Ash Wednesday - Hope of the Nation

Ash Wednesday is coming up (6 February 2008; also Waitangi Day in Aotearoa New Zealand). The beginning of Lent. An opportunity for Anglican and Catholic churches to combine for a service. When we burn last year's Palm Sunday crosses in order to make the ash to mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross, we signal that Lent is a season of denial (take up your cross, deny self, and follow Jesus). But perhaps alongside 'denial' we should always place the word 'discipleship', so Lent is a season of denial and discipleship. Some things are given up for the sake of the greater good of our spiritual maturity and for the sake of a purer devotion to Jesus; but other things are learned and taken up for the same reason.

Denial and discipleship goes against the grain of a consumer, let your feelings hang out culture. But could they be vital to the future wellbeing of our world? One of the features of this summer has been a spate of violence - murders, beatings, shootings - to say nothing of vandalism and arson. Our politicians are trying to get on top of it with new educational initiatives. That will help. But so would denial and discipleship. Denying, for instance, my right to be consumed with anger or my sense that I am justified when angry in delivering a beating. Discipleship is me recognising someone greater than me whom I resolve to follow: the centre of my universe is not me any longer.

Relative to all church attendance probably only a few Christians will make it to an Ash Wednesday service. Proportionate to the whole population there will scarcely be anyone in church on Wednesday evening. Yet in the service in which ashes are imposed lies the secret to the transformation of our society. For when we deny self for the sake of Christ and determine to be his disciples then we enter not just one way of being human but a new way which is empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel According to St. Matthew (2)

An often misunderstood feature of the cycle of gospel readings through the Christmas season is that the story of the appearing of the Magi or Wise Men from the East (Matthew 2:1-12) should be reserved for Epiphany (6th January or, if you like, the Twelfth Day of Christmas) and not be part of Christmas Eve or Christmas Day readings.* Waiting until Epiphany to read this gospel passage fits well with the sense that, unlike the shepherds of Luke 2:1-14 who appear at the stable on the night of Jesus' birth, the Wise Men arrive after the birth.

In Matthew's Gospel there is the curious feature that its strongly Jewish flavour is punctuated by Gentile references. In Matthew 1:1-17 there are references to four Gentile women; and at the end of Matthew's Gospel, the Jewish Jesus charges his Jewish disciples with a commission to go to 'all peoples' (Good news Bible). In the story of Jesus' birth, Gentile philosophers turn up, out of the blue!

What, then, might we say when we preach at Epiphany? Here are some ideas for themes.

- the worldwide scope of the gospel
- the revealed character of the gospel
- worshipping Jesus as the appropriate response to his birth
- Jesus, the light of the world
- the true understanding of who Jesus is

This year (2008) I am taking as my theme, 'Christ in the world' and I want to talk about what it means to be a Christian living in the world. In my view far too many sermons effectively only address the subject of 'what Christians should believe' or 'how I can be a better Christian in church.' But each of us lives in 'the world': we work, play, converse and interact with people apart from the church. How, as Christians, are we to engage with the world? What is the world searching for which might be found in the way we reveal Christ through our words and actions? (A variation on this idea is this, 'what is "the star" which leads people today towards Christ?' ... in working with this question I want to reflect a little on three kiwi phenomena at this time of the year: popularity of music festivals, holidays at the beach, and rampant materialism ... each reflects something deeply spiritual).

What are your thoughts as you shape your sermon for Epiphany?

*I realise the lectionary gets a little complicated as it wrestles with parcelling up the gospel readings through the Christmas-Epiphany period. For Sunday 30th December (i.e. the First Sunday after Christmas) the reading was Matthew 2:13-end, that is, the conclusion to the story of the visit of the Wise Men!

Inclusive Preaching (1)

One of the challenges the church faces in the 21st century is the incorporation of teenagers and young adults in Sunday services. We have become adept at running 'great children's programmes', so drawing parents with young children into the Sunday life of a parish has proven a successful strategy in many parishes. But the success of these programmes has been based on running them in the parish hall as a parallel to the service in the church which - understandably - has become an adult-oriented service. The weak point of this strategy (in my observation)is the gulf between the children's programme and the adult service so that when children turn teenagers they feel there is no place for them. (Of course there can be a place for them, e.g. by running a teenage parallel programme; its just that many parishes are exhausted in terms of people resources running a children's programme on Sundays).

