Being a Dad

The whole idea of being a father has been on my mind these last few weeks.

I am not a great dad.

There are many excuses for this:
I am busy.
I work many hours.
I have no time.

None of those work while on holiday. There is no work, and plenty of time.

So why do I found being a good dad something so elusive?
Why is it something that every month or so I say I am going to sort out and become the dad I want to be, and my daughter deserves?

The point is that it is there really is no excuse.
I could blame the way I was bought up, my dad was not around.

It really worries me that time is marching on. I will always be a dad until I die, but I won't be a dad to a pre teenage girl for much longer. It's like there is plenty of time, yet it is running out. Not that long ago we used to watch Spongebob together all the time. Now, I think it is more me who wants to watch it.

I am really worried that it will all go by without me waking up and sorting it out.

And how does all this sit with God, God who I pray to as "Gracious Father," or "Eternal Father"?
How can I pray and speak of God as giving. loving, forging, caring, using the name Father, yet when it comes to my being a father, I am none of those things?

And what of my daughter? When she prays the Lord's Prayer..."Our Father...."?
What kind of image of fatherhood am I giving her? How is she to believe God the Father will love and care for her, while her father on earth doesn't do a very good job of it? I mean, they are just names, but the implications are vast.

This year I will be the father I need to be, the father I currently am.

Sermon for the First Sunday after Christmas

Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him

It is a rather sobering thought.

After Christmas, after the sparkle of the tree, the tinsel, the feasting, the lights, the presents, the time spent with family, the good cheer that this season brings,
we are faced with the massacre of babies.

We are faced with the fact the right from the start of his life,
Jesus was trouble for those in power.

Joseph, who was righteous in terms of the Law,
but became truly righteous with grace in his dealings with Mary,
was now the legal father of Jesus.
He had named him.

The Wise Men have come to pay homage and give Jesus gifts.

Joseph is again visited by an angel in a dream.

‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt,
and remain there until I tell you;
for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ 

Joseph must be used to angels by now.
He trusted the first visit.
And now again, he will follow the angels advice.

He takes Mary and Jesus to Egypt.

He is again visited by an angel in a dream,
this time telling him to go back to Israel.

Then again, he is warned in a dream about the goings on Judea,
and he goes to Galilee instead.

From his beginning, Jesus was homeless,
going from place to place to keep out of danger.

Right from the beginning, Jesus was excluded and dismissed.

There was no room for him at the inn.
The king at the time searches everywhere in order to kill him.
Later he will have no home, no stone to lay his head on.
He will be betrayed by one of his friends, Judas,
he will denied by his best mate Peter,
he will be abandoned as he crucified.

The same powers that yearned to kill him at his birth
will 33  years later get their way in his crucifixion.
Well, they think they will get their way.

It is that exclusion and dismissal by the leaders and powers
that should remind us of what being a follower of Jesus is all about.

King Herod wanted Jesus dead,
because he knew that this ‘King of the Jews’ would only be bad news for him.
He could feel his power being usurped.
Even if he knew that the Messiah as promised by the scriptures
would be the greatest thing for his people,
he could not let go of power,
and was willing to kill every boy under two to hold onto his reign.

The way of Herod was to destroy any threat to power.

This is opposite of the way of Jesus.

Throughout his earthly existence, Jesus was threatened by the powers.
They sought to kill him because he threatened their power.
Yet, in his dying on the cross, he showed that they had no power over him.
In his dying and rising, Jesus showed that death has no power.
The ultimate tool of the corrupt powers is deemed useless.

At the beginning of his life, the powers wanted to kill him.
When they heard what he was saying in his ministry, they wanted to kill him.

The way of Herod is the way the world runs.
The holding on to power at all costs.
It is way most organisations run.
It is the way politics runs.

The church is to run counter to that.
We are to take our lead not from Herod, but from Jesus.

Jesus resisted any form of power or status for himself.
We are called to renounce power and status.
Take the lowest seat at the table.
Not to accept honour in public.
To be alongside those who are suffering, not with those causing the pain.

