Kindness - a universal language

We were very privileged today to have Father Bob MacGuire talk to us at church. He is a true Melbourne hero - for those of you who don’t know who he is here is a little about him.

Father Bob really speaks the language of kindness and has been speaking it, practically, for over 40 years. He was inspirational at church today reminding us (in his own special and unique way) what church is really about. He told us that we, who wear the name of Christ, also bear his cross. That by saying we are Christian we are committing ourselves to a path that involves loving others and that can be hard sometimes. In the words of Professor Dumbeldore, 

“It’s the choice between the easy way and the right way.”

We read the end of Matthew 25 this morning - sheep, goats, hungry, naked, prisoners etc. and Father Bob reminded us that by reading it, saying our “Amen” at the end we commit ourselves to seeing the hungry and feeding them, seeing the thirsty and giving them a drink, inviting in the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick and visiting the imprisoned. Whoever they may be.

We have a mammoth task ahead of us. 

Father Bob has being doing it for 40 years and he has only just scratched the surface of what is needed.

Thank you Father Bob - for all you do. We will continue to pray for you as we strive to follow Christ’s example that we see in your work.

When all is said and done - there is more said than done!

We are all very good at talking. Especially us religious types. In churches we do like to sit around and talk about things....a lot. 

We discuss...

How terrible the state of the world is. 

How awful it is that there are homeless people sleeping on our streets.

How can we get more people into church?

Are we relevant to the problems of the world? 

Etcetera etcetera...

But when all is said and done, there is more said than done.

presence minister, Bubba, said that to me a few weeks ago. It would make a good sign of the week he said.

He walks the streets of Melbourne, sees the needs on our streets, meets the homeless and outcasts, talks to anyone and everyone and spreads as much of the love and grace of God as he can.

I'm sure it frustrates him as much as it does me to see all that need and to see people taking that need to another committee to discuss what can be done about it. 

The city council discusses them, the state parliament discusses them, the federal government discuss them, the religious types of church and mosque and synagogue and temple discuss them and a few forego the talking and go out and get their hands dirty, helping those around.

Those few will not change the world, will not solve all the problems but they will change the lives of one or two - who will change the lives of one or tow who will.....

Surely that is what the gospel is all about!

kids SHOULD run in church

I'm sure many of you will remember when you were a child being made to sit in church in silence - sshhh'd and told to keep quiet until the end of the service. AHHH the good old days of quiet children and boring sermons.

The sermons may not have changed but the quiet children have. 

Every Sunday one of the highlights of the day for me is when the kids arrive - they don't just walk in and sit quietly - they charge in, laughing and smiling, so pleased to be there. They run down the front, wanting to be there, eager to join in worship and learn more about Jesus.

So what happens between childhood and adulthood that changes our view of church?

When did church change from being exciting, somewhere we wanted to go to somewhere we feel we should go? A place were we drag ourselves out of bed to go to on a Sunday morning not because we want to but because we feel we ought to.

Why don't we rush into church eager to be there and wanting to join in worship an learn more?

Why can't we be, like Jesus says, more like the children? Eager to be in the house of God.

So today all I want to say is a big thank you to God for the children who make Sunday so special and for the same spirit of excitement in all of us.

For people who love Jesus so much that they hate YOU, we pray a lot!

"Okay, watch that step as you climb onto my bandwagon....again"

I was reading the Bible the other day, yes I do read it occasionally despite what some people think, and I found a bit I'd never seen before...

There's this bit in the Bible called the Gospel of St. Matthew, it's full of great things, stories and sayings and stuff. It's split into chapters and the chapters are split into verses. In one of those 'chapters', 22 actually, at verse 37 and 39 there is this great bit that seems to have been edited in many Bibles. The first part seems to be there but some Bibles don't seem to have the second bit.  The whole thing says...

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

 
I meet lots of nice Christian people who seem to have Bibles with only the first part. Lots of loving God and Jesus and stuff and that where it ends - they miss out on the next bit, it looks like it's been cut out of their Gospels and that's very sad because it's a commandment. This commandment that is 'like' the first one and the first one is 'the greatest commandment'. So that second, missing one is also an important commandment - 'love your neighbour as yourself.' We can't ignore that it, yet so many seem to or at least choose who they think their neighbour is.

I get emails from people and it surprises me how many are from 'Christians' who tell me I'm wrong for, and I'll quote one for you, "caring for the rag heads and fags bcoz Gods sending them to hell." So that second part doesn't count then - those 'people' aren't your neighbours, is that's it?

I get so frustrated - why can't people see this? - It's not rocket science - WE CANNOT PICK WHO JESUS TELLS US TO LOVE, we don't get to make that decision.

And yet so many Christians think we can. I've seen lists that 'Christians' have written of people that God hates - everything from authors who write about children who go to magic school to people who watch films about kids who go to magic school to people that listen to rock music to people who read C.S. Lewis (yeah that one made me laugh too). If you put enough of these lists together you can see that God hates everyone and, therefore, so should we!

Yet I see that little verse in that Matthew Gospel thingy that says, "Love your neighbour as yourself."

Let's narrow the whole thing down to the street on which I live  - I don't get to choose who my next door neighbour is - I'd like to but I don't get to. I'd like Hallé Berry but, like I said, I don't get to make that choice. So my next door neighbour is whoever ends up living in the house next to me - it could be a horrible, rich, white Christian family or it could be a nice, poor Muslim family or, well my point is it could be anyone - even you.

And here's the steps for that bandwagon - climb up and join me as we look BIG PICTURE again  -

Guess what - Jesus says that we should 'love our neighbour as ourselves' - WHOEVER that  neighbour is! The 'rag head' or the 'fag', or any other of 10,000 derogatory terms you can use, do not let you escape the fact that Jesus has told you that they are your neighbour and you are commanded, COMMANDED, to love them like you do yourself.

