Month: February 2021

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Self Denial!

Self-Denial!

Readings:

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Psalm 22:23-31

Romans 4:13-25 

Mark 8:31-38

Colour: VIOLET

Sentence:

Rend your hearts and not your garments; turn back to the Lord your God who is gracious and compassionate, long suffering and abounding in love. Joel 2: 13

Collect: 

God of Abraham and Sarah, of Moses and Elijah, you made a covenant with your people; draw us into covenant with you, that we may see your glory, sing your praises, and see your reign on earth as well as heaven. Through Jesus Christ our Liberator, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.

Last Sunday our korero was all about being in the wilderness and facing temptations. We discovered that temptations are not about our behaviour, breaking rules, or being bad. God doesn’t tempt us to see if we will pass or fail. Temptations are for our benefit, not God’s. They are a part of our salvation. We experience wilderness temptations to discover that our most authentic identity is being a child of God and our only real home is with God.

Our theme today is self-denial.

In our gospel reading from Mark, we find Jesus in a discussion with his disciples and maybe Peter didn’t say anything we haven’t thought of or even wanted to say. it’s just that Jesus has a very different understanding of discipleship than what most of us probably want. When someone else’s reality and vision begin to conflict with and overtake our own we rebuke them. We growl them. We either take them apart in front of others or we take them aside to enlighten them, help them understand and show them the error of their ways. That’s all Peter did with Jesus.

If we are really honest with ourselves, we’ve at some point, disagreed with Jesus, asking why he doesn’t do what we want? Why won’t he see the world our way? It all seems so clear to us.

  • If he can cast out the demons surely he could silence the voices that drive us crazy.
  • If he can heal Peter’s mother in-law why not those we love?
  • If he can cleanse the leper why does our life sometimes leave us feeling unclean and isolated?
  • If he can make the paralytic walk why are so many crippled by fear, dementia, or addiction?
  • If he can calm the sea surely he could calm the storms of our world. Yet they rage on; violence, war, poverty, viruses, natural disasters.
  • If he can feed 5000 people with a few fish and pieces of bread why does much of the world to go to bed hungry?

I know people who have lost faith and left the Church over these issues. These are our rebukes of Jesus. He’s not being or acting like we want him too. Sometimes his words challenge and shock us. Maybe we’re not so different from Peter.

Just a few verses before today’s gospel, Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter names him as “the Christ,” the Messiah, the Anointed one of God. Peter is right and yet he also doesn’t get it.

Peter has an image of what the Messiah is supposed to do and who the Messiah is supposed to be. We all have our own images and wishes about who Jesus is and what he should do. All is well when Jesus is casting out demons, healing the sick, preventing death, and feeding the multitudes. We like that Jesus. We want to follow that Jesus. He’s our Lord and Saviour.

However, Jesus won’t conform to our images of who we think he is or who we want him to be. Instead, he asks us to conform to who he knows himself to be: the one who “must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” He sets a choice before us. It’s a choice we each have to make. Again and again the circumstances of life set that choice before us.

We either choose ourselves and deny Jesus or we deny ourselves and choose Jesus. “If any want to become my followers,” he says, “let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Self-denial is the beginning of discipleship.

I reckon that’s not what Peter had in mind when Jesus said, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” I wonder if that’s what you and I had in mind when we came to church today, or what we think about when have our babies baptised, or how often we understand and practice our faith as daily self-denial. “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”

Jesus’ words are hard and his way is extreme. Surely God didn’t make a covenant with his people and bring them out of Egypt into the promised land only to say, “Now let it all go.” The Messiah is supposed to offer security, protection, and put Israel back on top. 

Faith in Jesus, Peter is learning, is not about the elimination of risks, the preservation of life, and the ability to control. Instead, Jesus asks us to risk it all, abandon our lives, and relinquish control to God. That’s what Jesus is doing and he expects nothing less of those who would follow him.

The way of Christ, self-denial, reminds us that our life is not our own. It belongs to God. It reminds us that we are not in control, God is. Our life is not about us. It’s about God. There’s great freedom in knowing these things. We are free to be fully alive. Through self-denial our falling down becomes rising up, losing is saving and death is resurrection.

As long as we believe our life is all about us, we will continue to exercise power and mana over others, try to save ourselves, control our circumstances, and maybe even rebuke Jesus. But Jesus rarely exercised power over others or tried to control circumstances. He simply made different choices. Self-denial is not about being out of control or powerless. It’s about the choices we make.

