Recent Sermons
Each week our Locum Vicar delivers sermons that seek to inspire and challenge our congregation in their daily service of God.
Over the coming months we will be adding these sermons to our website for the interest and inspiration of others in our community. We hope you enjoy the words of our Locum Vicar Reverend Dr Ronald Noone.
Should you wish to hear more please join us at 8.00am or 10.00am on a Sunday in the near future.
Each week our Locum Vicar delivers sermons that seek to inspire and challenge our congregation in their daily service of God.
Over the coming months we will be adding these sermons to our website for the interest and inspiration of others in our community. We hope you enjoy the words of our Locum Vicar Reverend Dr Ronald Noone.
Should you wish to hear more please join us at 8.00am or 10.00am on a Sunday in the near future.
CHRISTMAS SERMON
Christmas 2019
This Christmas will be a difficult time for many Australians. The country is very dry and when combined with very hot temperatures and high winds the result was the devastating bushfires we witnessed in Eastern Australia. It’s been reported that some nine lives were lost and over a thousand homes have been destroyed as well as the loss of hundreds of animals and plants. Out of the tragedy emerged uplifting stories of heroism and tales of wonderful human compassion as entire communities began the daunting task of rebuilding their homes, farms, businesses and their lives. Many will suffer the emotional trauma that comes with fires and the scars will take many years to fade, if they ever do. We pray that the victims may draw deep from their own dignity and resources; that they can accept the help and assistance from friends and strangers, learning there is s time for everything, and a time for healing too.
We were also affected by the economic scandals in the Banking industry and the criminal behaviour by large corporations under paying their workers has been a national disgrace. One of the well-known quotes of Gordon Gecko in the Film Wall Street, “Greed is good” came under renewed scrutiny. Some of us recalling that greed is one of the almost forgotten seven deadly sins. The fallout from the royal commissions etc may not be over yet, but confidence is slowly being restored. We pray that more responsible heads will manage to keep a sensible perspective about money matters in the future and that we can once again place some trust in those on the boards of large corporations to do the right thing for their staff, customers as well as their shareholders.
For whatever reason it seems that too many young people in this country suffer from depression and while outward appearances may give the impression that all is well, they cover up internal turmoil and a sense of meaninglessness. The worrying rise of gang violence in our city points to a lack of purpose and an absence of joy in their lives. As far as I know all the world’s religions claim that happiness comes from within. Others can’t give it to you and you certainly can’t find it in drugs or a bottle. Genuine deep lasting and fulfilling happiness must come from within and it gives an energy and excitement for living. We pray for the youth to engage in the quest for feeding that inner spirit that shines in every human heart that will not allow anger or resentment to make them captive, but rather have the courage to change and to find ways to grow into men of compassion, dignity and nobility.
Somehow, it helps to place all these things into a context - the bushfires, the economy, the suffering and death of the tourists on the NZ volcano, as well as the good news that has occurred this year. I heard someone on the radio recently complaining about the Myer Christmas windows which this year has displays of the Gumnut babies in five or six windows with only one window has anything to do with Christmas. It’s simply another example of the “un-Christianising” of Christmas (if that’s a proper expression). Later, a listener called in complaining about the nativity scene window saying, “Why does religion have to stick its nose in everywhere, even the Myer windows”!
Last Saturday, Greg Sheridan, writing in The Australian newspaper argued that the Christmas story still resonates not only in the West but around the world. Any objection to Christmas comes not from other religions but from the grinches of militant secularism, the official and dispiriting religion of our time. When I lived in New York the secularists in the public service banned public nativity scenes and other Christian displays in schools, malls and public places. Surprisingly, it was the recently impeached, President Donald Trump, who restored some sanity and allowed nativity scenes to once again be on display in schools, churches and malls. Sheridan claimed the chief project of modernity over the past 200 years has been to try to kill God. Even where this dismal endeavour progresses culturally, the God that cannot be killed at all, is the infant at Christmas.
I remain a Christian because I’m on a search for truth. I don’t have it, but I think it is crucial for my happiness to continue to seek it. Jesus said, “I came to bear witness to the truth and the truth will set you free”. I have found enough freedom in the utterly compelling story of the Nazarene for me to continue on this remarkable exploration. Jesus is the culmination of the Divine-human encounter and what we celebrate every Christmas is the miracle that this occurs in the form of a holy child. Like all births, the new life is full of promise but in this case the child’s promises are for us. God’s promise of real, genuine, deep and lasting happiness can be found through incorporation with him. The fundamental idea behind the teachings of the church is not instruction but transformation. I look at the Nativity scene, the crib with Mary & Joseph and the shepherds and the animals and I recall that a manger is a feeding trough. As we come for communion to be fed with spiritual food, we bring all our cares, concerns and our thanksgivings to the loving God who willingly surrendered his grandeur and glory and deigned to live as one of us.
I’ll finish with a line from the Christmas hymn, O Little Town of Bethlehem, “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” This, for me, sums up the magnitude of the birth and of the promise.
I wish you all a very happy and holy Christmas.
ADVENT SERMONS
ADVENT 2: 8 December 2019
The Prophets – Remembering
Our recent trip to Italy will be stored in our memories for many, many years. It is normal and appropriate to remember such holidays. Advent is the short season of preparation for remembering the time when God deigned to live as one of us. It is a time to consider the larger implications of “remembering” as the principal means of helping us to live in the present.
There are, of course, lots of reminders of what season of the year it is. Christmas decorations are appearing everywhere and there is a usual bombardment of advertising. It is easy to lose sight of what we are preparing for. In the Hebrew scriptures considerable emphasis is placed on the obligation of remembering, of keeping in mind the wonderful works of God and the love God shows to the people. Remembering is the basis of keeping the covenant – keep the commandments; write them on your hearts; teach them to your children.
