When was I most afraid?

Sunday 19A 13^th August 2023

[1Kings 19:9, 11-13, Matthew 14:22-33]

We all get tired sometimes, but there are times when we reach an impasse, a deadlock, and cannot see how to go any further. We sit, perhaps with our head in our hands, not just looking hopelessly for a way to proceed, but wondering why we started on this work at all. Perhaps it is a writing project; perhaps we are trying to manage a conflict between people; perhaps it is in our intimate partnership… sometimes we may come close to despair.

It is consoling that other people, even the “famous”, have also reached this point. In our first reading, Elijah felt he had failed as a prophet. Yes, he did have that day of triumph over the prophets of Baal: the crowd was stunned when only Elijah’s sacrificial bullock was burned up by fire from heaven. He seized the impetus of that moment, and – probably with the help of the mob – slaughtered those rival prophets in their hundreds. But he could not overthrow Ahab and Jezebel. Those corrupt royals were still in power, and Elijah had to flee for his life into the desert, where he asked God to let him die. But as we know, he was fed by an angel, walked to Mt Horeb, and heard God re-commissioning him.

Even if we are not discouraged about our personal life and work, we might feel something like despair when we look at the enormous failures and injustice in our world. How the poor are crushed and the powerful have their way. Australia just now is rushing to hand over more power to our “partner”, the USA, whose military force has in the past destroyed numerous countries for its own profit: Vietnam, many Latin America states, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and now Ukraine, whose legitimate government they helped overthrow, prompting Putin to invade. Now we have B-52s flying from Australian soil.

Disappointments can quickly replace our times of joy. When Jesus’ followers saw him feed the huge crowd, they must have been on a high. “What a marvellous leader we have!”. They might have been disappointed when he sent them back across lake while he stayed behind to pray… but when the storm sprang up and threatened to drown them, they were terrified, and as superstitions fishermen, when they thought they saw a ghost coming at them, they were panic-stricken. But in these stories, such crises are a prelude to God’s intervention, showing that God is in control, and wants to help us.

Jesus stayed back to pray alone, just as he advised us to pray, in secret. His miracles seem to depend on his prayer, his relationship with God. Likewise, when we are disappointed, or fail at something, it is good to put aside what we would prefer, and create space where God can fill us.

So the disciples are being battered by the sea. For the bible writers, the sea was a mystery, symbol of destructive power of demons, and of the political powers that dominate our world. Emperors claimed to be masters of land and sea, but the book of Job describes how God “trampled on the back of the sea” (Job 9:8). Perhaps Matthew was recalling this, when he shows Jesus walking on the water to reassure his friends. They were crying out in fear, but Jesus responded: “I am. Don’t be afraid”.

But the story is sensitive to the fact that we do not develop confidence in God suddenly. Peter is used as the fall-guy to show us this. He tries to trust Jesus and would love to copy Jesus by walking on the sea: “If it is you…” let me join you on the water. But when he realises what he is doing, he weakens and sinks. “You of little faith”. Perhaps Matthew is showing us that our own faith is a mixture of belief and ego and lack of belief, and that’s all right. We look towards Jesus, but in the face of the dangers that surround us, we waiver. It’s natural.

Matthew, who hands this story on to us, is quite sure of Jesus. He shows him performing five God-like actions: Walking on water; saying “I am”; extending his hand; saving them from the deep; calming the storm. Earlier in this gospel, when Jesus calmed a storm, the disciples were described as awe-struck. Now Matthew says, they recognise him as “son of God”, and worship him. Where are we, in our search for faith?

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Do we realise the power within us?

Transfiguration 6^th August 2023

[Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; 2 Peter 1:16-19, Matthew17:1-9]

The earliest human beings must have wondered at the power of the sun’s everlasting fire, shining on them year after year. Those ancestors harnessed some of that fire, probably at first from lightning-struck trees. Perhaps a million years after we had become thinking animals, we learned to use fire to make steam to work our engines, then drew electric power from wires and magnets, and light far brighter than from spluttering wicks. In 1945, we took the huge leap of tearing open uranium atoms to release forces that in seconds could wipe out our million years of working, learning, loving and creating beauty.

One of our ancient stories tells of Prometheus, endlessly punished for stealing fire from the gods. Another tells of Moses, who heard God speak from a flaming bush. Today’s gospel tells of three friends of Jesus of Nazareth, who saw him, while praying, transfigured and shining like the sun. His brightness is telling us, Matthew suggests, that we are seeing a glimpse of the divine. Like most encounters with God this happened on the margins: in a remote place, on a mountain. The disciples heard a voice telling, as at Jesus’ baptism: “This is my beloved son. Listen to him”. We are reminded of the prophecy of Isaiah, where a mysterious figure, the “beloved son”, suffers for the benefit of all people.

