Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - She has chosen

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - She Has Chosen

‘…Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’ Luke 10:42b

The story of Mary and Martha, with Martha distracted by her many works of ministry while her younger sister, and partner in ministry, is sitting simply listening at the feet of Jesus can strike some discordant notes for readers. A selection follows:

·        Why do so many works of art about this scene portray Martha as bustling round a kitchen, getting a meal ready for Jesus when she was most likely involved in ministry work – the office of deacon - in the very early house churches?

·        Why does Martha need ‘a man’ to resolve her problems – why did she not just go up to her younger sister and say she needed help?

·        Surely, nothing would get done if we all chose the ‘better part’!

With my own prejudices and bias I struggled to find a note of grace in this Sunday’s gospel reading (Luke 10:38-42).

The words – ‘Mary has chosen’ – echoed in my mind.

The note of grace, for me, is there. We have CHOICE. The tremendous gift of God’s love is offered, it is not forced on us. The choice to listen, to learn, to pray, to entreat, and dare I say - demand (thank you Martha).

And again, thank you to both Martha and Mary, partners in ministry, who went out and shared the gospel.

Blessings

Ceri

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost - The Golden Rule

I fielded an interesting call from a young woman with questions about biblical texts this week. Texts such as Matthew 13 (the parables of yeast being used to leaven flour and the mustard seed growing to a tree to shelter birds), the book of Revelation and the account of Adam and Eve in the garden.

I felt a little bit like I was being interviewed and went on at some length about symbols/contexts/ancient cultures and scholarly work on biblical interpretation, but I wish I’d just quoted our sentence for this coming Sunday:

Do to others as you would have them do to you. Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Luke 6:31,35

What is often called The Golden Rule; do to others as you would have them do to you, is common to many of the world’s religions and inspired by the results from the Australian Census 2021 released last week that showed a diversity of religious belief in our land – a reminder:

Buddhism: Hurt not others with that which pains yourself.

Confucianism: Is there any one maxim which ought to be acted upon throughout one’s whole life? Surely the maxim of lovingkindness is such – Do not do unto others what you would not they should do unto you.

Hebraism. What is hurtful to yourself do not to your fellow man. That is the whole of the Torah and the remainder is but commentary. Go learn it.

Hinduism: This is the sum of duty: do naught to others which if done to you, would cause you pain.

Islam: No one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.

Jainism: We should regard all creatures as we regard our own self, and should therefore refrain from inflicting upon others such injury as would appear undesirable to us if inflicted upon ourselves.

Sikhism: As thou deemest thyself so deem others. Then shalt thou become a partner in heaven.

Taoism: Regard your neighbour’s gain as you own gain: and regard your neighbour’s loss as your own.

Zoroastrianism: That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another whatever is not food for its own self.

Luke’s Jesus goes into explicit detail as to how the Golden Rule plays out in God’s kingdom:

1.      Love your enemies

2.      Do good

3.      Lend, expecting nothing in return

How we do this? I would suggest that this is truly only possible with God’s help…..

Blessings

Ceri

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost - from little things big things grow...

Reflection for Fourth Sunday in Pentecost – from little things big things grow…

“The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few…” Luke 10:2

The decision of the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs Wade and the threat from some in the judiciary to repeal other laws such as marriage equality and gay rights has sent shivers of fear through many Americans and others in democratic societies worldwide.

On a personal note I received a distressed call from my daughter who was very worried that things in Australia could take a similar turn.

At the time our Diocese was meeting for SYNOD with several of similar issues being debated: blessing of same sex marriages, the crafting of an apology from our church to the LGBTQiA+ community and fidelity and integrity of ordained people in their relationships.

Listening to the debates and the gift of personal stories being shared amongst those gathered, the pain-filled voices on both sides of debates resonated in that place. And my daughter’s cry and those of so many others seemed to join in.

At lunch on one day of the meeting I heard in passing a live performance of that much loved song “From little things big things grow” and just recently the ABC published a story about the songwriter, Kev Carmody and his life.

As a member of the stolen generation, Kev recalls the herculean efforts his parents made to hide him for 10 years from the authorities. When the 1967 referendum gave indigenous Australians the right to vote, Kev remembers his father turning to his mother and saying ‘Now you can vote’…and his mother replying “Well, what does that mean?”

In this nation of Australia, we are constantly asking the question – What does being Australian mean at this time and this place? And I guess we were all asking at SYNOD a similar question: What does being Christ followers in the Anglican tradition mean at this time and place?