Remembering is also the basis of the Christian life, “keep in mind That Jesus Christ died for us and has risen from the dead.” It is also the basis of our worship – “Do this in remembrance of me.” It is always remembering the past in order to live more creatively in the present. For this kind of remembering shows itself in action. For example, to recall the generosity of God, by some generous act of our own towards others, helps us translate the theory of Christian living into practical terms. Many of us are in fact very generous at Christmas time, but it’s good to understand the motive behind the generosity comes from theology, from our beliefs. If it doesn’t, then we are being generous in the hope that others will show generosity to us. As we know, Jesus requires more than this. To be Christ-like is to be generous without expecting anything in return. In this parish, the lunches on Mondays and Fridays are an example of actions that don’t expect anything in return.
Remembering the generosity of God by practice, by some concrete act of our own, is a great antidote to the idea of remembering as a purely intellectual activity. We do not ‘remember the Lord’s death until he comes’ in the same way we remember what we were doing at the time of President Kennedy’s death in 1963. For those who are too young at the time, this illustration will have no meaning for you. Where were you when 9/11 occurred or . . . . .
The point is, by the practice of Christian living, we make present the words and presence of Jesus in our own experience. We weren’t around 2,000 years ago but the miracle is with the practice of remembering these can be real for us today. This is so crucial to the Judeo/Christian experience and if we don’t take the time necessary to practice reflection on the past in order to live in the present and hope for the future, we are in grave danger of forgetting who we are.
This is precisely what was happening to the people of Israel at the time of the writings of Isaiah. The people had forgotten who they are, and the prophets were raised up to remind them. The Israelites had been overtaken by the Babylonian Empire, in exile and seemingly forsaken. God promises to deliver them, free them and restore them. The job of the prophets is to recount the gracious deeds of the Lord. They remember the abundance of his steadfast love and his promise to rebuild the ancient ruins.
John the Baptist was asked, “who are you and what do you say about yourself?” he answered that he was preparing a path in the Wilderness. What wilderness? The trans-Jordan desert where the temperatures can reach 50 Celsius? Or a path like the beef roads in the Northern Territory? Or perhaps this was a symbolic way of speaking? Perhaps it is a symbol where we are the wilderness and our culture is the desert that the Lord will green.
John the Baptist must have heard the words of Isaiah and interpreted them as referring to a theological wilderness – a dearth of insight and discernment, and an absence of prophecy through which the Living One could cleave a path. For after the destruction of the second temple, the Book of Maccabees tells us that a pile of stones was left – just simply left on the site - ‘until a prophet should come and tell us what to do with them’.
As the Baptist foretold, the prophet did come and was hardly recognised. John said of him, ‘There stands among you one whom you do not know.’ But the pile of stones seemed to Him like the beginnings of a new community. For with himself as the chief cornerstone he could take that rubble and build out of it the mystery of the church – a perpetual sign that the desert will flower.
May we always remember what God has done for us; use our minds and our hearts for discerning his will for us; help us on the path through our private deserts, to leave the wilderness and to find our true home in the one who baptises with spirit and fire, even Jesus Christ our Lord.
ADVENT 3: 15 December 2019
John the Baptist
The prophet Isaiah gives a vision of the peaceful kingdom that will come about when God’s elect emerges. The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid. Cows and bears will all get along and their young will play together. Children will tempt snakes and not be harmed. No one will hurt or destroy on the holy mountain and the earth will be full of the knowledge of the lord. Into this peaceful loving scene that well-known New York theologian, Woody Allen, adds a dose of realism when he says, “The lion will lay down with the lamb, but the lamb won’t sleep very well!”
The promises given by God to the patriarchs and envisioned by Isaiah were not quite the same as found in the one who was to be a forerunner, the one who would make the paths straight for the coming one.
I once drove a bishop up to a clergy conference in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains in Victoria, not far outside Melbourne. The scenery was beautiful as the road twisted and turned through the hills and valleys. Suddenly the bishop said to me, “You see these valleys? One day they will be raised up.” A moment or two later he said, “You see these hills? One day they will all be made low.” I look over at him rather quizzically and then he said, “You see this winding road? One day it will be made straight.” Then, after a thoughtful silence he said, “Geez it will bloody boring!”
The John the Baptist who appeared in the Judean wilderness was anything but boring. He wore a camel hair coat and he had some dietary issues but boy could he preach! So much so that the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were clamoring to see and hear him. Surprising since he required of the people something not too many would find attractive today – he required them to openly and publically repent. To admit they had been living lives less worthy and be willing to be baptized with the baptism of repentance and amend their lives accordingly. John used his harshest words on the members of the religious parties of the day, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and their cunning manipulation of the Law. But he saved his greatest condemnation for Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of the region, for divorcing his first wife in favour of the cruel Herodias, who had formerly been married to his half-brother Herod II. It was John the Baptist's overt disapproval of this arrangement that led Antipas to have him arrested and subsequently famously beheaded to please his daughter and wife and not to lose face in front of the honoured guests of his court.
It is not easy to be a prophetic voice paving the way for someone else to follow you who you know will have more impact. Recently I was telling a parishioner about a movie I saw in the early 1990’s called ‘Jesus of Montreal’ in which the priest at the Basilica put on a ‘Passion Play’ every year in Lent. The play had become tired and stale and he wanted to jazz it up for a new audience. So the priest in charge hires some new actors - younger, more inventive - to stage a revised and updated version. And they make the mistake of taking their material literally. The teachings of Christ would be radical and subversive if anyone ever took them literally. And they would be profoundly offensive to those who build their kingdoms in this world and not in the next. They were looking around for actors to play the roles and in one scene set in a bar, a man was being asked if he was interested in the role of Jesus. Just then the star of the film walked by, and the first man said, “There goes a real actor. He’s the one you want.”
