Weekly for 30 April 2023 (Easter 4)

Dear People of God

Grace and Peace to you all

It was pleasing to see a large gathering of people at the Dawn Service on ANZAC Day, and our thanks go to Gabby and the Singers for leading the gathering in the hymns. I guess it was like any crowd of Australians, when it comes to anything that might have the least suggestion of emotion about it, the singing by the crowd was a low murmur! ANZAC Day has a great significance for us and for our cousins across The Ditch but there is always a risk that it might descend into jingoism or something no more than a public holiday. When I was holidaying in New Zealand a few years ago I was getting a haircut on 24 April: the girl cutting my hair (I had more then) said, with some enthusiasm “Are you looking forward to the holiday tomorrow? It’s ANZAC Day!” as though it was some sort of festival . I said that we observed that on our side of the Tasman: she was quite surprised and said “Really?” I asked if she knew what ANZAC meant and she was surprised to learn what the letters stood for! It is very rightly said that those who forget the past are fated to make the same mistakes in the future! Peace isn’t something to be taken for granted: it’s something which we have to work at, individually and corporately, all the time!

A reminder that next weekend, 6-7 May, is the first weekend of the month and the Saturday evening service will be at 5:30pm at St Michael’s. We decided that in the cooler months we would gather before the night cold really sets in!

Deacon Gail and Di Leonard have been at a “Train the Trainer” course this week in order to be able to take people through the requirements of the accreditation program for people undertaking any of the various tasks associated with the parish and its activities. With adequate computer access we should then be in a position to help people through the whole process which some people have found rather daunting.

As I advised last week, we are establishing a Ministry Development Committee as a group to generate ideas and strategies to strengthen and expand the ministry of this parish, in breadth, depth and reach. In Luke 10 we read about Jesus sending to seventy out on a mission “The harvest is plentiful … ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers….” There is an enormous mission field around us and there are lots of ideas as to what we might do, but we need a coherent strategy otherwise we will spend all our time talking about it and not actually doing anything about it. We have three people so far: I am looking for two more with a passion for mission development. Then we can get down to work, in the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe that all the gifts necessary for ministry are present within the parish: it’s a matter of discerning who has what gifts and then how we put it all into action.

See you in Church

Fr George

0410 586 119 gmainprize@bigpond.com

PROPERS FOR EASTER 4

Sentence

“I am the good shepherd” says the Lord. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”(Jn 10.11)

Collect

God of all power, you called from death our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep: send us as shepherds to rescue the lost, to heal the injured, and to feed one another with understanding; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

Readings

Acts 2:42-47 Life among the believers

Psalm 23 The divine Shepherd

1 Peter :2:1-10 A living stone and a chosen people

John 10:1-10 Jesus the Good Shepherd

SERMON (Fr George)

In the Name of God. Amen

During this period of Easter we are somewhat taken up with the emergence of the infant Church as a body of believers, growing pretty-well daily as the enthusiasm of the Apostles and their immediate associates is communicated to the ever-increasing circle around them. It’s interesting to consider just how many of the people named or implied in the gospels as having been touched in some way by Jesus were caught up in the Jesus Movement: Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night; Joseph of Arimathea, who arranged the burial of Jesus; Zacchaeus the tax collector, Simon of Cyrene, who carried the cross and was named as the father of Rufus and Alexander who are obviously well-known in the infant community; Mary, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany; Jairus the leader of the synagogue; and the un-named people like the woman healed of the haemorrhage, the woman taken in adultery, the man born blind and his parents, the paralysed man lowered through the roof, the Roman officer with the sick servant….. and so it goes. These are all people who would have had a first-hand experience of Jesus and who, naturally, would be ready adherents to this Movement. Beyond them there is the band of people who were “the friends of friends” as it were. Like any new movement with radical beginnings, and it’s hard to imagine something more radical than the Resurrection, it attracts people who are ready to believe.