We are to watch ourselves that we are not seduced by power.
It is better for us to sit with those with nothing than those with everything.
It is better for us that we let go of control than become controlling.
It is better for us to be suffering than to be the ones causing the suffering.
It is better for us to be like Jesus rather than Herod.

The way of Herod destroys any challenge to power.
The way of Jesus is to lay ones own life down for ones friends,
not to lay down others lives for oneself.
It is a very different way of being.
To this day, it is still an alternative way of being.
This is because the way of the Herod, the way of power is so seductive.

So while Herod sought to keep his grip on everyone by killing innocent babies,
Jesus never sought power.
On the cross, Jesus unmasked the religious and political powers to reveal them as the corrupt and deathly thing they are.
In his rising, he showed the world that the powers are powerless.

Sermon for Christmas Day

In the region where Mary gave birth to Jesus were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 

We are here to celebrate the birth of Jesus,
yet we hear all about a bunch of shepherds and angels, away in a field.
Not much about the birth of God’s Son.
What’s so special about shepherds?

Now we can all agree that the appearance of angels make this birth something spectacular,
God’s own messengers are sent to proclaim the birth of his son.

But the fact that they are sent to Shepherds is perhaps even more significant.

The first clue is that the shepherds are living in the fields.
Not just working, but living.

These were men who were on the outside.
They were not in the town, they were not with families, they were not rich. They were quite alone, other than with each other.

Shepherds were not highly regarded at this time.
In fact, they were not regarded at all.
They were thought of as pretty low in society.

Shepherds were thought of as criminals, due to their habit of grazing their flock on others peoples paddocks.

So, they were thought of as criminals,
and because of that, it was job that also attracted criminals.
These were guys who society had no time for.

Furthermore, due to the hours of their work,
they could not take part in the religious goings on.
They couldn’t go to the temple or the synagogue.
They couldn’t hear God’s word, or pray with everyone.
So in Jewish understanding at the time, they were outside of God’s realm.

They were both outside of society, and outside of God.

So the fact that an angel appears to them must have been quite a shock.

It would be shock to anyone, angels are always saying ‘Do not be afraid.’

These men who believed they were outside of God were being brought in.

God’s very own messengers were telling them what was going on.

The angels didn’t go to the King, the Emperor, the leaders of the Temple, or the wealthy merchants.
They went to these lowly men.

I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:
to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour,
who is the Messiah, the Lord.

God chose to tell the shepherds.

The first thing that happens after Jesus is born is a great expansion of who God regards as having his favour.

The circle that had some in and some out was being expanded to include anyone who wanted to be with God.

Being with God was no longer dependent on race, status, or class.
All this moments after Jesus was born.

So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph,
and the child lying in the manger.

This morning we join with the shepherds.
In many ways, we take the place of the shepherds.
Gods all embracing love that was expanded to include shepherds 2000 years ago is now so expanded it includes us.

So while the actual birth was rather normal,
the ripples of God’s love that went out from the manger,
out to the field with the shepherds, out of Bethlehem,
out through the middle East, over Europe, all over the world,
and to here in Branxton.

Somewhere along the way, we have heard the story of Jesus being born,
and today we are gathered around the stable to celebrate the moment when God became truly with us,
in his Son, Jesus Christ.

We remember where God has been with us in our lives,
we think about those who may not know of God’s love for them.

Now we are the shepherds, kneeling before God’s  Son.
We are loved with all our failings.
We may feel at times that we are outside,
but the shepherds remind us that we too are loved by God.
The shepherds remind us that even though we may get it wrong, God still loves us. He forgives us.

After the shepherds had visited Mary, Joseph and Jesus,
they returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen,
as it had been told them.

We are to be the shepherds now, going back home,
telling everyone about the wonder of the birth of God’s Son.
The story that comes from that manger has reached us,
and we are to continue it, to pass it on.
The Good news of Jesus birth is good news for everyone.
It is the story of God’s love.