The actors who rewrite the Passion in "Jesus of Montreal" create a play that is good theatre and perhaps even good theology, but it is not good public relations. The church authorities are reluctant to offend the establishment by presenting such an unorthodox reading of the passion story and they order the play to be toned down. But by the time they act, a curious thing has happened to the actors. They have come to believe in their play, to be shaped by the roles they play. It was a very interesting film.
In John’s gospel the baptiser says of Jesus, “There stands among you one whom you do not know.” John was content in his secondary role, ‘He must increase while I must decrease.’ In Matthew’s gospel however, John keeps up his preaching and baptising even after he baptised Jesus. He continued to speak out to utter his prophetic voice regardless of the consequences. John’s vision of what Jesus would do did not come to fruition – he didn’t burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. But apparently Jesus did say, “Of those born of woman, none is greater than John the Baptist.”
We celebrate Advent because there has been a word spoken, a word that establishes the difference between the God we expect and the God who comes, a word that shows once and for all what an idol looks like in the face of truth. We cannot imagine what form God’s liberation will take in the future or how it will renew the church and go on to renew the world. We live in hope and are perpetually on the eve of God’s coming, knowing and not knowing that it will be. Advent insists that we stay for a while in this tension of being “on the eve” of something if only that the new thing we celebrate at Christmas may have a chance to be truly new for us and not a stale and tired cliché.
The tension in Advent is a way of learning again that God is God; that between even our deepest and holiest longing and the reality of God there is a gap that only grace can cross. Advent tells us to look for mystery, look for grace and freedom in a fleshly human face. And when it comes, we need to be ready. O Come O Come Emmanuel!
CAROL SERVICE - 15 December 2019
Two favourite old Christmas movies, “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “The Bishop’s Wife” both use angels as messengers from God. Clarence Odbody, the gentle bumbling angel in “It’s a Wonderful Life” who was trying to get his wings would never put the fear of God in anyone. In “The Bishop’s Wife” Cary Grant plays a suave angel named Dudley who incites feelings of jealousy, envy and affection rather than fear. Hollywood may not have been aware that in the biblical accounts of the birth narratives in which an angel plays a major role were all accompanied by fear. The Archangel Gabriel, whose name means ‘one who stands before God’, appeared to the aging Zechariah promptly announcing that his wife Elizabeth will have a son to be named John who will give them great joy and happiness. The child will be filled with the spirit and prepare the way for Lord. The angel’s news was so starling that Zachariah was unprepared for it and asked how could this be? In a fit of peak, Gabriel immediately took away the gift of speech and made Zachariah mute until the child was born because he showed a lack of faith! This silence however became the space for God’s saving acts; God alone is in charge and Zachariah can only go back to his village in silence until the angel’s message comes to fruition.
A little later the Archangel Gabriel appears again with another mission – to announce to Mary that she too would have a son – “the holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you therefore what will be born will be called holy, the son of God.” Quite understandably Mary was much perplexed by the Angel’s words and pondered what kind of greeting this could be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid Mary for you have found favour with God.”
The third time the angel appears, not named this time, is before the shepherds in the fields. His coming suddenly makes God’s presence a reality. Once again fear is the natural reaction and deliverance from fear is the first concern of the word from God, ‘Fear not’ says the angel to the shepherds. God’s intrusion into the human world becomes outwardly visible in “Glory”. God’s word of “great joy” conquers the “great fear.”
As messengers, the angels represent the earthward movement of God and therefore ascribe glory to God and God’s peace to humankind. The gospel story uses vivid imagery to describe what took place; in the birth of this child, God came to an encounter with the world; there is rejoicing in heaven and humanity is given the possibility of God’s peace. Of course this is known only to faith and faith allows us to interpret what transcends human understanding in the images of the story.
We have things to fear on the International and national levels but fear mostly affects us on the inner or personal level, so I ask, ‘how has the year been for you? Are there things you have been fearful about in your own life - things that you fear as you move into the future?’ It’s important and helpful to find a context in which we can place such fears and one way is to ask, “What do all these things look like from God’s perspective? How are they written in the eternal script?” I believe that is the only context large enough to contain all our sacred and profane experiences.
Christmas is the time when distracted people can again be reminded of their wonderful story, of their divine potential. Unhappy in a society that has forgotten how beautiful it is meant to be, that has slipped its moorings and lost its direction, the church must find a way to restore some meaning back into the lives of searching souls. At the heart of this revelation is the proclamation by the angels that God became a human being.
The driving vision of Jesus expressed in the infancy narratives in Luke’s gospel are not about historical facts but they create a subtle and beautiful poem that speaks about the humanising of God. In spite of so much evidence to the contrary, they are proclaiming, “God has become truly human and we are bright with divine beauty.” The message of the Angels is ‘Fear not”. I’d like to finish with A Blessing of Angels by John O’Donohue.
May the angels in their beauty bless you.
May they turn towards you streams of blessing.
May the angel of Awakening stir your heart
To come alive to the eternal within you,
To all the invitations that quietly surround you.
May the angel of Healing turn your wounds
Into sources of refreshment.
May the angel of the Imagination enable you
To stand on the true thresholds;
At ease with your ambivalence
And drawn in new directions
Through the glow of your contradictions.
May the angel of Compassion open your eyes
To the unseen suffering around you.
