stfrancischurchtairuanz

Worthy of Memory

Mark the name, Maximilian Maria Kolbe. Have you heard of him? Mark the name:
he’s worth remembering.

The world has just marked the death of Shane Keith Warne, Australian cricketer of fame and legend and now, in death, memorialised, his name on an MCG stand and to be remembered and celebrated for … a hundred years at least. Prematurely gone, only 52, now feted by Michael Jordan, Ed Sheeran, Liz Hurley, Alan Border, Elton John and many other celebrities, his memorial service beamed around the world, hyperbolically accoladed and lionised.

No one would say his honouring was undeserved [although, was it?]. Awesome spin bowler, personality larger than life, and latterly famous for being famous. Everyone loved Warnie.

Kolbe’s death was utterly unaccoladed. He died of starvation, thirst and carbolic acid, aged 47, in an Auschwitz cellar.
What makes his death remarkable is that he died voluntarily in the place of another man.

Kolbe was a Catholic priest, Polish. In May 1941 he and four others were taken to Auschwitz, where they, along with other prisoners, were slowly and systematically starved.
In order to discourage escapes, Auschwitz had a rule that if a man escaped, ten men would be killed in retaliation. In July 1941 a man from Kolbe’s hut ‘escaped’. [The dreadful irony of the story is that the escaped prisoner hadn’t, but was later found drowned in a camp latrine.]

“The fugitive has not been found!” commandant Karl Fritsch screamed. “You will all pay for this. Ten of you will be locked in the starvation bunker without food or water until you die.”

The ten were selected, including Franciszek Gajowniczek. On hearing his name he cried out in anguish. “My poor wife! My poor children! What will they do?” When he heard this cry of dismay, Kolbe stepped silently forward, took off his cap, stood before the commandant and said, “I am a Catholic priest. Let me take his place. He has a wife and children.”

Others looked on in horror, expecting the commandant would be angered, and would order the death of both men. He remained silent, however … before granting the request. Gajowniczek was returned to the ranks, and the priest took his place.

We know the story because Gajowniczek survived the war and told it. He recalled: “I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me – a stranger. Is this some dream?”

Kolbe was thrown down the stairs of Building 13 along with the other victims and simply left there to starve.
For the next long days he encouraged the others with prayer, psalms, and meditations on the Scriptures. After two weeks, he was one of only four still alive. The cell was needed for more victims, and the camp executioner came in and injected a lethal dose of carbolic acid into the arm of each man.
His wait was over …

Apparently Kolbe’s heroism echoed through Auschwitz. Another survivor Jozef Stemler later recalled: “In the midst of such brutalization … never before known, into this state of affairs came the heroic self-sacrifice of Father Kolbe.” Another survivor Jerzy Bielecki described Kolbe’s death as “a shock filled with hope, bringing new life and strength … It was like a powerful shaft of light in the darkness of the camp.”

Shane Warne was a wonderful cricketer, gone too soon.
But Maximilian Kolbe gave his life for a stranger; his name truly deserving of honour and memory.

[John 15:12-13]

Ken F

Embracing Life’s Transitions

By Bruce Gilberd

(Based on Luke 15:11-32; Ps 32; 2 Cor 5:16-21; Josh 5:9-12)

This theme is water-marked in all of today’s readings.
This theme we know well from our experiences of life:

Infancy to childhood to adolescence to adulthood to middle and older years
For many, single to married life – and perhaps single – or married – again!
The transition into parenting and grandparenting
Moving house, transiting to other towns, even countries …
Transitions of work, health, finances, relationships
Transition from non-faith to faith
And so on – some transitions we choose, and some we cannot avoid.

Do we need to locate our inner disposition to such transitions?
Do we resist them? Tolerate them? Do we endure them? Do we embrace them?
Do we trust God with them?

Looking at today’s readings.

