A Traveller's Tale

What do Jesus and Chocolat have in common?

2010-10-26T19:29:00.002+11:00

Pentecost 23 C: Luke 18: 9-14

One of my favourite films of all time is Chocolat. Set in a French village, just after the Second World War, the film centres around the character of Vianne, a woman who, with her daughter wanders the world following the north wind.

In sharp contrast to Vianne, is the mayor of the town - the Compte de Raynauld, a very proper religious man, who controls the village – ensuring that everyone maintains the proper decorum and religious observances.

Vianne and her daughter arrive in the Compte’s village at the start of Lent and set up a chocolaterie – offering warmth, love and hospitality to all who enter her shop.

Vianne’s customers include several characters who represent the broken and the suffering people of the town:
Josephine who is abused by her husband,
Armande, the grandmother, played by Judi Dench who has lost her relationship with her daughter and grandson and feels that her life now has no meaning.

The righteous townsfolk are caught in a bind: should they follow the proper religious observance, living by the rules of a godly life as upheld by the Compte de Reynauld, or ought they embrace the warmth, love and acceptance being offered to all by Vianne. We are invited, along with the townsfolk, to consider what it is that leads to a rich and fulfilling life. Ought we live like the Compte de Reynauld, or like Vianne?

I share this, because I think there are some interesting comparisons we could make between the film Chocolat and the parable that we’ve heard this morning.

In the parable, two men walk into a Synagogue to pray. A Pharisee, an upright leader of the Jewish religious elite and a tax collector, signifying the lowest, the most undesirable type in society. Both men begin to pray. The Pharisee walks to the front of the temple – you can imagine him addressing God in a loud, self-important voice saying: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’

In contrast, the tax collector stands up the back of the temple, trying to fit in with the brickwork. He would not even look up to heaven, but instead was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

The Pharisee and the sinner in this parable are both extreme examples of human nature – they’re polar opposites. While I’m sure we can both identify people we’ve known who are like either one of them, or indeed we recognise them within ourselves from time to time, these characters are meant to illustrate the extremes of the human responses that are made to God.

The Pharisee has got it all together. He’s what we would call self-righteous. Notice that his own sense of self is predicated on how much better he is than ‘other people.’

Instead of grappling with our own identity or looking at ourselves, we too can focus on what makes us better than others. Such a stance means that to respect ourselves, we need to run others down. And, like the Pharisee, we sometimes like to tell God how much better we are than the sinners, trying to impress God with our religious CV’s: “I attend church meetings twice a week, volunteer at the local nursing home, give money to charity.” Or whatever. In short, like the Pharisee sees himself, sometimes we act as though we are so sure of ourselves that we have no need of God whatsoever.

The tax collector, in contrast is well aware of his shortcomings. He approaches God in all humility: “Have mercy on me, a sinner.” In doing so, the tax collector makes his reliance on God is clear. Because he knows he cannot enter into a relationship with God on his own account, the tax collector instead places himself at God’s mercy.

It’s important to pause for a minute to say something about sin. Sin is not about the ‘ bad things we do’ – likewise confession is not about listing these things so that we can have them struck off our list. Sin, in its most universal sense is simply the things, which separate us from God. We human beings are by our very nature are broken, sinful people. Sin, simply put, is the things we must put down, or let go of in order to return to right relationship with God.

We none of us – the Pharisee, the Compte de Reynauld from Chocolat, nor you nor me can ever ‘do enough’ to make ourselves right with God. It is in fact pointless to even try. Confessing our sin as the tax collector does then, is to accept the fact that the only way to enter into a relationship with God is on God’s terms: by accepting God’s gift of grace as it is offered to each of us – knowing that none of us is worthy of the gift in our own right.

This gift of grace, of hospitality to the outsider – to the broken and forsaken sinner, is most clearly visible in Luke’s account of Christ’s death on the cross. In Luke’s version of the crucifixion, Jesus is caught up in a conversation with the two criminals who are being crucified with him, one on either side. There is no question of the guilt of these men: they both deserve the punishment they receiving unlike Jesus. One of them joined in mocking Jesus saying: “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, reminding him that while they both deserved their punishment, this man, Jesus had “done nothing wrong.” He then asks Jesus to: “remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus’ response to the criminal is the most powerful example of the inclusivity of Christ’s offer of hospitality for all. Despite the fact that the man apparently had earned his execution as a criminal, Christ turns to him and offers him salvation saying: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” The invitation to enter the Kingdom of God is available to all who turn to Jesus, admitting that they cannot make it in their own strength, but only by his grace.

Today’s parable is not just about how we ought to respond to God, but also about the way we should treat one another. We are called to love God, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Not only do we need to love God and respond to him in the way the tax collector does, but we also need to treat those around us with love and respect. These two concepts are so tightly intertwined that they cannot be torn apart.

For Jesus, bolstering one’s sense of identity by disparaging others (even when they are terrible sinners) easily leads to illusions of grandeur and a failure to see ourselves as we really are. It is a kind of “goodies verses baddies” game. The answer is not to pretend the tax collector has done no wrong, but to accept our common humanity and to know that our real value is in loving and accepting ourselves as God loves us and not increasing our own value by putting others down.

The tax collector is also a person of worth. We can forget trying to earn credit points with God and establishing our worth on a relative scale. When we do so, we will have so much more time and energy for compassion, both receiving and giving it. ‘Pharisees’ need grace and forgiveness – just as much as tax collectors.

Let’s return again to the example of Chocolat. In a desperate attempt to ensure that the rules are kept, the Compte de Reynauld prompts the people to treat each other terribly. He has separated out his religious observance from the love of his fellow villagers.

The contrast between the Compte’s behaviour and the way in which Vianne invites people into her shop, and seeks to meet their deepest personal needs could not be stronger. In the end, the love which Vianne offers the villagers through chocolate even causes a change of heart for the Compte.

Towards the end of the film, the village priest finally makes sense of the relationship between the need to love God and love others. Preaching on Easter Sunday he says: “Listen, here's what I think. I think that we can't go around... measuring our goodness by what we don't do. By what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think... we've got to measure goodness by what we ‘embrace’, what we create... and who we include.”

Surely this is what Jesus is saying to the Pharisee. Rather than being self-righteous and caught up in comparing ourselves to others, we need to hold the love of God and the love of others in tight relation to one another.

So where does this leave us? This is not to say that prayer, giving to the church, spending time caring for others, or any of the good things that we do are pointless and worthless. What the parable is getting to is our intentionality as we do these things. If we pray or give or whatever, merely to earn brownie points, to be the best, most self-righteous religious person about, then these actions are meaningless. As Paul says in that section of 1 Corinthians that we most often hear at weddings: to paraphrase – if I have not love, then I am nothing but a clanging gong, or a noisy cymbal.
It’s all about Intentionality.

If our prayer, our love of God and love of one another comes out of a genuine longing for a relationship with God, and if our love for one another reflects the Kingdom of God to those we meet – then like the tax collector in the parable, our prayers are truly worthy of the living God.

The Journey of Discipleship: "Follow me."

2010-06-28T19:54:00.002+10:00

This is the sermon I preached this weekend at a local retirement village. You'll see that it fits the context.
Blessings!
SB

I’ve always enjoyed travelling. Before I began training for ministry I was a teacher, and this has given me some wonderful opportunities to travel.
• Taught Chinese – students to China (things go wrong – broken bones, lost passports, stolen passports etc)
• I’ve also taught in England and travelled around there – as well as using holidays to drive around Europe – (more adventures - stolen purse, losing my mother etc)

What I like most about travelling is that it provides a wonderful opportunity to learn about ourselves – how we deal with difficulties and challenges. We learn about who we really are. We meet amazing people. I’ve made friends whilst travelling that I stay in touch with many years later. Travelling provides opportunities for growth and our development as people.

In today’s reading Jesus too is going on a journey. This reading is the turning point in the gospel: Jesus is now heading towards Jerusalem. We who have read the whole story know exactly what that journey will mean: it’s the journey towards death on the cross, resurrection and return to the father. In the face of what he knows is the inevitable end of his journey, Jesus is determined – he “sets his face” to go to Jerusalem.

This is the journey that Jesus calls his disciples to join him on. The journey to Jerusalem and ultimately the cross.

The first thing that happens, as in any good travel story, is that Jesus sends his disciples on ahead to find a room for the night. The disciple enter a village of Samaritans, but find no welcome there. It’s probably not surprising that a Samaritan town won’t receive him – we know that there is long term animosity between the Samaritans and Jews from other stories in the bible. James and John don’t take this lack of hospitality very well and decide ask Jesus whether they should retaliate – call down fire from heaven to destroy the village. Their response to this slight is way out of proportion –to wreak havoc in the town, destroy lives and families because they wouldn’t offer them a bed.

In response, Jesus rebukes them. The issue is not just the destruction of the Samaritan town, but their whole mindset.
They are not displaying either the love of God or love of neighbour. They are mindlessly escalating a simple rejection into catastrophic reprisal. Instead, Jesus’ response is simply to move on to another village. Jesus, who will later uses the animosity between the Jews and Samaritans as a way of broadening out the idea of who can be a neighbour – who it is that we should show love, care and compassion to, uses this opportunity to teach the disciples another lesson. Rather than escalating a simple rejection and lack of hospitality into a monumental fight – the disciples are instead to move on to another town, to “let it go”, to keep their eyes on the journey ahead. “Don’t lose focus,” Jesus might be saying – “we’re heading for Jerusalem.”

As they continue on, they are met by three people who are considering following Jesus. The first, who voluntarily approaches Jesus is told that following Jesus is to have a life where there is nowhere to lay their head. The journey to Jerusalem and the cross is a difficult and perilous one.

The next two people are actually called by Jesus to: “Come and follow me.” Both are willing, but make excuses – there are things at home that need to be dealt with. The first has an apparently reasonable request: he needs to bury his father before he can follow Christ. The second wants to go and say farewell to those at home. Jesus tells them in no uncertain terms that they are to leave everything behind to follow him.

Did you notice that we are not told how any of these three potential disciples respond to Jesus? Did the first young man return home to bury his father? Did the second go back to get his parents approval? The gospel does not tell us – perhaps because this is not important. Because it isn’t the individual situations of these potential followers of Jesus that matter, it isn’t the point of the story.

If we get caught up in the nature of what the two men want to do before they head off or whether or not they actually end up following Jesus– we miss the point. Because, if we think about our own lives we do the same thing as these young men all the time, don’t we? There’s always something more pressing, more important to do. “Just hang on a sec, I need to ….” is a pretty common response to those we love, and to Jesus.
Because in truth, the things that matter to us always seem to be reasonable and sensible excuses, just as the responses of these men seem reasonable. What Jesus is saying here, is that nothing is more important than following him. There is nothing we should do first before we step out to follow him as disciples. To do so is to be spiritually dead. To follow Jesus is to be spiritually alive. To follow Jesus is to choose life – eternal life, in all its richness and fullness. Jesus isn’t saying: don’t care for your family, don’t meet your responsibilities – what he IS saying is that nothing, nothing, is more important than the life of faith and following him on the journey.

What is the journey that Jesus calls the disciples on like? Is it a cushy simple– it is not one of comfort and rest – but one where there is “nowhere for Jesus, the Son of Man, to lay his head.” To be a disciple is a difficult and costly journey.

So what does this mean for us today? Is this a journey that we can go on? If so, how? Well the first thing to say is that this is not a physical journey of travel, but rather one of spiritual pilgrimage – a call to follow Jesus is a call to enter into relationship with the living God who creates and sustains us.

The nature of a call to discipleship is different for all of us:
• for some it involves overseas missionary work,
• for others ministry in the church,
• for some it’s the intimate ministry of pastoral care: offering a cup of tea and a listening ear for someone in distress. Being prepared to spend time being present to another person in their time of need.
• Or maybe it is the ministry of prayer: praying for the world, for those who suffer, for those whose needs should be brought before God.
• Perhaps a ministry of hospitality: allowing others to experience something of the inclusive love of God.

Whatever the ministry, the journey that we are called to go on is a life long journey, one where our relationship with God grows and changes as we grow and change.

The nature of the activity that takes place may change over the course of our lives, but the invitation does not – nor does our need to continually respond to God’s calling diminish.

The other important thing to say is that we need tools for the journey. Just as a traveller does not set out without sturdy footwear, a good back pack and waterproof clothing, neither can a spiritual pilgrim embark on a journey of deepening relationship with God without the right equipment. The tools of the disciple on the journey are prayer, reading the bible, worship and fellowship with other Christians. These provide sustenance and the nourishment necessary for growth on the way.

So, as I said at the beginning, I love travelling. The thrill of new experiences and sights to see is wonderful. But perhaps the most exciting journey of all is the one that Jesus calls us to go on. A journey to Jerusalem: a journey with difficulty and hardship along the way, but a journey whose ultimate destination is to enter into the rich and abundant life of God.

"Seeing before Believing" a sermon on John 20:19-32

2010-04-11T20:11:00.002+10:00

Some events are so big, so extraordinarily momentous that you never ever forget. You can remember exactly where you are even years after:

Can you remember where you where you were when:
JFK got shot?
Man walked on the moon?
9/11?

When Australia won the America’s cup?
The dismissal?

I remember some of those – but I was but a twinkle for others – they’re not part of my own living memory, but thanks to the wonders of modern technology I have seen the TV footage.

If we were connected to the internet here I’d be able to Google them and we could watch them again now, right here on the big screen as if they were happening live. We’ve become so used to being able to ‘see’ what happened at an important event that we rely on our sight for proof: if we didn’t see it, then it just didn’t happen.

The situation was sort of similar for the people in John’s community. At the time when John’s gospel was being written down the last few eye witnesses to Jesus’ death and resurrection were dying out. The community John was writing for was the second generation of disciples who hadn’t seen the event.

How could they believe what they hadn’t seen for themselves?

The writer of John’s gospel writes down what happened, what the eye witnesses saw – not just merely so that the second (and subsequent) generations could see the events that happened – but so that they might believe. John tells us this in what is sometimes described as John’s statement of intention for the writing of the gospel- he is writing: “so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

The events of the life of Christ, and most specifically the event of Easter, is the biggest of all world changing events. It’s bigger than the dismissal, bigger than JFK, bigger even than Collingwood winning a grand final. We need a record of these events not merely so we can see them happening – but so that we can believe – and through them have life in Jesus’ name.
And we see this point illustrated in today’s Gospel reading. This story is one of my favorite parts of John’s gospel. It is a story filled with suspense:
• the disciples are hiding in an upper room behind locked doors.
• Earlier that very morning Mary Magdalene had been to the tomb and seen that the stone had been rolled away.
• She had called the male disciples and they had raced to the tomb. The other disciple -‘whom Jesus loved’ had seen the grave clothes rolled up and had believed.
• The men had returned to their homes and Mary had been left crying at the tomb.
• Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene and in one of the most beautiful and touching moments in any written text he speaks her name: “Mary.”
• She recognizes him as her teacher and rushes back to the disciples in the locked room and in the verse before our story today begins she declares to them: “ I have seen the Lord.”

The first sighting and the announcement of the Risen Jesus is placed in the mouth of a woman in John’s gospel. One can only imagine the conversation that ensued. Peter and the other disciple had seen the empty tomb, but not Jesus himself.

The disciples in the upper room were afraid. Their beloved teacher been crucified at the hands of the Roman authorities at the request of the Jewish officials. The disciples were hiding from the Jews behind locked doors.

The time setting is just as important as the place: it holds a clue to the significance of the story. The writer of John’s gospel doesn’t want us to miss it so he reminds us saying that it is the “evening of the first day of the week.”

This reminds us of the story of creation In the genesis story on the first day God created the heavens and the earth. This very gospel begins not with the story of baby Jesus being born to Mary but with another reminder of creation: in the beginning was the word – and the word was with God, and the word was God.”

So at the end of his gospel, John is reminding us that this story is happening on the ‘first day of the week’ so that we make the connection to the processes of creation. It is a story with earthly and heavenly significance just like the genesis story. The events in the upper room that night, along with the events of the previous few days are like a “new creation.”

Jesus as God made man enters into human time to build a bridge between the disciples and God.

So on the evening of the first day, the risen Jesus enters into the locked room. Into that fear filled room Jesus speaks these words: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And then he breathes on them and says: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ In the first statement Jesus gives peace to the gathered community of disciples. It is the peace that he promised them on the night before he was betrayed. It is a peace not of this world – but peace which comes from God.

But this peace is not for them and them alone. It is not a gift which can be kept – but one which needs to be passed on.

So Jesus immediately breathes the Holy Spirit on them and sends them out. Just as the Father has commissioned Jesus, so he commissions them to go out and share the good news with the people. The disciples are able to act to forgive sins not in their own power, but because they have received the Holy Spirit. Just as God breathed life into the clay of the earth and created Adam in the genesis story, so the risen Jesus breathes new life into his disciples so that they may go out and join in the work of the spirit, reuniting people with God.

Unfortunately though one of the disciples was not present in the upper room that night and missed seeing the risen Jesus. Thomas was not there.

Poor old Thomas gets rather bad press doesn’t he? Doubting Thomas. He’s been saddled with the title for 2000 years – it’s so common an expression that people who have no idea of the Christian story use it. A bit unfair I think!

