Epiphany 1 – Baptism of our Lord, 12.1.20
Text: Matthew 3.13 – 17.
Rev Paul Cannon
The Salvadorean Priest Oscar Romero was both conservative and compliant, never questioning the behaviour of his government
Two events were significant for him. In1968 the Council of Latin American Bishops gathered in Medellin (Columbia), proclaiming the need for justice for the poor based on Biblical teaching. The second event was the tragic slaying of villagers in his own country and the murder of his close friend Fr. Rutillio Grande Garcia by the government in 1977.
This was Romero’s Epiphany, his aha moment, and led to his change of mind. He began to advocate for the poor and marginalised, and those who were being bullied, tortured and murdered by the government.
Romero later became Archbishop of El Salvador, chosen because he was unlikely to buck the government but who now stood by the poor and the victimised. He called for repentance and forgiveness.
The government turned against him. His collision course with the government resulted in his assassination in March 1980. His life became a testimony and a call for change. Many people were encouraged because of his ministry.
Radicals today are those we still shout down, ridicule, minimalize, put down and distort. Those who question governments and economics are considered suspect, trouble makers, nuts. Why, probably because they upset our comfortability, challenge our set values, and make us fearful of change. I’m so glad there is a younger generation of radical positive activists who I see as the new prophets for social justice – all under 20.
In this gospel reading we have two more radicals to contemplate.
In the upside down world of God nothing is what it seems.
The people were waiting for God to act and they Got John. Another one of those quirky and weird prophets. The son of a temple priest and godly parents who disappears into the wilderness to prepare for the work of God.
He reappears wearing animal skins and eating strange foods and preaching a strong message of forgiveness and the need to turn around. Yet in spite of his nature, his manner, his appearance, people flocked to him.
John’s preaching and baptising confronted the religious and political power of his day. This scraggly and strange character upset the ruling elite. And in the end Herod Antipas (not Herod the Great) had him beheaded on the whim of his wife. John had dared to call Herod to order, to point out what was wrong, and what should change. John took a risk and paid with his life.
Instead of cooperation, accommodation, or resignation, John challenged the powerful to renew and to turn around.
The ruling religious power saw him as a threat because he didn’t work within the expected rules or patterns. They didn’t like him preaching at the Jordan, preaching from the margins of society. The religious rulers of the day rejected John. He called them a brood of vipers, literally, “snake bastards”, vile and shallow manipulators of the truth.
Jesus later said that many in power rejected John’s call to repentance but by so doing, they rejected God’s purpose for themselves. (Luke 7.30).
And then comes the shock. Jesus joins John at the Jordan and asks to be baptised. By joining with John Jesus identified with both John’s call and message and he also identifies with the people.
It begins with Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew where the good, the bad and the ugly are all present and listed. Jesus birth is described through five disturbing dreams. His parents are unlikely people in the normal scheme of things.
Then Herod the Great seeks to destroy him. Wise Magi come to worship him. Jesus escapes death when Joseph takes the family to Egypt for refuge.
At some point the adult Jesus goes out to the Jordan and is baptised by John.
Jesus’ baptism was the beginning of his public ministry. By going out to the Jordan he identified with the all of the people, the broken, with those in pain, with all our faults and failures. By wading into the water he took his place beside us.
Early in his ministry the sanctimonious religious leaders derided Jesus as a friend of gluttons and sinners. And they were right, but that was Jesus’ point. That’s where God wanted to be, and that’s where God wants us to be too, actively engaging with ministry and mission in the world around us.
With his baptism Jesus openly and decisively stands with us in our fears and anxieties. He intentionally took sides with people in their neediness and openly declared that God was biased in their favour.
Paul reminds us in the Letter to the Hebrews that we indeed have a high priest in whom we can have the utmost confidence because Jesus experienced everything we do and yet was without sin. Jesus is no weakling, he has stood the test and we can come to him in confidence that his grace is strong and real.
Jesus declared that God’s grace is available directly and immediately to everyone.
Jesus was not about power or tradition. Jesus simply invited people to change their minds and to follow in his way and to grow and develop in the grace of God, to discover a new purpose.
And in this endeavour, the voice of God affirms that this is exactly what he wants.
Jesus is the very face of God for the world and we are invited to show that face to the world.
We might not take risks like Oscar Romero, we might not be quirky like John, but we are called to stand for justice, for peace, for forgiveness, mercy and love. It will mean standing at odds with society at times and it will mean stepping outside of our comfort zones as well.
In his baptism Jesus was anointed as we are at our baptism, for God’s work in the world. It is both demanding and fulfilling. But imagine a world where we share that love and forgiveness with others and the change that can come.
Could we change the world? Yes, we can be an encouragement amidst the chaos and brokenness of people’s lives.