Psalm 32 dramatically describes the transition from resistance to God, an unwillingness to front up and be honest with God, to not hiding, to fronting up, to acknowledging the need for forgiveness – and finding God’s steadfast love, and so shouting for joy … Here indeed is a fundamental transition.
In Joshua 5, God speaks: “I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt” – [slavery].
Nations, communities, churches, believers, all of us need to check from time to time whether ideologies, inappropriate rules and laws, our own habits, are enslaving us. What we need to do is travel to freedom!
Also in Joshua there is another transition – the Israelites on the plains of Jericho – the oldest city in the world, I’m told – ate the produce of the land, and the desert manna provided by God ceased.
So this nascent nation transitioned from just being receivers from God, to being co-workers with God – eating the produce of the land they worked on.
II Corinthians 5: the core transition from knowing about Jesus the Christ to knowing and being befriended by him.
His gracious reconciliation gives us the ministry of reconciliation, healing and bridge-building. Again … receivers transition to givers. We are ambassadors for Christ. That is our primary identity … we do any little thing we can to represent him. We are a new creation, and we are to pass that on. Old transitions into new.
Luke 15: I expect the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son are the best known parables of Jesus. The first illustrates that Kingdom life is unexpectedly found in the heretical Samaritan’s kind action. Another transition.
And the in parable of the two lost sons, or the prodigal son, or the waiting father, there are many transitions:
- From isolation to community
- From a far country to home!
- From vulnerability and sin to protection
- From foolishness to welcome, and a party
- From grief to joy, and
- From death to life.

So –

Are there transitions happening to us? And, how are we handling them? Who can help?
Are there transitions we need to make, but are resisting? Who can help, and give us courage?
Are we aware of others making transitions? Can we be of help?
And, yes, again, will we trust God with all our transitions?

I suggest that what makes transitions enhancing are these:

When we address them with a sense of adventure;
when we let go what needs to be let go of;
when we are anchored in the guiding good God;
when we reach out for reliable advice;
when we pray expectantly – trusting God;
when we make unhurried and informed choices.

And in these uncertain days, may our constant and heartfelt personal and corporate prayer be that there are transitions from European war, to peace; from Covid, and all disease, to health and wholeness; and from indifference and unbelief, to belief.

Amen

Why?

by Sharon Marr

(Based on Luke 13:1-9)

This Gospel reading is certainly a reading for today isn’t it. We find just as we avidly follow the news today and try to make sense of it, the folk here are addressing the news of the day and are asking Jesus to make sense of their news: why did the Galileans suffer? why were the eighteen killed when the tower fell on them? they asked Today we would ask … why is the Covid pandemic gripping our world? why is there war in Europe, causing deaths and devastation? Why? Why? Why?

Many years ago, or perhaps just the other day, when I was a child of about seven and my brother was three, he went through a stage of … Why?
“Come inside, Marty, it’s time for your bath,” called Mum. “Why?”
“Because it’s nearly tea time.” “Why?”
“Because dinner’s ready to go on the table.” “Why?”
“Because that’s where we all eat.” “Why?”
By this time Marty was directed, smartly, by an exhausted mum, to the bathroom.
This stage of “why” was not fleeting … and doggedly went on for many months until one day in response to yet another “Why” from Marty, Mum turned around and said, “Just, ’cause.” And silence reigned. Marty, apparently satisfied with this, did as he was asked and “why” was put to bed, at least for a while.

Why do bad things happen to good people? seems to be the question asked of Jesus.
This is an age-old question, isn’t it. I suppose to ask “why” is to be human. We can’t help ourselves; we want to understand. We want to make sense of the world. We want our lives to be logical, reasonable, orderly, sane. Of course, not all the whys of the world are bad; some can lead to really positive outcomes – an example being Sir Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin. When Fleming returned from a vacation to find that a mould had developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate, he noticed that the culture prevented the growth of staphylococci, and thus the “why” of this became life saving penicillin.
But … mostly the whys are because we try to protect ourselves with rationalizations and false assurances. We still crave a Theory of Everything when bad stuff happens. We still look for formulas to eradicate mystery, and make sense of the senseless.

When the unspeakable happens, what default settings do we find we revert to?
“Nothing happens outside of God’s plan.”
“God is growing your character through this tragedy.”
“Don’t worry, the Lord never gives anyone more than they can bear.”
“Nothing is ever lost.”
“Buck up — other people have it worse.”

The problem with every one of these answers is that they distance us from those who suffer. They keep us from embracing our common lot, our common brokenness, our common humanity, and also within these answers we tritely give, it is somehow implied that God was responsible in the first place!

The Good News is here in this reading from Luke: we find Jesus firmly opposes the widely held belief that God punishes sinners with suffering. In fact, as we read on he says that God is like a patient gardener who will give an unfruitful tree another year to produce. Not a mention of a chainsaw here!
God does not punish sin, Jesus says, but gives life. The difference between an image of God as a law-giver and God as a life-giver is huge. Jesus seems to strongly prefer the image of God as a life-giver. The law-giver demands obedience, and rewards or punishes our performance. It’s a relationship based on demand and fear. The life-giver certainly wants us to love one another (as described in God’s laws) but our love is a fruit of our being loved. It’s a relationship of gratitude and trust. God’s response to our disobedience is not punishment but more love, until we bear fruit.

