#3 Shine! 5:16 (10.32)

‘Live your lives openly, reflecting God brightly…

Misshaped Lives

Currently I am completing a Mosaics course with Pastor Enes at Moreland. As a beginner I’m faced with the challenge of cutting glass. My aim is to cut nice, symmetrical, acute angled pieces. Often I fail. When my misshaped pieces appear the question arises, do I reject and start over, or just go with what I’ve got and see what happens. Well in the end I trusted the creative process, and when the pieces were put together they formed a crazy pavement design that held its own appeal. This was a surprise!

Last week a friend quietly told me about their own character flaw. Generally it was something they wanted to hide. Just like the rest of us we don’t really want our weaknesses on show. On reflection though, I think our flaws are something to celebrate! As those called to care for others, what really counts is how authentic we are with each other. It’s about being true to ourselves and our vulnerabilities and weaknesses and letting others in. It’s when others find that we know something about the struggles and turmoils of life, some sort of identification can occur and some real connections can be made. We are human and, to me, beautiful. We are odd, rough at the edges and often don’t nicely fit in.

Matthew’s community was made up of people whose lives were not perfect. People on the edges of society: the sick and disabled relying on the mercy of others; destitute widows; slaves under the control of others; Jewish Christians banished from the synagogue, struggling with their identity; and women who were silenced and sidelined in their own societies. However together they were a community, born by the love of God and the love for each other.

We are misshaped and belong to our own faith communities. Together, in all our oddness, may we reach out to one another and, like the mosaic, suddenly become, as a community, something beautiful to behold.

Practice

Go somewhere quiet. Is there something or someone bothering you? In the end is it really about you?

Does it all get down to something about yourself that you can’t fix? For example: Impatience, Deep Disappointment, Unrealistic Expectations.

Is it possible to learn from these ‘flaws’, to accept that we can’t be perfect and to accept them, and maybe just maybe……to be thankful?

– Tim Hoffmann

WAY #19. Seek Work/ers 9:38

Matthew 9:35-38

 35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; 38therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.

For the last few years I’ve had the opportunity to see life from the other side – from those without paid work. This experience has changed my life.

I was ‘lucky’ in many respects, that for some of that time I was choosing to study, so for that period I was able to explain away my lack of paid work and not see the pity or judgement in others’ faces. Being able to explain why I couldn’t afford to get take-away two nights in a row (let alone go to a ‘nice’ restaurant), or go see a film, afford a haircut and choose hair-dye over meat for the week.

It isn’t easy when you live in such an affluent community.

Having worked full time over a 20 year period not only ages me, but sets a standard of living it’s hard to change, especially when you’re doing it alone. No-one else seems to be making these choices. And I was making these choices, in part, because I was of the conviction that the Lord of the harvest was sending me out to do his work in the Community Services sector.

Studying at Victoria University was a deeply enriching experience. Here were some of my people. Refugees, single mothers, recovering addicts – and to my surprise talking about faith and religious convictions (of all kinds) wasn’t anathema as it was in my inner-city world. I learned so much listening and sharing with the people I was studying next to. Together we were some of the few, gaining the skills to be sent out to do God’s work.

Since then I’ve tried the casual work, part-time study thing – and worked out I couldn’t do this for the long haul. It’s amazing how stressful living without regular money or other supports is. Good lessons for my future community work.

I’ve scaled back my aspirations and accepted full time work, and it’s been great. I’ve been working with a great bunch of people and have learned that whatever work I’m doing, by working with people I’m doing God’s work. I’ve learned that I’m really good at supporting others doing frontline work.

By being involved at Newmarket Baptist Church I’m able to support other’s in doing the big Community Development work – the front line labouring, which someday I might be doing.

It’s good to remember that God’s harvest is not only in material rewards but in knowledge building, the relationships that are formed along the road.

Isn’t it great that we can all, no matter our incomes, be sent out into the world to be labourers into his harvest?

– Fiona Hocking

 

 

 

18. Leave the dead 8:22,15:4

Matthew 8:18-22

18 Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 A scribe then approached and said, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ 20And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ 21 Another of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ 22But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’

Matthew 15:1-9

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.’ 3 He answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, “Honour your father and your mother,” and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” 5But you say that whoever tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God”, then that person need not honour the father. 6So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:
8 “This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.” ’

also Matthew 19:19…

 

Leaving the Sermon of the Mount we get ready to travel… invited by Jesus to go to the literal and symbolic ‘other side’.

Think of a scary or different ‘other side’ in your own life, work, neighbourhood.

What do we give up or take up for Lent?

What can be more primal and basic than shelter/security and the bond of duty to parents?

The passages above highlight what I think is one of the great creative tensions of discipleship and spiritual maturity in the gospels.

In what sense is my family/ formation/ upbringing/ loyalty… life giving?… to which I need to defend/cleave.

In what sense is my family/ formation/ upbringing/ loyalty… life denying?… to which I need to leave… letting ‘the dead bury the dead.’

Beyond the ancient and modern cultural nuances of family obligation, Judith McDaniel asks of this passage…

What from the past is worth preserving?

What is coming to us from the future that requires us to adapt?

What kind of community of disciples is God creating to address the questions of our time?    How does our membership and belonging reflect this?

After knowing the costs and demands of following Jesus will we, scribe or follower, outsider or insider, be willing to make the sacrifices to be part of this kind of a community willing to  follow Jesus to the ‘other side?’ (vs. 18)?

Practice

Name a value from your family upbringing to which you cleave.

