Serman Sunday 31 sr October, 2010

Very truly I tell you---just as the Father raises the dead & gives them life, so also the Son gives Life!

May I speak in the name of God, forever creating, redeeming and sustaining. Amen.

I want to talk to you about death; about departure; and about - well, actually - donuts. Death - because like taxes - it is a certainty in an uncertain world; and because it is the eve of All Hallows. Departure - because as Mr Magnorium says, in the marvellous family movie, "Mr Magnorium's Wonder Emporium", "light bulbs die; I depart." And donuts - well, just the thought, like the sugar of the real thing, will probably serve to keep you awake in case you miss something; more about donuts later.
So firstly, death. Death really is a taboo in our culture. We avoid even the word if we can. No one dies any more. We "lose" them They "pass away", and even our funerals have become more of a celebration of life, than an opportunity for grief. Some of you I know are here today, because someone whom you deeply loved has died in the past year. And our hearts go out to you today, because the ache you feel today is shared in some measure by all of us. For to know the joy of human life and love, is also and always to know the pain of human death. And this time of year, All Saints and especially All Souls' - tide is an occasion to acknowledge that, and to address our grief at some little distance from its beginning. It is also an opportunity to set that grief in the context of the promises of the gospel.
Jesus said "Blessed are those who mourn." He meant I believe, that such people have known love and connection and relationship - and therefore have had something and someone to lose; and are happy in that sense. But even more powerfully, Paul writes "Death is swallowed up in victory." For the Christian death is not the end. The resurrection of Jesus shatters the idea that human beings cease to be. Which brings us to the notion of "departure".
Now departures are not easy. Anyone whose even been in the departure lounge of a major international airport knows that. The air is thick with fears, anxieties, hopes, longings spoken and unspoken. Every human parting, as has been said, is a "little death." They are, as it were, "practice runs". Little opportunities to strengthen our wills and our wings for the big "take-off"; chances to experience for "letting-go", that we will need when it becomes our turn, out time "to depart."
As the Bishop of Skondi, Ghana writes, "Those who die in Christ are near to God. They are only sleeping. Death is only a night's kiss from God. It is not death to those who love God. It is an exodus. It is going out to God." We depart in order to be with God which is far better. A little story.
An elderly woman who was a very active and faithful member of her parish for years was dying, and she asked the priest to visit her to talk about her funeral. She said, "When I am laid out in my casket, I want my rosary in one hand, and a fork in the other." The priest was caught by surprise; "You want to be buried with a fork?" "Yes. I have been looking back at all the Church dinners that I've attended over the years. I remember that at all those meals, when we were almost finished, someone would come to the table to collect the dirty dishes, and usually they would say, "Keep your fork." That meant that dessert was coming. When they said that, I knew the best was yet to come! That's exactly what I want people to talk about at my funeral. When people see me in my casket, I want them to turn to one another and say: "why the fork?" ; and I want you to tell them, that I kept it because the best is yet to come."
Jonathan's Aunty Molly, who died this year, would have agreed with that story, for she was fond of dessert, and a wonderful example of Christian faith and service. So finally, while we're on dessert, what about the donuts?
Buried far back behind the American custom of "trick and treating" at this season, lies the medieval Christian tradition of "souling". Beggars would go from house to house asking for food - a "soul cake" in return for saying a prayer for the departed members of a household. They would chant
'A soul cake, a soul cake,
Pray, good missus, a soul cake,
An apple, a pear, a plum, a cherry,
Any good thing to make us all merry,
One for Peter, two for Paul,
Three for Him who made us all.
Up with the kettle and down with the pan,
Give us good alms and we'll be gone.

Tradition has it that one cook, aware that many beggars were in it for the free food not the praying, decided to reinfuse the custom with proper religious sentiment. So she cut a hole in the middle of her soul cake dough and dropped it into hot fat, inventing the doughnut. The idea was that every time the recipient bit into the circle of dough, representing the endless circle of eternity, they would be reminded of their duty to pray; and of the endless encircling love of God which sustains us all.

So as we come now to remember those whom we love but see no more, let us remember that they are only a little further along the path than we are; all of us travelling back to the source of all life; the endless eternal light and love of God. Amen.

And so let us pray; Loving God we bring to you the memory of our loved ones and the grief we feel; grant them your peace; let light perpetual shine upon them and in your loving wisdom work in them the good purpose of your perfect will, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sermon 17th October, 2010

Widow & Unjust Judge/Pharisee & Tax Collector

"The Sounds of Prayer"
- Gregorian Chant!