Jesus chose to give unconditionally in a world that takes, to love in a world that hates, to heal in a world that hurts, to give life in a world that kills. He offered mercy when others sought vengeance, forgiveness when others condemned and compassion when others were uncaring. Jesus trusted God’s abundance when others said there wasn’t enough. With each choice he denied himself and showed God was present.

At some point those kind of choices will catch the attention of and offend those who live and profit by power, control and looking out for number one. They will not deny themselves. They will respond. Jesus said they would. He knew that he would be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes. It happens in every age for those who choose the path of self-denial. When it happened for Jesus he made one last choice. He chose resurrection over survival. What choice will you make today? Amen 

Archdeacon Kaio Karipa

The Venerable Kaio Karipa

The Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship Church of Te Wairua Tapu

www.tewairuatapu.com.au

Second Sunday in Lent
New Covid conditions for our First Holy Communion Service since March 2020
Compulsory congregation seating during Communion
Priest presenting consecrated Communion Wafer, followed by Kaikarakia with individual Wine glasses
Ministry Team collecting spent wine glasses and distributing hand sanitiser
These cuties quite happy during Karakia
Nana Glenis and Nana Heather singing with their mokopuna

Photos: 28 Feb 2021

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Temptation!

Temptation!
 
Readings:
Genesis 9:8-17
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Peter 3:18-22 
Mark 1:9-15
 
Colour: VIOLET
 
Sentence:
Lord be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning; our salvation in time of distress. Isaiah 33: 2
 
Collect: 
God of Heaven and Earth, descend on us, we pray, in this season of Lent; strengthen us in the face of temptation so we may proclaim the Good News and reveal your ways. Through Jesus Christ our Liberator, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
 
Mark 1:9-15
The Baptism of Jesus
 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. 10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.11And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
The Temptation of Jesus
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’ 
 
 
 
Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.
 
Today is the first Sunday in Lent. Lent is the period of 40 days which comes before Easter. It started last week with Ash Wednesday. Lent is a season of reflection and preparation before the celebrations of Easter. By observing the 40 days of Lent, Christians replicate Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and withdrawal into the desert for 40 days. Lent is marked by fasting, both from food and festivities.
Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus after his death on the cross, Lent recalls the events leading up to and including Jesus’ crucifixion. So our journey towards Easter has begun. 
Our theme today is Temptation.
At some point in our lives, we all leave home. Well, most of us have all done it. When we do, we leave home physically, emotionally and spiritually. We leave those places that are familiar, comfortable and predictable. Sometimes we can’t wait to leave. Other times we would rather not leave. Sometimes we choose to leave. Other times the circumstances of life push us out the door. Regardless of how or why it happens, leaving home is a part of life. It happens in lots of different ways and times.
For children it might be the first day of school. Young adults move out of their parent’s home to start University or go to work. Significant changes of life are also forms of leaving home: getting married or a divorce, the birth of a child, the death of a loved one. A new job or the loss of employment are about leaving home. Moving to a new city, retirement, the loss of health all involve leaving home. Major decisions that brings us to the crossroads of life are also about leaving home.
Leaving home can be hard, scary and risky because it invites us to change and it opens us to new discoveries about ourselves. It challenges our understandings of where we find significance, meaning and security. Ultimately, though, leaving home is really the beginning of our spiritual journey and growth. Why? Because we are more vulnerable to and in need of God when we leave home.
However, leaving home is not simply about the circumstances of life. It’s the way of God’s people. Adam and Eve left the garden. Noah left his home on dry land. God told Abraham, “Go from your country and your whanau and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (Gn. 12:1). Jacob ran away from home fearing for his life. Moses and the Israelites left their homes in Egypt. And in today’s gospel Jesus is leaving home.
As Mark tells it, “Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee” to the Jordan River. He left his home and now stands with John in the Jordan, the border between home and the wilderness. There he is baptised. The heavens are torn apart, the Spirit like a dove descends, and a voice declares, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” From there “the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” Baptism may happen in the river, but the baptism of life begins in the wilderness.
You see, this story from Mark is not just about Jesus. It’s our story too. God’s words refer to Jesus in a uniquely literal way but they also apply to each one of us. By grace, gift, and the choice of God, we are his beloved daughters and sons. If leaving home, getting baptised, and going to the wilderness is Jesus’s way then it’s our way too. We leave behind our old identity, we are identified and claimed by God as his children, and we go to the wilderness.
Today is the first Sunday in LENT. And that’s what the season of Lent is about. It’s about leaving home and leaving home, in Lent and in life, it always takes us to the wilderness.
The wilderness is an in-between place. We are Neither here nor there. We have left behind what was and what will be is not yet clear. In the wilderness we come face to face with the reality of our lives; things done and left undone, our fears, our hopes and dreams, our sorrows and losses, as well as the unknown. These facts of our life are the source of our temptations. They feed our temptations.
With temptations, we tend to externalise them and make them about our behaviour. Behaviour is important but the real temptations are from within us, not around us. We are either tempted to believe that we are more than or less than the dust of God’s creation or we are tempted to not trust God’s willingness to get his hands dirty in the dust of which we have been created from. 
Temptations are not about our behaviour, breaking rules, or being bad. God doesn’t tempt us to see if we will pass or fail. Temptations are for our benefit, not God’s. They are a part of our salvation. We leave home and experience wilderness temptations to discover that our most authentic identity is being a child of God and our only real home is with God.
For many, the wilderness is new territory for us. In the wilderness the old structures, the ones we left behind, no longer contain, support, or define our life. It’s not, however, uncharted territory. The way has already been cleared by Jesus. It’s the way home, the way to God. We go to the wilderness with the knowledge and confidence that Christ has gone before us. Leaving home isn’t so much a loss for us but an opportunity for God. In the wilderness our illusions of self-sufficiency become surrendering to God, our helplessness opens us to God’s grace, and our guilt is overcome by God’s compassion. That’s what happens when you leave home.
We can never escape or avoid the wilderness. Like Jesus, we must go through it. We must face the temptations of Satan and be with the wild beasts. Yet we never go alone. The angels that ministered to Jesus will be there for us. “Remember who you are,” is their message. “You are a beloved son of God. You are a beloved daughter of God. You are one with whom he is well pleased.” Over and over they tell us. They remind, encourage and reassure us.
With each remembrance of who we are the demons are banished. With each remembrance of who we are we overcome Satan’s temptations. With each remembrance of who we are we take another step toward God. That’s the way through the wildernesses of life. Step after step. “I am a beloved child of God. With me he is well pleased.” Amen
 