The magnificent Kev Carmody’s powerful song ends with the following words:

Well, that was the story of Vincent Lingiari
But this is the story of something much more

How power and privilege can not move a people
Who know where they stand, and stand in the law

From little things big things grow….

The discussions and stories I heard at SYNOD this past weekend would have been unheard of when I was first ordained over 11 years ago. And I will take Kev’s story and my SYNOD tale to my daughter to hold onto in hope and encouragement.

For anyone who would like to read the ABC article the link is: Kev Carmody

Blessings

Ceri

Pentecost - Family

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God…heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”      Romans 8:14,17b

My parents used to tell of a story from family life – the time when my younger sister left home, at around age 9 years old. In protest at being made to eat her vegetables, my sister packed a suitcase and trudged down the path at the back of our house. She ended up at a sympathetic neighbour’s place a few doors down. Listening to the tale of woe the neighbour gently asked what my sister had packed in the suitcase. Upon opening it, my sister proudly displayed her running-away necessities. There was one item there – a can of baked beans.

Families can be fragile communities.

And as the first sentence of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina says:

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

When we hear the image of the church, the body of Christ, being described as a family, this can be jarring for many. Rather than a place of sanctuary, belonging and nurturing, families can be the site of the opposites – and children growing up in such families are often affected for the rest of their lives.

And like unhappy families, the church can be a place of dysfunction, where some – expecting a welcoming, nurturing community – are hurt beyond belief and leave, never to return.

But the image of family for the church from our reading from Romans this week is startlingly different.

Firstly, it is completely made up of children! Who, amazingly, Paul describes as ‘heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ’. Who are led by the Spirit.

Yes, we who call ourselves the body of Christ, the children of God, bicker with each other. Yes, we hurt each other. And yes, like my younger sister, we want to leave – and quite often do so.  

The children of God belong to a family that struggles with the tensions required to stay together – through thick and thin – a way of living together with all the messiness and chaos of earthly life. Belonging to this family is not to be taken for granted – we may call ourselves children of God, but we have an immense responsibility to care for each other, to be truthful even when it might hurt, to say sorry. And this is never more needed than when we feel like giving up and leaving this family.

Like the wind blowing fiercely this first week of winter, the Spirit of God cannot be contained by our will and conception of what it means to follow Christ together. But it is only together that we may be graced with the awareness of the presence of the One who promised to be with us till the end of the ages.

Happy Pentecost to my fellow sisters and brothers!

Ceri

Seventh Sunday in Easter - Reconciliation

The Sunday After Ascension

This Sunday in our yearly liturgical rhythm we are celebrating and remembering the Ascension. A difficult theme for many of us to embrace if we’ve been brought up with images of the risen Christ ascending to heaven borne on a white fluffy cloud, or even more fantastical, just the feet of Jesus poking out from beneath a cloud with the followers wistfully watching Christ disappear.

But the Ascension, of course, has a much deeper meaning. The risen Christ, visible and interacting with his closest followers for a short while during the resurrection, is returning to God. But not alone.  And his closest followers are not left alone, neither are those followers who will come after and believe. The prayer of Jesus to God is:

“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us…” John 17:20-21

We are also in the yearly rhythm of our National Reconciliation Week. Non-indigenous Australians are implored to sit and listen to the truth telling from our First Nations People. Such as the 85-95% decline in Aboriginal populations in just 150 years of settlement by Europeans. The stories, the truth tellings are sobering, harrowing and gut-wrenching for those of us who are not indigenous but call Australia home.

As Rowan Williams remarked one Easter:

“Death does not end relationships between human persons and between human persons and God, and this may be sobering news as well as joyful, sobering especially for an empire with blood of its hands.” Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury’s Easter sermon 2004

May I leave you this week with the wonderful collaboration of author Celia Kemp and artist The Reverend Glenn Loughrey A Voice in the Wilderness  

Blessings

Ceri

Fourth Sunday In Easter - Plainly?!!!

Reflection for Easter 4

“Cold, cranky, walking around trying to keep warm. Surrounding by mutterings and questions – always the same one: ‘Tell us, plainly, are you the Messiah?’”

Plainly?!!!

