6th Sunday of Easter Yr B – Open to the Spirit? May 10, 2009

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Going Deeper: Open to the spirit?

Leading up to Pentecost we spend time in pondering the Gospel of the Spirit (the nick-name for the Acts of the Apostles reading). Every year during Easter-tide I spend time reading all of the Acts of the Apostles and I constantly get suprised and inspired by the activity of the Holy Spirit and the profound openess that the disciples have. A few weeks ago we had the story of Philip (Acts 8) waking up and being told to stand out on the road and wait for some instructions. He was then inspired to go up to the cheif treasurer of the Queen of Ethiopia! A modern equivalent would be standing at the lights of a busy intersection and knocking on someone’s window. The story flows on to getting in the car and heading off to a cafe for a chat with baptism being asked for. What if Philip had other plans for his day… his timetable, to do lists etc. How free our early disciples were. The lived for the work of the Holy Spirit.

Peter and Cornelius are further examples today. Both at prayer, both seeking God’s will, both seeking to be completely open for the inspiration of the spirit. With such openess God manages to do profound things, life-changing things, church changing things, history changing things. Being open to the Spirit requires a certain sensitivity to ‘knowing’ what is ‘of the spirit’. It seems to be the most identifiable characteristic of the early disciples in Acts. All the best. Perhaps the best start is to pray to the Holy Spirit for openess and that some suggestions be made startlingly clear. My own Easter-tide experience is to dedicate 30 mins in prayer to ask for the Holy Spirit to come more powerfully into my life and to do whatever the spirit wants to do in me!

See under Resources section for help in beginning some reflective practises. A discernment resource will be added this week.

5th Sunday of Easter Yr B – getting a bit more radical May 3, 2009

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Going Deeper: getting a bit more radical

The pattern of Easter-tide is the movement from the crucified Christ to the risen Christ gifting the presence and power of the spirit and at work in his disciples. Jesus reveals God, now the Church is called to reveal Jesus.

Today we have the incredibly important figures of Barnabas and Paul (Saul). Both filled with the spirit and disciples who pushed the church forward in mission. What went on in Barnabas that he was not afraid and frightened of Saul? What went on in Paul that almost everywhere he went, his zeal caused him to get in debates with the consequences that people ‘tried to kill him’? The movement of the Holy Spirit met with the courageous obedience of a disciple who has allowed himself / herself to be completely won over by the message and now mission of Christ.

Radical discipleship means saying yes to a bit more intensity of obedience. The Holy Spirit is allowed to make a claim on our timetable, our daily decisions, our middle class life-style. Perhaps this Easter-tide and in the year of St Paul its time to get a bit more radical in our following of Jesus. As an elderly American Bishop wrote a number of years ago while reflecting on his life: how is it that everywhere I go I get offered cups of tea, everwhere St Paul went he was stoned, chased, lowered down in a basket in the middle of the night to get out of some village before he was killed! The Church requires, in fact has always depended on, disciples radical in following and living Jesus’ message. What will it mean for you to take a few more steps in radically following Christ?

4th Sunday of Easter Yr B April 27, 2009

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Going Deeper: The Good Shepherd

The image of the Good Shepherd is a rich image in the scriptures and in middle eastern history. It may stir your imagination as to a christian and servant lifestyle that is at the heart of all vocations – single, married, religious, priesthood. It may be an image worth reflecting on this week as we celebrate Vocations Sunday: What Am I Doing with my Life?

Imagine the scene: It is first-century Palestine. Each day the shepherd would take his flock out into the desert for the day’s grazing only to return to the sheepfold, a common enclosure with a low stone wall and a gated entrance. At day’s end the shepherds would bring their sheep to the fold to keep them safe from the dangers of the night – wolves and thieves. Each night a shepherd was designated to lie down in front of the sheep gate so no one could enter without  having to pass him first. He was the protector of the flock – with his very life if need be. After all the shepp were safely inside the yard, the shepherds would return to their nomadic tents. In the morning they would return to the fold again, each whistling or calling out the names of their sheep. The sheep instinctively knew the sound of their shepherd’s voice.

