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Reflections Sunday 28 August 2021

29/8/2021

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Getting out of the rut
Welcome to this week's reflections. I have gathered together a number of things to reflect on based on this week's Scripture reading James 1:1-17.
You may choose all or some of the things to reflect on. You will find Scripture verses, quotes, songs and videos, prayers and mantras to use and some thoughts. The aim is not entertainment or stimulation but that you spend time in Stillness and Silence. Please click on the links to lead to external websites and clips.
Scripture reading: James 1:17-27

A Bible verse
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world (James 1:27).

A Song
'we venerate thy cross’ sung by Noirin Ni Riain and the Monks of Glenstal Abbey. This video contains images of the beautiful Skellig Rocks off the County Kerry Coast in Ireland. The words of the chant are attached in Russian and English for you to follow.

we venerate thY cross

A Question
Why do people tend to take the same worn paths?

Some thoughts
I was out walking the other day and came across a brown deep rutted track across a grassed area. Rather than following the cement pathway people had been taking a short cut. I wondered why do people do that? Why do people tend to walk in the same path making a deeper and deeper rut? Why don't they spread out?

What we see in the ever wearing track is an externalisation of what is going on in the brain. We tend to fall into the same routines which then become like grooves in the mind which we find hard to get out of. We tend to respond to things in the same way, we follow the same old paths to destruction, we take the short cut, the familiar path, though it be painful and leading to the same outcome rather than risking to choose a different way, an unfamiliar path; because the darkness we know, with all its potholes and hazards is safer than the unknown path. But hey another path could lead us to a different place. It could lead us out of the spiral we are in. It might open up a new world, lead to different behaviour and to better relationships, perhaps to a more peace centred life. We will never know unless we get out of the rut and explore.

In the church we can do the same. I know I often say the same things in my sermons and prayers over and over again, people choose the same songs, listen to the same music, sit in the same place, talk to the same people, round and round we go.
So how can we get out of this?

James tells us to be doers of the word and not merely hearers. Being hearers of the word is very important but without putting it into practice we remain the same. Hearing and doing are connected. Our doing flows from our hearing. Listening for God shapes our actions, our doing. While there has always been much good in the church, there has also been many terrible things done by people claiming to be doing the will of God. People claim to be following Jesus, but if we are going around in circles are we really following the one who brings freedom, liberation and transformation? Is our veneration of Christ's cross simply words we sing or a way we follow? Was Jesus' way of the cross in vain?

Silence, stillness, reflection, listening for God, bring us closer to God’s heart and as our hearts connect with God’s heart our minds are transformed and our actions then tend to flow from love and empathy, with grace and mercy and kindness.
When faced with a well worn track as pictured below, what will we do? What choices will we make? Where might Jesus be in this photo?

A Poem: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Words of Wisdom
Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger (James 1:22)

A Mantra
Hearers? Doers? As you inhale say the word 'Hearers' softly under your breath and as you exhale say the word 'Doers'.
A Silent Moment
Take a moment to be still and silent, be aware of the energy or pain in your body, hold your gaze on a tree. or plant or bird or insect for a moment. Let God come to you.
A Prayer
God of love, who hears the cries of all who suffer, may we be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. Amen.

And finally - a Quote
‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions’
This is a well known quote but it is not from the Bible. The author is unknown. It is something worth reflecting on.
Here is a clip of Madonna singing it. Watch out or it might just get stuck in your head. If you find this offensive in anyway I apologise.

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Reflection Sunday 22 August 2021

28/8/2021

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This has been a very sad week in our congregation, a week in which two of our families have lost very close loved ones.

I am sure we all struggle to find words to express our solidarity with the grief that others are experiencing. Sometimes, because we don’t know what to say, we do not contact the person who is grieving. Perhaps we find it uncomfortable to be with someone and remain silent. We so often fill our moments with words and music and distractions rather than sitting with the silence.

In the midst of suffering and grief, people often ask where is God? Why does God not comfort us? Why does God seem so far away when we need God’s comfort the most? Why is God silent? Why does God not speak to us? If people do not sense God’s presence, perhaps they feel abandoned. I sometimes wonder if ministers are too quick to tell people that God is with them. Someone telling you that God is with you when you feel far from God’s presence can make God feel even more distant.

Lately I read that ‘silence is the language of God and all else is a poor translation’ (Rumi). Listening for the silences is very important. The other day I was listening to the wind blowing and in the midst of the deafening sound there were pauses as if the wind were drawing breath before unleashing its mighty breath on the helpless trees again. To listen to God we have to listen to silence, to listen to the pauses between the words that are spoken. It is important that we read Scripture in this way, pausing to reflect, to contemplate. Sometimes it is not directly in the words of Scripture that we sense God’s voice, but in the quietness as we sit with the words in our ears.

