Get off the Grass

The hundreds of people churning up the Parliamentary lawn are unlikely to read this blog.  If they did, I’d want them to know that they are blinkered and selfish and, in some cases, misled and entitled.  They’d want to punch my lights out for saying so, which possibly makes the point, but I’ll amplify.
The baseline of their cause would seem to be that in the name of their freedom and rights they would blithely stifle the freedoms and rights of others.  Apparently their right to be unvaccinated trumps the rights of others to function in a safe society.  Apparently their right to be free of mandates trumps the rights of others to socialise in a low risk setting.  Apparently the right of a school teacher or nurse or policeman to keep working unvaccinated trumps the rights of the kids in the class, of the sick people in the ward, or of the fellow cops or emergency services he or she has to work with in close quarters (not to mention the injured or terrorised public they’re supposedly helping).

Apparently the entitled on the lawn have never factored in the impact of their demands on the disabled, the diabetic and the chemo-compromised, most of whom are permanently self-locked down for fear of exposure to the virus and possible death.  Apparently the freedom champions have no compunction about exposing and compromising them (the immunocompromised) by their insistent appeal to the so-called Bill of Rights.
Rights can be rescinded for a time, for special reasons, especially where the rights of others are being spurned.  Being vaccine-free and mandate-free are tenuous rights … valid, as long as they don’t infringe the rights of the more vulnerable.  Any decent human being will surrender those rights for the benefit of others.  We’re proud of the Kiwi help-our-neighbour mindset that has us mopping out his flooded basement, but it doesn’t seem to carry over, in the mindset of some, to helping out his neighbour who could get extremely ill if he catches Covid.

The resistors say the science is wrong; the government has ulterior motives; the facts are fake; there is some grand design to dupe us all into tamely accepting tyranny and micro-chips; and someone must speak up.  No, they are the duped themselves.  And given the oxygen granted them, the misinformed, by the sensation-seeking media, we’re left with the sense that the whole world has gone mad!

Let sanity return, you on the lawn, even if it means compromising on your sense of entitlement.  You have to drive on the left hand side of the road, and stop at red lights.  You accept those infringements on your freedom.  So accept the mild loss of freedom currently imposed by a deadly virus (not by a government).  Yes, deadly.  You can’t honestly disbelieve the real numbers.  John Hopkins University is not part of any conspiracy – believe its numbers.  Don’t say there is no virus, no danger.  There clearly is – to many, at least, if not to you.  Accept it for them, the vulnerable and the compromised, and realise that it will only be for a limited time.  It’s not the big deal you’re making it.

Get off the grass and go home and try to bring a positive contribution to the crisis.

Ken F

The Sermon on the Plain

by Auriol Farquhar

(Based on Luke 6:17-26)

Luke’s version of the Beatitudes is very different from Matthew’s. In fact it is a much harsher and demanding set of statements, and is not just about blessings, but also about woes. The poor are blessed, the hungry are blessed, the people who weep are blessed and anyone who is excluded, reviled or defamed because of their belief in Jesus is also blessed; BUT if you are rich, your stomach is full and you are laughing and having a good time, or people speak well of you – well – woe to you.

If we take this literally, that’s not much comfort for us in this Church today. I don’t think that any of us are what I would call poor. Most of us own our own home, some own more than one house; many of us own at least one car, go on holiday when we want to, eat and dress reasonably well; I doubt if any of us go hungry and I have seen most of you laughing and enjoying life!
We may not be considered ‘rich’ by today’s standards, but most of us are comfortably off, or at least managing a lifestyle that is comfortable; many of us have people who speak well of us and pay us compliments for what we do – so does all of this mean that we are not blessed?

I must admit that I have trouble with the idea of being like the disciples and giving up everything I own to follow Jesus; how many of you would do that?  How many of you would be prepared to give up what you have probably worked hard to achieve in your life; and maybe gone without in the process so that you can provide for your later life?
Surely there’s another way of looking at this that would make sense in the modern context; certainly in most first and second world countries.

 Mmmm where to start?