One way to overcome this weak point is to make the gulf between 'adult church' and 'children's church' as small as possible. There are a range of ways to do this (which may be addressed in a future posting), and a key to one way of doing this ('all age' or 'inter generational' worship) is to offer one and only one sermon or talk but to ensure that this communication is inclusive of all ages.

Over the years I have developed a little experience in this kind of communication. What I have found helpful is developing a style of speaking which (a) relies on as few notes as possible (b) involves interaction with the congregation (through questions/answers/reflections) and (c) takes advantage of technology (particularly using a radio microphone).

Something to Encourage our Hearts

Richard Kew is a wonderful writer and thinker about church, society, gospel, and connections between them. Click on this link and read what he has to say!

The Gospel According to St. Luke (2) - Nativity

One of the last things many Christians seem to think about at Christmas time is the difference between the Nativity in Matthew's Gospel and in Luke's Gospel. A couple of habits of the church help us not to confront this difference. One habit is that we do not read both gospel versions at the same service (the honourable exception being a service of Nine Lessons and Carols). Another habit is following one gospel one year and the other gospel another year.

The two accounts, we must be clear, do have elements in common: Mary, Joseph, a baby on the way, the baby being born in Bethlehem, the name Jesus, notable visitors attending, and a sense that prophecy is being fulfilled. We perhaps could also make the point - though some would argue against it - that the two stories can be read in a complementary way rather than a contradictory way. For example, we can imagine that each writer knows all that happened* but Matthew chooses to tell about the wise men coming and to ignore the shepherds, and vice versa for Luke. (It is not far-fetched to suppose that Luke, who gives the impression that he has interviewed Mary in depth, did know all that happened). Yet honesty compels us to recognise that there are significant differences between the two stories. In Matthew, the decisions are made by Joseph and he does nothing unless an angel tells him to; whereas Luke seems to know nothing of angelic guidance to Joseph (though angels appear in the Lukan pre-Nativity story).

These differences are the catalyst for gospel scholars to ask the question, is there some significance to the Nativity that one writer is trying to draw out while the other is trying to draw out another significance? Some relatively easy answers present themselves: the Wise Men, for example, are part of a Matthean emphasis on Jesus being Saviour for the whole world (i.e. Jews and Gentiles), an emphasis underscored by the presence of Gentiles in the Genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:1-17) and by the Great Commission (Matthew 28:20). By contrast, Luke offers an emphasis on Jesus being King/Lord of the whole world, who is born in obscurity and extends his kingdom to incorporate the capital of the 'world' (i.e. Rome). In support of this idea, note the way Luke carefully details the date and circumstances of Jesus' birth in terms of an instruction of Caesar Augustus (Luke 2:1-2), and then follow the story of Jesus to its conclusion in Acts 28, where the Apostle Paul, the chief successor to Jesus, according to Luke, preaches the Gospel of Jesus in Rome.

Now for those of us preaching this Christmas, we might like to continue this reflection on difference between Matthew and Luke, and see where that reflection leads us. Its always tempting to let the commentaries do the work for us (a temptation this writer often does not resist), but its very rewarding to come up with insights original to ourselves. Give it a go!

Excellence in Worship Leading (3)

RESOURCES

The Bible and the Prayer Book are the foremost resources. Most worship leaders gather up some supplementary resources. A high priority for many is a book of prayers and related materials for use in services to supplement the Prayer Book. A recent book of resources worth adding to your collection is:

Timothy Radcliffe (ed.) Just One Year: Prayer and Worship through the Christian Year, London: Darton, Longman and Todd (2006). ISBN – 10:0-232-52669-9. ISBN – 13:978-0-232-52669-1.

Apart from resources for use in composing services, this book is worth a look because of two introductory chapters:

‘The Christian Year: What Does It Mean To Celebrate It?’

‘Practical Advice in Creating a Liturgy’

Excellence in Worship Leading (2)

'Thanks, for the heads up' we sometimes say when someone warns us about something which might otherwise surprise us. Is it possible that Anglican worshippers need a "heads up", but in a more literal way? When leading from the front, particularly during a prayer book worship service, when we look at the congregation we often see heads bowed, buried in prayer books. Why is this? Many of us know the services pretty well; but we still keep focused on the text in front of us!

I wonder what God thinks of us? 'Lift up your heads' is one of the great worship instructions from the Psalms: could that be God's command for us today? It can be done - try a Catholic Mass sometime and note how few prayer books are in evidence. But even without such experience, in the day of projectors and screens there is technical assistance available to help us to lift up our heads!