We say Jesus was a humble man. I say for two reasons…

Firstly, he only occasionally alluded to his extraordinary nature.
Secondly, his mission depended upon the call of individuals, the building of a team, the development of a community, the transformation of a society.

We began our reflection upon the notion of being called with the story of Nathanael last week. Today we continue with the calling of other disciples, Andrew and Peter. Being called to share Jesus mission is fundamental to Christianity.

THE MISSION

The early disciples had a big task before them. They were predominantly involved in telling people the story of Jesus. It required enormous devotion. It meant they did leave home, families, work and sometimes the loss of life. Mission has continued on down through the centuries, not always in the same form.

THE DIOCESAN MISSION

The diocese has been encouraging us to share in this great tradition of mission, under the heading, ‘Preaching the whole word of God.’ A saying that emphasized the importance of mission to the Christian disciple went like this, ‘Mission is to the gospel as Warmth is to fire.’ They are fundamentally one.

THE CHALLENGE OF CONTEMPORARY MISSION

Mission in the church has faced some major challenges in our lifetime. I speak of this challenge because of one major change to society.Up until approximately the 15th century all societies lived according to some system of belief. Certainly not all the same, but all had some belief in spirit and spoke of their God in some way.With such a belief they shaped their life accordingly.

Since the fifteenth century a change slowly took place. Ever so gradually a transition toward the Secular society we know of today took place. Reason and science, supported by wealth has changed what people live for and the way they speak of reality. These gifts of god are sadly turned against god. People have decided he is little more than a mythic notion.

MISSION TODAY

So what do we make of mission?

1. Mission has traditionally been built upon the notion that we have a trusting faithful relationship with God. The core of this relationship of love is expressed and explored in an ever-deepening life of prayer and worship. For me mission is grounded in a life of prayer and worship.

2. The second pillar of mission is spoken of in Acts chapter two verse 42. It says the early church gathered for the breaking of bread and fellowship. We are the body of Christ which means we are his community. The life he calls us to is grounded in the Christ-like bond we share with each other. Mission is to bear witness to Jesus by the life we live in fellowship with one another.

3. The third pillar of mission…I met with the other local ecumenical clergy for a breakfast meeting last Tuesday. We talked of the coming year and asked how we would continue our local mission. This led to a third foundational approach to the gospel mission. God had a particular concern for the lost and most wounded. Jesus constantly cared for the suffering, the sick and most marginalized. Jesus was adamant that we should visit the sick and those in prison. The churches welfare mission has been foundational to its gospel

4. The fourth major pillar of mission has been to speak with prophetic intent. The world needs guidance for it has no common foundation upon which to rest its values. Ideally the words of prophecy reflect the mind of God. How we so value the proclamation of those whose insight and wisdom rise above the clamoring voices of the masses.

5. The fifth and final pillar of mission is to tell the story of Jesus and his gospel. Its here that I believe we have one of the greatest challenges facing the church. Knowledge has so grown far beyond anything the world has ever known, so much so that we speak of the information age. Big questions face our humanity; the environment, nuclear weaponry, inter-racial, multi-cultural and multi faith societies, outer space exploration, are a few issues that demand new answers for humanity.

One fascinating question is what constitutes being human. How many artificial parts can we have before we are no longer human. Technology speaks of Artificial intelligence, which leads to robots etc. This is our new world in which the majority of society says religious belief and faith have no place.

OUR QUESTION

I return to our diocesan call to mission, ‘Preach the whole word of God’. I can do little more than ask the question, what does it mean in this day and age? I believe our past efforts to explain the gospel and now inadequate.We must search for a new understanding of mission.

And the biggest question comes right before us. What does it mean for ourselves at Holy Trinity?

We have wonderful windows in this church, and you have the pleasure of looking at most of them. What you rarely notice are the four western windows behind you depicting the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark Luke and John. These are well known because of the gospels attributed to them. As we know, the apostles included 12, each of whom has been designated a saint. They were followed by countless others we have similarly determined to be saints. Another is featured in our church and you surely know who I am talking about. Yes St. Bede. 8th century in England

SEPARATION

We have deemed all to be saints because of their extraordinary achievements, character or faith. That’s all very well and noble, but if we are not careful we can miss the point. We are all members of the one body. God revealed himself through Jesus to call all people into union with him, the essence of sainthood. Do you feel called to sainthood or holiness? Why not? Let’s turn to the gospel to learn what we can from the story of the calling of Nathanael.

NATHANAEL & HIS LESSON

The gospel commences with Jesus calling Philip, presumably friends or acquaintances with Andrew and Peter having come from the same village. Philip looks for and finds his friend Nathanael and encourages him to come and meet the one their nation has waited for. On meeting Jesus, Jesus declares, ‘here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit’. Nathanael is deeply touched that Jesus so perceives him even though he does not recall ever having met Jesus.

This is the specialness of Nathanael’s story. In a word, Jesus is indicating that God knows us way before we realize it. It echoes the great words of Jeremiah. God knows us before we were born, yet still in our mothers womb. Nathanael asked him, where did you get to know me?” implying I’ve never met you before so how can you say something so complementary about me. Jesus responds, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you’. We never find out the detail of what Jesus saw, but I think that is the beauty of the comment.

Nathanael has his own story. We all have our own story...

