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Jesus’ upside down message

This week we are exploring two very famous passages – the beatitudes that begin the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew chapters 5 and the companion text from Micah chapter 6, namely the call to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.

How do we ‘hear’ these passages afresh? The instructions in Micah 6, for instance, are easy to mentally l agree with, but very challenging to live out. They require no less than to reflect the character of God in how we live. And if justice lies at the heart of God, then how are we, personally, actively pursuing justice for our indigenous peoples, or asylum seekers, or those living on Newstart allowance? If we are not making a personal response to do justice then have we really heard the call?

The beatitudes are equally challenging. Our tendency is still to think that the ones God blesses are the rich, the powerful, the healthy, etc. Instead Jesus says that God’s blessing is available to all of humanity, even for the types of people we regard as hopeless, those – we think – who are beyond God’s interest or care. If we allow them to, these beatitudes will change how we see other people and direct us to the sorts of people Jesus naturally gravitated towards.

From the Minister,

Jesus calls disciples to community

This week’s reading has Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee and calling two sets of fishermen brothers. According to the presentation in Matthew, they immediately leave their nets, their homes and their livelihoods behind and go with Jesus. The first community of followers of Jesus is thus formed.

One question that quickly springs to mind is how and why these practical folk just dropped everything to follow Jesus. We suspect there is more back story (as hinted at in Luke’s and John’s accounts) but here we’re not told. A second question may be what did Jesus see in these four fishermen (as well as what they saw in Jesus). I think Jesus saw potential, courage and resilience. I wonder what qualities Jesus sees in you (perhaps these and other talents)?

This Sunday is also Australia Day, the increasingly contested day on which we celebrate ‘modern’ Australia. In doing so, we risk continuing the colonial project of suppressing indigenous people and excluding their story and their history. Let us be mindful then of how we, as part of the dominant culture, treat other groups in our society.

From the Minister

Learning from our indigenous brothers and sisters

Picture by Sammy Ray Jones depicting massacre at Murdering Creek in 1869

We will again be having a Day of Mourning service in the lead-up to Australia Day, as suggested by the UCA Assembly. President Deidre Palmer writes, ‘the service encourages us to pause to remember the violence and dispossession inflicted on our First Peoples, and to lament that as a Church and as Second Peoples, we were and remain complicit. It is an opportunity for us to listen and learn of the hurt that has been passed down through generations of First Peoples and the ongoing disadvantage and injustice they still experience. Importantly it is an invitation to us to follow in Christ’s way of justice, healing and reconciliation, building relationships of truth and healing in our own communities and in our nation’.

Will you join me in continuing to pray for justice and healing in our nation?

From the Minister,

The heart of baptism

This week we jump from stories of Christmas and the birth of Jesus to the account of his baptism by John. This account is quite brief and doesn’t address the questions we may have about baptism (e.g. why was it necessary for Jesus to be baptised? what is the ongoing significance of our baptism?). When this reading is placed alongside the reading from Isaiah 42:1-9, however, we begin to see some common threads.

First, baptism is about being named and affirmed by God. In Isaiah the people are named as God’s servant in whom God delights. Jesus is named at his baptism as God’s Son with whom God is well pleased. Similarly for us, we are named and affirmed as God’s children at our baptism.

Second, baptism is about being empowered or equipped for ministry and for our vocation in the world. God’s Spirit is placed on the servant in Isaiah and descends on Jesus at his baptism in the form of a dove. Similarly for us, at our baptism we invoke God’s Spirit to bless and equip us for living a godly life (in the baptism liturgy this is marked by the several responses that begin ‘With God’s help…’).

Following these commitments by God towards us, the third thread is our commitment to God, or our purpose in the world. For the servant in Isaiah it is to bring justice and light to the nations. For Jesus it is to announce and establish the kingdom of God. As followers of Jesus, our baptism calls us to join Christ’s ministry in the world. This involves loving our neighbour as ourselves, striving for justice and peace, respecting the dignity of and seeking Christ in every person, and proclaiming the good news of God in Christ by word and example.

These commitments are ongoing and apply to every Christian, irrespective of our age or stage of life. This is a high calling that is only possible with God’s help and direction. So this week, and every week, let us remember our baptism and be thankful.

From the Minister,

The Christmas road less travelled

This week is Epiphany when we hear the ‘other’ Christmas story from Matthew’s Gospel. It’s much darker, grittier and more dangerous than the family friendly Christmas story from Luke’s Gospel. Wise men from the east (non Jews) come seeking Jesus to worship him, while the Jewish rulers in Jerusalem either ignore the one born to be king or plot to kill him.

How are we to hear this story? Is it a story of God calling the stranger into the fold of blessing? Is it a story of evil that tries to squash any threat to the status quo? Is it a story of resilience in the midst of adversity as the family flee as refugees? Is it a story of God’s grace, or a story of grief as the innocent children are murdered, apparently forgotten by God?

The Christmas story as told by Matthew contains all these elements and more. It shows that those in power will fight to hang onto their power. It also shows that God’s blessing is not restricted to any one group or culture. Perhaps Matthew is telling us in stark terms that the gospel is always heard in a contested space. The question for us is whether we are helping or hindering the spread of this message of good news.

From the Minister,