The Fig Tree Parable

"This is a parable about a landowner expecting a causal and predictable result from his fig tree. The sequence is logical and simple, plant a fig tree, expect fruit, after three fruitless seasons get rid of the resource sapping barren tree.

But the gardener, pleads for clemency against the logical and causal decision of the landowner. Just another chance. “Maybe there is a mystery at work here you and I don’t understand. Let me feed and mulch the tree and if there is still no fruit next year. Go ahead and chop it down.“
...Jesus seems to be suggesting that there is more going on in the mysteries of living and dying than of simplistic quest for certainty can couch in trite dogmatic pronouncements.

A dear Buddhist friend, who spent twelve years as a monk in Thailand, tells of his teacher Ajahn Chah, who had a favourite phrase whenever one of the other monks would make some great pronouncement about the meaning of the Universe, or merely about their plans for the next day. Ajahn Chah, would get a wry smile and murmur, “It is not certain”

I think Jesus has an invitation for us as the Church and as individuals.

As we face the barrage of opinion and doctrinaire drivel that spews with egotistical certainty from so many pulpits and podiums, we have an opportunity to pause a moment and consider the mystery of all around us and then respond, “It is not certain”

All that is certain is the mystery.

Does that negate the need for faith? No it does not.

True faith you see, is not belief, it is TRUST. Jesus called the people of his time to trust the God of the mystery and not try to play God themselves.

The call remains the same for us today.

Found at http://thelisteninghermit.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/%E2%80%9Cit-is-not-certain%E2%80%9D/

A little reflection on Gardens

Something sent to me by Wendy
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
First plant 4 rows of peas: preparedness, politeness, perserverence and prayer.
Next to them plant 3 rows of squash: squash gossip, squash criticism, squash indifference.
Then plant 4 rows of lettuce: let us be faithful, let us be helpful, let us love one another.
And no garden is complete without turnips: Turn up for meetings, turn up with a smile, and turn up with determination.

A Prayer with quake survivors

I found this prayer on the net and i'm praying it also for the people of Chile
A Prayer with Survivors

by Safiyah Fosua

(Written on January 23, 2010, after the Haitian government declared an end to the search-and-rescue operations for quake survivors.)

Today, O God,
we pray with all who sit in the rubble,
and live in tents,
remembering what used to be
and who used to be there.
We pray with them for the courage to look
forward more than backward
to days in the future that will be brighter.
We pray, O God,
with anyone who dares to place one stone on top of another
As an act of rebuilding
As an act of faith in a future unseen.
We pray, O God,
with all who sew up bodies and patch up limbs,
with all who gather the bodies of the dead,
with all who stand as a symbol of peace and stability,
and with all who offer a cup of cold water in your name.
Have mercy upon your people, Lord,
Lift the downtrodden everywhere, Lord,
And grant your peace. Amen.

Song Update

(Some slight amendments)

O Light who is Shining

O Light who is shining in all the dark places;
shine on me.
and shed your hope upon shadowed faces;
let them see
the love and the courage of one who’s defying
the powers that threaten, the gloom that’s denying
the truth, grace and justice; together defining
the kingdom that’s coming to be.

O Light who is true and cuts through the night-time;
shine in me.
Let love glow warm when we’re worried and frightened
make us free;
for action to end all the fear and the hating,
to touch anxious hearts when love is abating,
to bring on the peace for which all are waiting;
where faith, hope and love abide: three.

O Light who is life for all of creation,
shine through me.
We are the offspring of Love’s celebration;
sent to be -
the flickering flames of hope where there’s need,
embracing God’s children, regardless of creed.
To gather a harvest, where love is the seed;
we make this our goal and our plea.

©2010
words: Ken Rookes
music: Judy & Jessica Chalmers

(I can provide music for this song. When I work out how to post it I shall. Otherwise contact me. - Follow link to my website)

Big Black Car

Big Black Car

The big black car came
to take away the children.
From countless nightmares,
thousands of these helpless ones
would wake and cry;
not from fear of the shadowy Bunyip
or deep-night dwelling Gabba Gabba,
Woowee Wowee, Yaa-loo, Dongu
or even the mischievous Mimi spirit;
but the Big Black Car, driving fast
into the night, headlights shining fierce
to illuminate the terrible journey.
The Big Black Car,
back seats filled with fear;
stealer of children, bringer of tears,
and destroyer of families.
Their only crime their parentage
and their colour, declared guilty
by a patronising system
that knew what was best,
the children were sentenced
to lives of dislocation and unknowing;
their mothers to torn hearts and tears.

Two years ago a word was spoken
that acknowledged the aching
and the arrogance,
and which caused the Big Black Car
to recede, at least a little,
in the dreams of aging children.

Ken Rookes

The gift of bewilderment

I found this gem in sermon at http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20100215JJ.shtml
"Bewilderment then can be an excellent preparation for Holy Week, our yearly collective meditation on why bad things happen to good people and how we can possibly embrace events we do not chose or understand. The liturgies from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday warn us to look within and without at brokenness and deliberate harm. Faith is about the courage to love when your heart is broken, the determination to hope when all the news is bad. The true foundation of our maturing spiritual lives, the true ground of our heartfelt and honest prayers, are the wilderness times which still live within our souls — where we survived and found unexpected grace."

A prayer post for Ash Wednesday

Let us pray:
O God, you have made us for yourself, and against your longing there is no defence. Mark us with your love, and
release in us a passion for your justice and joy in our disfigured world; that we may turn from our guilt and despair
and face you, our heart’s desire. Amen.
Silence ...
Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is by your precious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
Those who wish come forward and the ashes are imposed.
Remember, O mortal, from dust you came and to the dust you shall return.

a nook in Jerusalem

A blessing for you

Hi, i have arrived as your new Presbytery minister Pastoral care and am on a steep learning curve. I am trying to renew this peace and make it useful for people. The idea is for us to share any prayers, poems or images that we have found useful, either for worship or for personal reflection.
to get hem up on the site you can email me at gordonbannon@gmail.com.au and i will post them for you.
“May i, may you, may we
Not die unlived lives.
May none of us live in fear
Of falling or catching fire.
May we choose to inhabit our days,
To allow our living to open us,
To make us less afraid,
More accessible,
To loosen our hearts
Until they become like wings,
Torches, promises.
May each of us choose to risk our significance;
To live so that which comes to us as seed
Goes to the next as blossom
And that which comes to us as blossom,
Goes on as fruit.”
Dawna Markova.

Carol O'Hara

One of the members of our Maldon congregation in the Presbytery.
A passionate evangelist.

Some new pieces of work by Ken Rookes the artist

Here Ken explores the concept of Jesus as Goth.