There is a common, understandable, easy to do sin, when we think about the Jesus and try to emulate Him. When we reflect on Jesus, we recall that he was the exceptional, the outstanding, the faithful, the courageous, the loving, the compassionate and we think..“I could never even come close to being like that”. And that’s true. But what sometimes happens, is that we give way to despair, or worse we give up altogether.Thankfully there is a helpful line this morning where Jesus offers us the encouragement and advice that we need to get our stuff together, to keep going and to rejoice as we make our way to heaven itself. He says…“

A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master;
it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master.

So we don’t have to fix the world's troubles, or solve world poverty or find a cure for COVID, it is simply enough to be like the Master. To strive, maybe fail and keep on trying simply to try to be like him. Further, God's child came to be one of us, to show us who we are. And this is the good news. Brothers and sisters we are God's children. This is invigorating news because it means that the same love, the same unconditional, stupendous adoration that the father has for his son Jesus, is the same mind-blowing love that God has for us.John puts it this way.See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that …is… what …we are. Now it's one thing to know that academically and theologically. It is quite a different thing and far more challenging to claim it as your own. To claim the identity of the living Christ for ourselves, so that we can say that we are a living Christ in the 21st century. This is who we are; nothing more, nothing less. And then the next step is to integrate it into our daily lives so that his actions, his thoughts, his love, become our actions, thoughts and the love that we shower relentlessly upon the world. This is a lifelong vocation and the good news is that you don’t have to get it right all on day one. It is a continuous daily work that will change us ever so slowly and ever so surely, more and more into his likeness and so we become the child of God he has always wanted us to be. So there is a 3 step process. Know who you are academically. Claim it for yourself Living it in your daily life. When others see us both floundering and rejoicing in this vocation, then we stand our best possible chance of getting them started on this vocation as well. It's like the times when you see  a number of people all buy the same wine at the supermarket. You can arrive at no other conclusion that this must be pretty jolly good stuff and of course you want some too. So too with us and our faith. Others will want to join in and become another Christ or christian for the world when they glimpse something of the Christ in us. But it all starts with knowing who we are and rejoicing in his love for us.

Jesus said “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father.
And even the hairs of your head are all counted.
So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

A story to finish.Mum and Dad are gazing adorably at their sleeping child. They are muttering in wondering adoration. The child of course has no idea that this conversation is going on, nor does the little one know the closeness and potency of the love that the parents have for them.In a moment of stark, unrehearsed honesty. Dad says to Mum“I would lay down my life for our child. I guess that is how God loves us. He sent his son who laid down his life for us” Brothers and sisters often we are asleep, unaware of how close our heavenly father really is and the intensity of his love. Like the parents in the story he is absolutely besotted with us and perhaps if you remember nothing else from this morning's homily you might remember this.Know that you are God's child. Claim it and live it. God is absolutely besotted with you.

This morning's gospel is easily divided into three enjoyable instalments which make up a complete mini series.Episode one is “Jesus gets busy.”In this episode, Jesus goes on an extensive visiting programme and He sees the great need of the people. We are told quite simply “He had compassion for them for they were like sheep without a Shepherd.” So He responds. He teaches and he cures.

Afterwards Jesus thinks. This is madness! Here am I, scurrying around, like a publican who has just reopened his business after the COVID restrictions have been lifted. There’s no way I can get round all these people and tend to them on a regular basis.Mmmm … What to do? End episode 1.Episode 2“Jesus does something about it.”The Master puts out an ad on career.dotcom and He gets heaps of applications. He shortlists this down to just 12 who make the grade. We are given their names starting with the foreman Peter and finishing with Judas who decided to later resign. These 12 are given the equipment they need. ‘Authority over unclean spirits and the ability to cure.End episode 2.Episode 3 The thrilling final chapter. “What happened next?”

The 12 are given instructions about where to go and where not to go. They are also handed a rather extensive job description.

• Proclaim the good news Cure the sick,
• raise the dead,
• cleanse the lepers,[d]
• cast out demons.

Then comes the remuneration clause.

You received without payment; give without payment.

And off the 12 go and you have to buy the next compelling set of DVD’s at $49.95 to find out what happened to this motley crew.But you see the overall picture, the basic outline of the story??Jesus perceives the need, calls the 12, gives them what they need and sends them out.And there is a mighty fine homily which runs like this.That Jesus continues to call people to the service of others. He gives them all that they need and choofs them out knowing that all will stumble and skin their knee. All will experience their apparent triumphs, successes and futility.  All will never really know just how fruitful they have been, until the harvest at the end of time.

