All the nations

We are so used to thinking about the Christmas story as told in the gospel of Luke, that Matthew's equally compelling story can get sidelined. When we do turn to Matthew's story, we can get so distracted by the crib scenes and carols that the true details also get lost. It is worth pondering the details of the visit of the magi and what challenge it still offers to the contemporary church.

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Epiphany Sunday. St Mary's Leppington, 8am (8'09")

Blessed by the face of God

In the perception of the so-called general public, when people think about God - if indeed they ever think about God, the idea that will probably be conjured would be more like the idea of the force from Star Wars, then the biblical reality of God. Likewise, the idea of heaven as somewhere up there - a long way away from us - is a convenient place to store an inconvenient god. But this also is not the biblical vision.

As we celebrate today the feast day of Mary, the mother of God on this first day of the new 2012 calendar year, the readings that the church presents us with provide an opportunity to reflect anew on the place of God in our lives. So let us turn first to the teaching on blessing provided by Numbers 6. Just as we turn to the gospels - Matthew 6 and Luke 11 - to find the teaching of Jesus on prayer when he invites us to pray the Our Father, so we should turn to Numbers 6 to know what it means to receive and be a blessing.

When the Lord tells Moses to teach the sons of Aaron to pray and bless like this, we should hear the same direction being given to us, because in Exodus 19 the whole people are invited into covenant with God, as a kingdom of priests. In the blessing of Numbers 6, there are 6 elements in the three lines of the blessing. The first reminds us that whoever shares the blessing - priest or people - it is God who does the blessing; we simply share in this work.

1. May the Lord bless you
2. and keep you;
3. May the Lord shine his face upon you
4. and be gracious to you;
5. May the Lord uncover his face to you
6. and bring you peace.

When we turn to the Gospel today, from Luke 2:16-21, we see at least three elements that can help us to bring this teaching of blessing into our worlds. In reverse order within the text, they are: pondering and treasuring the word of God; being astonished by the words and works of God; and when we finally know what God wants of us (through this pondering and being amazed by God) then we cannot remain lost in procrastination - like the shepherds and like Mary - we must hurry to where God wants us to be.

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Recorded at St Paul's, 8am (9'13")

Grace, peace and purpose of Christmas

Time magazine this year declared the Protester to be the 'Person of the Year' - and certainly 2011 was an extraordinary year of protests and revolutions. But it was not the first year to be noted as such - and one event that began a revolution that continues to this day was the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, which we celebrate on this Sunday of the Nativity.

The revolution that Jesus began was not begun with riots and violence, but with a revolution of grace and peace.

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Recorded at St Paul's, Camden

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The Kiva.org parish page can be found here: http://www.kiva.org/team/stpaulscamden

Christmas Proclamation

At the midnight Mass on Christmas Day (or Christmas Eve if you prefer) there is a tradition of reading the 'Christmas Proclamation' - which powerfully situates the events of the Nativity in the historical context of salvation and secular history. This is a recording of the beginning of Mass and the proclamation...

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Recorded at St Paul's Camden, midnight Mass

David, Mary and the Ark

After journeying through this season of Advent with the prophet Isaiah, and then for the last two weeks with the witness of John the Baptiser, it is only on this fourth Sunday of Advent that we finally are presented with the figure of Mary to accompany our Advent reflection. When we encounter her in the gospel of Luke 1:26-38, we are invited to reflect upon her in the light of the desire by King David to build a temple for the Lord - as a suitable dwelling place for the Lord (2 Sam 7:1-16). Clearly the church wants us to reflect upon these two figures together in order to understand the prophecy that David receives from Nathan about the House of David.

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Recorded at St Paul's, 10am (11'27")

Rejoice always

On this third Sunday in Advent, the church issues a command - Rejoice! The teaching comes to us from the second reading today, taken from the very end of St Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, and therefore the very earliest Christian writing that we have. In the few short sentences, Paul manages to pack in eight commandments, a short explanation, a benediction and a final promise. The teaching that Paul offers in some ways provides us with a summation of not just the Advent season, but also of the whole Christian life; perhaps he wrote it with new believers in mind, and wanted to have a series of short, easy-to-remember teachings that would help to form Christian disciples in the way of Christ, so that we would be ready to meet him when he comes (which Paul seems to believe was going to be real-soon-now).

