Reflection: "How Can you Lose a Messiah?"The Australian Federal Police tell us that approximately 38,000 people are reported missing in Australia each year. While 95% of people are found within a short period of time, usually within a week, there are approximately 1,600 long term missing persons.
That is, those who have been missing for more than three months. Scary! It’s probably every parent’s worst nightmare. One minute your child is there, by your side – and then they aren’t! First off comes the accusing. “I thought you were looking after him. No, I thought you were.” Then the questioning. “Where did we see him last?” Then the worrying. “Let’s ask our friends and relatives if they’ve seen him. Maybe we should hurry back to where we last saw him and see if we can find him. He’ll probably be scared without us there.” Maybe that’s how Mary & Joseph felt when they were heading home from their annual trip to the temple in Jerusalem for the Passover feast and they discovered that Jesus was no longer with them. “How could we have lost the Son of God” they may have wondered? Jesus was still a boy, only 12 years old, but he seemed a lot more aware of his destiny than his parents did. Three days after noticing him missing, they finally found him in the temple courts, talking with the religious teachers. He even seemed surprised that his parents were looking for him, because he thought they should have been aware that he had to be in his father’s house. Typical kid with no thought of how worried the parents might be. But was he a typical kid? Jesus was 12 years old when it happened - a pivotal year for kids. No more childhood - hello, adolescence! Time for the bar mitzvah and confirmation classes, leaving behind primary school, launching into high school. Ask any 12 year-old what they want to be when they grow up and you’ll hear a variety of answers. “A rock star, a farmer, or a football player.” A friend told me recently, "Audrey wants to be a zoo keeper, or the Prime Minister of Australia. But she’s only 8." So we shrug their dreams and aspirations off with a smile. But some 12-year-olds are already thinking seriously about their future. Steve Jobs, the late founder of Apple Computers, wrote about his early fascination with computers. "I was 13 years old," he says in his end-of-life autobiography, "and already knew what I wanted to do." He did it, and the computer world is glad he did. What about you? Did you know what you would do with your life at age 12 or 13? Jesus certainly did. Before he was even a teenager, he had realised what he had to do with the rest of his life. Luke tells us that even armed with that knowledge, Jesus realised that he still had much to learn, so he returned to Nazareth and “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” This is the first we hear about the young Jesus working through his divinity and humanness. Earlier we read of angels telling Joseph and Mary about the incarnate nature of their little child, but in this chapter, we see the beginnings of Jesus recognising it himself. So, Mary and Joseph finally caught up with Jesus at the centre of religious life in Jerusalem - in the temple. “He was listening”, so the text says, and then it says: “they were astounded at his answers”. Jesus both listened and spoke. He was a genius. He was brilliant. Even on a human level, he was destined for greatness. Can Jesus be a role model for young people seeking their way in the world? Can Jesus be an inspiration today for teenagers who need to hear the voice of God? When we find young people, even 12-year-old kids, who are smart, talented, love Jesus and want to make a difference in the world, can we say to them: "Perhaps God wants you to be a preacher like Jesus." Perhaps God is calling them, as he called and anointed Jesus. To be: an interpreter of the word of God, or a teller of stories, or a rebuker of the political and religious establishment, or a caregiver of souls, or a healer of diseases, or a leader of people, or one who stands and delivers a word for our time, or who calls us all to abandon lives of selfish gain, maybe even who issues to us a challenge to take up our cross and follow him. In our Old Testament reading from 1 Samuel, we hear of another child who, despite living about 1,000 years before the birth of Christ, was similar to Jesus in many ways. His mother, Hannah, had been unable to have children, despite having been married for over 7 years. One day, when visiting the priest Eli, she made a vow to God, that if he allowed her to have a son, then she would dedicate him to the Lord forever. And, as every good story has a happy ending, Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son, Samuel. True to her word, she gave him to Eli to work in the temple. Do you remember the last verse of the reading from Samuel? “And he boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favour with the Lord and with men.” Does that sound similar to the last verse of the reading from Luke, when he was talking about Jesus? After many years of hard work in the temple, Samuel was sleeping one evening, when he heard a voice calling him. Three times he thought it was Eli calling him, but Eli realised that it was actually God who was calling Samuel. Samuel answered “Speak for your servant is listening.” He, too realised that he was destined to do God’s work on earth and, although he himself was not OF God, as Jesus was, he certainly had an ear for God and he worked tirelessly for the Lord, including anointing the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David. So, here was a child, lost to his mother, but finding favour, doing the Lord’s work. That’s why I say that the two stories we heard today are similar in many ways. Not everybody knows at age 10 or 12 or 14, where the road ahead will lead. Even at a young age, Jesus knew all about his life, about his death and resurrection. He was full of the Holy Spirit, they said then, and we certainly know it now. But there are some, who, even at that tender age have decided to follow God, wherever it leads. When we come across these young ones, who are ready to kneel before almighty God and say, "Here am I; send me," let US go before them to prepare the way, let US stretch our hand above them and give them our blessing, let US kneel with them. We should pray that God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, will protect and prosper them as they search for the riches of the young men, Samuel and Jesus, who pursued the calling that God had placed upon their lives. So where was Jesus, when his earthly parents were looking for him? Right where God, his heavenly father, wanted him to be, and remember that God is with you wherever you are. May God’s blessings be with you throughout the coming year. Pastor Rick
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Reflection: "Blessed by God"Don’t you just love it when people ask you “Are you ready for Christmas?”