Isn’t that what he has done – what’s plainer than actions? Actions speak louder than words at any time, in any place. People who are ill are healed, people who are hungry are fed, people who are lonely welcomed, people who feel shamed forgiven, people who are reviled, rejected are accepted. The list goes on. In his actions, Jesus has shown clearer than words could ever do that he is indeed the Messiah.

You can ask the same question as many times as you like, says Jesus, but the answer will always be the same. And on that cold winter’s day, with a tinge of frustration, Jesus declares: ‘it doesn’t matter what I say – or do – you will never believe.’ A sad indictment to those people gathered around Jesus of Nazareth on that cold winter’s day – in the temple dedicated to one of the greatest Israelite kings, Solomon. But of course, it could have been that this was not the answer they really wanted!

Maybe their idea or image of the Messiah, the Saviour, was of a figure of great mighty earthly power who would overthrow the oppressor (Rome), restore the fortunes and prestige of those who were oppressed.

And of course, they were out of luck. The Messiah’s power and authority is based on a bottomless well of love, empathy, kindness, justice – all the characteristics that the questioners did not want to hear.  And maybe, there’s a sneaking wish for us today that the answer be different.

Because God’s good news in Christ, for those who choose to hear the voice of the risen Christ and respond, means an opening up of our own ears to the same cries of help that Jesus heard.

Of listening and responding. Today, the telling of good news, as always, as it always has been, is founded on actions – helping people find jobs, for a roof over their heard, enough food on the table, joy in friends and family, comfort in sorrow and anger – for everyone to have a home.

Christ’s words are Christ’s actions – we who follow can do no less.

Blessings

Ceri

Second Sunday in Easter - My Lord and my God

Reflection for Easter 2 – My Lord and my God

Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” John 20:27

In a real way I can connect with Thomas after my experience of isolation. Thomas had not the advantage of the other followers of Christ. He hadn’t been there when the risen Christ had appeared to the others. He had missed out – rather like I missed out on Easter this year! And he wanted the same experience his friends had!

In that closed and locked room after the crucifixion, Jesus appears suddenly to his closest followers for the second time. And it was the invitation from Jesus to Thomas that opened Thomas’ eyes. In all the pieces of art work that I have seen about ‘doubting Thomas’ (including the one shown from Caravaggio c. 1602), Thomas is pictured as poking his finger in the hole in Jesus’ side as Jesus calmly looks on.  But the reading from John’s gospel does not actually say that Thomas did this.  But Thomas has been saddled with the prefix ‘doubting’ for many centuries.

What Thomas says is much more important! Immediately after the invitation from Jesus he says with the deepest of conviction:

“My Lord and my God.”

My Lord and my God. The wonderful moment when everything changes for this human being. And for many, many others as Thomas lived from then on determined to bring to others the good news of the risen Christ – Lord and God.

So I give thanks to that Thomas from long ago. For his demand to share the same experience his friends had.

I give thanks for the risen Christ, our Lord and our God, who welcomed his closest friends to touch, see and reach out his wounds – an intimate and vulnerable invitation even in resurrection.

May we all have the courage to let/demand that God see our own wounds and ask for the radical kind of healing that the risen life brings with the confession on our hearts, minds and lips:

My Lord and my God.

Blessings

Ceri

Easter Sunday - Let the Ladies Go (and tell the Good News)

Reflection for Easter Day 2022 – Let the Ladies Go (and tell the Good News!)

Well, I should know better, I suppose! My last reflection was a remembering of past Easters – both good and not so good memories.

I could not have anticipated that this one would be spent in isolation – and the subsequent yearning and deep feeling of missing out!

But this is our new normal, and really, why would I expect that everything would automatically go as planned!

Certainly, the women in Luke’s gospel who walked to the tomb in the dawn of that first Easter morning, taking their prepared spices, would not have expected their lives to be completely turned upside down on this day. They had been the only followers to remain at the cross, watching while Jesus drew his last breath. They must have been a sombre but faithful party that early morning as they walked to the burial place, prepared to anoint the body.

But changed their lives were. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women with them – when confronted with the empty tomb and two dazzlingly-clothed messengers - all suddenly remembered what Jesus had told them while he was still alive.

In that instance, everything changed for them – what had been told had come true – or more aptly – what had been promised had come to pass, had been delivered. No wonder they were initially terrified!

And I suppose you could not blame the ‘apostles’ for their disbelief and dismissal of the women’s ‘idle tale’. But at least one – Peter – was disturbed enough to run to the tomb to discover the amazing truth for himself.