Archdeacon Kaio Karipa
 
 
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Christ is Compassion!

Christ is Compassion!
 
Readings:
2 Kings 5:1-14 
Psalm 30
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 
Mark 1:40-45 
 
Sentence:
 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Mark 1:41
 
Collect: 
Exalted God, you care for all who suffer, remind us of our shared humanity, move us with your compassion to the outcast and lost. May we never turn away from those in need, but share with generosity and joy the love we have received. For you are alive and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
 
Mark 1:40-45 
Jesus Cleanses a Leper
A leper came to Jesus begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ 41Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’42Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
 
 
Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.
 
Well whanau, we returned to karakia at Te Wairua Tapu today. There’s still lots of work to be done but it’s great to be back in the church sharing in worship and fellowship. 
In today’s gospel from Mark, we hear the story of someone, “annoying God,” more specifically, a leper who asks Jesus for healing. Prior to this passage, Mark tells us that Jesus and his new disciples are setting out on a preaching tour of Galilee: “Let’s go on to the neighbouring towns,” Jesus says, “so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.”  So off they go to spread the Good News.  And that’s when Jesus meets this leper.
According to some biblical studies, there’s a big question about one sentence of this passage.  Some translations, say that Jesus was ‘moved with pity or compassion’.  But a few translations, say Jesus was becoming angry.  What an odd thought, Jesus being angry.  There are good arguments for either one being the original wording, but most English translations choose to represent Jesus as compassionate, rather than angry. You can understand why, especially when we probably don’t like the idea that Jesus would be angry at someone asking for healing.  But at the same time, I am intrigued by the idea that Jesus may have been angry, just for a moment at least, because to me, that sounds like a very human reaction, not that I’m trying to justify anger but that sounds more like the reaction of a God who has flesh and blood and has human emotions like you and I.
 