If you or I had missed out on what had happened in that upper room I think we’d probably have reacted the same way.
The morning after 9/11 I remember going to the library at recess and standing silently watching the television. More and more students and staff came in and watched. We all needed to see it. The images were unbelievable weren’t they? Even at our school in Melbourne there were kids who had family members who had worked in those towers, and others knew people that were in New York or Washington and were anxiously awaiting phone calls.
We needed to ‘see’ in order to believe. Just like Thomas.

Thomas provides a bridge – a way into the story for the generations who follow – those who, like Thomas want to say – well unless I see it – unless I touch those wounds I cannot believe.

Notice what happens in the story:

Jesus comes again, a week later, into the locked upper room. He doesn’t berate Thomas and tell him off – he invites him to touch his wounds – “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”

Now here’s the interesting part – not what does happen, but what does not.

We are not told what Thomas does – but what he says. We don’t know if he does touch and see – but we do know that he reaches out in belief – because his very next statement is “My Lord and My God!” Thomas has reached out in faith and come to belief in Jesus – not as a mere human being but as the divine Son of God.

And this is our point of invitation into the text. We as readers of the gospels, beyond the original disciples - who are human just like him – who want to see and touch in order to believe are invited to see and know Jesus on a deeper level to “reach out – to not doubt and believe.”

Seeing and but far more importantly believing in the Risen Christ had a profound effect on Jesus’ disciples.

And we see that effect in our second reading from Acts, in which Peter stands up to the High Priest in the council. The disciples had been given strict instructions not to preach in Jesus’ name, and yet they did. Peter stands up to them and tells them that he speaks under God’s authority and with the help of the Holy Spirit that had been given to them by God. When the High priests heard Peter we are told that they were so enraged that they wanted to kill them straight away.

Isn’t this an extraordinary turn around! This is the same Peter who, when questioned by a young girl by a fire on the night that Jesus was taken into custody denied knowing him three times! Now in a potentially much more dangerous situation, Peter is able to stand up and claim his faith. Not only had he seen, far more importantly he had believed: the spirit of God was able to work within him to continue to spread the Good News of Christ.

We know too from later historical sources that Thomas had quite an extraordinary career as an evangelist spreading the gospel. Sources from the 3rd century tell us that he made it as far as India, in fact the Thomist Church in India, one of the very earliest Christian churches claims their descent from the teachings of St Thomas. Thomas who had to see to believe, who came to faith in that moment in the upper room was changed forever. God was able to use him to further his mission.

All of this must have been enormous comfort to the early followers of Christ, caught between the death and resurrection of Jesus and the second coming that they were waiting for with eager expectation.

So it is for us too – for we, like Jesus’ earliest disciples are ordinary folks - we bumble and make mistakes – lack faith and ask questions. We mightn’t have video footage of the events in the upper room that night, but we do have the recollections of the events as they have come down to us in John’s gospel.

Caught between the alpha and the omega – the beginning and the end times we, along with John’s community are the receivers of what happened in the upper room that day.

Just like in that early catacombs painting– between the beginning and the end there is Jesus.
Jesus saying to us as to the disciples in the locked room: “My peace I leave for you” there is nothing left for us to fear.
The Holy Spirit breathed onto the first disciples is also breathed into our lives to empower us and send us out into the world.

May we, like Peter and Thomas be empowered by the Holy Spirit to not fear and to go forth into the world to continue the mission of God.

Jesus' announces his purpose.... and ours.

2010-01-27T14:38:00.006+11:00

Well it's been way, way too long since I've posted anything on this blog - I'll try and post a bit more regularly this year - which should be easier now that I'm not trying to work and study.

I'm experimenting with using fewer notes when preaching - so they're not really great for publication any more. I thought instead that I might post the blurb I wrote for the church notice sheet instead.

Jesus announces his purpose…and ours.

Today’s reading (Luke 4: 14-21) marks the start of Jesus’ ministry. In modern terms, it’s like a campaign launch. What we learn from this reading sets us up for reading the rest of Luke’s gospel.

Jesus is in the Synagogue in Nazareth, his home town. He stands, unrolls the great scroll containing the Hebrew scriptures and reads from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Jesus’ audience that day in Nazareth was much like the one who heard Isaiah’s original proclamation. They are a captive people, living under Roman rule. Many are poor, many suffer from blindness, both physical and spiritual. This proclamation from the scriptures must have been welcome words indeed.

All eyes were upon Jesus. His mission statement is short and pithy: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Then Jesus sat down.

Jesus’ enigmatic statement is as much about who he is as it is about what he will do. Jesus is declaring that he himself is the fulfilment of the scriptures. In his life and death he will bring about the release of the captives. Through him the people will truly see. Jesus himself is the good news to the poor. In other words, it is not so much what Jesus does, the miracles and healings that he performs which matters, it is what they point to: the reality that Jesus is the Son of God, who invites us into relationship with him.

What a mission statement! And it is not the mission of Jesus alone. When we read of Jesus’ baptism a couple of weeks ago we learned that through our baptism we are called into Jesus’ mission: anointed by the spirit with Him to bring Christ’s good news to all people. What does this mean for your own personal ministry? What does it mean for your ministry in our community and beyond?

Doubt: A gift for faith development

2009-04-19T18:09:00.004+10:00

Hi,
Haven't posted for ages, so thought I'd pop up the sermon I preached this morning at Hastings Uniting Church. They're such a lovely bunch down there, and made us very welcome.
Please feel free to comment!
Catch you round,
SB
Easter 2B: Text John 21: 19-31

A week or so ago I drove up through the fire ravaged Kinglake National Park on my way up to Mansfield to visit my family. I was struck by the devastation; the once lush, green forest now destroyed, the earth, the trees, charred black. It was hard to get my bearings as I drove along a road that I have travelled many, many times; the familiar points of reference along the way were gone. As I drove I thought about and prayed for the families who had lost homes and livelihoods, family members and animals. Just under two months on from 7th February, emotions are still raw, people still homeless, decisions about rebuilding homes and communities still being made. For the people living in these areas the process is going to be a long and painful one, some scars taking years, even decades to heal.

My thoughts as I drove through the forest ring strangely true as we look at this week’s gospel reading. For us as we commemorate Easter, 2000 years or so after the fact, the triumph of Easter day and the resurrection seem obvious. The extraordinary effect of Christ’s death and resurrection on the world, on the lives of Christians for the last 2 millennia can be seen and felt. We are living in an era in which we have been able to make at least some sense of the events from the safety of distance and time.

But imagine how it was for the followers of Jesus immediately after his death on the cross. Only a week before, Jesus had entered Jerusalem triumphantly to the adulation of the crowds (albeit riding on a lowly donkey.) Only a couple of days before, Jesus had broken bread and drunk of the cup with them, and, in John’s gospel, had washed the feet of these very disciples. Events had escalated quickly after that and now, according to all reasonable evidence, Jesus was dead. In the evening of the first day of the week, they are meeting in the home of one of the group. We are told that the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jewish authorities.

Earlier that very morning, Mary Magdalene, Peter and the Beloved Disciple went to the tomb and discovered that the stone had been rolled away. Now, in that room with the locked door, the three tell the community about the empty tomb - and Mary speaks of her strange meeting with the man she mistook for a gardener and then recognised as “Rabboni,” her beloved teacher, Jesus. Until this point, the disciples had feared for their lives. Their revered leader has been killed as a criminal and they were surely terrified that they would be next. Imagine what their conversation must have been like as they tried to make sense of the amazing stories of Mary, Peter and the Beloved Disciple in this climate of fear.

Suddenly Jesus appeared in this fear filled upper room. Jesus, the Messiah has returned. What does he say? Does he tell them how he’s going to get revenge, to destroy the Jewish authorities who handed him over to the Romans? You can imagine it as the plot of an action film: Jesus the wronged hero is back. He’s mad. And he’s going to get even. No need for fear disciples: Action Man Jesus has returned and is out for Justice. This time it’s personal.

But that’s not how this story plays out is it? Instead, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he showed them his hands and his side. Jesus spoke into their fear and terror with words of peace and hope which are consistent with the message of his entire ministry. What an amazing transformative effect these words of peace and hope had on his disciples. We are told that they “rejoiced” when they saw the Lord. They were transported from a place of fear into a world of hope. Once injected with this sense of peace and hope Jesus speaks to them of what their mission will be saying again: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” The disciples are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, the advocate who will remain with them to guide them and encourage them in the work which Jesus is leaving for them. From this point on the disciples are transformed. No longer looking back at what had gone before, but looking forward to the possibilities for new life and growth which lay ahead. As we learn in the book of Acts, many of them underwent great trials and sufferings for the sake of the gospel. How very different they become from that fearful, terror stricken bunch we first meet behind locked doors at the start of today’s reading.

However, one disciple is not present in the upper room and misses the action. Poor old Thomas! The other disciples tell him, “We have seen the Lord.” And he responds: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

Thomas has received an extraordinary amount of bad press for this response over the years. In everyday speech we call a person who doubts something unless they have direct physical evidence a “doubting Thomas.” However Thomas’ response to the disciples is spoken honestly, and from the place of fear with which the disciples were all too familiar. We disparage Thomas because we think that doubt is something which is alien to faith. On the contrary, a faith which allows questions of doubt in is one which is open to challenge and ultimately to growth. And this is what we see happening to Thomas in this story.

A week later when the disciples are in the house, although apparently not behind locked doors this time, Jesus appears to them again. This time after greeting them: “Peace be with you.” he immediately addresses Thomas’ doubt. Jesus says to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Thomas’ doubt and questioning lead to an opportunity for the growth and development of his faith. Thomas, who had doubted, is, like the other disciples who are locked behind closed doors that first Easter day for “fear of the Jews”, greatly transformed. It is said that by around AD50 he had reached India – indeed, the Orthodox Church in India, one of the oldest in the world, traces its roots back to Thomas the Twin. Quite something, that a church should claim as its founder, one who is often derided for having doubts!

But so, too, it is with us. We are often lead to believe that doubt damages our faith – that we must believe unquestioningly and blindly. Instead of seeing doubt as the enemy of faith, we should think of it as an opportunity for dialogue with God, an opportunity for the growth and development of our relationship with God. From crisis and turmoil comes growth and change.

Indeed, as I drove through the Kinglake National forest on my way home from Mansfield, I noticed a riot of new growth on the trunks and branches of the trees. Not only that, the beautiful, majestic tree ferns were sprouting new fronds, stretching up towards the light. How extraordinarily resilient is the Australian bush - not two months on from such a horrific fire and there is already regrowth. Even after the devastation and destruction of the Black Saturday fires, signs of new life are beginning to emerge!

Signs of new life amongst the human inhabitants of the fire effected areas are also starting to appear. Last Sunday night, ABC news reported on Easter church services around the state. In Marysville, site of the greatest destruction on Black Saturday, the Catholic and Anglican congregations, having lost their church buildings, met together in a marquee for a joint Easter service. The news reported people who were still lamenting the loss of loved ones, homes, and all they held dear, but who, at the same time, were able to see the green of new growth around them: grass on the football oval, new shoots on the trees that surrounded them. Signs of hope for the future.

Survivors were interviewed and they reported that although they are still reeling and trying to come to terms with the losses they have suffered, nevertheless, they were beginning to be able to look forward, to think about rebuilding their lives and their communities. Of course there will be tough times ahead as people continue to express their doubts and ask the difficult questions, just as there will be for all of us as we continue to try to make meaning of the difficult times we currently find our selves in.

But just as Jesus met the disciples in the upper room with the greeting: “Peace be with you,” so he meets us in our times of need. And just as this greeting in the upper room was able to lift the disciples out of their fear and trepidation at what lay ahead, so can the Christ who greets us in the Holy Spirit give us hope and strength for the tasks which lie ahead of us.

In the centre of today’s reading, after Jesus greets the disciples in the upper room, we have John’s version of the Pentecost narrative: Jesus giving the spirit to the disciples.

Earlier in the gospel, John explains the purpose of the paraclete, the Holy Spirit whom he will leave with them. The spirit is to be a guide, an advocate, one who will intercede with God for them on Christ’s behalf - Christ’s intercession enacting his giving and forgiving love for us. As Christ meets with the disciples in the upper room he breathes on them, leaving the Holy Spirit with them as a companion and support on the road ahead.

And this leads us to the final important point in today’s reading. Where are the disciples to go from here? The disciples are being sent out by Jesus, just has he himself was sent by the father right at the beginning of John’s narrative. This is the premise for discipleship for John’s community and indeed for ours. It sets our agenda by directing us to do what Jesus did: to share his love and forgiveness with others. Jesus offered light and life and truth through relationship with himself, through
relationship with God. Therefore it is our role too to offer light and life and truth through a relationship with God to those we meet. As Jesus was God's representative, so his disciples are to be ambassadors, handing on Christ’s light of hope, to the generations which will follow. We are not left alone to pass on this light in our own strength, but we do it with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, breathed into our very lives.

Having at last reached the end of John’s gospel, the task is clear. Although we may still at times have doubts and fears, as the disciples did, although we will still struggle with the situations we find ourselves in, Christ has given us a task to do and has breathed the Holy Spirit as a guide and advocate for the journey as we go forward to continue Christ’s work in the world. As the gospel ends it seems to be opening up a new vista ahead of Christ’s first disciples, and ahead of us too, a journey that we might have life, and life in Christ’s name. Amen.

Fishy Tales... or Jonah, the Reluctant Prophet

2009-01-25T13:21:00.002+11:00

Epiphany 3B: Jonah 3:1-5,10 & Mark 1:14-20.

Hi all,

After a busy summer of placements and preaching I thought it was time to publish something... so here is the sermon I preached this morning at Ashburton Uniting Church. You'll find BB's sermon on the same reading here.

Enjoy... it's nose back to the grindstone from this week!
Blessings
SB

Today we have two rather fishy stories. Jonah, famous for being eaten by a fish answers God’s call to speak with the people of Nineveh. And in Mark’s gospel the call of the disciples to give up their fishing nets and become “fisher’s of men.” Two very different stories of God’s call and human response which contrast with each other in interesting and rather surprising ways.

Jonah, a very short book of only a page and a half is one which we don’t tend to read very often. I reckon if we took a poll around this and other Uniting churches people would recognise that it’s the story of “Jonah and the Whale” but what happens before that? Why does he end up in the whale’s belly? And what does Jonah do once he’s released? It’s a vivid and interesting story which definitely bears re-telling, especially if you haven’t heard it since Sunday school! It also holds an eternal message which is just as relevant to us today as it was to its ancient audience.
The story begins with Jonah being called by God to be a prophet to the city of Nineveh, to cry out against their wickedness. Jonah is not keen on the idea.
Instead of going east to the city of Nineveh, Jonah gets on a boat and goes west towards Tarshish, as far away as he can from the call. God sends a great wind and a mighty storm blows up. Jonah is asleep down in the hold of the ship and the sailors go down to wake him up. They beg him to do something. They discover that Jonah is fleeing from the presence of the LORD who created the sea and the waves and decide finally to throw him overboard in the hope that the Lord will then calm the sea.
Once overboard, Jonah is swallowed by a big fish. He stays in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights during which time he prays to Yahweh acknowledging that God has responded to his plight and promising that he will give thanks on deliverance. At the end of chapter 2, just prior to today’s story, the LORD spoke to the fish, and, as the NRSV delicately puts it, the fish “spewed Jonah out upon dry land”.

After being saved from the belly of the big fish, comes the story which Andrew shared with us earlier. Jonah hears the call of the Lord a second time asking him to go to Nineveh. Jonah has been given a second chance. This time he heads straight off! We’re told that he walks across the city for three days and cries out: “Forty days more, and Ninevah shall be overthrown!” Instead of asking why this will happen, or indeed who is creating this catastrophe, we’re told that the Ninevites believed God, proclaimed a fast and put on sack cloth. The King on hearing the news proclaims that all should cry out mightily to God – and everyone, humans and animals should be covered in sackcloth. It’s hard not to see a comedic moment in all of this, the dogs, pigs and poultry of the town clad from head to tail (literally!) in sackcloth and parading about the town.

And God’s response? When he was what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity he was going to visit upon them - he changed his mind and didn’t do it.

Now you’d think at this point that Jonah would be pleased. Mission accomplished! Job well done! But no. He became very angry at God. He knows that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and ready to relent from punishing. He tells God that it would be better for him to die than live, and goes and sits in a booth outside the city and waits to see what will happen. So the Lord creates a bush to grow up over Jonah so that he will have shade and be saved from the harsh heat. And this makes Jonah happy. But the next day at dawn God appoints a worm to attack the bush and it withers and Jonah becomes faint with the heat. Again he tells God that it would be better for him to die than to live. The story ends with GOD calmly and compassionately making his point to Jonah: that he has become blinded by his anger to the enormous graciousness of God and the forgiveness shown to the city of Nineveh, the same graciousness shown to Jonah when he was saved from the sea. The evil of the Ninevites did not bring punishment which they deserved: they are saved because of the sincerity and wholeheartness of their repentance: because of the way in which they turned to God.

It’s hardly surprising that the story of the Ninevites is re-told at Jewish festivals as an example of true and complete repentance. But we often respond to stories like this in the same way that Jonah did: with righteous indignation. So often we struggle with the concept that "good people" can suffer while "bad people" appear to get away with it. However this story reminds us that it is the very nature of God to accept our repentance without question and to invite us back into relationship with God.