Sounds are very simple - and we can hear some of them, implicitly in these two stories (small part of what is meant by prayer).

1. [Knocking] - widow "kept coming to him"
- knock can be gentle or loud
- persistent; demands attention.

This Prayer a form of knocking - draws God's attention; draws our attention;
→ ACTION; cp. eg. widow/women in black; mothers of the Disappeared, Woy Woy Hospital Alliance.
Prayer of intercession
↘ not because God is reluctant; because humanity is slow to wake up to the need of another
- God is knocking with us, on behalf of all who suffer injustice
- the widow, the fatherless and the stranger;
KNOCK - draw attention on behalf of another, is to go out beyond ourselves
- "ekstasis" - means to stand outside ourselves; we get our English word 'ecstasy'.
- Seeking a connection beyond our own self-concern.

2. PHARISEE - way story set up
[STATIC - OUT OF TUNE RADIO]
Lost connection with himself, with God, with others whom he despises (complete antithesis of everything we understand by prayer.)
Case is not hopeless (at least he sees the tax collector) - in fact he has all the means of hearing God speak to him - he's just put himself (his ego) totally in the way, so that he's stoppered his ears and created static!
Actually suggests very good ways of connecting with God.
Regular worship in a sacred space - community - habit.
Upright living - choosing ways which leave space for God.
Fasting - remind of God's presence
- increase thankfulness for food and health.
Giving alms - exercise of compassionate care.
Outward actions do help - they turn on the radio -
but there can be no music, no word where there is no reception.
- where those concerned are not willing to receive there is no connection.

3. [BEATING] OF FIST AGAINST BREAST
Tax collector connects
- literally, physically; fist to breast
- emotionally and spiritually expressing in that action his sense of remorse; his desire to be different; the longing that his heart might be softer.
- That's why he goes away "justified"
- "set right"
- his prayer is far from perfect (as all our prayer is) - he's very much focussed still on himself - but his prayer is real, and honest and connected - and there's no substitute for that.


Widow, tax collector and even Pharisee all reveal something of the sounds of prayer - of which we can hear echoes in our own practice of prayer.

In some sense they are all echoes of the sound of God at prayer in us.
For God prays with us, in us, through us - prayer is never a one-way communication; it is always and encounter full of the promise of intimacy.
→ an encounter to which we are constantly, and perseveringly invited.
- just as we are encouraged never to give up so God never gives up on us.
(A) - Knock - tap on shoulder; tug at the sleeve - waking us up; alerting us to the Divine presence.
- in Creation; in compassion, in those we love.
(B) - Word of God - quite clear & direct if we tune ourselves to receive it and we do have a dial to go by. - community - Church.
Scriptures → Patterns of live and spiritual disciplines of fasting and almsgiving. In themselves they will not take us to
God - a bare observance can take us further away.
- but taken together with a willingness of heart, they can enable us to hear clearly, a whole divine symphony - or at any rate a word or two.

(C) - BEATING OF BREAST - prophets speak of need for a heart of flesh and not of stone;
God works on our hearts to soften them - to make them more compassionate.
- like potter with clay;
We can resist and make the task harder - but slow dripping wears away stone -
In each of us, if we are willing, God can wear away a hollow that can hold water
- The living water of the tears of God's compassion.
- a well where we and other can drink.
- and the sound of this prayer of God is us?
- the sound of living water, babbling and rushing - and bring healing to us and to the world God so long to restore.
In whose name.
Amen.

Notice to the Anglican Parish of Woy Woy

I have some very emotionally difficult news to share with you.

As you will be aware, for several months Jonathan has been seeking new vocational opportunities, especially with the end of his work with the NSW Ecumenical Council, which took effect in July. We have consequently explored a wide variety of possibilities, not least a number of local avenues which would have enabled us to remain here. None of these have however borne fruit. As a result, after lengthy prayer, discernment and consultation, Jonathan and I have decided to accept the offer of two new appointments, as Rector and Associate Priest respectively, in the Parish of St.Luke, Toowoomba, in the Diocese of Brisbane.

It would be fair to say that we would never have expected such a move. Indeed the regional bishop who approached us himself described this as coming ‘out of left field’. Although, if opportunities locally were not available, we were open to looking elsewhere, Queensland was not on our agenda. However God moves in mysterious ways. The diocese is very welcoming and the parish can afford fully to support the ministry of a married couple. How the people of such a beautiful but socially conservative city will cope with the two of us remains to be seen! – but we do discern God’s leading in this. The parish, which has been at a low ebb for some time, certainly needs gifts like ours and we feel that we must respond to the calling. It will, above all, fulfil a long-held dream for the two of us to minister together fully in one community.

