The Billabong

Sunday 26th February (Lent 1B)

jeff — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:18:35 +0000

If we journey into the desert or wilderness, it’s my guess that most of us do so out of choice. Few of us are ‘driven’ into the wilderness. But after his baptism in the Jordan Jesus, Mark tells us, was ‘driven’ into the wilderness where he was tempted Satan. What that might have involved is perhaps anybody’s guess – and both Matthew and Luke each have their ‘take’ on this. There is nothing new in spending time in the wilderness to, as it were, sort oneself out; to clarify and develop one’s commitment to an idea, to a cause, to God — think, for example, the people of the Exodus, John the Baptist(?), the Essenes (the ‘Dead Sea Scroll community’) and later, the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the early church. In one sense we could say that they chose to go into the wilderness, yet in another sense perhaps they were driven.

‘The wilderness’
could be a place of escape.
But perhaps it’s is a time
of being tested;
abilities and gifts,
resolve and commitment
stretched,
while angels minister to us:
those who intentionally,
or unintended
sustain and support us
and we have the Holy Spirit,
that we might not lose our way.

And we emerge
with stronger commitment, ability, character and faith
to worship you, and to serve you only,
Source of life,
Word of life,
Breath of life.
© Jeff Shrowder, 2012. More for Lent 1B…

Sunday 19th Feb (Transfiguration)

jeff — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:01:49 +0000

Long ago, when we were all much younger, Prof. Julius Sumner-Miller – in his TV program – would as the question, “Why is it so?” and then proceed to unravel some of the ‘mysteries’ of our physical world. This is often what we want to do when we read the Bible; it’s a problem of how we read what we read. We read newspapers, watch the TV news or current affairs programs and to a great extent expect the Bible, our worship and our experience of God to be likewise rational, factual, explainable. But then mystery is no longer mystery.

Throughout the Bible mountains and clouds are symbolic of the presence of God. In Sunday’s reading from Mark’s Gospel, Jesus takes Peter, James and John on retreat; up a mountain, apart, close to God. Being enveloped by fog/cloud is eerie, disorienting enough in our ‘normal’ environment, but it’s all the more so on a mountain where most of us are apart from our usual ‘two-dimensional’ surroundings. Coincidental with beginning this post, I received an email from my sister inviting me to view a gallery of photos from the Himalayan trek she and her husband undertook last year. Breath-taking stuff.

Climbing a mountain brings with it an other-wordly feeling that reaches part of us that life on the plain does not. In that still, eerie, disorienting cloud we might just catch a glimpse of God’s vision – and experience God’s presence. But will we be awake, alert for the unexpected?

Facts – life on the plain – can be known. What is unknowable remains a mystery and mystery has the capacity to continue to engage us and transform us as we rejoin the often difficult, messy yet randomly beautiful life on the plain.

Transfiguration:
an impressive sign
of Jesus’ glory and identity;
an unimpressive picture
of Jesus’ disciples
who just didn’t get it;
tired and dull,
heavy with sleep.
Sleeping on a mountain,
as they did later
in Gethsemane’s Garden.
Too tired,
they came down in silence,
and told no one.

How often have we
slept through significant moments,
lived in a daze,
been oblivious to the thin place
in which we stood,
been blind to the vision
to be glimpsed?

Stay awake,
look,
listen,
before it’s too late!
© Jeff Shrowder, 2012. More for Transfiguration of Christ…

Sunday 12th Feb (Epiphany 6B)

jeff — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:01:07 +0000

Naaman the Aramean was powerful. He was male and close to the king; he had status and influence. He suffers from a skin disease yet is the recipient of divine favour. (‘Leprosy’ – a somewhat generic translation for a range of skin diseases mentioned in the Bible – was often seen as “divine judgement”.) That God moves in a mysterious way is always in the background of this story.

In Naaman’s household there’s a slave girl, a member of God’s people in captivity. Naaman, heeding the word of the young girl, speaks with the king. And so it is that Naaman comes through “official channels” to the King of Israel but it is Elisha to whom Naaman must look.

