18 minute read
LECTIONARY REFLECTIONS
DECEMBER
Advent is Full of Surprises
SUNDAY 5 DECEMBER
LUKE 3:1-6 The Lukan passage for this second Sunday of Advent is full of surprises. It is surprising that bypassing seven high profile individuals like Emperor Tiberius, Governor Pontius Pilate, rulers Herod, Philip and Lysanias, high priests Annas and Caiaphas, God reaches out to a locust and honey eating, camel hair skirt wearing prophet to be the divine spokesperson. It is also surprising that it doesn’t take place in the corridor of power in Rome or in the sanctuary of the Temple of Jerusalem but in the wilderness.
God is full of surprises as the word of God comes to unlikely persons in unlikely places. God’s word may not confirm what we already know or expect but may shock us out of our spiritual slumber to see God and God’s kingdom in a new way. This advent, may we be surprised as to where and through whom we meet God in the child of Mary. SUNDAY 12 DECEMBER
LUKE 3:7-18 John eats honey but his words are not sweet, at least not in this instance as he calls the people approaching him for baptism “brood of vipers”. He not only calls names, what he exhorts in verses 8-10 is anything but good news. But sometimes good news come in bitter capsules. John uses harsh words lest the crowd miss his message of following God and preparing the way of the Lord. Surprisingly, people respond positively. They ask three times in hymnic refrain fashion, “What should we do?” which become our question – what should we do in this moment of history? Preparing the way of the Lord, John says, requires repentance of our hearts that will lead us outward into action. His three answers to the crowd are down to earth practical responses: selfless sharing, anti-economic bullying, and being content with what one has. The rite of repentance and baptism is fused with social justice and service to others. How should we prepare? should be our question as well on this third Sunday of Advent.
SUNDAY 19 DECEMBER
LUKE 1:39-45 (46-55) This is an amazing encounter between two women – Elizabeth and Mary. Elizabeth childless for many years knows the frustrations, pain, and stigma of being barren in a culture where a woman’s worth is measured almost entirely by her ability to bear children. She is now pregnant. Mary, the other woman who is almost too young to have a baby and unmarried, is also pregnant. There is fear, anxiety and stigma. However, their encounter is extraordinary as the two would be mothers embrace each other in tears and joy. The child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps as if confirming that this a sign of God’s providence. “Blessed are you”, Mary says, who knows that God is at work. She breaks into song, a song with an unconventional lyric, as it proclaims God’s work of transforming and reordering of everything – economically, socially and politically. As Elizabeth and Mary allow their bodies to be transformed according to God’s promise, may we allow God to transform our humanity. May we too, like Mary, sing a song of transformation of our world as we prepare to celebrate Christmas. SUNDAY 26 DECEMBER
LUKE 2:41-52 It is a “lost and found” story but of a different kind. Jesus is lost as a twelveyear-old boy after his family came to Jerusalem to attend the Passover festival. After three days of frantic searching his parents find him in the temple discussing the finer points of theology with the teachers of the Temple. After three days! Luke’s hint here is of resurrection. Jesus, dead and buried, is raised on the third day, and there is a new temple, Christ’s resurrected body. But the Easter is long way off. In the meantime, Jesus returns to Nazareth and spends the next two decades away from the centres of religion and politics, in the company of ordinary people. Here Jesus continues to grow “in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.” This is an invitation to every child of God, regardless of their age, to grow “in wisdom and in divine and human favour” to discern what God expects of them for God’s ministry in the world.
JANUARY Meeting Jesus in our neighbours
SUNDAY 2 JANUARY
JOHN 1(1-9),10-18 A brand New Year has just begun. But the dreadful memories of the past year cling to us when we felt as if God was not with us. Those memories cloud our vision for the new year. In today’s reading John reminds us, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, but the world didn't know he was there.”
