Michael Creal’s homily on September 8, 2019

Readings: Deut 30:15-20 Psalm 1 Philemon 1-21 Lk 14:25-33

At the time when Lee, in a moment of some desperation, asked me to do the homily for this Sunday, I just happened to be brooding over the climate change crisis. I looked at the readings for today and these words from the Deuteronomy passage jumped out: “This day I have set before you life and death, therefore choose life that you and your descendents may live” – those words provided a sharp focus for what I was thinking about. In the case of today’s reading from Deuteronomy that choice for the Israelites – between life and death – was a question of honouring or not honouring the covenant that Moses put before the people. Honouring it meant choosing life and living in accordance with the Law, or rejecting it with the destructive consequences that could follow. Renewing the Covenant and confronting that choice was something that the Jewish people faced repeatedly in the course of their history . Today, the stark choice of choosing life is something we face. What I think that means for us, I’ll come to in a moment.

2019.08.04 Holy Trinity

Transfiguration – A visit with dragons

Peter Haresnape

Readings: Psalm 99, 2 Peter 1:16-19, Luke 9:28-36, The Peace of Wild Things (Wendell Berry)

A few weeks ago I met up with Tim, a friend from Christian Peacemaker Teams who I haven’t seen for several years. As we caught up on our lives we compared our networks of Christian activists and peacemakers, noting the connections, discussing the mentors and inspirational people we interact with. Tim referred to ‘holding the dragon close’. He explained that a dragon is an influential and powerful person in your life who is somewhat dangerous.

Acts 11:1-18     Psalm 148      Revelation 21:1-6     John 13:31-35

Sherman Hesselgrave

If there is one thing today’s scripture readings have in common, it is about God doing something NEW. “I give you a new commandment: love one another.” “Look, I make all things new.” And then there’s Peter, who clued in to the new thing God was doing after the third memo.

Jesus warned his disciples that God would be doing new things in the future, things they were not ready even to think about while he was yet with them. And, sure enough, it didn’t take long. One afternoon, while he was enjoying his siesta, God gave Peter a vision, which Peter interpreted as a test of his faithfulness to Jewish dietary laws. [A reproduction of Fran Sowton’s painting of Peter’s vision at Joppa is the featured image for this post.] When Peter came to realize that it was not a test, but a message, specifically a message that God was making the circle wider, and he needed Peter to be onside, he made the necessary adjustments, and embraced the new scope of the mission. In this instance, it was Peter’s own religious upbringing that got in God’s way—a phenomenon we will encounter repeatedly throughout Church history.