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Discipleship Faith!

Discipleship Faith!

Readings:
Genesis 45: 1-15
Psalm 133
Romans 11: 1-2, 29-32
Matthew 15: 21-28

Sentence:
‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ Matthew 15:28

Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.

Yes, Jesus loves me….” “Yes, Jesus loves me….” “Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so.” 

Most of us oldies know that song well. For many of us it describes the Jesus of our childhood and our growing up. It’s simple and easy. And like I’ve mentioned before, it conjures up images of a sentimental faith and a sweet, cuddly Jesus. Those are images that still remain for many. That’s how we want the world to be, the way we want to live and who we want Jesus to be. The problem is that that kind of faith encourages a naive understanding about God, life and the world. And, it’s certainly not discipleship faith.

Look at what’s happening around the world and around us. Listen to all the politicians. Calculate the cost of innocent lives being tragically lost. The world is in a state of panic. Health v Economics. Freedom v Responsibility. Closer to home; balance the family budget, work full time, if you have a job, pay your mortgage or rent, raise your kids, keep your spouses and partners happy, and while you are at it, eat well and exercise. We all know what it’s like. We’ve each got our own story. We need a faith that can carry us through this life. Too often a sentimental faith becomes cynicism, which causes us to turn away and not deal with our problems, or it leaves us stuck and frozen in one spot not knowing what to do. Life is neither simple nor easy. So why should we settle for a faith that is the same?

We’ve all grown up since the days of singing “Jesus loves me” but has our faith grown up? Yes, Jesus loves us but faith is not about sentimentality and Jesus is definitely not always soft. Just ask the Canaanite women in today’s gospel. She’ll tell you all about it. She’s not one of the chosen people. She’s an outsider that the insiders don’t want in their space. Don’t she get? There’s just something about her that is not acceptable. On top of that she is a woman in a society in which woman have no real value or standing. To make matters worse she just won’t give up. 

You see, life for her is neither simple nor easy. And sentimentality won’t cut it. She needs help so she comes to Jesus. Yes, Jesus loves her but he ignores her and then calls her a dog. So what we do with that? Many have tried to explain it away. They offer excuses trying to justify Jesus’ behaviour. None are really convincing. Maybe Jesus was just tired and having a bad day. Or he was teaching his disciples something. Really? At the expense of this woman and her daughter? Others say Jesus was testing her faith; as if her life wasn’t hard enough. Maybe Jesus didn’t understand the full extent of his mission and ministry. I suspect all the excuses only highlight how small our faith is. Regardless of why Jesus did what he did we don’t like it. It makes us feel uncomfortable. That’s not the Jesus we want but that’s the Jesus we get in today’s gospel. And sometimes that’s the Jesus we get in life.

There are days when we come before God and offer in prayer all that we are and all that we have. We speak, express our feelings, make known our needs and then nothing happens. We wait. We listen. And, God is silent. It’s like talking to the wall. If you’ve ever experienced that, then you know this Canaanite woman. “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he didn’t answer her at all. Instead, he talked about her to the disciples. She heard every word. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” Jesus tells them. But for her, nothing. Totally ignored. No words, no gestures, no acknowledgment and no explanation. What do we do when that happens? Where do we go? Do we give up? Get angry? Leave the church? Sometimes in different pastoral situations people ask, “Why is God silent? Why am I ignored?” I wish I knew. I don’t have an answer. Even if I did I doubt it would be good enough. So I do the only thing I can do. Send them back to God. Just keep showing up. Don’t leave the church. Regardless of what God does or doesn’t do, make sure you show up. Even if it seems God doesn’t. That’s what the Canaanite woman did. This sounds very much like the women I grew up around. They never gave in and they never took no for an answer!

And yet, Jesus was silent. She could have gone home, argued, or asked, “Why?” But she didn’t. Instead, she came closer to Jesus, fell before him, and kept on worshipping him saying, “Lord, help me.” That doesn’t make sense but that’s what she does. This woman who was ignored and seemingly rejected by Jesus moves even closer and begs like a dog. She continues to show up trusting that somehow it’s enough to just be there before him. At some point he has to act. She doesn’t know when or what he will do. She only knows that she will be there when he does do something. Then he answers. “It’s not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Jesus literally called her a dog, an animal. Those are hard words and you wouldn’t get away with that today. But maybe they aren’t about Jesus or the woman. Jesus is naming the reality of the world in which they both lived. It was a hard world. The reality is that there are children and there are dogs. We see it everyday. Some have more while many don’t. Some are in and some are out. For some, life flourishes while many struggle to make it through another day. Children and dogs.

They didn’t make it that way. It was like that before either one of them were born. It was that way before they came on the scene and it’s still that way today. That doesn’t make it right and we should do all we can to change it. However, that is the world in which we must pray, live out our faith and we must learn to continually show up no matter what. That’s the world in which Jesus and this Canaanite women meet. Life is neither simple nor easy and dogs don’t eat the children’s food in this world. The woman knows this. She even agrees with Jesus. “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” She has again found a way to show up and be present even when it seems everyone has left the room and everything is against her. This time Jesus speaks and acts. “Great is your faith,” he tells her. That very hour her daughter is healed.

So what do we do with that? Some say she finally wore him down and Jesus gave in to get her to shut up and go away. That sounds more like what we would do. Some say she was rewarded for her persistence. Maybe, but you and I both know of persistence with no reward. So what’s the difference? Others suggest Jesus realised he was wrong and changed his mind. Maybe. I don’t know why Jesus acted the way he did. Maybe we don’t need to know. There’s a lot of maybe’s.

