See, I am sending you.

A cluster of haiku

As lambs among wolves,

so, my friends, I send you out:

bearers of good news.

Pronounce God's shalom.

The blessing will find a home

in children of peace.

As they welcome you

those people, too, will be blessed;

God's reign coming near.

Not all will listen,

some will not see the kingdom.

Still, it has come near.

© Ken Rookes 2016

‘For freedom Christ has set us free.‘

"Freedom.

A word that is often used. Probably overused.

Freedom has its power form us.

We are living in the modern society that was the result of revolutions in the late 1700 hundreds. The French revolution declared its movement with the slogan ‘liberte, fraternity, equalte’ :that is  freedom, brotherhood, equality.

 longing for freedom grows up in places where people are imprisoned: we are hearing the cry of imprisoned asylum seekers on Nauru, Manus, Christmas Island among other.

... People deprived of their freedom reach a point when they have nothing left to lose. Such is the loss of their freedom, they are willing to give up their lives.

The cruel irony is that these people now detained in camps came looking for a place to escape oppression which robbed them which robbed them of their sense of self – they lose their sense of being human.

 Freedom is offered in another way. That is, freedom is offered along with security. When there is a threat – either imagined or real – the government asks its citizens to prepare to defend our freedom. An example of how strong that is in our imagination plays out in the remembering of Gallipoli. When youngsters are asked about the meaning of ANZAC they will often reply that the ‘soldiers at Gallipoli fought for our freedom’.

 In that same spirit youngsters don uniforms and go to Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. They discover what returned soldiers and their families have experienced in every war, call it shell shock or post traumatic stress disorder. They have often gone to some lengths to hide it.

 So there is a great irony: the readiness to go to battle in the name of freedom, actually imprisons the soldier in another way ....

How is that received: by the Spirit of God, Paul insists on this: the Spirit is the new and distinctive life to be lived by those who receive the benefits of Christ.

 What is the benefit? To live in the freedom of living for others.

 Notice that: mostly I have talked of freedom as if we were concerned with the freedom FROM.

But Paul points us to a life to be lived FOR others.

Paul contrasts the life of the Spirit with the life of the flesh: flesh means a life lived in our self interest, a life lived for ourselves,. No, says Paul, the life of the Spirit has an entirely different character.

Some people think that Paul is difficult.

Hard to understand.

But if we sit with the verses we have just hear, we will hear a call that is challenging. As bold and strong as we heard in the Gospel. We are called to live – not for ourselves but for Christ who calls us to be his. And with that to live for others – especially those who suffer so much that they have lost the benefits of the freedom of Christ.

 So Paul says to us:

Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

 Live in the liberty of Christ. For freedom Christ has set us free."

Rev Dr Wes Campbell (for full sermon see sermon's page)

gerasene demoniac

gerasene demoniac

Birds of the air have nests

Let me be a bird of the air

embracing the freedom of flight,

with a nest to come home to at night.

Let me be a fox of the fields

ranging the bush and the hills,

with a sheltering hole from night's chills.

A lizard among grass and stones,

I would rest, contemplating the sun,

and retreat to my rock when day's done.

The Son of Man, we are told,

had no place to lay his kind head;

at least not until he was dead.

I would be called a disciple;

let love guide my feet as I roam

dusty paths toward my true home.

© Ken Rookes 2016

My name is Legion

Legion were my hauntings,

and numerous the years of their torments.

Great was my nakedness,

and multiple the chains and shackles

that lay rusting among the weeds,

failed and broken.

Vast was my hopelessness,

deep my despair,

and terrible the fear

evoked by my unholy presence.

Many were my dwellings

among the tombs outside the city.

Considering myself dead,

I was at home there;

and at the same time, lost.

Manifold were the blessings

from the hand of the Galilean;

who arrived, uninvited,

at this desolate place,

to speak his words of healing,

hope,

liberty and life.

They sent him away;

I would have gone with him.

“Return to your people,”

he told me. “Be a living declaration

of the wonders of God.”

I did as he said.

My heart,

however,

followed him to Jerusalem.

© Ken Rookes 2016

An alabaster jar

As is their wont, the Pharisees grumble

at the wastefulness of a woman;

who, in this story of beauty and grace,

spills her precious ointment upon Jesus' feet.

They also grumble

at the wastefulness of the anointed one,

who, in his larger story of grace and beauty

pours love upon the undeserving.

Forgiveness and love, spilled with abandon;

this is the message of his living.

Consider this;

you who are wont to grumble.

© Ken Rookes 2016

I read a very powerful sermon about this reading, in was a powerful warning to preachers everywhere. This preacher was preparing his sermon to preach to a congregation where he knew there were a couple of parents who were mourning the death of their infant son. He knew he could not preach any sort of sermon that made shallow promises about God’s provision in the face of despair. So he preached what I have heard many times from my Father. He preached about a God who knows brokenness and despair and travels with us into the face of death, and can yet bring life. This is a warning that we should not be tempted here or elsewhere to thing that this story is about a magic trick, it is about the presence of the divine and that is an entirely different kettle of fish.

Elijah and the Widow

This reading sits firmly within the Middle Eastern spirituality that says that one must always make provision for the stranger. Hospitality is not just manners it is an obligation. When a ragged stranger turns up on the widow’s doorstep looking for food, little as she has, she must help! No such thing here as fear of the stranger or the refugee, the law of faith is that, little though she has, she must help!

When the New Testament book to the Hebrews says: Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. It is quoting ancient sayings and practice.

 Elijah meets a widow who is in such desperate circumstances that she is making preparations to cook what she believes will be the final meal before she and her son, with nothing left to sustain them, starve to death. Elijah comes to them asking for food and drink and though we might see him as arrogant, he was only doing what was normal and appropriate in his culture at the time. He was fully entitled to ask for such help from a stranger and to expect assistance.

Another resurrection story

Do not seek death, death will find you.

But seek the road that makes death a fulfilment.

Dag Hammarskjöld

Another resurrection story. In the township of Nain

an only son joins Lazarus, and in time, Jesus himself.

(Let's be generous, and add the daughter of Jairus;

that makes four members of the resurrection guild.)

Perhaps the widow's son will outlive her, this time;

(this is the way things should be).

Then she will be spared the bitterness

of rekindled grief.

Another resurrection story,

but they are all really part of the one.

Death's ultimate conqueror

having come among us.

The ones who followed after him

eventually understood that bodily resurrections

have little use

beyond the postponement of grief.

Death however,

should be received as a divine gift.

Death's purpose is not found in its reversal

through resurrection,

but in the fulfilment of living.

© Ken Rookes 2016

Only speak the word and let my servant be healed

They have an efficacious power

written deep within the interstices of their syllables;

these words of Jesus.

We disciples should repeat them often,

even the difficult ones.

We should speak them confidently

with an attitude of blessing, hope

and encouragement

Be whole!

Be at peace! Forgive!

Love your neighbour!

(And your enemies.)

Live generously!

Do for others

as you would have them do for you!

Walk away from your wealth!

(How did that one sneak in?)

Be free! Live fully! Follow!

Sometimes,

laying aside reservations

and overcoming our inhibitions,

we might even voice the words

loudly, in public spaces.

We could spray them rudely on walls,

pass them out with cups of water,

or paint them boldly upon our faces;

shouting with appropriate outrage and defiance,

and causing good people

to gasp.

© Ken Rookes 2016