If it were not for God, we would not be here. Yet often we fail to see God. To help us overcome this problem of invisibility, John writes, "(So) The Word became flesh and dwelt among us… and we saw his glory …" The invisible God came down among us in the form of a human baby, who grew into a young traveling preacher, who loved the loveless, forgave the sinful, lifted the lowly, healed the hurt, and spoke of a new Kingdom which he started building bit-by-bit, and personby-person. This kingdom, when it is complete, people will see God face-toface, as peace will reign, justice will flow like a river, and the tears will be wiped away from every eye. As the New Year begins, may we meet the invisible God by reaching out to meet the visible Jesus in our neighbours and among the poor and the needy. SUNDAY 9 JANUARY
LUKE 3:15-17, 21-22 The two cousins meet. But it is not a typical Middle Eastern family gathering over felafel and kebabs in the backyard. It takes place in the wilderness by the river of Jordan. This venue is significant and full of symbolism. This is the same wilderness in which Moses led the people of Israel for forty years after their liberation from slavery in Egypt. This is the same Jordan in which they were immersed before they entered the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. To go out to the wilderness and to be baptized in the Jordan, is to recover the roots. It is to rededicate to the freedom journey with God! Today’s encounter between John and Jesus, and the baptism that ensues heralds a new beginning, an entry into the Kingdom of God under the leadership of the One of whom God says, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” This baptism is the inauguration of Jesus’ public ministry. Today as we remember Jesus’ baptism may we remember that in our baptism we too have been plunged into a new way of being, living, and acting in the world. SUNDAY 16 JANUARY
JOHN 2.1-11 For John, Jesus’ miracles are “signs” that reveal Jesus’ glory as God’s Son through whom salvation enters the world. In other words, John says that putting on human skin God came and dwelt among us in Jesus, so we could see the glory of God. Jesus does just that in the first “sign” of his public ministry. Instead of doing any headline grabbing “sign” he goes to a village wedding and turns water into wine in the presence of some lowly servants. Lack of wine could cause huge embarrassment and shame on the host. It could deprive the bride and the groom and the invitees the joy of their life. Jesus saves the host. He saves the wedding party. In this story by seeking help from the servants in filling the jars Jesus reveals that doing God’s will require divine-human co-operation. The abundance of wine, and not just any wine but the very best, reveals the new and abundant life Jesus brings to our life and that of the world. SUNDAY 23 JANUARY
LUKE 4:14-21 Jesus has just been baptised by John and then tempted by Satan to embark on a mission that Satan wants him to go on. But Jesus thwarts Satan’s plan and embarks on the mission to which God has called him. Then filled with power of the Spirit Jesus goes the synagogue before he begins his Galilean ministry and declares his mission statement with the words from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” From the very beginning Jesus makes his mandate clear that he has been anointed and sent out to bring the Good News to those who are rejected and, on the margins, and longing to be included into God’s family. After stating his mission when all eyes are fixed on him, he rolls up the scroll, sits, and says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” He makes it clear that he has not just come to state his mission, but to embody his mission right there in their midst. He has come to live God’s love among them in a way that breaks down the barriers that keep people outside the love, grace and mercy of God. SUNDAY 30 JANUARY
LUKE 4:21-30 The hometown crowd loved his sermon last week. They clapped and cheered. But this week? They jeer him and heckle him, even want to hurl him off the cliff. Why is this abrupt reversal of people’s reaction? Verses 23 through 28 give us some clues. “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself.’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” There's more involved in this conversation, of course, but just these two comments reveal the source of tension. It’s the age-old ‘us and them syndrome’. If you're going to heal people, heal your own people, Jesus! If you're going to use God's power, use it here in Nazareth, not over there in Capernaum! Then with the illustrations of Elijah who went on God's behalf to relieve the suffering of a Sidonese widow during the great drought, and of Elisha who healed Naaman the Syrian leper, Jesus blows off the cover nationally, religiously and racially. He points out how God through history has defied this human sentiment to favour us over them. And the crowd was filled with rage. This story challenges us to redefine our mission, rewrite our priorities and refocus our attention to those who are looked down and looked at with fear and suspicion and disbelief, as Jesus continues to nudge and persuade us that God’s love is inclusive and embracing and universal.
FEBRUARY
Moving beyond our comfort zones
SUNDAY 6 FEBRUARY
LUKE 5:1-11 “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Jesus says these intriguing words to a group of fishermen who had toiled all night with no success. This was the last thing the seasoned fishermen wanted to hear from a carpenter-turned-preacher. However, they listen, and the result is astounding.