Recently I have written about listening with one’s heart rather than one’s mind. Eckhart Tolle would call this listening with one’s being rather than listening with the ego. This is listening from a place that is deeply connected with God. What we hear with the heart is often very different to what we hear with the mind. In the mind we often hear what we want to hear, we have lots of filters, that perhaps that drown out God’s quiet voice. But listening with the heart is different the heart is fully open and tuned to God’s voice and can hear even when there are no words and no sounds.

A few weeks ago, my attention was drawn to the word Selah in the Psalms, and I wrote about it in my Sunday reflection. Some believe that the word Selah means, pause, be still, silence. Today’s Psalm contains two Selahs. Please read through the Psalm asking for God to speak to you as you pause and be silent and still after the words you have just read. It may take a lot of practice and patience.

Prayer
May we all learn to listen for God in the silences. May we learn the language of God.
At this time when we are so isolated from each other and when we cannot be present with one another in our grief may those who grieve find comfort in the silences around them where their loved one no longer lives. Even in our separation may we sense the comfort of one another. Come to us God and may we come to you. Come close to us. Amen.

Psalm 84
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. Selah

Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion.
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah

Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed.
For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; he bestows favour and honour.
No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.

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Reflection Sunday 15 August 2021

21/8/2021

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Wisdom teaches us something about ourselves...

Ephesians 5:15 ‘Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people, but as wise people making the most of the time, because the days are evil.’

This current Covid-19 lockdown is going on far longer than we expected and there seems to be no end in sight, with rising numbers of cases in New South Wales each day.

What can these words which Paul wrote to the Ephesian church say to us at this time? Be careful, Paul says. We are all being urged to be careful by our governments: careful not to catch the virus and careful not to spread it to others. I am sure many of us are wondering what is the wise thing to do: take the vaccine or not? Who really knows? Only time will tell.

It doesn’t take much time reflecting on our world to acknowledge that there is a lot of evil in the world. The problem for us is that there is so much evil, so much that we become disheartened, despondent and disillusioned and do nothing. What can we do about climate change? How can we influence those who are benefitting from the destruction of the environment? What can we do to end corruption by political and religious leaders? What can we do to end wars and stop the spread of famine and the mass migration of refugees and animals and birds and fish; and disease across the planet?

Don’t you wish that the people of the world would be a lot wiser? Don’t you wish that you were wiser? Wisdom is something we would all like more of, isn’t it?

This week, I listened to a training session on Conflict Transformation given two Quakers. Quakers (The Religious Society of Friends) are known for pacificism and peaceful living, telling the truth and honesty, but perhaps most of all for sitting in silence together waiting on the Spirit to speak to their hearts. At the end of the Conflict Transformation training session, one participant said, “I have come to realise that conflict transformation is not about transforming conflict into non-conflict, but it is about how I see things, how I view the conflict and the changes that occur within me. In a similar way it could be said that Wisdom is not the ability to know the answers to all the evils heaped upon the world and wisdom is not the ability to know which choice to make or the right decision, or the best way forward but rather wisdom teaches us something about ourselves, how we see things, how we see ourselves, how we view the world.

Twenty one years ago I wrote in a sermon, ‘True wisdom to me is not found so much in solving the endless mysteries of life but rather in appreciating and honouring the commonplace things of life. Wisdom is found in the conversation over a cup of Tea, the shared moment at the bus stop, in the jumbled conversation with the person rejected from most ‘important’ arenas in life. Wisdom is found in that precious moment between yourself and another person, and God.

Paul tells the Ephesians that wisdom comes from being filled with the Spirit not by getting drunk on wine. It is easy to become religious, going through the motions, settling for a religion of the mind but not tending to the heart. I think we need not just a sense of self worth (a struggle we may have in our mind) but also one of Soul worth, of caring for one’s soul. For me there is great wisdom in the simplicity of recognising Jesus in the faces of suffering, listening for God’s voice in the silence, feeling the wind of the Spirit on one’s face and taking it deep into one’s lungs.
Psalm 111:10 says, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.’ For me wisdom is found in a deep and humble respect of God and in a deep and humble respecting of people and of all life: respecting the air, the water, the soil and animals and birds, insects and fish.

Perhaps if we consider what Paul wrote: how to make the most of our time, taking care about how we live we might ask ourselves are we living life to the full or just wasting our time away? Are our lives on hold or is there room here, somewhere to develop some wisdom?

If you get the opportunity during this time of being locked down, please take the time to explore what this wisdom is that the Bible hints at. Take the time to find it within yourself; to find your wisdom and the alternative life that lives within you.

