Today we are keeping “Coming of the Light” Sunday. This is an important celebration when Torres Strait Islander Anglicans observe the 150th Anniversary of the arrival of the first Christian Missionaries in the Torres Strait.

Here's the history lesson which is not the most important part of what I want to offer to you today.

On Saturday 1st July 1871, (so today it's the 150th anniversary) the Reverend Samuel MacFarlane of the London Missionary Society anchored at Darnley Island. The Society had been active in the Southwest Pacific since the 1840’s converting people to Christianity. Dabad, a Warrior Clan Elder “defied his Tribal Law” and openly welcomed the London Missionary Society clergymen and South Sea Islander evangelists and teachers. Torres Strait Islanders' acknowledgment of the missionaries was the acceptance of a change that would profoundly affect every aspect of life in the Torres Strait from that time onwards. The Islanders' acceptance of the missionaries and Christianity meant the end of inter-island conflict. Christian principles were partly compatible with traditional religion and the missionaries gave some protection and assistance to Islanders in their contact with foreigners in the maritime industry. Today, Torres Strait Islanders of all denominations wherever they live, in the islands or on the mainland, come together to honour this anniversary. The Torres Strait Islander festival of the Coming of the Light is a day like no other in Australia. Church services and a re-enactment of the landing are central to the day’s activities. Hymn singing, feasting and hoopla strengthen community and family ties.

The gospel chosen for this celebration  talks about light  Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.

So here’s a bit about light and its symbolism which is also not the most important part of what I want to offer to you today.

Light is beautiful and mysterious—like God. It is one but can be separated into many colours. No one knows if light is made up of particles or waves. In addition, light has many functions that make it a good symbol for Jesus. Light helps us see things. Jesus gives us the truth about God and about life, our origin, and our destiny. Light guides us as we travel. Jesus guides us safely through life to our heavenly home. Light promotes growth and life. Jesus brings us everlasting life. Light warms and comforts. Jesus welcomes us and calms us. Light deters crime. Jesus is goodness itself. Light dispels darkness, which stands for evil. Jesus pierces the darkness of sin and death and conquers them. All the darkness in the world cannot put out one candle flame. Jesus cannot be overcome by evil.

But the most significant and important thing that I really want to say to you today is this. If you forget the history lesson, or you forget the mucking about with the symbolism of light, please remember this simple phrase.

“You are the light of the world”.

Yes, you who have made it to the altar today. You who may have looked a little disheveled in the mirror this morning. You who stumble and fumble and rejoice and giggle and weep and have loving, joyful and sometimes aching hearts. You are the light of the world.You may not even notice it and sometimes it probably doesn’t feel like it and sometimes yes, we can go to some very dark places where it is inky black and there seems no way out. It is then, when the gloom seems to have engulfed us, when we are at wits end and the walls are high and hard and in the words of the gospel…“Jesus left and hid himself from them”.

It is then that we can become quite magnificent just by keeping on with our prayers and being faithful at the altar. You are the light of the world. And day by day in this parish in countless little ways, I see the light that you are and I see it and I am warmed and encouraged and inspired and delighted.You are the light of the world and one of the lovely things about the gospel coming to the Torres Strait Islands is that God was on both sides of the beach 150 years ago and in some conscious or subconscious way everyone was open to that possibility. So the world was a brighter and warmer place for it.

It will be so now in 2021, if we claim for ourselves the reality

“I am the light of the word”.

There is an unfortunate mantra which is easily caught, ingested and passed on. “Could have, should have, would have”. It’s an unfortunate mantra because it always looks back and never forward. The mantra operates at a personal level when we look back and mutter to ourselves “Could have, should have, would have”. It applies to everything from the un-purchased tattslotto ticket, to the quick harsh words, to the unspoken compliment or even just the simple “Good morning”.

This mantra rushes to our lips when we want to shift the focus from ourselves to the sitting goose that obviously got it wrong and needs a peppery pot shot. Old so and so “Should have and could have” done A, B & C. Instead they did Q.4, and #5.The mucky bit of this mantra is that it doesn’t change the pickle and sauce in which we find ourselves embroiled. No amount of angst and argy bargy can change the present milieu. But we can use this mantra helpfully if we learn from the blunders of the past and learn what not to do. This process of reflection, looking forward and doing better must start with our own selves and it must start today.

I have known folk who have made some spectacular disasters in their past and to their outrageous credit have gone on to lead shiny magnificent lives that are all the more inspiring for their self-inflicted calamities. The most heinous use of the mantra is when we inflict it on others personally. There is lasting invisible damage. But the person who is most afflicted is always the speaker. The angst and antagonism can fester in our souls  like a mutating cancer leaving us diminished. It is time to find a new mantra. “Will do, can do, love to”.

