Mark 6:1-13; 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10

All or nothing.

If there’s an overall principle by which the media is apparently guided, this appears to be it.  Either we’re drowning in a sea of facts and figures; or else were starving in a drought of silence.  Indeed, it mostly seems that while one or two stories grab all the headlines, other matters, equally or even more important, receive little attention.

Luke 24: 44-53; Acts 1: 15-17, 21-26

One morning, a couple of weeks ago, as I was walking down the busy main road that leads from my home to the local train station, a large black dog bounded up to me and began to enthusiastically make my acquaintance. He looked like a cross between a black Retriever and a Doberman, and despite his size, I could tell that he was still a pup – a pup astray in the chaos of the morning rush hour traffic.

Collisions with God

The great 12th Century Persian mystic and poet, Shamsuddin Muhammad Hafiz wrote the following short poem, of which I am very fond:

God
and I have become
like two giant fat people living
in a tiny
boat.
We
keep bumping into
each other
and
laughing.

I am very fond of this poem because it is one to which I can relate.  God and I have been bumping into one another for all of my life.  Or, to be truthful, I have been trying my best to avoid God; but God, like some persistent, divine dodgem car, has always ensured we were on a collision course.

And I think that that’s why I am today a candidate to the ordained ministry; I am the fissionable remains of constantly being impacted by God.  And yet I still feel as though I’m living on a tiny boat (even if I don’t quite deserve the description of a “giant fat person”!), bumping into God at unexpected moments.  And sometimes I’m tossed overboard, into the bracing waters of grace; but always I scramble back on board again, for I have discovered that even if the encounters are occassionally bruising (and why should Jacob at Peniel have had all the fun?), without them I am simply not whole.

Who would have thought it possible?

1 Corinthians 1:18-25; John 2:13-22

In the past couple of weeks, many of you may have read or heard in the media the story of the nine-year-old Brazilian girl who was recently discovered to be pregnant with twins – a pregnancy that allegedly resulted from sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather.  Those of you who have been following this story will know that the girl’s mother authorised doctors to terminate the pregnancy, with the result that the local Catholic archbishop has pronounced excommunication on both the mother and the medical personnel involved in the termination.

The Psalms and Christ: Two Lenten Reflections

PRESCRIPT: As with many other Christian communities, the Uniting Church congregation of North Ringwood to which I and my Dearly Beloved belong produces a booklet of reflections for Lent, written by members of the congregation for the congregation to use as a resource for daily prayer and reflection.  Here are two reflections which I contributed to this year’s booklet.

Date:  For 2nd Sunday in Lent (March 8th)

TITLE: GOD AND HUMAN ALIENATION

SCRIPTURAL TEXT

For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him. Ps. 22:24

All human beings share an affliction: our brokenness and alienation from God.  Yet despite our brokenness, God does not despise us; on the contrary, God actively seeks relationship with every person.  Indeed, it is precisely because of our brokenness that God reaches out to us: God’s purpose is to effect our redemption and restoration, not our condemnation.

The Victorian Bushfires: A Prayer Cycle

PRESCRIPT:  I have been given the immense privilege this week of preparing for my local congregation a cycle of prayers to help people grieve for, and reflect upon, the tragedy of the Victorian bushfires.  What follows represents my attempt to live up to this charge.  The first three prayers in the cycle are of my composition; the last prayer is adapted from resources provided by the Victorian/Tasmanian Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia.

1. Introduction

In the Book of Psalms, the word selah marks a period of reflection; it is a call to pause, to stop and listen.  In the wake of the terrible bushfires that have inflicted such deep wounds upon so many, we gather to pause and listen: to our grief, to our anger, to our shock, to our despair.  We gather to minister to one another, to be present to each person and to our community.  We gather to give ourselves permission and space, in our anguish and distress, to cry out to God.

As I share this time of prayer with you, I will occasionally proclaim: selah.  We will use this time to stop and listen, to pause and reflect.

Mark 1:29-39

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

In the midst of a passage in which the emphasis is on Jesus’ healing power, this short statement from verse 35 of today’s reading is often overlooked.  At most, it’s viewed as a kind of link between the two halves of the narrative, between Jesus’ arrival at the house of Simon and Andrew and the extension of his ministry through the rest of Galilee. 

Clint Eastwood and Christ: A Reflection on “Gran Torino”

It’s amazing where you can find Christ.

In many respects, Clint Eastwood’s latest film, Gran Torino, is a bleak affair.  It tells the story of Walt, a traumatised Korean War veteran who deals with the pain of his memories by hiding behind a wall of crusty misanthropy and bitter racism.  Walt’s life is locked into a dead end of re-cycled routine – disguised as “discipline” and “orderliness” – and excessive drinking.  Even his family life has been infected: he is all but estranged from his sons and their families; and now that he is a widower, his life has been reduced to one of lonely isolation.

Jonah 3: 1-5, 10

With popular culture, it’s often the case that its most enduring products tend to be those that receive the least fanfare when they first appear.  Film is a good example of this principle: blockbusters tend to come and go in rapid succession, but the films which stay with us tend to be “quiet achievers” – they win us over with the quality of their writing, filming, and acting rather than the hype which surrounds their release.

John 1:43-51; 1 Samuel 3:1-10

The colourful Scottish comedian, Billy Connelly, while freely admitting that he doesn’t think much of religion, also confesses to being fascinated by American tele-evangelists, and in particular by their oft-stated claim to be in daily communication with God. In one of his shows, he summarised his feelings thus:  “These people say they talk to God and they get their own television shows and pots of money thrown at them – if I were to say I talk to God, I’d be put away so fast I wouldn’t have time to go home and get my pyjamas!”