What to wear in Colossae…and Wanaka?

Christmas 1 year C 12 Sermon

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Now that summer’s truly here…whatever to wear in Wanaka? Especially when it’s been so hot.

Well that’s hardly ever a problem is it…
because there actually is a way to dress in Wanaka…
there’s a Wanaka clothing identity!

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It’s smart but casual. You could go golfing or rock climbing or to a café... and you wouldn’t look out of place.

Of course Hawea’s a little different...more alternative ...more greenie maybe...unless you’ve been farming there for generations. But here in Wanaka its

Montage of brands

Ice breaker… Rodd and Gunn... McKensie Country ...perhaps... a Janice Jones scarf...47 Frocks if you’ve got some bread or maybe something sunny from Ezybuy or the op shop at Wastebusters if you don’t. [pause]

...what we wear identifies us... what you wear identifies you ...where you fit in to the local culture...where you live...
what you like to do ... whether your old or young...

and here in Wanaka... we like to relax.

...what we wear in this town…identifies us as relaxed people...even when we’re doing business…even at church.

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We’d look twice and probably stare... if we saw someone walking down Ardmore street in a three piece suit.
Or shopping at New World… dressed up to the nines.

But there are towns where it’s very important
to dress like that. And establishments you’d be asked to leave... if you were wearing... your tramping boots and your gortex jacket…or your jandals.

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How we dress…sends a signal to the world
about who we are ...or who we aren’t.

How we dress… communicates a great deal...
about our identity.

Colossae

And it was true even in Biblical times...
even in Colossae west of Ephesus in the Lycus River Valley.

Looks a lot like Wanaka don’t you think?
This is where the Colossian Christians lived when Paul wrote his letter to them… today it’s part of Turkey.

How people dressed then… said as much as it does today... about where they fit into the scheme of things. And that’s probably why the prophet Isaiah... and the apostle Paul they loved to use dressing up... as a metaphor. Like when you’re depressed …put on the garments of praise. Or ‘put on the armour of God’ to be spiritually safe....  

and that’s why in his letter to the Colossians... Paul writes

if you’re gonna be a community of Jesus’ followers...
you’re going to have to dress right.
You’ve got to put on your Jesus clothes…

if you’re going to have any show
of carrying on Jesus’ work as a community…
all of you are going to have to clothe yourselves in Christ...

And what do these Jesus clothes look like?

Well…Paul tells them…in private and public

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you’ve got to clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience...tolerance, forgiveness.’ Disciples of Jesus don’t just put on any scungy old gear
And at no time... are you to take off our Jesus clothes...
and never ever... parade around without them!

Why is that so important to for the Colossian’s?
Because there’s far too much at stake...like their survival and their ability to hold the Christian community together.
Unless you clothe yourselves in Christ...Paul tells them…
you’re too vulnerable and if you don’t well...
there’ll be no recognizable followers of Jesus. [pause]

Paul long shot

Back in prison in Rome…though he’s never met them… Paul’s worried because he’s heard through the Christian grapevine...they’re in strife and conflict with each other

old habits die hard... pressure to conform to the surrounding culture is strong…

and while some Colossian’s had become baptized followers of Jesus ... their families and friends and their community are still up to their eyeballs in......
well...other stuff

Some worship angels…some are trying to control the elements through witchcraft and wizardry...still others were followers of the great Greek secular philosophies...

And they had all these complicated rules...
about what you could eat and what you should wear...

every culture has them... regulations like "Don’t handle those thing! Don’t taste that! Definitely don’t touch that!" [pause]

So Paul knew it was hard for the new Christian’s in Colossae... to figure out just how to separate...
their culture from their faith.

In fact they’d argue about it all the time...

About what identifies a person.... or a community...

as truly Christian…

These conflicts were threatening the peace and unity of the new congregation.

So of course Paul is worried for them...
and he doesn’t want to confuse them even further...
so Paul uses the kiss principle... you know what that is…?

Paul writes…Dear Colossians just so you’re not sucked in
by any phony arguments...just keep it simple...
because it’s actually quite simple...

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‘just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord...

walk in him, be rooted in him... and built upon him... and established in the faith as you were taught... abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one captivates you... with an empty seductive philosophy... according to human tradition... or elemental powers. Paul tells them...all these are only shadows...

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And Paul doesn’t debate the existence of angels...
instead he says...Christians don’t have to worry about placating spirits... or fret about defiling themselves through food and drink...because Jesus Christ and his teaching....

offer everything necessary for life.