Today’s story begins in Central Park, New York. Central Park is really BIG. Like, it has its own zoo!

My informant was ambling through when they came across a turtle. Not so unusual, but the odd thing was that this turtle was a long way from where it should have been.

Sadly it was going the wrong way and trying valiantly to climb some steps which was a futile and misguided endeavor.

The passerby watched the struggle for some time, not really quite knowing what should be done. They weren’t a qualified vet and the turtle wasn’t exactly forthcoming with a home address or a mobile phone number. Still an email was sent to an authority later in the day and hopefully Tommy / Trina was rescued by an appropriate person.

A few things to draw out of this wildlife adventure.

Sometimes it feels like we are the turtle. We stumble and fumble and whilst we are convinced we are going the right way for the right reason, we are hideously lost and it takes an outsider to put us back on the right path.

Sometimes we are the passerby and we can miss the cue or think the situation is beyond us. Maybe when we come across  a ‘turtle,' we are exactly the right person, in the right place, at the right time.

It is difficult to discern whether we are the turtle or fixer upper. The reality is that we flit quickly from one to the other and the trick is to know which one we are and when.

Finally, it’s OK to kick something upstairs to a specialist. I didn’t do this often enough in my early days. Now I kick things ‘sideways’ or ‘upstairs’ at every opportunity and I am a much happier turtle for it.

When we begin to scratch around in this story we unearth  more questions than answers. For example …How come the disciples are flummoxed by a storm? These guys are experienced fishermen who earn their living from being out on the water. Yet they are surprised and frightened by a sudden storm. So what is Mark doing here? Clearly it’s not just about a weather forecast and storm warnings. Look deeper dear reader. Let me take you in the boat for a little journey and perhaps along the way we might discover what Mark really requires of us. Three little phases to steer us.

First “Let us go over to the other side”. For me at least, these words are oozing with meaning. The Marcan Jesus invites us to move from one place to another. We are encouraged to leave what is familiar and comfortable and go somewhere else. It’s usually not a geographical place, although that can be true. It often means a new phase in our life. Something is changing or has changed and we are invited, nay we are challenged and encouraged, to get into the boat with The Master and his disciples. To go to a different place that will not and cannot be the same. And we will discover that not only does the terrain and the climate change, but in the process of travel we also will change. But before we get to our destination there are some tricky waters that we have to navigate and it will seem as though our host has simply nicked off and gone for a quiet little kip. “Come over to the other side” There is a sense in which Jesus invites us every day to come over to the other side. To be a little further along, until that day when he says ‘Come over to the other side of the grave ’

Second “Leaving the crowd behind”. Leave the busyness, the maelstrom, the frenetic stuff behind. The things that you cannot alter or change and move with Him to that place where the storms are stilled and the waves are calmed. The distractions might still be about us, but we now have a space where things are mollified  and a healthy sense of perspective settles upon us. “The crowd” is in fact anything that distracts us from that solitary figure in the boat. It is terribly difficult to leave this hubbub behind and just focus on Him. But when we do manage it, when we allow him to be the sole focus of our energy and prayer, then we will discover that we actually have more resources at our disposal; to walk on the water and not be frightened of the tornado encircling us.

Third “Just as he was in the boat”. Jesus doesn’t need to think about having a pedicure, or a manicure, or a change of clothes or even a quick hot shower. He sets off while he is in the boat, without stepping ashore. The mission is urgent, it will not wait and the time is now.But there is another way to look at this little phrase. The Master invites us just as we are. The guy slumbering in the boat, the one who is master of the storm  is the one who takes us just where we are, just as we are. With all  our warts, ugly bits, failings and flaws. And the question is not are we good enough, or bright enough or whether we got a gold star at Sunday School, or what mischief we have wreaked during the week, or even if it has been the most tragic of times these past 7 days. The question is simply this Just as you are.. will you get into the boat?

Now I hope that those little phrases might be of some help. But I suspect Mark is asking something more of us. There is one more little phrase, a question… right at the end of this morning's reading. “They were terrified and asked each other, “Who… is… this?” So perhaps today Mark simply wants to ask us a question. Perhaps all he really wants to do is look us in the eye and ask.

Who is this?

Who do you see before you?

Who is this that comes to you in broken bread?

Who is this that invites nature to continue its cycle of death and new life in spectacular fashion all around us?

Who is this that comes to you in the face of friend and stranger?

Who is this … that looks back at you from the other side of the mirror.

Who do you see there?

Who is this?

And all we have to do is answer honestly. And when we do that, we will find that we are already in the boat with Him. We will have found not just the answer to an academic question, but we will have found Him who in fact found us a long time ago and has been travelling with us all along in our rocky little boat.