There is much discussion amongst scholars about the form, the genre of this little book. One biblical scholar even lists 20 different genres he can find within the story! 20 styles of writing in 4 short chapters, 1 and a half pages, now that’s a lot! But one thing they do agree on is that the story has comedic elements. It is meant to be laughed at. And the theological point is expounded to us as part of the comedy.

We could berate Jonah for his lack of faith or courage, for not following God’s call and immediately setting forth for Nineveh. But in some ways I think we can identify with him. He was given a mission impossible. Nineveh was one of the greatest cities of its day. It was a city of conquerors, a commercial powerhouse whose rulers lived lives of comparative luxury and indulgence. The Ninevites were not Israelites, why would they respond to a call from God to repent? I can see how Jonah might have felt that God was asking for just too much.

That’s why the good thing about this story is that God is able to make use of Jonah the reluctant hero to save Nineveh even in spite of himself. The amusing comedic moment in the story where Jonah is swallowed by the big fish and spewed back up on the beach three days later is evidence of Yahweh’s enormous grace and compassion. Jonah mightn’t be a perfect prophet, but God is able to use him all the same. God doesn’t just make use of the best of us – “best”, afterall, is a human standard. Before God we are all inadequate, and even our “best and brightest” often don’t get it, often don’t respond in the way God wants us to. And yet God responds to us with grace and compassion, which, even though it points out our foibles and often seems to pull the rug out from under our feet, is nevertheless the love of God drawing us to God.
Jonah is the reluctant prophet - it takes him three chapters to get to Nineveh. By contrast, it takes a very short 4 verses for the fishermen in Mark’s gospel, our second fishy story for the day, to leave their nets, their security, and their families to follow Jesus. In true Markan style, the fishermen respond immediately. The author tells us nothing of their inner deliberations, whether the fishing was good or bad, if they were religious people or not, if they got along with their father or wanted to get out of their home town and go and see the world. Mark merely says, “And immediately, they followed him.”

Not surprisingly, this connecting phrase, “and immediately,” is the most common phrase in Mark’s Gospel, occurring 33 times in only 16 chapters. It is a powerful phrase because it draws our attention to who Mark says Jesus is: when Jesus speaks, people immediately follow him, demons are immediately cast out, the diseased and disabled are immediately cured. In this context, “immediately” is not a symbol of perfect faith or obedience – it is a symbol of Jesus’ power, of his capacity to draw people to him and respond effectively to human need. “Immediately” highlights the power of Jesus’ call to discipleship.

When Jesus is calling these first disciples to follow him, what is he asking them to do exactly? The answer is found in the first two verses of our reading today when Jesus proclaims the Good News of the Kingdom. He says: the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the good news.” This statement of Jesus, right at the outset of his ministry encapsulates for us the purpose of his entire ministry: to bring people to an awareness of the coming Kingdom, so that they can repent and respond to God’s gracious love. And the very action of Christ’s death on the cross is the action which makes possible our response, building a bridge across the chasm of human brokenness so that we can respond to God’s invitation into relationship that is the Kingdom.

If we think about the situations of our world right now, we can see all too clearly the need for God’s grace. Economic downturn, global warming, and war and chaos are but the most obvious examples. Everywhere, people seem to be in crisis – even our own Uniting church is facing difficult decisions concerning its life and mission. But instead of succumbing to despair or cynicism, or the perverse pleasure of seeing our predictions of doom come true, Jesus’ call to discipleship is a call to focus on working towards the kingdom, toward being “fishers of men”. The call to discipleship is a call to hope: the waters in which we fish may indeed seem troubled, but then, Jesus never said: “Come follow me to a life of ease and comfort”.

Of course, it can sometimes seem all too hard – I can understand why a swift boat to some nice desert island somewhere (Chrystal clear blue waters, clean white sands…. palm trees) might sound much nicer than confronting some of the harsher realities of our time and place. Just as Jonah was a reluctant prophet, not wanting to answer God’s call, so might we be at this moment in history. But if ever our world needed to hear this story of grace and forgiveness, of God’s great love for all of us, not because we are good enough, or because we deserve it, but just because God desires a relationship with us, then surely this is the time.

Some of my photos have been published!

2008-12-30T17:31:00.002+11:00

Hi there,

A couple of my photos of Cardiff were chosen from Flickr to be part of a map which is downloadable to an iphone - the site is called Schmap. You can view my photos on the page in the sidebar on this blog or else from the website here.

I'll be putting a lot more photos on flickr in the coming months so if you're interested you can access my photostream here.

I hope that 2009 is a happy and healthy one for us all.
Blessings,
SB

'Tis the Season to be Jolly!

2008-12-04T18:42:00.003+11:00

You gotta love a bit of Nativity Kitsch! A friend posted a link to this on Facebook and I thought it was worth sharing. My particular fave: The Leprechaun Nativity - although the snow dome nativity is a close second - I just love a good snow dome!

You can find the site here. Enjoy!

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

2008-10-26T20:48:00.002+11:00

Hey,
Tonight mum and I went to see the film The Duchess. It was superb! Beautifully filmed, well acted and a powerful, moving, sad story. Well worth a look!

I went to her home at Chatsworth when I was teaching in the UK in 2002 - it was stunning. I must look out the photos!

The website of Amanda Foreman who wrote the book is here. You can see a trailer for the film there.

Anyway - back to study and essay writing. Was nice to have some time out though.
Catch you round.
SB

Psalms: The Church's prayerbook

2008-08-31T17:17:00.002+10:00

Hey all,

Life has been busy - hence no posting!! Still no time really, but here is a quick post!

We've been doing a wonderful course in Prayer and Spirituality on Fridays this semester. A few weeks ago we did a wonderful session about Praying with the Psalms with Rev Professor Howard Wallace - he's just published a number of books on the Psalms, so he was really able to bring them alive for us.

At the end of it we were asked to write a prayer ourselves in the shape of a Psalm. Despite being an erstwhile English teacher I'm not usually good at this kind of stuff - but here's my contribution. I'd be interested to hear your feedback.

Praise, praise to you, O God of the earth,
for you have created the cosmos and all that is in it.

Praise, Praise to you, O God of the Mountains
You are greater than my strife, more powerful than my tormentors.
Praise, Praise to you O God of the rivers
You bring life giving water to crop and beast.

Who am I Lord, to approach one so mighty-
To ask for help form my creator?

Yet you were with me at the hour of my birth
You knew me before I knew myself.
You understand the deepest desires of my heart, even when I cannot utter them.

O Lord, I rejoice in you, my creator,
God of Heaven and earth
For you are greater than my tormentors
You have known me since the beginning of time.

Blessings to you all,

SB

Intricate beauty

2008-07-29T22:19:00.001+10:00

New Zealand
Originally uploaded by brodzcat

Hey,

I've popped this photo on flickr - just looking at it again - amazing to think about how intricate God's creation is....

Hope you're all well - will post something a little more deep soon - I promise! :-)
SB

Iona Graveyard

2008-06-26T23:01:00.001+10:00

20 iona graveyard
Originally uploaded by brodzcat

Looking back towards the Island of Mull through the Iona Abbey graveyard, burial place of the Scottish kings - including Macbeth!
Iona Abbey is a "thin place" where I felt very close to God.

Actions speak louder than words.....

2008-06-02T20:10:00.003+10:00

One of the joys of Theological Hall is that I get to hear numerous sermons on the same lectionary readings each week. This week I heard 3 sermons, in addition to mine, reproduced below. Enjoy!
SB

Since I started thinking about the lectionary readings for today, two things have been going through my head. Firstly the song: “the wise man built his house upon a rock” and secondly visions of myself as a six year old playing with a Noah’s ark set in Sunday School. I can’t for the life of me remember there being any theological significance to these stories from those early days: but the stories are in my head. For those of us who’ve been around churches for a long time the images we have of these stories from our early childhood are deeply imbedded in our minds: but have we thought since about what they might mean? Do they have any more to offer us than being nice stories we remember fondly from childhood?

The first thing that strikes me is that both of these stories are particularly fitting given the world has just experienced two horrific natural disasters in the last few weeks: the terrible cyclone in the poor country of Burma - a country already living under the control of an oppressive military junta - and the tragic earthquake in Sichuan province in China. Although there is great wealth developing in the big industrialised megalopolises of the Beijing and Shanghai, the areas worst hit by this disaster are poor villages in remote rural areas. And the biggest victims are children trapped inside shoddily built school buildings. Certainly not ones built by wise men on firm foundations. We hear these stories of epic biblical natural disasters at a time when our near neighbours are suffering from similar events. How do we make sense of these two biblical stories in our world today?

Both of these stories - the story of Noah’s Ark and the story of the wise man who build his house upon a rock - are stories of action. In the Noah story, God has had enough: in Gen 6:11 we hear that the earth was corrupt in God’s sight; the earth was filled with violence. God needed to do something: to perform an action in order to wipe away all that he was so unhappy with. And so he chose Noah, a righteous man, blameless in his generation - in fact, the story tells us that Noah was a man who walked with God. God established a covenant with Noah. He asked Noah to build an ark to shelter his family and two of all of the animals of every kind that walk the earth. God promised Noah that he will keep them alive.

An ark apparently was not a great big safe boat which could withstand terrible storms and rough seas. The same Hebrew word is used for the small basket in which the baby Moses was placed in the story in Exodus. The word ark describes a vessel capable of floating in order to deliver its occupants from danger. Strictly speaking the ark was not a boat, for it lacked both a means of power and a steering mechanism. Therefore the course it took and its ability to deliver its occupants were completely under God’s direction. Noah, the one who walked with God did all that God commanded him. And God kept his covenant with him and kept him safe.

Unfortunately this action of Noah and of God was not enough to change the world: it did not rid it of violence permanently. If we fast forward to the New Testament we again see God in action. Once again the people are not able to keep their covenant with God: as Paul tells the Romans in the epistle reading for today: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is no righteous man who God can rely on as he did in Noah’s time to build an ark. However in the very next verse, Paul reminds us that God acts in our lives just as he did for Noah and his family. Paul writes that even though they are sinners, the Romans are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. God’s action in our time is to offer us the free gift of his grace: we can enter into relationship with God through the death of Jesus. Not because we deserve it: we have fallen short of the glory of God just as the Israelites of Noah’s time had done. We have no grounds on which to boast.
Jesus is like a new Noah sent by God to act in the world. The early and medieval churches saw Jesus as a new Noah sent to save the world from its self. There are paintings in the catacombs from the very earliest days of the church which depict Jesus as the new Noah, the one who makes a new covenant with God on our behalf.

However Jesus speaking in the reading from Matthew takes this further. In this story it is clear that accepting the gift alone is not enough. If you hear the word and do nothing else, then you deceive yourself. The point of hearing is not hearing: the point of hearing is doing.

So how do we build a house on a rock, an ark? We do this by developing a strong relationship with God. We do this by ACTIVELY practicing living graciously towards others. A Sunday school faith with simple answers is not enough. In order to build a house upon a rock that can withstand the storms of life we must actively deepen and develop our faith. Just hearing is not enough. We must “do” – faith must become a “lived” experience.

How we treat others reveals how deep or shallow our Christian foundations are: whether they are sunk deeply into the bedrock of God’s love or shallowly in sand. To have deep foundations is to have deeply received the wonder of God’s acceptance of us. In accepting that there is nothing we can do which will make us worthy to accept the gift of God we can begin to absorb that grace into the way we act towards others. It may take a long time, but as we learn to love God and ourselves more deeply, we become empowered to love others more compassionately and generously.

How then do these two biblical stories make sense of the suffering in Burma and China? God calls us to act here too with grace and love. We build a house on a rock, or an ark like Noah if we respond to God’s call to us to treat those who are suffering with grace and love. As the retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said: God has no hands but our hands, no feet but our feet.

Because acting on God’s word is about bringing God’s hope to suffering humanity. And hope is behind the story of Noah’s Ark. After the wildest storms imaginable Noah, his family and all of the animals are finally delivered. God remembers Noah. Once this action occurs the storms abate and the waters finally recede. Yet it is months before they can finally walk on dry land. Noah sends out a dove, and on its second journey the dove ventures afar and returns, a living sprig in its beak. Noah’s entire world of life had been reduced to the seething mass of life, and his hope is reduced to this: a tiny branch with the teeniest green growth – providing hope that new life and growth was occurring somewhere nearby - hope that the waters would recede and they could leave the Ark because God had kept the covenant he had made with Noah. The story of Noah is like a second creation story: with God re-creating the world as God had intended it to be.

Just as God is faithful to Noah, so he is faithful to us in our time. God keeps God’s promises – Christ’s death and resurrection invites us into the fullness of relationship with God. However we are also called to act: it is not enough to hear God’s good news and sit back and do nothing. We are called to be like the Noah’s of our day, loving God’s creation, helping to save people and creatures in distress and helping the world to move into God’s promised future.

Times Online: Top 20 Religious T-Shirts

2008-05-05T18:05:00.003+10:00

Now here's a bit of fun - the top 20 religious T-Shirts on one of the blogs on the Times online religion and faith website. You can check them out here. Incidentally the Times online Faith and Religion page is a really good site for keeping up to date on all sorts of international religious matters: the main page is here.

While I'm at it you can also keep up with the Times Literary Supplement here.
The Times Education Supplement site is here. It is just one of MANY fantastic English teacher's websites with lots of brilliant resources that can be altered for an Australian context. Also really good if you want to look at teaching in the UK - a worthwhile experience to have!

Now better get back to my Greek homework.... if procrastination was a uni subject I'd get a High Distinction! :-)
Talk later,
SB

More China Pix

2008-05-01T23:14:00.007+10:00

Here are a few more photos of China - this time of the Li River - scene of the famous "camera overboard" incident. These photos taken afterwards, on the school camera! You can really see where the misty black and white chinese watercolour landscapes come from.

This one is of the caves in Guilin - truly spectacular.

SB

It must be essay writing time again.....

2008-04-26T16:44:00.002+10:00

I'm supposed to be writing an essay about women and their head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11.... so what's the perfect procrastination device? Internet quizzes!
So much more satisfying that what I used to do to avoid essay writing - less ironing gets done but who cares???
Talk to you soon
SB

Which Jane Austin heroine are you??

Fanny Price

You are smart and shy, a quiet beauty with brains that intimidate everyone around you. You often feel out of place, homeless and alone. As an intellectual idealist, you long to be heard and understood, but rarely waste your time trying to defend yourself to those who could not possibly understand. Time and experience is making you bolder. Despite your clever genius, you long for simplicity, and the love of your soul mate, who is a socially surprising and unlikely match.

More China commentary (WITH PHOTOS!)

2008-04-19T12:59:00.004+10:00

Hi Folks,
BB is beginning to post his responses to China - they make for interesting reading! Whilst I don't agree with everything he says (that would make life rather boring, wouldn't it ;-) his insights make for very interesting and thought provoking reading. BB comes at China with fresh eyes: after 11 or so trips I often don't notice stuff, or rather I notice change - many of the difficult bits I just accept in rather a Chinese way - I can't change it so I may as well accept it as it is.

So for interesting reading I recommend BB's China posts, you can read them here.

Here too are a few photos of China, taken on the school camera. We've also got video footage and in the next week or so I'm looking forward to getting CDs with all of the kids pictures on them so that we can make up a digital tour album. Not as good as having BB's pics - but nearly!

See you soon,
Sandy

SB & BB et al arrive home safely

2008-04-05T21:48:00.003+11:00

Hi everyone!

We arrived home safely this morning with Gary and all 21 kiddlie winks! A fantastic time was had by all.
Last couple of days involved a casualty - BB slipped on the VERY wet deck of the boat, hit his wrist on the railing and our camera fell into the Li River - along with all of the beautiful photos he had taken! I'm quite cross with myself that I hadn't downloaded them onto my ipod - but if I've learned a hard lesson it's probably no bad thing! At least we'll still have the kids pix so there'll be some to show. Still, if that's the worst that happened in 24 days overseas with 21 kids I'm well and truly glad!
Many thanks for all of the comments and messages along the way. Hopefully I'll post a few photos off the school camera tomorrow once I've had some sleep! BB will probably post to his blog soon - he has some fascinating comments to make. Well worth a peek! His site is: www.comfycouchconfessions.blogspot.com

Lots of love to you all, see you soon in REAL time!
Hugs
SB XX

A Long days travel to Guilin

2008-03-31T23:18:00.004+11:00

Hi everyone!
I'm sorry that the last post came out in gobbledy gook- I think I was typing in English in a Chinese font. Sorry about that!
We had a wonderful time at the Cambridge school in Hanzhong. We met up with old friends who have visited here as well as making some new ones. We taught 9 40 min classes on saturday and 8 on sunday - so we're pretty exausted by the end! In all we were able to talk with 3,000 students - not a bad effort for 2 days work huh!

Our kids were amazing! They took to teaching like naturals! It was fantastic to watch. The biggest hit of the visit was one BB - who was adored by all - particularly some of the young girls who made him a number of gifts! I have some fantastic footage of him being mobbed by a whole lot of little people - It's worth a look! He's had a wonderful time and was very touched by the experience. The whole thing was filmed, as was our 2006 visit - so it's now going to be played at the school every weekend, as well as on Hanzhong television! Pretty cool huh! It may even go onto the net at some stage - if so I'll post it so you can check us out.

