A New Way of Being - "God-transformation"

“And he (Joseph) kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.”

The climax of the story of Joseph occurs when his brothers realise that the powerful and important Egyptian they are facing in their quest to buy desperately needed food is actually their younger brother whom they condemned to death in a fit of jealous rage many years ago.

No wonder they were initially dismayed and unable to speak!

Joseph shares with them his understanding that their evil act of long ago was part of God’s plan so that many in the future would be saved from starvation during the long years of famine – including their own lives.

From a cocky teenager and daddy’s favourite who lorded it over his older brothers, Joseph is transformed by God to someone who holds no grudge or need for revenge for past wrongs. Joseph celebrates that such wrongs have enabled a future for many.

We may grieve over the many cruelties and injustices we see, hear and read about, and it is right to grieve! But the transformation of Joseph is a reminder of our belief that God is acting in these spaces.  The future is open to God, no matter how bad things are now. Our prayers through Christ to God are more than ever needed for God-transformation to occur. Both for ourselves and for each other. That is our hope.

Blessings to you all

Rev Ceri

Valentine's Day in Retrospect - those Kissing Christians

I wrote this reflection on Friday, February 14th 2025. Valentine’s Day – chocolates, red roses, cards, gifts, special meals – a plethora of items and rituals to show our love for that special person/s in our lives. But also a time when loss or loneliness might be exacerbated for others.

So I was surprised and intrigued by research that showed in the early church (first four centuries) it was common for Christians during worship services to kiss each other on the lips – men and women! The holy kiss (chaste with lips closed as specified by Clement) was a regular part of different worship services. And a way to identify as Christian. I tried to imagine this happening today, but suspect that many of us would be uncomfortable with this physical exchange in a Christian worship setting.

However, I have heard more than once the comment that for some in our faith community, the passing of peace may be the only time of real physical connection during the week. And I clearly remember the excitement and joy as I drove to the first communion service after the Covid months of prohibition.

Have we lost something that was quite special and precious about our physicality in worship to God?

Just a thought!

Happy Valentine’s and chaste kiss to you all.

Rev Ceri

Seasoning of a daily walk

Reflection – Seasoning of a daily walk

“Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” Mk 9:50

A highlight of a daily morning walk this week was the sight of a very large koala nestled in the crook of a gum, fast asleep. The tree was on the corner of the playing field of the local primary school. Koalas are not infrequent in our suburb, but I hadn’t noticed a koala before in this particular spot. As it is school holidays, I wondered if the animal had taken advantage of the quieter than usual surrounds for rest.  

The pruning of some trees in our local streets this week provoked quite a lot of protest from residents, precisely because the koalas have a ‘corridor’ of treescapes that they use to travel and move around the area. Residents were worried that some of the trees pruned may have been part of that corridor, and thus destroying a section of the path for our local koala population. 

The wonderful sight of the koala on my walk reminded me that some of our unique fellow residents also ‘walk’ around our streets – albeit at a greater height than ground level, and at a different time of the day. And the importance of considering when and how to prune our treescapes so that the koalas are left in peace to ‘walk’ as they need.

The sight also added a depth of meaning and joy to my walks this week – you might even say a ‘seasoning’ of this daily event in my life! 

Peace

Rev Ceri

The Red River Gums...in all that they do, they prosper.

1Happy are those who .. delight in the law of the Lord , and on his law they meditate day and night.3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.  In all that they do, they prosper. IPsalm 1)

In Australia, in 2022, a poll for the most favourite native tree revealed the iconic River Red Gum as the winner. At full maturity, these majestic gnarly giants are around 30 m tall, and thought to have a life span around 500 – 1000 years. It is the dominant tree species along the Murray-Darling basin, and its deep tap root allows it to access deep underground water troughs. Even when the surface river remains dry for very long periods.

