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

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‘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

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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.