The Reverend Canon Dr. Ray Cleary – Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent

This time two years ago I had the privilege of leading the Ordination Retreat for 7 people, {2 deacons and 5 priests} in the Diocese of Newcastle. The retreat was held at a Holiday Park on the shore of lake Myall about 120 kilometers north of Newcastle. It is a beautiful location with much bird life and sanctuary for a wide variety of animals. Although I was a little apprehensive about a holiday as avenue for a retreat the location was ideal and provided the space for the candidates to spend time in;

  • Reading the scriptures
  • Prayer and worship
  • Silent refection
  • Walking and swimming
  • Discussion

I was reminded of the retreat experience when reflecting on our readings for the day that centre on the wilderness, places that allow us to explore, reflect and engage with the divine in places like Myall Shore national park, but also deserts and mountains that are in abundance here in Australia.

Speaking with family friends last week, once very regular church attenders, they spoke about how with the business of their lives Church has become less important and they seek and find God on their weekend travels into the mountains of Gippsland, walking and experiencing profound moments of faith on their journey. Others of my friends express similar sentiments, less committed to the Church as an institution but committed to the Christian narrative, although as I point out to them that does not equal belief.

I love camping in the desert. I could be called an outback junkie. Camped at night along the road to Birdsville or the Onadattta track, under the stars with a roaring fire and a good bottle of red or port is heavenly for me. Here I solve the problems of the world and my dreams for our country, for the children of the future, take shape. I say to myself if I was in charge there would be no more of this or that and we would love one another in true Christian spirit. Romanticism you may say. This is my idea of heaven-a place of hope, a space for reflection and inspiration. As I look up at the Milky Way, the magnitude and wonder of the universe is awe-inspiring and the place of we humans put into perspective. To suggest that all this has no meaning and that there is no meaning in life, other than to live for the day, or that we are all simply a freak outcome, seems to me to lack imagination and a sense of mystery and wonder. To even contemplate that humanity has it alone in the universe or is in charge, is I believe an affront to the universe and the world as we experience it.

The wilderness experience runs deep in the lives of the people of Israel, through the desert to the Promised Land. In the writings of the prophets God leads the people into the wilderness so he can speak tenderly with them. The spirit led Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry into the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil to aspire to status, wealth and power

How do you approach a wilderness experience? Sometimes they can be unwelcome and unexpected sparked by;

  • The death of a loved one
  • The onset of an illness
  • A troubled marriage or relationship
  • The resignation of staff person
  • Hurt inflicted when least expected.

There are other times when we are called to explore the dark and difficult times in our lives where God may seem absent or at best less than helpful. In those times the space of wilderness may be challenging as we grapple with the issues at hand. A wilderness space is not only a physical place to be experienced but also one of the mind. Wilderness, going into a space unknown or unchartered can be illuminating and enriching as well as disturbing or frightening. The latter is very common I am told for those men and women returning from active service and for members of the police, fire services and paramedics who are often the first on the scene for road accidents or other tragedies.

There is another experience of wilderness that many Christians feel in today’s world, with the marginalization and even the mocking of faith, and the trials we often experience of seeking to hold fast to our faith in these challenging times. Often in spite of all our best efforts results seem minuscule and we wonder about the future. Old Testament scholar Walter Bruggerman speaks about these times, as in part, the exile experience travelling in the wilderness of being the faithful remnant of God’s people. He goes onto say that being in exile also brings hope.

The season of Advent symbolizes the end of God’s absence and the period of expecting and waiting in hope. There is no doubt that we need more wilderness opportunities as we begin the journey to Bethlehem. We need at a practical level, wilderness to restore our tiredness and urban living and busy life. We need wilderness to find the hope that is within us and to encourage us amidst the challenges of our times.

In the wilderness John the Baptist, the Wildman of the desert, announces the coming of the Lord. The power brokers who are both bewildered and afraid challenge him. Out of the wilderness comes the bearer of Good news. A new story is to unfold. He is the pointer to the one who is to follow, Jesus. John’s announcement, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand “ is a reference to a new order. John spoke plain and people believed him.

As we move forward this Advent may we use this time to reflect wisely and to prepare our lives for the building of God’s Kingdom, to share afresh the news of salvation, to be the prophets of our times even a modern John or Jill the Baptist. Perhaps even as I suggested last Sunday evening we could become wild men and women of faith, so passionate, that what we say and do stands out as counter culture to the commercialization and crassness of so much of Christmas celebrations in out times.