An individual tree can also support literally hundreds of thousands of other insects and animals, including birds and other animals who build homes in the many holes of the tree’s trunk. Traditional owners, the Adnvamathanha people, have often used these holes in the trunk as ‘step-ladders’ to reach eggs from nests made in some of the holes. The very large craters in the trunk that form at ground level have also provided shelter and warmth, and the wide canopy shade in the hotter months.

The mighty Red River Gums survive in both drought and fire – ‘in all that they do, they prosper’. And all because of that single tap root that delves deep below the earth’s surface to the ever-flowing stream of life-giving water. And in doing so sustain much of creation that lives above.

May we be always searching, trusting and relying on the Spirit’s deep presence in our lives, like the Red River Gum’s tap root, so that not just we, but all of creation, can prosper.

Rev Ceri

Reflection - the works of faith in God the Creator

“…faith without works is barren? “(James 2:20b)

A vet check and a clean bill of health for my two puppies who will be 12 months old next Monday made me feel very much lighter.

Sure, we have no back yard garden anymore (artificial turf and rusted iron flower sculptures are the order of the day! And we’ve re-turfed the front yard. And installed at great expense latches on doors, several baby gates. And spent a fortune on leashes, car restraints, vet bills, broken furniture, yada yada yada…

But watching them happily consume a marrow bone in their own very different ways, (Lizzie tucks in straight away, Darcy has to bury his for a couple of hours), brought a smile to my heart. Our bird neighbours have also benefited from the puppies; at feeding time the cheeky Indian minor birds hop down from neighbouring trees for scraps and they’re not averse to grabbing some water from the bowls.

The hard work, and expense, of caring for the puppies has reminded me that there is much hard work to be done, and expense, in looking after all Creation. My prayer is that we are not too late, and that in generations to come there will a sense of lightness for others when looking around this precious place we all call home. A prayer from the Seasons of Creation app (day 12):

Great Creator Spirit, we cry out to you in prayer. May the destruction of country be turned into the protection and restoration of Country - your precious creation. May we love all our neighbours- our land neighbour, water neighbour, sky neighbour, tree neighbour, plant neighbour, animal neighbour, bird neighbour, fish neighbour, rock neighbour, mount and neighbour- our earth neighbour. May we see the urgent need for action and as we take action, may you wipe our tears from death, mourning, crying, and pain, and may our tears be turned to tears of life, joy, rest, and release. Amen.

Rev Ceri

Reflection - Birds with Wit and True Resourcefulness

Collect for this Sunday:

O God, who word is life, and whose delight is to answer our cry:

give us faith like that of the woman who refused to remain an outsider,

so that we too may have the wit to argue and demand

that our children be made whole,

through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thinking of a mother’s wit in relation to bringing up healthy offspring, and in partnership with our Season of Creation and its theme To Hope With Creation, I was amused to find an article about the behaviour of female zebra finches (Zebra finch motherhood ).  

These birds are monogamous (in laboratory conditions, ‘divorce rates are very low’).

So if a mated pair begins to produce less than adequate offspring because of a less than adequate male finch, the female adjusts her resources in her egg-laying behaviour. As well as increasing egg volume and yolk carotenoid content, the mother also deposits slightly larger amounts of testosterone into the eggs. The title of the 2009 study is “Females lay larger eggs when paired to sexually unattractive males”. The larger eggs, which contain more nutrients counter the father’s undesirable genes and the subsequent offspring are given a better chance of surviving.

Very clever and witty behaviour indeed!

 And as for true resourcefulness - check out the duck in the picture. After three days of continuous rain, the park at the bottom of my street became a temporary pond. It didn’t take the duck long to find it, and make a home!

Praise the Creator for a world of true resourcefulness, wonder, delight and laughter! 

May you find some of this same wonder, delight and laughter this week!

Blessings

Rev Ceri

Be kind and tender-hearted to our neighbours....

Reflection: Be kind to the glider, the bogong moth and the magpie…

 “…let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. … and be kind to one another, tender-hearted…” (Ephesians 4)

 I can be a bit of a light sleeper at times and when I get out of bed in the very early hours of morning I often notice how many lights are on in neighbours houses and yards. A recent article caught my eye today – how urban lights affect and threaten our non-human neighbours (How urban lights disrupt Australia's unique wildlife and food webs at night - ABC News).

