It's A New Day Whangarei (Lamentations 3:21-23, Ezekiel 47, 2 Corinthians 5:17-6:2)

It’s a great privilege to be invited to speak at this combined service. This significant step on the courageous journey that you are on, of becoming something new. Of coming together and working together to further God’s call on you as God’s people here in Whangarei. I couldn’t help but think that it was great that one of the parishes was called ‘Trinity’ because it’s kind of like that ‘three but they are one’, ‘one but there are three’ and all the thought that has to go into understanding how that works.

As I have thought and prayed about Whangarei the thing that keeps coming to mind is that it is a ‘New Day Whangarei’.

It’s a New Day Whangarei’.

It’s a new day and I’m sure on one level we know that. We know that it’s a new day, that the world just seems to have changed and continues to change. A small example…My wife Kris and I listened to CD’s on the way up in the car, and I have some of my music loaded off my Cd collection as MP3’s on my phone, which blue tooth’s with the car, and I think I’m up with the play, but my twenty something  kids, that’s age not number, are part of the digital age and they tell me I’m a dinosaur, ‘no one listens to CD’s I should get spotify, and stream the music. It’s really funny my 23 year old son listens to the same classic rock that I do, but how he does it has totally changed. It’s a new day.

I’m sure on one level that we know that it is a new day Whangarei, that the city has changed and continues to change. When we came up in December, we looked around the new housing areas. We sat over the river in a friends lounge and were told that the industrial area down by the river is going to be turned into housing, apartment and town houses. It’s to accommodate all those Aucklanders coming north, sorry. The city is changing when we came up in December we got here too late for the markets, but we drove through the centre of town and it was quite and closed, we went down to the Okara Park shopping centre and we could have been at any mall in Auckland it was packed.  You probably know more than I do about change up here. Demographic change, cultural change, the growing divide between haves and have nots.

It’s a new day when it comes to Church as well. We live in a post Christian country, a place where ex YFC director Ian Grant says most people have forgotten what church their grandparents were staying away from. People do not know the gospel story, they are more at home with a negative characture of Christianity.  Church culture has changed, and you are aware of churches that are in your city who have started and focus on being pop culture churches, they meet a different younger demographic. How we’ve done church in the past kind of doesn’t fit.

Leonard Sweet uses the metaphor of the church facing a series of different patterns of change that are like weather systems and have collided to form the perfect storm. He says we can hunker down in the bunker and try and ride the storm out and hope we won’t get blown away, or we can unfurl our sails and see where the wind of the Spirit will take us. Like the volvo ocean race, or Sir Peter Blake in the Whitbread… and see where it will take us… and I see you starting that journey. It may seem like it’s out of necessity and survival mode, but the message of it’s a New Day Whanagrei is not about how the world has changed. It’s a message of hope because the important things have not changed.

It’s a New Day Whangarei… because of who our God is , because of who our Lord is, Jesus Christ, it is because God’s Holy Spirit dwells within.

Our Old Testament reading this morning comes from the book of Lamentations. In the midst of Jerusalem’s worst tragedy and upheaval and defeat, the book captures everyone’s grief and sorrow. Amidst the voices, one of the poets says ‘this I remember and I have hope, that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, it is new every morning’. Maybe as a boy he’d been at the temple and recited Psalm 136, which tells Israel’s journey through the wilderness, and after every line, after ever step has the refrain… His love endures forever… and it came to the poets mind right at the horrific start of the exile giving hope that God is still there, God still cares and God can be trusted to lead us through. It’s a new day because the stead fast love of the Lord never ceases, it is new every morning.