Be inspired to lay down your life – be good shepherds!

Peace be with you.

Frank

3rd Sunday of Easter Yr B April 25, 2009

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Going Deeper: Peace

On each of the occasions that Jesus appears to his disciples it is striking he keeps on giving his ‘peace’ message. “Peace be with you” he keeps on saying. He sees their questions, fears, they lock themselves in a room afraid, they are uncertain of the world outside. They are not sure what to do, what to say, how to live……

Peace is very interesting. It is described by Jesus as the special gift that the Spirit will bring. A gift that the world cannot give. Peaceful people are often very inviting, there is an inner warmth and gentleness. Peaceful people are not violent, easily angry or upsettable. We let peaceful people into our lives and recongise that they won’t hurt us. They have found something. They’ve reached a stage of accepting themselves. They aren’t fighting or pretending.

People of peace have perhaps deeply allowed the message and truth of Easter deep under their skin. They know they are incredibly and unbelievably loved by God. They know Christ’s death proves and brings forgiveness for all our sins. They know God is more powerful than any other force or political or spiritual power. People of peace live from this truth in their every breath and action.

Peace be with you!

2nd Sunday of Easter Yr B April 17, 2009

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Easter Sunday April 7, 2009

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Going Deeper: free from death

While Easter Sunday is about Jesus rising, the Easter Message sits on the shoulders of Holy Week. It is the final paragraph of an essay. The awaited conclusion of a long and painful story. We’ve had the story of Christ’s passion read to us on Palm Sunday and Good Friday.

The horror of what we have done to God among us.

You have known our betrayal of friendship, our misuse of religious and justice structures.

Hurt by military violence. Humiliated.  Tortured. Brutalised.

And still this picture and reality is echoed in history even till today.

God, what is your response?

Anger?

Shockingly your judgment is Mercy!

Our violence is swallowed by your humility.

Our injustice is beaten by your forgiveness.

Our greed for the status-quo is melted and challenged by your costly self-sacrificing love.

But in your death and rising something else is taught to us.

There is nothing that can overcome you.

None of our brutality, our darkness, our savagery, our hurting can win or be stronger than you – and your plan for us.

The darkness of good friday, the tomb of Saturday meets the simple message of Easter Sunday. “He has risen!”

Although this statement is about you Jesus

it is also a ‘seed of fire’ planted into each of your followers soul.

Nothing, absolutely nothing can conquer God’s power and plan – and ultimate design for our life.

In the words of St Paul: “Death, where is your sting!?”

Our deepest fear has been removed.

Not so much that we are loved.

But that sin does not have the final say.

In our personal life and in the created flow of the world.

Faith in the resurrection gives birth to an attitude

positive hope no matter what level of darkness.

You are victorious

You are leading History

You are LORD

and we thank you with joyful hearts

Palm / Passion Sunday. 5th April Yr B March 29, 2009

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March 29. 5th Sunday of Lent Yr B March 23, 2009

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Going deeper: the hour?

In the Gospel of John there are a number of times when Jesus refers to the ‘hour’. He shares with his mother at the wedding of Cana that his ‘hour’ has not come. (John 2:5). He rebukes others who try to get him to go to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles and then when he is there, some of his opponents try and arrest him, but on both ocassions he says his ‘hour’ has not come (John 7-8). Only in the gospel read today do we have a change. Of all the ‘hours’ of history that we have been waiting for God to reveal the plan of love, forgiveness, salvation, redemption, the ‘hour’ has now come for it to take place.