Through baptism we are called to serve as Christ, as radical love to the world.
Where does God want to use you in the world?
Cross Ref. Jeremiah 2.7, Jeremiah 12.4, Jeremiah 12.11, Hosea 4.1 – 3.
Text: Matthew 3.13 – 17.
Rev Paul Cannon
The Salvadorean Priest Oscar Romero was both conservative and compliant, never questioning the behaviour of his government
Two events were significant for him. In1968 the Council of Latin American Bishops gathered in Medellin (Columbia), proclaiming the need for justice for the poor based on Biblical teaching. The second event was the tragic slaying of villagers in his own country and the murder of his close friend Fr. Rutillio Grande Garcia by the government in 1977.
This was Romero’s Epiphany, his aha moment, and led to his change of mind. He began to advocate for the poor and marginalised, and those who were being bullied, tortured and murdered by the government.
Romero later became Archbishop of El Salvador, chosen because he was unlikely to buck the government but who now stood by the poor and the victimised. He called for repentance and forgiveness.
The government turned against him. His collision course with the government resulted in his assassination in March 1980. His life became a testimony and a call for change. Many people were encouraged because of his ministry.
Radicals today are those we still shout down, ridicule, minimalize, put down and distort. Those who question governments and economics are considered suspect, trouble makers, nuts. Why, probably because they upset our comfortability, challenge our set values, and make us fearful of change. I’m so glad there is a younger generation of radical positive activists who I see as the new prophets for social justice – all under 20.
In this gospel reading we have two more radicals to contemplate.
In the upside down world of God nothing is what it seems.
The people were waiting for God to act and they Got John. Another one of those quirky and weird prophets. The son of a temple priest and godly parents who disappears into the wilderness to prepare for the work of God.
He reappears wearing animal skins and eating strange foods and preaching a strong message of forgiveness and the need to turn around. Yet in spite of his nature, his manner, his appearance, people flocked to him.
John’s preaching and baptising confronted the religious and political power of his day. This scraggly and strange character upset the ruling elite. And in the end Herod Antipas (not Herod the Great) had him beheaded on the whim of his wife. John had dared to call Herod to order, to point out what was wrong, and what should change. John took a risk and paid with his life.
Instead of cooperation, accommodation, or resignation, John challenged the powerful to renew and to turn around.
The ruling religious power saw him as a threat because he didn’t work within the expected rules or patterns. They didn’t like him preaching at the Jordan, preaching from the margins of society. The religious rulers of the day rejected John. He called them a brood of vipers, literally, “snake bastards”, vile and shallow manipulators of the truth.
Jesus later said that many in power rejected John’s call to repentance but by so doing, they rejected God’s purpose for themselves. (Luke 7.30).
And then comes the shock. Jesus joins John at the Jordan and asks to be baptised. By joining with John Jesus identified with both John’s call and message and he also identifies with the people.
It begins with Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew where the good, the bad and the ugly are all present and listed. Jesus birth is described through five disturbing dreams. His parents are unlikely people in the normal scheme of things.
Then Herod the Great seeks to destroy him. Wise Magi come to worship him. Jesus escapes death when Joseph takes the family to Egypt for refuge.
At some point the adult Jesus goes out to the Jordan and is baptised by John.
Jesus’ baptism was the beginning of his public ministry. By going out to the Jordan he identified with the all of the people, the broken, with those in pain, with all our faults and failures. By wading into the water he took his place beside us.
Early in his ministry the sanctimonious religious leaders derided Jesus as a friend of gluttons and sinners. And they were right, but that was Jesus’ point. That’s where God wanted to be, and that’s where God wants us to be too, actively engaging with ministry and mission in the world around us.
With his baptism Jesus openly and decisively stands with us in our fears and anxieties. He intentionally took sides with people in their neediness and openly declared that God was biased in their favour.
Paul reminds us in the Letter to the Hebrews that we indeed have a high priest in whom we can have the utmost confidence because Jesus experienced everything we do and yet was without sin. Jesus is no weakling, he has stood the test and we can come to him in confidence that his grace is strong and real.
Jesus declared that God’s grace is available directly and immediately to everyone.
Jesus was not about power or tradition. Jesus simply invited people to change their minds and to follow in his way and to grow and develop in the grace of God, to discover a new purpose.
And in this endeavour, the voice of God affirms that this is exactly what he wants.
Jesus is the very face of God for the world and we are invited to show that face to the world.
We might not take risks like Oscar Romero, we might not be quirky like John, but we are called to stand for justice, for peace, for forgiveness, mercy and love. It will mean standing at odds with society at times and it will mean stepping outside of our comfort zones as well.