May the angel of Wildness disturb the places
Where your life is domesticated and safe,
Take you to territories of true otherness
Where all that is awkward in you
Can fall into its own rhythm.
May the angel of Eros introduce you
To the beauty of your senses
To celebrate your inheritance
As a temple of the Holy Spirit.
May the angel of Justice disturb you
To take the side of the poor and the wronged.
May the angel of encouragement confirm you
In worth and self-respect,
That you may live with the dignity
That presides in your soul.
May the angel of Death arrive only
When your life is complete
And you have brought every given gift
To the threshold where its infinity can shine.
May all the angels be your sheltering
and joyful guardians this Christmas and always. Amen.
ADVENT 4: 22 December 2019
The Adult Christ at Christmas
We are all familiar with the comment that “Christmas is for the children because it’s important to them.” It’s become a kind of excuse for our materialistic extravagance, “We do it for the children.” When we hear people say statements like this, at one level we know what they mean. But whenever I hear expressions like it I think these adults don’t believe anything about Christmas for themselves. That is, the birth of the baby in Bethlehem, even if it is God becoming one of us, has no impact on them whatsoever. The fact they have missed the whole point of Christmas is terribly sad and they are to be pitied. Instead of attempting to understand the meaning and significance of the Incarnation they have opted for an attractive illusion - Santa Claus, the reindeer, the snow, the moral blackmail of children – who’s been naughty and who’s been nice. The illusion has been commercialised to the nth degree and it’s very difficult to resist it. In fact, it would be downright mean-spirited to do so!
Along with the attractive illusion comes a downside. It cost s a lot of money and this can have a high emotional cost to many parents who feel inadequate because they can’t afford to give their children the gifts they desire. This Christmas there will be thousands of disappointed children who didn’t receive what they wished for and thousands of parents who couldn’t afford to give the gifts their children desired. Emotions often turn nasty in this season of goodwill. People can be emotionally drained at Christmas time and nerves can be on edge for a variety of reasons. Resolutions are quickly made, “I’m not going through this again next year” or “I’ll be glad when the children grow out of this”!
This emphasis on children at Christmas is a recent phenomenon. The idea of childhood is a social construct and only recently invented. It may come as a shock to you but celebrating a child’s birthday was almost unknown in the 18th century. Since that time the idea of childhood has become increasingly popular, especially since the second half of the twentieth century. These days we would be rightly shocked if we didn’t celebrate a child’s birthday.
The birth of Jesus however, had nothing to do with children. It was and is, an adult festival. It is celebration of God becoming a human being by entering the lives of Mary and Joseph in a most disturbing way. Raymond Brown, a former professor in New York, wrote a very large book called “The Birth of the Messiah”. It is a scholarly work, but his publishers had a smart idea. They asked him to reduce the argument in his large book into the size of a small pamphlet called, “The Adult Christ at Christmas”. He questioned why two of the gospel writers included the birth stories and why are there so many discrepancies between the accounts. His argument goes something like this. The gospels are all post resurrection documents written some thirty or forty years after the death of Jesus. They are theological accounts explaining who Jesus was and what he accomplished. They claim he is the Son of God and by his passion, death and resurrection, he bought salvation to the world.
The writers firmly believed this, so the question becomes, when was he God? If he was God on the cross and God when he reappeared to his heartbroken disciples, he must have been God from the very beginning- from his birth and even before it.
The prophets tell us that the great shepherd of Israel will be born not in the power and security of a large city like Jerusalem, but out in the hill country in little Bethlehem. In the Gospel we hear our Lord is going to be the child of an unwed teenager. Elizabeth might logically have greeted her young pregnant cousin with, OMG Mary, what have you done! And this is only the beginning of how God comes into people’s lives in radically unexpected ways.
God often shows up when least expected. Instead of pointing out our strengths, God shows up and magnifies the lowly places in our lives. If we really hear Mary’s song, The Magnificat, we realize that it’s a radical turning of the world upside down. The proud are scattered. The powerful are brought down. The rich are sent away empty. The lowly, on the other hand are raised up. The hungry are feed. Apparently, when the Lord is magnified, those on the bottom and edges are magnified also.
God chooses strange and unexpected ways for the most important event in human history to take place not through a powerful and wise man but to a powerless teenage girl. If you’ve ever lived with a 13 or 14-year-old girl, you’ve seen the wonderful adolescent chaos and you know there is an emptiness and powerlessness as well.
God spoke and Mary heard AND obeyed. Obedience in the biblical sense (and in the root meaning of the English word as well) means also to hear. To hear, to really hear is to obey. And the result of that obedience is a miracle. God sends totally unexpected miracles in unexpected places to unprepared and needy people.
So instead of looking for God in the beautiful, well kept part of our lives, lets take time to consider our neediness, our unprepared places. A skilled carpenter is not asked to build a beautiful home for Jesus; he’s asked to be a midwife to a virgin. A successful businessman may not be asked to manage the kingdom of God. He may find God only in the brokenness of a sudden heart attack. A gifted teacher may be too busy speaking her wisdom to hear God’s word and God may come to her in her weakest place.
Where is it that you are needy? Where is your life broken and in need of repair? Do you have empty spaces? For what do you hunger? Maybe its loneliness, alienation, poor health or financial stress? Depression or fears? These are the mangers of our lives where God is asking to be born. Listen carefully in the broken places for God is looking with favour on your lowliness and promising to fill your greatest needs.
The adult Christ at Christmas has the power to renew our hope. The hope begins in the eyes of a tiny child and all parents recognise the hopes for their children. May the celebration of Christ’s birth rekindle our faith in God and may all adults who do not know God recognise the love God has for them this Christmas.