Let’s start with the context of the time. Luke places the Sermon on the Plain, not the Mount, later in Jesus’s ministry than Matthew does. Before this sermon Jesus has been rejected in his home town synagogue, performed miracles such as healing a leper and the man with the withered hand; he has taught about fasting and the Sabbath and he has also chosen the twelve apostles. Luke’s sermon takes place on the plain, the level surface, where no-one is elevated above anyone else.

Luke‘s concern is emphasis rather than exact chronology. Most of the above stories are conflict stories — stories where Jesus offends the religious authorities. In Luke’s version, these conflict stories provide the background for Jesus’s Sermon on the Plain. In these stories, scribes and Pharisees take offence at Jesus for violating religious taboos. They try to defend a traditional understanding of God’s people (godly Jews versus ungodly Gentiles) and traditional morality, such as observing the Sabbath and not even healing on it. Jesus counters, in each instance, by showing them a new way. But they refuse to see it.

Jesus then gives his Sermon on the Plain in which he further turns their legalistic world on its head. In this sermon, Jesus gives them a glimpse into the kingdom of God — an upside-down world by their standards:
Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, sad, and expendable.  Woe to you who are rich, full, happy, and popular. Yup, that’s the fabulous Good News of the Kingdom of God.  A world turned upside down. What is tempting is to edit Jesus’s words, a bit like Matthew does – by writing “poor in spirit,” instead of “poor,” and “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” instead of plain old “hungry”. But Luke gives no comfort here. We might like to think that Jesus was exaggerating or speaking figuratively. There must be some way we can wiggle out of the “woes” column and into the “blessed” column instead, right? Right? 

I found an interpretation that resonates with me. What do all the ‘blessings’ have in common: the kind of poverty that makes people completely dependent on God. What do all the ‘woes’ have in common? People concerned with seeking their own satisfaction. We can look at this message as saying that when we are God-centred, regardless of our material circumstances, then we are blessed, but when we are self-centred – then we will find nothing but woes.

When Jesus blesses the poor and hungry, the sorrowful and the ridiculed, he isn’t saying that we should all aspire to poverty, hunger, sorrow, or being verbally abused. He is saying that God is present with us, even when the world has abandoned us, that God loves us, even when everyone else hates us. We find blessing in seeking God, being hungry for God, and loving the people God loves.
When Jesus announces woe to those who are rich, eat well, and enjoy fame and admiration from people, he isn’t saying that wealth, good food, and popularity are bad things. He is saying that when we are focused on satisfying our own appetites for these things, like many people today, we have turned our attention away from God, and our self-centredness will cut us off from God’s spiritual kingdom.

When we seek God, we feel the pain and sorrow God feels for people who are hurting. We stand up to injustice. We affirm that every human being is worthy of love in God’s sight. When we are hungry for God, we want the things God wants. God wants every person on earth to know him and love him.

Jesus isn’t commanding you to work at becoming poor so you can receive blessing!  In this day and age we would probably just become a burden on the state for taxpayers to support anyway! Jesus is stating how things are and how things will be in the Kingdom of God. The things that appear to be valued in this world have no value in God’s economy. In God’s economy, the only thing that has value is grace. God’s economy levels the playing field for everyone, and quite often that is not comfortable for us. Because, whether or not we want to admit it, we often prefer the way the world elevates some and values others less; it can make us pleased if we think that we are more well-off than someone else, or are more popular or more successful in careers, etc.

Jesus isn’t encouraging us to get rich or become poor. Jesus is inviting us to put everything at his disposal and follow him – to use what we have in his cause. He sees us. He knows us. Not the good face we put on so others will think well of us.  When life is hard, when things are going badly, when you are experiencing the kind of suffering and hardship that happens on the level places of life, Jesus is standing there with you, sending healing power your way. But he will also be there when things are going well, as long as we acknowledge that they are going well because of his grace.

What we need to realise is that what we have, comes to us by the grace of God. Our God is the God of those who have nothing but God. We need to appreciate that and become more God-centred – using what we have to help others and not making acquiring material goods and ‘stuff’ the be all and end all of our existence. We need to share, to be concerned for others and to love others; it won’t make us rich, but will make us happy and help us to live a life full with the richness of God.
I bet that most of the time, it just plain doesn’t occur to us that we would be lost — utterly and wholly lost, physically and spiritually — without the grace that sustains us.
God sees us, and wants to bless us. There isn’t anything we can do to change that. Nothing we do can make God love us less, and nothing we do can make God love us more.