Our mission this Advent is to embrace what God says is possible, and to believe that what God says is possible and to believe that what God says will be so. The call is to focus our lives on the essentials, to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and to find him in the places we least expect.

God has assured us that he loves the world despite our brokenness and behavior towards each other and the whole of creation, by sending his presence in the person of Jesus so that we can be reconciled to God and to each other. God shares in our wilderness with his presence among us. As we continue our journey this Advent may we be a people of hope and joy as we celebrate the birth of the Christ child, God with us in our times.

Amen

Locum Letter for Advent 2

ADVENT AND WILDERNESS.

The presence of wilderness is present on many occasions throughout scripture. The wilderness experience runs deep with the people of God as scripture describes the journey of the people of Israel through the desert to the Promised Land. In Australia we are fighting to preserve what we describe as wilderness, both rugged mountain ranges with their rivers and foliage, and the vast open spaces of wilderness deserts. Today we increasingly recognize the importance of wilderness as spiritual space as well as a place of sustenance and renewal in our rapidly expanding urban environment. As I travel into the outback of this land I reflect on how for over 60000 years the indigenous people roamed and lived without all the modern comforts of today. At night sitting under the stars with a glass of Port in one hand, the majesty and awe of the Milky Way reminds me of the beauty of the creation stories in Genesis and the mystery of life itself.

In the wilderness we are able to take stock, reflect and refuel ourselves on many fronts. I find it restores my soul, cynicism and disillusionment with many aspects of contemporary society and restores my hope.

What place does wilderness have in your life? Are you able to find a wilderness time and space for your own reflection and preparations at this busy time of the year? Are you able to find the time to prepare the way of the Lord? Yes we are all fragile and less than perfect but also have the capacity for others to see good in our lives and the possibility of the new heaven and earth. The wilderness can provide the space and the occasion for this experience.

Finally I have left a small Advent booklet from Anglican Overseas Aid that I encourage you to use this Advent for personal refection and study.

Shalom

Ray

The Reverend Canon Dr. Ray Cleary – Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent

ADVENT 1 – 2017

St Georges Ivanhoe East

Helder Camara – onetime Catholic Archbishop in South America, a strong advocate for the poor and dispossessed, and a champion of Human Rights, wrote these words:

“When I dream alone

that remains a dream;

When we dream together

that is the beginning of reality.”

Most of us dream from time to time. Our dreams can be imaginative thoughts we experience while awake or asleep. Sometimes we indulge our dreams with wishful thinking or fantasies. Our indigenous brothers and sisters describe their history, spirituality and culture in what they describe as the “dreamtime’, the place and space for their beliefs and understanding of life and its relationship with Mother Earth. I wonder what you dreamed about last night. {Do not worry you do not have to share them}

In our sleep, dreams often appear to come from nowhere. Where did that come from we ask ourselves. Some of our dreams frighten us because they raise aspects of our thoughts that we find distasteful or painful and often challenge our identity of who we believe we think we are. We wonder where such ideas, thoughts or experiences have come from.

Parents, at the birth of a child, couples who commit themselves to marriage, or a new graduate entering their chosen profession, dream and hope for the future. Dreams and hopes give us adrenalin; they provide the impetus for our daily living and our relationships. Sometimes our dreams can be impractical or impossible to us but not to others.

Dreaming and hoping seems to be difficult for many of us in our own Church. We often want to cling to the familiar and comfortable and seem unable to dream of a future that embraces the different or challenging.

In a visit to Australia in 2002, the now Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, spoke about the task of the Church as being to inspire the people of God to express the hope of God’s dream for the creation, and to be distinctive by its prayer and worship. He went on to say how worship is the drawing together of the earthly life and human experiences we all share together, and when our Eucharistic gatherings are devoid of the experiences of our human family, our worship is diminished.

Like the wider community, we are tempted are we not to put aside our dreams and possibilities that may be too challenging and costly, or that threatens us and divert our thoughts into reality TV, backyard renovations, the Great Outdoors and, in my case, Irish music.

Today, we begin the season of Advent:

  • A time of waiting;

  • A time of reflection;

  • A time for preparation;

  • A time for dreaming and hoping.

We are invited by the Church to hope for what God has promised. Advent, taken seriously, has the potential to disrupt us and call us a fresh to look at what is happening in our Church, in our relationships, in the workplace and wider community.