4 August 2019: The Feast of the Transfiguration.
August the 6th has always been an important day in our household as it’s our daughter
Sarah’s birthday and for weeks leading up to the great day she ensures that everyone knows it. August the 6th also happens to be an important day in the Church’s calendar as the story is read twice each year – once in Lent and once on August 6th. We transferred the Feast to today. As we just heard in the Gospel reading, the Feast of the Transfiguration commemorates the occasion when Jesus and three of his disciples went up on Mt Tabor. There he was transfigured before them and his clothes became dazzling white and they heard the voice of God saying, “This is my son, the beloved, listen to him.” This same line was used when John baptised Jesus in the river Jordan.
On August 6th in the year 1456 a divine victory was won at the gates of Belgrade when Christian Armies slaughtered the Infidel and halted the progress of Islamic evangelists entering Europe. A year late, Pope Callistus III ordered the annual celebration of the Transfiguration to commemorate the mighty bloodbath.
On August the 6th in the year 1945, allied Christian armies won another great victory over the enemy. As the church kept the festival of Christ’s shinning, Japanese infants roasted and the elderly of Hiroshima turned into shadows in the twinkling of a neutron.
The author of Second Peter, in the epistle today, would not be surprised by the ironic alignment of Mt. Tabor/Belgrade/Hiroshima – he said, ”You would do well to pay attention to this as to a light shinning in a dark place.” Yes, we would do well – do well to remember the brightest light of all and to know that among all the stars that live in our hearts one of them is called ‘Morning’ – Christ our morning star. Yes, we would do well to know that we are made finally for light and for transfiguration, and this strengthens us through times when all we can see is darkness.
Many years ago a friend from England and I visited Israel and Mt Tabor and the Church of the Transfiguration that sits at the top. Mt Tabor isn’t much of a mountain – more like a foothill –or as our guidebook rather raunchily described it –“like a perfectly shaped breast rising out of the valley.” Mt Tabor is located only a short drive from Nazareth but we mistimed our arrival because the church was closed and a sign said it would re-open at 2pm. It was very hot so we sat under the shade of a tree and waited. Some restoration work was taking place on the church buildings and there were three port-a-loos nearby. My friend said to me, “Look, there are three booths. One for Moses one for Elijah and one for thee!”
It was a relief to finally enter the church as it was cared for by a Roman Catholic order of nuns and was very clean and, more importantly, cool. The architecture was unusual because the sanctuary was located down a wide expanse of steps with the altar at the bottom. Above the Sanctuary was an arch with a Latin inscription, “Domine bonum est hic”, which I finally worked out to say, “it’s good Lord to be here.” We sat on the marble steps for some time thinking about transfiguration in the lovely coolness of the church. We agreed it was good to be there.
The story of the transfiguration is not addressed to our experience. It is an account of Christ’s experience and only through him is it an account of what our experience might be. The gospel account is not a kind of ‘flash forward’ to the future glorified Christ. It is an awareness of who Christ was in the days of his flesh – before he suffered, before he died and before he rose. It is the transfiguration of his humanity. As usual Peter does not understand; and that is why he is the most attractive member of the Apostles. Instead of allowing himself to be caught up in the figure that stands before him, Peter wants to capture it for future reference, to confine God. “Let us make three booths; one for Moses, one for Elijah and one for thee.” We have chained down the Law and made it work for us. We have taken the fire out of the prophets and made them holy men instead. Now let us confine God.
There are Christians who wish to confine God to the pages of the bible. Others wish to Confine God to the tabernacle in the most holy sacrament of the altar. Others still wish to confine God to the church. But you can never confine a God who breaks free from the tomb. “Let us make three booths” – with Peter, we say this whenever reality seems too hash for us and holds out the possibility of transfiguration. For we can never be transfigured and yet remain the same. The gospel promise always holds out the hope that we can change, can grow and can break out of the booths, shelters and dwellings that confine us. It is better to lose the confined God we found easy to envisage and stand defenceless in the presence of the one who can only ever truly be known when he is lived with.
On the mountain the apostles saw what they were letting themselves in for – transfiguration at the hands of him who is bound by nothing. But in the valley and on the road to Jerusalem, they forgot what they had seen. Peter asking if two swords will be enough; James asking for a front seat in the Kingdom, and John snoring in the Garden of Gethsemane. Yet the mountain is as real as the valley and we have to believe that or else we shall be consumed by the myth that the present is the only reality we can ever know.
In C.S. Lewis’ story, The Silver Chair, one of the Chronicles of Narnia, the great lion Aslan, who is a figure of Christ, addresses Jill, a little girl who must assist him in his work.
Here, on the mountain, I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take care that it does not confuse your mind. And the signs, which you have learned here, will not look as you expect them to look when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters.
Peter, James and John weren’t allowed to stay on the mountain and neither can we stay with our mountaintop experiences or spiritual highs. We live most of the time in the valley of mundane, ordinary existence. The transfiguration wasn’t meant to last, but it was meant to be remembered. May the unbounded God help us to remember the mountain, keeps us from idols and be at rest with him who was transfigured, crucified and is risen, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Father Ron Noone
28 JULY 2019: Amazing Grace
A few weeks ago we sang the wonderful hymn Glorious things of thee are spoken which contains one of my favourite lines: “ Solid joys and lasting treasure none but Sion’s children know.”
It speaks of the knowledge of things eternal, of the spiritual worldview and mindset that religious people have available to them and must be awaken within us. The hymn was written by John Newtown, who also wrote Amazing Grace, one of the most popular hymns in the church. Amazing Grace has been recorded in over 1100 albums! It is the favourite hymn of presidents Carter, Clinton and Bush. Not sure what Donald Trump’s favourite hymn is. Perhaps its “Ego is not a dirty word”!