This morning we got up at 4.30, said a tearful farewell to our friends and headed off back to Xi'an (5 hour bus trip) to catch a plane to Guilin. We've visited a couple of scenic spots and some of the kids have headed off shopping with Gary - and the boys are playing Mahjong with BB. I'm going to head off to do some work on my Greek!!
Tomoorow we're off to catch a boat on the Li river to Yangshuo - promises to be a great day. Will try to blog once more before we catch the plane home on Friday night. Will be home Saturday.
Hugs and love to you all!
SB XX

Hanzhong China

2008-03-29T00:39:00.003+11:00

Hi Everyone!
Thanks for your commenｔｓ!　Ｗｅ'ｒｅ　ｉｎ　Ｈａｎｚｈｏｎｇ　ｗｈｉｃｈ　ｉｓ　ｒｉｇｈｔ　ｉｎｔｈｅ　ｃｅｎｔｒｅ　ｏｆ　Ｃｈｉｎａ.　Ｗｅ　ｓｐｅｎｔ　２　ｄａｙｓ　ｉｎ　Ｘｉ'ａｎａｎｄ　Ｂｒｅｎｄａｎ　ｌｏｖｅｄ　ｔｈｅ　Ｗａｒｒｉｏｒｓ．　Ｈｅ　ｓａｙｓ　ｔｈｅｙ　ｗｅｒｅ　ａｓｔｏｎｉｓｈｉｎｇ　ａｎｄ　ｔｈａｔ　ｔｈｅｒｅ　ａｒｅ　ｎｏ　ｗｏｒｄｓ　ｔｏ　ｄｅｓｃｉｂｅ　ｔｈｅｍ．　Ｗｅ　ａｌｓｏ　ｗｅｎｔ　ｔｏ　ｔｈｅ　Ｓｈａｎｘｉ　ｍｕｓｅｕｍ．　
Ｗｅ　ａｒｅ　ｎｏｗ　ｉｎ　Ｈａｎｚｈｏｎｇ　ｖｉｓｉｔｉｎｇ　ｏｕｒ　ｆｒｉｅｎｄｓ　ａｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｓｃｈｏｏｌ　ｈｅｒｅ．　Ｗｅ＇　ｖｅ　ｈａｄ　ｏｕｒ　ｆｉｒｓｔ　Ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ　ｃｌａｓｓ　ｔｏｎｉｇｈｔ　－ｗｅ　ｈａｖｅ　８　ｍｏｒｅ　ｔｏｍｏｒｒｏｗ！　ＷＥ＇ｒｅ　ｂｅｉｎｇ　ｆｉｌｍｅｄ　ｔｏ　ｇｏ　ｏｎｔｏ　ｌｏｃａｌ　ＴＶ！
Ｓｏｒｒｙ　ａｂｏｕｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｆｏｎｔ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｏｎｅ　－Ｉ　ｃａｎ＇ｔ　ｃｈａｎｇｅ　ｉｔ！Gotta go too!
Lots of Love
Sandy and Brendan XX　

Last Day in Beijing

2008-03-24T14:21:00.003+11:00

Hey all!
Having a great time! Kids were off at homestay over the weekend - so we had some time to ourselves. Brendan, Gary and I did too much shopping and then had lunch in a Thai restaurant. After that went into Jingshan park where you can get a brilliant view over the forbidden city - but it was terribly foggy. Also went and had a look in Beihai park. Walked up to the White Dagoba - which is like a Tibetan Buddhist Stupa and then went home for a little pre-dinner nap!

Dinner on Saturady was brilliant. Brendan and Gary voted it among the 10 best meals of their lives. We went to a Tibetan restaurant and had Yak steaks, salad, momo (tibetan dumplings) and garlic bread with saffron. Superb!!! All this for a total of $100 australian including drinks. Not bad huh! The ambiance was superb - an amazing tibetan movie playing on the big screen and then some singers after dinner. They also brought a lovely plate of fruit for us to share. I even got to use my little bit of Tibetan - Tashidele - it is a greeting meaning "peace" - the Tibetans really like it when you can speak to them!

China Update II

2008-03-21T12:23:00.002+11:00

Hi everyone,
Thanks to those who have posted comments back to us- we appreciate it!

Yesterday we headed in to Tiananmen Square- the political and cultural heart of Beijing, and therefore China. We climbed up on to Tiananmen gate and saw the square from right where Chairman Mao proclaimed the people's republic in 1949. Then we headed into the Forbidden City - the palace for the Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties since the 1400s. It has been extensively restored in recent years - so is looking beautiful in many places with a new coat of paint. The main halls are still under restoration though - wonder if they'll be done in time for the Olympics?

It's interesting having heard many times in Australia that all Beijing taxi drivers are being trained to speak ENglish to deal with tourists - I still haven't met one who can! They're also still quite rude to foreigners - so will be interesting to see how that plays out in the western media at Olympic time!

We had a very quick dinner and a FANTASTIC restaurant - had to bring the dumplings back as we ran out of time - and sent the kids back to the meeting at the school in taxis. Arrived in time for them to meet their homestay families. They all seem pretty pleased about it all - and are looking forward to going to their homestays today.

We haven't been able to go to church today for Good Friday -so have had private prayer ourselves. Am taking the kids to a Buddhist temple for a visit this afternoon - which feels a little wierd. We were going to the zoo to see the pandas - but they seem to think this will fit better with the program. The school here is running as normal today and all are in classes. You'd never know that today is the most sacred day of the christian calendar.

Lots of love and hugs to you all - may you have a joyous and peaceful Easter Season.
Don't forget to comment on this blog and say hi!
Blessings,
SB

China: The first few days.....

2008-03-20T12:38:00.002+11:00

Hello everyone!
We’re having a great time so far…. Although feeling a little sleep deprived! We arrived at midnight on Sunday (China Time) and as I went to set the alarm for the next morning I discovered that I had been up for exactly 24 hours. A long day!

On Monday we took the group to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is the Qing Dynasty emperor’s Summer palace. It has an enormous man made lake and a large man made hill which has a Buddhist temple on top – built by the Emperor Qian Long for his mother’s birthday. We strolled around the lake, along the Long Corridor, caught a boat across to the small island. From there we walked very briskly around the lake and up to the temple at the top of the mountain. A great view was had from the top!

Day two saw the kids having classes in the morning and I thook Brendan to have him fitted for a couple of suits. He should look quite spunky in them! I am also having a couple of silk jackets made. After lunch we took the kids shopping - then to the Temple of heaven (the iconic building with the blue roof that you see in all the shows about Beijing ). This is the place where the Emperor would go once a year to pray for a good harvest. After that partook of Beijing Duck and then took the kids to see a theatre performance at the Laoshe teahouse. It included acrobats, music, comedy and kungfu. Great fun! We finally got home to bed around 10.

Yesterday we went to the great wall at Simatai - a spot I hadn't been to before. Very remote - and VERY steep! We hiked up it for an hour or so - and then slowly and carefully made our way back down. The view was spectacular! Every single one of us slept on the bus on the way home - which says something about how well we're tiring the kids out! They recovered quickly though - and played basket ball before tea and went swimming afterwards. BB and I went for a very brisk 20 min walk to the DVD shop and back. Bought just a few things! :-)

TOday we're off to Tiananmen Square and then the Forbidden city. SHould be a fantastic day. The kids are off on Homestay on the weekend - so the 3 of us adults will get a little much needed grownup space!
Sorry for the brief travelogue nature of this post - in a hurry on a timed connection. I might see if I can post photos another time this week.
Send me a note to say hi!
Hugs to all!
SB XX

Heading off on China Tour this sunday!

2008-03-11T10:48:00.002+11:00

Hi all,
BB and I are heading off to China with 21 kids and one other adult for the Carey China tour. We leave this Sunday at 5.30 am. I'm hoping that we'll be able to keep in touch with people about the journey this time by publishing comments to this blog rather than via email.
Of course we'd love to hear from you while we're away - so please either email us directly or leave a comment on this blog site to say "hi" whilst we're gone.

Much love and best wishes for a happy and safe easter.
Hugs
SB

Useful map for teaching world religions

2008-03-09T14:25:00.004+11:00

Hi,

It's the long weekend and I'm procrastinating. BB is watching an awful old war film and I SHOULD be learning Greek nouns.... but have been web surfing and just found a groovy site with a little movie that shows the growth and spread of world religions over 5000 years in 90 seconds. Very useful!

The website is called www.mapsofwar.com if you want to check it out.

Now back to those Greek nouns....
SB

Servant of God II

2008-03-01T20:38:00.003+11:00

Hi,
Here's the second of 2 reflections I've written recently for our local church's lenten book.
Enjoy!
SB

Christ - the Servant King.
Reading: Jesus washes the feet of the disciples: John 13: 1-11

As Jesus washes the feet of the disciples we recall his great commandment to “love one another.” Jesus loved humanity in all its broken, dirty smelliness even as he performed an act of servant hood for his disciples in washing their feet: feet which had pounded the pavements and dusty roads of Jerusalem in open sandals. This was an act a servant would normally perform: certainly not one for a revered teacher and leader who had ridden into Jerusalem to great acclaim only 4 short days before.

Jesus’ disciples are shocked at this suggestion: Peter says “you will never wash my feet.” But Jesus responds: Unless I wash you, you have no share in me.” To accept Christ is to accept him as a servant: one who ministers to the deepest and most intimate needs. To follow him is to accept not only his ministrations but also his ministry and mission. South African Bishop Desmond Tutu once said: “God has no hands but our hands, no feet but our feet.” To follow Jesus is to use our hands and feet to live the costly and difficult life of a servant to others.

Around the world today many Christians will perform foot washing ceremonies to remember Jesus washing his disciple’s feet. In doing so, they remember their baptismal commitment into the mission of Christ to honour his great commandment to love one another.

The Woman at the Well encounters the Living Water

2008-02-25T15:54:00.009+11:00

Hi Everyone,
Here is the sermon I preached yesterday on The reading from John 4:5-42.
I showed the images on the screen as I was preaching - I've placed them at the appropriate point in this version.
Feedback welcome.....
Enjoy!
SB

Before I begin to talk today about this wonderful, familiar story of Jesus’ meeting with the woman at the well, I want to make a point about where this story is situated in John’s Gospel. Often the placement of a particular episode in the Gospel story has theological significance: widening our view and looking at the stories around it can tell us quite a bit about the point which the biblical author is trying to make. So it is with this particular episode of Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman - it is sandwiched between two similar stories. Last week we heard about Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus. As Ted pointed out in his message about this passage, Nicodemus is one of the heavies of the Jewish temple: a Pharisee. A man well placed to understand the arguments that Jesus is putting forward. And yet when Jesus tells him that a man needs to be born “again” in order to enter the kingdom of Heaven, Nicodemus doesn’t truly “get it”, at least at this stage – although as Ted pointed out he will later become one of Jesus’ staunchest followers. At this stage, though, he does not really understand Jesus’ message about who he says he is.

This section of the story includes two groups having an encounter with Jesus: firstly the woman at the well and secondly the disciples.

Jesus is tired and sitting by the well. He is tired from his previous night time encounter with Nicodemus. Jesus is “spiritually” tired because he has found no one to believe in him. He is also tired from his long walk from Jerusalem into Samaria. The disciples have gone off to buy food and he is left sitting in the glaring heat of the noon day sun.
Image: Woman at the well 1.
Jesus is sitting beside Jacob’s well and he is thirsty. The mention of Jacob and Jacob’s well alludes to the story in Genesis chapter 29. Jacob tells the shepherds they should roll back the rock from the mouth of the well so that Rachel’s sheep could drink. The shepherds refuse, saying, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together” But Jacob goes to the well and moves back the huge stone so that Rachel’s sheep can drink. This background provides an important clue about the outcome of this encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

Another important thing which many commentators point out, is that anyone who knows the stories of the Torah would guess that when there is a man sitting by a well a woman is about to appear. This is true of the story of Rebecca, who became Isaac’s bride: she was found at a well by Abraham’s servant who went in search of a bride for Abraham’s beloved son. Jacob, too, met his future bride Rachel at a well. Likewise Moses met Zeppora, his future wife at a well. For readers steeped in the history of the stories of the Torah this image sets up an expectation: “Ah ha – I’m about to hear a love story.” This opening image has a similar effect as going to see a Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks film might have for us. If Sleepless in Seattle or When Harry Met Sally comes on late night TV we know what we’re going to get. And this certainly is a love story: but it is not going to play itself out in the way the audience might expect. It’s a love story with a twist in the tale.

Who is this woman? The first person with whom Jesus shares the story of who he is, to whom he reveals himself as the “living water”, is not powerful, not rich, not male, not even Jewish. She is a real contrast to the character of Nicodemus. He is a known and named Jewish man of power: a Pharisee and teacher. This woman is unnamed and powerless: the victim of circumstance having been married 5 times. Although we don’t know why she has been married 5 times, nor why the man she lives with now is not her husband, we can imagine how she might feel: rejected, lonely, with a broken self image and perhaps even with deep feelings of guilt and worthlessness. Why would she go to the well in the middle of the day when the sun is at its highest, instead of the cool of the day at sunrise or sunset when the other women might go? It could be of course that she’s just run out of water: but it may also be that she goes to the well in the heat of the day to avoid meeting other women. It certainly seems to me from her reaction to Jesus later that she is indeed a sad and broken woman.

The second thing we know about her is that she’s a Samaritan - which means that Jesus has to transgress important racial, cultural and religious boundaries in order to speak to her. The Samaritans are a mixed race: they are partly descended from Levi, one of the 12 tribes of Israel – so they are related to the Jews. They are also descended from foreigners who settled the Northern Kingdom of Judah after its conquest by Assyria. Their land is Mount Gerazim, near Nablus in the West Bank. The Samaritans revere the Torah, the first 5 books of the Old Testament, in common with Jews and Christians. They pray in the Ancient Hebrew language of Aramaic: the language that Jesus used. Today after war and persecution, they are a tiny group of around 750 people. And in Jesus’ day, they were also a persecuted minority: the Samaritan woman would not expect Jesus to speak to her – and she expresses her shock and surprise when he does.

Jesus is tired, sitting beside the well when along comes a woman carrying a water jar. She has the means of drawing the water that will slake Jesus’ thirst. Potentially Jesus is faced with a dilemma: not only is this a woman but she is a Samarian: he cannot possibly accept water from her. Ironically, the woman herself reminds Jesus of his error when she reminds him that he shouldn’t be asking her, a Samaritan woman, for water. Although we don’t know whether Jesus actually drinks the water she offers him, his human need for water is significant as it creates a need which allows a human bond to form between Jesus and the woman – a bond transcending the differences of their race and sex.

Have a look at how Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche community in France, a man who has dedicated his life to the intimate care of the disabled, responds to Jesus approaching the woman for a drink.

Jesus is showing us how to approach people
who are broken and wounded:
not as someone superior, from “above,”
but humbly, from “below” like a beggar.”
Such people who are already ashamed of themselves
do not need someone who will make them feel even more ashamed,
but someone who will give them hope and reveal to them
that they have value, they are unique, precious and important.
To accept and love broken people in that way
is the surest way to help them grow.
We witness this so often in l’Arche and in Faith and Light,
where we welcome men and women with disabilities
who have lost all self-confidence and self-esteem.
What they need to begin their journey of growth
is someone who appreciates, affirms and loves them
just as they are, in all their weakness and brokenness.
Jean Vanier
Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John.

Jesus knows the depth of despair and sadness of a woman who has had 5 husbands. He doesn’t judge her or condemn her, nor does he condescend or give her moral lessons. Instead, he holds out his cup and allows her to serve him water. This is an act of love that says “you’re ok and I would like to be in relationship with you.” This is where this love story is totally different from any this woman has experienced before: Jesus isn’t going to abandon her as perhaps her five previous husbands have done. He is offering her a different, deeper kind of love – one which accepts her as she is and which will free her from the despair of her life thus far.

This too is the way in which Jesus meets us: we do not need to hide our brokenness from him. Instead we are called into relationship with a Jesus who accepts us just as we are and who loves us just as we are. This in turn is the way we are called to witness to others: not in flowery words or powerful language, but by sharing the love of Jesus who meets the woman at the well just as she is and accepts a drink of water from her.

At this point Jesus turns the story on its head by reversing the role of the giver and receiver of water. Now that he has shown that he accepts her as she is, he is now going to offer her a gift of living water. Jesus is suggesting that it is the woman who is thirsty and he is the one who has the means of slaking her thirst.

What is so special about this gift of water he is offering her?

It seems to me if we think back on all of the sermons we’ve heard preached since the start of this year that there has been a heavy emphasis on one symbol or sign: water. We’ve heard about Jesus’ baptism from the different perspectives of Matthew and John’s gospel and now we’re hearing the story of Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well. At a time when some parts of our land are desperately parched and crying out for water, we are only too aware of our need for water.

Let’s think about this symbol of water for a moment. Without it life on this planet cannot survive. Plants wither and die, animal life, human life is snuffed out. Without water we cannot go on. On the other hand, too much water is equally problematic: just ask those in Queensland at the moment. Flooding rains bring destruction of trees and homes, drowning of livestock and destruction of livelihood.

Today’s story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well is third time the writer of John has used water as a symbol in the first 4 chapters. Firstly there is the story of John the baptiser who baptises with water. We heard Brendan preach on this story in January where he drew a comparison between John baptising with water and Jesus baptising with the Spirit. In that story we came to see that water could be a sign of the Spirit’s rejuvenating and cleansing power.