But dig a little deeper friends. Where did the story start?It started with the Master's astute perception of the needs he sees before him. If He had not seen the need, then nothing may have happened and perhaps you and I would not be here today.So too with us. We have to be able to discern the need that is before us. That is not always easy to do. Something may present as a need, but often there is something else going on as well.For example, the person who weeps quietly in the back pew at a funeral, may not actually be mourning for the person who has just died, but someone close to them who died years before. The person who presents as hungry, may also have escaped an abusive family home. You get the gist. Pastoral diagnostics 101.Another question ..who are the lepers, the dead and the ill in our society today?They are not just those who are afflicted outwardly and physically but also emotionally and spiritually. Those who are hungry not for what can be brought at the supermarket, but those who ache for companionship, community, fellowship. The dead are those who have shrivelled up inside and those whose prayer life has been extinguished by neglect and doused with secularisation.

I was thinking about this at morning prayer the other day. And I had to ask myself.“Is it not possible that I too need cleansing, healing and raising?” Have I been perceptive and honest about my own need of ministry? Again, remember how it all began. It began with Jesus seeing what was really before Him? Surely his clarity of vision is where I need to begin. And once I acknowledge my own blindness, then I can go more fruitfully and with more potential to the cities and villages of Western Victoria. Perhaps that might be true of you as well.When I was a school chaplain we used to pray ….“For those whose needs escape our notice… Lord have mercy” It was particularly appropriate in the busy school yard because there were many needs that escaped our notice. But it is also an appropriate prayer in parish ministry and therefore it is something for you to ponder and use as well. I offer it for your own reflection and use. No copyright ….no charge “For those whose needs escape our notice… Lord have mercy.”

The Sunday mass is live streamed from Christchurch Hamilton at 10:30am https://www.facebook.com/AnglicanHamilton

I noted with a smirk the arrival of the elusive Gorilla man into our midst here in Hamilton. He seemed to be a very fit athlete encouraging to us to healthy exercise. At this early stage it is impossible to speculate how many have taken up this exciting initiative, but the effort is worth while, even if our body resists with every hard won step. Perhaps I will see him at Park run when it begins again? I’m sure that he would be made to feel very welcome.

But what impressed me more was the effect that Gorilla man seems to have had on the people who are fortunate to encounter him. Once we push through the element of surprise and wonder we are taken outside of ourselves and our worries, albeit for a few brief moments. Perhaps we are left scratching our heads, bemused, maybe even inspired; but for the briefest of moments, we are thinking about something other than you know what. The dreaded ‘bug a lug’ that cannot be named. And this being ‘taken out of ourselves’ and helped to grin, can only be a good thing.

In those few moments when we are taken aghast, we realise that life is short, that our vocation is to inspire and nurture others. To help us realise that the world within us, which we so easily allow to be polluted with worries and things we have no control over, is actually much bigger and boggling than we ever thought.

So a big thanks to the person in the gorilla suit. Thank you for the inspiration to get fit and Thank you for a brief moment of sanity when all seems quite mad. Go Gorilla man… you legend!

It’s the evening of the first Easter Sunday and the Master appears to the apostles. He gives them an appetiser of Pentecost, then sends them out to carry on the unending mission.

Now a couple of weeks ago, I pointed out that the intimacy and relationship that Jesus has with his Father, is the same intimacy and relationship that we are called to have with Jesus and with each other. Today, the same principle applies, only we take the plan one step further. Listen carefully

21 Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22

So … just as the Father sent Jesus on a mission to bring healing, wholeness and reconciliation to the world, so to Jesus sends us on that very same mission of healing, wholeness and reconciliation.

Uh huh

Just as the Father sent Jesus on a mission to bring healing, wholeness and reconciliation, so to Jesus sends us on that very same mission of healing, wholeness and reconciliation.

Now this is a marvellous adventure that we are called to embark on. It is thrilling and exciting, but it is also perilous and we need a lot of help. The help is given to us by the same Holy Spirit … the breath of God. Where do we tap into this spirit?

There are all the traditional places - the sacraments.

a) Through Baptism The Holy Spirit washes away sin and makes us children of God and heirs of Heaven.

b) Through Confirmation, He makes us temples of God, warriors and defenders of the Faith.

And to this day the service of confirmation goes. Strengthen Lord your servant Mildred with your Holy Spirit…

Through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual nourishment by converting bread and wine into Jesus’ Body and Blood. In fact there is a part in the Eucharist, just after the Holy Holy Holy, part where the priest asks for the gift of the Holy Spirit to come down and change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus. The flash church word for this part of the service is epiclesis and this morning the words are

“Lord you are holy indeed, the fountain of all holiness. Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ”

At the ordination of a priest there is a part in the service where the bishop says to the candidate.

“Receive the office and work of a priest” and then continues with the very same words that Our Lord said to the apostles.

“Who so ever sins you forgive they are forgiven and who so ever sins you retain they are retained.”

Now these are just some of the places that we know with absolute certainty that the Holy Spirit is accessible and in top gear.

But we are also aware that much of the Holy Sprits work happens out side of these traditional channels of grace.