Repentance is a matter of allowing God to love us out of our sinful ways.
When our daughter Lissy was very little she had, as most small people do, a great passion for my pretty bits of jewellery. She loved to put them on and pretend she was a princess or a queen or perhaps even just her mum. Lissy knew, however, she had to ask before she played with my trinkets.
One day I came home from work and found a favourite cross in pieces with a note attached. The note said, “I am so sorry about breaking your necklace Mum. I didn’t mean to I was just playing with it. It is the one with the golden cross. Please forgive me. WILL YOU?” (‘will you’ in capital letters) … and a picture of a face with tears coming from the eyes.

Now, who thinks at this time I should have sat Lissy down and reminded her about Number 5 of the Ten Commandments (Honour your father and mother) and follow that swiftly with the rod suggested in Proverbs 13? Or even ask why it had happened? Well, I didn’t, and I didn’t need to. Lissy at her tender age had realized she had transgressed, she had confessed and she had asked forgiveness, and I with my heart filled with love, gave cuddles and kisses to my darling daughter and the longed for forgiveness. I still have the note from my very loving daughter, laminated, a reminder of many things. It reminds me, firstly, that because Lissy put into words her wrong doing, I was able to forgive easily and with love, a life-giving moment for both of us. And, secondly, most importantly for me, that this is all God requires when we transgress. A contrite heart. God loves us unconditionally, with an extraordinary, absolutely, overwhelmingly unreasonable love that … never ends … it is the only thing that will last.

Why? Just, ’cause.

Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes writes this of today’s reading:
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Because things happen.
God is not an algorithm.
Did the eighteen people crushed by the wall
deserve their death? No.
Does the struggling tree deserve to be cut down? No.
Jesus dispenses with the idea —
the demonic lie — of deserving.
There is no such thing.
God is not bound to the past
and our performance in it;
God is in the present moment.
God is not a cashier,
dispensing what we’ve earned.
God is life, and the giving of life, and nothing else.
No compromise. No conditions.
There is no “deserving”.
It is the lie of Satan, luring you into the past,
into fear, into bondage. It does not give life.
God’s will is not what you deserve,
but what you need.
Regardless of the accidents that befall you,
regardless of evil you do or the evil you suffer,
God’s will is to offer what you need to live fruitfully,
which is always mercy.
A tree that is not fruitful needs nourishing.
A person who is not righteous needs healing.
A son who has distanced himself needs family.
People who crucify need forgiveness.
A Beloved who has died needs resurrecting.
Dare to abandon your calculations
and its illusion of control.
From Life there is only the giving of life.
Receive, and you will have fruits to give.

Why do terrible, painful, completely unfair things happen in this world? I don’t know either – it is mystery. But I do know we can respond by sharing this God-given gift of life with the ‘what happens next’ for others … if we go and weep with someone who’s weeping. If we fight for the justice we long to see. If we confront evil where it needs confronting. If we learn the art of patient, hope-filled tending. If we cultivate beautiful things. If we look our own sin in the eye and repent of it while we can. Time is running short. The season to bear fruit has come. Repent. Do it now.

With thanks for thoughts, clarifications and words from my fellow pilgrims on the journey, Debie Thomas of Journey with Jesus, Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes, and the Working Preacher website.

Our citizenship is in heaven

by Ken Francis

(Based on Ps 27, Luke 13:31-35, Phil 3:17-4:1)

These are troubling times, and if you’re anything like me you’ll have a heightened sense of anxiety about just what is going on in the world. Not anxious, not fearful … maybe just a bit unsettled. This is not the world we were living in ten years ago. I don’t need to list things, really, but – you know – Ukraine, the threat of a third world war, oil prices and inflation, Covid, global warming, divisions in society, violent protests, fake news … what is going on, and how should we be reacting?

The first time I ever heard the phrase “fake news” was after the US election in 2016, when Donald Trump claimed the crowd at his inauguration was much bigger than the one at Barack Obama’s inauguration. It clearly wasn’t, but Trump branded such inconvenient truth as fake news. Now anything gets labelled fake news, whether it is or not, and no one really knows what to believe. There are lies everywhere, but who can tell which ones are actually lies? Putin does. Does Zelensky?