Once upon a time I had one of those infuser cups. It was a ripper. It had lovely markings and it was given to me by my son.

I thought of him fondly and with gratitude every-time  I poured a brew. That was until one day .. I dropped it and the handle broke. I was as shattered as the handle and I had to fess up.

To my surprise, he wasn’t grumpy but actually went one step better and offered to fix it.

Shamefacedly I gave him the bits and he took them away to put it all back together again. Time went by and the mug was returned intact. If you knew what had happened and were looking for it, you could spot the fracture. If not, you would have no idea and think the chink was part of the design.

Odd, isn’t it. Now sipping my refreshing beverage from this mug it actually means more to me than ever before. My son has invested himself twice into this cup. Once when he bought it and once when he spent a goodly amount of time fixing it. His time, energy and skill are always with me. It's like having a part of him here in the rectory while he is actually miles away.

But the cup also reminds me of everyone who walks the earth. We are all a bit fractured and some of us, through the help of others, have been put back together. Sure we are not exactly as we were, we never can be; but in some mysterious way we are more lovelier and valued with our chips and our flaws.

So here's to the Master craftsman who mends and heals. Here's to our fractures which make us all the more lovely and treasured.

Dispersed and distributed throughout the gospels are an uncountable number of occasions where Jesus is misunderstood. And He is misunderstood by those who we think should have known better. Today's gospel reading has two groups of people who misunderstand Jesus.

First there is Jesus' family.

“When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for they said ‘He has gone out of his mind.’”

Then most of our gospel reading is taken up with the scribes from Jerusalem misunderstanding who Jesus is. They believe that he is possessed by Beelzebub “He has Beelzebub, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’

Then the next 7 verses (quite a lot for Mark who is usually very brief and to the point) have Jesus explaining that this is not the case and we have the classic line about a kingdom divided against itself which can never stand.

Then right at the end we again come back to Jesus family.

“Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

So today's reading is rather like a sandwich.

A bit about Jesus' family at the  beginning and the end. The two slices of sourdough bread. The juicy, meaty filling is the bit about the scribes from Jerusalem.

But it is a sandwich flavored with what I call the pepper of misunderstanding.

There are various types of misunderstanding. There is the misunderstanding of when we are indecisive. “Lord shall we use the sword”.

There is the misunderstanding of forgetfulness. ‘Was it two or three o’clock that I was supposed to be at that appointment?’

But in the gospel it is the misunderstanding of who Jesus is. They thought he was out of his mind or working for the devil. They could not see what was right before them and so they misunderstand.

And you would think that being so close in time and geography to Our Lord, that these folk would have been able to understand.

And it is very easy for us to kid ourselves that if we had been there we would have understood, we would have known who this wild man was and what he was on about.

But would we? I think of how easy it is to misread, miscalculate and misunderstand myself and others.

People are always evolving, always changing, always growing, developing and always being formed by those around them and the adventures that shape them. None of us is the same person that we were a year ago and we ought to be patient and sensitive with others and perhaps most of all with ourselves. Hopefully we are continuously becoming the person we are called to be. The very image of The Master incarnate in the 21st century in Western Victoria.

But hang on… the title of the homily is … “From misunderstanding to understanding.

So where do we go in the scriptures to learn about this understanding business? How do we make this transition? There is a chilling, haunting and yet comforting question from Our Lord on the night before He dies.  Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. Then He looks them in the eye and says tenderly “Do you understand what I have done for you?” Do you understand? Do you?

I think about that question a lot. Peter didn’t understand what it was all about. Remember his little tantrum “Lord you will never wash my feet”.

How do we make this transition from misunderstanding to understanding?

Part of the answer is to read and reread the scripture. Take the pew sheet home and read over just one of the lessons again. What strikes you? What did you miss the first time or second time around? What do you need to ask that clever Bishop Gary?

But more powerful and helpful than getting an erudite and clever answer from bishop Gary is this. The transition from misunderstanding to understanding begins with realising how grubby, grimy and pungent our own feet are.Then we pick up the implements of that upper room. We take up the bowl and towel and then just simply wash some feet. We make the move from misunderstanding to  understanding, when we are actually being and doing. When we wipe the feet of the gnarled and the disappointing and the unattractive. The feet that are bruised and have sores and ugly bits on them. This is how we move from misunderstanding to understanding.

We don’t always get it the first time round or second time but we must always be open to the possibility of new understanding, fresh perceptions and new truths. The best way to move from misunderstanding to understanding is to wash some feet, beginning with our own.

Trinity Sunday is the only Sunday given over to a concept or idea, rather than a person or an event. The Trinity is always irksome for to squish God into our vocabulary is impossible.

