‘Love of God’ is not some woolly, weak, feel-good religion.  Love of God is expressed in the way we are community, and when we are that community, then the world will know who we are. When we are out of sorts within, it is reflected in the way we engage with the wider community.  When we are living and working well together, then it is expressed lovingly and creatively beyond.

On this day, when we consider the working life of the church, it is rather staggering to think that we can do all the things we do, in a no-fuss, no-nonsense way, that honours the fact that we know the nature of love… we know what loving God looks like with rubber gloves on!  People so often see a need, and get in a fix it… I’ll come out of my office to see people scrubbing the metal racks of the oven without being asked, or without anyone else knowing.  Or they’ll take on a major event, and make it fuss free and easy for everyone else, while behind the scenes they work to make it happen.   There are a myriad of stories.  And each one serves to make us who we are.

They are the stories of this community that we hear and honour on this day… and they are the stories that will take us into tomorrow.  Into a future, that will continue to teach us to grow in love.

“One final thing, my dear friends, give your hearts and minds some healthy stuff to chew on. Authentic stuff, principled stuff, uncontaminated stuff. Things that are worthwhile, fulfilling, and straight as a die. Things of integrity that make for a fair go for all. These are the kind of things you should fill your minds with – quality stuff instead of shoddiness. Meditate on these things and you can’t go wrong. Keep yourselves on track, putting into practice what you picked up from me, from my teaching and from the example I set. Rest assured, the God of peace will be right there with you.” Philippians 4:8 -9 Nathan Nettleton

Too often we take the easy way out and, like a jelly in a bowl or play-dough in a mould, we allow ourselves to passively be squeezed into conforming with the dominant culture of our society.  In today’s reading, however, Paul urges us to be transformed by the active choice of renewing our minds.  In this place we can know what is good, acceptable and mature.  With an attitude of gratitude for each other, and particularly God’s love, we can offer our gifts and talents for the good of the whole community.
I would not have known my name,
if You had not asked it of me.

I would not have believed my worth,
if You had not worn my shame.

I would not have begun to see,
if You had not lived on this earth.

I would not have learnt to love,
if You had not first loved me.

from Jesus our Future, Bruce Prewer.

Whilst we may be troubled by things not appearing “good” even if I love God, the passage unfolds in an intimacy and immediacy of God present that both extends us, and leads us to wonder about the nature of ‘separation’ and ‘union’.  Indeed, if we read the passage carefully, we come to see that there is a beautiful description of us participating in the ‘good’ rather than simply being a recipient.  I am participating in this ‘all things come together for good’ reality, because I am intimately connected with this God.  When that is my sense of grounded awareness, then I can not only feel assurance, but I have to acknowledge I am an active agent.  I am called to outwork God for the good of that which is around me.

Which is why I our children have grown pumpkins to sell to connect with the children of Ethiopia. Which is why we must think about the clothes we buy or the shoes we wear, and whether they exploit workers in the making.  Which is why we must work at the best possible solutions to climate change… How we might be active agents of God, working for the Good.

There is nothing passive about a passage which claims an intimate and dynamic presence of God’s love in our lives.  It is a call to know God and to reveal God in our living!

Anne

We believe in a God who always surprises us, who creates life from death

Who brings good out of evil, who leads us from despair to hope.

We believe in a God who is faithful to us, who shows mercy when we run away.

Who shows patience when we deny the truth, who gives reconciling love when we betray.

We believe in a God who lived and died as one of us To take the fear out of living and dying, to open our eyes to death, within us and around us,

And open our hearts to a new way of living.

We believe in a God who forgives us, who sets us free from past grief and failure And calls us forth into a new day.

Dorothy McRae-McMahon, Echoes of our Journey (1993)

So what do we mean by speaking of God as Trinity?

If God is the creative parent of all that exists, just how big is our God?

If God relates to human beings in the same way that the story of Jesus reveals to us, how might we relate to God as the essence of all that we are and can be?

If God is as accessible as the air we breathe, can we define ourselves as any different to any other human being who breathes the same air?