The birth of his Son is the revealing of his love,
in his desire to be with us,
his desire to be with us through all the messiness of life.

God loved the world so much that he gave his only son,
so that anyone who believes in him will never die,
but have eternal life.

Sermon for Midnight Mass

the time came for her to deliver her child. 

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, 

and laid him in a manger,

It is a remarkable thing.

That the actual birth of Jesus is spoken of in such a normal and brief way.

There is nothing in actual birth which if taken away from the rest of the story would lead us to believe that this baby was anything special at all,
let alone the Son of God.

This was noted by the earliest Christians,
many other birth narratives were written which include the baby being born in a cave, great luminoius light everywhere, and one even have Jesus standing up and speaking straight away.
Even the Islamic holy book the Koran has a more detailed and fantastic birth narrative for Jesus.

In our time, this brief sentence about the birth of Jesus seems bizarre.

Remember earlier this year when the Prince George was born.
It was all over the news, reports from inside the hospital were leaked out.
We hear how perfect the birth was.

It was everywhere. It was more than a sentence.
It was tweeted, facebooked, instagrammed, blogged and youtubed.

People want to know:
Was the birth natural? Was it a cesaerean? A water birth?

All this information is offered to the media, and we are fed it on a 24 hour news cycle.

Even a mother’s bodyshape after giving birth is big news.

A celebrity giving birth is big news.

So, it is no wonder that we find this one rather ordinary sentence about Jesus birth unsatisfying.

It is unsatisfying until we start to look at what happens around this birth.
We learn how important the baby is, not by his actual birth, but the events surrounding it.

We hear of shepherds and angels.

Now we can all agree that the appearance of angels make this birth something spectacular,
God’s own messengers are sent to proclaim the birth of his son.

But the fact that they are sent to Shepherds is perhaps even more significant.

The first clue is that the shepherds are living in the fields.
Not just working, but living.

These were men who were on the outside.
They were not in the town, they were not with families, they were not rich. They were quite alone, other than with each other.

Shepherds were not highly regarded at this time.
In fact, they were not regarded at all.
They were thought of as pretty low in society.

Shepherds were thought of as criminals, due to their habit of grazing their flock on others peoples paddocks.

So, they were thought of as criminals,
and because of that, it was job that also attracted criminals.
These were guys who society had no time for.

Furthermore, due to the hours of their work,
they could not take part in the religious goings on.
They couldn’t go to the temple or the synagogue.
They couldn’t hear God’s word, or pray with everyone.
So in Jewish understanding at the time, they were outside of God’s realm.

They were both outside of society, and outside of God.

So on this night,
the fact that an angel appears to them must have been quite a shock.

It would be shock to anyone, angels are always saying ‘Do not be afraid.’

These men who believed they were outside of God were being brought in.

God’s very own messengers were telling them what was going on.

The angels didn’t go to the King, the Emperor, the leaders of the Temple, or the wealthy merchants.
They went to these lowly men.

I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:
to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour,
who is the Messiah, the Lord. 

God chose to tell the shepherds.

The first thing that happens after Jesus is born is a great expansion of who God regards as having his favour.

The circle that had some in and some out was being expanded to include anyone who wanted to be with God.

Being with God was no longer dependent on race, status, or class.
All this moments after Jesus was born.

Tonight we join with the shepherds.
In many ways, we take the place of the shepherds.

Gods all embracing love that was expanded to include shepherds this night nearly 2000 years ago is now so expanded it includes us.

So while the actual birth was rather normal,
the ripples of God’s love that went out from the manger,
out to the field with the shepherds, out of Bethlehem,
out through the middle East, over Europe, all over the world,
and to here in Branxton.

We are the shepherds, kneeling before God’s  Son.
We are loved with all our failings.
We may feel at times that we are outside,
but the shepherds remind us that we too are loved by God.
The shepherds remind us that even though we may get it wrong, God still loves us. He forgives us.