At Elisha’s house, accompanied by horses, chariots and entourage, Naaman expects deference – and spectacular, miraculous healing. Instead, he is met by a messenger: Go, wash in the Jordan seven times… Naaman’s resulting anger and sense of grand insult are only eased by the simple yet clever words of his servants.

It is the powerless ‘little people’ who are instrumental in helping Naaman to wholeness: the servant girl in Naaman’s household; Elisha’s messenger; Naaman’s servants who urge him to at least try the bathing technique. Who knows? It might just work….

Naaman got off his high horse
removed his armour and sword
and stripped of his dignity
washed himself
not in the mighty Abana or Pharpar
but in the Jordan.
The Jordan..?

Maybe
still feeling a little put out
a result is hoped for
its possibility doubted
but Naaman is made clean
socially acceptable again.

Naaman took the plunge
and got not what he wanted
but what he needed.

Coming with expectations and demands,
Naaman is more than healed:
he leaves transformed
and lived in the company of God ever after.

God of the unexpected,
God in the background,
offends, shocks, delights, surprises:
minor characters,
little people in the foreground,
heroes
instrumental in bringing
wholeness, transformation and hope.
© Jeff Shrowder, 2012. More for Epiphany 6B…

Sunday 5th Feb (Epiphany 5B)

jeff — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:01:25 +0000

How often have you watched a “Western” and seen the goodies or baddies, with anticipation, expectancy and hope written on their faces as they lie in wait to ambush the other..? That’s the kind of waiting that Isaiah is talking about here; being alert to the slightest hint that something new is happening.

There are times when God seems close and intimate and active in our lives; when everything is going great with our work, our health, our family, our relationships. There are times when we are inspired to do a good job – the best we can, to “run hard” and do it without getting weary. There are also times when we feel weary, faint and powerless; it’s all we can do to put one foot in front of other without collapsing in a heap.

Israel in exile perceived itself to have been abandoned by God. Isaiah sets out to refute the charge. In effect he says to the people, For goodness’ sake, haven’t you known, haven’t you heard? Isn’t this something you’ve been told from the beginning? Isn’t this part of our history? Our God has not abandoned us. Take a look, your God is active and present.

All the verbs relating to God in this reading are in the present tense. The same pattern is also present in the Psalm. God is at work in the world saving, caring, healing. This tireless God, never faint or weak, nor lacking energy and vitality, ministers to a fainting creation and gives life to weary creatures. The God who creates is also the God who is involved in the life of a faith community.

Isaiah’s ‘strong words for dark times’
are eloquent, simple.
Know… hear… understand…
look up… see… wait…
praise… sing… make melody…
regard God with a great and holy awe…
wait upon…
Weary? Faint and powerless?
Let God take the initiative
for a liberated future.
Wait, alert with anticipation,
expectancy,
hope.
Watch for the smallest sign
of something new,
as if to lie in ambush for our God.
© Jeff Shrowder, 2012. More for Epiphany 5B…

Sunday 29th January (Epiphany 4B)

jeff — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:01:16 +0000

We live in an “information age”: newspapers, telephone, television and Internet are our main sources of information beyond our present circumstance. But there are so many sources of information. How do we know it’s authoritative? How do we discern the true word? There are plenty of people who claim to have the answer for you and me – in the stars, a pack of cards, the bottom of a tea-cup, a crystalline rock. And televangelists. But can these folk answer with any authority the question at centre of our lives as Christians?

Jesus “entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” There was a newness and authority about Jesus and his teaching that puzzled his first listeners: not passing on a word from the tradition – but a word from God, a word from beyond their present circumstance, a word announcing the presence of God’s kingdom, a word that brought wholeness to the life of a human being. No-one comments about this miracle, rather they express astonishment at the authority of Jesus’ teaching. Then ‘the other shoe drops”: “What does this mean?”

Jesus’ proclamation is in both word and deed, hallmarks of our God (read the psalm for this week, for example) and an authentic pattern for us.

Asylum seekers come
in hope of freedom
yet
authoritative voices use other words:
illegal, boat-people, Muslim, queue-jumper.
Asylum seekers come
in hope of freedom
yet
are detained behind razor-wire.
Their stories are not heard.
When others speak for them
a cry is heard,
“Have you come to destroy us, to disturb our set ways?”