Some of you may know the fascinating story behind the writing of this hymn and if so, please forgive me if I speak of things you already know. John Newton was born into a seafaring family in 1725. His father was a ship’s captain and was away for much of John’s early childhood. His mother would read portions of the Bible to him every night, so he grew up knowing the scriptures.
Newton went to sea at the age of 11 and progressed through the ranks to become a ship’s captain. Once during a particularly vicious storm at sea Newton prayed to God asking, “if you save us Lord, I will become a good Christian and do your will.” He was saved from the storm but the conversion didn’t stick. In fact Newton became a slave trader, which was a very lucrative business albeit in the tough, ruthless world of trading human beings. Newtown encountered a second storm and conversion and this time it did stick. In fact his encounter with God was so dramatic it led him to give up his ship and study theology and become an Anglican Priest.
Newton was sent to the parish of Olney in Buckinghamshire and in his congregation he had a young man named William Wilberforce. Wilberforce developed a burning passion for politics and was elected to the Parliament at the age of 21. For years he fought for the abolition of Slavery and he became one of the best orators and singers in the parliament. He too, underwent an experience that placed the Christian faith in the forefront of his life, to the point where he thought he might leave politics and seek ordination as a priest. William Pitt, his friend from his days at College and who later became Prime Minister, asks Wilberforce, “Will you use your beautiful voice to praise the Lord or change the world?” Hannah Moore, another abolitionist from the ‘Clapham Sect’ suggests he can do both!
On a visit to his old parish and talking with his priest, Wilberforce elicits from Newton a confession of his slave trading past and his conversion experience. Newton was going blind and he used a secretary or scribe to take down his story. Newton dictated a number of hymns including Amazing Grace with the ironic lines, I once was lost, but now am found, T’was blind but now I see.
Newton urges Wilberforce to stay in parliament and continue the fight against slavery. Wilberforce manages to gain allies in the fight, notably Josiah Wedgewood and Thomas Clarkson. Wedgewood used his famous china to craft an anti-slavery medallion with the inscription, “ Am I not a man and a Brother?” Wedgewood was the first to show the world that something that you wore could show where you stood on an issue. This is commonplace on all sorts of clothing today but it was quite radical in the 1800’s.
Benjamin Franklin took a medallion back to the United States and the Abolitionists there struck a copper coin with an image of a woman with the inscription, “Am I not a woman and a sister?" Given the history of the civil rights movement in America it is no wonder the hymn is more popular there than anywhere else.
After fighting for the abolition of the slave trade for 25 years the bill passed in the House of Commons in 1807. That same year Newton died. Wilberforce continued to fight to free slaves throughout the British Empire for another twenty-six years! Finally in 1833 a law passed for the whole British Empire banning slavery. Three days later Wilberforce died. It is interesting to note that slavery never took hold in Australia with Governor Arthur Philip banning slavery in the Australian colonies on 26 January 1788.
It was a long time before slavery was banned in the United States. It wasn’t until after the Civil War in 1865 that the 13th Amendment to the constitution banning slavery was formally passed by the congress.
William Wilberforce is an example of one man’s fight against injustice where his faith motivated and strengthened him to use his talent to change the world for good. When the whole nation was blind, he made them see and for that he gets a saint’s day in the calendar at the end of this month, on July 30.
Despite his efforts and those of the abolitionists slavery still exists today. In 2003 President Bush told the United Nations General Assembly “each year over 800,000 human beings are bought and sold and forced across boarders in a trade that targets vulnerable women and children and feeds a thriving organised crime syndicate that threatens global security.”
You can look up the website stopthetraffik.org.au
Father Ron Noone
A few weeks ago we sang the wonderful hymn Glorious things of thee are spoken which contains one of my favourite lines: “ Solid joys and lasting treasure none but Sion’s children know.”
It speaks of the knowledge of things eternal, of the spiritual worldview and mindset that religious people have available to them and must be awaken within us. The hymn was written by John Newtown, who also wrote Amazing Grace, one of the most popular hymns in the church. Amazing Grace has been recorded in over 1100 albums! It is the favourite hymn of presidents Carter, Clinton and Bush. Not sure what Donald Trump’s favourite hymn is. Perhaps its “Ego is not a dirty word”!
Some of you may know the fascinating story behind the writing of this hymn and if so, please forgive me if I speak of things you already know. John Newton was born into a seafaring family in 1725. His father was a ship’s captain and was away for much of John’s early childhood. His mother would read portions of the Bible to him every night, so he grew up knowing the scriptures.
Newton went to sea at the age of 11 and progressed through the ranks to become a ship’s captain. Once during a particularly vicious storm at sea Newton prayed to God asking, “if you save us Lord, I will become a good Christian and do your will.” He was saved from the storm but the conversion didn’t stick. In fact Newton became a slave trader, which was a very lucrative business albeit in the tough, ruthless world of trading human beings. Newtown encountered a second storm and conversion and this time it did stick. In fact his encounter with God was so dramatic it led him to give up his ship and study theology and become an Anglican Priest.
Newton was sent to the parish of Olney in Buckinghamshire and in his congregation he had a young man named William Wilberforce. Wilberforce developed a burning passion for politics and was elected to the Parliament at the age of 21. For years he fought for the abolition of Slavery and he became one of the best orators and singers in the parliament. He too, underwent an experience that placed the Christian faith in the forefront of his life, to the point where he thought he might leave politics and seek ordination as a priest. William Pitt, his friend from his days at College and who later became Prime Minister, asks Wilberforce, “Will you use your beautiful voice to praise the Lord or change the world?” Hannah Moore, another abolitionist from the ‘Clapham Sect’ suggests he can do both!