However, we have just been told, that Jesus has set out on a mission: he intends to preach the Good News to all of Galilee.  He’s a man with a plan.  And his plan to preach has suddenly been interrupted by this man who approaches him to ask for healing.  So many of us are always in a rush, trying to fit more into our  day, irritated by missing a green light on our way to karakia this morning.  There’s a certain joy in imagining Jesus in a hurry: “Come on, hurry up,” he mutters to himself.  “I don’t have all day.  I have a sermon to write! And, I have to get to Tiberias!”  But besides impatience, there are other reasons that Jesus might have been angry in that moment.
Firstly, this man is a leper.  In a society without modern medicine, with no understanding of germs, viruses, or the immune system, with no way to understand the causes of diseases and no way to treat them, many illnesses were feared; and people suffering from these diseases were outcasts.  In other words, lepers were systematically excluded from society.  For Jesus to speak to this man, let alone touch him, sets Jesus in opposition to the powers of the day because he breaks the rules of a social system that kept clean and unclean people separated. 
Secondly, Jesus may have been angry as he heard this man’s request.  Perhaps Jesus was beginning to realise that his life was going to be shaped and marked by the unrelenting needs of all of the people in pain and distress around him.  It was never going to stop!  For the rest of his ministry, people will be clamoring for his attention: crying from the roadside, grasping at the hem of his garment, lowering the sick through the roof, all trying to get the healing Jesus can offer them.  You can’t blame them.  These are people in need.  But you can imagine living with the constant and overwhelming requests for help would be exhausting for anyone, and Jesus had so much to do with so little time.  I imagine that if Jesus were angry for a moment, it may have been, in part, at the realisation that there would never be just a sermon, just a dinner with friends, just a moment to pray.  He was going to have to live with continual interruptions.
 
You see, we too, live with continual interruptions, don’t we?  There’s always something coming up, something wanting or demanding our attention.  As those interruptions come up, we struggle to balance them: a stranger needs a hand to load something in their car when we’re already late for a hui or our kids sports games. Losing a loved that fills our heart with sadness and changes our lives forever. A daughter struggling with post-natal depression. A church member weeping in the pews on a Sunday because they were just diagnosed with cancer. All this stuff, it’s not part of our game plan.
This story of Jesus being interrupted on his preaching mission teaches us something about how to handle those interruptions, how to live with the uncertainty of changing our plans and shifting our priorities.  Jesus may have become angry for a moment–it’s only natural to feel frustrated or disoriented or even angered when our hopes and intentions are thrown into chaos.  But Jesus doesn’t let that first emotional reaction control his response.
Too often, we get drawn into believing that faithful discipleship means cultivating the correct emotion in our hearts: peaceful contemplation in worship, when truly our minds are filled with worry; sympathy for a person in need, when truly we are preoccupied with our own concerns; excitement for a mission trip or a life change, when truly we don’t want too.  When Jesus feels anger and then acts with compassion, he reminds us that discipleship can mean loving God and our neighbour with our actions even when we are angry or distracted.  Discipleship can mean responding faithfully to God’s surprises and the uncertainty of life, even when it’s really hard.  In that space whanau, we are never alone.
 
Maybe none of us “Want to annoy God,” because we fear that we are not important enough to notice, not worthy of God’s attention.  That might be the reason that so many of us are in such a rush!  We are always trying to be more important, to be more productive, to convince ourselves and each other of our own value.  We want to be people worthy of attention.
But there is nothing we need to do to earn God’s attention or God’s love.
The promise of this story is that Christ is always ready to turn toward us.  On that Galilean road, with so many limits and demands on his time, with so many consequences for stretching out his hand, Jesus chooses to touch and heal because, to Jesus, each one of God’s children matters.  Each one of us is a loved and beautiful child of God.  Each one of us is unique and precious.  The good news of this story is that you all matter to God.
 
The challenge of this story is to go and do likewise.  The challenge is to approach those interruptions and disruptions, those unexpected intrusions and inconvenient crises, those times of uncertainty and change, and see them as moments of opportunity.  The challenge is to set aside everything we think we know about God’s plan for us, all of our rush and hurryness, all of our ideas about who and what is important, and to turn toward our neighbours to bless and heal, and to find we are also blessed and healed by our actions.  Because when we do that, whanau, when we take a moment, take a breath, and turn towards each other, we see Jesus, on this spiritual road journey with us.
 
Let us pray: God, open our eyes, our hearts and our minds. Teach us to meet each new turn in the road of life with wonder.  When we are angry or indifferent or anxious, bless us with wisdom to hold our emotions gently, neither to ignore them nor to banish them, but to see and feel them and choose your way of love.  Give us the courage to bridge divides, to stretch out our hands to one another and to follow wherever you lead us and bless us with a certainty that we are never alone. Amen
 
Archdeacon Kaio Karipa
 
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Life of Prayer!

Life of Prayer!
 
Readings:
Isaiah 40:21-31
Ps 147:1-11,20c
1 Corinthians 9:16-23 
Mark 1:29-39 
 
Sentence:
34And  Jesus cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. Mark 1:34
 
Collect: 
Healing Jesus, in your touch the sick were healed, and the chains unbound. Set us on a new path of wholeness, deliver us from all that binds us, and turn us to embrace your life giving love. For you are alive and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
 
Mark 1:29-39 
Jesus Heals Many at Simon’s House
As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her at once. 31He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
A Preaching Tour in Galilee
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ 38He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ 39And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
 
 
Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.
 