We can speculate on the fig tree and what Nathanael might have been doing. What ever it was, Jesus saw the best of Nathanael at that moment, even though Nathanael had no idea.What Jesus saw he wanted, so he called Nathanael to follow him

 OUR STORY & BEING KNOWN

 What we see here is the essence of spiritual awakening. It is the discovery that we are known. People often think of spiritual awakening as when we discover God. But more accurately it is an awakening to the fact that God already knows us. Being known is an interesting phenomenon.

A simple contemporary psychological illustration makes a good point. It divides a window into four. The top horizontal axis illustrates what we know about ourselves. The less comfortable realization is that the left hand vertical axis illustrates what others know about us.

So we end up with four different awarenesses.

1. What we and others know about ourselves.

2. What we know but others don’t

3. What others know about us but we don’t

4. What neither we nor others know about ourselves.

Spiritual awakening emerges out of this fourth domain. Spiritual awakening reveals that God knows absolutely everything about us.We know we are known and hence we know we are one with God. Nathanael discovered he was known by God even in ways he did not know himself. He knew he belonged, for he realized he was known by God.

THE CHALLENGE

In the quietness of this summer reflective season I encourage you to make space for a quiet reflective time and ask the question...God what do you know about me that I have never realized? 


You may be surprised. In this awakening is the voice of our calling, yes, to be his saints. 
As they say, are you prepared to buy that?

Some years ago I met a young man from Nepal. 
In conversation I was interested in understanding the Nepalese culture. Where would I begin? 

Where else than to ask him about the sport of the country... He looked puzzled. 

I pursued the questioning trying to find out what events, throughout the year, would be ones they looked forward to. His answer surprised me, ‘It was the festivals’. I felt a little embarrassed, as I realized how obsessed we become in Australia with the annual sporting cycle. The Boxing Day test, the Australian Open for Tennis, the AFL competition, Melbourne Cup, etc. 

This culture of competition, and betting, and adulation is not necessarily the healthiest model for a society. In fact, I was once asked to write a chapter on sport for a book entitled Sacred Australia. I believed it was too cynical to exclude sport as a field of life that didn’t teach us something about life.

Rudyard Kipling's , poem of “If” is one of my favourites and points us in the right direction… 
‘If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same…’.

SAILING

Today I suggest we cast our mind to a sporting event that has become part of our country’s culture, even if less conspicuous than many other sports: It’s the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race. I rarely follow it, but seem to annually view it at some point throughout Boxing day. The aerial shots of Sydney harbour full of yachts slowly moving down the harbour is quite a sight and what I want to suggest is a scene of something profound…

A yacht is a yacht is a yacht. They all have a body or hull, a variety of sail types and a crew. But even these are all different. Even similar boats cannot be the same for they must have different crews and each crew is differently equipt by physique, and mind.

So over the following days they will each create a story unique to themselves and ultimately leading to the finish line. The following days of the competition are spent around Constitution Dock telling one another those stories.

DRIVEN BY THE WIND, THE METAPHOR

One thing is absolutely clear, the thing they share in common is being driven by the wind. They might have experienced the wind differently and they most likely responded in different and various ways. But I reiterate that one thing is absolutely clear, they were driven by the wind.

I personally find this a magic metaphor of our Christian life. In John chapter three, we read, ‘The wind blows where it will, we hear the sound of it but know not from where it comes or where it goes.’

JESUS BAPTISM

Today we read of Jesus own baptism and how it was the occasion of an extraordinary encounter with the Spirit. Fundamental to baptism is the person’s expression of will to devote ones life to living in union with God. This union is consummated in the harmony of spirit with Spirit. Following the apparition of a dove alighting upon Jesus, and the sound of a voice declaring him to be Gods beloved Son in whom he is well pleased, we are told he is lead by the Spirit into the wilderness.

THE NEW CONSCIOUSNESS

…The story of the yachts, lead by the wind, and the story of humans lead by the spirit…

This is the new consciousness that is the prime characteristic of Christianness - Living in this same spiritual union Jesus personified for us. No yacht experienced the journey exactly the same. Their uniqueness is found in the way they happen to remain sensitive to the constant playful shift of wind.
With each new step or, better said, wave, they must sensitively respond to partner that dancing force of life the wind.

The human awakening depicted in baptism requires a similar sensitivity to the ever playful divine force driving ones life forward, in the dance of the spirit.

THREE EXAMPLES

Jesus story highlighted three profound events that typified what might constitute the moves in this dance of life.  The rejection of living by bread alone, the spectacular if not reckless attention seeking jump from the temple parapet, the egotistical dreaming on top of the mountain about some political utopian Kingdom won by skullduggery.

Do we need more examples from Jesus? Certainly not, for we must determine similar examples from our own life. We might say that at the ultimate constitutional dock of the spirit’s journey, the ultimate Heavenly banquet, we will tell our own unique story.

Every step of the new dance of life must replicate the harmony and rhythm of the being of God in its becoming. We are to be the active companions in the unfolding story of creation. Companionship of the mutual love and faithfulness with God.

ALL DRIVEN BY THE SPIRIT

Some 7 billion people across humanity are like those yachts sailing the Sydney harbour. All different. But all driven by the spirit.

Jesus illustrates the way. Our fulfillment is in emulating him.