Yep – Jesus was turning the world on its head for his listeners. If we listen today he is doing the same thing – turning our values system on its head.

As one American theologian writes: “The world says, ‘Mind your own business,’ and Jesus says, ‘There is no such thing as your own business.’ The world says, ‘Follow the wisest course and be a success,’ and Jesus says, ‘Follow me and lay down your life for others.’ The world says, ‘Law and order,’ and Jesus says, ‘Love.’ The world says, ‘Get’ and Jesus says, ‘Give.’”

Jesus does not offer an easy path – but for us, as Christians, it is the only one.

Luke, Fishing and Waitangi

by Joan Fanshawe

(Based on Luke 5:1-11)

You have just heard a great little story – one many will remember from Sunday School times and may still have images in your mind from that time.

I love the idea of Jesus, desperate for a little space from which to speak to the crowds pressing upon him, just commandeering Simon’s boat. (Luke is still naming him Simon, but we’d better relate to this disciple as Peter – Simon Peter.)

And I love that Peter just lets him. I mean, he’d been fishing all night and probably wanted to finish cleaning up and get home to bed. But he takes Jesus out anyway. Possibly – no – probably, he already knew Jesus, and was used to this kind of thing.
In a previous chapter of Luke we hear that Jesus had healed many people and stayed at Peter’s house and healed his mother-in-law of a fever but the Gospels aren’t necessarily chronological on some of these story details. So maybe Peter was grateful and there’s not much he wouldn’t do for Jesus.
Or maybe he was just that kind of a guy, the kind of guy who would push out from shore even though he was dead tired, just because you asked. We don’t know. He just does it. You’ve got to love that.

When Jesus has finished teaching the crowd on the shore – note there’s no detail about the message, but I’m sure it would’ve been about the Kingdom of God, justice, liberty for the oppressed, good news for the poor – you know – love in action …
Jesus isn’t actually all done for the day. He tells Peter to push the boat out further into deeper water and with his partners put the nets down again.

After a slight demur, Peter again does something that doesn’t make sense … letting down his nets. After he’d been fishing all night and caught nothing.
Can’t you imagine the expression on the fishermen’s faces as they struggle to haul in this catch, call their friends to help, and barely get their nets to shore?

Artist Raphael’s imagining of the scene (1515)

I even love the idea that however much Peter thinks he knows Jesus, he only now realises that he really doesn’t know him, that he’s only just beginning to realise who and what Jesus is, and that it scares him enough to make that confession:
“Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

And I love that Jesus says to him: “Do not be afraid.”

Do not be afraid!

This is the hallmark of Luke’s Gospel; maybe the hallmark of the Gospel. Jesus comes so that we don’t have to be afraid any more. I love that.

And then Jesus gives Peter something to do, something bigger and larger than anything he’d ever imagined.
“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”

I don’t want to rush on past the importance of the message in this story, of finding abundance if you push out into deeper waters, if you are prepared to go to that deeper place with Jesus and discover that in the gospel of hope and love there is so much more.  The story shows this very clearly. And I’m pleased to have moved on from earlier held ideas that this was the hook line and sinker – haul ‘em in-type fishing image that urged the recruitment of ‘unbelievers’ on to church pews.

And I loved waking yesterday to find Pastor Steve’s* contribution in my mailbox just the words to express what I was feeling:
To be fishers of people
is to let the great net of your love
down into their lives,
trusting that there you will discover
miracles and blessings,
and draw them out.

Now: somehow I wanted to segue this story into some pertinent words about our Waitangi Day; and the Treaty of Waitangi.
I haven’t found a segue, except to urge us all to go deeper, to put away previously held assumptions, to read more stories, history of our New Zealand beginnings, to acknowledge past injustice and support efforts to honour the Treaty.
Christian missionaries were very influential, with worthy aspirations at the preparation of the treaty. As followers of Jesus if we can renew within ourselves the faith and the courage of our forebears who first signed the Treaty, we may well rise to fulfil our true potential as one people.