And as they make their way in such a complex cultural environment... they’re gonna have to go easy on each other...instead of arguing all the time... for heaven sake… keep it simple...‘just clothe yourself in Christ’.
just trust God’s new covenant... and

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‘as God's chosen people... holy and dearly loved,

clothe yourselves with compassion...kindness...humility ...gentleness and patience.

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Bear with each other... forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

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And right over all these virtues… put... on... love,

which binds them all together... in perfect unity.

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In other words take off forever –– coldness, cruelty and indifference, arrogance, harshness, irritability, blaming, intolerance…and the hate and the conflict that destroys...

absolutely every community.  

And there’s one more thing…Paul says…
don’t pretend it doesn’t matter if a fellow Christian
parades around in unloving clothes...it does matter...

so you’ve got to point it out to them...but gently and with wisdom...that they might like to change their clothes.
Take off those old stinky rags…
that are so contrary to Jesus’ teaching…and instead of wearing chaos and turmoil...around all the time…

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‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts... [pause]

since as members of one body... you were called to peace...

And be thankful.’

Just stick with Jesus way… and put on an attitude of gratitude while you’re at it? [pause]

And how do we do it?

Well... Paul tells the Colossians…
here’s the only way I know…first

Word slide first reveal

‘Let the word of Christ... dwell in you... richly...’

Especially when you’re tempted to criticize each other.

[pause]

In other words...absorb Jesus word...

into your very being...let his word and his Shalom....

his peace...[pause] live in you. [pause]

Step out of those old stinky rags... and put on some new ones. Because, if Jesus’ good news

is gonna be spread to every creature under heaven...

then Christians had better be clothed in his gospel of peace. [pause]

Reveal number two

and second…when you worship together...

do it all in the name of Jesus... giving thanks to God the Father... through him.’ [pause]

In other words…the strength and the discipline to clothe yourselves at all times…in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience...tolerance, forgiveness…come from Christ… and his word
and from worship with thanksgiving in his name. [pause]

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A few days ago on Christmas morning... in the noise and distraction of 21^st century Wanaka…

we discovered we could learn a lot about God...in the babe dressed in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

And I think exactly in this way…
the apostle Paul is hoping

people at Colossae will learn about God…
from the new community there
which clothes itself in Christ.

Speaking the truth to power

Advent 4 year C Sermon John 1:1ff

The Prophetic Office of Christ

For 1700 years the church was unable to fulfil its prophetic task of speaking the truth to power…because in Christendom the church held the power.

We were called to be a dwelling place for God…to be formed more fully into the image of Christ who was grace and truth in the flesh…called to proclaim his truth to all powers and principalities.

Instead we became caretakers of an institution…
Instead of speaking out with one voice together…
for centuries the prophetic task was left to courageous individuals… like Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Te Whiti, Rutherford Waddell, and Kate Shepherd

Over the past month I’ve preached on are called the three offices of Christ and his church…prophet priest and king...
so you’ve already heard what kind of king our saviour is
and you know how scripture views him as high priest…

today we will hold up Jesus office as the ultimate prophet of God… and the role of the church…
our church has…in carrying on Jesus prophetic work.

And it’s my conviction that today we need to be a Christian community that’s prophetic by our very existence,
not simply by what we do on Sunday morning, or in our study groups. We need to embody our prophetic task in everything we do.

Today Christendom is long gone…and again like the early dessert mothers and fathers…we find ourselves dwellers in the wilderness.
So we have to ask ourselves what might it mean to build a prophetic community from a place in the desert of high speed high-tech and high expectations…a world where a sense of entitlement… to instant results pervades our own community and… rules out… listening and waiting for guidance from God

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But there are some good things about being in the wilderness …things are simplified for us…the basics become life giving.

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If we’re to proclaim Jesus’ grace and truth with confidence to the powers and principalities of this world…
you and I need to know where we picked up our basic Christian­ belief …that Jesus is God’s very prophetic word… spoken to us… in the flesh…

Was Jesus just a home town kid showing off …
or was he actually grace and truth in the flesh…
God’s ultimate prophetic voice to human kind…

Some Christians would like to ignore Jesus prophetic work and consequently their own task of speaking the truth to power…But today I’m telling you there’s no way you can negotiate this out of who Jesus was and …from our work as followers of the Word made flesh. For they are rooted in the words of scripture in John’s Gospel.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all humankind.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so through him all might believe. John himself wasn’t the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him,
the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own, but his own didn’t receive him.