The church has never and should never, claim to have a complete monopoly of the Holy Spirit.

In John’s gospel Jesus is having a fireside chat with Nicodemus and explains

“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Some of the more high profile movements where I think Holy Sprit has been at work outside the sacraments and active within our society are with things like

Our heightened sense of vocation to care for God’s creation. Calling out the absolute wrongness of domestic violence and the Me too movement.

But how do we know? How can we be sure this is the work of the Holy Spirit? It is by their fruits that we know if God’s Spirit is work.

And the fruits of the Spirit are

love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

So whenever you see a movement, a person, an action, or you hear a word bringing these things to life, then you can be very sure that the Holy Spirit is at work.

Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. On our mission, the same mission that Jesus went on, these things are our tools of trade and they are also the fruit that we called to nurture, to blossom and flourish, in the lives that we are privileged to touch.

And on this day of resurrection, just as He did on that very first day of resurrection, The Master breathes on us. He sends us out as He himself was sent out. With all its joy, with alls its scrapes, with all its disappointments, with all its delight, with all its adventure and with all its love,… this is His work, this is the Spirits work, this is our work yours and mine.

Sunday Mornings mass will be live streamed from St. Peters Glenthompson on the 31st of May at 10:30am https://www.facebook.com/AnglicanHamilton

Easter 7  May 24th

A school teacher once gave me some very wise advice. They said that in order to know the student, it was helpful to meet the parents. Meeting Mum and Dad often helped to explain all sorts of things about the student and gave you a bit of background.

I thought about this as I read John 17:3

“And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”.

So in order to know Jesus, it might be helpful to reflect on Mary and Joseph. They are the bits of the jigsaw puzzle that surround the central figure of Jesus.

Mark and John start their gospel with an adult Jesus. It is left to Luke and Matthew to give us the scanty bits of infant narratives and reveal something of the people who had most the intimate connection with Jesus.

So what do we learn?

From Lukes gospel we learn that Mary and Jospeh set out when Jesus was old enough to go to Jerusalem for the rite of purification. And…

Each year they used to go up to Jerusalem for the feast of the passover.

Jospeh and Mary were good practising Jews. They would have gone to the synagogue on a regular basis and this in part explains why we read in Jesus adult life.

“When Jesus came to Nazareth, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as… was… his… custom”.

And I reckon there must have been times when the homily at the synagogue was tedious, or their local rabbi made a mistake, or the parishioners, like us, struggled with their faith. But Mary and Joseph would have persisted and got themselves to synagogue on the sabbath.

So thats one thing we learn about Jospeh and Mary - faithfulness.

What else do we learn?

Mary and Jospeh were open to Gods surprises for them. The Archangel Gabrielle was a surprise for Mary. Jospeh is a man tormented by dreams where he is encouraged to take his fiancée as his wife when he has privately made up his mind to do other wise. Their travel plans back home to Galilee were messed about first by Herod and then by Herod's son Archelaus.

When they lose their son in Jerusalem they are surprised at Jesus response when they vent their understandable angst and relief.

“Did you not know I must be about my Fathers business?’

I wonder if Mary and Jospeh told child Jesus about the interruptions to their humdrum life. Certainly if Mary was anything like my Mum, she would be frequently recounting his mysterious, yet joyful birth and the time he wandered off all by himself. Perhaps Mary told Jesus about or fleeing from Herod.

My guess is that Jesus knew he also worshipped the God surprise and mystery. Always just getting a small part of the picture which tantalised and drew you into wanting to know more and understand more deeply.

Jesus grew up knowing that God interrupts with surprises and plans of his own and sometimes they are not altogether to our liking and certainly they are frequently beyond our understanding.

One final thing about Mary and Jospeh. They knew that it wasn’t about them. Yes they were important and without Mary saying Yes and Jospeh’s protection there may not have been the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus.

But after all the dreams, surprises, tricks and giggles, Mary and Jospeh understood that it must always be about what God wants. They lived that out in all its ache and sparkle and wonder as they watched Jesus grow and mature. As Luke so beautifully puts it. “Mary pondered all these things in her heart”  and … “the child grew and became strong in Spirit”. It was never just going to be about them. It was always going to be about their son Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, the son of God.

So too, Jesus knows that He is sent to do his Fathers will and this wrestle is made very clear in the Garden of gethsemane and on the cross.

“Not my will but your will”. “Into your hands I commend my spirit.”

So what might we learn?

That our vocation is to simply to be faithful. To rock up as often as we can and connect in what ever way we can, and love him as passionately as we can.

We learn that we worship a God of surprise and that we ought not to be surprised, if we are surprised.

Finally its always been about Him and clergy in particular need to be reminded that it always about the one true high priest.

So by reflecting on Mary and Jospeh, we get a  more comprehensive understanding of who Jesus is and nudge each other just a little closer to eternal life.

Remember where we began?

And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.