| Hello everyone,
Spring is well on the way in Upper Hutt. The kowhai along my road are in full bloom now and this morning I saw (and heard!) no less than four tui squabbling over a blossom laden branch on a tree just outside my house. As if there aren’t dozens of other trees in blossom along the road! A couple of weeks ago I visited the Blossom Festival just up the road and walked in a happy daze round the beautiful gardens under the pink cherry blossoms. In a far sighted decision, the trees were planted 25 years ago after the owners visited a blossom festival in Japan. Now busloads of people arrive, couples choose the gardens as a wedding venue and Japanese picnics are sold at the gate. The owners may not have envisioned such a happy outcome when the first sapling was planted all those years ago.
This Sunday we will spend some time thinking about what we could plant in our lives at this stressful time and what we can do to nurture growth and sustain ourselves and others. Perhaps we also could be surprised by what may grow and be beautiful in and around us.
Margaret Rushbrook spoke last Sunday at the Congregational Conversation about her experience of being at the online General Assembly at the end of September. She particularly mentioned the Keynote speaker Rev. Dr Theresa Cho, who spoke about how her church community at St John’s Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, has responded to current circumstances. It’s worth a look. https://vimeo.com/616773477.
If you’re heading off for a well-deserved break this weekend, have fun and stay safe.
Otherwise you’re welcome to join us as we gather together on Sunday morning.
Fiona
Some notes from last Sunday’s sermon
Last week I spoke about the Hebrew scriptures and how they were a whole variety of “documents” written by unknown people over a period of about 1200 years. That in them we find myths and stories, instructions and “laws”; prophetic voices and poetry and wise sayings, There are stories that help us understand the culture in which Jesus lived and how that history and culture influenced the way in which understood who he was and what his mission was.
Today I want to talk about the New Testament, And it is important to remember that Jesus never saw these documents, They were all written after his crucifixion.
The order in which these 27 documents appear in the NT are not in time sequence, The earliest to be written were Galatians and James – around 49 AD. The 27 Books in the NT are made up of four gospels, the Book of Acts; a whole bunch of letters and a strange book called Revelation – kind of literature described as “apocalyptic”.
The gospels were mainly written later than the Letters or Epistles. As I said before the Letter to Galatians and the Letter of James were the earliest NT documents.
A number of letters are said to have been written by the Apostle Paul. However some modern scholars suggest that there were three different “Pauls” writing at different times. This helps to explain the differences in the letters. Early Paul was a radical thinker – Paul 2 and Paul 3 become increasingly conservative.
The Gospels are placed at the beginning of the NT because they were regarded as more important than the letters. Mark was written first – around 70 AD. Some scholars believe that it was written in Rome and that it is the work of Paul written down by his secretary Mark. There is a sense of urgency in the writing – and it is thought it was written at a time of persecution – and the little community of Christians were being killed. They needed to get the stories of Jesus written down before those who knew the stories dies. Some scholars think it was written in Syria and its function was to try to hold together groups of early Christian who emphasised different aspects of Jesus life.
Matthew and Luke were written in the 80s AD. They were each written for a different group of people. Matthew was written for a community of Jesus followers who were Jews – and the Gospel is to help them make connections between Jesus and their Jewish origins. Luke was a Gentile and was writing for a Gentile audience. As a physician he was interested in Jesus as a healer. Luke was also interested in the way that Jesus related to women and to the poor.
The Gospel of John was written much later and is a much more theological gospel than the others.
Lets take a quick look at one of the themes in the NT – that of FREEDOM. In the Letter to the Galatians Paul, radical Paul<, makes a statement that those who are in Christ are free – free from the labels and distinctions that divided ancient societies. He say: In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek…..slave or free….male or female..for you are all one in Christ. The old divisions are gone.
Later he writes to the little group of Jesus followers who lived in Corinth – a multi-cultural metropolis. They had been arguing about who was most important in the community on the basis that some “gifts” were more important than others. Paul uses the metaphor of the human body to explain that a body needs and wide variety of organs in order to function in a healthy way. Just as the body needs variety so does the little group of believers – and each contributes their own special gift for the benefit of the whole group (see 1 Corinthians chapter 12) In chapter 13 he points out that although they all have individual and unique gifts they all have a common gift – the gift of love that binds them all together.
In chapter 4 of Luke’s Gospel we read the story of Jesus in the synagogue in his home town. He reads from the scroll of 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
And to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
Notice the emphasis on freedom and release.
The year of the Lord’s favour was the Jubilee Year in which prisoners were to be released, debts cancelled, and land returned to its original owner. Everyone was to have a fresh start.
All this is expressed in Mary Pearson’s hymn “Who is this man?”
The Gospel story is about freedom. Jesus is the one who helps us experience freedom and who then invites us to join him in the task of helping others experience the freedom of being truly human.
(NOTE: those of you who have a good memory – will realise there are some things I said last week that are not in here and there are some things in here that I didn’t mention on Sunday. – its the best my memory could do – and I kept remembering things I forgot to say!)
Shalom
Jim
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