This has not been an easy step to take. For we are very sad to be leaving all of you, and the many friends and contacts we have here on the Central Coast. We have been wonderfully enriched by our time here and especially by all we have shared in this parish – which in Jonathan’s case extends over nine and half years. There will be opportunity to celebrate something of this in the next few weeks. For the moment we hope that you will forgive us for our news, and understand that we have had little real choice in this but to accept God’s gracious gift to us of shared work work to do and a place to be together.

At present, arrangements for our move are a little uncertain, but it is expected that we will leave the parish in mid-December. Before then I am sure that there will be much to discuss and, I hope, adequate time for farewells. This is a loving, and very blessed, parish – you know that we have always said that, and you need to know and celebrate it again. For I have every confidence that you will all continue to work together, to maintain and grow the ministry of this parish. God has assured me that you will ‘figure it out’ and that this change will offer a vital and necessary moment to move forward into a fruitful new stage in the life of the parish. My prayer is that you will come to approach our news in this spirit, so that, in due course, you will joyfully welcome a new Rector worthy of the huge privilege of serving you in this wonderful place. Thankyou.


Penny Jones 17.10.10

Sermon - Blessing of Animals - St Francis-tide

3/10/10 BLESSING OF ANIMALS – ST FRANCIS-TIDE

I must admit that when I first looked at today’s reading list, I thought there must have been a mistake made. Some of you may be thinking that too! Why two gospel readings? – what’s going on?

However as I sat with those readings in order to prepare this sermon, I began to realise why they had been chosen, as we come at the conclusion of the Season of Creation, to celebrate and remember St. Francis of Assisi, who in 1980 was declared the patron saint of ecology. For in their different way’s, they express some key aspects of Francis’s life and teaching, which are exemplary for us – for Francis brought to the church 3 radical things –
• A respect for revelation
• A demand for mercy
• A call to poverty

And I choose the word radical advisedly – for it means to be at the very root of something. And Francis was a radical- he was proclaiming a gospel that went to the origins, to the tap root; to the very source of life of Christianity itself. His was a message that challenged the wealthy and corrupt medieval church of his day, to return to the simplicity of Jesus’ original promise of “good news of the poor.”

In our reading today from Galatians, we hear a young St Paul expostulating with the kind of fervour that Francis would (much later) demonstrate – and indeed there are words here which well describe the transformative journey of Francis’s life. Paul writes -

“If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Francis would have sympathised, for as many of you probably know, he was the son of a wealthy merchant, and enjoyed the lifestyle that went with that. However as a young man, he went to war and was taken prisoner. After a year in prison he was released, but fell very sick and these two experiences proved to be transformative, preparing the ground within him for God to offer a decisive moment of revelation.

Wandering through the streets of Assisi, he entered the run-down church of San Damiano. As he prayed there, “he saw a vision of Christ Speaking to him, saying ‘Repair my home, which is falling into disrepair.’ Ever literally-minded, Francis began to raise the money to pay for the re-building of San Damiano by selling a bale of cloth from his father’s warehouse. A fiery conflict ensured between father and son, which ended only when Francis dramatically renounced his inheritance, throwing down even the clothes he was wearing, and left empty-handed to espouse ‘Lady Poverty’.” from the Wordsworth Dictionary of Saints by Alison Jones).

The words of Paul “I want you to know that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin, for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1.12), would have found a clear echo in Francis’s experience. His was a certainty born of direct, personal encounter with the divine – literally and ex-static experience; for the word ek-stasis means to “stand outside” oneself. It led him to “stand outside” his former life, to shed its habits and expectations as he shed his clothes; and to begin an entirely new way.

By begging, he eventually got together enough money to restore San Damiano’s, and others were drawn to follow his example – within ten years, there were 5,000 brothers following his “Simple Rule”, and as result of his friendship with Claire, sisters, The Poor Clares, soon followed.