A cheeky answer might be, “No, but it’s coming anyway, so let’s all be joyful!” Christmas, and then the end of the year, seem to sneak up on us, no matter how prepared we think we are. This year we have a truncated fourth week in Advent - it just begins…and the next thing we know it’s Christmas Day. But, for most of us, we’re never really ready, anyway. Advent is a deliberate escape from the frantic pulse of getting ready for Christmas - it gives us breathing room. Except this year, we get almost a week less than usual. But that’s ok - just take a deep breath and relax. You’re here now and can postpone the thought that you may have forgotten something important – maybe great-Auntie Mabel’s present – or maybe whether you’ve sufficiently prepared yourself to celebrate the birth of the most important person ever to have set foot on earth. This week, we read about Micah, who was an eighth-century prophet. He is one of a group whose prophecies are primarily designed to call the Kingdom back to its common core values of righteousness and justice, especially for the poor. Some scholars say that this passage today should not be understood in any other context. It is not, they contend, to be viewed as a prediction of the birth of Jesus. But many others DO interpret it this way and I guess that’s why it is included in the lectionary at this time of year. Personally, I side with the Jesus prophesier mob. When you read the passage, you may wonder about the use of the phrase “Bethlehem of Ephrathah”. It appears that the two are synonymous and may even indicate the name of a tribe living around Bethlehem. In Genesis, it is mentioned as the place where Jacob buried his wife, Rachel. Whatever the correct derivation, we do know that it was meant to signify a tiny, insignificant place, mostly famous for having been the home of Jesse and his son David. David went on to become the greatest King Israel ever had and from him Joseph the tradesman, and thus Jesus, were descended. The significant message of Micah is that in the midst of turmoil and in a nation that has lost its bearings, God’s plan will continue to be revealed and it will involve leadership that brings in a reign of peace. Isn’t this a message of hope that we badly need to hear in our time, too? There’s too much violence and war in our time and we need to remind ourselves that God is in charge and will sort it all out when He’s had too much of letting us really stuff it up. I love the last line of our reading from Micah: “And he will bring their peace.” The “he” that Micah is referring to is the ruler who will come from this tiny town called Bethlehem and who will become the great ruler (we know him as Jesus). Then we get to this wonderful drama in the Gospel of Luke - the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. It helps our understanding of this passage if we recall that Mary is a very young girl, likely in her early teens, while Elizabeth is older, much older. Mature, some may call it. She is described as being too old to have children – but we know that what’s considered impossible for humans, is not a problem for God. It’s also interesting to note that Elizabeth had no condemnation of the unmarried, but pregnant, girl who came to visit her. It would have been understandable, almost obligatory in that time, to look down on a teenager in that situation. But because Elizabeth had also heard a message from God, she could understand and empathise with Mary. The two women have the intimacy of being related; but would they have talked only of domestic things? One doubts that they did. Both of them had remarkable experiences surrounding their pregnancies, and they share the awareness of Divine involvement. Mary’s song of praise, in verses 46-55, is often called the Magnificat, and it rings down through the centuries, a fulfilment of Micah’s prophecy, and the validation of a God who cares for all creation and loves it into redemption with justice and grace. Mary’s song is not a simple, schmaltzie poem about her baby. She gives us a hard-hitting, no holds barred, understanding of what it will mean to the world. What Luke, and indeed the whole season of Advent, is asking us to do is to hold a disturbing, unsettling and wildly hopeful vision of this seemingly innocuous story of 2 babies about to be born and a couple of blissful expectant mothers. In reality, most expectant mothers know that their new baby is going to turn their lives upside down and inside out. Life will never be the same again. But Luke wants to drive home to us the message that with the birth of the baby Jesus and John the Baptiser, who prepares the way for the Messiah, the whole world will begin to be turned upside down. The status quo, the world as we have known it, is going to be upended as surely and wildly as the money changer’s tables in the Temple. The early Christian church used this story of the visit of Mary to Elizabeth as a foundation for the Incarnation. Luke includes it as part of the birth narrative because