In his baptism Jesus was anointed as we are at our baptism, for God’s work in the world. It is both demanding and fulfilling. But imagine a world where we share that love and forgiveness with others and the change that can come.
Could we change the world? Yes, we can be an encouragement amidst the chaos and brokenness of people’s lives.
Through baptism we are called to serve as Christ, as radical love to the world.
Where does God want to use you in the world?
Cross Ref. Jeremiah 2.7, Jeremiah 12.4, Jeremiah 12.11, Hosea 4.1 – 3.
Epiphany, 5.1.20
Text: Isaiah 60.1 – 9; Matthew 2.1 – 12.
Rev Paul Cannon
As you will remember Epiphany is coming to an understanding of something, recognising something in the moment, having an aha moment. It is a moment that changes us or our view. This story of the wise ones coming to the God child is an aha for the world, for us today.
Isaiah gives us an interesting picture in his prophetic words: Nations shall come to your light – star; the wealth of the nations shall come to you; a multitude of camels shall cover you; they shall bring gold and frankincense.
Isaiah names two of the gifts, but gives us the greatest clue that there was a large caravan of wise ones from the east – a multitude of camels shall cover you he says. Sadly Christmas cards have depicted only three wise ones because they have aligned the number with Matthew’s gold, frankincense and myrrh, believing that the number of gifts dictates the number of wise ones, it doesn’t, and Isaiah gives us a clue to a multitude.
No wonder Herod took note, three would have not raised an eyebrow, but a dozen would have, and what about more. Isaiah says a multitude of camels!
These wise ones were indeed men, they were not kings, they were astrologers, astronomers, metallurgists, chemists, diviners, philosophers, advisors. They were well educated and experienced, they practiced foreign religions and beliefs. The text names them as Magoi or Magi. And they come seeking the God child.
There are many legends around these wise ones. In the seventh century they stuck to three and named them Caspar, Balthazzar and Melchior. Author Henry Van Dyke wrote a wonderful story about a fourth wise man called Artaban, who misses the caravan to Jerusalem by tending to a Jewish man who tells him about Messiah and his story takes him by a different route, one of compassion and Samaritan work.
As astrologers they have been excited by the appearance of a unique star, which they now follow as far as Jerusalem where they seek advice from those who know the Jewish scriptures. And they are freely given directions to Bethlehem, where the star awaits them, hovering over a house where the holy family are living.
Once there they pay their respects to this child they understand to be special, and present symbolic gifts – gold for a king, frankincense for person of spiritual gifting, and myrrh for burial. Quite apt given that the gifts summarise the life of Jesus.
The aha can be many things, but have you given this story much thought?
For me it is the very fact that God keeps turning our trained expectations upside down. I cannot emphasise this enough. We have the tendency to fixate, to get stuck, not challenging what we believe by reading and listening to other views and information. We miss points when we read with old filters.
The point of this story is the fact that God has turned it all upside down.
From grizzly prophets, to suspect genealogy, scoundrel shepherds and now astrologers. I note that while the Old Testament forbids astrology, which was part of the law of Moses which you’ll find in Deut. 18.9 - 13, God brings astrologers to acknowledge the God child with gifts that point to his life. The text doesn’t condemn them, but rather honours their role. So again, God shocks the religious with what seems to be an about turn. They would not have expected that.
What is the text therefore saying? That indeed, God is for everyone, the God child is for everyone, and the Magi come and honour the child, the messiah. But we’re looking for something to make this feel right, a conversion story, a testimonial, a record of them becoming disciples and so on. God doesn’t need a formula, a story, God sees the action, not the words. The Magi come, they honour, that action speaks volumes. The pagan world has understood who this child is and they become an important part of the story.
What is also important to note is that all the religious experts that Herod gathers, and who tell of the messiah and his birth place – not one of them joins the Magi to go and pay homage. Not the high priest, not a priest, a scribe or a leader goes the six miles to Bethlehem. The religious miss the point.
Only the scoundrel shepherds and the pagan Magi worship Jesus. This should undo our fixed thinking on who’s in and who’s out. And on that matter, just notice the fires, who were some of the first on the ground with ancillary support – ethnic communities. Sikh and also Muslims groups delivering, making and distributing food and meals.
Just as Jesus’ genealogy also shows, there is no inviolable process of sacred purity. Which is good news for all, because it shows that we’re all valuable to God, and no one is excluded, we only exclude ourselves. God notices us and Jesus is his love note to us. All the scoundrels, rule breakers, outsiders, all are welcome.
This is a wake-up call, a call to how we treat people of any race or belief.
It leaves me with some challenges.
What I believe determines how I behave, I need to demonstrate that what comes out of my mouth is consistent with what I do. So If say I follow Jesus, my values must align with how Jesus lived and dealt with life.