On a visit to his old parish and talking with his priest, Wilberforce elicits from Newton a confession of his slave trading past and his conversion experience. Newton was going blind and he used a secretary or scribe to take down his story. Newton dictated a number of hymns including Amazing Grace with the ironic lines, I once was lost, but now am found, T’was blind but now I see.
Newton urges Wilberforce to stay in parliament and continue the fight against slavery. Wilberforce manages to gain allies in the fight, notably Josiah Wedgewood and Thomas Clarkson. Wedgewood used his famous china to craft an anti-slavery medallion with the inscription, “ Am I not a man and a Brother?” Wedgewood was the first to show the world that something that you wore could show where you stood on an issue. This is commonplace on all sorts of clothing today but it was quite radical in the 1800’s.
Benjamin Franklin took a medallion back to the United States and the Abolitionists there struck a copper coin with an image of a woman with the inscription, “Am I not a woman and a sister?" Given the history of the civil rights movement in America it is no wonder the hymn is more popular there than anywhere else.
After fighting for the abolition of the slave trade for 25 years the bill passed in the House of Commons in 1807. That same year Newton died. Wilberforce continued to fight to free slaves throughout the British Empire for another twenty-six years! Finally in 1833 a law passed for the whole British Empire banning slavery. Three days later Wilberforce died. It is interesting to note that slavery never took hold in Australia with Governor Arthur Philip banning slavery in the Australian colonies on 26 January 1788.
It was a long time before slavery was banned in the United States. It wasn’t until after the Civil War in 1865 that the 13th Amendment to the constitution banning slavery was formally passed by the congress.
William Wilberforce is an example of one man’s fight against injustice where his faith motivated and strengthened him to use his talent to change the world for good. When the whole nation was blind, he made them see and for that he gets a saint’s day in the calendar at the end of this month, on July 30.
Despite his efforts and those of the abolitionists slavery still exists today. In 2003 President Bush told the United Nations General Assembly “each year over 800,000 human beings are bought and sold and forced across boarders in a trade that targets vulnerable women and children and feeds a thriving organised crime syndicate that threatens global security.”
You can look up the website stopthetraffik.org.au
Father Ron Noone
7 JULY 2019: GAY PRIDE AND MARRIAGE EQUALITY
This week in the northern hemisphere was Gay Pride week and parades were held in many places to mark Fifty years since the first parade in New York in 1969. When my wife and I lived in New York in 2016 we only had to walk about 50 metres to watch the parade down Fifth Avenue. It is a massive parade full of music and dancing that lasts about 5 hours with about 400,000 people involved and watched by some 4 million. You may be surprised by just who marched. There were representatives from every city department – the District Attorney’s Office, the Judges, the Mayor’s Office, every branch of the city services, Police Fire & Ambulance all had floats, Lots of politicians, senators, congressmen and women and city councillors. Religions were also well represented - the Jewish Gay and Lesbian Association, Muslims and lots of Christian churches, including a float from the Episcopal Church carrying the bishop of New York, some clergy and lay people. More surprising still was the number of floats representing High Schools in support of Gay rights. Many of the participants’ hand out pamphlets etc. one of them gave me this badge, “God made me queer.”
Some of it was confronting but it’s an issue this country has come the terms with through last year’s plebiscite when nearly 70% of Australians voted for Gay Marriage. When the result was revealed in New York the Empire State building lit up in rainbow colours! The Anglican Church in its wisdom has refused to accept the result and to its shame is officially opposed to same sex marriage.
I want to tell you about my experience working as a Rector in a parish in New York renowned for its marriage ministry. The Church of the Transfiguration married the first gay couple in 2012 when it was legal in New York State. In 2015 Marriage Equality became Federal Law, applicable in all 50 states.
My first wedding enquiry was from two gay men living in Atlanta, Georgia. They wished to marry at Transfiguration because they had worshipped in the parish when visiting New York. I needed to get my head around the idea before I could agree so I entered a similar theological reflection process that I did some thirty years earlier when I first encountered a woman priest celebrating the Eucharist in the same city. That experience was so positive I decided to go ahead and discuss the wedding with the men. I discovered they had been together for 26 years and now wished to consecrate their love in the church service. They both worshipped as Episcopalians and both desired the blessing of the church. They told me there would be no congregation, but a woman friend, Mary, in her eighties would be their witness. The church Verger, a very large black man called Tyrone, who acted as the other witness. They did ask if it was possible to have a choir of boys and girls. The Music Director was happy to provide a teenage choir of about 10 or 12 voices (the parish has three choirs).
The Episcopal Church has authorised an excellent Wedding Service for same sex couples and I was surprised how much I liked it. In fact, I’ve used the preface for heterosexual couples as well who also enjoy it.
The wedding took place on a Saturday morning at 11am. The men arrived together beautifully dressed in black tie. I married them in the Chancel with Mary and Tyrone. We had two hymns of their choice led by the choir and music Director as well as some entrance and exit music. As these two mature men exchanged vows of love for each other I looked at the teenagers in the choir who did not bat an eyelid. For them it was just another wedding and as natural as could be. Mary cried exclaiming, “I never thought this day would come!” Tyrone also cried but I later discovered he cries at most weddings! Following the service both husbands went to the choir to thank them and give them small gifts. Overall it was a wonderful experience for me and I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The following week I married a heterosexual couple who had seven bridesmaids and groomsmen, an officious wedding planner, an interfering mother of the bride who nearly drove the Director of Music mad and a large congregation who were more interested in themselves than any wedding vows. I looked back on the previous wedding with great fondness.
