Box Hill Baptist Church

18 December 2011

nomastery — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 05:51:40 +0000

Today on the Fourth Sunday in Advent we celebrate with our children the possibility there is within each of us to reach our full potential.

Zechariah prophesied that his son John the Baptiser would be called the prophet of the Most High. The Spirit of God within each of us, when offered the freedom to guide our thoughts, actions and being, will help us to live Christ like lives offering light, love and compassion to others. May we as a community encourage and guide our children as they grow in love.

Earth-Maker,

our world is abundantly rich with everything we need to live a bountiful and comfortable life.

Yet there is more to life than things.

Help us to learn to love and care for each other so that we might each grow to our full potential, realising the possibilities within.

May this be particularly so for our children.

AMEN.

Richard

27 November 2011

nomastery — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:58:17 +0000

Today is the first Sunday of Advent where we begin in our journey in the church calendar toward Christmas and the birth of Jesus. Each week during Advent a word will be added to the black panel at the front. Traditionally the first Advent Sunday we reflect upon the themes of ‘being on the watch’, ‘expectancy’, ‘longing’ or ‘anticipation’. Today we focus upon anticipation and certainly our very pregnant Mary that the Kid’s Church children have created adds to the theme of expectancy and anticipation. But what is it that we anticipate we might receive? Health and security? Love and acceptance? Isaiah writes about the return from exile and the chasm that had developed between the disillusioned people of Judah and the One who is their source. It is only God who can restore the returning exile’s confidence. The prophet pleads with God to demonstrate ‘loyalty’ to the people and restore broken relationships with God’s people. “Restore us, Oh God: let your face shine, that we might be saved” is the poet’s plea in Psalm 80. This echoes Isaiah’s deep longing and hope for restored relationship with God and acknowledges the need for the people to work toward this restoration. And asks how long this will take. The community of Mark’s gospel is also waiting for a better world, and they wonder how long it will take. The Mark reading today is a passage taken from Jesus’ final talk with his followers before his arrest and execution. The people in Mark’s community remember the promises of God’s presence of a better world and long for clear signs that the promises are being fulfilled. Jesus reminds his followers that only God knows the timing. In the meantime, he challenges them to stay awake, be alert, and live in anticipation. May we together work toward a better world and way of living as the broken relationships within our worlds are restored.

13 November 2011

nomastery — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:17:36 +0000

In Thessalonians 4:9-12 Paul turns to the people, and says something like, “What does it mean to be a community that loves one another? I actually don’t need to tell you that! Because you guys display that love so powerfully, here and beyond. You do it unassumingly, without fuss, going about your business efficiently and care-fully, without being a burden to others, being resourceful and resilient, and doing all that is needed to make the world know that you are a community that loves Christ.’

‘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.

Upcoming Unboxed Worship – 16 October

nomastery — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:03:07 +0000

7pm. All welcome.

9 October 2011

nomastery — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:56:06 +0000

In a society where almost anything goes, it is almost old-fashioned to hone in on things that really matter. It is easy to go with the flow, and conform to a picture of what life is about that is potentially set by the screen of Neighbours or the site of “second life”. Sure, life-crises pull us up, ground us back in reality, and ask questions of us. But what if we were to simply take the time to avoid distraction, shift our focus from the transient feel-good to the more significant? How might our lives be changed. Interestingly, this passage of Paul links ‘peace of mind’ with the call to ponder the things that matter. How easy it is to sit and let the television fill our heads at the end of a tiring day, or to allow our kids to be consumed by the latest hi-tech world. Discerning that which is life-giving and that which is life-diminishing must be part of our decision making process. The temptation is to surrender to what is presented, rather than be decisive about what is helpful or unhelpful. Interestingly, reading a book takes so much more energy, we are far more likely to exercise our discernment skills. Being prepared to put aside that which is destructive, whether it loses or gains favour, is the only means by which we can live honest and truthful lives. The eternal wisdom of Paul continues to call us to authentic and truthful living.

“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

11 September 2011

nomastery — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 07:46:23 +0000

This week we install the religious art prize exhibition. We have asked people to extend ways of interpreting the image of God in our midst, acknowledging the diversity of ways we experience and understand God expressed in the world. We want to honour the open ways in which we are inspired. Indeed, in the face of the struggles around us, we are wondering how we might ‘Image’ a God present, offering life and hope. And we received many entries from NSW, Qld and SA, as well as locally.

And we asked the question from a particular frame… that is, from Genesis 1, we learn that God decided to make humanity in God’s own image… male and female God created them. There is considerable scholarly debate around what it means to be formed in God’s image… And on the other hand, almost every other reference to ‘image’ in the Bible is that it is a threatening thing. There is issue with images, or idols, which seek to set in concrete the things of God. To constrain or limit or distort ways of thinking about God. Images are ‘graven’ as in they carved, or fixed in stone. They are ‘fixed’, where as there is a sense of humans becoming ‘living images’ of God. Humanity is not a static representation, but a dynamic expression unfolding image of God. So any painting, sculpture or artwork, ultimately seeks to explore that in some way – rather than concretize God. The illusion that God can be imaged, or even contained by an image, is replaced by an experience whereby God is revealed in the dynamic of the conversation, I would say, the conversation of the Trinity – Creator, Son and Spirit. God as creator, revealed in the life of Jesus and in an ongoing way expressed in the creative activity of the Spirit of God present to us. And ultimately, that we, people are made in the image of God – not just Christians or men or blacks or white – but all people are made in the image of God.

21 AUGUST 2011

nomastery — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 06:27:16 +0000

Be Transformed.

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.

24 JULY 2011

nomastery — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 03:21:57 +0000

The text we will explore today, is perhaps one of the most familiar within our Christian tradition. It is a text of great assurance, and for many it is a text of great consternation. Many of us learned it in Sunday School from Matthew 8 – “All things work together for the good, to those who love God…” which sits within the same passage that affirms “nothing can separate us from the love of God…”

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

3 July 2011

nomastery — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:25:51 +0000

Each Sunday we reflect on words in our Bible that have been handed down to us by many generations of faithful people for over two thousand years. We stop and reflect on those words and their wisdom echoes down through the ages connecting with us in 21st century Australia. Our life situations are very different to those of Abraham, Isaac, Sarah, and Rebecca. Our experiences as followers of Jesus are very different culturally to those of the Apostle Paul. But our humanity connects us not only to each one of these past heroes, but also to each other. We are fellow travellers on the journey of human life and we are faced with the same realities of life and death, of hope and despair as have all people at all times in human history. Like them, we can lose sight of our own shortcomings and use others for our own gratification. But like them also, we can turn in repentance to the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ who will always offer us forgiveness and open up to us the possibility of new beginnings.

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)

19 JUNE 2011

nomastery — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:30:24 +0000

Today is being celebrated by most Christian churches in Australia as Trinity Sunday – a time to celebrate our understanding of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At a time of increasing global awareness this is one of the most theologically challenging topics for discussion. There are some who accuse Christians of believing in three separate Gods –God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Like many of us, they simply can’t get their heads around the bigger picture that depicts the One God present to all of creation in three distinct manifestations.

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)