to a different angle that we’re going to explore over the next 4 weeks, another 4 things that church is, thinking about this in terms of COMMUNITY…

    With Acts 2:42 we come at that as people who have a bit of prior knowledge > you have to know what the apostles’ teaching is to be able to understand Acts 2:42, you have to have an understanding of fellowship, of breaking bread and of prayer > we bring some prior knowledge to this, it needs some thought, some reflection, some education, some explanation.

    But in terms of church as COMMUNITY, things open up a bit more there > 

    Generally speaking there are people who don’t want a bar of church, they want nothing to do with what happens here. They might have had a bad experience once – that’s a difficult one to come back from! 

    Or they might be busy doing other things on Sunday morning, they might not really know what goes on here, what this is all about. I think for a lot of people ‘church’ doesn’t even enter their mind, it seems to be thought about less and less in the world around us, whether people have actually experienced anything to do with it or not.

    The word COMMUNITY might hit a bit differently to the word church > 

    Of course when we speak about Christian community we are talking about church, the church is God’s people, on Sunday morning and through the whole week, takes many forms with many different people as part of the body of Christ.

    But if were using the word COMMUNITY > who do you know who DOES NOT want or need a sense of community in their lives? 

    Who do you know who DOESN’T want or need to have a sense of belonging, a sense of being part of something, sharing life together with other people??

    People may not want ‘church’ but it’s pretty likely they DO want community…

    That bring us to our first wave today, this quote from Jon Tyson, Aus-born US-based pastor.

    This quote is found in something called ‘The Marriage Journal,’ something Evie and I do together and have done on and off since we were married, 7 years ago now. 

    It’s a devotional book, also with guided questions about key themes on looking after your marriage, checking in with each other, all through a Jesus-lens, very helpful, grounding resource for us > come and talk to me if you’d like to know more about the Marriage Journal.

    So here’s the quote, and we’re going to sit with this for the next few weeks as part of this series:

    ‘Christian community is a web of stubbornly loyal relationships in a complex and challenging situation who are committed to practicing the way of Jesus together for the renewal of the world’

    There’s a lot in there! Take your time reading through that, I’ll read it again for us…

    First thoughts?

    We’re in a ‘web.’ We have ‘stubbornly loyal relationships’ going on > that sounds like family doesn’t it! You might ask why this quote? Because it speaks to marriage and it speaks to church community, the two have a lot in common > ongoing relationships, commitments over time, sharing love and life together, plus all the challenges that come with it, we know about this!

    Absolutely there are complexities and challenges, and then we get to this bit:

    ‘Committed to practicing the way of Jesus together for the renewal of the world’

    We’re committed, we’re practicing the way of Jesus, we’re together, and this is for the renewal of the WORLD > we might more often say the renewal of hearts and minds, but Tyson opens it up to the world here, not only our hearts and minds but the hearts and minds of the world…

    I don’t know about you, but I reckon this is a pretty inspiring quote here, it’s affirming, encouraging and inspiring for us

    It acknowledges that yes there are challenges, it’s not easy.

    It acknowledges our stubborn loyalty, we all have certain people, certain values and beliefs we are stubbornly loyal to!

    And the inspiration and encouragement comes in the togetherness and the renewal parts, not just our sense of togetherness and renewal here in the people among us today but the whole church, the whole body of Christ, all the seen and unseen things going on as part of expressions of Christian community.

    So this is good, it covers a few things, good words to be affirmed and even inspired by.

    That’s the first wave, and now here comes the second one!

    Here’s where Christian community comes from, who’s making it happen, here’s who sustains us in the face of complex challenges:

    1 Peter 2:9

    ‘But you are a CHOSEN PEOPLE, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s SPECIAL POSSESSION, that you may declare the praises of him who called you OUT of darkness into HIS WONDERFUL LIGHT.’

    How’d you handle that wave?! 

    Pretty amazing passage here from Peter, we know Peter is a man who knows what the church is! If anyone’s going to tell us what church is, what it’s all about, it’s Peter! 

    The man who followed Jesus personally, the man who denied Jesus but was then restored to be the rock on which the church is built. Flawed, foolish yet forgiven, empowered by Jesus for the renewal of the world.

    The church is what we talked about last week – where God calls together a group of people and there is commitment and devotion to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to breaking bread together and to prayer – and the church also gets to be these things: 

    CHOSEN people, God’s SPECIAL POSSESSION, and not only that but we get to be CALLED OUT of darkness and into HIS WONDERFUL LIGHT.

    I don’t know about you but I read that this week and it hits you like a wave, a wave of God’s love >

    God telling me I’m chosen, I’m his special possession, I’m called out of darkness into wonderful light. Same for you as you hear it today: YOU are chosen, YOU are his special possession, YOU are called out of darkness into his wonderful light.

