Becoming the people of God

About a month ago I accepted the invitation of one of our parishioners - Peter - to go gliding with him. It is certainly an incredible experience as you are towed up a couple thousand metres by an old crop-duster, and then once you reach the designated height the cable connecting you to the plain is released and then you are on your own - somehow managing to glide and soar up there - and not crash. Rather cool - especially because the only noise (still fairly considerable) is of the air rushing past - you don't also have the vociferation of motors. As we flew around above Camden, Peter gave me a quick run through of gliding theory as we attempted to source any available thermals so that we did not just glide but also soar - the real object of modern gliding/soaring.He also explained that contrary to what I probably (and did) learn in science, that it is not really accurate to say that hot air rises, but that cooler air, being denser and thus heavier than warmer air, falls and causes warmer air to be displaced - and thus rise.
This started me thinking about the feast of Pentecost that we celebrate today - enriched with the imagery of the wind and fire of the Spirit - and celebrated by the first disciples as the festival of Shavuot, which also became known as the Harvest Festival or the Feast of Weeks, and celebrated seven weeks (or a week of weeks) after the Passover (Nisan 14), so that it usually fell on Sivan 6 or 7. [Today it is always celebrated on Sivan 6, so that it falls on the same day that we celebrate Pentecost this year.]
After being rescued from the slavery of Egypt and travelling through the wilderness for seven weeks, the people of God arrived at Mount Sinai - and for the first time in recorded human history - and perhaps the only time - God addressed himself not just to an individual, a family or a group of people - but to an entire nation (Exodus 19). God called this people as a treasured possession of the Lord - a chosen nation and a royal priesthood - a people who would be covenanted and be the people who received the law of God.
After the people settled into the promised land, this festival also took on the character of a harvest festival, when the first fruits of the summer harvest would be offered to the Lord. So both dimensions would have been in the minds and prayer of the disciples as they gathered in the upper room to celebrate Shavuot. The events of Pentecost could never have happened to only one or two holy people - it only made sense in community. And it could only make sense in a community that were caught up in the harvest and the desire to go beyond their own little world and their own little walls. Maybe this is what we are missing in the contemporary individual church?

Play MP3

Recorded at St Paul's, 8am (9'41")
EPB [E8B] - Pentecost Sunday (Year B)

God is love

When you read through the scriptures, one thing that modern readers might expect are passages that point to proofs for the existence of God. And yet there is not a single place that we can turn to to find something even remotely close to a De Deo Uno (Concerning One God) treatise that you find in classical and medieval theology. In fact the closest that you get is the statement that begins Psalm 14 and 53 - 'The fool says in his heart, "There is no God".' The bible - like all of the ancient near east, simply takes for granted the existence of God.

So what does the bible tell us about the nature of God? What are the images that you find that can help to illuminate the profession of faith of the early Church that God is three in one?

Play MP3

Recorded at St Brigid, Gwynneville, 9am (10'49")
Trinity Sunday | John 3:16-18

Come Holy Spirit

This feast is a demonstration of the unique Christian understanding of grace and salvation. Before this day, although the disciples knew of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus and the fulfillment of the many prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures, they were still huddled together in fear - until the Spirit comes - then they become the Church.

Play MP3

Recorded at Mater Dolorosa, 10am (9'45")
Pentecost Sunday, Year A.

Signs of the Spirit

As we move through the Easter season, the liturgy today moves in its focus from looking back to the events of Easter, to looking forward in anticipation of the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out upon the Church at Pentecost. All the readings today provide insights and guidance concerning the life in the Spirit and how this can be recognised and discerned. We are given a range of different hints across the readings today about what it means to live in the Spirit and to long for the Spirit to work in our lives.

Play MP3

Easter 6A. 8'21".