I am reminded of that every morning when I wake up. We live in a three storied row house in Onehunga, the living quarters are on the third floor. We have this wonderful view down the hill to the Manukau harbour. Off to the east is the motorway bridge, we can see the tops of the concrete silos on the wharf at Onehunga, and off to the west we look  over the water, over Mangere to the distant Awhitu peninsula.  Every morning it is totally different. Yes the landscape and the infrastructure is still the same. The neighbours TV mast is still there, there is a constant flow of traffic along the south western motorway, but somehow its different and fresh. The bridge can be red or golden or the starkest of white or even purple as the sun rises. The harbour can be grey and moody, or blue and spotted by low tide mudflats. Then on a mirror still day simply a multi-coloured reflection of the far shore. It can be raining, or even have disappeared under a thick blanket of fog… but it is different and new every morning.

God’s love and faithfulness is new and able to bring light and new perspective and hope for this Day and the days ahead. They are new days because of the freshness of God’s constant faithful love.

In our New testament reading, Paul talks of the fact that we are a new creation in Christ, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the old has gone and we have this new life welling up within us. For Paul he says this changes everything he now sees people through the lens of Jesus Christ, not as the world sees them, his purpose has changed, he is called to the ministry of reconciliation, his identity is now as an ambassador of Christ. Paul is speaking to a church as well, letting them know that they too are God’s New Creation. We are God’s new creation. It is a new day as God continues to create new things in and through us.

I’ve been thinking about the idea of new creation over summer. I’ve spent a lot of times with birds hovering round my head. As I’ve gone walking these pied stilts have got agitated about my presence where they were nesting, so they’d hoover then dive bomb me. Like Tom Cruise in his F16, buzzing the control tower, in the movie Top Gun. I was preaching on Jesus Baptism in Matthew’s gospel, and I reflected on the fact that all the art work that I’ve seen has the Holy Spirit hovering as a dove over Jesus, but the scripture says that it came down and alighted on him, it landed and came to rest. It stayed with him. I went and read Acts 2 and the account of Pentecost, the same thing, I’ve always seen artwork with the flames above peoples heads, but it says they rested on people and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit hovered over the waters of creation in genesis, when Mary conceives, it is as she is over shadowed by God, hovering, but this new creation is by the Holy Spirit dwelling in our lives, made possible by Christ’s death and our sins being forgiven and the slate whipped clean. This new creation starts within us.

We may think that it’s a one off event, we might associate it with salvation, but the Spirit of God is at work within us individually and corporately as a church, making us new, making us whole, making us into God’s new people, into the vision of the Kingdom of God  to be about the mission that God has for us today… not just there and then but here and now in this new day we face.

It’s a New Day, Whangarei.

The church in the west in recent years has been going through a new reformation, and it’s as radical and revolutionary as that in the 16^th century.  Perhaps it would be better to say the Church is going through a reformission. Reforming for mission, you may have heard this new word being used a lot being missional. In terms of the passage in 2 Corinthians we are looking at you could say the first reformation was about a rediscovery that God has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and Christ alone, by faith as taught by scripture, the new reformation is a rediscovery of ‘and Christ gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that we are the embassy of God’s kingdom. That has happened in several waves, the great missionary movement in the 19^th century onwards, but it was always over there, somewhere else, something that we support from here, and the big name big rally evangelism in the 20^th century it was something that others did from elsewhere, here. Now it’s the realisation that the purpose of the church is and always was to be about being about God’s mission of reconciling the world to himself in Christ. It is outward looking.  

The picture that Paul uses is of an embassy, and ambassadors of Christ. In Auckland I drive past the Chinese consulate nearly every day. It’s funny to think that the moment I step into that compound that I have stepped into the sovereign territory of China. Of course I can’t just walk up to it because it has a steel gate that is opened electronically by some hidden security guard. In fact when I stopped my car and got out my camera and took some photos of the embassy, the gate did open and about six men came out and took note of my car number plate, checked me out and walked down the road and then back in the other gate. However all of China’s diplomatic and cultural connections with Auckland start at that place. If I want to go to China I have to deal with these people as well. Hopefully the picture of a steel gate and security guards to keep people out isn’t a picture of the church. But it’s a new day Whangarei because coming together allows you to have a fresh sense of vision a fresh sense of passion for Whangarei, to ask a new how are you to be about that ministry of reconciliation, bring people together to and in Christ, how are going to go about diplomatic connection for the Kingdom of God in this city. How is Whangerei going to be blessed by this new thing that you are doing.