Wherever this Easter finds you - particularly if you are like me with my strong case of FOMO - I pray that this Sunday you feel some of that amazed joy of those first witnesses to the fulfilment of God’s promise.

He is risen indeed!

And in memory of those wonderful women – and all things female and Easter ‘eggy’ – catch the wonderful work of Let the Ladies Go! - the rehoming of laying hens considered ‘spent’ after laying every day for 18 months.

Blessings

Ceri

Fourth Week in Lent - A very merry unbirthday to you....

Reflection for Lent 4 – A very merry unbirthday to you

Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” (Luke 15:31-32)

This section from the parable of the prodigal son in Luke’s gospel reminded me of the un-birthday. When Alice (in Wonderland) stumbles across the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party she is told they are celebrating the unbirthday:

A very merry unbirthday
To me?
To you
A very merry unbirthday
For me?
For you
Now blow the candle out, my dear
And make your wish come true
A very merry unbirthday to you

                                                            David Mack / Hoffman Al / Livingston Jerry

It’s explained to Alice that the ‘unbirthday’ is the day of the year that IS NOT your birthday – in other words 364 days of the year! So counting one’s own birthday, this means that every single day of the year is a party!

In Luke’s parable, the obedient and ‘good’ son is jealous and resentful that his father is holding a great feast to celebrate the return of the black sheep of the family - his brother. The father has behaved with wild inappropriateness; firstly by rushing down the driveway to greet the returning son with wide open arms; secondly demanding that the servants bring fresh water and clothes for the dirty and ragged man; and thirdly ordering a huge feast for all to celebrate his son’s return.

When asked by the ‘good and obedient’ son why HE has never been allowed to give such a feast for his friends, the father appears astonished. Because whatever the father has, this good son also has – every day has been a cause for celebration for the good son in being with his father. Every day has been an unbirthday for the good and obedient son! The returning son has been lost in a world that did not recognise the joy and grace of every day –lost in a world where good times could only be had at the expense of goods and services. Which ran out as quickly as the son’s inheritance ran out, reducing him to poverty and enslavement.

It might be a bit of a stretch to imagine our God, or Christ as the Mad Hatter, but Lewis Carroll’s tale makes me wonder what life would be like where people celebrated the presence of each other every single day with the grace of the wildly inappropriate father!

So, a happy unbirthday to you and a happy unbirthday to me?

Blessings

Ceri

Third Week in Lent - To Blame or Not To Blame

Reflection for Lent 4 – To Blame or Not To Blame

“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all the other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did” (Luke 13:2-3)

The idea that people suffer because they are worse sinners than anyone else is ‘put to death’ (excuse the pun) by Jesus when he is confronted with the stories of groups of fellow Galileans dying suddenly – whether by Roman soldiers or a large tower falling.

We are saturated with news every single day of people suffering through no fault of their own. And, like the people around Jesus of Nazareth, we want to know why this happens. At the heart of this question we might see two poles of motivation.

The first, most obvious, is the need to know how to avoid the same fate. If we know why this suffering happens, we can avoid it happening to ourselves and those we love.

The second is the deep empathy many of us feel when we hear or see this suffering and the desire to do something to alleviate the pain of others. What some have called the ‘deep pastoral ache’ in us.

And quite often, the result is we want to blame someone/something – to transfer our own pain.

Jesus refuses to allow those around him to avoid facing the truth of their mortality and of the uncertainty in living in the world.

They will die, and most likely at a time not of their own choosing – ‘you will all perish as they did’.

So, Jesus says, don’t put off what you need to do, trying to find excuses to avoid facing this reality. Turn back to God – ‘repent’ – now! There is nothing more urgent in this life.

Today, many have had the stuffing of certainty knocked out of us. And there appears to be a culture of blame solidifying in its place.

Refusing to allow blame to fill the hole in us is not easy. Turning back to God, listening to God, will maybe show us things we do not want to see about ourselves – ‘take the log out of your own eye before you complain about the speck in your neighbour’s eye’.

What would life be like if we stopped concentrating on blame and just got on with making things better for people?

I was struck by the recent news article by an academic living in Kyiv in this terrible time. The author had noticed a remarkable increase in acts of kindness by the citizens towards each other in the last couple of weeks. Sharing where to get needed supplies, ushering people to the front of queues for medicines based on need. The list of acts of kindness went on.