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Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
children born not of natural descent,
nor of human decision or a husband’s will,
but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

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God speaks… and the universe is created…
galaxies and giant nebula come into being…
black holes…cosmic gases…suns and stars…
all the elements that make for life…

God speaks and… an un touched…. Hebrew girl…
conceives a child…

and this child… will become a light for all nations…
the light that shines in the darkness promised by the prophets.  

God has spoken…………..and God’s very Word…

become grace and truth in the flesh …Jesus is born. [pause]

In our gospel reading John the theologian…helps us…
to understand…that the anointed one…the holy one… who enters our humanity in Jesus … is the very same Word …with a capital W… the word…through whom
the whole universe… was spoken into being.  

and because of this incarnation… this enfleshment
of God’s Word in a child born in Bethlehem
…a relationship of intimacy  is made possible…
between God and all humanity…all flesh.

to all who received him…who believed in his name,
he gave the ability to become… the children of God.

God’s purposes…are to be made clear…
in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Where people have walked in darkness and misunderstanding…now…
there’s a walking… talking…human expression…
of God’s Word for humanity…

this child… born not in a palace, but in a manger…
would show us by his life… and by his death…
just how God’s purpose of Shalom…
of peace with justice for all people…would be achieved…

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Love your enemies…do good to those who hate you…
pray for those who persecute you…make peace…
show mercy…be humble…

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travel light…share what you have to feed the hungry…
care for the sick…let the oppressed go free… [pause]

men and women… living in the deadly darkness of fear and exploitation…abuse and slavery…can now see by the light of Jesus’ life and teaching…that their wellbeing
is what God desires

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Men and women… who live in the toxic gloom of pride … and greed and envy …who live in the wasteland of cynicism or the exile of perpetual resentment and judgement of others’ right to be in or out.

can now see by Jesus’ light…
there’s another way to the fullness of life…

And those who believed in his name…would do what he did
they’d become children of God…as he was a child of God.

Last year at this time there was a movement growing which attracted people from all over the world and all religions… they called this movement Occupy…

But 2000 years ago… Jesus would announce…not the occupation of Wall Street or Aotea Square or the dinosaur park…

but love’s occupation…of the whole earth

Jesus would demonstrate…
and call his followers to demonstrate
that the purposes of God will not be defeated…
by the worst things humankind can do. [pause]

How well are we doing?

‘How well do we wait for God?’…how well do we prepare for the coming of God’s future?…
how well do we make room… for Jesus in our lives?…
and how well do we carry… Jesus’ saving message of Shalom into the world…a just peace that takes into consideration the welfare of everyone especially the vulnerable.

Does the message we carry into our community sound like good news to the poor the persecuted…and the different.

Dare we ask how well…we occupy Wanaka…in Jesus’ name… dare the global Christian community ask itself how well we occupy the earth in Jesus’ name

Dare we ask…how well we shine the light of God’s love…into the dark places …  

Because this is exactly what we are meant to be doing
as we wait… for the full realisation of the Kingdom of God.

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Today in the wilderness of corporate powers and self-worship
where God is meaningless…even thriving churches are as small and vulnerable as Jesus was in the first fragile days of his life…[Pause]

The very revelation of God… arrived in a human baby… tiny… vulnerable… without protection… no resources of his own …relying completely on the generosity of his parents.

An infant citizen… of a nation…
occupied by force and by fear…

This child would grow to understand his calling
to do what Israel failed to do…
to shine the light of God’s justice and peace …….
God’s mercy and forgiveness………………
to all nations…even enemies and oppressors…

This child would die…speaking the truth of forgiveness  to the powers of Rome…this child would die with his prophetic word on his lips… rather than retaliate… [pause……]

but that was not the end…
by the power of God’s Spirit…the Word made flesh
would be raised… and he would call his followers to take the light of God’s love… to the ends of the earth… [pause]

God’s Word became flesh…. and dwelt among us…
full of grace and truth…and to everyone
who believed in his name… he gave the power to be called …the children of God

May Christ dwell in you today and in our church
and may your life be full of grace and truth.

And as we journey together into God’s promised future …
let us pray together to be instruments of grace and truth…

Say with me the prayer of St Francis

Slide words

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

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O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Jesus the Bread of Life

Advent 3 year C Sermon ^{John 6:25-33} 

How costly was it for our God…
to become flesh in Jesus of Nazareth. For some part of the creator of the universe…to assume our flesh and our blood and our human frailty…so the message of God’s love for us and God’s purposes…could be delivered in person. How dearly did God pay… to make this happen?