Maybe this story is not even about Jesus. But it’s about us, our faith, and our world. Life is tough. Deep and abiding faith is a real struggle. The world is broken and divided into children and dogs. In the dog days of life all we can do is continue to show up and that’s enough. God may or may not do what we want. It doesn’t really matter. To not show up is to only deepen the division between us and God. To turn away means that we won’t be there when God does show up and act. And we will miss it. We will miss the moment of connection, healing, words of forgiveness and the acts that transform. We will never know that Jesus really does love us unless we continue to be present and wait for him to speak to us. Discipleship faith demands us to stay in for the long haul. Amen.

Archdeacon Kaio Karipa

Collect:
God of compassion, you love every person without exception. Turn our hearts so that we may love our neighbour. Remove from us everything we use to exclude our sisters and brothers. Guard the door of our lips so that what we say may be worthy of our calling as your people. 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

The Venerable Kaio Karipa
Chaplain

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Jesus Christ our Faith!

Jesus Christ our Faith!

Readings:
Genesis 37: 1-4, 12-28
Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22
Romans 10: 5-15
Matthew 14: 22-33

Sentence:
But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ Matthew 14:27

Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.

Today Whanau, I want to acknowledge all our volunteers and the fantastic work they have achieved at the church. Due to no fault of their own, we have had to ensure they have the necessary protection to allow them to do what they do without any worries. And to see this small team of skilled and unskilled members continue to show up every week, unpaid and chip away at all the work that needs to be done is nothing short of amazing. I know we have a huge support base out there whanau but when you get to see the transformation that this team has accomplished will blow you away. So we are a month or so away from completing the major jobs but we will be looking for some skilled painters in the weeks to come. So don’t be afraid to contact me and I will keep you all informed of our progress. For me, standing firm in our faith and watching faith in action has been a huge part of what has so far transpired for Te Wairua Tapu in 2020.

Which leads me to today’s gospel where we hear that the disciples “Cried out in fear”.

A strange place to begin but I remember when we were kids and used to walk past our urupa at night, someone would yell out, “Look, there’s a kehua (A ghost)”. And, we used to bolt, run as fast as we could home, scared as anything, afraid of getting caught by the ghosts. Well, I was anyway. I’ve since outgrown those childhood fears but I haven’t outgrown fear itself. I’ve been in the same boat as the disciples many times in my life. Maybe you have too.

Fear. We all have our own fears. We all have our own ghost stories to tell. Regardless of whether ghosts are real or not, fear is. You could all tell a story about fear in your life, about a ghost that haunts and frightens you. There are all sorts of fears and ghosts. We fear our own death and the deaths of our loved ones. We fear the loss of our health, security, success and our reputation. We fear failure and what others will think about us. We fear being out of control and powerless. We fear the unknown, what will happen, and what might not happen. We fear others; those who look, act, and believe differently than us. And, we fear not being good enough and getting found out.

You see, fear can be the primary force that drives and controls and our lives. I’ve experienced that in my own life and I’ve seen it in the lives of others. I’ve seen how it can take hold of us and distort our vision and drown our lives. Fear often determines the choices we make, the words we say, the actions we take and the prayers we offer. Look at the events of today’s world and you’ll see fear. Fear is one thing both sides in any conflict have in common. Listen to the voices in your head and you’ll hear fear. It’s usually the loudest and most talkative voice. Read the headlines and you’ll find stories of fear. Study the scriptures and you’ll discover that the most common thing God tells the people is to not be afraid. And yet, most of us are. We’ve rowed the same boat as the disciples. We’ve been tossed about by the storms of life and we’ve seen the ghosts and we’ve cried out in fear.

Have you ever felt as if your world is full of darkness? Where the waves of life have smashed and battered you and it seems like you’re always rowing against the wind and getting nowhere? If you know what that’s like then you know what it was like for the disciples. In those circumstances it’s easy to see ghosts, to be terrified, and to cry out in fear. That’s what happened to the disciples. It happens to us. And, it’s happening throughout our world. The world today is crying out in fear. People are crying out with tears and screams of horror. Others cry out with silence in the dangerous worlds and circumstances that they find themselves in. Some cry out not knowing what to say or do. In whatever way we do it, at some point we all cry out in fear. Like the disciples, we more often than not, cry out to be rescued from the circumstances of which we are afraid. We want to escape the storm and avoid the ghosts. We want to be picked up and set down somewhere else, somewhere that is safe, calm and comfortable. Please Lord save me!

But Jesus doesn’t do that. He didn’t do that for the disciples and he doesn’t do that for us. Instead, Jesus reveals himself, speaks, and comes to the disciples in and from the very midst of the storm itself. He didn’t take the disciples out of their storm, he entered their storm. You see, Jesus doesn’t come to us from outside our storms and fears. Yet, that’s often where we look for him, outside the circumstances of our lives. We are too easily persuaded that the solution to all our circumstances only come from outside. That is the exact opposite of what today’s gospel tells us. Jesus came to the disciples walking on the water, through the wind and in the darkness. Jesus’ peace, words of comfort and presence are not outside the storm but in the centre of the storm. So why do we not look for him in that place, in the place of our fears? That’s where Jesus shows up. Where else would he be, the one we call Emmanuel, God with us? If Jesus is not in our storms and fears then he is not God-with-us.

This is why we always need to examine scripture as sometimes we may miss what’s really happening, like in today’s gospel. If all we see is Jesus defying gravity and walking on water then we have missed the miracle. The wind and the waves are more than just weather conditions. They are more about what’s happening within the disciples than what‘s happening around them. The real miracle is that Jesus walks into the storms that brew and rage within us. That means divine power and presence have and always will overcome and conquer human fear. It means that Jesus is with us in our most scariest circumstances. But the disciples couldn’t recognise this. Sometimes we don’t either. “It’s a ghost,” they screamed in terror. It’s the only thing that made sense. People don’t walk on water. It had to be a ghost. What else could it be? That is the power of fear to deceive and distort our lives. Our storms and our fears are the very place in which we abandon God. Most of us, however, don’t do that until we first feel abandoned by God. Surely that’s how the disciples must have felt. Jesus made them get in the boat and cross the sea alone as it seems. They had been abandoned to the open sea, the darkness, the waves, the wind and left with their own efforts, fantasies and illusions. Jesus done this so that they might abandon themselves to God.

