Fear of change

The story of the transfiguration (Lk. 9:28-36) which we celebrate today is at its heart a story of change both personal and collective. It is a story that moves to the heart of our fears for our communities and for ourselves especially in the time of uncertainty. It does not matter who we are or what we do, whether we are from a faith group or from secular society with no connection to faith we all fear change in our lives. If we are not brought "on board" as our work changes we resist; if we see changes to major industry groups that employ large numbers of people we resist (coal); if our personal circumstances are opened to change as a result of illness, financial situation, social circumstances we resist as much as we are able to. All of our resistance is due to fear just as the Israelites feared the approach of Moses when he descended from the mountain as it indicated change (Ex.34:30).This is normal and yet God asks us to change. So, if we follow God, how can we fear that which God asks of us?

In some ways it is very easy to fear something that is unknown for that very reason, it is unknown. We find it terribly difficult to step forward into something that we know little about, the future. Just think about it in a way that we can probably more easily relate to in our lives. I have lived in a number of places around the world but what is fascinating to me is that in all of the places I have lived I can find a number of people who have never stepped away from their home. If they have it has been for a very few short years. I am sure you can easily identify with that whether in your own families or within your own lives. I know for example that there are people living in Australia who have never moved further than 60kms from there place of birth, a few that have never moved further than 30kms from there place of birth, which is even more frightening in a way as they have never experienced anything of a wider world. For people of faith this is nowadays often the description of our own lives unless we consciously seek God's call into a newness of life.

We often fear making the jump and changing

It is about safety for ourselves first, rather than being enabled to go out in confidence and meet change face-on. Just think about your first job interview or the second or the third each one meant a potential change in your life. We face these small changes each day of our life and yet each time we are in a small way afraid but soon overcome that reluctance because it means more to us then what went before, even if we do not know what the consequences are. In terms of our faith community when change confronts us we often become like the tortoise and hide beneath the shell of tradition and the norm for our group. We cannot abide the disruption to our ordered lives. Yet, God will always be a disruption in our lives with the insistent call into a new way and a newness of life exemplified by Christ. Only when we can truly accept that God calls us into a changing world that is filled with wonder and love will we begin to grow in response to God's persistent call.

Paul reminds the Corinthians that the call of God gives us a persistent hope that allows us to step beyond the veil of fear (2 Cor. 3:12-13). We can respond with a flexibility knowing that God is ever present to us allowing us the freedom to make choices that may be contrary to that which has given us stability in the past. In undertaking the perceived risk we do so with a full knowledge of God's persistent presence that allays all fears and creates opportunities rather than the roadblock that is created by fear. In opening our hearts to God's love we are opening our hearts to a future that is free of our own obstacles and our own barriers. We can bask in what God wishes for us and not wallow in the mire of our resistance to follow into a newness of life that is created by God's presence in our lives.

Expectations - what do we look for?

 We all have expectations, especially when it comes to things we do for others. Yes, we all say that we do not but at the end of the day we form some sort of expectation of return for what we have done or created. Whilst there is often a perception, from ourselves that this is not the case, in our psyche there is an underlying sense of a wish for a return, even if it is just "thank you". The latter is so often not always there and as such our expectation is not realised after all. Of course, in our work and our lives we often have expectations that quite often remain unfulfilled or are fulfilled in a manner that does not really meet our expectations. Society is perhaps to blame above all else as to what are expectations are going to be, i.e. increased wages, a fairer distribution of the work load, etc. Of course, when we look at the political landscape we also have expectations that are not met a positive undertaking on climate change, a fairer distribution of services, a better health system, a better education system, etc. In reality should we really have these expectations or should we be expecting something much less or much greater.

The expectation that we have in terms of our relationships is often overshadowed by the expectations within our societal upbringing. There are sufficient examples around that we can show them easily in the current age. Just think about the political environment of misogynistic chest thumping and its expectations on those that are considered inferior within the political spectrum. Our society as a whole not only here in Australia but throughout the world has been conditioned not by our faith but by worldly standards and expectations. This has been the result of years of perceptions of society and those that are in seats of power. Christ over turns these expectations and as Christians we too should be thinking about overturning the expectations of the world and move towards the expectations of God (Lk 6:27-38). This alternate vision is so beyond our current expectations that it shocks us just as much as it would have shocked those who heard it when Christ spoke. This Lukan version of the Sermon that lets us know how to live reverses all our expectations and the expectations of the society in which we live today.