It’s a question worth asking in this Advent season…
as we look forward to Christmas
and the celebration of Jesus birth…

At a time when God’s chosen people had turned away from their calling to be a light to the world… a time when all creation groaned in the Kingdom of Caesar. How high a price would God pay… so all humanity might be reconciled with him and with one another.

The most powerful answer to this question was given

one Sunday morning in the middle of worship… in a beautiful old church…with the sun light shafting across the sanctuary …lighting the Communion table…

when the congregation sat down after the third hymn…

[Put on scarf. Pick up bread wrapped in cloth.]

out from the shadows comes a young woman dressed in a hessian gown…her face painted white like a clown with tears in the form of hearts falling from her eyes…
she is carrying a tiny bundle to which she coos tenderly …lovingly.

The woman hesitates in front of the Communion Table…
and with something like sadness and wonder…she gazes at the plate of bread… and the chalice of wine
glinting in the sunbeams…

she leans over the freshly baked loaf …and inhales deeply.

She looks up… suddenly realising people are watching her from the pews… she smiles shyly…as she looks into their eyes one by one…

And then she holds her precious bundle out to the congregation…as if she’s offering it to them…
but no one moves…

gently and tenderly she unwraps the swaddling clothes…

And grasping the ends of the little loaf she pulls the bread apart.

Silence

Jesus said I am the bread of life…

In the breaking of bread today we’re reminded of the true cost of the gift we receive this Christmas as God comes toward us in Jesus.

And in the taking of bread and wine
we’re connected
not only with the body and blood Christ…
but with one another… in the flesh and the blood we share with all humankind…with every man woman and child
on the face of the earth…

The loaf and the chalice we share…are the bread of life and the cup of salvation poured out for the forgiveness of sins by our very God. [pause]

You know the ancient Hebrew people… used to call the books of Moses… the bread of life…but late on that day after feeding the five thousand…Jesus declares himself to be the bread of life… eternal life… who would satisfy our hunger

While the Jews to which he speaks believe eternal life relates only to the last day…the age to come. John’s Gospel declares the day of salvation has arrived in the person of Jesus... God’s future eternity has broken into history.

And we hear defiant words…that the "bread of life" is not
to be found in the Law but in Jesus the living bread, who gives eternal life to those who believe right now…only by faith. As Paul reminds us…eternal life dwells in Him only "in faith." It’s not merely a quality of his humanity. And just as in the midst of his sinfulness he is righteous, so in the midst of his self-evident mortality he has life.

By faith like Paul we are what we are not. In ourselves we are neither righteous and nor immortal, but in Christ we are both.

Those who followed Jesus couldn’t believe it was so simple…nor could many bear to hear what seemed to be the blasphemy and insanity of Jesus’ claim to be the bread of life himself. Many turned their backs on him when he tells them it’s not Moses who’s given you the bread from heaven, but my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’

“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. ^…

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 

^…From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Once again in as we await the celebration of the birth of Christ…our hunger draws us to this table so we might see what the Kingdom of God looks like. And so that we nourished by Christ’s body may understand what it means to be broken and shared for our community and our world.

Let us sing. Come now Lord Jesus.

Christ the King

Pentecost 26 year B 12 Sermon Christ the King

‘Christ the King?’ imagine some atheist asking...

What crazy people these Christians are...

followers of... this Jesus...

hanging up there on a cross...humiliated... ridiculed...bruised...bleeding... dying... dead...

Christ the King? Why he was powerless to prevent his own execution...his subjects...so few and so weak...
there was no one to fight for him

What sort of insanity... keeps these Christians faithful to Jesus Christ...when they can see with their own eyes he has no power at all. I mean, that’s the point of being a king isn’t it?  Power?

Aren’t kings supposed to be in complete control, possess absolute authority, the right to command armies and obedience, the privilege of punishing anyone who won’t comply? Don’t kings have palaces, wealth, vast empire, loyal subjects...Power!

These Christian’s don’t seem to understand power at all. [pause]

today is Christ the King Sunday...the last Sunday in the Church year...a day to celebrate... the rule and reign of Jesus our Lord.

over all things... in heaven and on earth.  

A day to celebrate the victory of God in Jesus...
over the powers of darkness...a day to rejoice...
in the glory of the kingdom of light...
to which we belong.

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Are we crazy...to proclaim that... in Jesus the kingdom of God has somehow already come...

though not yet complete...Are we foolish to believe... that in Jesus...the very power of almighty God...
is revealed and established...
right here in our human dimension.

