Let us Pray

Lord of this technical age

Where so much knowledge is stored on wikipedial

& human minds left blank

& hearts bereft

Stimulate our minds we pray, & refresh us

with the insights of your word   Amen

      I prefer “Commendations’ to Commandments…. not so distancing….

My grandfather after whom I’m named was a feisty Irish socialist  – no comparisons please!  He emigrated to Aotearoa NZ where he worked as a seaman.   His family including 7yr old Jim my Dad came with him.   Ill health took him off sea life, he moved to Wellington & he died at 50.  Son Jim didn’t have a secondary education – he drove a petrol tanker.     So you can imagine my pride when years later at 60 he graduated Master of Theology from the University of Aberdeen and @ 75 PhD from Victoria University.

But my proudest moment with my father came after his death.                  His tangi was on the Te Maungarongo marae at Ohope – the turangawaewae of the Maori Presbyterian Church.    An old old elder from Ngati Kahungungu had travelled over from the Hawkes Bay to offer tribute.    He spoke simply he kororia ki te whakarongo mai meaning

“salute to the one who LISTENED to me and my people.”

Wow!    Dad would have beamed….    You see from a rough & ready background he’d had an old-fashioned but real conversion experience; joined the Baptist Church; gone to the Auckland Bible Training Institute; and became a missionary for the Presbyterian Church.   At BTI he’d met Norman Perry, later the first lay Moderator of the Pres Church – they became lifelong mates.  Each were strongly influenced by a book on Missionary Principles by Roland Allen.   The first Principle was:

   for the first months of your time with Indigenous people…                        Listen to them.   

Yes    Dad would have beamed alright.   And that listening had a profound effect on him and his thinking. He learnt for instance that despite a slogan of the time Christ is NOT above & beyond culture but enhances culture.    That it is NOT idolatrous to offer reverence to inanimate objects such as whenua – the land.

Dear people of St A – my commendation to you is make Listening a priority as you follow The Way of Jesus.

Make Listening a priority as you interact within our treasured faith community.   Make Listening a priority as you serve others.

    Yes!   Whakarongo mai   Listen UP!!

Do so NOT because it’s an indigenous thing altho that’s also commendable but primarily because

Listening is a very Jesus thing

• He listened to understand their needs
• He listened before he spoke, before he healed/

Good People   Go and do likewise!   Within this community, with others BUT ALSO WITH YOURSELF.    Here are some 2020 things you may do:

1. Listen toTV“Origins”  &   TVArtefact”….    you’ll learn some special features of Maori and wider Polynesian beginnings of Aotearoa.    It’s called Pakehatanga

1. As a young Hospital Chaplain I wasgiven outstandingly good advice from a Surgeon  Listen carefully to your “patient”…. she’s trying to give you your diagnosis.   THAT’S TRUE SPIRITUALLY      And it applies to you you don’t have to be a ‘Minister”
2. Not all listening brings a response let alone feedback.   in this case accept & accompany the silence   It’s a gift and a blessing you offer
3. Listen yourself to the still small voice

                  You and they will be changed !

Kia ora                   Let’s be silent

Audio of selected readings and reflections

Audio of the complete service