Tradition calls this story the story of the magnificent catch of fish. But it is a call to the Church to take risk and move beyond their comfort zones to reach out to those at the margins of society, those who are under deep water in their lives and often feel like they are drowning. When the church demonstrates such concern for people most at risk, the result reflects the disciples’ experience when their nets began to break. SUNDAY 13 FEBRUARY
LUKE 6:17-26 Rather than speaking from a mountain top (cf. Matthew 5) Luke’s Jesus comes to the same level as the crowd to speak to their hearts. This passage is a continuity of what we have heard in recent weeks in “Mary’s Song” and Jesus’ “Mission Statement”. In all three we see God in Jesus re-describing, renaming, re-imagining the world that is God’s Kingdom. Jesus’ words are both blessing and woe. The woes sound harsh. But this is not a vendetta against the rich per se, but for those who live just for themselves without any reference and commitment
to help the poor, and perpetuating systems that oppress and exclude the marginalised and the disadvantaged. On the other hand, the words of blessings are not to spiritualise the pains of the poor with pie in the sky preaching, but words of hope, new possibilities and promises for the new world of equity that Jesus embodied. SUNDAY 20 FEBRUARY
LUKE 6:27-38 “Love your enemies! Turn the other cheek!” Are you serious, Jesus? In this world of pseudo cold war and pre-emptive strike these words from Jesus sound crazy. But this is the heart of Jesus’ message, which are most challenging commands in scripture and perhaps in all history. When Jesus says love your enemies it doesn’t mean putting up with their hostility but relating with them in a new way. It means taking the power out of their hands and putting it in a positive way. It means refraining from hurting them in the same way they have hurt us. When Jesus says, “turn the other cheek”, or “give your cloak as well”, or “go also the second mile” he means that instead of doing the tit for tat in the face of violence, be wise and creative. Expose the evil, oppressive and dehumanizing system non-violently with your held high. Individuals like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King (Jr) and Nelson Mandela practiced these commandments of Jesus and experienced positive result. Shall we? SUNDAY 27 FEBRUARY
LUKE 9:28-36 On the mountain Jesus is transfigured. His clothes dazzle. Two great heroes of the past – Moses and Elijah are in conversation with him. This is ethereal. Peter, the impulsive blurts out, “Lord it is good to be here,” and suggests making three dwellings to memorialize this stunning event. Then a cloud overshadows them, and a voice declares, “This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him!” And suddenly it is all over. This is what Rudolph Otto called the “mysterium tremendum et fascinosum”. The voice reconfirms Jesus’ identity which we heard at his baptism and affirms his mission. “Listen to him.” We are not called to just bask in the glory but to listen to him and follow him down the mountain to serve the least of his brothers and sisters in the world which is charged with God’s radiant light. REV. DR MANAS GHOSH
ST JOHN’S UNITING CHURCH WAHROONGA
Summer
Reading Guide
GIRT NATION BY DAVID HUNT
History can be taken too seriously, but not by David Hunt. He has an ear for the absurd, and his history of Australia is irreverent and, be warned, often bawdy. But then that is an undoubted underbelly of the story of our nation. His book is ‘unauthorised’ because, he writes, it’s good to challenge pseudo-official blinkered and sanitised distortions of history.
Girt Nation is the third in the series, covering the late nineteenth century, when the states, despite being unable to agree on football, were heading for the climax of Federation, when Australia would become a proud, independent nation (while still clinging tightly to Britain’s apron strings). It was a time when religious tensions were exacerbated by creating two education streams (Protestant and Catholic), when the people were united by their desire to beat England at cricket (even if white Australians frowned upon Indigenous players being needed to do it), and when Mary McKillop’s sisters, in the context of a post-gold rush depression, did so well in their charity work that they were reprimanded by their bishop. The embryonic nation was nurtured by the likes of Henry Parkes who, when a wife died, would just replace her with his latest, younger mistress, and his polar opposite, Alfred Deakin, teetotaller and vegetarian (at least until they impeded his political ambitions), proponent of muscular Christianity, and enthusiastic cyclist. He indulged in the contemporary rage of spiritualism (he took advice from the spirits of Prince Albert and John Bunyan, the latter encouraging Deakin to pen an updated and ultimately dreadful version of Pilgrim’s Progress). (Not everyone was convinced; one prominent minister derided spiritualism while promoting the more sensible ‘science’ of phrenology.) Deakin introduced a bill to, literally, not put a cart before a horse and fretted about irrigation and immigration. As a secret, anonymous antipodean correspondent for a London newspaper he (bizarrely) criticized his own policies. Australians (white and male), while they weren’t trying to keep the Chinese out, were trying to keep women from the vote. They ultimately weren’t successful at either. They were more successful at pushing Indigenous Australians to the margins (which were at the country’s centre), something it is hard to find anything to laugh about. Australians (white and male) were apparently voracious readers in the late 1800s, something that might surprise those of you not reading this review. Australians were very keen on poetry,
AUSTRALIANS WERE VERY KEEN ON
POETRY AS LONG AS THE POETRY HAD HORSES IN IT including from the accident-prone Banjo Patterson and the depressing Henry Lawson, as long as the poetry had horses in it, says Hunt. Later attentions turned to celebrating the bushman (less so his wife, and even less so the original inhabitants). The Man from Snowy River successfully featured both. Sheep were also popular subjects, and Hunt notes that Australia’s national anthem was very nearly a song about a ‘sheep-stealing hobo.’