the church was seeking to explain and affirm that the birth of Jesus was not just another one of those many “virgin birth” stories that were being talked about at the time. At that time, many rulers had claimed similar origins to justify their deification. The forming church in the first century wanted to clarify the one God incarnate, man divine, as an affirmation of humanity, and that is what began to attract people to this remarkable gospel and to the God/man, Jesus. Luke’s writings, and this season of Advent, are preparing us for the Christian celebration of Christmas by sounding the warning loud and clear: do not kneel and worship this baby unless you are ready to embrace the vision of the whole world remade in the image of God. Don’t come and adore him unless you’re ready to have your life and your world and everything you hold dear turned upside down and shaken and reshaped to fit a world where justice and truth and hospitality reign. Don’t come with your gifts to honour this newborn king unless you’re ready to be caught up in the wind of God’s Spirit and blown - who knows where. Because this sweet and harmless little baby nestled in Mary’s womb is the One who comes to do God’s will, to bring the world to its knees, and to upend the world as we have known it. This baby is the powerful presence of God whose kingdom will come and whose will, shall be done on earth as in heaven. And that’s not good news for retailing giants or men of war, but it is very, VERY good news for all who suffer under the weight of the sin of the world and who cry out “How long, O Lord, how long?” How it will happen, we can barely imagine. When it will happen is not ours to know. But that it draws near as surely as the birth of a baby is our promise and our hope and our deepest heart-felt desire. So, we say “Come, Lord Jesus, come!” This last Sunday of Advent gives us a brief time to reflect upon and kindle within ourselves the light of the incarnate Lord. The foundation is laid for what we will find at the manger. Now. Let’s prepare to join the shepherds and the angels in great joy over what God has done for us. Pastor Rick Reflection: "Are We There Yet?"Advent is a time of waiting - waiting for our Lord to come.
Let me ask: “Who’s ever been on a long car trip with, or as, young children?” We all know that the most common question is: “Are we there yet?” Young children aren’t very good at waiting, are they? They easily lose the excitement of the destination, with the boredom of the trip. The Israelites weren’t very good at waiting, either. As they waited for their Messiah, their resolve and love for God wavered, sometimes disappearing altogether. They strayed from the ways of God despite the many messengers sent to remind them of the covenants, or agreements, made with their forefathers. The rules of these were simple: the people keep their end of the bargain and God would look after them. Sounds easy – but God made humans with free choice, and we often make choices that aren’t pleasing to God. Journeys do involve a fair bit of waiting, but it can also be a fun time. During Advent, we’re preparing ourselves to celebrate the birth of Jesus in that stable in Bethlehem, so long ago. Getting into a place like Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, has been a difficult process over the last few decades. It’s in the Palestinian controlled West Bank and people who visit from nearby Jerusalem, in Israel, have to get off their bus and walk a block or so, under the gaze of heavily armed soldiers, before boarding a bus on the Palestinian side. Of course, passports are scrutinised, and people are questioned regarding the reason for wanting to visit Bethlehem. If getting to Bethlehem physically seems challenging, it’s nothing compared to getting to Bethlehem spiritually. At least that’s what John the Baptist would have us understand, because at Advent there is no getting to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, without first passing through the check point manned by John the Baptist. And John is certainly not merrily waving everyone in. On the contrary, as the Gospel of Luke tells it, John is taking names and checking passports. His first inhospitable greeting to the gathered throngs who have come for him to baptise them in the Jordan is, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" He seems to be saying, "Do you really think that coming to the river for a quick baptism will save you from God's judgment? You'd better think again." Then after this unnerving opening, John launches into a sermon where he stresses the people's need for absolute, no holds barred, repentance because judgment is on its way and anything short of total repentance is not enough. So, what counts as total repentance? In response to his preaching, John must undoubtedly have seen many demonstrations of half-hearted repentance - the kind we’re also capable of. Maybe we, like the people in the time of John, tell ourselves that our half-hearted repentance for wrong-doing