The second story, and one we have not heard this year is the story of the Wedding at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine. In this story, a wedding has been going on and, disaster of disasters, the wine runs out. Jesus’ mother asks him to turn the water in the big stone jars normally used for washing into wine. Jesus does this: but doesn’t just turn it into the second rate wine normally served to guests at the end of a banquet when they can no longer tell the difference: he turns it into the best wine. Jesus does this not to show us he’s capable of the miraculous but to make a deeper point: that Jesus himself is the “good wine” that is left til last. The point of this second water story is that in the person of Christ new life has come: as biblical scholar Dorothy Lee puts it: “the final celebration of God’s divine reign has begun – and the one through whom the new arrives, the guest at the banquet, becomes the host, the giver, the divine self-gift.”

In today’s story, we come to understand there are two types of water: stagnant lifeless water, drying up and unable to sustain life. There is also life giving, moving, oxygenated water which provides sustenance for the growth and development of all which surrounds it.

In this story of his encounter with the woman at the well, Jesus offers this broken woman, a woman who is spiritually thirsty, water. But as he explains to her, this gift of water which he offers her is one that will mean that she will never be thirsty again. Once she has entered into a loving relationship with the “I am”, the Messiah who is speaking to her, she need never be spiritually thirsty again. A relationship with Jesus is like drinking “Living Water.” It quenches a spiritual thirst so that it never reoccurs. The reason it does not reoccur is the nature of living water: it is water from a “spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” Only at this point in the story does Jesus finally reveal his identity to the woman.
John Shea, American Biblical scholar and storyteller puts it thus:

“Now she is ready. So Jesus reveals his deepest identity to her. He is the “I am.” He participates in and communicates the very being of God. However, the truth about “I am” is that it is simultaneously a “that you may be.” God’s very being is self-communication. So when Jesus says “the one who is speaking to you,” he is tapping into his ultimate identity as the Word. As the Word of God speaking human words he is putting God’s being and love into her. She is sharing in the structure of his identity. She now knows who is saying to her, “Give me a drink,” and he has given her living water. On one level, the conversation is over. On another level, it continues forever.”
John Shea: On Earth As It Is In Heaven.

Let’s look at how the woman responds to Jesus throughout this dialogue. She doesn’t immediately understand who Jesus is when he asks her for a drink, but comes to realise it slowly as he reveals the truth of his identity to her. When he first asks her for a drink she calls him a “Jew”, recognising the most obvious outward sign of his race. As he reveals his deep and intimate knowledge of her suffering, she sees him as a prophet. And, finally, once she hears his voice when he says, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you”, she grasps this “I am,” she understands his identity. She is filled with love. She has recognised Jesus as the messiah, the one sent by God to give the gift of living water. The woman who I suggested went to the well in the glaring heat of the noonday sun in order to avoid meeting others, now leaves her water jar and goes back to the town a changed woman. She goes to share the story of the man she has met at the well, and to encourage them to come back and meet him too. The love which she has received from Jesus in the form of “living water”, which has transformed her life and freed her from the burden of her past, is not a gift that one keeps to oneself: it is a gift to be shared with those around her.

At this point in the story, the disciples return from their shopping trip with food for Jesus. They beg him to eat it but he rejects it saying: “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” This food, he goes on to tell them, is to obey the will of the one who sent him, and to finish the work he was given to do. The weary Jesus, resting by the well, is now rejuvenated and points to that which satiates him on a spiritual level: by doing the work of God, and building relationships with those about him, Jesus receives the food which he needs. So much so that when the Samaritans come back and beg him to stay, he does so. He stays with them for 2 days and many come to believe in him because of his message.
Just as the gift of Living Water that brought the Samaritan woman into a loving relationship with Jesus transformed her life, so it can transform ours. And, if we share the gift with those around us, it can transform their lives too.

Servant of God

2008-02-21T12:38:00.002+11:00

I recently wrote a couple of little reflections for our church Lenten book on the theme of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah. I thought I might share them. The image above is of Isaiah and it is one of the images on the Sistine Chapel roof painted by Michaelangelo.
SB

Servant of God
Readings: Isaiah 42:1-7 & Isaiah 49: 1-6 –Servant Song 1 & 2

The first two servant songs fit together to give us a clear image of the origins of the servant and also of his mission. Isaiah 42 is written from the perspective of the creator and Isaiah 49 has two voices: that of the servant followed by a response from the Lord.

The servant comes from God. We learn from the servant that: “The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.”(49:1b) and we know that God is pleased with what he created: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights.” (42:1) The servant exists in special relationship with God in order to fulfil God’s purposes.

We discover that the servant has dual purposes. The servant is one who will “not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.”(42:4) In Isaiah 49 the Lord says of the servant: “I will give you as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

As we prepare for Easter, let us remember that Jesus, like the servant is the created and beloved Son of God. As we enter holy week, we reflect on two central themes of Christ’s mission: to bring justice to the poor and to bring salvation to all peoples, everywhere.

Prayer: Lord, how awesome is the gift of love you give us in your son Jesus. May I be truly thankful.

What's through the gate?

2008-02-16T22:57:00.003+11:00

I took this photo on a walking track at Cheddar Gorge in England in 2005. I've had it on my desktop for a few weeks and it strikes me as pretty apt given where BB and I are at just now. On Tuesday we'll be heading off for the Comencement Camp for Theological Hall - Our big adventure is finally beginning! We've spent the summer helping out at our local church while our minister has been flat out with a back injury which made for an excellent opportunity to learn about us in ministry. I certainly felt a great deal of "rightness" about the experience which was great.

I'm looking forward to this next stage of the journey with both anticipation and trepidation. I know the process will mean a lot of change - and a deepening of my own spirituality and faith. I wonder how I'll change as I'm "formed" over the next 3 years?
Whatever happens it sure will make for an interesting ride.

Hope you like my image of the gate at Cheddar Gorge - and yes - Cheddar is the place where Cheddar cheese came from originally!
Talk to you soon,
SB

Forgiveness

2008-01-27T21:01:00.000+11:00

Once again the Henri Nouwen reflections site has provided some wonderful food for reflection. Today's particular truth is one that I have had to learn through personal experience - and one of the most important ones. That being unable to fogive ultimately limits our own freedom and growth. If you'd like to subscribe to the Henri Nouwen site's daily meditations the link is in the article I posted on Friday.
TTYS
SB

Forgiveness, the Way to Freedom

To forgive another person from the heart is an act of liberation. We set that person free from the negative bonds that exist between us. We say, "I no longer hold your offense against you" But there is more. We also free ourselves from the burden of being the "offended one." As long as we do not forgive those who have wounded us, we carry them with us or, worse, pull them as a heavy load. The great temptation is to cling in anger to our enemies and then define ourselves as being offended and wounded by them. Forgiveness, therefore, liberates not only the other but also ourselves. It is the way to the freedom of the children of God.

Henri Nouwen Reflections

2008-01-25T22:02:00.000+11:00

I subscribe to the Daily Reflection from www.henrinouwen.org which often provides great food for thought. This particular one resonates with my personal journey - it is not until we have experienced the grace of being forgiven ourselves that we understand what a sacred gift it is to give others. I hope this reflection resonates with you too - if it does you may like to subcribe to their daily reflections too.
Cheers
SB

Receiving Forgiveness

There are two sides to forgiveness: giving and receiving. Although at first sight giving seems to be harder, it often appears that we are not able to offer forgiveness to others because we have not been able fully to receive it. Only as people who have accepted forgiveness can we find the inner freedom to give it. Why is receiving forgiveness so difficult? It is very hard to say, "Without your forgiveness I am still bound to what happened between us. Only you can set me free." That requires not only a confession that we have hurt somebody but also the humility to acknowledge our dependency on others. Only when we can receive forgiveness can we give it.

Baptism of Christ

2008-01-20T21:15:00.001+11:00

Baptism of Christ: 13th January 2008 - Year A

Readings: Isaiah 42:1-9, Matthew 3:13-17

Today we’re going to explore Matthew’s version of Jesus’ baptism. When we arrive at the baptism story in Matthew chapter 3:13, Jesus is suddenly an adult. The last we heard of Jesus at the end of chapter 2, Joseph had just taken Mary and the infant Jesus back to Galilee in Israel after their flight into Egypt. The small babe we read of in Matthew chapter 2 is now the adult Jesus ready to start his ministry on the banks of the Jordan River. It seems odd doesn’t it that the baby being venerated in the manger is, a few short verses later, a fully grown adult about to make his first steps on the road to Calvary. No terrible twos, no toilet training, no learning to read and write or to interact with those around him. Did he suffer from teenage angst? Did he have to learn how to deal with the local Nazarene bullies? We just don’t know. This reminds us that the gospels are not just stories but theological narratives: stories told with a definite point in mind. What we might think are significant details that would help us to get to know Jesus, do not advance the theological argument of the gospel and are therefore left out.
I’m going to argue that there are 3 significant points that Matthew wants us to know about Jesus in this passage.
Point 1: Jesus is human like us.
We’ve heard the story of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan so often that it is really easy to skim over it and miss the deeper meanings within. We just accept Jesus arriving at the Jordan River presenting himself to John for baptism along with all the others. – But notice how John responds. He actually argues with Jesus. Verse 14 says: “John would have prevented him, saying “I need to be baptised by you and you come to me?” John knows that he has been sent to pave the way for Jesus. In verse 11, just preceding this passage, John has just told the Pharisees and Sadducees that: “I baptise you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals.” John is disturbed that the revered one he has been paving the way for does not appear as a great hero/teacher sent to prove his power and might. Instead this first action of the adult Jesus is one of humility.

For this is the truly surprising point about this Jesus. In contrast to the powerful Jesus from John’s introduction a couple of verses earlier, the first act of this Jesus is to put himself on the level of ordinary humanity and seek to be baptized along with all of the others who sought baptism from John. Jesus who is to end his ministry on a cross being crucified between two criminals begins his ministry in a river amongst penitent sinners.
This is how Biblical scholar Fredrick Brunner puts it:
From his baptism to his execution Jesus stays low, at our level, identifying with us at every point, becoming as completely one with us in our humanity in history as, in the church’s teaching he was completely one with God in eternity. Jesus’ “at-one-ment” with the human race visible already at baptism, is as impressive and as important for human salvation as Jesus’ at-one-ment with the heavenly Father…most potent on the cross.
Frederick Dale Brunner, Matthew: Volume 1 The Christbook, Matthew 1-12
So by putting himself in the place of sinners being baptised by John in the river Jordan, Jesus emphasises his humanity. He is at one with us: he is one of us.
Point 2: It reveals Jesus’ mission:
If we hold in mind this idea of Jesus sent to be at one with the ordinary people as we look at the Isaiah reading for today, we start to get an idea of the kind of mission which Jesus is on. Isaiah 42: 1-9 is one of four poetic passages in the Book of Isaiah often referred to as "The Servant Songs." They describe Israel's mission as God's servant people chosen to bring "light to the nations." This passage was composed by an unknown prophet during Israel's exile in Babylon from 586-539BC. Although it must be noted that this passage does not exclusively refer to Jesus, and that we should not read Old Testament texts purely through Christian lenses, the early Christian church nonetheless regarded these poems as prophecies about Jesus, the Messiah.
If we do read the passage with Christ in mind it does give us a firm idea of the role which a servant messiah might play: a role which contrasts with the politically powerful warrior type messiah that the Jews were expecting. The main item on the agenda for the servant is Justice: it is clear from Isaiah verse 4 that the servant is one who will “not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.” This certainly fits with what we will discover about Jesus in the rest of Matthew’s gospel: he is indeed one who is passionate about bringing justice to the poor and the suffering. So this passage, when read with Matthew’s Jesus insisting that he be baptised by John along with the ordinary people in the Jordan, makes it clear right at the start of Jesus’ ministry that he has been sent to side with the humble and the outcast and bring Justice to all the earth.

Jesus’ baptism, coupled with his death and resurrection is an act of redemption – one which rights the injustice of the world and sets the prisoners free. The word redemption literally means “to buy back” In the ancient world there were 2 types of slaves – those born or forced into slavery and others who paid off a debt or crime by becoming enslaved. The second type could be freed if someone paid the debt. They would then be the slave of the purchase or freed completely. Thus we are like slaves who have been set free: no longer enslaved by destructive behaviour but liberated through the baptism and death of Christ. In this way, Jesus paralleling the Servant song in Isaiah brings Justice to the earth.

Point 3: It highlights Jesus’ relationship to the father.
Both the servant in Isaiah and Matthew’s Jesus come from the father.

In the Isaiah reading, God, the LORD, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the one who gave breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk upon it has given the servant to the people in order that he will be a light to the nations: one who is to open eyes that are blind. The servant is a gift to humanity – sent to bring justice and freedom to the world.

The Matthew reading also makes it clear that Jesus is sent by the father. The baptism of Jesus is described only briefly: he “was baptized, [and] came up from the water.” The drama is found in the aftermath when the dove like Spirit descends on him, a voice from heaven is heard, and the identity of Jesus is revealed, “this is my beloved son.” Matthew presents this as a declaration to all who hear it – “this is my son.” This is quite different to Mark and Luke’s accounts where God speaks to Jesus directly: “you are my son.” Matthew wants to declare to all who listen: “This is God’s son.” The story of Jesus’ baptism make clear both Jesus’ solidarity with suffering humanity and his “one-ness” with God.
The words with which God anoints Jesus in Matthew are very similar to those used to describe the servant in Isa 42:1 - 'This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased'. As the servant in the Isaiah reading was chosen and endowed with God's spirit to do the task of bringing justice to the earth so Jesus as God's son was the beloved chosen to reveal God's self to humanity.

Russian contemplative icons

I’ve chosen this icon to share with you because I think it makes a profound point in a pictorial form. This particular icon comes from the Russian Orthodox tradition and was produced around the 14th century. Many people, including a large group within the Uniting Church, write icons as a way of getting inside the story: they find that by painting (which is officially called writing) an icon, or just by meditating on it they come to a much deeper and more profound understanding of the truths within the story. I find that the longer I look at an icon the more things I find within it – icons are full of rich symbolism.
This icon shows us that not only does the story of Jesus’ baptism illuminate profound truths about the identity of Jesus and his role – it invites us into the story: to partake in the baptismal experience.

Here’s a modern version of this icon – it’s a little clearer and easier to read than the 14th century version. You’ll notice that the water at the bottom of the painting splays outwards almost as though we were standing in the water with Jesus. The saints who look on are faced outwards almost as if they too are looking towards us. We are part of the story. Jesus’ baptism is not only for him, it is for us.
See what “the other” Brendan Byrne has to say about this point:

“What Jesus experiences here following his baptism is something that all the baptized can claim. Each one, before any good work of which they may subsequently be capable and simply because of their union with Jesus, can take to themselves that same divine assurance: “This is my beloved son/daughter with whom I am well pleased.”
Brendan Byrne – Lifting the Burden: Reading Matthew’s Gospel in the church today.

This is one of the most personally profound truths of the gospel – and for me one of the hardest to actually come to terms with. There is nothing I can do to make myself acceptable to God –to earn my place in the kingdom. All I can do is learn to submit and accept this miraculous and awesome gift of redemption offered as a result of Christ’s baptism, death and resurrection.

SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION ILLUSTRATION:
One of the best examples in film of just how powerful the gift of redemption can be is in the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption.

Andy Du Fresne is imprisoned for murdering his adulterous wife and her lover. Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, Andy proclaims his innocence and, without giving away too much, we later discover that he was indeed innocent. On entering Shawshank prison the men are stripped naked and hosed down, then marched upstairs to their cells. Thus the cell almost comes to symbolise a womb – “your whole life gone away and nothing but all the time in the world to think about it.” He is the prisoner of an unjust and violent prison system. However Andy holds on to hope – it is the one thing which he claims that the prison system cannot take away from him no matter what they do to him. The Shawshank Redemption is the story of one man attempting to keep his hope of redemption and freedom alive in spite of the overwhelming suffering of his present situation.
The clip I am going to show you is of Andy’s escape from Shawshank Prison. In it we see the moment of his redemption and can feel the blessed relief it brings him.

Andy’s character has experienced a drought of the soul – 20 years in which he has been degraded and dehumanised in the most appalling of ways. The redemptive moment of his escape from prison is marked by Du Fresne lifting his arms in a cruciform fashion and laughing in relief as the rain literally washes the filth of his prison life from him. After this redemptive baptismal experience Andy is able to go and live in peace on a beach somewhere – in a place with “no memory”, somewhere where he would be free of the pain and suffering of his life in the prison.

This is a powerful image for me of the redemptive experience that Christian baptism offers to all of us. Freedom. A freedom to be loved and accepted as children of whom God says: You are my child in whom I am well pleased.”

Mary: Lady in Waiting

2007-12-24T00:07:00.000+11:00

Here is the 3rd of 4 reflections that I wrote for the NRUC Advent reflection booklet. With luck I'll put the 4th one up tomorrow before the jolly fat man leaves the North Pole.....

Text: ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let what you have said be done to me.’ (Luke 1:38)

Advent is the season of waiting expectantly for the birth of Christ. However, often waiting is often tinged with fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of what might happen. Fear of change. Even waiting for events which should be joyous can have an element of apprehension: will things be as wonderful as we expect them to be?

Imagine then how it must have been to be a pregnant, unwed mother in first century Palestine. A social outcast in fear of her life unless she could wed: fast.