Let me share with you a vision of what I mean.

Our Old Testament reading comes from the start of the exile, Ezekiel the prophet has a series of visions that he shares with those in exile of what the new day for Israel coming back to the land will look like. In Ezekiel 47, there is a vision that I feel fits what is happening here at Whangarei. It is the picture of the river flowing out from the temple in Jerusalem, out into city, out into the wilderness, down into the Jorden valley and out into the dead sea. A river that is deep and wide and everywhere it flows along its banks grow fruit trees, that bear fruit all year round to feed people, and the leaves provide healing. Everywhere it flows is new life and wholeness, even the dead sea becomes fresh and teeming with fish, and a thriving fishing community grows up on its shore. In John 7 Jesus at the festival of tabernacles, stands on the very steps of the temple where Ezekiel had seen the river flow and says ‘come to me and drink and never be thirsty again, and who ever believed in me rivers of living water would flow from with in them…”

My understanding of the geography of Whangarei may be a bit limited but I couldn’t help but think of the three churches here represented being tied together not just by history and denomination, but by river as well. The Hatea river with Trinity Tikpunga, at the falls, St Andrew’s here, on the hill just before it dips steeply down to the Tidy estuary, and St James Onerahi, their identity as a suburb being over the other side and at the headlands where the river becomes the wider harbour. But also that river of living water that wells up in us, and flows through and out of us to be a source of fruitfulness and healing in this city.

It’s a new day Whangarei.

It’s not an easy journey you are on. There are some challenges, decision to be made, choices you are faced with. Change is not easy, you have to look at what you do and have and see what you’ll need for the new day. There are people who you’d call neophiles, they love the new, you see them everytime there is a new iPhone released, lining up to be the first to have it. While we need to embrace change we have many precious important traditions and treasures that are worth holding on to that will be useful in this new day. There is a wonderful line in the U2 song ‘Walk On’ which is dedicated to Myanmar politician and social activist Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, that sums up that challenge it says ‘you’re packing a suit case for a place that you’ve never been, a place that has to be believed to be seen’. You are on that journey. But it’s a journey with Christ by the Holy Spirit, in Psalm 121 as the pilgrim looks at his journey to Jerusalem he looks to the hills and wonders where his help will come from, the rest of the psalm is a description of God as the faithful and reliable caravan guide who will not let them succumb to the dangers in the hot desert or the cold and danger filled nights.

It’s a new day, Whangarei  

God bless you as you move into it

It’s a new day Whangarei

know that God is on the journey with you and waits for you as that new day dawns. 

Global warming and Worship Songs... What!!!

I was just thinking about the growth of the use of storms and rising tides to talk about trouble in worship songs and wondering if it isn't a symptom of Global Warming being on the mind of Pentecostal and Evangelical Churches?

for example Hillsong's Oceans... while it seems to be about the idea of stepping out in faith, like peter does out of the boat to walk to Jesus in Matthew 14 one of the lines in the refrain is...

When oceans rise, my soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

 it does seem to me to be part of a response to global warming  sever weather events and the possibility of rising sea levels.

Is it worship as escapism? disguised as faith in God amidst the storm... Ruben Morgan's song 'When oceans rise and thunders roar' looks to be based on Psalm 29 which is this wonderful image of God speaking in the storm that comes up from the Mediterranean Ocean it does seem to be saying or hoping that we will soar with God who sits above the flood.