is adequate, maybe even ok - if we simply feel a little badly about what we’ve done, or left undone, then that’ll do. But John is saying that simple sentimentality is insufficient and it's not a mark of full repentance. Maybe we think that our church identity gives us extra credit points and ought to protect us from God's wrath. But John says otherwise - that trying to depend on one's heritage doesn't demonstrate full repentance. What matters most, John says, is how your rubber hits the road - what you do, and how you live. God doesn’t need people who are just church members, but ones who are believers - not talkers, but doers. And when John's little riverside congregation hears this alarming word, they begin to ask him for more clarification. Some in the crowd ask, "What then should we do?" and John responds in effect, by saying: "Share with one another. If you have two coats, give one to someone who has none. If you have more food than you require, give some away to someone who is hungry." In other words, demonstrating repentance in one's life will involve generosity. You must be generous, says John. The tax collectors in the crowd were also not clear and they shouted, "Teacher, what should we do?" Tax collectors in John's day paid the Roman overlords for the privilege of collecting tolls and tariffs and customs fees. They extorted as much money as possible from the populace to recoup their initial outlay, making a profit - and John says to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed." In other words, a demonstration of repentance will be absolute honesty and dependability, John says. The questions and answers were beginning to make the soldiers in the crowd a little worried, because they asked, "And what should we do?" These soldiers had a right to be nervous, as their compensation for working under the Romans was not lavish. Their pay was small, but custom allowed that they might extort a bit of money from the population while the authorities turned a blind eye. Thus, John responded to the soldiers, "Be satisfied with your wages." In other words, a demonstration of repentance will be an end of grasping greediness, followed by the adoption of contentment. Generosity, integrity, contentment: signs of a life that has undergone total repentance...proof that faith is more than talk. No one in those crowds at the Jordan River, who had come for baptism by John, seemed to escape John's demand for them to live a better life. No easy outs, no short cuts, no excuses. No matter who came, John could see potential for improvement in their lives. I wonder if that’s why John drew such large crowds. It can't have been his appearance, his charm, his polish, or his winning smile. It must have been something else. People must have kept coming to John because he asked something significant of them. He asked them to see themselves and their lives' potential in a new way. Even Paul, when writing to the Christian converts in Philippi, exhorts them to rejoice in the Lord always and to let their gentleness be evident to others. He reminds them that the Lord is near. Of course, Paul is referring to the second coming, not the birth that we’re celebrating at Christmas. As I’ve been pointing out over the last few weeks, the 2 events are intertwined and we must be mindful that, while we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we must also be preparing for his return, because we don’t know when it will be. By bringing everything in our lives before God, Paul reminds us that the peace of God, which transcends all our understanding, will guard our hearts and minds – through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the conduit between us, here on earth, and God. Do you remember Him saying that “No-one comes to the Father, except through me.” John says: “the Messiah is definitely on the way” and he’s awed by the majesty and mystery of the coming of the Holy One. He claims that he is not even worthy to untie the thongs of the Messiah's sandals, a task which a common servant would be asked to do. All John's exhortations to the crowds are also for us and they’re just his way of trying to help us to be ready to step into the presence of greatness, the greatness found in Bethlehem, without the self-consciousness of any misdeeds and wrongdoings clinging to us, in readiness for the Messiah's coming. “Let the past go” John says, “be rid of it, repent of it, lay it down and take up new lives, worthy of the one whose presence you seek.” As we prepare to celebrate his birth over 2,000 years ago, we must be living our lives as if he will walk in the door behind us today, so are we ready for his return? Even though I know there’s always work to do in my life, I still look forward to his coming with excitement, anticipation and I certainly pray that you do, as well. Pastor Rick Reflection: "Preparing the Way"![]() As any experienced military patrol leader will tell you – you really need to send a scout ahead before entering new and unknown territory.