 On one street, a nesting magpie’s sleep patterns are screwed up by new white-blue street lamps. The bogong moth, which should be honing its way to the Australian Alps is caught in a death spiral around an outside light. And the squirrel glider takes its life in its hands by crossing a lit street to some succulent blossom. The glider can’t see well in low light, unlike foxes and cats on the prowl!

 “This means that human residents need to be more considerate that their activities, including sound and light, directly impact the wildlife food webs around them.”

 There are tips supplied on how to be considerate and kind to these neighbours:

·        turn your lights off and draw your curtains

·        install lights that are angled down to the area you need to light

·        use warm-coloured light, which can be less impactful on some species

·        turn your solar LED lights off

·        shield your outdoor lights

·        don't angle lights at trees to leave dark refuges for fauna

·        for bogong moths, plant flowers which can provide energy during their migration and reduce pesticide use

·        contribute to citizen science projects such as Moth Tracker to fill knowledge gaps and aid conservation efforts.

I’ll be doing a bit of a reccy around the house and yard tonight and see what I can do to be kinder to these wonderful and unique neighbours.

Rev Ceri

The Gift Within Us

Reflection – The Gift Within Us

The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers….

 Like millions around the world this week I watched in wonder and awe at the sheer beauty, grace and athleticism of the women’s gymnastics! Regardless of what country they were from I was silently urging each and every competitor I watched, hoping that they could all win! But of course, that would destroy the whole point of competition!

 I was intrigued to hear that each medal awarded in the Paris Olympics has a small fragment of the Eiffel Tower embedded in the centre (let’s hope it was not taken from a load-bearing part!). And I came across the following this week in my reading from Maggie Ross (Writing the Icon of the Heart):

“It is only love that can recognise Love. It is only because we bear, each one of us,

each fragment of creation the trace of the divine,

that we dimly recognise that the hunger crying out from every human heart

can be fed by this radiance alone.”

The fragment of the divine embedded in each and every one of us, in all our diversity and uniqueness, is nourished by Christ – Love alone. And as it grows, the beauty and grace and gift of God means that we are all indeed gold-medal winners! Let us go for God!

Blessings

Ceri

They Shall Eat and Have Some Left

Reflection – They Shall Eat And Have Some Left

 ‘…thus says the Lord, “They shall eat and have some left.” ’ He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.’ (2 Kings 4)

 According to the latest figures for each and every Australian, almost 300kg of food is sent to landfill. Meanwhile, an estimated 5% of Australians do not have adequate access to food! (see food waste even on Mars?).

 I was also interested to read that even in a Mars mission simulation, where food is extremely limited, even a food waste researcher found themselves having to throw uneaten food away!

 The members of the United Nations have committed to halve food wastage by 2030. Some tips from the researcher:

 • buy only what you need, and will use

• if you run a food business, divert excess consumable food to food rescue organisations and charities that feed the hungry

• where possible, give food waste to animals, such as backyard chooks

• composting food in your backyard or a community garden

 The most interesting tip was to ‘allow ample time to eat, as more waste is generated during rushed mealtimes…a very salutary reminder for our crazy fast-paced world!!!

 Blessings

Rev Ceri

Don't Hem Me In! (based on 2 Samuel 7:1-14a)

King David has conquered his enemies and is secure in his kingdom. So now it is time to turn to other matters. And one of the first to be attended to is the building of a house for the Lord. After all, David has a fine house of cedar to live in, while the Lord’s house is still a tent! The prophet Nathan appears to think this is a good idea at first. But God has other ideas.

The response of God reminds me on the word from Cole Porter’s song “Don’t hem me in”:

 Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above
Don't fence me in
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love
Don't fence me in

God has been with God’s people without needing a house. God has travelled with the Israelites and never once demanded a permanent house to be built! “Don’t try to hem me in!” I can almost imagine God demanding! “Don’t try to corral me, tame me, domesticate me!” A building is not required - God promises to remain with David for the rest of his life.