And yet Mary had heard the word of God: a promise about who the child she was carrying would grow up to be. Despite her desperate situation Mary was prepared to trust the Lord that all would be well: that her situation would bring about good.

Henri Nouwen in The Path of Waiting puts it like this: ‘To wait open-endedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life. It is trusting that something will happen to us that is far beyond our imaginings. It is giving up control over our future and letting God define our life. It is living with the conviction that God moulds us according to God’s love and not according to our fear.’

As we wait in expectantly for the Christ Child this advent season may we wait on God to change our lives in joyful anticipation of what may happen if we let God define our life.

Prayer: “Lord, help me to put aside my fears of the future and wait expectantly, trustingly on your spirit to change and renew my life this advent season.”

Waiting expectantly for God

2007-12-18T22:30:00.000+11:00

Another of my recent advent reflections....

Text: Luke 1: 37 ‘For nothing will be impossible with God.’

Elizabeth was a relative of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. She and her husband Zechariah were getting old, and although they were both ‘righteous before God’ they still had no children. An angel appeared to Zechariah and told him that his wife would have a baby. Although Zechariah found this hard to believe, Elizabeth was very happy that God had blessed her.
When Mary found out that both she and Elizabeth were expecting a baby, Mary went straight to Elizabeth’s house. When Elizabeth saw Mary the child in her womb lept for joy: Elizabeth recognised instantly that Mary’s child was from God the one that would be the fulfilment of God’s promise to her.

Elizabeth’s story reminds us of the importance of waiting on the will of God. Our God keeps God’s promises. How often do we expect God’s will to be our will, or expect God to answer our prayers in our time? The story of Elizabeth reminds us that God’s big picture is much bigger than our imagining. May we wait patiently for God’s will in our lives to be revealed.

Prayer: Lord, help me to wait patiently for your will to be revealed in my life in your good time.

Prepare the way of the Lord

2007-12-18T22:25:00.000+11:00

Well I've written a few Advent reflections for the NRUC advent book this month - so I thought I'd share them with you in the lead up to the big day next tuesday....

Text: Luke 1:76 ‘And you child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways and to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.’

Luke’s gospel gives an account of the birth and parentage of John the Baptist and links him firmly with Jesus. His birth, name, and office were foretold by the angel Gabriel to Zacharias, while Zacharias was performing his functions as a priest in the temple of Jerusalem. Zacharias’ wife, Elisabeth, was of the daughters of Aaron so John is automatically one of the priestly line. Elizabeth is Mary’s kinswoman, so John and Jesus are related. His family background gives him firm credentials to be pointing to who Jesus is. From before his birth John is set apart for a purpose, and in childhood this becomes clear to all who knew him for they could see that ‘the Lord’s hand was with him.’ (Luke 1:66)

From this point on, until he appears publicly in Israel, John goes to live in the Desert. (Lk1:80) When he appears again at the start of chapter 3 his mission is made clear in the words of the prophet Isaiah. He is ‘A voice of one calling in the desert ‘Prepare the Way of the Lord.’ (Lk 3:4) He comes to baptize with water, and to prepare the path for Jesus. Jesus is the one of whom he says: One more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Luke 3:16) For Luke, John the Baptist plays a central role in preparing the way of the Lord, in readying the hearts of the people to hear the message of the gospel as it related to their lives.

How can we follow in the footsteps of John the Baptist? Do our lives point to Jesus? Although we follow after Jesus rather than precede him, many in today’s world do not know the Christian story. For them, coming into contact with Christian people is like providing a light to their path, an example of why following Jesus is the way to freedom from oppression and ultimately salvation.

Prayer: Lord, may my actions be a reflection of your presence in my life. May I point the way to Jesus too so that others may see Jesus and want to follow in his path.

Zacchaeus and Summer Heights High

2007-11-05T16:38:00.000+11:00

Yesterday I had a preaching Gig at our local parish and I thought I'd share with you some snippets from my sermon. The text for the day was Luke 19:1-10 the story of Zacchaeus. Ever one to use images of popular culture to open up ideas I decided to explore 2 ideas: firstly how Zacchaeus felt and why he needed to climb the tree - and secondly to use Ja'mie King as a juxtoposition to the way Jesus responds to Zacchaeus. I'm not going to repeat the whole sermon - but here are 2 of the key moments. Would be interested to see what you think!

Firstly: Comparing Zaccheus to the lonely playground guide in SHH

The clip I chose shows Ja’mie just after she arrives at the school. A girl from Summer Heights has been asked to show Ja’mie around the school and introduce her to her friends. There are a number of reasons I chose to show this clip. One of the things I like about this clip is that it evokes in us the feelings, the emotions of being an outsider. The little girl who is guiding Ja’mie around the school clearly wants to be her friend. This nameless girl is ostracised because she is “uncool” – she is small, pale, shy and has unruly curly hair. She tries to introduce Ja’mie to her own friends but Ja’mie decides that they are “so boring.” In fact Ja’mie is really only interested befriending the “beautiful girls” despite the fact that her guide tells her that Holly and her friends bully her. Did you see how by the end of the clip Ja’mie is standing with her back to the nameless girl and she is completely outside the circle? She does not fit in and recedes into the background. She is an outsider.

As satire, this clip makes us feel uncomfortable about the unnamed girl being pushed out of the circle. For a lot of us know how it feels to be pushed out of a social group. Because it is a part of life – as a teacher I’d say that just about every kid feels bullied or outcast at some stage. Most of us have experienced being pushed out at some stage in one setting or other – at school, in the work place, in our families or friendship groups, or even in the church. If we haven’t experienced it then most of us will know someone who has. We can sympathise with the nameless girl because we know how she feels.

In some ways Zacchaeus is just like this little girl. He is a small man and quite unpopular amongst the locals. He is an outcast in his local community. Zacchaeus is a tax collector. He is wealthy. Being a tax collector doesn’t seem so bad to us today: now a days tax collectors are merely accountants who are doing their job –with no reason to be despised at all. However Zacchaeus was a Jewish man working for the Roman rulers of the day. And if that were not enough to make him hated, being a tax collector was a position of significant political power. So we could think of Zacchaeus as being a bit like a modern politician on the take. Someone with significant power who is able to use it to unfairly disadvantage others. Zacchaeus is despised and cast out not only because he is wealthy, but because his money has been collected in a dishonourable way – at the expense of others. Life for Zacchaeus is mixed: He is wealthy, powerful and has status, but it he is lacking what is important: he is spiritually poor and is denied access to life in the community – he is an outcast.
Zacchaeus is unable to see Jesus for a number of reasons. Firstly he is a short man. But secondly, he is trapped behind a barrier of people who will not make way to let him in. When Luke points out that Zacchaeus can’t see Jesus on account of the crowd, he is making it very clear that Zacchaeus is a marginalised outsider. His wealth and status can’t buy him respect.

Secondly: The juxtaposition of Ja'mie with Jesus

how does Jesus respond to Zacchaeus up in the tree?
Firstly let’s go back to Ja’ime and her unnamed guide in the playground. When the girl points out to Ja’mie that Holly and her friends bully her and make her feel excluded Ja’mie immediately sees those girls as her new “in crowd”, the girls she wants to be friends with. She meets up with them, tells them how cool and beautiful they are and fits seamlessly into their circle. The unnamed girl is thus pushed out – literally to the back of the group: unwanted, small and alone.

And I think this contrast to Jesus’ response to Zacchaeus really shows us just how powerful Jesus’ action is. Jesus stops under Zacchaeus’ tree and before Zacchaeus even speaks to him he says “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” “I MUST stay at your house today.” This is the crux of the story.

Because Jesus is not only inviting himself to Zacchaeus’ house, he is inviting Zacchaeus back into the circle of social acceptability and belonging. He is inviting Zacchaeus into the Kingdom of God.

Anyway - that's by no means the entire sermon - but a bit of a taster!

Bye for now,
SB

Alas! The holidays are over!

2007-10-04T18:25:00.000+10:00

Sadly the holidays are almost at an end. I did manage to achieve quite a bit: the house is much tidier and I've done some work on my thesis... and had many a pleasant lunch with friends.

I also took Jason who has been staying with us from Hanzhong (See BB's article about him here) up to visit nana at Mansfield. We had a lovely day with her, and also visited my aunts and uncles at Merrijig. Poor old BB had to stay home as his eye hurts at altitude - but we had fun without him.

On the way back I stopped and took this pic of a ruined house. I've often seen it on the way up and back from Mansfield and wondered who used to live in it. There's something rather picturesque and sad about ruined houses isn't there- I always wonder who lived there, who loved, cried, had children, and died there.

SB

Beware of short hairy men......

2007-09-21T17:44:00.000+10:00

I thought I'd join in the fun after BB discovered he was To Kill a Mockingbird... and guess what - I'm The Hobbit! Now that I wouldn't mind so much but the blurb below read a certain way is frankly disturbing.......
TTYS!
SB

You're The Hobbit!

by J.R.R. Tolkien

All you wanted was a nice cup of tea when some haggard crazy old man
came into your life and told you it was time to do something with yourself. Now you're
all conflicted about whether to stick with your stay-at-home lifestyle or follow this
crazy person into the wild. While you're very short and a little furry, you seem to be
surrounded by an even greater quantity of short folks lately. Try not to lose your ring,
but keep its value in perspective!

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Delicious!

2007-09-20T10:13:00.000+10:00

I've just added a link to my favorites on delicious which I'll be adding to over the next little while....

Check it out!!

Will be back with a deep and meaningful blog soon I hope! It's holidays and I've got time to THINK.....

SB

Red Bubble Art Gallery

2007-08-25T09:58:00.000+10:00

Hey,

I've just come across a wonderful site called RedBubble - an online artist's community. If you want to see some amazing photos check it out here.

I enjoy looking at images and meditating on them as part of my quiet time with God... many of these are perfect for the purpose. I love photography... this also inspires me to get the camera out and start taking some pics!

Here's one of mine just for fun - the stuff at Red Bubble is heaps better - but of course can't copy them here due to copyright. I hope you enjoy. It's the oft photographed eilean donan castle. No water in the moat in mine though! :-)

Cheers
SB

What we've been up to......

2007-08-22T22:16:00.001+10:00

Hi all,
BB has written a very good summary of the wonderful Agape service we were involved in last weekend - to read it look HERE.

I'll share the assembly reflections I've presented at school recently in the near future too... interesting to hear what people think!
Take care,
SB

I'm Miss Piggy!!

2007-08-11T16:15:00.000+10:00

When I was in Grade 3 I loved The Muppets - and Miss Piggy was definately my fave!! I'm sure I still have Miss Piggy's Aerobicise album somewhere gathering dust - what a pity I no longer have a record player to play it on! :-)

You Are Miss Piggy

A total princess and diva, you're totally in charge - even if people don't know it.
You want to be loved, adored, and worshiped. And you won't settle for anything less.
You're going to be a total star, and you won't let any of the "little people" get in your way.
Just remember, piggy, never eat more than you can lift!

The Muppet Personality Test

YouTube: The pros and cons

2007-08-01T21:37:00.000+10:00

It's funny how you have a day where you come across one thing several times... today for me it was YouTube. I've been thinking for a while that I should check it out and hadn't got around to it. Today I've been thinking about the pros and cons of Youtube and exploring the same.

So firstly Barney Zwartz in his blog The Religious Write explored the issue of the melbourne skaters who filmed a terrible encounter with a Melbourne Catholic priest and posted it on Youtube. You can read it here. This raises all kinds of questions for me about the appropriateness of publishing material with no checks and balances. Whilst not condoning the disgraceful language used by the priest, it would seem that the kids have baited him in order to film it. They are hardly innocent here. Another incident like this happened at a Melbourne School earlier in the year when kids staged a bullying incident and put it on Youtube - the media got wind of it, blew it out of proportion and a great deal of damage was done before the kids admitted that it was a hoax. Incidents like these make me wonder about the issues related to such technology where there is no controls over what is published.

However, we had a notice from our Deputy Principal today to say that Youtube was being unblocked for staff at school (up until now it was a banned site at school) and that we were free to explore the educational possibilities. So, I've had fun finding Chinese learning tools on it tonight. Try searching "Learn Chinese" on Youtube and you'll see what I mean. Some ordinary stuff, but also some really cute videos and cartoons in CHinese, produced for teaching purposes which I'll certainly be able to use in the classroom.

So what this says to me is this: Youtube is just like MSN, Skype, Facebook, Wikipedia, and dare I say it, Blogger. All of these tools that allow people to communicate easily with people known and unknown are open for abuse and misuse. They are also wonderful tools with enormous benefits if used wisely. We need to explore these new technologies with our eyes open - and make sure the kids do the same!
SB

Standing on the threshold

2007-07-05T12:40:00.000+10:00

Hey everyone!
BB has written an excellent piece about last night's presbytery meeting so I thought I'd link to it rather than covering the same ground... you can find it here.

The only thing I'd add is a ditto on just how difficult it was to get the speeches down to 5 minutes. As it was we had to basically cut them in half yesterday, and as a result we'd left out some important things we'd wanted to say.

If you're interested to see a copy of what I presented, let me know!

One more BIG hurdle to go!
Hugs
SB

What kind of Bra am I?

2007-07-04T11:48:00.000+10:00

Well guess who is on holidays! Clearly my brain has turned to fudge and I'm wallowing in silly stuff. I've just read this quiz out to BB who, whilst he proudly agrees that he's very handsome he reckons it's a pity that I've married a man who doesn't give a toss about lingerie! :-(

You Are a Lace Bra!

Dreamy, romantic, and ultra-feminine

You're a womanly woman who makes guys feel like men

Your perfect guy is strong, determined, and handsome

With a softer side that only you can draw out

What Kind of Bra Are You?

Best get back to something more serious.....
TTYS!
SB

My Facebook Account

2007-06-13T19:19:00.000+10:00

Hi All,

I've succumbed to an account on Facebook. If you have one too then check mine out. It's pretty easy to find me if you know the 'real' me - just put my name in and search! I've managed to make contact with a couple of old friends - as well as catch up with a few OS friends.... it's good fun!

Talk to you soon!
SB

Why forgiveness???

2007-06-04T19:28:00.000+10:00

BB and I were transfixed last night watching Compass. The program for the week was called Every Parent's Nightmare and was the story of Julie Nicholson, a mother and an Anglican priest who has to face the senseless death of her beloved daughter in the 2005 London terrorist bombings. Julie has struggled to make meaning of the tragedy of her daughter's death, and in the program she talked with parents of other children who had died in tragic circumstances: parents whose son was killed in fighting in Belfast, a father whose daughter was killed in the Tsunami in 2005 and mother whose son died of a brain tumour and who gave her son's organs to save the life of another mother's child, and a mother whose daughter has a debilitating motor neurological disease.

The program explored just how difficult it is to forgive when tragedy strikes. As a minister, it is one thing to extol others to forgiveness, but for many parents who suffer a tragic death of a child Julie it seems it is quite another to actually forgive.

Now, I've never managed to get pregnant, let alone have a child, so I can't pretend to understand what it must be like to lose a child. However, my own family was hit by tragedy in 1993 when my father was killed in a senseless motor racing accident. Yes, he chose to race his beloved MG - but those who raced at Phillip Island race track in those days put their faith in the hands of those responsible for track safety. And, in the case of my dad's death there was an enormous question mark over whether those responsible for track safety were even interested in taking responsibility for the upkeep of the track. He hit a tyre wall full of dirt, which no one even remembered was there. And what's more, those responsible hadn't even had a meeting to discuss his death after the fact - they didn't even consider it "significant."

Imagine how it felt for my mother, sister and myself to sit through a coroner's inquest where we had to listen to this. His death was not significant enough for them to even bother to discuss it. He wasn't famous. Easy to sweep under the carpet. At this point we were faced with a choice. Did we spend many years, enormous sums of money in order to sue these organisations to teach them a lesson? Or did we get on with living, with the things that had meant so much to my father, a keen Rotarian who always worked to make a difference for those around him.

For us the answer was not that complex. But it did involve forgiveness. We actually had to let go the anger we felt against those who had, to all intents and purposes been responsible for dad's death. We had to actively choose to move on. As one of the families in the compass program pointed out, forgiveness was an act they had to undertake over, and over again. But it was worth it. Why? Because it allowed us to get on with the business of living.

I've often thought that the Christian doctrine of forgiveness is much more about the forgiver than the one who is being forgiven. The "forgiver" is the one who is freed by the act of forgiveness. The forgiver is the one who gets their life back. To forgive is to choose life. Not to forget the person, or to glibly move on as if one is not suffering enormous pain, because that continues. But it is to choose to begin to heal, so that oneday, perhaps new life, resurrection even will be possible.

For me, that's the heart of the gospel, the point of the Jesus story.

Cheers,

SB

The Wedding at Cana - Chinese Style

2007-05-24T22:14:00.001+10:00

Following on from my last post on the fantastic Chinese Christian Art of He Qi- here's another one of his paintings.

This one is the Wedding at Cana. It's in the style of a Chinese wedding - so the bride is the central figure with the red veil. To the right is the "shuangxi" or double happiness character which chinese people hang at weddings to bring luck to the couple - to the right is another wedding symbol - the red lantern.

The servants below are pouring water into big wine jars - the character "jiu" is written on the jars - "jiu" is the chinese word for wine.