The Commandments:

1. ¹⁶ Rejoice always, 
2. ¹⁷ pray constantly,
3. ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. [explanation]
4. ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit, 
5. ²⁰ do not despise prophesying, 
6. ²¹ but test everything; 
7. hold fast what is good, 
8. ²² abstain from every form of evil.

The Benediction:
²³ May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Concluding Promises:²⁴ He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. (NRSV)

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The Jesus Prayer has a number of versions; the one I quoted in this homily is:

• Lord Jesus Christ,
  Son of the Living God,
  have mercy on me, a sinner.

Recorded at St Paul's, 8am (11'20")

Beginnings

Literature in the classical world was often concerned to set the scene and provide an overview of the whole text from the very first line of the text. When we come to a text like the Gospel of Mark, we may be tempted to pass over the opening line of the Gospel - which we are presented with in our liturgy today for the Second Sunday of Advent - but that would be a mistake. When Mark sits down to compose his Gospel - more than likely the very first gospel to be written - he was very aware of his context. Most likely he wrote the Gospel from Rome while still living there after the death several years before of both Peter and Paul - both as victims of the Roman regime. Sometimes this Gospel is called the 'Gospel of Peter', because it is seen to reflect the thought and teachings of St Peter, and St Mark acts as the compiler and scribe for the memories of his friend and great Apostle.

St Mark was aware of the claimed power of the Roman Emperor, who would claim to be the divine 'Lord' and the 'Son of God'; who would declare an advent before his arrival anywhere, and who would send out messengers (angelos in Greek) to announce the good news (euangelion) of a new military victory. So Mark carefully chooses to undermine the whole of Roman propaganda when his first line is:

"Beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God".

Any book that is written to a Jewish audience and begins with 'Beginning' would automatically evoke the opening line of the very first book of Scripture - the creation poem in the book of Genesis: "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth." St John will do something similar when he begins his gospel with "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God."

What does this beginning teach us?

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Recorded at St Paul's, 8am (11'20")

Images of sin in Isaiah

As we begin the new liturgical year and this new season of Advent, it is fruitful to consider the readings that the Church presents to us on this first Sunday, because it sets the agenda for the whole of the season and the year. It has been said that if Christmas were removed from the bible, all that would be lost would be about a chapter and a half from the beginning of both Matthew and Luke; but if the sense of preparation, expectancy, hope and longing that lies at the heart of the season of Advent were removed from the scriptures, you would have to delete about half of the Old Testament and most of the New.

So the first reading, taken from towards the end of the prophet Isaiah, contains a reflection on the nature of sin. Today, I want to reflect on three of the images that Isaiah uses to describe sin - straying, withered leaves and clay.

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Recorded at St Mary's, Leppington 8am (7'10")

You did it to me

The feast of Christ the King provides us with Christ the prophet presenting this ominous and dark scene of the judgement - not only of the people of Israel or the New Covenant - but of all the nations gathered before the Lord, being separated according to the way that we have recognised the presence of the Lord in our midst. This recognition is ultimately centred on whether we understand the power of the Christ who died for us as King on a Cross.

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Recorded at St Paul's, 5.30pm (5'38")
Feast of Christ the King, Year A. Matthew 25

Jacaranda trees and exams

One of the lovely things about living in the Sydney area is the veritable plethora of jacaranda trees that are in full blossom at this time of the year. When I see one of these trees, I am often reminded of the beautiful tree in one corner of the main quadrangle at Sydney University, and the sage advice that was given to first year students - make sure that you have begun to study for the final exams before the first blossom appears - or else you are very likely to fail. Since the tree usually only blossoms a week or two before the exams begin, this advice had considerable gravitas! Although many students are currently undertaking exams, or waiting expectantly for their results, we should not read the parable today as if at the heart of Christianity is an exam that God will drop on us at his return. This parable, like all the ones that Jesus tells, must be read in the light of all of his teaching, and in this instance both against the whole of Matthew's gospel and this fifth and final section of teaching (Matthew 23-25).

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Recorded at St Paul's 8am (10'02")
Sunday 33, Year A. Matthew 25:14-30.