American priests have the right to refuse to marry couples but I decided to obey the laws of the country and I’m thrilled that I did.
People should live with their conscience but as Christians we believe our consciences need to be informed by a process of theological reflection. The Anglican way is holding the insights of Scripture, Tradition and Reason in tension as we address an issue. This is not an easy thing to do. It is far easier to say, ”the bible says such and such and that’s it!” Or the Tradition is clear – “we’ve never done it before’ so we can’t do it now”! Or do we dismiss both scripture and tradition and regard human reason as the lone guiding light. The difficulty is holding all three in tension and then finally in the light of our experience coming to a decision.
The whole thrust of the New Testament is about inclusivity, - God’s love for all. We worship a loving and faithful God and try to act in a Christ-like way towards everyone. St. Paul urges people do what ever is honourable, whatever is just. In today’s epistle he urges, ”Let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the church family.” Same sex marriage is a question of Justice and equality.
Surely the Anglican Church of Australia should welcome same sex couples as the Episcopal Church does and see God at work in their marriages as well?
‘Treat others as you would like others to treat you.’
Father Ron Noone
This week in the northern hemisphere was Gay Pride week and parades were held in many places to mark Fifty years since the first parade in New York in 1969. When my wife and I lived in New York in 2016 we only had to walk about 50 metres to watch the parade down Fifth Avenue. It is a massive parade full of music and dancing that lasts about 5 hours with about 400,000 people involved and watched by some 4 million. You may be surprised by just who marched. There were representatives from every city department – the District Attorney’s Office, the Judges, the Mayor’s Office, every branch of the city services, Police Fire & Ambulance all had floats, Lots of politicians, senators, congressmen and women and city councillors. Religions were also well represented - the Jewish Gay and Lesbian Association, Muslims and lots of Christian churches, including a float from the Episcopal Church carrying the bishop of New York, some clergy and lay people. More surprising still was the number of floats representing High Schools in support of Gay rights. Many of the participants’ hand out pamphlets etc. one of them gave me this badge, “God made me queer.”
Some of it was confronting but it’s an issue this country has come the terms with through last year’s plebiscite when nearly 70% of Australians voted for Gay Marriage. When the result was revealed in New York the Empire State building lit up in rainbow colours! The Anglican Church in its wisdom has refused to accept the result and to its shame is officially opposed to same sex marriage.
I want to tell you about my experience working as a Rector in a parish in New York renowned for its marriage ministry. The Church of the Transfiguration married the first gay couple in 2012 when it was legal in New York State. In 2015 Marriage Equality became Federal Law, applicable in all 50 states.
My first wedding enquiry was from two gay men living in Atlanta, Georgia. They wished to marry at Transfiguration because they had worshipped in the parish when visiting New York. I needed to get my head around the idea before I could agree so I entered a similar theological reflection process that I did some thirty years earlier when I first encountered a woman priest celebrating the Eucharist in the same city. That experience was so positive I decided to go ahead and discuss the wedding with the men. I discovered they had been together for 26 years and now wished to consecrate their love in the church service. They both worshipped as Episcopalians and both desired the blessing of the church. They told me there would be no congregation, but a woman friend, Mary, in her eighties would be their witness. The church Verger, a very large black man called Tyrone, who acted as the other witness. They did ask if it was possible to have a choir of boys and girls. The Music Director was happy to provide a teenage choir of about 10 or 12 voices (the parish has three choirs).
The Episcopal Church has authorised an excellent Wedding Service for same sex couples and I was surprised how much I liked it. In fact, I’ve used the preface for heterosexual couples as well who also enjoy it.
The wedding took place on a Saturday morning at 11am. The men arrived together beautifully dressed in black tie. I married them in the Chancel with Mary and Tyrone. We had two hymns of their choice led by the choir and music Director as well as some entrance and exit music. As these two mature men exchanged vows of love for each other I looked at the teenagers in the choir who did not bat an eyelid. For them it was just another wedding and as natural as could be. Mary cried exclaiming, “I never thought this day would come!” Tyrone also cried but I later discovered he cries at most weddings! Following the service both husbands went to the choir to thank them and give them small gifts. Overall it was a wonderful experience for me and I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The following week I married a heterosexual couple who had seven bridesmaids and groomsmen, an officious wedding planner, an interfering mother of the bride who nearly drove the Director of Music mad and a large congregation who were more interested in themselves than any wedding vows. I looked back on the previous wedding with great fondness.
American priests have the right to refuse to marry couples but I decided to obey the laws of the country and I’m thrilled that I did.
People should live with their conscience but as Christians we believe our consciences need to be informed by a process of theological reflection. The Anglican way is holding the insights of Scripture, Tradition and Reason in tension as we address an issue. This is not an easy thing to do. It is far easier to say, ”the bible says such and such and that’s it!” Or the Tradition is clear – “we’ve never done it before’ so we can’t do it now”! Or do we dismiss both scripture and tradition and regard human reason as the lone guiding light. The difficulty is holding all three in tension and then finally in the light of our experience coming to a decision.
The whole thrust of the New Testament is about inclusivity, - God’s love for all. We worship a loving and faithful God and try to act in a Christ-like way towards everyone. St. Paul urges people do what ever is honourable, whatever is just. In today’s epistle he urges, ”Let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the church family.” Same sex marriage is a question of Justice and equality.
Surely the Anglican Church of Australia should welcome same sex couples as the Episcopal Church does and see God at work in their marriages as well?
‘Treat others as you would like others to treat you.’
Father Ron Noone