The birth of his Son is the revealing of his love,
in his desire to be with us,
his desire to be with us through all the messiness of life.

God loved the world so much that he gave his only son,
so that anyone who believes in him will never die,
but have eternal life. 

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

Her husband Joseph, 

being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, 

planned to dismiss her quietly. 

We are used to the story of how Mary was told by the Archangel Gabriel that she was to conceive in her womb and bear a son.

We remember her words:
‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’

Gabriel informs her how this is to take place:
‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you’

Marys consent is given:
‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord.
let it be with me according to your word.’

That Annunciation we celebrate on March 25 each year.
It is a beautiful story, it expresses great tenderness.
It has a mystical feel.
It is no wonder it has inspired artists for centuries.
There is something in that passage that speaks to us on a very deep level.

The Annunciation to Joseph on the other hand is not celebrated.
It doesn’t t attached itself to our consciousness or our spirit as does Mary’s.
It has not inspired artists.
It remains a very much a neglected passage.

But that neglect is not justified, and in many ways,
the Annunciation to Joseph reveals much about how the baby that is to be born will change the way the world understands and lives with God.

Matthew tells us that Joseph is engaged to Mary,
but before they lived together,
she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

Joseph at this point does not know the child is from the Holy Spirit.
All he knows at this point is the woman he is marrying is pregnant.
He also knows he is not the father.
A rather difficult time for Joseph.

We hear that Joseph,
being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace,
planned to dismiss her quietly.

Joseph was righteous.
We are not to understand this in a contemporary way.
Righteousness in this sense means a conformity to the Law of God.
To be righteous was the supreme standard of Jewish holiness.

We need to look at the laws Joseph would be considering at this time.
Mary should have come to him at marriage a virgin.
If this is not the case, the Law had a few options.

Deuteronomy chapter 20 explains all the laws around this.

The Law says there are two ways in which a woman may become pregnant before marriage.

If the pregnancy is by adultery:

If evidence of the young woman’s virginity was not found,
then they shall bring the young woman out to the entrance of her father’s house and the men of her town shall stone her to death,
because she committed a disgraceful act in Israel by prostituting herself in her father’s house.
So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

If the pregnancy is the result of a rape:

if man seizes her and lies with her,
then only the man who lay with her shall die.
You shall do nothing to the young woman;
the young woman has not committed an offence punishable by death, because this case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbour. 

Now if Joseph was to go about his predicament lawfully both of these options would mean an investigation of Mary.
She would be put on trial and have to prove her case.
The trial would involve the use of her sheets to prove her virginity.
On one hand she would die, on the other she would still be shamed.

Joseph being righteous should have demanded such a trial.
If she were found guilty of either, he would be in the clear,
a divorce would be granted and he would he be able to keep the dowry.

The righteous thing for Joseph to do would be
to expose her to public disgrace.
That was what was expected. That was the law.

But something else is going on for Joseph,
even before he knows the origins of Mary’s baby.

He doesn’t want to put Mary through that.
He obviously loves her.
He is also righteous.
He has to do the right thing by the law, but then he thinks of Mary.
He thinks of the baby.

Already the new covenant with God and his people is working.

He decides he will go about this quietly.
He will divorce her, but will not expect any compensation.
He will just do it and get on with this life.
He will let Mary get on with her life.
She would probably still be in trouble,
but this would not be at Joseph’s instigation.

Fortunately for Mary,

an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
‘Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,
for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins.’ 

The angel tells Joseph that he is to marry her, and more than that,
he is to be the baby’s father in a legal sense.
By naming the child, Joseph accepts the role of father.
This saves Mary, and this saves the baby.

We are to be very thankful to Joseph for following the direction of the angel of his dream.
If he were to have followed the law,
Jesus would quite likely not have been born.

Joseph is a reminder to us of being legalists.
His predicament reminds us that while we can follow the rules
and ‘be right with God’ there are times when we have to go deeper.
We have to look into our hearts and ask what is actually the right thing to do.