In the reading from Acts we hear a story of what life in the new community was like. We need to recognise that this was a group who were probably expecting the return of Jesus any day. Like any groups of “converts” they wanted to share their new experience with a like-minded group and they didn’t expect to have to wait long until their history was to be wound up. In a sense the “end time” churches are successors of these communities: think Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, fringe Pentecostal groups, as well as many others who claim to have secret knowledge and other who are expecting “The Rapture”. The USA is a fertile bed for them! The first Christian community was proto-communist: everything was shared. They sold their private property and pooled the proceeds. St Paul in his journeyings took up a collection to help support the Jerusalem community when a famine overtook the area around 46AD, and their communal funds had maybe been exhausted!

The collection which we know as the Epistles of Peter are an exhortation to its hearers to godliness in the face of persecution. There are various ideas about the exact authorship and the nature of the “persecution” which might have been official or unofficial suppression of Christianity by the Roman authorities or it may have been ridicule by the dominant non-Christian society in which they lived.

The gospel reading is very familiar: the Good Shepherd is a recurring theme of Jesus, and of course he is speaking to a society which had a heavy reliance on sheep-based industry.

We are 2000 years out from the time these works were written. They speak to a culture of the time. How do we translate the essential message to 21st century Australia? The vast majority of our tradition is unchanged, but the way in which we communicate it to a society which would be unrecognisable to the authors of Scripture is our problem. If St Paul had access to Google, Instagram, email or Facebook he might have taken a very different approach to his ministry!

Take all this stage by stage.

The Apostles first address is to the crowds gathered for a major festival. They are religiously-oriented people. Remember the Billy Graham Crusades of years ago? OK, maybe some of you are not old enough to remember back that far, but there have been similar revivalist rallies from time to time. Who attends those? I suggest that it is mainly people who are well-disposed towards the message being presented. They may be marginal adherents or go there with a committed friend, but they certainly have some familiarity with the elements of the evangelist’s message as he (and it’s usually a “he”) calls for a renewed commitment to Christ. It might get a number of lapsed Christians back onto the “active list” and I would hazard a guess that the “unchurched” would be in the small minority in such a gathering.

We all, however, need to recover the enthusiasm of the first flush of our commitment to God in Jesus Christ.

Persecution? Yes, there are indeed many Christians throughout the world who suffer real persecution often leading to imprisonment or death, deprivation of civil liberties, ostracism from their community and we need to support these people by whatever means are available to us. However the media and our society at large are full of people who are prepared to denigrate, ridicule or in some other way discriminate. It’s not violent persecution but it’s nonetheless a marginalisation of the general faith communities, be they Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Sikh or something else. Sometimes it’s a risk to wear a clerical collar! The behaviour of some publicly religious people in our society has done much to tarnish the reputation of the Church. So the message of the author of the Petrine Epistles (fancy name for the letters ascribed to Peter) is exhort the believers to holiness of life and to be examples of the faith.

Jesus speaks to his society in terms which they understand. It’s culturally embedded. When he is critical of certain sections of the Pharisees who had twisted the Hebrew faith to a little more than a series of increasingly onerous rules, he wouldn’t be telling the people something they didn’t already know. His images of shepherd and sheep are familiar. His claim to a unique relationship with God is an affront to those who believe they have the “inside running” when it comes to God-matters.

Our task in 21st century Australia seems to be more heavily one of “pre-evangelism”, of getting people ready to hear the sort of the essence of the message of reconciliation with God in Jesus Christ. That involves deep listening to people so that we can understand the issues with which they grapple, not only about faith and belief, but also about survival, estrangement, family relationships, meaningful work and myriad others. Then we can couch the message of reconciliation in terms which they will understand and to which they can relate. Deep listening indeed, and don’t try to provide answers to questions which they are not asking.

Our model, as ever, is Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever.

Amen

INTERCESSIONS (Church of England, with local biddings)

Let us pray to God the Father, who has reconciled all things to himself in Christ

For peace among the nations, that the world may be rid of violence and that people may grow in justice and harmony

For Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Palestine and Israel; for the easing of tension on the Korean Peninsula and China/Taiwan; for Myanmar; and for all places of disaffection and strife

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

For those who serve in public office, that they may work for the common good

For Anthony our Prime Minister, Chris our Premier, all Members of Parliament and Local Government;

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

For Christian people everywhere, that we may joyfully proclaim and live our faith in Jesus Christ

For the unity of all Christians now divided by differing traditions, and for mutual respect and co-operation in this place, for the Roman Catholic, Uniting, Presbyterian, Congregational, Salvationist, and Independent churches: for the Anglican Church throughout the world; for Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury and the international Meeting of Primates; for our sister Diocese of Guadalcanal; for the Australian General Synod; for this Diocese and our Bishop Peter and Bishops Assisting, Sonia and Charlie, and for the Anglican Schools Corporation; in this Parish for our clergy George and Gail and for our Parish Councillors.