PRAYERS
Loving God, source of all wisdom and truth,
at this time, as we come to the end of winter and to the beginning of Spring,
we already can see leaves returning to trees,
and the sweet scent of Jasmine beginning to fill the air.
As the warmth of the Sun brings new growth,
may the warmth of your love
enliven new growth in our lives.
As the dry land drinks in the rain,
sustain us with your deep wisdom,
that our lives may again blossom with the flowers and fruit
of lives lived in wisdom.

God, who searches the hearts of all humanity,
search our hearts today.
Hear our cries for forgiveness.
Help us to forgive those who have hurt us.
Remove from us all falsehood and dishonesty.
Renew our desire to speak and live the truth.
Forgive us for acting in ignorance. (Silent prayer)

We pray for our planet earth, with all its pollution and environmental degradation.
(Silent prayer)
We pray for the world: seeking justice, reconciliation, unity and peace. (Silent prayer)
We pray for the leaders of the nations and community and religious leaders, that they may reflect your values and seek your wisdom. (Silent prayer)
We pray for those who seek healing this day… (Silent prayer)
We pray for wisdom and love in caring for one another. (Silent prayer)
May wisdom flourish in these evil days.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for today and always.
Amen.

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Reflection Sunday 8 August 2021

13/8/2021

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Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Imitators of God

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:1,2).

How can one imitate God?

I read a post on Facebook this week in which the author told a story about a young woman who told her pastor that she was no longer going to that church because the people in it were all hypocrites. The pastor responded by telling her not to look at people, but instead to fix her eyes upon God. There were a number of problems for me with the story and the conclusions the author came to. One problem was that the pastor was not at all concerned with the example the people in the congregation were setting. Surely, if the life of God, is flowing in and through the lives of followers of Jesus, there must be some difference, some evidence of transformation, of resurrection life. There must be something both challenging and attractive about them. But there is some truth too in what the pastor said. If we continually look to people, we are bound to be disappointed. How do we fix our eyes on God who is unseen? Or would it have been better if the pastor said See with God’s eyes?

Paul tells the Ephesians in chapter 5 verse 1 to be imitators of God but in at least eight other instances in his letters Paul urges people to be imitators of his example and faith and of those with him who shared the gospel with them. For instance, in 1 Thessalonians 1:6,7 Paul commends the Thessalonians - And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. The faith of the Thessalonians had become known everywhere. Paul had no need to draw others attention to it.

The ‘Good News’ is that God became flesh and lived among us full of grace and truth. Paul tells the Ephesian Christians to live in love, as Christ gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. In many of my sermons I have often said, if you want to know what God is like look at Jesus, look at his life, his words and actions and how he loved and welcomed people. Followers of Jesus mirror his life. They reflect the same love Jesus had for people through their lives. Well, that is what we might expect to happen.

There is a well-known saying that says Faith is more caught than taught. Without living out the gospel, the gospel isn’t grounded, it isn’t enfleshed, isn’t incarnated, it isn’t living, it isn’t alive. Jesus doesn’t just say believe in me, Jesus says take up your cross and follow me. This means putting to death something of us in order to live life to the full. People who live life to the full will always be attractive and challenging to others. Living a full life does not mean that everything goes your way; that it is one laugh after another. Living a full life means living life in ways that meet life full on; that no matter what is thrown at one, one draws from the well of life that is God. With that life flowing through a person other people will want to imitate that life especially when they see someone gong though the hardest of times and yet somehow living.

It seems to me that when we look at Jesus in the Gospels, we look with softened or opened hearts but when we look at others our hearts are often closed or hardened towards them. The Old Testament tells us that God does not look at the outward appearance of a person, God looks at the heart. How do we look as God looks? How do we see the heart of another?

This week I continued my very slow reading of Eckhart Tolle’s book ‘A New Earth - Create a better life.’ In it he wrote about how when we look at another person and they look back at us, we are looking at them as the person we think we are, and we are looking at the person as we think they are, and they are looking at us through the person they think they are and at the person they think we are. There is a lot going on in the mind, that we don’t even realise is going on. All our experiences, prejudices, beliefs are processing faster than a computer as we instantly sum up the other person. Have you ever noticed another person doing that? You can almost see their mind being made up. Following Jesus takes us beyond this ego driven and controlled relating. Imitating God means giving up that ego driven approach and looking as Christ looks, in humility, in love, with grace and mercy and compassion. It means looking with the eyes of the heart.