Can the church speak the prophetic word it must,
with authority,
comforting the few and discomforting the many?
Can the church speak the prophetic word it must,
with authority,
casting out the demons
that bind our community
and its popular ‘authoritative’ voices?
Can the church speak the prophetic word it must,
with authority,
such that people will be asking one other,
“What does this mean?”
© Jeff Shrowder, 2012. More for Epiphany 4B…

Sunday 22nd January (Epiphany 3B)

jeff — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:01:36 +0000

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time….
The Lectionary readings in recent weeks have emphasised the word or voice of God.
John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Genesis: Then God said, “Let there be light’; and there was light.
Mark: And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
1 Samuel: Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”

This week’s readings emphasise responses to God’s word.
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time… a second time…
“Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”
Jonah found it hard to understand that God would call a second time. And if Jonah hadn’t responded, however reluctantly, the word of the LORD would have come a third time… and a fourth… and a fifth…

You participate in the life of gathered community, to some extent out of habit, to some extent out of tradition but also because word of the LORD continues to come to you. You hear afresh and respond to the call, “Follow me.”
God calls us in the spirit of the risen Christ each new day.

Ignore God’s call
and God will call again and again…
Accept God’s call
and life is tipped upside down.
Some days it’s hard to understand
that God’s word is for all;
that God cares a great deal
not just for humanity,
but for all creation;
that God’s love and mercy and compassion
are for all;
that no one is excluded
from hearing that word
or
from being called to speak it;
that God is passionate for the world.
We see that passion in Jesus.
It is this passionate desire
which calls out to each of us
to hear the good news of God’s realm,
to have our expectations of the world challenged,
to be turned upside down –
and transformed.
“Follow me.”
Jeff Shrowder © 2012. More for Epiphany 3B…

Sunday 15th January (Epiphany 2)

jeff — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:01:10 +0000

Chaos Theory suggests that our universe is not as ordered as we once thought, but that within that chaos there is some sort of order. For example, while weather forecasting is reasobaly accurate today, just a slight change in one of the many variable factors in the interactions at the edges of our weather systems can lead to a dramatic and unexpected change in conditions.

What has all this got to do with Nathanael? Activity at the edges is what brings us to the conversation between Nathanael and Jesus. Philip finds Nathanael under the fig tree – on sidelines, the edge – watching the to-ing and fro-ing of John the Baptiser, Jesus and the disciples of both.

Now the fig tree is an Old testament symbol, the shelter of true Israelites in the age to come – a place of peace and safety. Sitting under the fig tree Nathanael is at the edge – between two worlds; that of the here-and-now and of an-age-to-come. Jesus is at the edge – between, but part of, these two ages – and offers Nathanael and the other disciples a vision of the age to come which he, Jesus, has already inaugurated.

All of the people in story are out of their normal situations and it is in this situation beyond the ordinary that Jesus’ mission begins. When things are out of place, out of order, chaos develops. Jesus introduces a kind of chaos into our world, into our lives. Jesus calls into mission people on the edge, people prepared to live on edge, because that’s where Jesus’ mission is. In our following the way of the Christ we live with chaos: not knowing just what is going to happen next.

Eternal God, by your creative word
you brought order out of chaos,
and by your Incarnate word you brig chaos
to the order we make for ourselves.
by your adventurous, free-moving Spirit,
and by your abundant, free flowing grace,
give us the audacity to live joyfully in your chaos;
give us the willingness to serve you;
give us and the freedom to be vulnerable;
for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen

EPIPHANY
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
How often we scorn or deprecate ‘the other’:
someone from the other side of town,
from over the river,
from the across the rail line,
from the community whose football team
is our archrival,
or from a country and culture
that is not ‘ours’.
And yet
if we dare investigate more closely
we may find in ‘the other’
not just ourselves
but also the glory of God.
“Come and see.”
Jeff Shrowder, © 2012 More for Epiphany 2B…

Sunday 8th January (Epiphany or Baptism of Jesus)

jeff — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:01:52 +0000

Yes, next Sunday occurs after the set date for celebrating Epiphany, but if we only do it when 6th Jan. falls on a Sunday we’d have to wait until next year. (The next occasion after that is 2019. It last happened in 2008.)
So, we have the choice of Epiphany (and part of Matthew’s ‘Christmas story’) or the Baptism of Jesus.

