by Liz Young
(Based on Matt 21:23-32; Ezek 18:1-4, 25-32; Phil 2:1-13)
God loves each one of us and welcomes us whenever and at what age we turn to him.
Welcome to all of you here today. We’re celebrating ‘care of creation’ in the middle of Spring,
with windy days, sharp showers and joyful flowers. We’ve had Daffodil Day, when Ros picked
hundreds of flowers to raise money for the Cancer Society, an illness which will have affected
each one of us either personally, or someone close to us. It was great to hear we’d made a
record breaking amount this year.
To return to Spring: when I walk through the village estate I’m cheered by all the azaleas out in bloom, and I love the scent of daphne and commiserate – with all of you who suffer from hayfever. This week we had a lovely Monday morning at Matapaia [local rest home – Ed]. Joan had decided to share our joy of Spring, showing us and the residents a huge variety of flowers and giving posies to some of the residents. We are lucky in New Zealand to be on an island and though we can have droughts they are short-lived, usually a maximum of six weeks, not years without rain. So I hope all of you collect roof rainwater to cover those dry weeks, and I suggest you don’t worry about climate change. We’ll get more tropical fish in our waters, and the schnapper may move to the South Island, and the rock cod to Stewart Island; but we will adapt, as long as we’re not greedy and we share with those less fortunate than us.
We also have to care for the sea floor, which is threatened by mining for manganese nodules. I suggest you Google to learn more about those threats.
In the readings this week Ezekiel told us God forgives his people and rebukes them for
saying ‘Life is unfair’, and says they are being unfair to God by sinning, and asks them to turn
away from sinning, and get a new spirit of love and caring. Don’t you remember, at the age
of seven, saying, “tisn’t fair”? I think it wasn’t till I was a teenager that I started putting the
needs of others before my own, and only because I followed the example of my parents and
another girl at school.
In Philippians, Paul reminds his readers that God is at work in them and says, “Let each of you
look to the needs of others and ignore your own interests.”
And in the parable we read from Matthew, Jesus tells us that it doesn’t matter how late in
your life you turn to him as long as you do it wholeheartedly and change your ways to
following his teachings. He will always accept each one of us, faults and all. I find that very
reassuring when I review my day in the evening, and acknowledge my mistakes and failures.
I realise that I’ve been very fortunate to have had a happy childhood, where my mother’s
love was unstinting. She never upbraided me for feeding my brother washing soda saying it
was ice from the fridge (and he sicked up in the sandpit).
I could trust the adults in my life, to teach me, correct me and forgive me. This meant that at
the age of twelve when I fell off an aquaplane and caught my foot it its rope, I could trust that
the captain steering the boat would be keeping an eye out for me, and that all I had to do
was hold my breath until he’d notice that I had fallen off, stop the boat and I’d be able to rise
to the surface and breathe. I counted to thirty before that happened. I could trust. Let us
remember and pray for those children who don’t feel safe at home. Let us pray that they
find some adult, a teacher at school, maybe, that they can turn to and trust.
So, trust in the Lord. We need to do this now, when the media highlights catastrophes. But the media’s concern is fleeting: remember Africa in your prayers and the refugees who can’t flee.
Some of us have the good fortune to be introduced to the Bible and its teaching at an early age, so that we are grounded in our faith. The Jesuits used to say capture them by the age of seven and you have them for life. Others of us have not been introduced to Christ until later in life. Jesus accepts us whenever we honestly turn to him, whether it’s in our childhood or on our death bed. Some conversions to Christ have been sudden and dramatic, for others it’s a slow gradual realisation that they can trust in God’s love; but I think it is a good habit to recommit ourselves to Christ at the beginning and at the end of each day. As Paul reminds us, put the interests of others first: prayer time is a good time to reflect on the needs of others we meet and connect with each day, and helps us work out how we can help them, with a word, a joke, a smile or something more concrete; to put their interests before our own.
So, leave here with joy in your hearts, notice the flowers around you and share that joy. And help your neighbour whenever you can, because doing so does bring joy: and as we and those around us begin to lose the skills to help others, think creatively on how you can help them to help others.
Amen