When the oceans rise

And thunders roar

I will soar with You

Above the storm

Father You are King

Over the flood

I will be still and know

You are God

Where as in the psalm the hope is in the very nature of God as the people of God ride out the storm in the temple being aware of the glory and power and majesty of God who creates the storms rather than the storm as a manifestation of a God like in the pagan religions around them. There hope like ours is not to be pulled out and be above the storm, but that god is sovereign above the flood.... God's people still have to weather the storm. I'm sure if we could do something about the storm they would also do it... 

Likewise worship group 'I am they" have just released a new album, or I've just become aware of it and one of the great catchy songs is "my feet are on the Rock" a very biblical image, like in Psalm 42.

I can see the clouds roll in
I can feel the winds, they try to shake me
I will not be moved
My feet are on the rock
I can feel the waters rise
I can hear the howling lies that haunt me
Fear won't hold me now
My feet are on the rock
When I feel my hope about to break
I will cling to Your unchanging grace
Let the waters come and the earth give way
I'll be dancing in the rain
My feet are on the rock


However as I listen to the lyrics it does seem to be a response to sever weather events and global warming. Here they are what do you think? once again it is good to acknowledge that even in the face of such events as climate change that we won't fear or be moved from faith. I do wonder if they are not in some ways lulling us into a false faith response to the ecological issues in our world... it's obviously on the minds of the song writers, it would be interesting to see music and messages coming about a Christian response to such things that went beyond dancing in the rain and playing in the wild waves... To hear from this growing part of the Christian Church some willingness to change and be active to an issue that is going to impact not only the middle class Christians they cater for but also the least that Jesus called us to care for.

When I say those things I'm also speaking to myself as we well by the way. recently at our Churches General Assembly we looked at measures we can take to  lower our carbon emissions and make our practises more environmentally friendly . I'm also not wanting to slam these songs and churches I'm just wondering if this is a start of an awakening about these issues that are very much at the forefront of peoples minds that has come out of a movement that has been at the forefront of helping grow spiritual vitality in emerging generations of Christians.

What do folk Think?  Am I way off base or is this the start of a response to global warming/climate change... and the hope is that there is more thoughtful stuff to come... or is it simply saying well when it starts really affecting me I'll trust in God to keep me safe.. a good response...but not what is needed at the moment...

Vision 2019 (part 2) Jesus Ministry Then and Now, There And Here, In Person and In And Through Us (Matthew 4:13-25)

On a Sunday where in Prayer we’ve relaunched some of our more significant ministries for 2019 … sundayfunday, SPY and mainlymusic… it’s appropriate that we look at a Passage that summarises the ministry of Jesus Christ for us. That we look at Jesus focus in ministry, what Jesus invest his time into, what Jesus did and what were his priorities?  What Jesus Ministry was all about?

As a church we have a vision of being a vibrant, authentic sustainable community, growing as followers of Jesus, and inspiring others to join us on that journey. Following Jesus is at the centre of our vision and what Jesus focused on, and spent his time doing then and there… in person should speak into and inform and transform what we as a church are about, what we as a church individually and corporately  are focused on and what we as a church invest out time and energy into… here and now as Jesus ministers to and through us by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

 The passage is in three sections all of which tell us something different about Jesus ministry.

The first section 13-17 tells us what is at the heart of Jesus ministry. In verse 17 we are told that Jesus began to preach ‘repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near’. If you were with us a couple of weeks ago that will sound very familiar because this is the very thing that Matthew tells us John the Baptist was preaching. There is a continuity of this message.  John was preaching in anticipation of the soon and coming king and now Jesus is proclaiming it as God’s chosen king come.

We can get a bit confused when we think of the kingdom of heaven and think that Jesus is focusing on the world that is to come, the afterlife. That he is preaching an insurance policy for when we die, there is that element of it, because God is eternal it is an eternal kingdom we are invited into.  However, we get more a sense of what Jesus is declaring when we think of the words of the prayer he taught his disciples to pray… ‘Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ The Kingdom of Heaven speaks of that reality, that God’s purposes and vision for humanity would be worked out in the present world…The here and now.