 God will be God, and nothing can corral, tame of domesticate God.

 I’m reminded of this wildness and fierceness – and faithfulness - as the wind howls outside my room. It’s been blowing hard for almost a week. The Brisbane westerlies usually arrive during August, in time for exhibition (Ekka) time. They are a couple of weeks early – unpredictable – just like God!

 Rev Ceri

NAIDOC WEEK 2024: Keep the Fire Burning: Blak, Loud and Proud"

I remember cycling towards the city by the river one weekend afternoon and the faint smell of a campfire wafted by – that particular smell of gum leaves and bark. For some reason I wondered if this was the dominant smell on the air before colonisation (along with the smell of mangroves)! The theme for this year’s NAIDOC week, ‘keep the fire burning’, celebrates the resilience of indigenous Australians and I thought we could use this lovely blessing on Sunday by Uncle Vince Ross:

May the God of creation warm your heart like the campfires of old

Bring wisdom and peace as shown to the first peoples of this land.

Shake off the dust from the desert plains by the refreshing rains

Followed by the glow and warmth of the sun.

Let the light of God show us the right path and stand tall like the big

River gums drawing life from the every flowing waters.

Reflection for Sunday after The Ascension: Elvis has left the building?????

When Jesus had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven?  (Acts 1:9-10)

Last Thursday, we celebrated Ascension Day, and I’ve often wondered why we celebrate the risen Christ returning to the Father. It’s a bit of a sad scene, imagining the disciples watching their beloved Messiah leaving! I’ve also winced at the depiction in art of Christ’s feet dangling from a cloud!!!! But as I was reminded this week, the Ascension means we have Christ interceding on ALL of humanity’s behalf to God, not just the group who followed him most closely on earth. And in ascending, Christ – both human and divine - has also taken our humanity to the Father. There’s a part of us that is already with the Father and Jesus in heaven! And also the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the presence of God dwelling within all of Christ’s followers here on earth. As the light of the world returns to God, and we cease lighting the pascal candle this Sunday, a light remains within us, and asks us to share the joy of this gift with others. Our ‘Elvis’ has not left the building, or us!

Thank you, Jesus, for bringing me this far.

In your light, I see the light of my life.

Your teaching is brief and to the point;

you persuade us to trust in God;

you command us to love one another.

You promise everything to those who obey your teaching;

you ask nothing too hard for a believer,

nothing a lover can refuse,

Your promises to your disciples are true,

nothing but the truth.

Even more, you promise us yourself,

the perfection of all that can be made perfect.

 Nicholas of Cusa

It’s a total eclipse of the heart

Reflection for Third Sunday after Easter 2023 – It’s a total eclipse of the heart

The writer Annie Dillard writes of her experience of a total solar eclipse in 1979:

“From all the hills came screams. A piece of the sky beside the crescent sun was detaching. It was a loosened circle of evening sky, suddenly lighted from the back. It was an abrupt black body out of nowhere; it was a flat disk; it was almost over the sun. That is when there were screams…Abruptly it was dark night…In the black sky was a ring of light…It was an old wedding band in the sky, or a morsel of bone. There were stars. It was all over”1

When people were interviewed on Thursday after experiencing the total eclipse in Western Australia, there were screams recorded and the excitement, fascination and awe was palpable in those gathered to watch.

Annie Dillard writes further of leaving after the eclipse and breakfasting in a local diner where other eclipse-watchers were present and almost shouting and saying “Did you see….? Did you see….? The experience too fantastic to quash the urge to share with others afterwards.

32They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ 33That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem (Luke 24:32-33a)

We hear of the experience of the couple on the road to Emmaus in our gospel reading this Sunday. And I imagine the couple reacting as though they have seen a total eclipse – this time the realisation that they have just spent several hours in the presence of the risen Christ. Chatting on the road, listening to an explanation of the meaning of the scriptures, inviting Christ to share and meal and then, wham! The breaking of the bread and their eyes finally open!