I really love these images as they so simply translate the Christian story into a Chinese context. In exploring his art I can explore 3 things I love at once - Christian imagery, Art and Chinese language and culture - loving it!

If you haven't checked out He Qi's great webgallery yet do so on line - the link is below right.

Catcha soon!
SB

He Qi Gallery - what a find!

2007-05-19T22:16:00.000+10:00

I have discoverd links to this amazing Chinese artist in a number of places as I've surfed the net lately - and when I've mentioned him to people everyone has said "oh yeah - he's fantastic!"

So just in case you, like me haven't seen this fantastic nieve Chinese art version of stories from the biblical narrative - here's a link to his work..... enjoy! http://www.heqigallery.com/index.htm

"I wish Jesus was a woman...."

2007-05-18T21:41:00.000+10:00

Those were the words of one of the girls in my Year 10 RE class today. The comment came right out of the blue for me - we were talking about ways in which we people around the world image Jesus in different ways.

We stopped for a bit to discuss this idea. Several of the girls joined in. They felt that they would be able to relate better to Jesus as a role model if he was female. When I asked why this was, and whether she felt she could relate to any men as role models she thought further and said:

"It's just that I think if Jesus was a woman, men in the church over the years wouldn't have treated women the way they have."

What a great insight!! I then explored with them some of the ways Jesus showed enormous respect for women- far in excess of the cultural mores of his time. We also talked about the ways the church had changed in the last 30 years or so.

Amazing the insights of kids who are not church goers. Amazing the disarmingly honest and open questions and comments they make in class! Whoever said that last period friday was the hardest class of the week???

Thanks for sharing, class, it's a pleasure to work with you!!
Ms B

An $88 million obscenity

2007-05-17T09:07:00.000+10:00

A Painting by the apparently famous american artist Rothko sells for $88 million. This is the lead story in The Age that I read this morning. Article

How is this possible?? There are millions of starving children in the world. There is an Aids pandemic in Africa. $88 million on a painting... has the world gone mad or is it just me??

The 0nly thing that makes me feel slightly better is that Rockerfeller who owns the painting is going to donate the proceeds to charity. (Well he hardly needs the cash does he!) Hopefully it's being donated to real charities, to help real people and it's not just a cover to keep his public image nice and shiny......

Come on world - what are we doing?? How can we allow little ones to be so needy and do so little about it?

One of the reasons I'm applying to candidate for ministry is so that I can focus more on making a difference for those on the margins. One of the things I've always admired so much about the UCA is their focus on Social Justice. Seeing that painting this morning made focus anew on the need to care for the poor and disenfranchised in our world.

Come on people - let's make some noise!
SB

Memories II : Northern Europe

2007-05-13T20:06:00.000+10:00

This post is mum writing about our trip thru Sweden, Denmark German and the Netherlands in 2005..........

We left Perolov's house on April 20th in what he insists on calling MY Mazda 626, a lovely soft green 88 sedan, heading south for 3 hours to Osby to visit my dear friend Linda (the Angel Lady) and her family . Linda and Daniel have three terrific sons, who like to practice their English on me and I'm expected to reciprocate with Swedish. It's fun and we manage to communicate. Linda made us lunch, then it was off to collect Joel from school, before a tour of the town and a walk along a raised timber pathway by Lake Osby, lovely, quiet , Swedish forest. Dinner at home,was followed by the very special Swedish DVD movie I'd bought along the way, then after much shuffling of beds, to fit us in, our first day was over. After breakfast, Sandy tried her hand at using Linda's jigsaw, those of you who've seen her book, know Linda's angels are seriously cute and made of wood. We weren't allowed to leave without an angel each and some paper serviettes designed by Linda, while I was completely spoilt with one of her superb table centre quilts! Then we were off to Odense.

The drive was uneventful, except of course for the crossing of the Oresund bridge between Malmö and Copenhagen, 15 km of bridge, followed by several of tunnel, a huge engineering feat, which costs nearly $50.00 to cross. If the Rotary conference next year is at Malmö-Copenhagen, no doubt we'll be making use of the MUCH cheaper water bus for foot traffic. We still had the whole island to cross, followed by another expensive toll bridge, till we reached Odense. After finding our B&B which was fairly underwhelming, hard creaky beds and no TV,we set off for the rather pretty walk along the river into the town, arriving just too late for the Hans Christian Andersen museum. Still his stories are mostly sad anyway, and he only grew up there, all his writing was actually done in the city. Odense however has a gorgeous old town, with lots of beautifully maintained, quite ancient buildings. The freezing wind made me stop to buy a hooded windcheater, which I subsequently wore to death,and after a dinner of wild boar with mushroom sauce and a prodigiously expensive glass of Aussie red it was back to our room for what was to be our last night in Scandinavia.

The road south to Germany involved another, mercifully toll free bridge, followed by quite a few hours of motorway at 140kmh on average and we were in the slow lane! They were passing us at easily 200kmh, hairy stuff. This continued till the ring road around Hamburg, when suddenly it all stopped and banked up before a rather long tunnel. After about 15minutes, sitting in the centre lane of traffic, we were one of at least 6 cars which suddenly had steam rising from the bonnet. We managed to sidle over to the right lane and get off at the next exit to sit in a garage, talking urgently and expensively to Perolov. Back on our way we were so pleased we'd stopped since the road led through a long single lane tunnel, a nightmare to break down in there! The delay however meant we'd missed Bergen-Belsen, which we'd managed to convince ourselves we SHOULD see, rather a relief actually,' though Sandy is still disappointed , since she often needs to teach from books on the subject.

Eventually we reached the home of our friends Elke and Mark d'Cunha in Celle only to discover when we arrived that we were to stay in a lovely B&B nearby, very spoilt! After a drink, we set off for a local Chinese restaurant for a superb meal, then bed. Next day, we walked in the forest with Elke and their Rhodesian Ridgeback Gandalf, who wasn't very well,a quick trip to their factory, then shopping for dinner at the local supermarket, which I always find very interesting in a foreign country. That done, we set off for the city centre, which has to be seen to be believed. Celle is the second best preserved medieval city in Germany and consists of street after street of 15th-16th century half timbered houses, now shops, many of them four stories high, with tiny rooms, low doorways and floors which meander drunkenly between the displays of produce. Mark had insisted we have lunch with "Hot Pants", which he intriguingly refused to elaborate on. Almost too late, we managed to get a table at this Italian restaurant and all was revealed when the owner arrived to take our order. What a woman! Loved her, she was in her forties, long hair to her shoulders a tight white blouse topping a pair of the briefest hot pants hovering at the top of stockinged legs and high heels. This was complemented by her joyously overt personality, greeting us all with cheek kisses before taking our orders. The sheer force of her personality ensures a full restaurant I'm sure, lots of men of course, but we were in no doubt she's a woman's woman. After a superb meal, we were given a fruit sorbet and a glass of grappa on the house and as we left we got up the courage to ask if we could have our photos taken with her. No trouble at all. After lunch we saw a bit more of Celle, then back to the house for a smorgasbord of wonderful pates, cheeses etc and lots of wine. The next day we watched the Pope's inauguration on TV, history in the making, then at Mark's insistence we were treated to a special meal featuring white asparagus, a local speciality, just coming into season. It started with asparagus soup, then you could choose your meat to go with asparagus, salad and boiled potatoes. I had salmon which was superb and Sandy had hers with the more traditional ham. After this Mark insisted we have sweets as well .

Since we were driving to Holland, we'd had no alcohol, but the restaurant owner arrived with his special home made liquor on the house, oh well , it was only a little bit, but I felt the need of coffee just the same. On leaving Mark and Elke presented us with a bottle of the "Burgermeistertropfen" (38% proof) and half a dozen little bottles of their own specially bottled and labelled Kingfisher Ralzeputz (58% proof).

The afternoon was spent driving to Wageningen in Holland, not far from the German /Dutch border, to stay with our friends Reinhilde and Kees. Due to our sumptuous lunch, we were a little late in arriving in Wageningen, but this was compounded by the complete failure of our Michelin guide computer directions, which told us to turn right, when we should have gone left. This resulted in a hilariously hysterical phone conversation with Reinhilde who had no idea where we were, since my reading and spelling of Dutch street names was totally beyond her comprehension. She told us that Kees was waiting outside for us and suggested we ask a passerby for directions since Churchillveg was a very well known street. This worked and we eventually found poor Kees who said he'd watched us sail past the end of the street and run after us shouting on one occasion! Finally we arrived and were treated to a lovely home made vegetable soup, followed by Dutch sausages served with a cabbage, potato and ham mixture, the name of which escapes me, but it was DELICIOUS. After dinner, I gave Reinhilde the ladybird fairy I'd made for her and was pleased to see her settle into her new home, bringing as she did several of Reinhilde's ladybirds back together with some Australian friends. Then it was off to Kees' house for the night! This time we had our own house, with breakfast set out and ready for us. Spoilt weren't we?

Next morning Kees drove us to the station and we caught the train to Amserdam. First stop was the information centre for a map, then we set off walking to the Rijks Museum via the Anne Frank house, with its queue around the corner as usual, obviously composed of people who had more than one day to see Amsterdam. We took some photos outside and one of the statue of Anne, then followed the canal as much as possible to the museum. The Rijks gallery's collection of Rubens, Vermeer and other Dutch masters was truly spectacular and well worth the long walk from the station. After a quick lunch of salad rolls, we headed for the Van Goph museum, just nearby. Here the security was quite amazing, and included airport like xray screening. Sandy felt there were fewer Van Gophs there than at her previous visit, but it was very interesting to see his artistic progression, from the very dark depressed looking early Dutch ones, followed by his experiments with pointillism and on to the development of his own, highly textured brilliantly coloured technique. Very interesting. Then a very quick, very long walk back to the harbour, where we made our big mistake. We were expected back in Wageningen early enough to go for a special meal of profetjes, the little Dutch pancakes in a restaurant that shut at 8pm. Arriving we thought in time for a short cruise of the canals, we were disgusted to be kept waiting till the boat filled, making us far too late for the restaurant after our long train ride. Embarassed and apologetic, we arrived at Reinhilde's house, but she forgave us and after finishing the soup from the night before,she went out for Dutch takeaway, chips and croquettes filled with beef and a creamy mixture,. Really yummy, together with some carrots and peas cooked by Reinhilde. We were delighted too to discover that while we had been checking out Amsterdam, Kees had spent time with his head under the bonnet of our car and his ear to the phone talking to Perolov and had managed to create a plug adaptor for our cooling fan, so from then on if the car got hot, or if we knew we were to be in traffic, we could just jump out and plug in the fan! Thank you Kees!!

Sandy had been desperate to see a dyke, so after dinner, we just had time, in the daylight that was left, to drive about 10kms to investigate. Being brought up with the story of the little boy with his finger in the dyke, we expected to see a dam wall, but it was actually a long built up grass covered hill. That was the winter dyke, the summer dyke was the elevated road we were driving on and it even had some shops and houses on it. The summer one, was the higher, inner dyke, watched anxiously if summer rains were heavy, by the people living on the inside on what I have to say was very low lying land. We were also fascinated by the large semi-circular metallic gates, which stand high above the landscape until needed, when they are lowered into the water to retain and control the flow. They looked like two upside down u shapes, one surmounted by red lights, the other with green. I tried to photograph them, but it was already too dark. Later we went back to Kees' house , where we all had coffee and and a last chat. That was when Rheinhilde presented us each with two sets of yellow tulip lights, which we had foolishly admired in her house. I should have known better after the ladybirds, how can you forget such kindness?

What will be next? Who knows - wait and see!

Hugs,

SB

psst..... more wedding pix and other stuff at "My Space"

2007-05-13T19:51:00.000+10:00

I'm trying out My space as well as Blogger to see which I like best. (is it heresy? Is it like dating two men at once????)

Anyway - there are more wedding photos and other stuff on my space. Which site do you prefer?? Do I keep this one? The My space one? Both????

VOTE NOW!!!

Link: http://sandybrodine.spaces.live.com/

Memories I : Trip to Italy

2007-04-20T20:52:00.000+10:00

Well I had some lovely comments when I posted this as an email from Italy in 2005. Since I'm not managing a lot of REAL travel at the moment (apart from to Sydney next weekend which doesn't count) I thought I'd post old emails of travels of journeys of travels past so that we could all enjoy them again. If I can find the ones from England in 2002 I'll post those again too!

Ah what fun we had........

We landed in Naples, not the nicest of cities, where we spent a couple of days. Fortunately at least one of these was to tour Pompeii. Pompeii was incredible. The detail of what is left in the streets and houses, lived in nearly 2000 years ago and covered in ash when Mt Vesuvius erupted is quite amazing. There are mosaic on floors, beautiful statues in temples and some quite startlingly pornographic frescos in the bath houses! In all seriousness one of the interesting thoughts which struck me was how similar the layout of churches is to the ancient temples left at Pompeii; you can really see how much the early christians appropriated from the religions around them. Also in Pompeii we visited the Museo which had some fabulous mosaic removed from Pompeii and more erotika! We were quite glad to leave Naples and would advise others wanting to visit Sorrento, Capri or the Amalfi coast, all of which are WONDERFUL to either get out of Naples quickly or avoid it if possible!

Next we headed on the local train down to Piano de Sorrento, a hill side suburb near Sorrento and breathed a sigh or relief to be in a cleaner place free of so many pick pockets, beggars and life threatening mopeds! Sorrento itself was beautiful. I bought some silk scarves very cheaply. We then headed out on a day trip to the Isle of Capri. This was mum's favorite day of the whole Italy experience. We caught a boat around the island. The water was a clear bright aqua colour and the coral growing on the rocks was bright orange. Amazing! We had a lovely Pizza for lunch (along with our usual 1\2 litre of Vino Rosso) in a restaurant in the village of Capri, overlooking the white cliffs and the harbour way down below. It was truly an idylic day!

However, this day was not quite so happy historically, as it was the day after the death of Pope John Paul II. The outpouring of grief at the death of the beloved "Il Papa" was quite mind blowing. That night we heard on the news and read in the papers that there would be about 4 million pilgrims expected in Rome (the final count exceeded 5 million according to the Italian newspaper Il Reppublica if my understanding of Italian serves me correctly!)and we decided that our trip to Rome in 2 days time would have to be cancelled. As it turned out, the day I had tickets booked for the Vatican Tour (having been knocked back for the Vatican Necropolis when it became obvious that JP II was on his final legs) was the very day that 2 million filed passed his coffin, spending upwards of 15 hours in a queue for 15 seconds infront of the bier with his poor old body on display. I think we made a very wise decision! Of course I was very sad to miss out on Rome for a second time. Mum tried to comfort me by saying that really it's just a church with a painted ceiling, and we'd seen plenty of Madonnas with child anyway, but I still reckon it would have been good to be there! Although I suppose I have seen rather a lot of it on TV in the last 2 weeks…. Ah well…. Next time perhaps!!

The following day, whilst desperately trying to call to cancel our Roman accomodation, we took a two hour loal bus ride along the Amalfi coast to the town of Amalfi. Once again amazing scenery, a very narrow road and lots of hair raising stories of cars passing us on bends. Amalfi itself was beautiful. We had a delightful lunch at a "beachside" restaurant and then went and saw the remains of St Andrew, apostle of Jesus, in the cathedral. A beautiful little town perched very precariously on an incredibly steep cliff - definitely worth a visit.

Next, in order to fill the 3 days we were supposed to spend in Rome we went to Perugia in Umbria. This was partly because our next stop was Assisi and we figured it was sensible to head in the right direction. On our first morning there we called Brendan at home in Melbourne who checked the internet for us to get information on what to see and do in the area and how to catch a train. It was quite surreal to be standing in a square in Italy speaking to someone in Melbourne who was describing to me perfectly accurately what I was actually seeing in front of me and how to find the tourist information bureau! Perugia is a lovely city with a beautiful medieval town square, a great art gallery and several quite interesting churches and chapels. (Including a beautiful one painted by Raffaello himself!) Next we spent a day in Cortona (Home to Frances Mayes who wrote Under the Tuscan Sun we discovered on arrival) which is another really lovely medieval hilltop town. Unfortunately since the weather was appalling there wasn't much open, but the Etruscian museum was interesting and the lunch and the coffee and superb chocolate we had later certainly made the trip worthwhile!

Our next stop was my highlight of the trip - Assisi. It was marvellous. Once again a beautiful medieval hilltop town (I was starting to feel like a mountain goat by this stage, and it was doing great things for my weight -bottles of vino rosso and delightful lunches not withstanding!) I absolutely adored the cathedral which was dedicated to San Francesco (St Francis of Assisi in English) with a very peaceful and simple romanesque chapel tomb below it. The ancient wall frescos were absolutely beautiful too, and covered every wall. We had 2 days here and visited all of the sites linked to San Francesco and also to San Chiara. (St Clare, his follower who started the order of the Poor Clares) Despite bitterly cold, rainy, windy and wintery weather we really enjoyed Assisi. Besides, a town dedicated to a saint who dedicated himself to poverty, chastity and obedience to God is hardly a place where one should complain about a spot of bad weather now is it!