    How do you hear that today…

    Maybe you don’t really feel like you’re chosen, or that you’re anything special, or it seems a bit dark around you right now and it’s hard to see this so-called wonderful light.

    If we go back to the web image of the first wave, maybe you feel like you’re STUCK in a web, the negative view of this, being stuck in a web where it’s hard to move, you don’t have control, it’s sticky and messy and someone else is calling the shots > the web of family life can be like that, the web of Christian community can be like that too!

    But if we lean into Peter’s words here there is a sense of MOVEMENT > 

    Moving from darkness to light, so we’re not stuck in darkness but set free into light.

    The web image here is about being connected, moving in and out of connection with other people, not a web of being trapped but a web of being connected to the source and to each other > who else is in this web with us?

    We look around and we see other CHOSEN people, other SPECIAL POSSESSIONS of God, other people who are like us called OUT of darkness and INTO light, not just any light but WONDERFUL light, other translations are MARVELOUS, ASTONISHING light. Not just a glimmer or a spark, but a high-voltage WONDERFUL LIGHT, a light for us and for all to see!

    So we’ve handled two waves there, and as we cruise back into shore we can hear a last word from Peter, 1 Peter 2:10 which says this:

    ‘Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’

    More movement there, from NOT a people to THE PEOPLE OF GOD, from NO MERCY to ALL MERCY

    Whatever happens around us, whatever complexities and challenges come our way, whether we’re feeling stuck in a web or we’re enjoying the connection of a stubbornly loyal Christian community, God says this about us:

    We are CHOSEN.

    We are his SPECIAL POSSESSION.

    We are HIS POEOPLE, and we HAVE received mercy.

    We are called OUT of darkness into HIS WONDERFUL, MARVELOUS, ASTONISHING LIGHT.

    That light’s always on and our God’s always home!

    Lord we thank you for your wonderful light that guides us and reveals to us who you are and who you say we are. Help us in the complex challenges of community life. Help us to get and to stay connected in a spirit of togetherness, not only being church together but inspired towards the renewal of the world. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

    //

  • The Big 4

    In years gone by here I’m making an educated guess I think that there’s been some discussion on this verse! Of course there has, it’s literally written on our wall out there!!

    What are these 4 things, what do they mean, how do they happen, what are they based on… 

    OVERVIEW

    Important to remember the context of Acts 2 > what’s happened before this? Pentecost, the Holy Spirit appearing in tongues of fire, people speaking to and hearing each other in their own languages, the Spirit of God being among people and bringing them together in this amazing way > more to come on that in a few week’s time!

    That bit of context helps us remember IT’S NOT ALL ON US > these 4 things are not about us, it’s not like ‘we achieve these 4 things = then that means we’re a good church,’ or ‘we’ve done our job’ or something like that > it’s actually really important for us to guard against that way of thinking, as if being and doing church is ticking a number of boxes or crossing off things on a list. That couldn’t be further from the truth! 

    To think that way and to operate that way is actually putting limits on God, it’s actually trying to put God in a neat-and-tidy box that we can open up on Sunday morning and then close up again for the rest of the week > if that’s what we think church is we’ve got a serious problem.

    The Holy Spirit is the instigator and enactor of faith, not us. God shows up and we receive from him. We cannot possibly limit God – but we all try to. We are the ones who are limited, limited in our understanding, limited in our capacity of what we can do on our own > which in spiritual terms is actually NOTHING without the work of the Spirit. 

    We are guilty of thinking TOO SMALL > all of us fall into the trap of thinking small, as if our church and our friends and family and the people we interact with are all there is, when if fact that’s only a tiny percentage of who’s actually out there around us, in our own backyard, connected in to our church around our local area, state, country, even overseas > all that and we haven’t even mentioned those who’ve gone before us in the faith, much to learn from there.

    We tend to think SMALL but God calls us to THINK BIG > Only thinking small leads us to look down, to look inward only, to miss what else is happening around us.

    Thinking big is to open right up, to think about not only ourselves but how we all fit into this world we’re living in > when we do that our perspective shifts dramatically, we start to see all the other ‘sheep’ out there, all the other paddocks, not limited to our own little patch… more ‘not only what IS but what COULD BE’ / God is a God of POTENTIAL not LIMITATION…

    Onto the Big 4 things, what are they are how do they play out among us?

    ‘APOSTLES’ TEACHING’

    What is apostles’ teaching??

    Simplest form: what the apostles taught, what Jesus’ followers taught, which is not teaching that they came up with themselves but teaching of Jesus given to them and given to us. What evidence do we have of apostles teaching? New Testament > Gospels, Paul’s letters, other letters from other apostles, and then we have our confessions and statements of beliefs which are based on these teachings.

