Sermon Podcasts at St Thomas' Moonee Ponds

Today is the beginning of Refugee Week and Trinity Sunday. 

With all the unrest about immigrants and their place in various locations, it is a timely reminder to pray for those in our community who are displaced, undocumented and do not belong where they are.

In recent years, refugees and assylum seekers have been demonised and labelled as criminals who are breaking the law. A refugee or assylum seeker is not a migrant. A migrant is someone who is actively choosing to be here and have a process they can follow. Refugees and assylum seekers are those who are displaced from where they want to be and we should have empathy for them.

One way for us to gain empathy is to think about the fact that we are spiritual refugees from heaven. We have been displaced from where God created us to be. We are in a form of creation that God did not intend. God intended us to walk with Him and be cared by Him. Yet, we chose to live in a way that showed God we can do things in our own strength and power. We chose to live by our own wisdom instead of Gods and now we find ourselves where we are today - women giving birth in pain, men living by the sweat of their brow and all people being subject to decay, disease and death.

The Holy Spirit remains with us to help us accept the gospel of Jesus Christ and the will of the Father. The Holy Spirit guides and helps us to be bound the body of Christ as we move forward in our mission. 

Refugees of the world usually remain displaced from their country of origin. With the help of the eternal refugee in the Holy Spirit, we will be brought home to be with the father on the that Jesus comes back to bring all of creation back into the Father's glory.

The Spirit falls on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. In the jewish calendar, the day of Pentecost is the day when the first fruits are celebrated as well as when the Law is given to Moses at Mt Sinai. 

Pentecost commemorates the idea of the law being shared with the right Spirit. It is a day when we think about how the law can bring life to a situation.

What does the Spirit ask you to do that you haven't done yet?

Blessings,

Rev. Rob.

Acts 2:1-21 being read in the languages of English French Malayalam Spanish Mandarin Italian

Societal structures can be burdensome and when implemented enslave people. Girl enslaved as an oracle, prison guard enslaved by the rules that if anyone escaped his gaol he would be executed. 

Holy Spirit works against enslavement: like the demoniac, the girl imprisoned by a spirit recognise the saving grace of Jesus and announces their proclamation to the world – annoying Paul; the gaoler wakes up in the midst of the movement of the Spirit on the earth and immediately goes to harm himself thinking of the worst, but saved by Paul from death in the moment and the eternal death of his soul. 

In reconciliation week, today we remember the proceedings brought forward by Eddie Mabo and the Mabo High Court decision to grant native title. Imprisoned in camps and on lands they had no connection to, our aboriginal people were set free to move back to their lands and live the lives that their ancestors had put in place as it overturned the long held doctrine of terra nullius. The Native Title Act that was passed by the Commonwealth government aimed to recognise and protect native title to certain lands. The decision allowed them to be one with us, but their oneness with us still had boundaries and scope that still enslaved them to living in a way that is not their full expression.

Jesus speaks about oneness in his prayer for us. The prayer is for those who were yet to come to know him and that we would be one in him, like he is one in the father. 

Unity is not uniformity. We are not meant to be clones of each other. Jesus speaks about the richness of the unity in diversity of the body of Christ, to do the purpose of the father. Father is different to Son, and Son is different to Spirit in personality and how they act, yet they are unified in purpose. The purpose to redeem all of creation and bring everyone back to the Father. We find our diversity in giftedness. Isaiah 11:2-3, speaks about the gifts of the Spirit by which we will know the Messiah include: Wisdom: Insight into divine truth. Understanding: Grasping the deeper meaning of faith. Counsel (Right Judgment): Discernment to choose rightly. Fortitude (Courage): Strength to endure trials. Knowledge: Awareness of God’s will. Piety (Reverence): Devotion to God and others. Fear of the Lord (Wonder and Awe): Humble reverence for God’s majesty. As I said these are gifts by which we recognise the suffering servant, but as we are one with Jesus and Jesus in one with the father, Jesus’ gifts fall on us. Whilst these do fall on the suffering servant, as we are one in Jesus they fall on us. In 1 Corinthians 12:8–10 Paul lists nine "manifestations of the Spirit" for building up the Church, gifts given for ministry and communal efficacy: Word of Wisdom: Supernatural guidance. Word of Knowledge: Revelation of divine information. Faith: Extraordinary trust in God. Gifts of Healing: Physical, emotional, or spiritual restoration. Working of Miracles: Divine intervention. Prophecy: Speaking God’s message. Discernment of Spirits: Judging spiritual influences. Speaking in Tongues (Glossolalia): Prayer in unknown languages. Interpretation of Tongues: Understanding and translating tongues.

As we remember today, we should also look to remove any obstacles that prevent our indigenous people being one with us, but to help us in our purpose to grow the prosperity of the nation of Australia in their glorious diversity. Our giftedness from the Holy Spirit is unified to achieve the purpose of bringing all people to God. If our purpose as a nation is to get the best outcome for ourselves as a nation, then the gifts that come from our diverse aboriginal community need to be included in our oneness.

Let's find a purpose that we can all get behond and seek to be unified as one in that purpose.

John 5:1-9 tells a story of what happened at the baths of Bethesda. A man was looking for healing for 38 years and could find noone to help him into the pool to find healing.

The location for what happened here was thought mythical for a long time until the place was discovers (approx 1890's). Once we had evidence we could speak about the story with far more legitimacy. As we uncover the truth of our indigenous people we find more and more evidence of how well they understood country and how sophisticated they were in the way they interacted with country. Instead of gaining legitimacy, our indigenous people are told how they are making things up and that what they are sharing is fantasy.

The man at the pool has waited 38 years to get healing. He shared his feelings with Jesus about how frustrating it was for him to be denied the healing powers of the water. Acting on the feelings the man shared, he was given a great healing. Our indigenous people share their feelings and put out information like the statement for the heart, and yet we deny them healing and ignore their feelings for our benefit at the expense of theirs - which is not how Jesus would like his disciples to act and is also against the law.

As we start reconciliation week, let's be agents of healing and do one thing to express our legitimate understanding of the sophistication of our first nation people and act on how they feel and what they tell us they need from us.

Let's pray that we be part of the bridge build from here to there!

Blessings,

Rev. Rob.

This week we looked at loving the unlovable – which begins with us before we do our mission.

Loving others as Christ has loved us requires us to have our eyes open to how Christ loves us. As sinners and whose sins would have hurt others, we must recognise that we deserve nothing from our God, yet Jesus gives up his life for us. 

If we recognise that we, as the ones who are undeserving, are given eternal life, then how can we deny sharing the love of Jesus with other. This is what makes us radically different.

The light of Christ has come into the world - the light shines in the world and darkness has not overcome it. Jesus Christ is our light and we are called to share that light and walk in the light of Christ.

Today we reflected on the importance of:

- Intentionally watching what we let come into our hearts, minds and souls.

- Intentionally removing what take us away from Christ or deliberately removing what does not serve our relationship with God.

- That we must do this and whilst we are doing this Jesus will hold us in his hands and care for us, until we are filled with his light and can face the world in the power of the Spirit.

- We must intentionally move into the places where the "world" is and be amongst the churched who are not worshipping with us, and the unchurched who do not know God.

For those of us who call Jesus Lord and Master, Revelation says (Rev 7:14) 'These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb'  As we have come through great tribulations, let us help others come through their great tribulations and where white robes that have been washed in the blood of the lamb.

The Lord be with you!!

Rev. Rob.