We’ve focused on the last line of this section, and it is easy to dismiss the first part of it as a history and geography lesson. Where and when Jesus starts his ministry. We can see the passage that Matthew quotes from Isaiah chapter 9 as simply an affirmation that this was in accordance with scripture. However this passage ties Jesus ministry and proclamation of the Kingdom back into the vision the prophets had for the coming reign of God. There is a continuity,,, The land of Zebulun and Naphtali were the first areas of Israel to come under foreign occupation, as the northern kingdom was overcome by the Assyrian empire and the passage that Isaiah is quoting is God’s promise of restoration that will start there. It is the start of a passage we often read at Christmas for unto us a child is born, that will be a light in the dark that will be God’s chosen king establishing God’s reign again. Along with that comes the vision of the kingdom that will be established. A place of peace, where they will not study war no more, where the lion will lie down with the lamb, where there will be no poverty or want, where people will be reconciled with God and with each other. So when we hear Jesus speak of the kingdom of heaven all this is what for Matthew comes to mind.

In Jesus day there was an expectation of the Kingdom, but it was very much a political vision of Israel being free from Rome, the latest in a long list of foreign powers that had ruled over them. But Jesus vision of the kingdom is not of one that would come through violence or even political power, rather as we move on to the sermon on the mount of people living a radically different way. It was going to be like a mustard seed that would sprout and be a big tree, yeast infecting the whole loaf.

Jesus also called people to action… to repent. Now repent is not a word that we are comfortable with, we don’t like it. When it comes to Jesus we almost see it as the opposite message to God’s grace and God’s forgiveness. We tend to think it means to feel sorry for what we have done, to feel bad about ourselves… woe is me I’m a dirty rotten sinner… that kind of stuff. But Matthew tells us that the kingdom is Good news, it is about grace and welcome, repent means turn around… A couple of weeks ago we looked at John the Baptists use of this word and we used the example of how you would respond to the news of a royal visit at your place. We talked in terms of making the roads ready, doing some spring cleaning, some gardening even, getting rid of the weeds and the unfruitful trees, burning off the rubbish, because well a royal was coming, that’s good news. At the heart of the word repent and Jesus message is the warm invitation to turn round from the way we have been going and to embrace the vision of the kingdom of heaven, as we are invited and welcomed and embraced into that kingdom through a relationship with its king Jesus.

The challenge for us as a church, individually and corporately is, ‘is our vision, is our hope, is our world view, is our imagination of what should and can be, are our actions shaped by, and focused on Jesus and his kingdom vision. Like In Jesus day we are bombarded with different world views; way of understanding the world that shape who we are and what is possible. in Jesus day it was the roman worldview the Jewish religious world view, radical nationalism, for us its  self-centred western consumerism, materialism, and its alternative visions of multi culturalism, that teaches tolerance and acceptance not radical reconciliation and unity, and a  growing green philosophy. The challenge is for us to repent to turn around and have Jesus’ kingdom of heaven vision grow in us, develop and shape and lead us. To direct our values and our actions, because we are loved and embraced and welcomed in by its King Jesus.

The second section is v. 18-22, where Jesus calls his first disciples to follow him, we looked at this passage last week so I’m not going to dig into its detail. But central to this Kingdom of Heaven is community. Jesus ministry is about gathering people together to live out the kingdom.

One of the amazing things about this is that Jesus picks his disciples in a totally different way to the Jewish rabbis and teachers. They would have people coming to them to ask to be their disciples, and they could check out their CV’s and qualifications and only pick the best of the best. I’ve watched the series of movies about Ip Man, who is a famous teacher of the wing chun style of martial arts,  and in each movie they relate a moment when a young man comes to his door and asks Ip Man to train him, to take him on as a student, initially Ip man closes the door later he asks to see what the young man can do, finally he accepts him, of course the Young Man is Bruce Lee, who is the  greatest kung fu legend. But Jesus does not do that he picks ordinary people… Peter, who will has impulse problems and control issues, John and James who are  not only the sons of Zebedee but have the nick name the sons of thunder, they have anger issues and definitely have mummy issues (you know ‘Jesus can my Boys sit at your right and left) and bring them together as a community. The one thing these men do is show repentance: they leave it all and follow Jesus.