There is a story of how St. Augustine had a dream the night before he was supposed to speak about the Trinity. In the dream, he was walking on a beach, and saw a young boy digging a hole in the sand. The boy would grab a seashell, fill it up from the waves, and then pour it into the hole. Augustine approached the boy and asked him what he was doing. “I’m trying to empty the ocean into my hole,” the boy replied. When Augustine responded that that was impossible, the boy answered, “Not as impossible as you trying to explain the Holy Trinity.”

It’s probably easier to say what the Trinity is not rather than explain what the Trinity is.

We could say that God is not evil, not hateful, not vengeful or spiteful; but that still leaves us with a gawping vacuum of exactly what He really is.

There are various images and parables that go a goodly way to being helpful for us but inevitably, if you push the image too far and try to take it too literally, then it must fall over.

One classic image, is that the Trinity is like water. It can be found in three forms; vapor, ice and liquid. All are water and yet all are different, with unique properties. One is not somehow better or more important than the other, they do not compete against each other and one seems to quickly transition from one to another.

However, we don’t put God the water into the kettle to boil Him up and produce steam and have nice cup of tea with a chocolate muffin. Nor do we drop God the ice into a gin and tonic with a slice of lemon.

So with that caveat, the image that I want to dabble with is that of the Trinity as a family.

The Father, the Son and Holy Spirit live in complete harmony one with another. They understand and communicate perfectly with each other. The Son is obedient to the Father and He is empowered by the Holy Spirit to do what is asked of Him. No-one is more important than the other and each are absolutely essential to the life of other two. They are the perfect family living in stability and consummate unity, each pointing to and embracing the other two in pure love.

So far so good; let’s push the parable of family a little further. One of the things that people cherish and frequently have on display, are family photos. They are there as reminders to those who live in the family home, but also as a witness to those who visit.  God the Father sent his Son as a kind of photo so that we know what God is like. Compassionate, a servant, loving, sacrificial and yes, sometimes rebuking when we get it wrong and are not the person we are called to be.

We glimpse this family unity and we experience the Trinity in a unique way when we gather around the altar as a family. We hear our family stories, we partake of Holy food and we offer all that is upon our hearts. The grist of daily family life is shared, offered, sanctified and made holy. It becomes the stuff of God. Our pain, our joy, our suffering, our tears, our giggles are His, are ours.

And we will glimpse the Trinity at another table later on this morning when some  of us toddle off to a café at Tarrington. As always, with a shared meal together, nothing happens and yet everything happens. There will be catching up, there will be a fresh learning of where we are up to. There will probably be smirks and burps and laughter and listening. There will be coffee and wine and yummy food. All this will be thoroughly enjoyable and it is absolutely essential for the life of our parish family together. No wonder the master chose the image of a wedding feast to describe the party of Heaven.

And maybe in the car on the way home, we might realize that in some way, some how, in the banter and jocularity… somewhere between entrees and the last desert, the smiles and listening, we have sensed something of the Trinity. A unity so enjoyable that we did not know how hungry we were for Him. And perhaps by the time we get home and maybe have a little snooze or  a walk around the Lake, we will come to realize that we have been fed in that sublime way that matters most to us. We will know that our souls will have been nourished and sustained and now replenished, we can walk along little further, closer to the party where the wine is always of exceptional quality, where we never get indigestion, where the laughter is voluminous and we can dance in a way that knows no embarrassment, because everybody else in our Trinity family will be dancing with that same ecstatic bliss.

In the name of our Trinity Family, Father Son and Holy Spirit.

A friend of mine has an interesting turn of phrase. Whenever we part he says.

“I hope my words find a home in you”.

I have never thought too much about this phrase. It’s always just been something he has said and sadly I have brushed it off as too much caffeine or some other ‘hidden ingredient’.

But on a rare moment that is unlikely to happen again this side of a pink moon, I gave some thought to his words.

I recalled who it is that is at home with me and how they influence me. I also remember those who have shared my home over the years and how they have moulded me to be the person I am today. I hope that I am a little more polished, a little more empathetic, a little more sympathetic. There is no question they have changed my way of life and the way I now interact with others. This I hope, is a good thing and my feeble desire is that the world might be just a little shinier because of those who have I lived with and still live with me today.

Some words we ignore or are too busy to hear. Some words linger for a little while and some find a home with us. We take them through the front door, take off our shoes, relax and have a ‘conversation’ with our new friends, our new words, our new phrases. They have an influence on us, if only it is to bewilder, encourage, inspire  and startle us into a different way of thinking, a different way of behaving.

So you may like to reflect on the words that have found their home with you and what words you send to peoples home. May your word live in us.