It is a call to model our own leadership as the ‘body of Christ’, on the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, not as some magical, mystical hour upon which he is to return in the future, but in the present, while we wait and live between the beginning and end of God’s time. At our Annual meeting that follows this service dare we hope to dream what may be possible for this parish? Are we prepared to embrace a leadership model that seeks to engage beyond ourselves and to reflect our Lord’s passion for all in need?

Advent reminds us that ‘waiting upon God’ is an important ingredient in our Christian journey, and that our dreams, may not be God’s. Advent reminds us to be patient, alert and ever ready to embrace the disturbing actions of the Holy Spirit of God. Advent calls us to look afresh at Scripture and to apply our God given intellect and the wisdom and traditions of the Church to the issues of the day. To identify the stumbling blocks which divert our attention, or cause us to retreat into our cocoon, or the safety of the sanctuary?

Advent calls us to prepare to receive and celebrate the holiness and mystery of life as experienced and told in the story of the Christ child. Our faith is what we say today as counter culture. It challenges those who wish to dismiss the birth of Christ at Christmas and to rename Christmas trees as Holiday trees or to exclude nativity scenes or to sing carols at schools and in other public places.

As we gather as a faith community this day, our very act of worship, the words, symbols and actions of our Eucharist together is a sign of new life, hope and promise as we say in the words of the second form of the Great Thanksgiving prayer:

‘At the dawn of time you wrought from nothing,

a universe of beauty and splendour,

Bringing light from darkness and order from chaos.’

So, as we gather on this Advent Sunday, I invite you to journey with me and the whole Church, to dream about the possible, to set aside the distractions, to revisit the great Christian claim and fundamental, that whoever we are, and whatever the distractions and challenges we face, God loves us, and we are to love another.

As we observe Advent, and focus our thoughts on Christmas, the Baby born at Bethlehem, fulfils the promise and hopes of the Hebrew Scriptures, but does much more; the baby becomes the promise of much more – the promise of God. We no longer await his birth, but the return. Dreaming the impossible dream for a creation and humanity at one with God and each other is the dream of God. He offers this dream and invites us to share it with him.

May your dreams this Advent be for God’s Kingdom. May they be filled with passion, creativity, and rejoicing, confident that in our dreams for a better world, so there will be God.

Amen

Locum Letter for Advent 1.

Locum Letter for Advent 1

Today we begin the season of Advent and over the next four Sundays we will be challenged by our readings each Sunday to prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus among us as a human child. In my younger day Advent was much the same as Lent, a penitential time of fasting, prayer and almsgiving. While elements of these themes remain the season of Advent has been balanced by the themes of hope and expectation.

During the next four weeks we are invited to look and listen, to open our eyes to the world around us and to look for the one who is to come and who is already among us and in the places we may least expect to find him.

Today’s three readings proclaim the day of the Lord and as disciples and followers of Christ we are called to watch and pray. We are however not to use the season of Advent to beat ourselves with a stick or to fear remorseful for past mistakes. It is not to burden us with guilt.

Advent is to be a positive experience for all and a time to evaluate our own faith journey and to enjoy the fullness of the Christmas message of peace and goodwill.

Shalom

Ray 


	
	

		
				
			

			
	
Locum Letter – Christ the King



	
		
		
		
	


Locum Letter 


Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King against a context where those who set the agenda for the world are those who control the corridors of power. Democracy appears to be fragile. Democratically elected governments across the world are in trouble with voters of all political persuasions tired of rhetoric, the pursuit of ideology as an end in itself, self interest and short term gain. New political parties are emerging in this environment appealing to fringe attitudes and being a less tolerant and compassionate community. 


In Australia we are privileged to live in a society that prides itself on respect for others, a universal health scheme and many other social provisions. Such an environment can only be maintained when we together share values that bind us and not separate us from each other. We are enriched by difference and have managed diversity with a great deal of success. In light of the recent plebiscite the challenge and the agenda is for us all to live in harmony with each other irrespective of our views and opinions. 


The Feast of Christ the King takes place in this context and at the centre of the readings is not power as the world seeks to exercise it but the ethic of love. What merits our redemption is service to others, outreach to people suffering distress and compassion for the needy. As Christian s we believe that love conquers all and we are to love one another as Christ loves us .


Shalom Ray