The kingdom of God is about a community of ordinary imperfect people prepared to do that … That vision of the Kingdom of Heaven starts here with you and me. I like the way Matt Woodly expresses this… “community is where ego comes to shrivel and die, because God delights to throw us together with people who love poorly and then they have to deal with our pathetic attempts at love… so from the beginning the kingdom was marked by the harsh demanding but beautiful reality of shaping a new kind of community under a new kind of king.” It is the same today the kingdom comes as we live it out in community. It is why being a church together is so important… so essential… even though its hard work. It’s kingdom of heaven work to grow us and mature us as we learn to love as Christ loved.  Peter will later express this as being an immigrant community, living here but having who we are shaped and formed by another culture and place, the kingdom of Heaven. 

The third section is v23-25 and it speaks of the tactics of the Kingdom of God. How Jesus spread the kingdom. ‘Jesus went through out galilee teaching in their synagogues proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people.’ Matthew makes a point of emphasising that last part in verse 25 with a list of different types of affliction and illness.

This is what is classically known as Jesus three fold ministry, teaching, preaching or proclaiming and healing or to put it another way…declaring, discipling into, and demonstrating the Kingdom. As Jesus tells of the coming of the kingdom, he also shows that God’s reign has broken into the realms of humanity by overcoming the results of sin and evil, in restoring people to health. The kingdom has come and sin and death are defeated. There is a new creation where God will put things to right and that breaks into our reality now through people coming to healing and wholeness, both physically and spiritually.

AS a Presbyterian church we have a strong emphasis on teaching…teaching our children, bible study in small groups…  and expository preaching. We know from the few times Jesus sermons in a synagogue are recorded in Luke that Jesus took the scriptures and opened them up and showed  how he fulfilled them, as he did on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection, in the sermon on the mount Jesus will take misunderstood scriptures from the Torah and open them up for people to grasp their true meaning and spirit. In our reformed tradition our worship and life together are centred round the reading and teaching of the word of God, our hope is that as we open then up and explore them and explain them, in the power of the Holy Spirit, that we will meet Jesus Christ, God’s living word in a way that will bring Kingdom change and transformation.

There is a lot of talk these days about being life-long learners and the challenge for us as a church both leaders and congregation is to remember that to be a disciple a follower of Jesus is to adopt that posture of humility and being willing to learn from Christ. Speaking of learning one of the things that the parish review has bought up for the parish council is that alongside developing the depth of our community our Kingdom call, is a call to  kingdom proclamation, calling people to transition to faith, calling us to address poverty in our community and justice issues. 

The church is also to be a place where people experience health and wholeness, both through prayer and through community. As I was preparing this message I couldn’t help but hear Jesus words on Prayer in the sermon on the mount… ask, and you will receive… seek and you will find… knock and it will be open to you… an invitation to come and know Christ’s healing.

The flax flower and seed head that has been the visual motif with this message, is all about growth and pollination, and seeds producing more flax bushes… the passage finishes with what Jesus was doing in the synagogues and amongst the Jews living in the region of galilee, which was a mixed area of Jew and gentile, spreading outwards, this vision of the Kingdom of God, this community they were working on developing, this Good News they had in Christ and the demonstration of in people finding healing and wholeness spread and people came from all over Syria to see Jesus and be healed… . It’s these crowds that Jesus will give the sermon on the mount to and teach them what the Kingdom of heaven is like and invite them to be the people who would live it out in relationship with him. The vision and the challenge for us as a church is to have that outwards focus…to cast our nets as we talked about lastweek as we allow that Kingdom vision to grow and develop in our midst that people will see what is happening, they’ll hear as we share what God is doing and experience his presence and power it as we show them and offer it to them and will want to meet Jesus for themselves.