The very elements that threatened to destroy the disciples became the environment in which they recognised Jesus as the Son of God. What they first perceived as certain death they now recognise as new life, hope and salvation. Every time we cry out in fear Jesus comes to us saying, “Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.” That’s the invitation to abandon ourselves to God in the midst of our storms and fears. No matter how big the storms are Jesus walks through them to get to us. No matter how strong the wind blows it is the wind through which Jesus walks to us. No matter how dark the night it is the night in which Jesus comes to us. No matter how great our fear is, Jesus Christ has already defeated it. “Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.” Amen.

Archdeacon Kaio Karipa

Collect:
Merciful God, hearten us, so that like Peter we may have faith even when we fail. Grant that any recognition we receive brings worship not to ourselves but to you. 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

The Venerable Kaio Karipa
Chaplain
Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship Church of Te Wairua Tapu
www.tewairuatapu.com.au

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Christ is Compassion!

Christ is Compassion!

Readings:
Genesis 32: 22-31
Psalm 17:1-7, 15
Romans 9: 1-5
Matthew 14: 13-21

Sentence:
When Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. Matthew 14:14

Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.

Well whanau, work at the church is coming along, all the rendering is completed, final touches in our new kitchen are taking place and the huge pile of rubbish is starting to get removed. But there is still more work to do. I’d like to acknowledge at this time all those that have lost loved ones since March. It hasn’t been easy for a lot of whanau grieving for someone and unable to attend tangihanga. May God grant your loved ones eternal peace and give you the strength and courage to meet the days, months and years ahead.

In saying that, I hope you have all had a good week. Not overly demanding and stressful and you were able to find time to chill out and rest. Take some me time space. You see, living life eventually teaches us that there are times when we should maintain personal boundaries and take care of ourselves; and there are other times when we should set our needs and our wants aside and offer kindness and care to those who are in need around us. This is part of the lesson from Matthews gospel reading this morning. Jesus had given so much of himself to those around him that he withdrew to a deserted place to be alone. To make that happen, he took a boat from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other. Now, I’d have to say that was a good and wise choice. He must have been tired from all the mahi he had been doing, and he was taking care of himself. The crowds walked around the lake to find him. In other words, they literally took the long way around! And when they showed up, the scripture says that he had compassion for them. It seems to me that Jesus’ interaction with the crowds that followed him, provides us with an example of the lesson that there is a time for self-care, but there is also a time for putting our own concerns aside and simply offering ourselves as vessels of compassion for those in need, starting with the ones closest to you.

The story that follows is intriguing, because it’s the only miracle of Jesus found in all four gospels and there is also no mention of what actually happened to make the five loaves and two fish feed such a huge crowd! Some have suggested that the example of generosity inspired those in the crowd to share their food with others. But we don’t know that. Others have depicted it as an instantaneous miracle—Jesus lifts the basket of food to heaven to bless it, and when he brings it down the basket is overflowing with loaves and fishes. But we don’t know that either. We really don’t know and we may never be able to explain how Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish.

What we do know is that initially the disciples wanted to send the crowds away. I would imagine they too were tired and wanted to have some down time. After all, the whole reason why they got in the boat and went to a deserted place was to be alone. Or perhaps, in their characteristic “lack of faith,” they were afraid there wouldn’t be enough food. A pretty reasonable concern you would think! What we do know is that Jesus gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. But this brings us no closer to explaining this story. Maybe it was in the act of the disciples being willing to put their own concerns aside and to simply give the food they had to the crowds that the miracle occurred? We still don’t know that for sure, but it does seem important that the disciples who wanted to send everybody away turned around and served their food to the hungry crowds around them. And somehow the miracle happened in the giving. By setting aside their own concerns, their fears and their doubts, Jesus’ disciples became the vessels for God’s miraculous work. Perhaps one of the lessons is that true miracles happen in ways we can and never will explain.

We’ll probably never know for sure exactly what happened that day by the Sea of Galilee, but it might point us in the right direction. When we remain focused on maintaining our boundaries, when we stay in our fears that there will not be enough or perhaps we aren’t good enough, when we just want to send others away to fend for themselves, we ultimately withhold the loving kindness and compassion that we have been so generously given. On the other hand, when we let go of our fears and concerns about our own well being—at least when the situation calls for it—and open our hearts to the people we encounter with a giving spirit, we become vessels and more Christlike, filled with divine compassion that can have a truly miraculous effect.

Our compassion and our loving kindness may be small and faltering at times, but if we will just give what we have, like Jesus, perhaps in the giving it will be multiplied to meet the needs. When we give compassion freely, it ripples out far beyond our ability to explain or even imagine. When we open ourselves to be people of compassion, those streams of kindness and mercy that flow through us have an effect that only God knows. Amen.

Archdeacon Kaio Karipa

Collect:
Generous God, your love is overflowing. Enable us to trust in the abundance of your love; help us to multiply the blessings you give, for you are the one that fulfils all our needs. 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

The Venerable Kaio Karipa
Chaplain
Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship Church of Te Wairua Tapu
www.tewairuatapu.com.au

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God’s Kingdom!

God’s Kingdom!

Readings:
Genesis 29:15-28 
Psalm 1045:1-11, 45b
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Sentence:
The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. Romans 8: 26

Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.

