Jesus: The Last Battle
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Take the Cup Away
We come today to the final stage of this series on prayer; to a prayer prayed in a situation that none of us would ever want to be faced with. Words poured out in the moment of impending death and suffering beyond imagining.
The scene is one familiar to us from reflections on Good Friday. Jesus has come from the last supper with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane at the base of the Mount of Olives. He knows what’s coming. Several times in the previous week he’s told his disciples that the Son of Man must be put to death and now the moment approaches.
Notice he takes with him the 11 disciples who are still there after Judas leaves. Why does he take them with him as he goes to commune with his heavenly father? Well, because he’s a human being just like us, who need friends around us in the worst moments of our lives. This is the Son of God, but he is also a real human being with all the needs of a normal human being. See what he says to them: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
God As Trinity
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
A simple question to start with. What do you think of when someone mentions God? What’s your image of God? I think everyone has a picture of God in their heads, even if they profess to be atheists. Whether or not it’s an accurate picture, in order to say you don’t believe in God you actually need an image of what this supposed god is like.
So what’s your picture of God? Is he the all-powerful creator of the universe; powerful yet remote? Is he the kind, forgiving grandfather figure who loves you no matter what you do? Is he the scolding father who watches your every move and disciplines you when you get it wrong? Is he not a father figure at all?
Those are just some of the many perceptions of God in our world. Each religion has its own view of what God is like. Some are single deities others are part of a pantheon of deities. But where Christianity varies from all of the rest is that every other religion sees their god, or gods, as unitary beings; singular beings around whom the universe revolves. If there are multiple gods then they’re either each doing their own thing in their particular realm of influence or they’re competing with each other for popularity or power.
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The Answer to Futility
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- Written by: Steve Webster
The Great Resignation
Have you heard of the so-called GREAT RESIGNATION? In Europe and the USA many people are choosing not to return to their pre-Covid employment situations. Some cite frustration with overbearing bosses, and abusive workplace conditions. Others, a sense of meaninglessness having reflected during lockdowns on the hard labour they gave for someone else’s gain.
One interviewee said recently, “Life is more than working for a few dollars in cold, heartless workplaces for someone else’s profit.” (remember that most of the world’s poorest labourers have no such relative freedom as to choose to leave their jobs.) Such words must send chills through the captains of industry who hope to see company profits rise again.
The pandemic has pressed a hidden reset button in many lives, leaving:
- a latent frustration and anxiety that just won’t dissipate,
- or a gnawing dis-ease about society’s wrongs and dysfunctions producing a deep yearning for something better; a return to “normal” isnot enough!
REFLECT: Do either of the above resemble your feelings at times? Have you felt a sense of futility or purposelessness, hoping for something more than this? (I’m referring only to momentary and occasional experiences of existential anxiety. If you experience recurring feelings of emptiness or despair please do seek help from appropriate medical and psychological professionals.)
Patterns of the Presence - Wisdom
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Matthew 6:25-33 Psalm 119:96-105
I have a problem! Well, I have lots of problems, but this one is that my mind sometimes works too fast. Now you might think that that’s a good thing. There are times when you need to think fast: when you turn a blind corner and someone is hurrying towards you; when the car slides on a wet road; when you spill your glass of red wine on a white tablecloth. But I’m thinking of times when I come across some situation and my mind immediately jumps to conclusions, when I make an instant judgement about someone, or when I instantly fear the worst.
But then there are other times when I find my mind isn’t engaged at all, when I sort of drift through the day without really noticing what’s going on around me and that’s equally a problem for me.
There are also times when I echo the words of Neddie Seagoon on The Goon Show: “I don’t wish to know that!” Sometimes it feels like it’s all too much and it would be better to escape from reality.
Well what we’re thinking about today is how the Biblical idea of wisdom might change the way I use my mind. We’re going to be thinking about two complementary disciplines: mindfulness and memorisation. It’s always good to have sermon headings that alliterate isn’t it?
Hey Jesus, How Can the Bible Help Me
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- Written by: Chris Appleby
Hey Jesus, how can the Bible help me with life now, when it’s so old?
Research carried out some 15 to 20 years ago indicated that while 29% of Australian adults said they read the Bible at least once a year, only 8% said they read it frequently. When it came to school students that number dropped to 4% and they were mostly people who regularly attended church and youth activities. So clearly, even if it is still the best-selling book of all time, the Bible isn’t on many people’s go-to list for help with life.
So why is that? Is it to do with what C. S. Lewis called chronological snobbery? Anything that happened before the invention of the computer is out of date? Or is that the invention of the smartphone? Or Twitter and Facebook? Is it that we know so much more now through modern science, that the ancients didn’t have any clue about, that whatever we read in the Bible must be out of date?