I don’t think we’re crazy...not if the gospel is anything to go by. I just think our Christian understanding ...

of authority and kingdom and power...is mysteriously and utterly different...from of all those sneering cynics...
who watch Jesus die on the Cross... and who laugh at the apparent powerlessness... of Jesus’ followers and friends. [pause]

In his book Parables of the kingdom...

Robert Capon tells us... ‘if scripture has a single subject

at all...it’s the mystery of the kingdom of God...

not someplace else called heaven...not somebody at a distance called God, but [in] this place... right here...

and the Holy One who moves mysteriously... to make all creation true... both to itself… and to him.’

And how does God get the job done...the job of reconciling all creation to himself?  What does the Bible teach us… about the way God uses his power ...to achieve his purposes?

If we come to scripture... with a nice respectable notion of an omnipotent God... who has all the controlling and zapping power he needs to do anything he wants… any time he wants to...

we immediately have lots of questions don’t we...

like why is God taking so long to complete the project ...

‘why doesn’t God just knock some heads together,
put all the baddies under a large flat rock...
and get on with the job?’

Instead...when we read the Bible carefully...we see since the time of Noah... God’s had no interest...
in using direct power... to fix up the world.

Well, what do I mean by direct power... Well that’s something you and I use it everyday don’t we?

Direct power is mechanical power... it’s like force

...this morning at breakfast for example you probably used direct power to lift a steaming cup of tea or coffee to your lips...the cup didn’t have any say in it ...you used the power at your disposal to lift it...
and we use this direct kind of power all the time…
to mow the grass or arrange a bunch of flowers or type in a text message button by button.

This kind of direct power is ‘responsible for almost everything that happens in our human dimension of time and space. And one of the advantages of direct power... is that it works! From taking a splinter out of our finger...[pause]

to removing an enemy... with a hand grenade.

But you can already guess that using direct power... has one heck of a disadvantage...

Especially if you believe your purpose in life...

is to remain in loving relationships
with other people and with God. [pause]

Oh, sure you can drag your children out of the way of a moving car...but just try intervening...
 in their plans for the summer...
when they’re eighteen...
especially when their plans mess up your plans.

Let’s say your daughter sneaks out of the house at night without permission. You get angry and try to scare her out of doing it again...yelling and taking away privileges. But she does it again anyway...and again and again and again...

What do you do next...if you’re committed to using direct power as your parenting style...committed to using force?
Yell till your voice gives out?

Take away privileges till there’re no more to remove?

With nothing left...you beat her [if you’re stronger than she is]

until you’re exhausted... then you lock her in her room ...[pause]

Well, I hope you can see the logic… of why direct power is fruitless ...I hope you can see that
very early on in all this... your relationship with your daughter will be destroyed...

unless at some point...you simply refuse to use
the direct power you have at your disposal...


and instead of imposing the pain and punishment your rebellious daughter deserves... you
make yourself vulnerable...

and take onto yourself... all her sneering disrespect her haughty eyes and her pounding fists.

What kind of power is that... for heaven sake...

you might well ask? [pause]

Well disciples of Jesus… from Martin Luther to Martin Luther King… have said that kind of power
is the opposite to direct power. But it is power…
Some say it’s the difference between right and left handed power.

Just look at your right hand for a moment...make a fist ...Right handed power certainly looks forceful and strong and in control...

Now look at your left hand...and hold it out like this in a gesture of welcome or support...

left handed power might look weak – it may be difficult to tell the difference between intervention and nonintervention when you’re using left handed power...

and you certainly can’t guarantee left handed power
will stop evildoers at all.

Well it could soften their hearts but then again…
it might not.

In fact the only thing… left handed power does guarantee... [pause]

is that after you’ve been rejected and battered and hung out to dry or to die...

you won’t have closed any doors...
from your side of your relationship.

Now you might say...that’s not exercising power.

But when we turn our eyes to the Cross of Christ ...

we see... that left handed power is power...
so much power...that it’s the only thing in the world...

that evil can not touch. [pause]

Jesus died forgiving.

Robert Capon puts it this way ‘with the dead body of Jesus ...God wedges open the door between himself and the world and said. ‘there, just try to make me take that back!’ [pause]

At the beginning of his ministry...Jesus was tempted in the wilderness...tempted to use direct intervening power
to accomplish his mission
and establish the kingdom of God on earth.

His disciples hoped he would use force...
direct right-handed power... to overthrow the Roman’s and restore David’s holy city... to the Jews.