Well whanau, it has been a somewhat challenging week. Not everything we do goes to plan and we have to change tack and adjust our sails. We are in testing times in Sydney right now. We may think everything is okay and the threat of Covid-19 only happens somewhere else until it comes close to you. Be vigilant and careful out there as hotspots are starting to breakout in a number of suburbs. We have had to slowdown work at the church until members of our extended whanau had been tested and returned negative results before resuming work again. So even when the work is completed won’t mean an immediate return to karakia. We will still need to monitor our movements, contacts and activities. But remember our plans are never God’s plan.

So be careful what you pray for – you just might get it…

That may seem like a strange thing to say today but there is truth in it. Sometimes as Christians, the prayers just roll off our tongue and we don’t really think through the implications of what we are praying for or the process that may be involved if the things we pray for come into reality. Nowhere is that more evident, than in the Lord’s Prayer which we say week in week out, if not day in day out – and we don’t really think through the implications of the words we are saying. The Lord’s Prayer is a powerful karakia with some dangerous statements in it and not least of these is the phrase, “Your Kingdom come…” What seems like a fairly pleasant plea to God is actually counter-cultural and a revolutionary request because it is a plea for the existing social order to be turned on its head and for the world to be governed and controlled by a new set of rules: for all social and political interaction to be transformed almost completely. But as the late Dr Hone Kaa once said, “We are slaves to the rhythm.”

Part of the problem is that we have been educated to see Jesus in a particular image. We want to think of him as a mild mannered, white man, strolling around the countryside, talking in happy metaphors about sheep and lights on a hill, performing amazing miracles for his adoring followers. But in reality he was a man of colour, a tradesman who walked the roads of Israel and he was a social revolutionary who was dedicated to denouncing oppressive systems and challenging the authority of the occupying Roman army. But that’s Jesus of Nazareth: the liberator speaking out against the forces of injustice, who was not afraid to say, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword…” So be careful what you pray for…

In our Gospel reading today from Matthew, Jesus gives a number of parables, beginning each one with the phrase, “The Kingdom of heaven is like…” And we hear that phrase and we settle back in our chairs and get comfortable because we know that we are about to hear Jesus spin another good story for us. But it doesn’t work like that. When Jesus says, “The Kingdom of heaven is like…”, we should be nervous, on guard and be ready because this man dedicated his life – and his death – to taking us right outside our comfort zones and confronting us with the harsh reality of Truth.

So he begins with the parable of the mustard seed: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” We find that comforting, don’t we? Jesus,  mild mannered, telling us that big things can come from small beginnings. We link it to Jesus’ saying that we are to have faith like a mustard seed and we think that its OK to only have a little bit of faith because that will be enough. So we can all relax. We don’t need to work hard at being a Christian. We don’t need to devote ourselves too much to the spiritual disciplines because Jesus has told us that a little bit of faith is perfectly adequate. But a Gentle Jesus didn’t tell this parable.

This parable was told by Jesus, a man who was prepared to live and die to see a new world order come in to being…

His people would have heard a story about a mustard plant, which was an invasive plant, going deep into the soil. They would have picked up on the real threat in this story. Because the sower plants the seed, perhaps in desperation and out of his poverty, in the hope that it might produce something useful and very quickly. But there is also the danger that the mustard plant will grow and grow and invade the rest of the soil and take over that part of the landscape, making the soil unusable for any other form of vegetation. And, of course, that invasive property is exactly what Jesus wants to highlight because his mustard seed becomes a tree and the birds come to nest in it.

Therefore, the Kingdom of heaven is completely invasive. It might look small and it may even be sown in desperation and out of poverty – but it will grow and grow and will invade the land and eventually become a sanctuary for others to find rest in. You see, God’s Kingdom comes as a threat to those who cling to the old world order. Sound familiar. Jesus wants God’s Kingdom to invade and dominate the land and that is the message he is prepared to live and die for.

And if we have not yet got the point about the Kingdom of God being threatening, uncontainable and invasive, Jesus follows it up with another story: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” Now we know what the Gentle Jesus is talking about! The woman in her kitchen, kneeding the dough while her children are playing, the smell of freshly baking rewana bread hanging in the air and her husband or partner is sitting at the table waiting for a feed of hot bread. Another comfortable image for us – from a Gentle Jesus.

But yeast meant something else to the first hearers of this parable? Yeast was to be avoided at the most holy times of the year: Unleavened Bread was the order of the day. And elsewhere, Jesus used the symbol of yeast to describe the behaviour of the Pharisees. For those people who lived in an agricultural culture, yeast was hard to handle. It was unpredictable, it bubbled up, it collapsed and it grew again. It was hard to handle and, at certain times, it was to be avoided altogether. So Jesus again is not giving us a neat and comfortable image here: the Kingdom of heaven is unpredictable. It bubbles up from within and completely transforms the environment in which it grows.

Mustard seeds and Yeast. These are products that change its environment. They cannot be contained or controlled. They grow in secret and then, all of a sudden, the host environment becomes transformed. And the effects of the seed and the yeast will do what it wants to do: the sower and the baker cannot control them.

Therefore, the Kingdom of heaven is something we cannot control.

This is an important principle for us to grasp because there is a tendency for Christians to want church to be a beautiful place, where we sing beautiful hymns and use beautiful liturgy in the comfort of a beautiful building. Something we are working on right now. And, I am not saying that these things aren’t important but if we are to grow as a church, we will need to forsake aspects of beauty for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. The truth is that the Kingdom of God is not always a beautiful place to be. It can be a messy place; at times, it can be an ugly place. If we think that a Gentle Jesus is telling these parables, then we might expect the Kingdom of heaven to be a beautiful and peaceful place. But a Gentle Jesus didn’t tell these parables. These parables were told by Jesus, that man who was prepared to live and die to see a new world order come in to being. So he prepares us for a kingdom that can be as messy and ugly as it is beautiful.