The disciples saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, ancient prophets who on Mount Sinai / Horeb were each re-empowered for their task of leading God’s people, challenging and opposing the status quo. The task would bring them suffering, as it brought Jesus to a terrible death for showing the world that we build God’s Empire by giving justice and love to all.

But such reassuring glimpses of the Transcendent are not the goal of our lives. We would like to cling to them, setting up camp as Peter suggested. But they are only pointers to guide us; we cannot build our home there; we have work to do. We live now at a time when every living thing on our planet: coral, bees, fish, forest dwellers and humans, is threatened by imminent ecological disaster. We are just a technician’s mistake away from nuclear accident and holocaust. Will we, like the stunned disciples, feel Jesus touch us, saying: “Get up; do not be afraid.”

Was it just a curious coincidence that on the 6^th of August 1945, while Christians in churches around the world were honouring the Transfiguration of Jesus, our world witnessed another transfiguration? On that morning an atomic bomb was dropped on a city for the first time, by choice of the US government. It killed more than 200,000 of Hiroshima’s residents. This unspeakable destruction was not a military necessity, but a weapons test, for Japan had already been asking to surrender, though not “unconditionally” as the US demanded. A different bomb was tested three days later, at Nagasaki.

The Australian government also share in nuclear guilt. It allowed Britain to test twelve nuclear bombs in this country, without proper precautions. The experiments poisoned many Indigenous people and military personnel, and large tracts of land were permanently polluted. Will we learn – before it is too late – to listen to the Transcendent light within each of us, “the true light that gives light to everyone”? (John 1:9)

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What is my greatest treasure?

Sunday 17A 39^th August 2023

[Romans 8:28-30, Matthew 13:44-52]

Could we even begin to imagine the terror of having our children or partner kidnapped by the fanatical groups Boko Haram or ISIS? A recent television documentary showed this happening in parts of Africa, and to Yazidis in northern Iraq. How would we cope with the horror of not knowing where our family members had been taken? Were they still alive, as slaves, being routinely beaten or raped? Would we ever see them again?

Jesus announced the Good News that the Empire of God had begun: a living community that would outlast Rome’s powerful legions. People belonging to this Empire were said to be “redeemed”, as a first-century slave, or victims of ISIS or Boko Haram might be freed by paying a ransom. But today, claiming that we have been “redeemed” doesn’t mean much to us. It’s a dead metaphor. We may have been taught that this is why we should go to church or celebrate the Eucharist, but what does it mean in practice, especially for young people?

We might be touched more effectively by Jesus’ story of the buried treasure which a person found when working in someone else’s field. The only safe, legal way to get their hands on it is to buy that bit of land, so they sell everything to raise the money and get the treasure.

Today we see the same single-minded focus in young athletes, swimmers or musicians who hope to become champions. Even as children, they practice and train for many years. But what about us? Is there a treasure for which we hunger and strive with all our heart? If Jesus Good News that God’s Reign has begun doesn’t much excite us, is this because our generation is tired of endless arguments attempting to prove that “God” does or does not exist? Weary of such mental gymnastics, perhaps we need to look again at what Jesus was talking about: the deep hunger within us for friendship and love. Do we remember what life is like when we are deeply loved?

We cannot de-fine the Infinite One, but Jesus own actions and compassion showed that God is more approachable than the most loving of parents, and can be talked to as friend. Jesus used the child’s affectionate name “Daddy”, and invited us to pray to “Our Father in the skies”, without meaning that God is male, or is out there among the trillion galaxies. Jesus assumed that God is present everywhere, and as Infinite Consciousness is aware of all that happens to us. This is why Paul – in today’s reading from Romans – can say that God co-operates with all those who love God, “turning everything to their good.”

If this extraordinary claim doesn’t match out little experience of life, we need to recall that in order to believe the Good News, we need to “repent” (Greek metanoia), to get a new mind so as to see a picture far bigger than our little ego-centric world-view. As we grow closer to God we begin to see that the love of this Infinite Friend makes relatively trivial the many evils in our life. Whether they come from nature – sickness, weather events – or are inflicted by people, they can ultimately deepen us, making us more aware of God and compassionate towards others. Indeed, trusting that we have an infinite future in this Love, all our fears dissolve.

How can we grow deeper in this friendship? In the same ways that we deepen a human love relationship: by spending time with our Beloved; offering our self; listening; asking. For good reason, mystics in all ages and in other religious traditions have described their friendship with God in terms of sensual love, but many “religious” people do not recognise this treasure, stopping far short with commandments and rituals.

But we cannot be friend to God merely as individuals. Because all people are loved by God, we are all intimately linked. The community Jesus invites us to build comes alive to the extent that we care for each other, feed and clothe the needy; shelter the homeless; and abolish forever the scourge of war. Impossible tasks? Not when we find that every good deed, every act of kindness, no matter who performs it, is done in collaboration with this loving Partner who lives within us.

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