Our expectations often depend on our view

It is just not justifiable in today's world to allow others to have without any expectation of return. No bank will lend on that basis so why should anyone else. Profit must be sought in all fields of life and such profit must be obtained even from those that cannot afford it in the first place. Yet, this is precisely what we are aske to do by the words of Christ as he teaches his disciples how to live in  a rough and forsaken empire that rules by violence and profit much as today. In creating expectations that are totally opposite the reality of our current era we create a new possibility. It is this that Christ renders into simplicity as he speaks about turning the other cheek etc. It is the same simplicity that Joseph uses to turns his brothers self righteous fear and anger away from hideous possibilities of trauma inherent in the situation (Gen. 45:4- ff). In the speaking of truth as we see it not as we expect it to be turns the world and the community upside down. We can no longer expect that which society expects but only that which God  calls to us to reveal. It is removing from our eyes the expectations of society that we can see the way forward in building communities that exceed the expectations that are placed upon them.

In our daily struggles within our faith communities we bemoan our lacks and our losses as we try to meet the expectations of those around us. Expectations that have been built over time rather than through experience of faith. We now need to return to the expectations of God rather than the expectations being placed on us by secular society and community. in doing so we turn the other cheek whilst forgiving those who injure us, we walk the extra mile with those who require our support and we give of ourselves in the same loving manner that Christ gave for us. This turns everything on its head as we respond with love rather than the expectation of gain.

Trust - difficult yet easy

 Couple of weeks ago we spoke of love being the foundation and basis of how we form community especially when we are honest with each other. Last week we spoke about responding to God's call and the varied responses that that can take. Both of these have something underlying them which is brought out in the texts from today and that is trust. It is all very well to say to someone "trust me" and expect them to do just that but in reality there has to first be a certain amount of prior relationship. Just as when we respond to God there has to be a certain relationship that is present before we can just "trust". So, what to our minds constitute as trust in our everyday lives and how does that really affect our own relationships and those in the community?

The word of God to Jeremiah is, boiled down, "you cannot trust another human only trust God" (Jer. 17:5-10). This cannot surely be it otherwise we cannot live in community as we would all distrust and be paranoiac about those around us. There has to be a certain level of trust. So what is God's intentions in this passage? At least in the blessings and woes from the sermon on the plain (Lk. 6:20-26), which categorise trust, in a manner of speaking, appears to tell us who we can trust within humanity. Yet, even with examples before us it is extraordinary how difficult it is to form the bond that leads to trust. That bond must be incredibly full because of what trust actually is. I am sure we have seen videos of the "trust fall" or may even have participated. What we are doing is putting ourselves into the hands of those who are around us and believing or having faith that someone will catch us as we blindly fall backwards or forwards. Sometimes circumstances will mean that those we put our trust in are unable to be trusted on these occasions we fail and we land on the ground. Unfortunately, for many people this is what has happened with their experience of "Church". They have put their trust and faith in an institution, which is man-made, not in the Church that is of God.

We can only trust when we have formed a deep relationship

We tend to do this as we put our trust in those that are around us rather than in the presence of God which is, for us, an intangible. If we listen to the reading from Jeremiah again we can see that God is speaking about this exact thing. Our faith, our trust needs to reside in God's presence not in the fallibility of humanity. We can see that in our everyday if we look at the political process, not just here in Australia, but through out the world. How can we place our trust in the institutions of the past and expect them to cope with the results of their own fallibility? How can we expect our political leaders to do something that is new and extraordinary when they have no trust in their own people? How can we expect our religious leaders to express God's will if they are unable to look beyond the dogmas of human failing rather than to trust God's unfailing love and Spirit? We cannot trust those who have let us down by a dogmatic interpretation of God's presence that excludes the other. We are so distrustful of our own that we find it hard to trust something that is intangible to us and yet is so powerful. It is only when we place our lives in the hands of those whom we can totally trust that we can begin to see what it means to have faith and trust. Our truth is what we can conceive, our trust is only as far as we can see. Trust is something that enables us to let go of our preconceptions and our strongly held understanding so totally that we place our lives in the hands of the other.