But its in all the mess that we create together that beauty will be found. Because, as Jesus told us in the parable in verse 45, it takes a lot of searching to find a pearl. But once its found, the search will have been worth it… “Your kingdom come…” So be careful what you pray for – because the Kingdom of heaven is like that proclaimed by Jesus, the revolutionary, not like some imaginary Gentle Jesus. It is subversive and its messy, and if we want to embrace the Kingdom, then we must embrace the revolutionary nature of the kingdom and the mess that this causes…

Jesus walked the roads of Israel. And when he saw social injustice, oppression and marginalisation, he spoke out against it. His ministry was a messy ministry. But Jesus was prepared to die for the liberation of his people because he knew that the coming of the Kingdom of heaven was the ultimate goal of liberation. That was his mission. And Jesus invites us into that mission today. It will be uncomfortable at times, it will get messy – but that’s the Kingdom of heaven. Not everything is beautiful and smells like roses. So be careful what you pray for…You just might get it… Amen.

Archdeacon Kaio Karipa

Collect:
God of new joy, nothing can compare to the kingdom of heaven. Help us to pursue your reign with all of our strength, that our happiness will one day be made complete. 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 

The Venerable Kaio Karipa
Chaplain
Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship Church of Te Wairua Tapu
www.tewairuatapu.com.au

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Listening to Jesus

Listening to Jesus!

Readings:
Genesis 28:10-19a 
Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24
Romans 8:12-25 
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sentence:
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. Romans 8: 14

Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.

Well whanau, another week has gone and so has all the challenges we have faced. Work at the church is coming along and I’m amazed at how much is getting achieved. Scaffold coming down and more is going up, walls are getting rendered, the new kitchen is almost complete and the rubbish pile is growing.  Every time you think you’ve got all the rubbish, more seems to show up! So I’m glad we can all pause and take time to recharge our wairua, hinengaro and tinana so we are better prepared for the week ahead. But always stay alert and awake whanau! 

So here’s the question for today. Where did those weeds come from in our gospel? Nothing like getting right into it. I’m sure many of you have asked that question or at least thought about it. Why? Because the questions that face us are, “How did our world end up where it is today? How did we get to this point?” We are facing life altering situations on a daily, if not, on an hourly bases. The world we knew is dying and the one we live in today is going crazy. Perhaps your life’s circumstances have left you asking yourself, “How did my life get like this?” And, we want to know “Why, if God is good and loving, has all this happened?”

You see, we often live with the assumption that if we do good, work hard, and be nice everything should work out as we want. That’s the illusion with which the slaves in today’s parable lived. “Master,” they ask the farmer, “did you not sow good seed in your field?” Of course he did. That’s why they were surprised when they found the weeds. The weeds smashed their illusion and this wasn’t supposed to happen. “Where did the weeds come from?” They wanted to know what happened and who was responsible. So do we. That’s what we want to know when we discover trouble in our fields, in our space and in our lives. We want an explanation and of course, someone we can blame, hold accountable, and even punish. We see that in all political stoushes, especially those we are involved with, on our social media posts and in our own privately held opinions. 

However, Jesus is less interested in this approach than we are. He doesn’t give it much time or attention. “An enemy has done this,” he says. That’s it. He doesn’t explain it. He doesn’t identify or name the enemy. He doesn’t give any instructions to find, drive out or punish this enemy. Behind our desire for an explanation and to find out the name of the culprit is a truth many of us neither like nor want to accept. It’s one of the challenges of today’s gospel and, like I’ve consistently told you, the gospel always challenges the way we think, see, act, and live. It’s the challenge to become more than who we think we are. It’s a challenge that arises every time we face the weeds or troubles of our life and the world.

According to Jesus, the reality is that our lives and our world are a field in which good and evil, life and death, joys and sorrows, that which we want and that which we don’t want grow and live side by side. The wheat and the weeds stand together in our world and in each of our lives. That, Jesus says, is what the kingdom of heaven is like. That’s good news for us. It means that despite the weeds in and around us the kingdom is still here. The weeds don’t overcome or make absent God’s kingdom. It may not be the fullness of the kingdom but it’s still the kingdom. So what do we do about the weeds? Nothing according to Jesus. “Let them grow together until the harvest”. But that makes no sense. The weeds are bad and the wheat is good. We gotta do something. We need to take a stand, draw a line in the sand, establish some boundaries.

“Don’t you want us to pull up the weeds,” the slaves ask their master. “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.” The parable speaks of a particular weed that grows with the wheat. It looks like wheat but it’s a false wheat. It’s roots intertwine with the roots of the real wheat. The difference between the two is not easy to identify. So the separation between the wheat and the weeds is not as clearcut or black and white as social media, the news, our politicians or our personal opinions would often have us believe. And besides, we aren’t the ones to make that judgment. We’re not the ones called to rip out those we see as weeds. And I know we can be so driven to do so but Jesus is clear about that. Don’t do it.

“Let them grow together until the harvest,” he says. Jesus shows more interest in growth than extermination. He is willing to wait and to be patient. If we are his followers we too will need to wait and be patient amongst the weeds of our life. While we patiently wait let’s not get too excited about the end of this parable. Let’s not celebrate the end of the age and the coming of Jesus as some divine weed exterminator. I don’t think Jesus intended this parable to be taken literally, but, rather, with absolute seriousness.