Tough isn't it! No one said it would be easy.

Be Excellent to Each Other

25 years ago - imagine the scene - Jesus, in jeans, hoodie and baseball cap, sitting on the steps outside parliament house (or whatever legislative body you care to mention, they all have steps) with a large crowd of homeless people, drug addicts, a few prostitutes, tattooed lay a-bouts, the unemployed, various young people and the rest of the dregs of society looking for something to do. The crowd quietens as Jesus looks at them, opens his mouth and begins to speak. In loud, ringing tones, heard over the rush of traffic and the busy life of the city he says....

BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER

How cool would that have been?

"Be excellent to each other" was the catchphrase of Bill & Ted as they went on their excellent adventure. Do you know it's been 25 years since the first Bill and Ted movie? If you are under 25 or have never seen the movie go and watch it right now then come back and read the rest of this blog!!!

Wyld Stallyns got it - they simplified a lot of the work of the church into 5 words - be excellent to each other.

So how hard can it be to be? What is it about "do to others as you would have them do to you" that is so difficult to understand? Why is "love your neighbour" not our everyday mantra? Why aren't we being excellent to each other?

In a city (and a world) where profit seems to be more important than people the simple act of being excellent to each other can go a long way to making the city (and world) a better place. Yesterday, at church, Bubba reminded us that we need to actually 'see' people, acknowledge them and remind them that they are important and meaningful.

Across South East Asia there is a ritual greeting that started in Hinduism - it is "Namaste" and it literally means, so I'm told by Profs. Google and Wikipedia, "I see the divine in you" or to put that in a way churchy folk won't freak about, "You are a child of God".

How beautiful is that?

What a difference it would make if we all could see other people as children of God and not just strangers on different paths to us.

That guy who stands next to you on the tram - think Namaste - you are a child of God.;The nosy neighbour down the street who wants to know everything - she is a child of God; that annoying person who stares back at you in the mirror - guess what? Yep a child of God. I'm sure you get the picture, so

Be excellent to each other and namaste on dudes!

Keep Jesus weird!!

Jesus is now so mainstream - I mean there is even a Ken Jesus now. 

It’s frightening how ‘accepted’ Jesus is, everywhere. He is talked about in parliament, he is mentioned in court rulings, he has books written about him by ‘nice’ authors; movies and T.V. shows depict this nice, kind, white guy with perfect teeth and hair and a voice makes honey look lumpy and scratchy. People don’t want to know him but he is ingrained in our national psyche, this nice, comfy man who kisses babies and tells a few stories about God and stuff.

For crying out loud!!! We have completely forgotten how weird Jesus was. We are ignoring how radical his message was (and still is).

You see Jesus was REALLY weird - he was a longhaired, homeless hippy who went around with his dropout mates telling really strange stories to anyone who would listen. He upset everyone with even a little vested interest in power or authority, he made the clergy feel very uncomfortable and he upset the order of things wherever he went. 

How is this mainstream? It wasn’t even mainstream in the sixties! 

For some following Jesus is far too comfortable, far too beige - HELP! We need to bring back the Jesus weirdness!

Walk with those who are marginalised - the poor, the homeless, the outcasts, the sinners. Tell the stories of our faith for they give hope to the hopeless and make the comfortable squirm. Live out the commands of the divine weirdo for they make us and the world a better place. 

Accept people where they are and for who they are; judge less and love unconditionally; spread the grace of God wherever you go. 

Be as weird as Jesus; our world needs to see him as he really is and not what he has become - let’s do away with the nice, kind, white guy with perfect teeth and hair and a voice like honey and remind the world of the of the longhaired, homeless hippy who went around with his dropout mates telling really strange stories and changing the world.

KEEP JESUS WEIRD AND CHANGE THE WORLD!

Is it finished?

Is it Finished?

About 2000 years ago on a Friday morning of a holiday weekend three men were executed by the Roman authorities in Jerusalem. There was nothing unusual about the act of crucifixion, it happened an awful lot. There was something unusual about the one of the victims. Two of them were anonymous thieves who are not even really bit players on the stage of history, the other, well the other was the most influential person who has ever lived.

Born in poverty, raised a Jew, dying like a criminal, he has changed the lives of millions. Through him the world has become what it is today. Many great things have been done in his name and many atrocities have been committed too. His followers have been responsible for some of the greatest discoveries; some of the largest leaps forward in medicine and science; some of the greatest pieces of art. Many of the highest points of human achievement have been done in this man's name. Others who claimed to follow him have tried to kill whole nations, sunk to the lowest places that humanity can go, because they believed it is what he would have them do. Enslavement, domination, persecution, murder, genocide have all been done 'for him'.

His actions have inspired some of the greatest acts of love and kindness in recorded history and many of the worst. Whole libraries have been written as scholars have poured over this man's life and his teachings, even though they aren't that many of them. Debates still rage over what he would say on the topics of the day. Debates that sometimes get all too heated, debates that have lasted centuries and that still divide thousands.

Some place words of hate on his tongue, condemning entire sections of the population to damnation for not agreeing with their views of what this man said. Others interpret his sayings as a message of love and acceptance. Many of the world's hypocrites hide behind this man, and twist his sayings to fit the evil they wish to condone. Hate crimes, racism and bigotry of all sorts are committed by his 'committed' followers. Many of the great social reformers look to him for guidance.

For he accepted all comers, went where the 'nice' folk of his day wouldn't dream of going. Spoke to the unacceptable, touched the unloveable, ate with the unwanted and forgave the unforgivable. His life, his work was of love and care for anyone, everyone. He tells his followers to do the same.

His name was Jesus.

His last words were, "It is finished."

Is it?