Mustardseed Talks

Faith outside an appropriate context of authority is meaningless. Authority attempting to be exercised without appropriate faith is hopeless. Appropriate authority acting in faith and faith acting with appropriate authority is powerful to change the world! Jesus is recorded claiming all authority in heaven and earth (Matt 28:18). Jesus sends us in his name - in his authority! To what extent do you know, and have faith in, that authority? Imagine the good you might do...

Hope is essential for life. God's love is the surest foundation for a hope that holds firm through the challenges of life... even a life of incarceration! Anne offer's this hope and shares stories of her recent visit with a Kairos team to Emu Plain Correctional Facility.

Pentecost marks the birth of the church. An extraordinary event that gave rise to an extraordinary kind of collective that has continued to change the history of the world.

Jesus appears to put a high premium on unity. It is important to differentiate this from ‘unanimity’ - where every person thinks and does the same as each other. Unity is more about our heart disposition to be favourably disposed toward one another - even in our rich and profound diversity! Unity is one of the key indicators of the presence of the Kingdom of God. Any dictator can use coercive means to ensure every person toes the party line. It is a sign of the Kingdom when people, on account of their love, seek to act in a manner that is best for each other and the community as a whole. Where unity cannot be found in a group, there is little evidence that the life transforming work of God’s Spirit has taken place among them. Even if they are extremely gifted in many other ways. Unity is a touch stone precisely because it is not about you and it is not about me. It is about us… the body!

There is a lot of attention on wholeness in parts of the community today. People are more aware of how complex life has become in the 21st century. It seems easy to get thrown out of balance - work/life, diet/exercise, family/couple/social time, etc. Keeping things balanced and maintain (attaining?) a sense of wellbeing can be a challenge. It is fascinating to observe the many different paths people select in search of their wholeness. Who is your go-to person? Who do you listen to when it comes to being whole? How much do you want to be healed?

God is (somehow) glorified through the death of Jesus. It is a strange glory... one we find difficult to properly perceive. It sets our way of relating on a whole new foundation - one where we do not blame shift and scapegoat, but take appropriate responsibility. We are empowered to do this by virtue of being not condemned! Then Jesus calls us to follow him - to do as he has done and love as he has loved us. Straightforward, but never easy!

In this epistle reading Paul describes how significantly his value system has shifted. By way of personal testimony, illustrating the meaning of Jesus' parables about the treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great value, Paul shares the life transforming impact of his own encounter with the risen Jesus. Paul gladly trades all that he had before in order to embrace the way of Jesus. He realised that the trappings of his former religious life were not only worthless, but a hindrance to him seeing what had true value (those who are already drunk consider the poorer wine to be good enough!). To what extent are we satisfied with the poorer wine?

The disciples in the upper room were very much taken by surprise by Jesus arrival - particularly given they had done their best to keep everyone out. There is a sense in which whenever Jesus shows up he is unexpected. Even if we eagerly anticipate an encounter with Jesus, the way he is with us is always beyond what we could imagine. It is my prayer that you encounter Jesus among us at MustardSeed this morning. It might be a prayer, a conversation, the scripture reading or a song - maybe even the preaching! I trust that encounter will be a delightful and challenging one!

Just as the first disciples cautiously approached the dawning realisation that their saviour had not stayed dead and buried, it takes time for us to realise the implications of Jesus’ resurrection. This part of the salvation story jars still further with our understanding and expectations of ‘normal life’. The resurrection is not easily harmonised with the ways of this world. It challenges and changes everything!

It is easy to engage in fruit-destroying conversation and rendering ourselves no more useful than firewood. How much better to seek God's wisdom and give ourselves to bearing fruit?!

Anne explains this challenging verses in Luke 13 in a way that brings the challenge boldly before us. Just enough good humour to get under our guard and allow the full force of the word to hit home...

The story of Jesus' temptation by the devil in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13) offers us a good model of a mature way to respond to temptation when it comes to us as well. Yet this story wants to say much more than simply what to do when offered the opportunity to take compromising shortcuts or eat that extra piece of cake.   Jesus is showing us an entirely 'other' way of engaging the powers...

The context of the story of the Transfiguration is highly charged with hope, questioning and challenge. The description of the events on the mount beggars belief. Even so, it would seem fruitless to get tangled in a pursuit to clarify the specifics of those events. Rather, we shall attempt to listen to what these events left with those who experienced them. The story they tell is the story of the meaning of the events… and that is the important bit!

The idea of ‘Love’ has been stretched and used for so many things in recent days. We can love everything from fast food to our neighbour! Rather than do away with the idea of love - due to how meaningless its misuse has made it, we have opportunity to understand the true nature of love. Paul’s description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 is not romantic or ecstatic. It is practical and grounded and thorough going.

If you take a moment to consider your own body, it is amazing how many different organs, muscles, arteries, bone-shapes etc are involved in making up this most wonderful thing from which we live. The body of Christ is no less diverse or complex… or wonderful! No two ‘members’ are identical. Each has a unique part to play and each brings their perfectly suited contribution. We need all the contributions if we are to enter the fullness of life that is on offer to us. That means we need both to be ready to make our contribution, and also ready to accept/receive the contributions that others make. In this, a mystery occurs in our midst… Christ himself is made manifest and lives in us and through us.

In a significant act of authentic participation, Jesus comes to John for baptism. Is this an empty gesture (as we don't believe Jesus needed to repent of sin) or does this baptism signal something more? And what of the tricky business of Jesus baptising with the Holy Spirit and fire? How are we to understand this? Changes of an untold magnitude where breaking in. We are still coming to terms with them.

How much are you aware of your spiritual gifts? Are there particular things you identify as your spiritual gifts? Do you wonder whether you have any spiritual gifts at all? You can be sure God has gifted you and is calling you to participate in the building and strengthening of Jesus’ followers. One of the primary ways we can identify our spiritual gifts is by observing the impact we have on the followers of Jesus. Observe yourself this morning. What impact does your presence have on others? Where can you make a contribution that builds and strengthens others?

Sometimes, the better a person knows us, the more uncomfortable we find being in their presence. There is the ever present risk that they might (inadvertently?) expose us in a way we are not happy to be exposed. But it can be even trickier than that… we might not even be consciously aware of precisely what we are uncomfortable with. So to further protect ourselves, we instinctively find something unacceptable in the other who (inadvertently) threatens us. This garrisons us with emotional distance. Any of us are vulnerable to this kind of instinctual survival strategy if we harbour a fear of the truth - and lets face it… most of us have experienced that fear at least once in our lives (and that probably won’t have been the last time)! But to those who are willing to engage the truth…

Children often pretend to be a certain person or profession and put on mum or dads old (and sometime the unauthorized use of not-so-old) clothes and role play. We clothed ourselves according to our aspirations (at that moment) in life. Our spiritual journey has a similar dynamic at times. Only rather than putting on our parents' clothes we put on the character traits we aspire to. At first they might feel as though they don't quite fit right. But as we continue to put them on, we most certainly grow into them. Who are you looking at and aspiring to be like?

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders…” (Isaiah 9:6) Talk about high expectations riding on a child! As we celebrate this Christmas morning, be aware that far from being simply a charming story from mythical antiquity, the promise of this Christ child is the promise of an entirely new/different way of doing life together in this world. Beyond the tired politics of our manipulated democracies is the hope of the rule of profound love and appropriate care for one another and the planet. This is the hope and promise of Messiah!