And like the eclipse-watchers, unable to keep the experience to themselves - as they return immediately (at night) to Jerusalem to speak to the other disciples.

A total eclipse of their hearts, indeed (apologies Bonnie Tyler)!

I give thanks for the disciples and their experience – and may we all be blessed by even a sliver of that experience in our own faith journeys!

Blessings

Ceri

Reflection for Second Sunday after Easter - Have you seen Christ?

“Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.…” (1 Peter 1:8-9)

The faithful Christ followers who received the writing from 1 Peter may not have visibly seen the risen Christ, but it appears they showed every evidence of faithful living and loving Christ. So they had experienced the risen Christ!

Thomas Merton, a 20th century mystic and Trappist monk, entered a monastery in his thirties and spent the next two decades writing and studying, achieving much fame for his spiritual writings. He was also quite open about his struggles with a deep sense of both feeling unworthy of love and a diminished capacity to show love.

In his 52nd year he fell deeply in love with a nurse who was caring for him in hospital. Much of the time they corresponded by telephone or letters, with some brief visits, before the relationship ended. 

Even though their parting brought great grief, his love for another human being changed everything. Transformed and healed, this love taught him that his tremendous need for love was not an impediment to faith, but as a key to his salvation. Reflecting on it, Merton felt that his pursuit of a ‘spiritual, detached love’ in his ordained life had actually prevented him from loving fully – and thus prevented him from entering into a deeper connection with the great sweep of God’s saving work.

In his experiencing of a deeply human love, Merton felt more able to rejoice fully in receiving God’s love and responding to God in love.

The faithful Christ followers in Peter’s church may not have visibly seen Christ, but as I said above, they surely must have experienced the love of Christ in order to respond to God’s love.

From Thomas Merton:

“It is for this that we came into the world—this communion and self-transcendence. We do not become fully human until we give ourselves to each other in love ... we will never be fully real until we let ourselves fall in love”.

May we all experience the love of Christ in this Easter season and learn to fall in love again.

Blessings

Ceri

Reflection for 6th Sunday after Epiphany - Let's be honest???

“Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’ anything more than this comes from the evil one.” Matthew 5:37

It’s tempting to think that Jesus is the inspiration for ‘honesty is the best policy’ and all the other quotes such as ‘honesty is the first book in the book of wisdom’, ‘a half-truth is a full lie’…etc.

But is that what Jesus is really on about in Matthew’s gospel?

The Matthean Jesus is using an extreme form of hyperbole in teaching about the imperative to follow the commandments of God – the Law. Along with the extreme ‘anyone who thinks murder/hatred in their heart against someone HAS committed murder’, the hyperbole is stretched – it’s preferable to enter heaven maimed from self-mutilation by cutting off a hand, or plucking out an eye if either cause you to ‘sin’!

Matthew’s Jesus goes on to describe the ‘ancient’ belief that swearing an oath on the Lord’s name is the be and end all of oaths- that ‘noone was to swear falsely’ on the Lord’s name. Jesus wants his followers to abolish this practice by not even countenancing the idea that they might intentionally swear an oath that they don’t intend to keep! And to certainly not use the name of the Lord as a shield to hide behind!

I think this is deeper than honesty – it is about integrity – the wholeness of our being. About what is in your heart and mind being what comes out of your mouth and what action you do.

Sounds easy, but of course so much of what we think/believe may be unknown to even ourselves. So, as we approach the season of Lent once more, it might be a good time to pray and prepare for God’s loving honesty to show where our wholeness is fractured and ask for God’s healing.

Blessings

Ceri

Reflection for 5th Sunday after Epiphany - What does God want?