In Exodus 23:20, we read that God sent an angel to prepare the way. The angel went ahead of the people of Israel to guard them along their journey out of Egypt and to bring them to the place that God had prepared for them. Even Moses sent out scouts from Horeb into the land of the Amorites to determine which route they should take to get to the promised land. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as any surprise when we hear from today’s reading in Malachi, that the Lord tells the people he will send a messenger to prepare the way before the Messiah comes. The Israelites probably thought that it sounded like a good deal when they heard that their Messiah was finally coming. After all, they’d been waiting for a long time for him to come and save them from the oppression they’d been suffering for so many centuries. But there’s actually a sting in the words Malachi spoke, because the Israelites hadn’t exactly been on their best behaviour after their return from exile in Babylon. Despite the good work done by Nehemiah to get them back into their religious ways, they’d fallen back into old habits - such as not keeping the Sabbath, not bringing tithes and offerings to the temple, marrying outside of their faith, etc. The Lord sent a messenger, Malachi, to get the people to see the errors of their ways. Instead of the good news that the people were looking for, the words Malachi brought were about a refining and cleansing of their lives, in preparation for the Lord’s coming. Have you ever seen a smelter – super-heating and melting metal to such high temperatures that the dross (or yucky stuff) floats to the surface and can be skimmed off? Similarly, when you put dirty clothes into a washing tub with soap and agitate the water, it will free the muck from the material and allow it to float to the surface. The message from God was that the people needed to examine their practices and get rid of the yucky bits before they could bring their offerings to the Lord at the temple. We do something like that regularly - in our prayers of confession. That’s the time when we bring out all the parts of our lives we’d prefer to keep hidden and ask the Lord to refine us and cleanse us of our sins. The good thing is, that, unlike metal refiners and commercial cleaners, we don’t have to worry about those nasty bits polluting the earth and the sky. Like a super-efficient extraction system, God removes the impurities by forgiving our sins. Not unlike Malachi, John the Baptiser lived at a time when the culture around him was being corrupted, corroded and contaminated - as indeed it still is today. His culture was infected with problems that polluted the cultural waters he drank and the cultural air he breathed. John, who was the cousin of Jesus, came to the people and shouted at them: “Come out to the wilderness; come into the desert; and cleanse yourself of the sin which is deep within you. May your inner cup be washed clean. May your inner heart be purified in order to prepare for the Christ who is to come and live inside of you. Prepare. May your heart be prepared to receive the Christ.” Note that John didn’t offer them salvation, or forgiveness for their sins. That was something only Jesus could offer, but John readied the people to receive Jesus into their hearts. Luke begins the third chapter of his Gospel with a list of earthly rulers from Rome to the synagogue in Jerusalem, but aside from providing a chronological framework allowing us to work out that the ministry of John was in the years 25–26, this roster also contrasts the limited timeframe of the earthly rulers, compared to Christ’s never-ending impact. Every earthly ruler wants to be remembered for his contributions to civilization, but Jesus irrevocably modified society by changing humanity’s relationship with God. Many of the people who came out to hear him, thought that John, himself, was the Messiah whom they’d been waiting for, because he preached with such authority from God. A bit like a herald, proclaiming the arrival of a king, John was preparing the hearts and minds of those who went out into the desert to hear his message. The quote from Isaiah 40:3-5 epitomises John’s prophetic role and the demands of God upon humankind. The call to make “paths straight” and “rough ways smooth” describes preparations that would have been made for a royal visit. Before a king travelled to distant lands, roads and bridges were improved for the journey. Likewise, the beginning of Christ’s ministry on earth required major improvements to be made in lives that were in poor condition. Thus, the townsfolk wandered into the desert to hear a strange man in a hair shirt, who ate locusts and wild honey, but who had a strong message. There is something very intriguing about the desert. It’s a place of introspection and self-reflection. Without the distractions and pressures of city life, one becomes more sensitive to the voice of God. Unfortunately, some people have to journey to a barren land before they hear God’s call. Only when they are alone and totally dependent upon God will these people stop to listen to his callings. And with no place to hide, they must confront God’s demand upon their lives. Lynne and I have made quite a few trips to deserts like the Tanami, north-west of Alice Springs and the Simpson, west of Birdsville. Many of our friends have commented “Why would you want to go there? There’s nothing to see.” On the contrary, the scenery changes every 20 or 30 k’s and if the landscape doesn’t overawe you, the variety of animals and insects will amaze you. God is certainly present in those places and the thing that gets you most is the utter stillness and the vast number of stars at night that are visible to the naked eye. What a great God we have and how amazing it is when we take the time to just sit and absorb the grandeur. That’s what we need to do to listen to God – because God speaks in the stillness, not in the roaring wind. Now I’m not trying to tell you that you’ll only hear or see God in the deserts. God is everywhere - you just have to look a little harder when it’s noisy. So here we are, in the second week of Advent – preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus - his first coming to earth. But I believe that it’s also our job to prepare the way for the second coming of Jesus. As Christians, this is our calling and nothing speaks louder than acts of love and compassion, giving ourselves to others through prayer, our time and gifts of money. As the time for Christmas gift-giving approaches, how will we ensure that our gifts reflect the promises of God – promises of love, peace & joy for all? I’d like you to give that some thought in the weeks ahead as we get closer to that special time of Christmas. Maybe it’s with a thoughtful gift from the Everything in Common catalogue, or maybe it’s by donating some of your time to help those less fortunate than yourselves. Whatever it is, make sure you remember that God is with you and will multiply your efforts to share his love for his people. God’s richest blessings on you all at this time of year. Pastor Rick |
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