Well whanau, next Sunday 14 February, we could possibly be returning to karakia at Te Wairua Tapu. The new slate roof is complete, our church is now water tight after waiting 35 years and our team of amazing workers have cleaned Te Wairua Tapu from top to bottom. We will confirm on Tuesday 09 February.
In today’s gospel reading from Mark, you get to see that everyone loves it when Jesus shows up. His presence makes a difference. Things happen. The sick are cured. Demons are cast out. Lives are changed. This is true not only for the people of Capernaum in Jesus’ time but also for us here and now. He comes to our house as surely as he went to the house of Simon and Andrew. I know of many people who have been transformed because Jesus has shown up in their lives. 
But what happens, though, when we wake up to find ourselves in the darkness of life? You know as well as I do that there are times when life is just plain hard. We struggle to get up. We don’t get our way. Things happen that we never wanted to have happen in our lives. Faith is difficult and at times, it’s results don’t seem like it works. In those times it’s as if there is only darkness and Jesus is nowhere to be seen. Some will assume he has forsaken them. They will abandon their faith. They will give up on him and even the Church. So what do we do when Jesus takes off and we feel all alone? That’s the big dark question.
According to today’s gospel that time will come. Jesus will get up in the early morning hours, while it’s still very dark, and go to a deserted place. But this isn’t about Jesus escaping or getting away. It’s about prayer; his and ours. It’s no longer about what’s happening around us or to us but what’s happening within us. Regardless of how dark it may seem Jesus never leaves us. He may withdraw but that doesn’t mean he’s absent. His withdrawing is in reality an invitation for us to move to a new place, to the deserted place. He calls us out of the comfort of the house into the vulnerability of the wilderness. It’s a deserted and desolate place; a place where there is only prayer. There, we are alone with nothing so it would seem.
You see, we all have deserted places in our lives.  For some it’s accepting the limitations that age and disease bring. Others deal with broken relationships. Loneliness and grief are desert places for some. The struggle to make ends meet is a wilderness many are trying to escape. You could each name your own wildernesses, places of hardship and deserts. Most of us don’t like those deserted places. We tend to avoid them. They are empty places that can be scary and dangerous. There is nowhere to hide. We have to face up to who we are and who we are not. We are confronted by things done and left undone. Our sorrows and losses are laid bare in those dark places. There we begin to recognise that our successes, possessions, and accomplishments don’t ultimately count for much. In the wilderness we have to admit we are not in control. Time in the deserted place is a matter of life and death. However, it’s also the place where our deepest healing can happen.
But there is a cost for going to the wilderness. We must trade the security of the house for the risk of the desert. The wilderness prayer of self-surrender must begin to replace the house prayer that only asks for things to happen or change. Wilderness prayer doesn’t ask so much that circumstances will be changed but that we will be changed. Only being in the wilderness makes that change possible. Jesus goes to the dark and deserted places of our lives to draw us there. If he didn’t go first, if he didn’t invite us to that place, none of us would probably ever go there. Yet, the wilderness and desert places of our lives are Tapu and sacred places. In the desert there is only God, there is nothing but God. Jesus is drawing us deeper and deeper into the heart of God. That happens in the very place we thought was barren, empty and desolate.
The deserted places of our lives are the places of Jesus’ prayer. They are the starting point for his message of good news. Good news comes from the empty and desolate places. Jesus will leave this deserted place to go proclaim his message in the neighbouring towns. Before today’s gospel Jesus emerged from the wilderness saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe the good news” (Mk. 1:15). Before him was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord’” (Mk.1:3). Before that the voice of God spoke creation into existence when “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep” (Gen. 1:2). New life arises from the deserted and empty places. The good news of Christ comes from the wilderness. Like I said almost a year ago, we are in midst of real change, new life and new beginnings.
“Everyone is searching for you,” they told Jesus. Yet Simon and his companions were the only ones to find him. Maybe they were the only ones willing to go to the deserted place. I wonder where the others were searching. The safety of town? The security of their houses? Standing in line at the door? I wonder where we will search when the dark or nighttime of our life comes. Go to the deserted places of your life and it’s there you will find Jesus, praying. Amen
Archdeacon Kaio Karipa

The Venerable Kaio Karipa

Chaplain

The Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship Church of Te Wairua Tapu

www.tewairuatapu.com.au

Photo: Feb 2021