NICK MATTISKE
Summer
Reading Guide
AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED
BY KHALED HOSSEINI
BY JONAS JONASSON
Over the last few months, a lot has been said about Afghanistan: Taliban taking over, Afghans trying to escape, while others face the tragedy of staying home. But what do most of us really know about Afghanistan, its culture, history and people?
And the Mountains Echoed is the third novel by AfghanAmerican author Khaled Hosseini, published in 2013 following The Kite Runner (2003) and A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007), all internationally acclaimed novels framed on the Afghan culture and traditions. After giving Allan Karlson (the titular centenarian) his happy ever after in his first book, author Jonas Jonasson found that the world’s events called him back into action. While the writer never intended to write a sequel to his popular novel, The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, real life events made him imagine new scenarios to the extent that he felt the character “speaking” to him.
Continuing the familial theme established in his previous novels, And the Mountains Echoed centres on the rapport between siblings. As always, the author navigates through moral complexities and frames siblings relationships from different angles and struggles, but this time the story crosses Afghan borders and take readers to reflect on how our choices resonate through generations. This fascinating story starts with a fable that a father tells his two children about a poor farmer who struggles to provide for his family and suddenly is forced to give up one of his five children to an evil giant.
THE READER SUBMERGES IN EACH OF THE CHARACTERS STORIES, FEELINGS AND JOURNEYS Eventually, the farmer, deepened in his grief, tracks down the giant and finds his son happy and with no memory of his birth family, and so he decides to leave him where he is. As a gesture of kindness, the giant gives the farmer a potion that makes him forget everything about his son. As it turns out, the fable is only a reflection of the countless crossroads that Hosseini sows throughout the novel. The main story, from which all the other stories emerge and intertwine, is about ten-year-old Abdullah staying in their father's small village in Afghanistan, while three-year-old Pari is adopted by a wealthy couple and eventually taken by her half-French mother to live in Paris. As the story continues, the reader submerges in each of the characters stories, feelings, and journeys, making us wonder if parents can protect their children from a life of suffering, if it is worth splitting a family to protect a child from poverty, or if things would have turned out differently if other choices were made. It's a reminder that much of the invisible bonds that connect us also make us individuals. The second book features much of the same style that made The Hundred Year Old Man an unforgettable title. Where the first novel places Allan in his context across history as something of a Forest Gump figure, the follow up sees his well-earned rest interrupted by current events, such as the election of (now former) US President Donald Trump. What follows is a similar madcap story involving strange characters, coincidences, and history being made before characters’ eyes. Before too long, Allan and his friend Julius Johnsson have left their idyllic surroundings in Bali for an adventure involving a hot air balloon, neo Nazis, North Korea, and eventually world leaders such as Trump and (also now former) German Chancellor Angela Merkel. What makes this a great summer read is the way that the chapters fly by, with each one being a rewarding experience. Jonasson is a former Swedish journalist whose humour translates well, and who crams his work with historical details and observations that pique readers’ curiosity. If there is a complaint to be had, it’s that Jonasson’s follow-up effort does not land with the same weight as the first book, and the shift from historical jokes to contemporary politics is a little jarring at first. Despite this, The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred Year Old Man manages to retain much of the charm and irreverence of the first, and makes for a worthwhile follow up. Needless to say, Insights recommends reading the first title beforehand if you haven’t already. JONATHAN FOYE
ANGELA CADENA