What was it that attracted them? The simplicity of the rule! The holiness of the man and his attested ability to perform miracles? Probably! Certainly one of the things that attracted them was the radical mercy that Francis practised himself, and encouraged others to practise also. He took literally Jesus’ words to the lawyer in the story of the Good Samaritan we heard as our second reading today, “go and do likewise.” He is often quoted as saying, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and if you must use words.” – that is to say, use deeds rather than words to witness to the love of Christ for the world, but use words if you have to. Hence Franciscans are noted both for their deeds of compassion and for their evangelistic zeal. Many of them are among the world’s peace activists, seeking always ways to end the wars that so unjustly hurt the poor more than the rich; and often being active in missions to parishes, recalling ordinary fold like us to the extraordinary love of God for us.

Many of you will recall, in this tradition, the visits that the Little Brothers of Francis have made to us; and we remember them and pray for their ministry today. They of course are Contemplatives, committed to that essential life of silence and prayer that sustains the rest of us – leaving their hermitages only two or three times a year. Theirs is a life of radical poverty – sustained by their vegetable garden, their goats, their bees and whatever funds they gain from selling jams and cards. It must be a hard life at times. Yet no-one who has met Bros. Geoffrey, Wayne and Howard can have missed their joy – their lightness of step and twinkle in the eye.

Like their founder Francis, they have found by embracing poverty, a great freedom. They have learnt indeed, as our Gospel today says, that life is “more than food, and the body more than clothing.” (Matthew 6.25). Theirs is a lifestyle which truly challenges the consumerist idols of our day, and encourages us to re-think our notions of ownership and what is “enough”.

As Tom Cullinan, a Benedictine monk and peace activist from England, remarks, “Too many groups work at the level of nuclear arms or arms sales and not enough ask why it is that wealthy nations need armaments. There’s a tie-in between the arms race and our concept of ownership; what it means for a thing to be mine or yours. If I’ve got things, I have to defend them: if I own things, I have to lock my front door. And it’s at this deep level that monastic life ought to be relevant. We ought to say that nothing ever belongs to any of us. We need a new vision of ownership. But we can only say it by doing it, not by merely voicing it.”

In other words it is essential that we walk the talk. And Francis, and those who now follow after him, set an example of this for us to follow.

It is all too easy to dismiss him by rendering him “cute” – that diminutive little fellow in a brown dress, pictured with gentle animals around him and doves perched on his head and arms. The pre-Raphaelite pictures of a meek and mild Jesus, with long golden hair, blessing the little children, which some of you will remember from Sunday School books, have something of the same effect.

There was, I believe, nothing at all “cute” about Francis – or Jesus for that matter.

By his actions, far more powerfully than his words, he offered a radical critique to the church of his day, which still resonates today. Accepting a unique revelation, he recalls Christians to lives of mercy and poverty/

In our own day, this calls us to widen our hearts, embracing all nations and people and seeking always paths of peace and non-violence. But perhaps above all, Francis encourages us to embrace the fundamental right to life of other species. The accounts of his life are full of the tales of him preaching to the birds and taming the wolf. Hence the tradition of bring domestic animals to the priest to be blessed on his feast day. But much more is at stake here than simply seeking the health and well being of animals whom we value – important though that is.

It is clear that Francis’s attitude to animals and his skill in communicating with them, grew out of his long hours of prayer and time spent with God. He learnt from God to notice, value and reverence all living things, and this has wide implications. For the moment we accept for example that the bush stone curlew, now nearing extinction here on the Central Coast, is to be valued, we have to begin to change our human behaviour – thinking about those habits of ours that destroy habitat and food supply.

Such change is radical. It involves repentance, and different action. It goes beyond an attitude of “on aren’t the birds pretty – they really bring beauty to my place”, to transform us, so that we begin to understand that we do not own the world, but like all God’s creatures we are privileged to share its riches for a while, and must take some responsibility for all who will come after us, human, animal, bird, frog, fungus and bactium, - and this may mean us “letting-go” of some comforts we currently enjoy. It is a call to poverty – to leaving what we have, in order that others may thrive; and so that we may more easily draw near to God.

Francis indeed is a saint for our times, for he alerts us to the messages of Christ in the gospels – messages about the need to practice mercy towards others (and in our era that includes the animals, birds and forests, as well as other humans, who are currently being “set upon by robbers and left half-dead.”); Mercy of course is sometime translated “compassion”; and Thomas Merton on the day he died makes the point well, in relation to the need to expand our mercy to all living things when he wrote, “the whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another and all involved in one another.” Francis alerts us too, to the messages’ about the need for poverty – for letting go of our need for things and for security, in order to develop a more radical dependency of God.

Francis is a challenging saint – to follow him is not to conform to the norms of our culture; but as Paul said,

“If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Amen