Name a value you need to leave behind to find life in new fullness.

 

Meur ras ha Kres (Much Grace and Peace)

Marcus Curnow

 

17. Be On Guard 7:15-20, (Matthew 16:6, 24:4-6).

Matthew 7:15-20 

 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.

Matthew 16:6 

Jesus said to them, ‘Watch out, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’

Matthew 24:4-6 

Jesus said to them, ‘Watch out, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ ⁴Jesus answered them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. ⁵For many will come in my name, saying, “I am the Messiah!” and they will lead many astray. ⁶And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet.

“Look out!” says Jesus.

The way I ask my kids to pick up their socks is pretty different to the way I speak to them when they are crossing a dangerous road.

Such is the image that Carol Owen explored for us in the way previous Way #16 Take Alternative Route. 

Jesus finishes his Sermon on the Mount in the same  he ends all of his preachy/teachy bit’s in Matthew (there’s 4 others; Chapter 10,13,18 &24-25)  by emphasising the dangers of listening but not doing.  If you want to ‘enter’ the kingdom it’s time to discern the right way and cross the road!

My love/hate relationship with the demanding vs. grace filled invitation of the Sermon on the Mount continues here.  My default is to desire a generous kind of orthodoxy, looking optimistically for the best in myself and others, but the binary categories here grate against that.  (easy vs. hard, many vs. few, destruction vs. life, good vs. bad.)

It is difficult for me to appreciate this struggle, because I’m soft.  Unlike my vibe reading this sermon, it feels relatively easy being Christian in our culture.  Attending church whilst not sexy ‘dominant culture’ is neither difficult.  We think a feeling of ‘community’ and being  ‘spiritual’ should feel warm and fuzzy rather than something searingly, soul searchingly difficult.  Discernment and discipline within the community of Jesus’ followers doesn’t really get big raps in our consumer spirituality landscape.  

Unlink my safe white middle-class existence, Matthew’s community, as many places in our world today, lived in a context of bitter and complex division where such emphasis was required for survival.  The severity of emphasis here is our capacity for self deceit and of the power of evil even within us and the church.  Matthew suggests evil disguised as discipleship is to be anticipated in the church.  Lest this lead to anxious confusion and mistrust, we are told to trust that the results of such will become clear in due course and that we should take this seriously.

Of course this can easily become sectarian.  This is why we need the balance that Ewen Curnow reminded us of in Way #13 “Don’t judge”.  

Given such emphasis on ‘first the log and then the speck’, I think a helpful way to take on this teaching, especially during Lent, is to use these metaphors to first examine ourselves and our own culture rather than that of others.

In what ways do we disguise our truly selfish motives as noble purposes and so deceive ourselves?

What is the true fruit of our own actions?

How are the mission statements personal and organisational, disguise self serving, even destructive processes and dynamics?

In a world of marketing, spin and information saturation it’s easy to surround ourselves with ‘easy’ people and the messages we want to hear.  We clothe ourselves in the warm and fuzzy of ‘sheep skin’ rather than dealing with the honest struggle of discerning the truth about ourselves and our associations in truly honest relationship and community.

I also think we too easily lose the economic power of Jesus’ fruit metaphor made  in an agrarian society.  One way I seek to counter this personally is to try to clean out my wallet each week and ponder Jesus reframing his message for today as “by their ‘receipts’ you will know them…”

Practice

Clean out your purse/wallet of receipts.

Take a moment to prayerfully consider what ‘fruit’, for good or bad this investment reflects in you.

Seek out some honest feedback from a trusted friend about a weakness.

Meur ras ha Kres (Much Grace and Peace)

Marcus Curnow

 

#16 Take Alternate Route.

Matthew 7:13-14 

7:13. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. 14. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Well there is a challenge if ever I saw one and I seem to be destined for a life of challenges. This passage resonates loudly for me.

It took me a few years of living and asking the hard question after a particular life experience to ask, ‘so where to now, what is it you want to do and make of your life?’ It was then I decided at the ripe age of thirty something, to go through, what seemed like a ‘narrow gate’ to educate myself or maybe that was re-educate myself, go back to TAFE and if that was successful next stage would be enrol in University.

TAFE taught me well it expanded my skills and knowledge and gave me the confidence to believe in myself that I was skilled/smart enough to attempt Uni so I did that and several years of part-time study, working full time and taking care of my Mum that I completed my degree. Woohoo! I was the first female in my immediate family to achieve that.  I have several smart nieces but two in particular have continued with studies during and since, and one has the title of Doctor.  While I am extremely proud of all of them and thankful for what they have achieved my own journey felt like I had emerged out of the darkness into a whole new world!

Stage three I was set, I had the courage to head overseas with my degree tucked under my arm, first to Paris France with great ambition to work there as an Accountant , and subsequently the reality that my limited French language skills meant I was better placed in London. I spent  8 years creating a new life and working in one of the Worlds greatest City’s and experiencing all the challenges of being a foreigner living in a different part of the world all because I had the courage to walk through what seemed like a ‘narrow gate’ many years before and to remain focussed. I could not have imagined what impact that journey would have made on my life then, but what I know now is not to be afraid to walk through the ‘narrow gate’ to keep focussed on what to some might be a ‘narrow path’. To seek out what is the right path because I believe it does open up to a more fabulous world.

Practice

Think about what the ‘narrow gate’ and ‘narrow path’ is for you and imagine what would happen if you walked that way?

So now I am in an age bracket beginning with six, still studying, still walking through narrow gates, along narrow paths!

Peace,

Carol Owen