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

For those who suffer from hunger, sickness or loneliness, that the presence of Christ may bring them health and wholeness

For those who will request the Sacrament of Unction at this service; for the comfort of the bereaved; for company for the lonely and unloved; for those in need known to us and especially those for whom ur prayers have been requested Doug and Jenny, Indi, Barbara D, Val Frazer, Lynn, Betty, Les, Jill, Ann, Daphne, Bruce, Debbie M, Samuel, John J, Merv T, Nicole M, Jenny H, Didi, Margaret, Peter McC, Susan, Elizabeth, Dawn A, Heidi, Wendy F, Peter, Vicki L, Laurie, Jenny M, Val D, Ben, Keith M, Sammy J and Noah, Stuart McInnes, Sue T, Keith and Hettie, Hope, Mick Atkins, Derek, Zoe, Roslyn, Shannon,

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

For those whose earthly life is drawing to a close, especially those near to or known to us, that their passing may be in peace and their dwelling in the heavenly Jerusalem

For those whom we name in the silence of our hearts

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

And rejoicing in the fellowship into which we are called with Mary the Blessed Mother, Paul our Patron and Michael and the Company of Angels, and all your holy people in their several generations, and remembering those whose year’s mind falls at this time Edna Freeman, Richard Gayler, Linda Dennis and Elsie Boyle, and those whom we have loved and who have passed into your nearer presence

Let us commend ourselves, and all for whom we pray, to the mercy and protection of God

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

SAINTS and COMMEMORATIONS of the week 1– 6 May

1 Philip and James, Apostles and Martyrs James is generally referred to as “James the Less” the distinguish him from “James the Great”, the brother of John, Little is known of him other than being referred to as “the son of Alpheus” and is traditionally held to have died a martyrs death. Philip is thought to have had Greek connections, having been sought out by some Greeks at a festival with the request that they might meet Jesus. “Greek” does not imply that he was from Greece but was enculturated in a “Greek” region of Judea. The traditional site of his martyrdom and burial is in modern day Turkey.

2 Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, teacher (373) was a leading defender of Orthodoxy against the Arian heresy and is the source of the quote “He (God) became what we are that we might become what he is”. Alexandria, in modern Egypt, was a major centre of learning and was a major centre of the Christian community,

3 English Saints and Martyrs of the Reformation era Church of England) doesn’t commemorate only the Reformation martyrs of the Church of England, nor just the Roman Catholics who also died for their faith, but combines both, to commemorate ALL the men and women who died for their faith. It is both a judgement on human intolerance and a celebration of faith that transcends all boundaries.

SMILES for the Week (courtesy “The Church English Dictionary)

Epistle: opposite of a postcard

Kingdom of God: Where the poor are given riches, the mighty humbled, the hungry fed, the vain disillusioned, the naked clothed, the blind given sight and there’s dancing all night long to 60s soul music. Christians live on its edge, in love with the idea but scared of the consequences. The kingdom is here but not all here – unlike Christians who are often here but not all there. You can hear the kingdom of a good day. It’s the sound of all the angels playing in a gospel combo, of saints marching in. The sight of all the colours bleeding into one. (Fr George comments: it’s also quite like the organ and choral music of JS Bach!)

……and a final smile

A Welshman dreamed that he had died and gone to heaven where he joined the heavenly choir under the direction of the Archangel Gabriel. There were 10,000 sopranos, 10,000 altos, 10,000 basses and he was the only tenor (and the organist was JS Bach -Fr George). The first piece in the rehearsal hadn’t gone more than a few bars when Gabriel called for silence, and said “Mr Jones, not quite so loud, please”.

(and can’t you just imagine “Guide me O though Great Redeemer” being sung by a massed Welsh Male Voice Choir?)