So do we do nothing? Just sit and wait? No, that’s not what Jesus is saying. There is plenty to do and it will be a challenge. The words that are translated as “let them” in Jesus’ statement, “Let them grow…” can also be translated as forgive them. It’s the same words Jesus spoke from the cross in St. Luke’s account of the gospel when he says, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). Even then, even on the cross, Jesus is unwilling to pull out the weeds. There’s no place in the gospel for Christian vigilantes, by word or by action, against another or against ourselves. And I know this from personal experience but Jesus commands love. Love your enemy. Love your neighbour. Love yourself and Love God. Forgive the weeds? Love the weeds? Remember, I told you the gospel is always a challenge. So, yes, forgive them. Love them. Maybe that’s how the wheat begins to disentangle its roots from the weeds and show itself to be wheat and not weeds. Maybe love and forgiveness is what life is like in the mixed field of God’s kingdom and this world. Have a great week whanau. Amen.

Archdeacon Kaio Karipa

Collect:
God of all wisdom; yeast, mustard and weeds with such as these Christ taught your ways. Grant us wisdom to teach with the common things of life that none may elude your call. 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 

The Venerable Kaio Karipa
Chaplain
Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship Church of Te Wairua Tapu
www.tewairuatapu.com.au

Posted on

Christ the Seed!

Christ the Seed!

Readings:
Genesis 25:19-34 
Psalm 119:105-112 
Romans 8:1-11 
Matthew 13:1-9,18-23

Sentence:
‘If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.’ Romans 8:11

Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.

What a big week it has been whanau. I know there so much uncertainty still effecting our daily lives and for some of you, life will be getting tougher, if it isn’t already, and I’m sure there are many more challenges that we must contend with in our immediate futures. I say this because we faced a couple of big challenges this week, met some great people, made new friends, welcomed home others and we had an awesome working bee yesterday at the church. Thank you to all those that turned up, cleaned up, painted, stripped the scaffold and fed us. It was a great week of seeing community in action! All this, and we are not ready to return to worship. There is still more work to be done on our whare karakia, inside and out, both physically and spiritually. But we are getting there.

I hope you have read all the readings set out for today as they are excellent to ponder and reflect upon. Our gospel is the parable about the sower and the seed. As you may or may not know, parables are stories with different types of stories inside the story, unless you are only looking for one. And today’s parable is no different and it seems so relevant to what is going on in our lives and in the world. There’s the sower or the farmer, the different soils and the seed. When you get past the farming analogy you will see that Jesus isn’t just describing different types of soil or circumstances of life. He is describing the various states of the human heart. We see them in others and we see them in ourselves. What we discover is that we are rarely just one type of soil. We are all four. The four soils describe how we live and relate to others and to God. Jesus tells us what happens to the seeds and he describes the consequences of each kind of life.

The parable invites us to reflect and examine the kind of life we are living. That’s important and there’s nothing wrong with doing that but we reduce the parable to one obvious question. What kind of dirt are you? And of course, we are quick to point out what type of dirt someone else is too. But when we do that we put ourselves at the centre and push the sower into the background. The “what kind of dirt” question is not the only way to read this parable. And that’s when you have to be careful because the question you ask may just be the distraction that takes you away from other ways of reading this parable. 

That’s the difficulty of parables. We tend to read and try to understand parables through the lens of our own worldview. The result is that we hear but do not understand, we see but do not perceive. Therefore, the parable doesn’t make sense. A farmer goes out and sows seed on a public pathway, on rocky ground, and amongst the thorns. That’s simply wasting resources and it’s bad farming. You can’t plant seeds on a pathway or among the rocks and thorns and then act surprised or complain that nothing grew. The story Jesus tells simply doesn’t fit into our world. To know that is the beginning of understanding this parable.

Parables offer a different worldview. They give us a glimpse into God’s world and what God is like. They open our ears and our eyes so that we might hear and understand. Parables aren’t meant to test how clever we are. They are stories of grace that test our heart’s willingness to surrender to the generosity of God. That’s what the parable of the sower reveals. As different as the four soils are they all hold two things in common. Seeds and the sower. The sower sows the same seed in all four soils with equal work, equal hope, and equal generosity. The sower does so without evaluation of the soil’s quality or potential. There is no soil left unsown. No ground is declared undeserving of the sower’s seeds. This is not about the quality of the dirt. It’s about the quality of God, the divine sower. We want to judge what kind of dirt we are. God simply wants to sow divine life into ours. And that divine life is Jesus Christ. No life or person is left out, no soil is left unsown. This so humbling when you think everything is fine and you got everything under control and then you realise that it’s not you but God directing our lives and everything we do and not us.

This parable is about God’s faithfulness and not about farming, soil quality or how things work in this world. In God’s world, wastefulness gives way to hope, inefficiency to love, and profitability to generosity. As long as we remain faithful and keep sowing Jesus Christ wherever we go and allowing our lives to be sown with the divine seed of God then the end result must surely be to become more Christlike. Amen.


Collect:
Farmer God. Good soil brings forth a hundredfold of grain. May we be that soil; vibrant, deep and teeming with life. 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 


The Venerable Kaio Karipa
Chaplain
Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship Church of Te Wairua Tapu
www.tewairuatapu.com.au
Posted on

Christ Our Liberator!

Christ our Liberator!

Readings:
Genesis 24:34-38,42-49, 58-67 
Psalm 45: 10-17
Romans 7:15-25a 
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Sentence:
‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’ Matthew 11: 28

Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.

Well whanau, I am sure some of you have seen what’s happening at our church. Work has gone from small to major! And then, in today’s gospel, Jesus says, ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

These verses sound so easy to follow. If we are struggling and feel like we are carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders, don’t despair, we just need to handover all our problems to Jesus and our lives will be magically fixed. Simple stuff, and it is, until it doesn’t work or things go wrong, especially when our wairua can’t find any rest. I definitely know the feeling. We are so consumed with living life everyday that no matter how hard we try, we just can’t find the time or space to really rest our souls. So the burden or yoke we carry continues to weigh us down. When this happens, we get disappointed or become disillusioned with the whole concept of faith and doubt kicks in.