But even at the start of his work as a rabbi...
Jesus warns his followers to keep quiet…
about his use of right handed direct power...
When he feeds the five thousand... There’s no hocus pocus... no long prayers... no holy exhortations...
no dazzling sweeps of the cape...that would make great prime time TV…

Jesus simply asks ‘How much food have you got?’

And...Jesus just breaks up the loaves and fishes and passes them around. Jesus doesn’t want his followers to make a fuss about right handed power...he seems to realise the world isn’t going to be saved by miracles...

No the world’s going to be saved...
by a deeper more powerful left handed mystery...

at the centre of which… would be Jesus’ own death.

What saves the world...what saves us... is Jesus...

Because in the right handed realm of Caesar and Herod…
Jesus the King…feeds us with his own hands…washes our feet…heals our broken hearts…restores us to loving community…Jesus completely redefines what it means to be king.

and the way we lay hold of that salvation...

is through faith. And faith simply means...

trusting Jesus...saying yes to him rather than no ...

turning our faces toward him...modeling our lives on him. Modeling our church community on the values of mercy and forgiveness he preached.

What isn’t going to save us is turning our faces toward Caesar or the religious authorities in the Temple...
or any other power and principality… in existence today...

and if… as it was in first century Jewish culture...
if the title of king... is the highest rank we can think of…
if we understand the promise they held onto
that a descendant of David would indeed inherit his earthly throne...and rule over the kingdom of Israel…

as Paul wrote to the church at Philippi

slide words

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.

Slide words

Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

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When we take up our cross and follow him...as individual disciples and as a community of faith…we commit ourselves to Jesus left handed power... proclaiming him to be the ruler of our hearts…and Lord of our Lives…

announcing to the world that through his rule
will come the salvation of the earth….

The Priesthood of Christ

Pentecost 25 year B 12 Sermon

A very good friend of mine, Jason Goroncy, who just happens to be an internationally respected theologian …became a Protestant around twenty five years ago …when he converted from the Catholicism of his childhood…

Jason says he ran into some really scary views of God when he converted…like the one that says God becoming human in Jesus…‘the incarnation…
was God’s attempt to get the reconciliation ball rolling …and that Jesus…
having laid the foundations for reconciliation …
went back to heaven to sit down next to God in the great lounge room in the sky to watch how everything pans out.

And just before his ascension, Jesus forms a little community …to work as kind of subcontractors to the big boss upstairs.

Jesus the foreman… trusts this community to carry on his work while he’s away…and promises to turn up again when the job’s nearly done…just to check everything’s been done … according to instructions.

The implications of this view seemed weird to Jason …
because it sounded like…if God’s costly work in Jesus is to make any real difference in the world… then we need to get off our bums and make sure we get everyone we know
into a home group, or along to church or at the very least, reading a book or watching a DVD…
that tells people in graphic terms…
just how warm their future existence is going to be
unless they pray some magic words.

In other words…some protestants seemed to be saying… whereas God had once been personally invested in this little project called ‘creation’…
God has now taken a back seat to the whole project…

a bit like the founding director of a company
who still serves on the board of directors in a sort of honorary position but who’s really relinquished the right to call the shots. Now the shareholders do that.

What really worried my formerly orthodox friend
is that the church’s central claim about God being trinity …Father, Son and Holy Spirit…
and the belief that God has in Jesus…embraced a fully human existence

…well these core beliefs appeared to make no practical difference to how the protestant church went about its business.

For Jason, the view of a disengaged God…
created profound problems. There was nothing to explain what God expects from human beings…that God doesn’t expect from a kangaroo, or a pine tree, or a cancer cell. [Fortunately Jason found not all Protestants share such a shallow view]…

to his relief…Jason discovered a different protestant perspective in a remarkable explanation of humanity’s role in God’s creation
written by Scottish theologian James Torrance…[i]

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Torrance suggests God made creation… to be something like an orchestra for God’s glory…and that human beings were created to be the conductor of that orchestra, to lead the orchestra in divine praise… as the priests of creation
And now the reason the whole creation is groaning in universal travail…is because creation’s priests have miserably failed… to fulfil their vocation.

Torrance suggests...rather than abandon God’s purposes for humanity and creation…

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God comes in Jesus Christ…
as a second Adam to be the Priest of Creation…
to do for humanity what humanity failed to do…

to offer to God… the worship and praise
the sons and daughters of [Adam and Eve] failed to offer…
[in other words God comes in Jesus]…
to be creation’s worship leader…
and to carry in his loving heart…the joys and sorrows and prayers and conflicts…of all God’s creatures

And the reason for this…
so he might reconcile all things to God.
And only in Jesus’ life and priesthood do we truly discover
what it means to be human.