To trust is to understand a relationship so deeply that we can let go, knowing that the other person, the "other", will be their to hold us up, strengthen us, be there for us no matter the circumstance. There are often occasions when we cannot trust our own partners or family unless deep down we know categorically that they are their for us. Let me illustrate that briefly by saying have you ever told anyone anything in confidence only to have it revealed to everyone next day? That is a breaking of trust. Something that we do not have to worry about with God, but we first have to know that ourselves and build the relationship to understand that God will never let us down. 

Whom shall I send?

 The passage from Isaiah that tells of his vision and how he becomes a prophet, a man of unclean lips, in the service of God and Isaiah's response to the summons of God whom shall I send "Here, I am Lord. Send me." (Is 6:1-8). This is affirmed in that wonderful hymn "I the Lord of Sea and Sky" which is often sung at the commissioning of priests and others. For me, whilst it reflects Isaiah's call it does poorly to reflect our response unless the final chorus becomes the plural allowing the emphasis to reside in the heart of those called and who have responded. But today we hear the various positive responses on the level of the individual to the call that God gives summoning us to ministry in the world. Even today God calls out to us in the same words that are sung in the hymn and in Isaiah "Whom shall I send?".

God is calling just as God called Isaiah in our time and in this place. The question becomes how are we to respond to the call that God puts upon our hearts. In the scriptures that are read on this Sunday there are a number of responses, the enthusiastic Isaiahan response "Here, here, choose me" through the Pauline response "Oh woe is me weak and poor yet doing God's work by God's grace" (1 Cor 15:8-10) and into the disciples immediate acceptance to follow Christ (Lk. 5:11). I am not sure where you stand in that spectrum but each of has a story about being called by God into ministry of one sort or another. It may not necessarily be a moment of enlightenment such as Isaiah, more likely not, but it is a call that is laid upon our hearts. Yet, so few of us actually respond in any way whatsoever. I can hear the response now "Yes, but we don't all want to be priests or deacons or heaven forbid a bishop". My response is that God calls not into a ministry such as a deacon but into a ministry that God wishes you to take part in. Isaiah did not want to become a prophet, Paul was a persecutor of the Church and the disciples were fishermen not deacons, apostles or anything else. Yet, they all stopped doing what they were doing and heard God's call.

Responding to God's call means we have to first listen to God

The issue perhaps for us is not that we do not hear God's call in the modern world but that the call is drowned out by the practicalities of the world in which we live. How many people who do not come to church are actually responding to God's bidding in doing what they are doing? Why should the Church have the sole right to hear God's call? Occasionally we have to be more aware of our faith and how it operates in the reality of this world in which we live. I am not saying that those in the church do not have a call, I am not saying that our response to God is invalid, what I am saying is that God's call is often different to what we expect as a faith group. All we have to do is look at the examples that Christ gives to see how true this is (Lk. 5:25-27) and if we are not careful we will all react in the same way as those in the synagogue did when this is proposed.by Christ. We are so focussed on ourselves that we rarely look outside of the group to see where God is actually working and who God is calling into ministry.

God calls us into a number of ministries  which in our hearts we recognise. prophets, teachers, speakers in tongues, etc. All of whom we either celebrate or do not recognise, particularly prophets. Some denominations go over board and almost worship those who speak in tongues (no one is a Christian unless you speak in tongues attitude). If we are all made in God's image then we are also called in some fashion to undertake God's work and that is to bring peace, justice and love into the world. Some of us do this well others ignore God's call and sunder their relationship with God but in reality, even today, we need to answer that call that God has put into our hearts, no matter how hard it might be and no matter if we think, like Isaiah that we are not worthy, we still need to respond in some fashion. In this case doing the opposite of what God calls us to or not responding is after all a response.