The Word as a Wordle

Here is the wordle of this week's Gospel reading from Luke 16:1-13. I have to say that I have never really understood Jesus' teaching here. The passage reads:

Then Jesus^* said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth^* so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.^* ‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth,^* who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’^2345678910¹¹¹²¹³

If the Wordle helps in interpreting Jesus' words it would seem that the parable is more about faithfulness, dishonesty and management than money itself. Is Jesus asking us to think again about what makes us wealthy? The accumulation of 'stuff' whether honestly or otherwise? Or is Jesus contrasting dishonest beheaviour with faithfulness and asking us to see how our motives match up? Another way of interpreting the story is Jesus saying use whatever it takes to make sure people come to know and experience the love of God. A further interpretation is to do with Jesus affirming shrewd stewardship of the resources at our disposal from God...

Baptism in stormy waters

What follows is a lengthy (read that as too long - it will be shortened by Sunday) address on Luke 8:22-25 at the Baptism of Esther and Elijah Masters...


It has been a week of high emotion in our house...

Firstly, to much delight, my sister gave birth to a healthy and beautiful baby girl - Isabel at 1.35 am on Sunday 31st. Her arrival is such good news, family-enriching, smile-inducing, love-sharingly wonderful and there is a spring in my step because of her.

Our kids are just so delighted because they are the youngest cousins in the family, but no more! The delight, especially on our youngest's face at being 'a big cousin', is nothing short of life-affirming. Beautiful, isn't she?


And then on Sunday night, I heard from a friend with news that almost shook the joy out of me. A man who I had known in another place, in another time, had decided that he could cope no longer and met his Maker on a railway line... My rejoicing at new life and love was then overwhelmed by the dark shade of death. My earlier 'wows' were turned to 'whys.' This morning’s Gospel challenges me to accept that Jesus is with me in the peaks and troughs on life’s sea...

How Jesus can sleep through a storm is beyond me! I have reasonable sea legs, but sleeping in what would have been a smallish fishing vessel seems a little unlikely. We also need to remember that amongst the dispels were some experienced fishermen so they would have handled all sorts of weather out on the lake before - they were concerned for their safety and that of the boat so it must have been very rough. They wake Jesus and instead of helping steer the boat, or maybe even bail it out, instead he commands the winds and the waves to stop and they obey - this sort of mastery of the elements is something that only a god could do - who is this man? Prior to this event, the disciples had been experiencing the profoundest mystery - Jesus the teacher, Jesus the healer, Jesus the miracle worker - whilst a man, Jesus also clearly possesses something of the creator God about him. It strikes me that the disciples had every right to be frightened whether Jesus was awake or asleep!

The disciples needed Jesus when faced with danger and the limits of their mortality. They, like so many people cry out to God in Jesus, when in danger. They recognised that the only person or thing that could save them was God. Once awake and all is calm, Jesus asks the disciples - where is your faith? Did they really think that God would let them and Jesus die like this? Did they really think that this was it? Even though God was with them, agreed asleep, in fear of their lives they forgot that he was there and they assumed that they were alone.

Your actions define who you are. Jesus’ actions and words reveal him to be the friend of fishermen, but also creator of the universe with power to control the physical world for good and the will of God. The disciples’ actions and words reveal their lack of understanding of the great love story of God and humanity running from the moment of creation and reaching it’s high point in Jesus. Their actions and words also reveal a very real understanding that the only person who can help them when confronted with danger, uncertainty and ultimately death is God himself in Jesus.

Your actions define who you are. This is true of us. We say and pray and sing that we are following Jesus, listening to him teach, and trying to live it out, and yet all too often we leave all of that however good intentioned, at the church door. As we re-emerge from church into the storm of Monday to Saturday we assume that Jesus is still sleeping on the cushion in the boat. We like those disciples forget all too easily that here we have spent quality time with a friend of fishermen but also with creator of the universe with power to control the physical world for good and the will of God. All too easily we forget that from Monday to Saturday we live no differently to anyone else - only calling on God is crisis situations. We all too easily forget Jesus words, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you’, ‘I am with you always till the end of time’ and ‘the kingdom of God is among you...’

Your actions define who you are. Mark’s account of this story tells us that the disciples took Jesus out in the the boat just as he was. I guess that means they took Jesus out onto the lake in the boat where he had spent most of the day teaching. But, it’s a strange phrase ‘just as he was.’ Yet Jesus teaches in parables from this boat just as he was, telling stories about birds, seeds and trees and most people went home scratching their heads wondering when they would see a miracle.

The disciples took this man who is God just as he was into the storm and their actions defined who they were in terms of their faith, and his actions revealed that there was more to him that met the eye. But they took him out just as he was nonetheless. Our continued challenge is to do one better than those disciples - to look at this man and nevertheless see God on Sunday and take him out ‘just as he was’ with into a world filled with storms. We need to trust that he is with us always and his kingdom is among us.