The Hour is referring to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Once again during the Lenten journey we are invited to look forward to the event of the Cross, the crucifixion. The words used in the Greek text of the scriptures are striking. It is not expressed as a gruesome event (which it is) but rather as something ‘glorious’. Jesus is going to be ‘lifted up’. The image painted by the Greek words is like that of a sports coach being ‘lifted up’ on the shoulders of the sports players and triumphantly revealed to everyone. The victory is won. Sin. Its source in evil. Its conclusion in death. Its violence and ugliness displayed in the bloody and battered body of Jesus is now to be over-powered. God’s love and forgiveness and ultimate victory over sin and death will be revealed in Jesus. Despite humanities violence we see God’s response: humility, forgiveness, obedience, sacrificial suffering. The resurrection, when Jesus will be further ‘lifted up’ is the ultimate victory and proof of God’s power and plan for us all to be saved.

The invitation from all this is to also be engaged in sacrifical self giving, the cost of bringing salvation, our own ‘hour’ like Jesus. Entering into Jesus’ hour is ultimately a call to a discipleship lifestyle of similarly self emptying service and obedience. To enter into the many ‘deaths’ to the ‘world’ which ultimately will bring life to the world and produce much fruit.

March 22. 4th Sunday of Lent Year B March 15, 2009

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Going Deeper – Nicodemus

Nicodemus is a very significant character in the Gospel of John. A religious leader, he comes to visit Jesus in the darkness of night. He seeks to protect his reputation. He is pulled between being a follower of Jesus and a follower of the ‘World’ in the Johannine sense. Following Jesus has enormous consequences. He would be expelled from the Temple, lose his position of power and influence as a Religious leader, all his relationships and ‘world’ would be changed.

John is painting for us a theological picture about Jesus Christ, who he is and what he brings into the world. Imagine the darkness of the world as a room, its violence, selfish greed, abuse…. and a light is now brought into this room. There is an immediate reaction to stop the light, to hide and cover-up what is happening. For John, Jesus entering into the world is precisely bringing about this imagined picture. A difficult and divisive truth emerges. The world is actually not neutral. In fact, there is a force and power at work in the world that is against Christ. This presence and strong resistance against the light is what John refers to as the spirit of the ‘world’ in the Gospel of John. The world is not waiting patiently for good news, for the ‘light’ of Christ. There is a battle.

The Nicodemus scene plays itself out within each of us. Nicodemus makes some incredibly big decisions in his journey. He will soon stand up for Jesus in the midst of the other Pharisees and be ridiculed for it (John 7:50) and eventually bring 100 pounds of spices – the equivalent used for King Herod! – to annoint Jesus (John 19:39) – symbolically acknowledging him as King.  His surrender and following Jesus will become public in such a way that it will have caused him to ‘lose his life’. Such is the pattern for our own journey of Lent.

March 15 3rd Sunday of Lent Year B March 8, 2009

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Going Deeper: cleansing or replacing the Temple?

During the journey of Lent and Easter we find the Church using the Gospel of John to speak to us about some of the deep realities of our faith journey. Today we have Jesus’ first public action in the Gospel of John. Some call it the cleansing of the Temple. Other scripture commentators suggest something even more radical is taking place. Jesus is fulfilling and replacing the Temple. The Temple and its place as the vehicle for forgiveness with sacrificial offering of animals to be made so that each person can be ‘at-onement’ with God is over. Jesus is establishing something completely new.

As we go deeper we realise Jesus’ public ministry lasted 3 years. On each of the celebrations of the Passover – the most important Jewish celebration – Jesus does something incredibly significant. He replaces the Passover celebration with his ‘Body’. (see also John 6 and the Last Supper scene connected with the cross where Jesus’ body on the cross is the Lamb of God (the passover sacrifice) taking away the sins of the world John 19:14,31).

All sacrifices are over now. The covenant relationship and cultic practice, reduced frequently to a legalistic sacrificial ritual that the prophets spoke often against as being empty (Amos 5,21-24), is now replaced with a once and for intimate self gift of the Father and the Son – the Sacrifice of the Cross gifting to us an intimate presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. How unfortunate and personally challenging if this new covenant gift becomes an empty ritual. Lent is a time for us to heed Jesus’ anger and desire for true, not empty, worship. What does it mean for us to be people who offer worship as Jesus asked ‘in spirit and in truth’?