May we listen to the voice of the One who knows no blame and asks us to turn and follow.

Blessings

Ceri

Second Week of Lent - let us demand?

Second Week of Lent - Let Us Demand?

“A wandering Aramean was my ancestor….” Deuteronomy 26:5

‘And Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me….?” Genesis 15:2

The story of Israel’s wandering ancestor Abram, who became Abraham, has been exercising my mind this week.

In church on Sunday one of our readings will be from the book of Genesis, and we will be hearing of Abram being visited by God who says to him, ‘your reward will be great’. Now Abram has already received many blessings from the God who sent him off on his wandering journey – a wife, possessions, slaves and flocks of animals.

But Abram wants to know what this reward will be (he really wants a child to inherit all his wealth).

There is a sense that Abram is saying ‘all right…prove it to me’ – it could be said that Abram has a smidgeon of distrust or disbelief as to whether God can really provide the reward.

It could also be said this is the height of disrespect and a really dangerous thing to challenge God. But I find myself being inspired by this ‘Abram who became Abraham’ - who demands to know from God what will be provided. And in Abraham the reward is provided (not without a few wrong turns that are part of life).

Abram’s demand is a reminder that God wants a real and deep relationship with us where we trust enough that our real and deep needs are going to be heard. There is risk on both sides of such a relationship – vulnerability and failure as well as faithfulness and perseverance. Which as followers of Christ we see in the journey to the cross.

Maybe this Lent – with all the highs and lows that we are going through – might be the time where we take a leaf out of Abram’s book.

If our relationship with God is one of passive acceptance or a deeply buried distrust that God can actually do something, we risk standing up and demanding: ‘here we are Lord…help us and show us how we can truly help others!”

Blessings

Ceri

First Week of Lent - Walking through the wilderness of this world

Lent Week 1 – Walking Through the Wilderness of this World

Collect for the First Sunday in Lent:

O saving God, who led your people through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land: so guide us that, following our Saviour, we may walk through the wilderness of this world and be brought to the glory of the world which is to come; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen (APBA, p 483)

It seems a strange thing. To be sitting in my study, with the late afternoon sun shining, my cat Ed lying on the table with me, contented and asleep. But on this day, Shrove Tuesday 2022, I cannot be at peace.

In this part of the world we have experienced a catastrophic amount of rain. Lives have been lost. Homes destroyed. Businesses ruined. In four short days, our part of the world has received over six months worth of rain. A storm event that no one could have predicted.

There is a deep sense of mourning, and it feels very much as though I and others are ‘walking through the wilderness of this world’ with the Russian threat of nuclear war, Covid and the many other hurts and sorrows that the world faces today.

As we begin together our Lenten journey, the act of spending 40 days in the wilderness feels acutely present and near as never before.

And we travel with Christ, God’s Son, who has walked this journey before – quite alone and beset by evil.

We pray for God’s guidance and for comfort and peace for all who are suffering at this time.

I was reminded two days ago that even in the midst of a downpour, some of God’s creatures are able to find joy. A small park at the bottom of my suburban street had become a temporary lake – and some found this a boon too good to resist – see the attached picture. Thank you Tim (photographer) for the ray of sunlight!

Blessings

Ceri

Last Sunday in Epiphany - to judge or not to judge

Last Sunday in Epiphany – To judge or not to judge

Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 

Luke 6: 41

On the last week of Epiphany, before we enter the sacred space and time of Lent, we hear Luke’s Jesus telling varied stories about those who judge others without turning a spotlight on their own behaviour.  It appears that to follow Jesus requires a piercing look at one’s own life and actions BEFORE judging the behaviour of others!

The pause of such self-examination could well take a whole lifetime, which would mean that there would be no occasion for an opportunity to examine and pronounce judgement on another’s behaviour!

It’s possible that Luke could have intended for such a message to be imparted to those listening to his words. Who knows?

But like many others today, I watch and hear with a strong sense of helplessness the breaking news of the invasion of peaceful Ukraine by their much larger Russian neighbour. And I cannot help but decide that judgement and condemnation MUST have a place in following the way of Christ.

Luke’s Jesus was critiquing destructive behaviour between neighbours – of which hypocrisy was the focus for this week’s reading. Hypocrisy is a FORM of violence against another, with the perpetrator ignorant of their own failings.