Scripture has no explicit answers to these challenges, but does promote some clear principles and perspectives, and it behoves us to become familiar with it. We need a personal understanding of Scripture to guide us, and calm us, and give us accurate perspective during times such as these.

For example, Micah 6:8 is always helpful – “… do justly, Ken, and love mercy, and walk humbly with God.”
There’s some really helpful stuff in Philippians about being content, and not being anxious.

In today’s readings, Ps 27, says, “Your face, Lord, I will seek. [This is verse 8] Teach me your way, Lord [Right? I want to hear your perspective on things, Lord]; lead me in a straight path. Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses [yeah? Fake news?] rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations.” BUT [v13], “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait [it repeats it] wait for the Lord.”
One time when Jesus was teaching about the latter days of history (in Luke 21), he said: “Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

So … wait for the Lord, and ‘Watch and pray’. That’s what we should be doing in these challenging times. Perhaps a good answer to the question, Who can we believe? Might be … You don’t have to believe any of them! Just watch … and pray.

In the Gospel reading: Pharisees warned Jesus that Herod was after him, and he should make himself scarce. Fake news? Well, Jesus ignores their warning. He’s in Galilee, by the way, but he’s on his way to Jerusalem. And he basically says, I’m ok. Don’t distract me. Herod – “that fox”! – he’s of no account. My time is not come yet, I still have work to do, and anyway, I’m not of this place! I’m bound for Jerusalem. (Then he launches into a moving prophesy about Jerusalem itself. Jerusalem is very much on his mind and heart, and he’s not concerned for his own immediate well being at all.)
I feel this is teaching us, as we try to figure out what is going on in the world, “Don’t worry yourselves: focus on … well, what should we really focus on? Him! What is really true? He is. He is the truth, and no one comes to the Father but through him. (John 14:6) We shouldn’t get caught up in dubious theories we’ve heard of via social media. That’s getting distracted. Deceived, even. St Paul says (in 2nd Corinthians), “I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” And in his second letter to Timothy, he writes, “… impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of.”

Clear instructions to us from God’s Word in these troubling times.

In Phil 3 Paul reminds his readers – and us – that our citizenship is in heaven. [v20] We didn’t read the whole chapter, but Paul starts out saying, don’t listen to these pundits who say you need to get circumcised! In fact, don’t put any confidence in fleshly things at all. I myself, he writes, could boast about a lot of things … (and he lists a few from his outstanding record). Then, [v7], “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. … I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

Further on, “… one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Then, forwards to v18, “… as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. … Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, …” and so on, concluding with, “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, stand firm in the Lord.”

Our citizenship is in heaven!
Think about that, what that means. We are not even part of this mess. “Their mind”, Paul just said of ‘fake teachers’, “is set on earthly things.” Don’t get entangled in earthly confusions or conspiracies. “Our citizenship is in heaven.”

In one place in the Old Testament we are called “sojourners”. [A ‘sojourner’ is defined as “a person who resides temporarily in a place”.] There’s a verse that says, “… we are foreigners … and sojourners, as were all our [fore]fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow …” That’s us. We’re not home yet. Our citizenship is in heaven. We’re only sojourners – visitors … we are manuhiri, not tangata whenua …. The point again is, don’t get entangled in earthy things.

Well, what about justice and freedom and discrimination? Shouldn’t we be on the front line of those?

Yes – by all means. “Do justly and love mercy …”, remember? If God has called us to such things. Go for it. But not if it’s just a social obligation you might feel – and not if it’s going to distract you from God’s real purpose for your life. Get involved in a cause if you feel God wants you to, although, don’t forget, Jesus didn’t involve himself in temporal causes. So, be wise about what you concern yourself with.

One more example of how personal attention to Scripture can ‘blueprint’ for us how to deal with doubt and confusion: James gives some perspective in his Epistle: “Don’t be deceived,” he says. “… Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.
“Religion (and here is James’s take on what we should be concentrating on) religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (Jas 1:27)

Enough. Scripture guides us. Scriptural perspective can focus and calm us in the face of anything. It proposes: Be not deceived [by anything you read or hear], keep your eyes on the Truth [Jesus], and don’t forget that we are just passing through. Our real citizenship is in heaven!

I hope to see you there when we get home.