    So we have A LOT of content! This is NOT something that we learn once and then we know it, we don’t ‘graduate’ from knowing apostles teaching, all of us are always learning because what the apostles teach is that God’s word is revealed to us in Jesus through the Spirit, who is active in our lives and the lives of others > ongoing learning journey all through life.

    That’s why we continue coming back to the Word again and again, we always have more to learn and we always need God’s help.

    ‘FELLOWSHIP’

    We can think of this as the environment for this ongoing learning, this lifelong learning journey.

    This is where it happens, community together, being and doing church together. Participating together, sharing together is the original sense here. We’re not consumers, we’re participants – church is not like going to the shops to get a product, and it’s not like sitting on the couch at home and watching a TV show, it’s a community to belong to – much deeper purpose, connection there. We are not meant to be just on our own, working this out for ourselves > this is a shared thing, as hard or as challenging as that may be at times. 

    Who knows Bonhoeffer’s ‘Life Together’ book? One of the things he talks about are our two modes, ‘the day alone’ and ‘the day with others.’ 

    That helps us see the purpose of time on our own and time with other people, both are important, necessary for our walks of faith. And the key point is both modes are with God > the day alone is actually with God, and the day with others is also with God. He is always with us, whatever mode we’re in.

    ‘BREAKING OF BREAD’ (How is this different to fellowship?)

    Not a coincidence that we hear Isaiah’s (53:5) words today > ‘By his wounds you have been healed,’  by Jesus giving his body and blood for us > that we receive together in the bread and wine of communion > we are healed – who needs some healing today?! This is a good thing, a very important thing for us to receive as we continue to do.

    So the ‘breaking of bread’ is in the bread and wine, Jesus body and blood broken and given for us. 

    And it also happens in our fellowship together, us doing life together in community, when we share a meal together, when we share morning tea after worship – this is our first opportunity to live out who God calls us to be! Receiving from God, then giving to and receiving from each other in community. When we catch up with an old friend, when we meet someone new, all these everyday interactions that happen and we have a chance to be in community > God reaches us there, God has designed us to live in community and he shows up there.

    ‘PRAYER’

    And this is how we communicate with God, how he speaks to us and how we speak to him.

    I can share with you some thoughts from our district bishop who’s recently been on retreat, great to have opportunities to retreat and to park some of the everyday things to be able to spend time with ourselves and with God >

    ‘Prayer does not begin with us, but with God’s command and promise’ (Luther)

    God calls us to pray, and he promises to hear, to listen to what’s on our hearts.

    ‘Prayer is as essential to the life of the soul as breathing is to the life of the body’ (Thomas Merton)

    Beautifully put, we have to do this! It’s so important! We get to do this, we all have direct access to the creator of the universe at any time – right now, on a random Tuesday afternoon, in the middle of the night – through the Word and through prayer, we’ve got to make use of this.

    Like our bodies will struggle without water and good food, our souls will only struggle if we don’t have prayer, if we aren’t connected to the one who made us and sustains us.

    ‘Prayer is as natural and as real as conversation between good friends’ (Bishop Mark’s own reflection)

    Think of a good friend you can talk to about real things that matter to you in your life – that’s what it’s like to talk to Jesus, even better he is not only your friend but your Saviour, he gives you new life and he gives you those good friends as well! We have to lean in to this, it is so good and so important for us.

    So to sum up, NONE OF THESE THINGS are our work, our own efforts, none of this is independant of God, he is the source and sustainer of it all!

    God is NOT saying here’s the content, now you go do it. No, he’s saying here’s the content, now let’s be in relationship and do this together > big difference there.

    We have the APOSTLES TEACHING, words from Jesus himself, words to live by, be empowered by and keep coming back to.

    We have FELLOWSHIP, the environment we find ourselves in for this ongoing learning and trusting journey we’re on together.

    We have the BREAKING OF BREAD, which is Jesus’ body and blood broken and given for us, and all those opportunities we have for being together over a meal, a coffee, a walk, all these ways we can find connection and community with each other.

    And we have PRAYER, our way of hearing from and speaking to Jesus himself, as important as being ‘essential to the soul’ but also as natural as a chat with a good friend. 

    So let’s trust together in what we have received, where God calls us to be, how God reaches us and how God calls us to reach others – this is the sort of stuff you write on a church wall!

    Lord we thank you for teaching us, for giving us people to do life with, for what your Son has done and won for us on the cross and that we can have direct access to you, our maker and our sustainer. Help us as we journey together as your people, not limited by what is but inspired by what could be. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

    //