An Offertory Dedication for Epiphany:
Holy, generous Source of life,
the wise men opened their treasures,
and offered gifts to the Christ child.
We, too, bring our gifts:
our work, interests, and talents,
our energy, time, and passion;
our very selves
and symbols of our daily living.
By the stirring of your Breath of life
may these gifts be used wisely for your glory
and the sake of your Word of life. AMEN More…

And for the Baptism of Jesus:
PRAYER OF INVOCATION AND CONFESSION
Gracious and eternal God,
your voice comes to us
in the storms and wilderness of daily living;
in whispers,
in the rustling leaves,
in the sound of the rain
soaking the dry land,
in the cry of a new-born child.
Speak you word of truth to us, O God,
that we may hear it deep within us.
Forgive us, O God, for what is past,
and call us again to new life.
The good news in Jesus Christ
is that we may celebrate the year that is past
and enter the new year without guilt.
A new day is ours
and we may claim it with hope and courage.
Amen. Thanks be to God. More…

January 1st (Christmas 1B)

jeff — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 21:01:41 +0000

More good news! Christmas is not ‘over’, we have just begun. In preparing worship for this coming Sunday we have choices: the First Sunday of Christmas (Christmas 1), New Year’s Day, or the Naming of Jesus. I’ve focussed on the first choice, the First Sunday of Christmas.

The first reading (Isaiah 61:10-62:3) is one of joyful hope. The psalm (148) responds, urging all creation to join in pure praise of God. What better way to start a new year? In the Epistle (Galatians 4:4-7) Paul recounts the Incarnation, the ‘Son, born of a woman’, and its consequence, that ‘you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God’. Luke might get detail wrong on occasion but that doesn’t necessarily spoil a good story. Sunday’s portion from Luke’s Gospel (Luke 2:22-40) is no exception: the Holy Family come to the Temple; Simeon is guided there too, where he embraces the salvation which God has ‘prepared for all peoples…a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel’; and an old woman, the prophet Anna, who praises God and ‘speak[s] about the child’ to, it seems, anyone who will listen.

This post-Nativity Christmas period provides the opportunity for us to reflect on what it is we have yearned for/anticipated in Advent and been challenged by in the ‘Christmas story’. Borg and Crossan, (The First Christmas), have been helpful to me in this regard:

Am I like Mary,
open to a yet-to-be-revealed role
in bringing about a different kind of world?
Am I like the shepherds,
who invite me to humbler, simpler living?
Am I among those who hear the story of Jesus
unsure what to make of it all?
Am I like Herod,
fearfully, wilfully, holding onto power, position and possession?
Am I like the magi,
refusing to comply with systems that dominate and destroy,
and choosing to change my way
to journey in God’s way more closely?
Am I changed by this Christmas? More…

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

jeff — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:01:34 +0000

I guess that most will have looked ahead already in preparing worship for next weekend.

The psalms for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were chosen by the arrangers of the Revised Common Lectionary to be read at Christmas no doubt because of their common theme of praise. They were written in a different era and different context and certainly not with stories of the Nativity in mind. But it seems to me that that they do resonate with the subversive nature of the Nativity stories, created and told in the context of Roman domination, a context in which Caesar was Lord, Saviour, Son of God.

(Christmas Eve)
Psalm 96:3 – 6
Proclaim the greatness of the LORD around the world;
recount God’s marvellous works to all the peoples.
The LORD is great and greatly to be praised;
to be held in holy awe above all other gods.
For all the gods we make are good for nothing;
it is the LORD who made the heavens.
Honour and majesty are before our God;
strength and beauty are in God’s holy place. More…

(Christmas Day)
WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD(Psalm 97:1-7)
Let the earth shout with joy at the sovereignty of the LORD:
sun-drenched beaches, reefs and distant islands, rejoice!.
Clouds of deep mystery surround the LORD,
whose throne stands firm on justice
and God’s actions which put things right. More…