Father George’s Weekly for 17 July 2022

Dear People of God

Grace and peace to you.

I’m back on deck. My thanks to Gail for her work on the steep leaning curve upon which I dumped her! Having had the experience of being a new Deacon (sometime last century!) I know that no matter how well you think you may be prepared for a radical change in status from lay to clergy it can still come as a shock. The late, saintly Bishop Geoffrey Parker (whose widow Barbara died in recent weeks, aged 102) told us just prior to your Deacons Ordination, that “you are going to go out and try to convert the world and six months later you are going to fall in an exhausted heap. Just convert those whom God gives you to convert, and pray for the grace to know who they are”. That advice applies to all of us!

Covid is not going away: new more virulent strains are emerging in our midst. Some of our regular worshippers have recently contracted the virus even after having received three or four shots of vaccination, which will help to mitigate symptoms if not grant us total immunity. We need to keep the mask-wearing regime especially where spatial distancing is not possible: it’s a part of our duty of care for one another.

PROPERS for Pentecost 6 (Trinity 5 Ordinary Sunday 17)

Sentence

In returning and rest you shall be saved: in quietness and trust shall be your strength (Is 30:16)

Collect

Eternal God, you draw near to us in Christ and make yourself known as our guest: amid the cares of our daily lives make us attentive to your voice and alert to your presence, that we may treasure your word above all else. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen

Amos 8:1-12 The basket of fruit

Psalm 52 Righteousness and faithlessness and their outcomes

Colossians 1:15-29 The supremacy of Christ

Luke 10:38-42 Jesus visits Marth and Mary

Sermon (Fr George)

In the Name of God, Amen

Amos, not one of the “major” prophets but certainly significant. His visions have passed into the language of ecclesiastical imagery. Let’s put him int context. Israel is in the middle of the long and peaceful reign of Jeroboam II when the country was at the height of territorial expansion and prosperity never again equalled. Things were looking pretty good and it was generally felt that this was a sign of the Lord’s special favour because they were such an outstandingly good people. Into the middle of this comes Amos: not a professional prophet nor a member of a prophetic school, but a herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees. But God has a way of summoning the most unlikely people and giving them a task which they most definitely were not seeking (think Moses, Jeremiah, St Paul and many more).

The vision of a basket of summer fruit: characteristic of a time when things are pretty good, but the very image should serve as a warning of what may be just around the corner. We all know what comes after summer! Hard times are just around the corner, as the Noel Coward song once put it. So this vision is symbolic of the imminent end of Israel’s prosperity and easy times.

Why? Because God is capricious? Hardly. Amos goes on to point out that the people are so bent on things material, on buying and selling, and merchants ready to cheat on weights and the like, and in spite of their generous official support of the shrines their faith had become empty and their religion had become the shekel.

Time and again Israel departs from its call to be the people of God: not for their own sake but to proclaim God among the nations; to live out the justice and redeeming love of God. It had, like many others, become an inward, self-seeking society. The cycle of restoration and captivity seems endemic: whenever Israel becomes inwardly fixated, taken up with itself, its downfall is sure to follow.

Jesus comes into the mix at a time when Israel had once more turned from a complete focus on God and the call to make God known to the nations, once again calling for a return to God, and this time being very specific in showing how the Law, instead of liberating, had actually enslaved the people: he demonstrates freedom from the restrictive Law in living out true freedom and not flinching from paying the cost of liberation. We call it the Passion, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Glorification of Christ.

Is that cycle still happening today too?

Church and state, at least in our society, are separate entities, but that doesn’t stop certain sections of the church attempting to impose their values on the secular society, and vice-versa. But the parallels go much further.

There seems to be a cycle in human history where institutions, whether they be nations, corporations, or even churches, come through a period of difficulty, then prosper become self-absorbed, and either decline or “are declined” involuntarily. The British Empire, after becoming “the greatest empire the world has known” and after treating the colonies as their mines, sources of cheap labour, or markets, failed to recognise the changes in society and had their empire largely wrested from them, even though they may remain in a more or less post-colonially friendly existence. Russia made a rapid transition from a backward society, via violent revolution, to a major empire and now finds itself thrashing about to try to regrasp its former eminence, and who can tell what troubles it may cause on the way. We might consider the emergence of China wonder where that may lead. There’s a good argument to say that the cause of decline was self-absorption and delusions of grandeur.

Is there a parallel for the Church?