A starting point might be to read John Bluck’s story recently published on the Radio NZ website**, which looks at pakeha identity today through the example a long forgotten missionary who came to New Zealand in the period shortly after the Treaty was signed. (This is the same John Bluck who authored the booklet circulating currently on Anglicanism.)

In going deeper myself I know I will have to confront some personal attitude challenges of impatience with the place we are at here in Aotearoa NZ. We have a lot of work to do before we can say we are one people.
From the beginning of trying to put all this together, Peter’s confession has been real for me.
Jesus’s response, “Be not afraid”, doesn’t mean – don’t worry. It means there is another way – and invites me to follow more deeply.

Sadly the promotion of being kind is being battered down in many quarters right now but doesn’t it underlie all this? We need to keep kindness alive.

I share this from a former Waitangi Day service:
If our sense of servanthood can overpower our sense of entitlement;
If our hunger for justice can overpower our selfish greed;
If our hope can be more relentless than our grievance;
And if our love can be more powerful than our litigation;
We will fulfil the greater promise of the Treaty of Waitangi:
One people, united.
Until then, we need to pray for peace, and to strive to deal with injustice and oppression.

Nā tōu rourou, nā tāku rourou, ka mākona te iwi.
We are all in this together.

 *Steve Garnaas-Holmes at  www.unfoldinglight.net
** Radio NZ: John Bluck interview

A Selfish Giant

Do you know what a curmudgeon is?

I arrived at my swimming spot and found it full of people.  Swimmers and picnickers and cars and folding chairs and rugs and towels spread wide.  And kayaks and dogs and stand-on boards and bridge jumpers.  And I thought, how dare they.  Make way.  Go home. I want to swim.  It’s a beautiful day, and I want to swim.

I find it dismayingly easy to be a curmudgeon these days.  I didn’t use to be.  It seems to be something to do with ageing.  I remember being aware of elderly curmudgeons when I was younger; subconsciously conscious of a certain scorn for them.  Grumpy old …  Unsmiling …  Disapproving …  Move over, Grampie, was my subconscious thought: we’re coming through, we young people.  Watch out.

Nowadays I’m one of them.  An ageing baby boomer who’s had his day and wallows in gloriously blessed sunset years.  And, while I’m endlessly grateful for what life has dished out, I find it increasingly easy to be a curmudgeon.  As if I haven’t lived.  As if I’m not gloriously blessed.  As if the world, and all those younger than me, owe me something.  Space in my swimming spot, especially.
It seems that we become grumpier and more cantankerous as we age.  It’s noticeable that older people are more likely to make inappropriate comments; and their behaviour is often excused with the understanding that they are “from a different time”.

But psychologists say this, if true, is only part of the problem.
Research from the University of Queensland, Australia, showed the brain’s frontal lobe – which is involved in regulating our thoughts – gets smaller as we age.  This means elderly people may lose their ability to censor inappropriate thoughts, making them less restrained and more likely to vocalise offensive viewpoints!
“They may have said them anyway, depending on their personality when they were younger,” said researcher Dr Abrams.  “But for the most part, they probably wouldn’t have … Once we reach that old age where our brains start to lose that ability, those more hidden parts, those more subconscious thoughts, we are less able to inhibit them.”

So, there you are.  It’s not my fault.  It’s an age thing. So maybe I can’t help it.

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But, no, of course.  Now knowing, I am complicit in my curmudgeony-ness, and I must remedy it.  Compensate for my shrivelling brain.  I shall.  I shall continue to arrest myself when I find myself grouching. And my wife is sure to help.

Have you ever read Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant?  You must.  I could relate it, but if you read it yourself … well, it can move one to tears.  I will say that (amongst other things) it’s a short story of a converted curmudgeon.  A mean old giant learns a cardinal and eternal lesson of life.

As am I, as I work on my decreasing frontal lobe!

It really was a beautiful scene.  There was such a lovely mood of family and fun after all.  The kids were splashing and paddling, the dogs were romping, barbecue smells wafted.  The sun shone, the water, full tide, sparkled.  I was suddenly grateful to and for all those people sharing my swimming spot.  I was glad for them to enjoy it … briefly.

Ken F