Reflection and Sermon prep for 5th Sunday after Epiphany – What God wants

“Is this not the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your hose; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?” (Isaiah 58:6-7)

“It goes well with those who act generously and lend: who guide their affairs with justice.” (Psalm 112:5)

Paraphrasing the words of one biblical scholar during my formal theological training:

There are about half a dozen or so pieces of biblical text that might be a critique of sexual behaviour (and that might be stretching the context of the texts), but well over six hundred pieces of biblical text about how to share our wealth and possessions.

So for every text on sexuality (1), there are a hundred (100) on sharing resources with those who have little. So I guess it is pretty clear from our biblical record what God is truly interested in and how God would choose for us as far as behaviour!

This Sunday in our lectionary we have two pretty direct statements on what the people of God should do (see above from Isaiah and the psalmist). And in our preparations for the coming season of Lent, it seems that we might have a new lens to look through in terms of what ‘fast’ we might be contemplating as our Lenten practice.

Rather than planning to abstain from food/drink/watching TV/social media etc etc we might start by God to show us where there is need that we have not noticed before. And not just human need – but for all who live with us.

I think the possibilities are many, both locally and globally: caring for our green spaces where we live; being conscious of our purchases and the possible impact on the environment (manufacture, use and disposal); supporting a group working for peace overseas; donating at local foodbanks or volunteering. Listening/reading to someone who comes from a completely different background. I’m sure that many of you know of other avenues of acting generously and lending…..and I’d love to hear about them!

Because, at the heart of it, is that God urges us to do this not just during Lent – but for all our lives.

Blessings

Ceri

Reflection for Fourth Sunday after Epiphany - are we as good as we could be?

“O mortal, what is good;
   and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
   and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8

On Australia Day 2023, Wiradjuri man Stan Grant writes as an aboriginal person and a person of God. And reminds all God’s people of the profound call from the prophet Micah above – which is also in our lectionary to be read this coming Sunday.

Grant writes: “As an Aboriginal person and a person of God, I know politics alone can't save us….God did not arrive on the First Fleet. God was here with us. We are a people of God on the land God gave us. According to my faith God lives in us as God lives in all.”

And as Amos reminds us: “Do justice….Love kindness…walk humbly with your God…”

Such a simple and such a powerful message calling down through the centuries. And from indigenous poet Jonathan Hill a beautiful acknowledgment that God was and is in all throughout time:

Today we stand in footsteps millennia old. We acknowledge the traditional custodians whose cultures and customs have nurtured, and continue to nurture, this land, since men and women awoke from the great dream. We honour the presence of our ancestors who reside in the imagination of this land and whose irrepressible spirituality flows through all creation.

To read Stan Grant’s article: Are we all we should be as a nation?

Blessings

Ceri

Third Sunday after Epiphany - The power of symbols

Reflection for 3rd Sunday after Epiphany

“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor 1:17-18.

On the 23 May 1945, Colonel Gonin penned a special order of the day.

It was a thank you letter to all the ranks of the particular medical corps who had tirelessly worked with the American troops for the last 3 months in Germany.

The letter went on to describe their further ‘thankless and unspectacular task of clearing Belsen Concentration Camp’.

Over 11,000 sick were freed from the camp – most of them suffering from the ‘most virulent diseases known to man’. In the first 10 days working in the camp, the medical corps had distributed 4,000 meals twice daily from whatever they could scrounge.  Collecting medical equipment from all over Germany they had supplied drugs for 15,000 patients a day. Without hesitation they acted as undertakers collecting over 2,000 corpses from the wards and moving them to the mortuary. Some of the workers caught Typhus.

Some time later, the Colonel noted in his diary that a case of lipstick had been misdelivered to the camp, despite the camp still being so very desperate for necessities. Rather than send it back, they distributed it to women remaining in the camp.

Which the colonel noted was ‘genius’ as the freed women clung to them, even in their misery. He tells of a woman who, laying dead, still clutched a lipstick in her hand.

“At last someone had done something to make them individuals again, they were someone, no longer merely the number tattooed on the arm.”

Why did these women cling to this ‘foolish’ piece of make-up? For these human beings who had gone through hell, maybe the lipstick reminded them of happier, normal times? Maybe it was a powerful symbol and concrete sign that life might be worth living for, that there might be a future as they held that tube of make-up?