In our globalised society, we are all neighbours, connected with each other in a complex web of economic and trade relationships. What is happening today could well have been exacerbated or encouraged by the behaviour of wealthy nations in the past in some way. By a hypocritical turn of policy which prevented real consequences being visited upon violent actions which may have prevented a future return of such violence.

We are called to be alert constantly to our own motivations in our own governance – painful business sometimes – but so necessary if we really want to participate in a world where our most vulnerable neighbours are cared for – in God’s kingdom.

My prayers for our Ukrainian sisters and brothers living in fear for those they love.

Ceri

Epiphany 7 - 'Cancel-Culture' and the Sermon on the Plain

Reflection for Epiphany 7

Cancel-Culture and the Sermon on the Plain

‘Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.’ Luke 6:36-7

‘Cancel-culture’  - the recognition that society (usually on-line) will exact accountability for offensive conduct by on-line shaming and withdrawal of support for an individual (usually a celebrity) – has as many detractors as it has supporters since it became a popular phenomenon in 2019.

Detractors as diverse as Donald Trump and Pope Francis criticize cancel-culture – albeit for different reasons. The politician seeing it as a form of totalitarianism and a political weapon used to shame people forcing submission, while the Pontiff sees it as a form of ‘ideological colonisation’ that squashes debate over important issues and a diversity of identity.

Its supporters see it as a vehicle where people who have been marginalized for generations are able to ‘call-out’ offensive and discriminating conduct by powerful people. Where marginalized people and groups can be finally heard.

Still others see it as behaviour almost as old as time, where those in power have utilised ‘cancel-culture’ to hide histories of injustice by silencing or persecuting protestors.

In Luke, chapter 6, Jesus warns his followers plainly that working for the kingdom will lead to persecution by those who have power – a sure sign that they are doing God’s work.

In the second part of the sermon, Jesus counters against a (natural) desire for vengeance when faced with hostility.

“Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return” (Luke 6:35)

And in a final warning against hypocrisy when judging others; first ‘take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye’.

It is all too easy to ‘cancel’ someone or some group in 2022 with just the push of a button. The much harder job is sitting down with our own ‘log’ of attitudes/assumptions and dealing with our own murky history before learning about what ‘specks’ might be in our enemy’s eye.

Maybe, with Christ’s help, when we learn to forgive the enemy in own lives, we may be reader to forgive the other.

Blessings

Ceri

Epiphany 6 - Bruce Willis, Jesus and the dolphin

Reflection for Epiphany 6

‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven…’   Luke 6:22-23a

Some things in life, it seems, people love to hate. Nominations for what I call the ‘anti-Oscars’ – the Razzie Awards – are out. Now in their 42nd year, these nominations are for the worst films and worst performances of 2021. Now I wouldn’t have thought there would have been much production in a year riddled by a pandemic, but I was surprised to read that Bruce Willis has managed to perform in nine (yes 9) movies last year! And as someone critics love to hate, he has been granted a category all of his own with all nine performances nominated!

So, it would seem safe to assume that Bruce Willis won’t be jumping for joy when the vote comes in!

For Luke’s Jesus, following him is certainly not a popularity contest – and in fact he warns that it could lead to being deeply hurt, excluded, reviled and defamed! It would seem that Jesus is warning his followers that they should be braced for something much worse than a Razzie nomination!

On a more serious note, this warning can throw some light on the religious discrimination bill and an attempt of some to exclude students from education facilities based on their gender identity. For such people attempting to do this, the backlash they experienced could be seen as vindication that they are on the right path in following what they believe Jesus taught. And could result in a hardening of their belief that such discrimination is right and correct and in line with the reign of God.

But in our reading from Luke’s gospel this week, Jesus clearly states that any backlash or hate experienced is the result of working to alleviate poverty, oppression and discrimination in the name of the One who welcomes all. And when such work is done, and the backlash happens, the followers of Christ should leap with joy – God is with them.

Which reminded me of the footage of the rescue of a dolphin from shallow water in Port Philip Bay this week.

As the dolphin, finally free and literally ‘wobbling’ its way out towards the bay (its fin rocked from side to side like it was unbalanced), it looked like it was going to get lost once more as it veered back toward the shore. An anxious rescuer tried to swim close enough to head it off.

Then it happened – a flash of its body, a little splash – and the dolphin disappeared beneath the water.

Rescuers reported the absolute joy (‘everyone was so, so happy’) they felt when they saw the splash and dive – sure signs that the dolphin was free!

Blessings

Ceri