‘Great loom of God, where history is woven,

You are the frame that holds us to the truth.

Christ is the theme, the pattern you have given:

Come, work with us and weave us into one.’

(WCC Assembly, Melbourne 1991)

Kites are not free to thrust and move until they are let go to explore the skies.

People and churches are not free to love and care until they can let go and catch the Spirit which is love.

Kites have no power and direction unless they are caught and controlled by the wind.

People and churches have no power and direction unless they allow the Spirit of God to move within them.

O God, may your Spirit lift us from being earthbound and free us to soar, to explore, to have direction and purpose.
O God, help us to fly as people freed by your Spirit, to live and to love.

Adapted From KITES FOR PENTECOST  by Marcus Benjamin

We all know how Lazarus made the biggest comeback since . . . well . . . Lazarus. And we might remember how John’s Gospel uses amazing ‘signs’ like this to illustrate nearby “I AM” sayings of Jesus — in this case: “I am the resurrection and the life.” But we also know only too well that this kind of ‘resurrection’ is not a common experience for us in the face of death — however much we might long for it to be so.

So what kind of false hope does this story encourage? And wasn’t it a resuscitation rather than a resurrection anyway — since Lazarus would surely have to die again one day? How then does this story connect with what happens to Jesus, and ultimately to us?

Jewish scholar Jon Levenson reminds us that if our first question is: ‘Will I have life after death?’ then ‘the discussion has already gotten off on the wrong foot.’ We are caught up in a cosmic transformation far more significant than our own private anxieties — a truth that should help relieve those very same anxieties. ‘Resurrection’ in the Bible is consistently understood in the plural (as communal rather than individual), and as embodied (rather than ‘soulish’ or ghostly). Now that’s a good place to start our discussions . . .

Keith

Two men push shopping trolleys, one is attentive, the other mindless in the shopping centre. One notices the baby grin in a passing trolley as the other complains at the nuisance it is to shop.  Two women shift washing from the basket to the clothes line, one is attentive, the other bored. One bemoans her lot, the other notices the rosella call.  Advent calls us out of complacency and boredom into attention to every human action; into awakening to the significance of every day and each moment, every face and our own. Advent is our annual wake up call to pay attention to life – for human lives are God’s chosen ‘site’ for comings and goings.”

It is no co-incidence that this year we have week by week been weaving a fabric… thread by thread. Each thread offers a unique contribution to the whole. The weft, the upward strings, hold it all together. This creative fabric beautifully reflects who we are as a community, coming together week by week, day by day, working at the things we believe to be important that express uniquely our identity in Christ. Creatively we have done that there, and creatively we have told the stories in our marvellous book, ‘a community creates’

What this book does is quite remarkable. It acknowledges how different we all are… and it is all there in black and white to both honour and understand. Surely, understanding difference is actually about recognizing the need for humility and gentleness and kindness to dwell among us. Surely, when we look at one who loves to cook when we can’t stand the kitchen, or wonder about someone who has musical skills when we can’t sing a note, surely when we hear that for them, the expression is an honouring of who they are meant to be… just as for me it might be making a model train… surely then, I can learn to soften just a little more, suspend judgement on another for their funny ways, be a little kinder when I think about the quirkiness.

And the extraordinary thing about the book, is that we have one thing in common – we are all different. We are united by our difference. We are one in our difference. And that quirky oddness in another is just what I need to remind me of who I am… even if sometimes it is irritating. The call in here, is to sit with the diversity of who we are in peace.  Maturity means that we honour and value one another, not expecting them to conform to my picture of what they should be. Maturity as a church means recognizing that we are one voice among many, making one contribution among many, and, yes that is unique and valuable, and we claim it as our heritage and our story and our call… just as we honour others to do the same.

This church community is a rich and brave community that is open to explore and value that which is different, and to work with the wonder-ful range of expressing who we are. Each individual story makes a contribution to the whole. This opening of imagination, this extending of our selves and the consequent participation in the creative process is the way we are each invited into a wholeness that will transform the world.