Therefore, we need to ask ourselves what or whom are we burdened too? To what or whom do we surrender ourselves too? What or who takes priority in our lives? These questions ultimately determine how we live, how we relate to others and how we make all our decisions. We are all bound to something: work, family, another person, money, power, success, reputation, etc. Sometimes our burden are more internal: like fear, failure, anxiety, anger, beliefs, opinions and the losses of loved ones. No matter what they are, the attachment we have to them, we depend upon, whether good or bad, to give our lives meaning and direction.  We all got them and usually there’s more than one!

So what burdens do you wear? Which one is number one? As Christians, we know the right answer. Jesus. Why? Because do we really live like him? Is it reflected by our actions and in our relationships? Apparently, it wasn’t in the community that Jesus was speaking too. If we are going to call ourselves Christians then we must fully commit ourselves to Christ. He must be our number one and determining burden. We can’t just hear the gospel, say some prayers, take Communion and then hope everything is going to be sweet. The gospel of Jesus Christ demands a response. That’s why Jesus is so harsh with his words. The people have seen God among them, they have witnessed the signs. Jesus has cleansed and healed their sick, calmed the sea, cast out demons, forgiven sins and yet, they still reject him. Sometimes we are like those little kids, unhappy with whatever is offered to us. In other words, we want the gospel to fit our beliefs, our desires and our agendas rather than shaping them to fit the gospel. That’s not an option for Jesus. We can either celebrate and give thanks for God coming in Jesus or mourn our sins, the brokenness of our lives and the pain in which the world inflicts upon us. But we must respond. We gotta choose one or the other. Either one is to wear the yoke of Christ. Both choices will influence our lives and our priorities.

So what does that mean for us? It means we need to take seriously our life of discipleship. Our prayers need to be more intimate with God rather than demanding and expecting what we want in return. We need to know the areas of service in which God wants us to work. Is it finding justice and giving dignity back to others. Caring for the poor, feeding the hungry and defending the oppressed. Maybe it’s all these things. We are to love our enemies, offer forgiveness before it’s asked for. Our faith should be evident by how we live and speak. We live day by day praising God and giving thanks for the gifts and blessings we have already received. We let go of our anger and stress. We don’t live in fear and we trust that our daily food will be provided. To be burdened to anything or anyone other than Christ will only leave us weary and tired. This is a spiritual condition, a disease of the wairua, as much or maybe even more than it’s a physical one. Our lives become fragmented and dysfunctional and we end up comparing, competing, and judging ourselves and each other. We act as one person in one situation and another person in a different situation. There is no internal integrity. Our energy and drive is minimal and we are exhausted with no depth or substance to offer. Soon relationships become superficial and meaningless.

Therefore, if you and I are burdened then maybe this means we are not fully wearing the yoke of Christ. Too often we treat our burdens with therapy, addictions, holidays, new things, being busy and striving to be perfect. But internal gaps cannot be filled by exterior things. More often than not we are more burdened afterwards as we were before. The only way of surpassing this condition is only found in sharing the yoke of Christ, the heart of God and the heart of humanity beating as one.

Jesus isn’t upset at the people but his heart is broken because they have chosen a life less than what they were created for, a life less than what God is offering. This is why his words soon become words of love, care, and concern for God’s people. “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. To take on the burden of Jesus is to take on his life. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,” he says. It’s about letting go of ourselves and our egos so that our hearts and our minds become like his. To truly experience what matters most to Jesus and to see and touch the world like him. But more importantly to see God through the eyes of Jesus Christ so we can find rest for our souls. The place where we experience the full embrace of God’s unconditional love. Have a liberating week whanau. Amen.


Collect:
Unpretentious God, you call us as we are; and in our weakness you find strength. Help us so to delight in who we are, that we are set free to dream of all that we could yet become; 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 


The Venerable Kaio Karipa
Archdeacon
Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship Church of Te Wairua Tapu
www.tewairuatapu.com.au
Posted on
Christ is Hospitality!

Readings:
Genesis 22: 1-14
Psalm 13
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 10: 40-42

Sentence:
Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” Matthew 10: 40

Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.

Just to keep you all updated whanau. Te Wairua Tapu will not be open for use until the renovations are completed. At this stage we are hoping it will be August but I will keep you informed. In the meantime, I will continue to post my weekly kauwhau on our church Facebook page. 

Over the past couple of weeks, the focus of the gospel has been on mission. The verses from Matthew today come at the end of Jesus’ korero to his disciples (10:5-42). Up to this point, Jesus has been talking about what the disciples should do and the difficulties that they will face and what others will do to them because of their witness for Christ. Jesus then teaches them about hospitality in the context of discipleship. These verses speak about hospitality as receiving and welcoming strangers. 

I was talking to a friend the other day, and we were sharing how privileged we were to grow up in small but tight rural communities. Every home was our home, every meal in any of those homes was our meal, we played together, got hidings from each other and our parents, aunties and uncles. What was theirs was ours and what was ours was theirs. We were taught hospitality by people who lived it. Of course, the community wasn’t perfect but we learnt the essence of hospitality and everybody contributed to giving life to the community. They lived out their theology. Their relationship with God was real! Even strangers were felt welcome, invited into our homes and shared in a meal, it wasn’t a feast but they got a feed and a bed for the night, even if it meant you getting kicked out of your bed and you had to share with someone else or a couple of others. Took me a lot of years to work it all out but I understand the lesson. What you give is what you get back. Don’t give if you expect something back, you’ll be waiting a long time. And when you do receive, watch out, it may not be what you expected, it will be more than you can imagine. However, we both agreed, times have changed and life is no longer like that but for us we will maintain the same values and principles. Why? Because hospitality is God given so why change?