Am I open to what God is speaking into the world, into my life now, or am filtering everything through the past? How am I discerning the voice of God?
No gift is useless, every gift I have is a gift to bring to the faith community and to use it for love.
The good news is nothing and no one is wasted in God’s economy.
What was your aha in this story?
Christmas 1, 29.12.19
Text: Matthew 2.13 – 23.
Rev Paul Cannon
Nazifa Ali was a former refugee who came to Australia twelve years ago from Afghanistan. Nazifa is a psychologist and her husband is a medical doctor, they both worked in a hospital that was a place of shelter and healing for many in their community. When the Taliban rose up, they started to hang women who were educated and were professionals, and they also detested professional men. Nazifa and her husband and children were not safe under the Taliban regime, and they chose to escape.
They managed to get to Pakistan and lived in shocking conditions without proper shelter or supplies and eventually they made it to Islamabad and a refugee camp.
In spite of their own traumas and deprivation, they set to a built a clinic to serve those in the camp, while Nazifa worked at the camp school. Never did it occur to them that this would be how things worked out, that they would be among the vulnerable and desperate.
They applied to enter Australia, but that took eight years.
Finally they arrived and were resettled. But then began the journey of learning English, receiving no government support but relying on community groups and churches to survive. The family did a lot of voluntary work in education and health until they could complete the additional education required by the government to work in their respective professions, while also working manually to support themselves.
Twelve years on they have become active citizens and continue to volunteer. But it has not only been gruelling to get here, to put up with our government’s heavy requirements, but also to deal with losing their identities, to live with the grief of leaving other family and friends, losing their supports and losing their sense of national belonging. Something we’ll never understand or know.
Mary and Joseph and their two year old son Jesus fled to Egypt under a similar threat.
Herod the Great could be any modern dictator, or, in some cases a democratic leader. Herod was a Roman puppet, but with power. He was a capricious and jealous man who ruled as a paranoid, always suspicious of others. He had his wife, two of his sons and other relatives and confidants executed. And when the Magi came via Jerusalem to enquire about the special birth of a king, Herod played politics with them, asking that they might kindly let him know the whereabouts of this child king.
But immediately the Magi had finished visiting the holy family they were on the road in the opposite direction, having been warned in a dream to avoid Herod. Herod, according to Matthew, then instructed his soldiers to ensure that all two year-olds in Bethlehem were slaughtered, thus removing any threat of a king.
This story gives us a piece of information, that Jesus is possibly around two years old, and the family are still in Bethlehem. They are no longer at the inn, but in a dwelling and they are living as any family would be. Strangely, they have not returned to Nazareth.
Joseph is a man of dreams, not unlike his ancient namesake who was an interpreter of dreams and whose life had taken him to Egypt and safety.
Jesus’ father Joseph received his second major dream that we know of, when an angel appeared to him telling him to take the family and flee to Egypt because they were unsafe. And Joseph took it seriously, flee they did.
In yet another dream, an angel comes to Joseph to tell them it is safe to go home again.
We are not told how long they were in Egypt or old Jesus was when they returned from Egypt.
Whatever the story details, it is true to say that the holy family are refugees, fleeing the threat of death, like any other refugee family. Clearly, they were received in Egypt and helped. And Jesus grew up there for a time, while Joseph would have had to find work.
It is ironic that they go to Egypt, an ancient enemy, and find acceptance and safety. Isn’t this the story of Jesus’ life, he wasn’t even accepted in his own home town of Nazareth, and they even made an attempt to kill him. But how strange that Egypt could become a place of safety and hope for this family, a place for the God-child.
Jesus himself became a beacon of hope for the liberation of minds, for the freedom of belief, for the release from illness and disability, setting people free from the evil they were both terrified of and enmeshed in. In a faith sense, Jesus was both the person and place of acceptance and hope.
The further irony of this story is the contrast between Herod and Jesus. Herod represents death, rejection, and grief. Whereas Jesus represents life and hope.
Is Australia a place of acceptance and hope for those in the world at risk? I would like to think we are, but our refugee policy is shameful and pitiful. We have listened too long to the voice of all the Herods who want walls, exclusion zones, off-shore camps, detention centres, and other places to dump them. We have too long believed the political lies that we cannot possibly cope with them, or that they are a risk to us.
I would like to live in a place that others thought was a beacon of hope, and I would like to be a living beacon of hope and acceptance for those who are unsafe in their own communities, just as Jesus calls us to be – by your love, they will know you are my disciples. That is, the mark of Jesus’ love will be our true way.
Is our language, our behaviour, our response and actions, how do we look to the eyes of the world in regard to refugees? Are we a people of hope for others? Are we like Jesus, or, are we like Herod?