We have to ask whether a church that has become wedged in “unchangeable law” as opposed to the liberating freedom of the Law of Love and Reconciliation has lost its way. Is the decline of the Christian Church, at least in western society, where things like “Jesus only chose men to be apostles” and “if it happened then it remains true now” and the like are the things that define the church, and society moves on, just as Hebrew society become stuck in the minutiae of “The Law” and lost sight of the reality of the world in which it was set. The split between, say, mainstream western Anglicanism and GAFCON, or between hardline evangelicals and hardline catholic, of whatever tradition, makes us essentially no different from the Pharisees and Sadducees who, with their focus on the minutiae of “The Law” as they had elaborated it, and the rest of the world gets on with the business of trying t make sense of a changing reality.

We are called to be the light of the world, the leaven in the lump, to transform society by getting in there and showing the way, not by shouting from the sidelines and crying “foul!”

The Roman Catholic Consultation now in process seeks to find a way to bring the church into synch with the communities they serve, across some deep internal divisions. The Anglican Lambeth Conference is seeking to build the bridges across threatened and real internal divides. Unless the Church turns its attention to the reality of the world it will continue the path to marginalisation and irrelevance in the wider society it is called to serve.

We don’t want to be a basket of summer fruit destined to rot: we need to become a plentiful harvest to feed the world which God so abundantly loves.

May God open us up to the leading of the Spirit in our midst. Amen

INTERCESSIONS (APBA & preliminary biddings)

We bring a broken world, broken Church and broken people before God, praying for the leaders of our nations, especially Anthony our Prime Minister, Dominic our Premier and all Members of Parliament, for the counsels of the world meeting at this time; for the Lambeth Conference: for this Anglican Church of Australia and this Diocese and Parish and all the ministries carried out in the name of God, for the sick, especially those in our midst suffering from Covid and other diseases of body, mind or spirit, and remembering before God those whose anniversary of death falls at tis time: Hilda Caunt, Helen Latta, Mavis Johnson. Elaine Price, Pat Turvey, Gordon Hooson, Emma Collins, Elizabeth Newman, Fiona Livingstone, Ena Turvey, and Jackie McCleverty.

We pray for the peace of the world, the leaders of the nations, and for all in authority

Bringing before you, Father God, a broken world of violence and oppression; praying for peace and reconciliation, especially for Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, Myanmar and for all places where nation threatens nation and race fights race. We pray for the leaders of our nation: Anthony our Prime Minister and Dominic our Premier; for all Members of Parliament; and for those who have authority in the commerce and industry of our land

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

We pray for the welfare of your holy Church, our bishop and for all the clergy and people

For a Church torn by mutual suspicion and dissent and especially for reconciliation and common purpose amongst all Christians: for the Anglican Church throughout the world and especially at this time for the Lambeth Conference, for Justin Archbishop of Canterbury and all the bishops in assembly; for our sister Diocese of Guadalcanal and for the Anglican Church of Mexico; and in Australia for the Diocese of Sydney. In our own diocese we pray for our Bishop Peter, for Bishops Sonia and Charlie; for the parishes of Buladelah/Tea Gardens/Karuah and Foster/Tuncurry; and the Diocesan Schools Corporation. In our own parish we pray for our clergy George and Gail, our organists Gabby and Adrian, and for the singers: for the other churches and businesses in our community

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

We pray for seasonable weather and for an abundance of the fruits of the earth

For a return to normal weather conditions throughout the land; for repair to land and crops damaged by flood; for farmers and all whose livelihood depends on the land

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

We pray that we may share with justice the resources of the earth and live in trust and goodwill with one another

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, you have taught us to [pray and to give thanks for all people: receive the prayers pf the universal Church, that it may know the power of your Spirit, and that all your children may agree in the truth of your holy word and live in unity and godly love.

We pray for your servant Pete, our bishop and for all other ministers of your word and sacraments, that by their life and teaching your glory might be revealed and all the nations drawn to you.

Guide and prosper, we pray, those who strive for the spread of your gospel, and enlighten with your Spirit all places of work, learning and healing.

We pray for all those who have authority and responsibility among the nations, that, ruling with wisdom and justice, they may promote peace and well-being the world. To this congregation and all your people in their different callings give your heavenly grace, that we may hear your holy word with reverent and obedient hearts and serve you truly all the days of our life.

In your compassion, Father, comfort and heal all those who are in trouble, sorrow, need or sickness.

We praise and thank you for all your saints, and for the heroes of the faith in every generation; and we remember those who have died, especially those whom we have named before you, praying that we may enter with them into the fulness of your unending joy.

Grant this, holy Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen