Reflection I gave at Gymea-Miranda Uniting Church on Sunday 17 March 2024 John 12:24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. I think that the climate catastrophe is the greatest challenge we are facing in the world and that includes the church. Everything, everyone, all of life, all of us; are being affected now by climate change and we will feel greater and greater effects in the future. Just as all of life is connected, I also think all life is connected to God. Our faith is not separate from what is going on in the world. We cannot put church over here and world over there. The climate and the cross of Christ are connected. All is connected. All is cross connected. Today, Hye Kyoung has asked me speak about · Ministry with Campsie, Earlwood, and Clemton Park Congregations, our engagement with people in the local multicultural community and the wonderful volunteers that work with us in Christ’s mission. As I reflected on my vision, on what we are doing in Campsie Earlwood Clemton Park and why we are doing it, I came up with lots of words beginning with the letter ‘C’ but I have settled with three ‘C’ words on which to base what I want to say this morning: Climate Cross Connections All my life I have had a deep need for connection. Growing up I felt very disconnected from people, even from my family and from life. I yearned for connection yet felt so disconnected, so alone. Then when I finally responded to the call of Jesus to take up my cross and follow, I began to experience connections grow with God, with people, with all creation. I remember doing street evangelism in Ireland and always feeling that there was a disconnection between the Gospel, as we were presenting it, and the people we were presenting it to. I often felt more connected to the people on the streets than to the Christians I was with. I wanted to connect with the people on a deeper level and have always thought that much of what goes on in church life has little to do with either the Gospel or the world in which we live. For me the Cross is all about connections. The cross connects us to God and connects us to each other (symbolism of Christ’s outstretched hands). In the cross of Christ, I find hope for the world, even for the greatest challenge of climate catastrophe. St Paul reminds us of this in Romans 8 ‘that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labour and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.’ In the cross, Jesus is the grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies, and because Jesus dies, Jesus bears much fruit. In our dying to self, there is a connecting to all things, a connecting to greater things, to God, to all people. When we pass from the old life into the new life of the resurrection there is an awakening, an awareness, all people are my sisters and brothers, I am one with creation. Taking up our cross means taking a lowly path where we meet the suffering peoples of this world, where we being to ask questions of our world. Why is this happening? What is causing it? Who is benefiting from it? We begin to see the rampant effects of Capitalism, Consumerism and Colonisation all around us on the first nations people, on the climate, and on producing social inequality, famine, people seeking refuge, housing unaffordability around the world etc. So, at the heart of what I believe is the cross connecting us to everything and everyone. Reconciliation is so important for me: reconciliation with God, reconciliation with others, reconciliation of enemies, reconciliation with the first nations peoples of this land, reconciliation with the earth, reconciliation with all creation. 2 Corinthians 5:18,19 ‘All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.’ As I carry the cross and see the climate catastrophe that is befalling us, my vision helps shape what I do and what shapes our congregation and community at Campsie Earlwood Clemton Park. We share Campsie property with Galilee Korean Congregation with whom we have made a property sharing agreement. We also share it with a Chinese congregation (Australian Cross International Church) who work with us in running our weekly drop in and daily food distribution service. As well as helping people, food rescue is about recycling, reducing and reusing. Caring for the earth. We also have an Indonesian bible study group, a Nepalese cultural group teaching language and dance to their young people, a Chinese Opera Choir and four days a week the Australian Nursing Home Foundation uses the property to run a day care for older Chinese and Vietnamese people. Currently we receive $960 per week or $50,000 per year from them alone. The nursing home foundation are not seen as a source of income alone but as partners as people we collaborate with in serving the people of Campsie who are mainly of Chinese background. Indeed, all these groups are people we collaborate with in mission. Because of our increase in income and support through grants (because of the engagement we have with so many cultural groups) we are finally installing our commercial kitchen after 5 five years of planning. At Earlwood we are making a property and mission sharing agreement with Beth Eden Indonesian congregation who are a Pentecostal congregation and have been part of Georges River Presbytery for over 30 years. We hope to make an agreement with the United Church of Tonga who have been associated with Clemton Park for over 30 years also. They currently look after the property and are very involved in our food distribution and Drop In and in creating our native plant garden and yarning circle where we hope to create connections with our local community. We are engaging indigenous elders to lead us in listening to the land. It is my hope that an urban colonised people will learn to listen to the earth and begin to redress our treatment of the earth and restore the earth’s climate. For me the key word in mission is collaboration. Through all the connections I have made I am collaborating in some way to make a better world. As our congregations and community cultural groups collaborate, we create a powerful energy. We achieve far more than we could do on our own as a congregation. The weight of maintaining properties is shared, finances increase, more people are engaged, mission is increased, goals are set higher, more initiatives are attempted because there is more energy, more people, more vitality. What I have described is ‘Working interculturally’ Intercultural describes communities in which there is a deep understanding and respect for all cultures. Intercultural communication focuses on the mutual exchange of ideas and cultural norms and the development of deep relationships. In an intercultural society, no one is left unchanged because everyone learns from one another and grows together. Much of the work is done by the community rather than the congregation. Many of our wonderful volunteers do not attend our churches nor any churches. One person texted me this week and said, ‘I think of the food distribution activity as my time at church.’ This person no longer attends a church but is so integral to the life of our congregation/community. To me she worships God through her service of others. She has laid her life down, like a grain of wheat that has fallen into the earth, her continual dying to self in her service of others is bearing much fruit. I am very thankful for all the people that make up our collaborating connected community.
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AuthorMinister of Campsie Earlwood Clemton Park Uniting Church Congregation Archives
March 2024
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