Rene Girard developed what he describes as memetic theory. Girard says that human beings mimic one another. We desire what others have, we become envious, jealous and resentful of the other person. We want to be like others. We look to others. We get our cues from others. We copy their behaviour. If we are to imitate God who is present in all people, we need to be able to look beyond forms, beyond all appearances, both good and bad, and see with the eyes of the heart. This does not mean we excuse bad behaviour or turn a blind eye to it. We can still call it out. But we need to be consciously aware of our own behaviour, and the thoughts of our mind that often reduce the other person to a rival or an enemy. With conscious awareness we need to see beyond or through the behaviour too of others. To see as God sees, we need patience and perseverance, we need compassion and forgiveness, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. In this way we will be imitating God.

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Reflection Sunday 1 August 2021

8/8/2021

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Reflection ‘Adventures in Silence’

Ephesians 4:1-16.

The thought of going on a silent retreat has always freaked me out. Why is that? I wonder how I would go without talking or expressing what is going on in my head for a few days?

How comfortable are you with silence? For a moment? For a few minutes? An hour? A day? Or longer? How do we get comfortable with silence? Can we ever really be comfortable with silence? Sometimes when you run out of words or when you become conscious that you are not thinking for a moment there is a silence. What if we learnt to be comfortable with the uncomfortableness of silence and of being in the presence of God without all our supports and props and distractions?

I notice in church services that times of silence do not last long. People get uncomfortable. In the Uniting church we often speak about the importance of the Biblical witnesses through which God speaks God’s word. Recently, I read that the word ‘selah’, which appears at the end of a verse in some of the Psalms, could mean ‘silence’. We tend to read the word selah and then go on but perhaps it means stop, be quiet for a moment and reflect on what you have just heard, let the words tingle in your ears, flow through your mind and rest in your heart. Perhaps God speaks not just through words but also through silence. What if the main way God speaks to us is through silence?

A few weeks ago, I was slowly reading through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. When I came to Ephesians 4:13 I stopped at the two words – ‘to maturity’ as if selah had been placed there. What does ‘to maturity’ mean? Earlier in the passage Paul prays that his readers will lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called (verse 1) and in verses 15,16 Paul writes, But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love. Paul also mentions in verse 14 that we must no longer be children. Growing into adulthood is a process that we cannot stop; our bodies will mature but what about our faith? What about living life to the full?

Each of us is responsible for our own faith, for our own spiritual maturity. Bible stories that we have heard as children need to be reflected upon as adults, if we are to seek to have ‘the mind of Christ,’ or to know the ‘heart of God’. Jesus spent a lot of time on his own, away from people. What was he doing? Was he complaining to God how bad the world is and what a hard time he was having and how people just did not get him? Was Jesus actively seeking silence and through that to hear the voice of God? Was silence a companion on the way, a friend whom he would go into the wilderness to meet? What if silence is a friend beckoning us to spend time with them? Have your ever thought of silence as a friend?

Why do we need silence? Eckhart Tolle writes about how the Ego, speaking constantly in our mind, takes over and obscures the simple but profound joy of connectedness with Being, the Source, God.

If we are constantly listening to the voice of the ego, the voice of God may not be able to get through to us. So, like Jesus we may need to make friends with silence. We may need to learn how to listen to God and become comfortable with silence. We may need to learn how to ignore the ego and welcome silence. We may need to adventure out into silence and adventure within to silence confident that in the darkness and in the stillness and in the aloneness we will encounter God.

Photo Connemara, Republic of Ireland

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Reflections Sunday 28 August 2021

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A Bible verse
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world (James 1:27).

A Song
'we venerate thy cross’ sung by Noirin Ni Riain and the Monks of Glenstal Abbey. This video contains images of the beautiful Skellig Rocks off the County Kerry Coast in Ireland. The words of the chant are attached in Russian and English for you to follow.

A Poem: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Words of Wisdom
Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger (James 1:22)

Reflection Sunday 22 August 2021

Reflection Sunday 15 August 2021

Reflection Sunday 8 August 2021

Reflection Sunday 1 August 2021

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Reflections Sunday 28 August 2021

Categories

A Bible verse​Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world (James 1:27).

A Song​'we venerate thy cross’ sung by Noirin Ni Riain and the Monks of Glenstal Abbey. This video contains images of the beautiful Skellig Rocks off the County Kerry Coast in Ireland. The words of the chant are attached in Russian and English for you to follow.

A ​Poem: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost​​Words of WisdomBe quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger (James 1:22)

Reflection Sunday 22 August 2021

Reflection Sunday 15 August 2021

Reflection Sunday 8 August 2021

Reflection Sunday 1 August 2021

Author

Archives

Categories

A Bible verse
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world (James 1:27).

A Song
'we venerate thy cross’ sung by Noirin Ni Riain and the Monks of Glenstal Abbey. This video contains images of the beautiful Skellig Rocks off the County Kerry Coast in Ireland. The words of the chant are attached in Russian and English for you to follow.

A Poem: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Words of Wisdom
Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger (James 1:22)