I don’t presume to know; this tale is so disturbing and sorrowful; it cuts to the heart and defies easy answers. But it may show how important and life-giving symbols can be – even in the darkest of times.

In the Roman empire, crucifixion was the most shameful of deaths. To follow and praise one who was crucified was mostly likely a completely foolish and lunatic act. But for Paul, apostle of Christ, it is the most powerful, concrete sign of the power of God to nullify death. In Christ’s life, death and resurrection was the proof that in the empire of God, no matter what happens to us, we are seen, welcomed and loved.

May we be blessed with just a smidgeon of the power of God that the cross points to!

Blessings

Ceri

Second Sunday after Epiphany - Listen to me O coastlands.....

“Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you people from far away!” Isaiah 49:1-7

“And he has put a new song in my mouth..” Psalm 40:3a

During my adolescent years we lived by the West Tamar riverbank in Northern Tasmania. A tidal river, the bank at low tide stretched for a hundred metres or so. Walking on the dark grey mud with each step potentially sinking up to mid-calf required adequate footwear if you didn’t want to shred your feet from oyster shells hiding below the surface.

I’d wander/squelch through the tidal flats, smell the mud-tinged brine in the air, listen to circling seagulls and feel the wind, and work out whether I could get to the larger of the two small islands and back before the incoming tide surrounded them.

And I’d sing as I looked out over this coastland – my coastland.

Not a recognisable song – just a rambling narrative set to a rambling made-up melody. As it was just us Clark girls on that stretch of the river I felt no embarrassment, but just let it rip. Whatever was going through my mind at the time; pre-teen angst, family issues, whatever - they were worked out as I sang to my ‘coastlands’ at the top of my voice.

Walking one morning this week we came upon a young boy on the path with his mother. They were stopped to one side as he did up his laces. And he was chatting non-stop to his mum all the while with his head bent to his task. As we passed I mimicked the chatter with one hand to the mother with a big smile on my face. She nodded her head, as if to say ‘yeah, it’s great, isn’t it!’

Now neither my younger self or the chatting boy, as we voiced out loud our particular stream of consciousness, would qualify as prophets-in-waiting like the great Isaiah from our Old Testament reading this week,. The birds in the air in my case and the mother for the young boy were the only obvious recipients of the river of our thoughts in words/sounds.

But, oh what might happen if we who follow Christ, sang/spoke with the same child-like assurance and volubility to the One who is always listening? Our grief, our frustrations, our joys, our anger, our questions, our love, our thankfulness – everything that we are. And what joy might be felt when Christ calls and sings back to us!

In this season of Epiphany, may you be blessed with the presence of the One who always listens, and is always calling us to share the joy of this presence – God is with us – Emmanuel!

Peace

Ceri

Baptism of Jesus

Reflection for the baptism of Jesus – Epiphany season 2023 – the God who shows no partiality

“Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality…’” (Acts 10:34)

Peter’s world-view and his understanding of God’s love went through a paradigm shift while praying on a roof-top one noon at his fellow disciple Simon’s house. What we would call an epiphany – sent to him by God.

 The epiphany for Peter was that all people, regardless of ethnicity, are regarded by God as worthy. Even those considered unclean by Jewish law – the gentiles.

When Peter talks to a household of gentiles about the work of God through Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit falls on all those gathered there and they are subsequently baptised in the name of Jesus Christ, because as Peter exclaims:

‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’

Jesus’ baptism by John in Matthew’s gospel, despite John’s feelings of inadequacy, is another sign of the Epiphany – God is truly with us. No matter who we are, what we have done, the invitation to respond to God’s love is given equally and abundantly to all.

In the family of God, baptised in the name of Jesus Christ, we ARE brothers and sisters of Christ. That is the promise of the ‘the God who shows no partiality’. Not one of us is regarded as less or more favoured.

A sobering but also quite wonderful message!

Blessings

Ceri