Is what I am doing loving my neighbour?
Is my behaviour showing God’s love?
Is my attitude toward those who live a life that I don’t like revealing my love of God or my own bigotry based on a law?

If Joseph had followed the law, we would not be here today.
That bears thinking about.

If we behave in a legalistic way, hiding behind rules and laws instead of embracing God’s love, we can very easily miss the mark. We can very easily get it wrong. We can very easily cause harm.

Joseph was truly righteous.
He went about his ordeal with grace and love,
even before he knew what was really going.

In responding to God’s call on his life,
he was revealed to be righteous in the truest sense:
his response was one of loving God and loving his neighbour.

Within Joseph’s story, the new covenant is already coming into being.

Christmas Service Times

Come Down to Us

'Come Down to Us'

Rival Dealer EP

Burial

2013

I have been a fan of Burial since the self titled first album in 2006. 

Each successive release has been a wonderful thing, something special to share with music friends. 

Every once in a while, there is an artist that we all agree is brilliant. 

It is rare that it is someone contemporary. 

That has been one of the great things with Burial. 

Each release has been an event that has made for discussion. 

Urgent discussions take place regarding the place in the canon the new release will take. 

Rival Dealer has only been out for a week or so, and those discussions are taking place. 

It reminds me how much I love music, how it can bring people together, how it can open up new areas of thought and feeling within a group of friends.

This is the first major change in the Burial catalogue. 

Each previous release has engaged and progressed in a similar soundworld. 

Progressing, like giving the same scenery more detail. 

Think of Truant / Rough Sleeper (2012): here Burial experimented with form and structure, a more longing gaze on the same territories as previous works. 

With Burial up to now, we have been with him in South London, walking with him down rainy streets in the evening, the harshness of modern life given a gentle, dusty, melancholic glow that is both inviting and frightening. 

That has been his genius: to portray the world he sees both honestly and  romantically.

The track 'Come Down to Us' is in a different realm, particularly the second half of the track. 

Where previous tracks had a feeling of dejected contendedness, now we are confronted with something new: unadulterated hope. 

This is not a naive hope or a bland happiness; it is hope in it's purest form. 

It hope that has been hard won. 

It is the hope that comes from being in darkness. 

It is hope that is real and obtainable.

Yesterday afternoon, I listened to 'Come Down to Us' in the church where I work. 

I was alone. I sat in a pew in the middle of the empty church. It was a  beautiful experience. 

To me, the hope that is in the track is the same hope the Christian faith operates in. 

The hope that Christians have in the coming Kingdom of God, to me, feels like the same hope that is expressed in the second part of 'Come Down to Us.' 

Furthermore, it is the Season of Advent in the church, a time when we wait and prepare for the Coming Christ at Christmas. 

This is a penetential time: hope is within and approaching. 

Advent is a time when Christians express their longing for Christ's return. 

Come down to us, indeed.

There is something else at play with 'Come Down to Us.' 

Burial's work has always worked in the realm of nostalgia and longing. 

Here it hits a deeper spot. 

There is something 80's about the sound. For a 40 odd year old like myself, I am transported back to there. I am hearing 'Never Ending Story' as a kid. The same hopes I had as a kid are present in 'Come Down to Us.' The feeling that there was everything to look forward to and the whole world was open. 

That is the hope of childhood. 

'Come Down to Us' hits that same spot, but as an adult. 

As an adult it is hard to have hope sometimes, so when we are nostalgic it will often go to those hopeful memories. 

The brillance of 'Come Down to Us' is that it works on both realms: the nostalgic hope of childhood and the hope that has been hard won. 

Hope is rare thing. 

It seems as if everything conspires against anyone actually having any hope. 

Personally, the greatest hope that I have is found in the Christian faith. 

'Come Down to Us' is the piece of music that expresses that same hope in a most wonderful and accurate way.