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[For my friend Jason]…this presentation of the good news was nothing short of an epiphany…[he’d] been in the church [his] entire life… but never ever realised until that moment…how deeply God’s grace penetrates into our broken humanity; [never understood before] how God assumed our humanity in all its falleness and refused to be fallen in it. Never appreciated how Jesus’ offering of praise and obedience…carries all creation
into the healing freedom of God.
Coming from a denomination full of priests…
reading a protestant essay… Jason suddenly discovers what Jesus priesthood means: In his words, ‘here at last, is a true human being, given by God, who sets up shop inside the perversion and disorder of a diseased creation… and who step-by-step, blow-by-blow, moment-by-moment…loves God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength…

and in doing so leads creation itself… in fitting worship which transforms the human condition from the inside out.’

[Now you probably know that traditionally the church talks about the three offices of Christ…not only the priestly office expressed in the passage from Hebrews we just heard but also the prophetic and kingly offices.
You’ve probably heard it…prophet, priest and king.

And today we’re looking closely at Christ’s priestly office …next week on Christ the King Sunday…
we’ll look at Jesus kingly office…and closer to Christmas
I’ll try to knock your socks off…
with my sermon on Jesus prophetic office.

But for today what does the priestly office of Christ mean for our life together, and for our worship?
[what is the good news in it…for us?

Well for one thing, Jason points out…it means we’re never abandoned…to work out life on our own…something that could lead only to despair. Christ’s priesthood means our life and worship [are led by Jesus…and by no other priest.]

And it means…our life and our worship…
are always about participation in the life of another.
It [most certainly] does not mean that each of us can be our own private priest...exercising our own private arrangements with God.

It means our worship…is our joyful ‘Amen’ as we share in Jesus’ own worship… As the writer of Hebrews puts it

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Jesus is our Leitourgos, Leitourgos,  our worship leader… who takes the painful groans of our hearts and our fumbling words and our tormented efforts at prayer and praise and places them into his own mouth and offers them up to God in the freedom of the Spirit...this is the worship God provides.

[And remember] Israel’s job description was to ‘be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation’ a commission grounded in God’s own concern for the nations.

Israel represents those elected by God to be the light to the world, the city on the hill, the salt of the earth…and when they were they were carrying out God’s holy purposes…so what we are dealing with here…is the concept of holiness.[ii]

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The ancient Hebrew notion of prophet, priest and king…

saw the priest as the ‘caretaker of holy spaces and holy

times’…distinguishing for the community…between what has been set apart by God for some purpose…and what was ‘common’ or ‘ordinary’ [or secular]. The task of the priest or priestly community…was to ‘keep the divine Presence’ in the community’s heart.

It is the logic behind the daily service in the tabernacle and keeping the Sabbath…holy times…where God becomes vivid…even tangible…where God’s presence is manifest… where infinity enters space and eternity enters time and [and where God makes space for humankind.][iii]

And my friend Jason sees tremendous implications for us as a priestly community…in a world that’s forgotten
God is truly living in our midst…and cares deeply about all creation…

[But Jason suggests] our Christian understanding of holiness must go further than ancient Israel…because for us…God making space for creation and creation making of space for God…all comes together…
in a particular life called Jesus of Nazareth. [pause]

Yes it’s true that for many religions…human priesthood is about marking out and maintaining certain boundaries
of predetermined notions of holiness…But for Christians …holiness is radically re-defined… by a particular life …which takes shape in our world. The life of Jesus Christ For Christians…incarnation defines holiness…

So viewing holiness through the lens of Christ’s incarnation…what does holiness look like?

Well, the first thing we might say is
Jesus’ life and particularly his resurrection…
reveal there’s no place in creation
where Christ is not Lord. The idea there are ‘God spaces’ and ‘not God’ spaces…is fundamentally inappropriate
for a Christian understanding of God and Creation.

Like the story in in Mark’s gospel where after freeing a demon-possessed man and causing 2,000 pigs to commit suicide…Jesus is immediately accosted by…
the father of a dying girl.

On his way to see the girl…Jesus is almost crushed by a crowd…in which is a woman who’s been haemorrhaging for 12 years. According to the Law she’s ceremonially unclean, and so is everyone and everything she touches. This means whoever comes in contact with her
is excluded from the temple and its worship.