Jesus asked his disciples ‘where is your faith?’ a question he asks us too in times of suffering, turmoil, doubt and darkness. Where is your faith? Either we believe in a God who can act and who can break through and change the present, or we hold on to some sort of myth, but that sort of God makes no difference in our world.

C.S Lewis is put it so eloquently...

‘...I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to...’

We have to make a choice, Elijah and Esther have today through their baptism. Are we aware that Christ is with us, wherever we are, whatever we are doing, just as we are, in joy and in tragedy? We are called to become so aware of His presence so when we are faced with crisis we let His life in us define who we are. Amen

O Brother (and Sister) Where Art Thou?

One of my favourite films of all time is ‘O Brother Where Art Thou.’ For those of you who may not have seen it, it’s about three escaped convicts are racing around the Mississippi delta looking frantically for buried treasure. They still have the shackles on their legs from the chain gang from which they escaped. They are not innocents; they’re thieves, what you might call “common criminals.” As they meander through the woods they come upon a congregation of people headed for a river, singing a Gospel song, “Down in the river to pray.” The escapees watch, mesmerized, as people wade into the water to be baptized. Two of the men are seized with an overwhelming conviction that this is what they need, that they want to turn their lives around. They wade into the water, the congregation’s singing ringing in the air all around them, and they emerge, soaked and overjoyed.

Today as we baptise Craig, Samantha, Kelvin and Jessica we also remember Jesus’ baptism which started the ball rolling on his public work. It is in baptism, in this moment of heaven-ripped-open time with the God who loves him, that his work begins. It’s like that for us. Yes baptism is about repentance - which is more than a quick I’m sorry - but about seeing our lives turned round our lives around, transformed by the knowledge that we are loved whether we feel we deserve it or not. And yes, baptism is about living a new way. But also, baptism is about being claimed by God, named as God’s own much loved children, called by him to work and serve.

This is true Craig, Samantha, Kelvin and Jessica as they are baptised themselves today but it is true for all of us who recall our baptism today. Every one of us has been baptised has been named by God. Baptism isn’t a naming ceremony though. As we are baptised God gives us and Jesus a new name - beloved, much loved. Through his baptism God gives Jesus a clear path of work and service for Him. Through our baptisms God has set us on a path for work and service. Discerning where this path will take us is challenging and exciting and even a little scary. After all, the heavens don’t rip open every day. Some of us are called to serve God in the church, in particular offices such as a priest, or by other kinds of service to the church. All of us are called to serve God outside the church, in God’s beautiful and broken world, and that work and service is as wide and varied as there are people. We can serve God by working for safe and peaceful communities like our own, or helping out and elderly neighbour, or by giving someone a lift to a doctor’s appointment. We can serve God by loving and caring for our aging parents or our children or even our families of choice, those who are knit together not by blood or legal contract but simply by love. Anywhere we can serve God’s people, we can serve God.

Today as we remember Jesus’ baptism, we also remember our own, whether they happening within this service or decades ago. We remember, whether we were infants held in the arms of a parent or godparent, or we were adults who emerged from the experience soaked and jubilant and glowing with the love of God, we remember that baptism is about seeing our lives turned round, and the opportunity to do that is always before us, always a possibility, whereever we are wheatever we are doing, in the waters of baptism or not.

Today we remember Jesus’ baptism,and as we baptise Craig, Samantha, Kelvin and Jessica, we remember that our baptism is about living: living empowered by God, by His Holy Spirit, living heaven in the now, living by throwing in our lot with a community of people who are striving and struggling to follow God through God’s Child Jesus. And we also remember that baptism is about loving: Through baptism, even though we feel unlovely or unloveable from time to time, God says to us “You are my Child, my beloved Child, “with you I am well pleased.”

In His Baptism Christ was comissioned to speak these words both so that people could hear them and in signs of the kingdom - in acts of love and compassion, in healings and miracles - so people could see them.

In our Baptism we have been co-missioned to share in telling and showing how much we are each loved by God. Today as Craig, Samantha, Kelvin and Jessica are baptised and all of us recall our baptisms God says to us “You are mine; I love you; with you I am delighted and pleased.”

But it’s not just about each of us hearing those words of love, it’s not even about just knowing that we are loved by God. Jesus didn’t just hear those words of love from God, he didn’t just know them to be true for him and all people, his baptism was his comission and our co-mission with him to show that transforming love of God. Today Craig, Samantha, Kelvin and Jessica we we baptise you and recall our own it is about but about each of us living and acting in ways that others see, hear and know that God loves them too. Amen.