From Assisi we travelled to Milano. We only had a day there. The youth hostel where we stayed was ordinary, and the bathrooms horrible, but the town itself was lovely. Milano, believe it or not is a FLAT city! The only one we visited. I had pre-booked tickets to see da Vinci's Last Supper on the net and we had a 15 minute tour. (good thing I did too as when we arrived at 9 am for our appointed tour the "sold out" signs were already up for the day.) Despite the huge amount of damage the fresco has sustained over the years, and the fact that it's original painting as a dry fresco was a very bad mistake on da Vinci's part, it was still breathtakingly beautiful. I found it very hard to take my eyes off it. For those who have read The da Vinci Code, yes John does look rather feminine, but then he does in most of the other paitings we saw of him in Italy (and we saw a few!) so I really am not sure that I reckon it's really Mary Magdelene. The tour guide said that his feminine face was to show that he was much younger than the other deciples. It is beautiful and well worth taking the trouble to book in advance on the net to see it! Other highlights of the day were the Duomo (shrouded in canvas as it's being cleaned) but enormous and beautiful inside as well as 2 more art galleries with works by da Vinci, Raffaello et al again. They had the cartoon of the famous Raphaello painting in the Vatican of the Greek Philosophers - so I kind of felt I got close at least!

We then spent a relaxing 2 days at Lake Como. After nearly a week in youth hostels we stayed in rather a nice little B & B just a short 750 m ride straight vertically up the cliff on the funicular. There was a great country market in the square and we had a wonderful 2 hour boat ride on Lake Como. Several nice lunches and some beautiful dinners at our B&B were also a highlight of this city. I have some really nice photos of the lake and our time there!

From here we caught a local bus to Bergamo near Milano to catch a plane to Sweden. The views of the Alps from the bus windows were beautiful. As if we hadn't seen enough art we took advantage of the 1.5 hours we had here to go to a Cezanne/Renoir exhibition which was refreshing with it's Impressionist lack of religious themes! Arriving at the airport we discovered that Ryan Air (a European cheapie airline we were taking to Sweden for about $50 each) had lowered their baggage allowance to 15 kgs per person. Given mum's purchases this meant we were about 9 kgs over! No matter, we pulled everything out, secreted the heavy stuff in our hand luggage(something I am well practiced at) and went through without any excess luggage bill. I must say it was nice for the first time EVER not to be the one responsible for the heaviest luggage!!

We've spent the last 3 days relaxing at Perolov's place in Sweden. He took us to see the cranes that fly up from Spain for the summer and we also had a look at a Viking Stone Circle nearby which was about 1500 years old. We've also downloaded the photos, and I faithfully promise to create an edited selection for anyone who wants to see them -there are rather a lot already! (and that's for me you'd be horrified if you saw how many mum has taken!!) On Wednesday we head south for Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Wales Ireland for a day, and then¨ Scotland. From there mum heads back to Sweden and I am going to London for 10 days to catch up with people I met when I was there in 2002. Then I'll go back to Sweden for Midsommer festival which I'm really looking forward to. Hopefully the travel from now on will be easier (touch wood) because we are borrowing a car from Perolov - bless him! Mum has promised to write the next installment for all of those brave enough to read more from us. To those of you who made it to the end of this, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed hearing about our trip and stay tuned for the next bit of the journey!!

Fun huh!! Next I'll post mum's email of the travels we did in the rest of Europe.....

Hugs to all,

SB

Wedding pix 2

2007-04-08T20:10:00.000+10:00

For some reason I can't add more images to the last post - so here are some more:

Finally: "Our Wedding!!"

2007-04-08T19:06:00.000+10:00

Our wedding was a beautiful, beautiful day. It was a lovely sunny summer's day - but not too hot. It was officiated by two very dear friends of ours: the Reverend Ian Brown and the Reverend Jillian Stewart and took place at Toorak Uniting church.

Brendan and I put a lot of time into planning the service with Ian and Jillian and were really pleased with it. It was a sacred and moving time for us both, and for many others in the church. Many said to us later how touched they were by Ian's beautiful sermon: it really spoke about how significant marriage is for all of us. The finishing touch was the simply divine music provided by my school's choir joined by a number of our ex-students, including Katie Radcliffe who sang the Ave Maria in the most hauntingly beautiful voice. It was such a wonderful gift! We were really moved by the beauty of the service, and are really grateful to Jillian and Ian, and our attendants, Larissa, Nadine and Claire, and Brendan's brother Andrew and nephew Scott for taking part in it.

After we'd had coffee at the church after the service and taken LOTS of pics (Thanks Bev!) and video (thanks Linden!) we then headed off to mum's house for the "bbq and drinks" in lieu of a 'serious' reception. I've remarked to many people that the fact that the groom made his speech barefoot and in jeans says something about the kind of function it was. It was really laid back and relaxed, and many of our friends took the opportunity to talk to get to know others they'd never met. I was also rapt that a number of my students from school volunteered to serve the food and drinks - it was brilliant to be able to share the day with you guys. All in all, it was a great night!!

For my overseas friends: When you look at the pictures of the wedding at mum's you'll see how very dry it was. We're in the middle of a terrible drought. It's a little more dry now - but we're still desperately in need of rain. It's pretty bleak here at the moment!

Anyway, finally some photos to show you all what a wonderful wonderful day it was! My apologies for taking so long! Thanks very much for all the prayers, love and support which got me, and us to this day!

If you want to see pics of the honeymoon - Brendan has produced a beautiful account of it on his blog: http://comfycouchconfessions.blogspot.com/2007/02/sacred-spaces.html

And he also has produced a beautiful testimony to our wonderful, beautiful dog Connor who departed this life earlier in the year aged 10. How we miss you beautiful face Connor-T-dog ! http://comfycouchconfessions.blogspot.com/2007/01/vale-connor.html

Love to you all - Here's to making a more concerted attempt to staying in touch!

Hugs
Sandy XXX

A reflection on the story of Elisabeth and Mary in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 1.

2006-12-24T17:31:00.000+11:00

How must Mary have felt finding out that she had "found favour with God" and was going to give birth? She an unmarried woman! Given the social mores of the time, when she heard from the Angel Gabriel that she was with child, she must have been terrified. The repercussions for her once her pregnancy became known were enormous. In favour with God or not, in real terms, she was in serious trouble. Her response is one of incredible faith in the face of very real danger.

Mary made a long journey to see her see her cousin Elisabeth. The danger to a young woman making such a journey alone is palpable. When she arrives she discovers that her cousin Elisabeth, an older woman, who has until now been barren, was also with child. Elisabeth, we are told is a descendant of Aaron, and so part of the holy line. Her husband Zechariah had also heard from the Angel Gabriel that their child would be special - it would pave the way for the son of God. Zechariah, who did not immediately believe the words of the angel, questioning him how his barren wife could become pregnant, has his mouth stopped until the birth of his child. Despite being a priest, he did not understand as the women did.

And so when Elisabeth saw her kinswoman Mary, she responded with great joy. Not, as an older, wiser relative berating a younger one who has fallen into error, but as one blessed by God to have the "mother of my lord" visiting her. Elisabeth too does not fear the social consequence of harbouring her young unmarried relative who ought to be punished for her crime; she exalts her as the mother of her savior. Even the "child in my womb leaped for joy." Elisabeth's courageous faith in God allowed her to understand and accept the word of the Angel Gabriel, no matter how 'unreal' it may have seemed.

What follows this story is Mary's "Song of Praise" to God; her Magnificat. One of the most beautiful passages of the gospel, made more so with the realization that Mary, who ought to have been terrified by her pregnancy, is able to embrace this gift from God. More than that, she sees herself as a lowly servant of God, one who does the work of God, who from that time on would be seen as blessed. Her faith enabled her to accept a pregnancy which put her in perilous danger and gave her strength for the journey which was to follow.

This Christmas, let's meditate on the God given faith of Elisabeth and Mary, these two great women of faith. May God bless us all with a modicum of such faith in the face of the trials and tribulations of our lives.

Merry Christmas!

Hugs
SB

Back in Black - back to my "roots"!

2006-11-12T15:44:00.000+11:00

Following the conversation about theme songs and BB's theme "Back in Black" below, as well as a visit from a Kenyan group at church this morning I've been reflecting on some genealogical discoveries I've made lately....

My aunt was very excited with the prospect that we might have african blood in us. So now that I can in fact confirm that my 6X great grandmother was and African slave in Antigua, named Joanna she'll be chuffed!! I must confess to being rather excited by the news myself. I've always felt a calling to Africa and things african, and a desire to do what I can to aid the situation there. I wonder if I can find out what part of Africa Joanna was taken from? I'm certainly going to try to find out as much as I can about it. I'll go further into this in another post some time I'm sure.

This photo is of Joanna's great grandson Adolphus Trott, his son George Henry Stevens Trott (the famous cricketer and captain of the Australian XI in 1896 and his son Francis Henry Trott - my great grandfather.)All three were known as Harry. It was printed in the Australasian in 1918 - under the heading: 3 generations of Trotts. Adolphus arrived in Australia in the 1850s with his uncle's family, half brother and his grandmother (Joanna's daughter Betsy) Theirs is a fascinating story, and one which I am learning more and more about.

If there's one thing genealogy has taught me it is this: We are much, much more closely linked to each other than we think. We cannot be indifferent to the suffering and agony of Africa - for they truly are our family - one way or the other. The family of man is a much tighter knit family than we think.
Talk to you soon
SB

My 'perfect' song......

2006-11-03T18:24:00.000+11:00

Your Theme Song is Beautiful Day by U2

"Sky falls, you feel like
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away"

You see the beauty in life, especially in ordinary everyday moments.
And if you're feeling down, even that seems a little beautiful too.

What's Your Theme Song?

Amusing how this website works - pretty cool that it found a U2 song! :-)
Love,
SB

2006-11-03T18:14:00.003+11:00

You Are 100% Psychic

You are so very psychic.But you already predicted that, didn't you?You have "the gift" - and you use it daily to connect with others.You're very tapped into the world around you...Just make sure to use your powers for good!

Are You Psychic?

Well..... there you go!!! Wonder what my family will have to say about that!! XX

Further along the road.....

2006-11-01T13:01:00.000+11:00

Another interesting progression along the road this week! Last week I was being offered positions that seemed to distract me from the discernment road. Monday I went to see my boss who gave me what he called "old fashioned advice": that I should follow my heart and not my head. Not bad considering that I had, after much prayer made the decision to do exactly that over the weekend. Not that it really was a decision mind you - but it's interesting to have to give up "what might have been" and rather nice to be approached even if I don't want the job!

I've been trying in the last few years to shift from being a LOTE teacher to an RE teacher - this week an opportunity arrived to assess religion exams, and another to join a relevent subject association. Interesting how so many different things are jumping on my path at the moment - or is it just that I'm becoming super sensitive to these things?

Would be interesting to hear what you'all think!
Love,
SB

Where to from here?

2006-10-29T15:46:00.000+11:00

I've always liked certainty. Knowing who I am. Where I am. Where I'm going. Having somewhere to aim for. I like security. An obvious example of this is the fact that I've been in the same school for 12 years now. Sure, I had a year overseas - but to all intents and purposes I have enjoyed where I've been - and so I've stayed. There's been plenty of challenge, new opportunities as far as classes and pastoral challenges that have made it an interesting journey. I've also loved the collegues I've had to work with and of course the fantastic young people who have made their way through my classes.

So entering into a Period of Discernment for ministry is an interesting change of direction. What it really means is giving up that life raft of security I've enjoyed for so long. Earlier this year I applied for a job which would have given me the best of both worlds: able to stay at my school and chaplaincy. Fortunately others could see this wouldn't be the best thing for me. And now, just as I'm on the brink of beginning - a phone call offering me my dream job. That which I would have given anything for a few years ago. What once would have been a great opportunity seems more like a block on the path - obscuring my vision and having the potential to block my view of what really matters.

I'm reflecting on what it feels like to give up my sense of security - to actually trust God with my future and leave my life in his hands. It's quite a brave thing for someone who likes security as much as I do! Stepping into an unknown future seems a brave thing to do. However I have two big things on my side - the love of God calling me on to new and exciting adventures - calling to a life of service where I can hope to make a difference in the lives of those around me - and also the love of a truly wonderful man. What a great blessing that is.

I pray that God will be with both of us on this journey - and lead us along the right path. And if that's not the one I want to go down now - I pray that God will give me the grace and understanding to put it asside and find the truly right path for me.
I'm in your hand's Lord - hold me gently.

Hugs!!
SB

Jeffreys family of The Mumbles Wales

2006-10-03T14:54:00.000+10:00

During our visit to the UK last year, mum and I managed to do some family history research. We visited knew that mum's Jeffreys ancestors came from The Mumbles and went to the Cardiff public record office. We discovered that John Middleton Jeffreys, the ancestor who came to Australia, and his brothers and sisters were all born at either Norton House, or Norton Lodge. JM Jeffreys is the grandfather of John Middleton Brodin, the ancestor buried on The Somme, subject of another post on this blog.

As we drove into The Mumbles, we were quite excited to see a sign pointing to "Norton House Hotel." We followed the sign and discovered this lovely boutique hotel. Clearly the Jeffreys family weren't short of a bob or two when they were in Wales - what a shame that JM Jeffreys came out here as a struggling labourer!

Norton Lodge was over the road - another lovely house -now an old people's home. We could only see the gates unfortunately.

We also visited the church and then checked out where the family lived in Swansea in the 1700s.

If anyone is interested in this branch of the Jeffreys please feel free to respond to this post.

John Middleton Brodin's grave

2006-09-10T18:20:00.000+10:00

One of the highlights of our trip last year was being able to visit the grave of mum's great uncle, John Middleton Brodin (Jack) brother of her great grandmother. He was killed at Poiziers in France - one of the worst battles Australians ever fought in. On a beautiful sunny summer's day in a sleepy peaceful village it was hard to imagine the horror of that day.

We were really touched by how beautifully kept the cemetery and monuments are ninety years after the battle. It certainly is a fitting tribute to all those Aussies, English, Canadians, New Zealanders etc who died on the Somme.

Jack was born in Euroa and worked as a wood cutter. He fought in Egypt and then in France. 2 days before his death he was disciplined for gambling. The letters in his military file from his mother trying to get information about his whereabouts and injuries when he was wounded make very sad reading. Apparently she never really recovered from his loss.

It was a privelige for us to be able to visit.

SB

How cute is this!!

2006-09-04T09:58:00.000+10:00

We've got a new toy in our house - a slide scanner. So last night I was scanning some ancient Lee family slides and came across this cutie of me as a small person!
Just incase anyone wanted PROOF that I was taught to do housework, here I am pegging washing on the line.
No wonder I turned into the domestic goddess I am today!
Hugs
SB

Synchronicity

2006-08-26T22:18:00.000+10:00

Friday was one of those days when it felt like the past and the present had come full circle.

We took our students from school to the "Chinese Cultural Forum 2006" which in itself wasn't that exciting. It did give me the chance though to meet up with several old friends, including my old Chinese teacher of some 15-20 years ago. David and I had a lovely time catching up on life.

When I went back to school, one of my ex-students Michelle, who is currently doing teacher training came in to teach my class as part of her teaching rounds. It was a bizarre experience watching her teach, remembering the young kid she was, not so long ago sitting in my classroom! I wonder if David was having the same memories of me as we were standing and catching up earlier in the day!

It's not too often that we get the chance to see how we have influenced those around us. I hope I have in a small way had some influence on Michelle. And I'd like to take this opportunity to thank David for the enormous influence he's had on me. He is truly a wonderful teacher. And I hope I encourage my kids to love the study of Chinese just as he has done for me.

Talk to you soon!
Hugs
Sandy

Picturesque Scotland

2006-08-23T17:07:00.000+10:00

One of my fave things about travelling is taking photos. It's a real joy to be able to look at them later and to be able to share them with friends.

That's what's great about digital cameras - I love having lots of photos I have taken on my computer so that I can view them as screen savers. It can make for amusing conversation starters when I have been using my lap top in class and it goes onto slideshow whilst I am talking!

So I thought I might occasionally share a pic or two.

This one is from my trip to Scotland last year. It was taken on the road to the Isle of Skye. We lost count of the number of times we stopped on the journey to take pictures. I like this one because it's slightly off centre, and because of the way the piece of land in the foreground breaks into the reflection. There's also some little tiny rocks leading out from it which break the perfection on the reflection on the lake.

Ah Scotland! You really are God's own country! There's nowhere on earth quite like it!!

Have a great day!
SB

Visitors from overseas

2006-08-23T17:00:00.000+10:00

Hey all,

It's been a great week! We've been lucky enough to have some friends from overseas come to stay, one from Texas and one from the UK. It's been great to show them our beautiful city.

A couple of things struck me though - firstly how much we don't know about how home country or city (in my case Melbourne Australia) or how much we might have known once, but have now forgotten. For example, one of them was asking about Monotremes, as we were at Healesville Sancturary. Now somewhere back in the dim distant past I probably knew quite a bit about egg laying mammals - but really had to think about it!
The other fascinating thing is the words we use and the way we look at the world. We often think of Australia/UK and USA having fairly similar cultures. It's not that way at all!! It was amazing just how many little differences there are between us.

Doesn't that make the world an interesting place to be! So thanks to our friends for enriching us with your visit - I think we got as much from it as you guys did!!

Ciao,

SB

Where to begin?

2006-08-19T15:06:00.000+10:00

It's always hard to know where to start with something new isn't it!

My interests are ecclectic in the extreme - so it's rather hard to say what the common thread of this blogsite will be.... guess we'll just wait and see.

Hugs

SB