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Death, smells and extravagant love

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As we read this gospel today it’s important to realise that it is a few verses of a much bigger story and so, gathering the stories around it there are a bunch of words swirling around in my head - smell, death, anointing, feasts, service, extravagance, generosity and love. We have just read, in the previous chapter of John, about the raising of Lazarus from the dead (and here we are in Lazarus’ house). When they were going to open the tomb, Martha was worried about the stench of death, the smells begin back there in the story.  I’m guessing that most if not all of you by this time in your lives have at some stage had a reason to go to the undertakers, perhaps to view the body of a loved one or to discuss funeral arrangements for someone. There is an unmistakable smell there - its a combination of the embalming fluids, cleaning products and flowers. It’s unmistakable and I find it somewhat unpleasant, but its not the same as the “stench of death” Martha had mentioned. Back then the...
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Of Politicians and Hakas - Apocalypses old and new

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“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” So said Winston Churchill in 1948. But sometime it feels like we are doomed to repeat it anyway or at least that is what I found myself thinking as I looked at the book of Daniel. I wonder how familiar you are with the book of Daniel? We don’t get much of it in our Sunday lectionary readings. Perhaps you might remember back to Sunday school days  and the stories of Daniel in the lions’ den or Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and their stint in the furnace. Heroes for their faith while in exile in Babylon and miraculously rescued. But Daniel is a book in 2 halves - the first half is those stories we remember set in the royal court in exile. The second half of the book is quite different, it is what we call apocalyptic literature.  It is full of dreams and visions, terrifying monsters and angels. Today’s reading comes from the end of that apocalyptic part of Daniel. The weird bit. Perhaps that is why we shy away from ...
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Radical Inclusive Hospitality - Maundy Thursday 2024

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When my sister messages that she’s on her way to our home, I’ll likely respond with something about putting the jug on to boil.   These days in our society perhaps the most common act of hospitality is offering one’s visitor a hot drink. Back in 1st century Palestine it would be “come in, come in - let me get you some water for those feet”. Most commonly the water would be for the visitors to wash their own feet, occasionally perhaps a slave might do it. But not the host, never the host. This action of Jesus is an act of hospitality - but not just any kind of hospitality it is an act of radical hospitality - going far above and beyond.   An act whereby His disciples are welcomed into His presence, into the home which Jesus shares with His Father. It was a place of love - this is made clear by that verse we didn’t read tonight which, in the King James, version speaks of the Beloved disciple “leaning on Jesus’ bosom” The Message version puts it like this “One of the disciples, t...
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Prioritising Listening

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 I wrote this book review for NZ Christians in Science.   https://www.nzcis.org/the-convo/prioritising-listening/
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Care for creation - all talk and no action?

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Ezek 18: 1-4, 25-32 Phil 2:1-13 Matt 21:23-32 Last week we read 'the parable of the workers in the vineyard' OR 'the parable of the generous landowner' depending on how you read it. One way of reading that parable is that the landowner was giving each worker what they needed to get by, a living wage in today’s terms. Every Sunday we pray the Lord’s prayer “give us today our daily bread.” Sometimes we have prayed Jim Cotter’s modern version of the Lord’s prayer.  This is the one that begins “Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver”; when it comes to the bread petition it reads “with the bread we need for today, feed us”. This acknowledges that God is the one who provides, and it is the bread we NEED not the bread we WANT, and it is sufficient for TODAY, not a huge surplus. Just as in the wilderness with the manna, God provided the daily needs for the people every day and they were to collect just enough for their needs for that day and no more and there was ...
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Easter Tree

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Sacrament - a poem

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  SACRAMENT The presence of God It's in the sweet sacrament divine, consumed mid prayer and worship It’s in the skill and compassion a doctor brings to her patients The cracked voice of the dying woman as we pray the psalm together In the beauty of a rose now blooming in her garden that she will never see It’s in her pain and the love of her faithful friend who sits with her on this journey It’s in the righteous anger that blazes sending a greedy fraudster on their way In the protective love of a daughter whose turn it is to defend the one who sheltered her It’s there in the beauty of the trees, the blue sky and billowing clouds It’s in the music - the sound of silence, “can you feel the love?” It’s everywhere The world is sacrament. (This was written after some days when my work as a GP and priest and my role as daughter came into particular focus together.)
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