In today’s gospel, Jesus reminds us that discipleship is a privilege and a huge responsibility. He tells us that we represent him before others and the reverse is also true: that others represent him before us. Jesus assures us that he is present in our lives when we welcome others into our midst, especially strangers, and he is also present when others do the same for us. In other words, we bring Christ before others in our homes, in the church, at work, out socialising and anything else we do in the world. What would happen if, every day, we were always conscious of this truth and did our best to put it into practice? Rather than just on Sundays! When we offer and receive hospitality, Jesus is made present. This is the most precious gift we could give to anyone!

Most of us probably don’t find it hard to offer hospitality to our family and friends, but what about the stranger, people we don’t know? How often do we welcome them? Do we give them the gift of Christ’s presence? Or do we say to ourselves, they’re all good, they got their own people who take care of them? Hospitality is risky business. An open heart and an open home or church is a target for unpleasant experiences. We all know how people can take advantage of others hospitality and generosity: bring nothing, give nothing, take everything! But that’s okay. God knows, so let it be. That’s the thing about hospitality. It isn’t only about showing it or being it at home but going some place and quietly hoping that the receiver of our hospitality will see Christ in us but when we arrive, we realise Christ is already there, in them, waiting to greet us. This is where we need to acknowledge that as followers of Christ we are special and unique but so is everyone else. Don’t ever believe you or we are the only ones serving Christ, you will only end up disappointed.

You see, the real meaning of discipleship hospitality is found in inviting someone into your space who cannot repay you and someone who is unfamiliar to you. Why? Because Christ is the hospitality of God toward us. God invites all to the great banquet, the feast which none of us can repay. God gives to us fully in his son Jesus Christ and God also fully receives us and accepts us as we are. To be faithful disciples and to represent God, we need to push the boundaries of what we find comfortable and easy. Strangers will always make us uncomfortable but with God’s help it’s not impossible to reach out to them. So the next time you give or receive hospitality, remember to just rejoice in the other person’s presence; not judge them. Remember that it may very well make all the difference in the world to the person who receives your hospitality. And remember the reverse is also true; someone may be the very presence of Christ for you in an unexpected time and place. Amen.


Collect:
God of hospitality, even a glass of water given in your name is rewarded beyond measure. So fill our hearts with love that we welcome all in your name, For you are alive and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen 


The Venerable Kaio Karipa
Chaplain
The Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship Church of Te Wairua Tapu 
Posted on

Jesus First

Jesus First!

Readings:
Genesis 21: 8-21
Ps 86: 1-10, 16-17
Romans 6:1b-11
Matthew 10: 24-39
Sentence:
‘Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.’ Matthew 10:36

Tena koutou katoa e te whanau o Te Wairua Tapu.

Relationships. That’s the core of today’s gospel reading whanau and Jesus highlights the most important relationship we will ever have and that’s with him. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” In the first relationship there is Jesus, us, and our mother and father. In the second there is Jesus, us, and our children. Of course these are not the only relationships in our lives as they can involve anyone or anything.

However, in every relationship it confronts us with two questions. What is your most important relationship? And, whom do you love the most? After hearing Jesus’ words it’s not hard to figure out it’s him. But the answer is never that simple or that easy to define. It takes time to work it out. I would like to think and say with heaps of confidence that Jesus is my most important relationship, as I am sure some of you would acknowledge, that he is first and he is the one you love the most too. However, as you know, relationships are places of struggle and conflict. They are never cut and dried. We are either always right, never wrong, or we are always afraid of doing something wrong or hurting and letting someone down. We fear failure. And our relationship with Jesus is no different. So who do you choose? Do you choose Jesus over your parents, children, wife, husband, partners or siblings? Big call aye! As hard as it may be that’s what Jesus said you and I must do. If you want to follow me, then it’s going to cost you. And it’s a lot more than you think. Surrendering, giving up or letting go is never easy but the end result is amazing.

If Jesus asks us to love him more than our own parents and children, our own whakapapa (flesh and blood), then he also demands it with everything else in our lives. There can be only one relationship in our lives and Jesus says it’s to be with him. His demand is not just limited to our parents or our children. It’s over everyone and everything in our life. Our love of work, power, reputation, money, politics, agendas, ideology, friends, beliefs, values, rituals and the list goes on. Jesus says, whoever loves self more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves anyone or anything more than me is not worthy of me. So, what is your most important relationship? Whom do you love the most?

Today’s gospel holds before us and confronts us with the many loves in which we all live and struggle with. But it demands we make a choice. Does that mean we must reject our parents, our children, our spouses, and all other love interests? No, that’s not what Jesus is saying or asking. Jesus is not demanding he be exclusive. Instead, he is demanding he be our first priority. Jesus refuses to be just another one of our many love interests.

Jesus demands he be our first priority because it’s for our own good as well as the good of all our other love interests. We can only ever have one primary relationship. That one relationship gives us our identity, meaning and direction in our lives. It becomes the lens through which we see the world, each other, and ourselves. Jesus is the foundation on which we build our lives. He guides the choices we make, the words we say, and the ways in which we act and relate. He sets a true path for our lives and determines how we love. Why then would we want it to be something or someone other than Jesus, especially when he is God embodied in human life, whakapapa (flesh and blood)?

So how do we pick Jesus over our children, our spouses and our parents? How do we look at them and say, “I love Jesus more?” Easy, when you love God more, everyone and everything else becomes easier to love. No one or anything is left out, excluded, or rejected. God, not you or I become the source and origin of our love. This is the love by which we take up our cross and choose to follow Jesus, the same love with which Jesus loves us. Amen.


Collect:
Caring God, even a sparrow is protected by you. Imprint upon our hearts, that because we belong to you, no one can pluck us from your hand; and because we fear you, we need fear no other. 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 


The Venerable Kaio Karipa
Chaplain
Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship Church of Te Wairua Tapu
www.tewairuatapu.com.au