The same power

Ascension Sunday (Year C) | Eph 1:15-23; Luke 24:46-53; Acts 1:1-11

I had my washed car yesterday - at one of those automatic car washes. When the weather is a bit warmer, I like taking it through the do-it-yourself section, so that I can play with the power hoses! It is amazing the difference that you get from the normal water pressure that comes out of the hoses, and the cleaning power when you pull the lever and let the compressor do its work. I remember as a kid when dad, who was a builder, brought home the huge new compressor that was mounted permanently on the back of his work truck. Just about every job - from cleaning down to nailing timber together was made so much easier with the power of the compressor. (You'll also hear the story of the day my brothers and I were shooting at a target with an air-rifle and we got a much bigger blast than we expected!)

All the readings today talk about the power of the Holy Spirit being unleashed upon the disciples. Since Jesus had just spent the past few years teaching and preparing these boofheads, he knew they needed it! St Paul, when he writes to the community at Ephesus (from his prison cell in Rome) today is aware of the amazing power that was unleashed when Jesus was raised to new life on Resurrection Day and new creation began. But he also knew that the church there, like the church today, would need extra help - wisdom and understanding - just to know that the power was really available and real.

How would we be different if we knew the power that lay within us - the same power that conquered the grave lives in me and lives in you? Let us pray the prayer of St Paul today and expect the power of the Spirit to be unleashed within our lives...

Play MP3

Recorded at Sacred Heart 9.30am (8'20")

It seems good to the Holy Spirit

Sixth Sunday in Easter (Year C). In Acts 15 we have a quite extraordinary moment in church history. At issue is how a Jewish community, gathered in worship at a Jewish synagogue around a Jewish Messiah, in the midst of a Jewish nation, keeping Jewish festivals and rituals - how does it welcome non Jews into this worship? What do these Gentiles have to do? Do men have to have that 'little operation' to be a part of this community? As they gather in Jerusalem for the Council, we read the decree that the disciples issue, which declares that "it seems good to the Holy Spirit and ourselves not to lay any unnecessary burdens on you" - which is an amazing thing in itself.

What might the teaching of this Council of Jerusalem (AD 50) mean for us today?

Play MP3

Recorded at Sacred Heart, 9.30am (9'38")

Come, spirit of life

Sometimes we can become so familiar with a word, that we forget what it originally means. When we think of 'Pentecost' we might think of the Holy Spirit, or the birth of the church, or those brand of churches that model themselves after the experience of the charismatic gifts, especially speaking in tongues, for example. But when the disciples met on the Pentecost that we read about in Acts 2, they were there to pray and remember the mighty deeds of God in the past and the more recent amazing works and influence of Jesus. They celebrated the great Jewish feast, which gave thanks for the new harvest of wheat, when they offered the first sheafs of wheat in thanksgiving and in anticipation of the harvest still to come. They also remembered the very first Pentecost, which was celebrated by the newly liberated people of God newly released from slavery in Egypt and now gathered around the mountain of Sinai. They remembered how Moses had left the people and ascended the mountain of God to be in his mighty and awesome presence, and how he had returned with the tablets bearing the ten words of the Lord. Now as the disciples gathered in prayer, this amazing thing happened - this wind broke out around them and among them. This wind brought new life to them and they realised that they now had the power to actually live the teachings of Jesus and the commandments of God. This Spirit was somehow changing them, making everything real and wonderful - perhaps something like the Spirit first did when it hovered over the waters of the 'Tohu va Bohu' - the waters of chaos and disorder in Genesis 1:2. The Spirit broke through and came from 'heaven' to bring new life to their experience of 'earth'. It first broke into just who they were and gave them the ability to forgive past hurts, to overcome prejudice and hatreds, and to be empowered to boldly proclaim the tangible presence of the risen Lord among them. God wants to do no less among us; within us; through us. Let us continue to pray for the Spirit of God to come, to fall upon us, to breath his life into us - so that he can rock our world too! Come, Holy Spirit...

Recorded at St Michael's, 9.30am (11'05")

Play MP3