Jesus represents hope in a long line of doctors and miracle workers she spent all her money on for over a decade.
For twelve years this woman’s been treated like a leper in her community…for twelve years she’s been untouched … and untouchable…unable to hug her kids…unable to pour a drink for a friend. No one’s invited her to their home.

Now this woman doesn’t want to know Jesus. She’s not seeking a relationship with him…she wants to be healed. She wants to be restored to her community. She wants to be able to go to her kids’ birthday party and make love with her husband. She wants to be able to prepare a meal for her family and enjoy a day out with her friends.

And she hears reports of this guy in town who heals people and so, at the absolute end of her tether, she goes along to check him out…and she moves in on Jesus from behind... anonymously in the crowd.

This is the man who deliberately touches unclean lepers and corpses. The man who made a point of eating with prostitutes and calling ‘sinners’ his ‘friends’…
who deliberately goes out of his way to do almost everything that the Hebrew Scriptures prohibits us – and especially priests – from doing.

But will he allow this woman to touch him, to pollute him, to make him ceremonially unclean? Because that’s precisely what she does when she touches him. Yes he will…

And in that action, Jesus restores this woman to her family, to her community, and to God. And the same thing happens again when Jesus takes Jairus’ dead daughter’s hand… something Leviticus is clear priests shouldn’t do.

So what is this priest of God doing touching a dead girl?
Like the woman with the issue of blood He is restoring

her to her community…and by so doing so…reminding Israel that priestly ministry…is not only radically restorative but risky. Like offering bread to everyone…

Viewed this way the good news of the gospel is about reconciliation to the table…about restoring all creation to the community of God manifest in Jesus Christ.

Clearly with Christ leading our mission and our worship …God isn’t just sitting around waiting for the church to get its act together, to enlarge the family business and extend its share in the marketplace.

Rather, in this liberating invasion of the cosmos we call incarnation… in Jesus God invites the priestly community to participate in God’s own movement towards the world… summoning all creation into the life of God’s reign...to reconciliation and wholeness.

So what does this mean for us…for the community which shares in Jesus’ priestly ministry?  It means we’re not distinguished by our political views, moral decisions, our conduct or piety...but by our radical esteem for the Incarnation of God in time and space in Jesus Christ…
the one who continually corrects our understanding
of what it means to be human

In light of this… my friend Jason suggests…
Christ’s priestly community is constituted by and for a love so radically centred on others…
that it refuses to imagine life apart…
from blessing its enemies…and forgiving those who would crucify it…A community which risks even its life to ‘become contemporary with Christ’.[iv]

As I said last week… Jesus likened the Kingdom of God to a feast…and Jesus priestly ministry reveals the great extravagance…the reckless, scandalous expenditure of His life for the sake of the world’s life.

He gives away His life and the world finds new life in His life and in His gift of His life to the world. My friend Jason suggests that the church must be a priestly community or it isn’t the church at all.

The Rev Dr. Jason A. Goroncy delivered this address to the elders of the Southern Presbytery, Windsor Community Church, Invercargill, 17 August 2012, with his permission I have adapted it as Part One of a three part series on the offices of Christ. The resources Jason used are represented as endnotes.

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[i] James B. Torrance, 'The Place of Jesus Christ in Worship' in Theological Foundations for Ministry (ed. Ray S. Anderson; Edinburgh/Grand Rapids: T&T Clark/Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979), 348–69.

[ii] Jonathan Sacks, Kehunah and Kedushah: The Priestly Role [2012]; Online:

http://www.chiefrabbi.org/2012/07/11/kehunah-and-kedushah-the-priestly-role/. This and the following citations from Sacks are taken from this article.

[iii] Max Weber, The Theory of Social and Economic Organization (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964), 363–85. See Jason A. Goroncy, 'The Elusiveness, Loss, and Cruciality of Recovered Holiness: Some Biblical and Theological Observations', International Journal of Systematic Theology 10, no. 2 (2008), 195–209.

[iv] William Stringfellow, A Private and Public Faith (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1999), 19.

Murray Rae, Kierkegaard and Theology (London/New York: T&T Clark, 2010), 180.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (ed. Eberhard Bethge, et al.; trans. Isabel Best, et al.; Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works; vol. 8; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010), 56. See Stringfellow, Private and Public Faith 80–81. Also William Stringfellow, Instead of Death (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004), 101: ‘The biblical witness is always a witness of resistance to the status quo in politics, economics, and all society. It is a witness of resurrection from death. Paradoxically, those who embark on the biblical witness constantly