A vision for 2019... Put your toe in... cast your nets... make some ripples (Ezekiel 47, Matthew 4:22-28)

Put your toes in the water… cast your nets… make some ripples.

As I’ve come to think about this new year those three phrases have come to mind.

Put your toes in the water… cast your nets… make some ripples.

As I pray those words kept coming… kept coming  as encouragement, kept coming as challenge kept coming as vision for us all this year.

Put your toes in the water… cast your nets…  make some ripples.

Put your toes in …

Our Old Testament reading this morning came from the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel is writing to the exiles in Babylon and in a series of wonderfully vivid visions he paints a picture of God restoring his people to the land. The one read this morning is of a river flowing from the temple of God, out into Jerusalem, out in the barren countryside, down through the wilderness and into the dead sea, and everywhere the river goes life flourishes. The dead sea is refreshed and teaming with life, the banks are lined with trees that provide fruit all year round, whose leaves are a source of healing. It’s a wonderful promise of the presence of God and God’s love for his people, being the source of new and abundant life, in the desolate, the desert and even the dead. A picture that points us forward to the coming of the kingdom of God. In John 7 Jesus at the festival of tabernacles, stands on the very steps of the temple where Ezekiel had seen the river flow and said come to me and drink and never be thirsty again, and who ever believed in his rivers of living water would flow from with in them… the presence of the Holy Spirit, within us,(which we looked at last week)  that brings new life and fruitfulness and healing and wholeness to us and through us.

Like one of those travel shows on TV a guide leads Ezekiel along this river from it source in the temple to where it outlets into the Dead Sea. At intervals the tour guide leads him into the river to see how deep it is. A cubit is based on the length from your figure tip to your elbow, its about 46cm more or less, (more for some of us and less for others) so about every half a kilometre the tour guide leads Ezekiel into the water, into the river. The first time its ankle deep, then knee deep, then waist deep…then about 2km along the journey this river is so deep and fast flowing and vibrant, that it couldn’t be crossed. A great picture of the depth and width and abundance of the presence and the love of God.

Put your toe in the water… This year wherever you are along your journey with the river, can I encourage you to put your toes in the water and see how deep and wide and wild and life giving is the presence and the love of God.

Put your toes in … also means to do something new, take a chance, go and check it out, … put your toes in the water… is an invitation to do something new, step in in a new spot in a new way, go deeper, take your feet off the ground and float or swim. Andrew Dunn who was one of the founders of Spiritual Growth Ministries gave an illustration that as  a surfer stuck in my mind. He said when we go to the beach (mixed metaphors here) we are used to be being told to “Swim between the flags”, and when we’ve got children that is what we do, but often there is that longing within us to go where the wild waves are. To go deeper and be immersed and feel the power and the wonder.

Our vision as a church has at its centre that “we are growing as followers of Jesus”. In our new testament reading today we see that at the core of Jesus call, is into relationship with him, “come and follow me”. This year put your toes in the water is an invitation, encouragement, challenge, call to look at something new or renewing something that will draw us closer into the relationship with Jesus. On a practical level it may to take advantage of the word for today, or other bible reading and devotional material we have available here. It may be to join a small group, and we will be starting some groups for people to put their toes in and see if its for them, over lent, leading up to Easter. Small groups are the best way to grow in your faith. Find a prayer partner.  Something that will as the arch Bishop of Canterbury  Justin Welby says ‘ cause us to be captivated again by Christ’.

Put your toes in the water… cast your nets

Our New Testament passage was Matthew’s account of Jesus calling his first disciples. On the sea of galilee Jesus came across two sets of brothers, all fishermen. Jesus calls both sets of brothers to come and to follow him, to Andrew and Peter he adds, and I will make you “fishers of men”. Both pairs leave their net, and James and John also leave their father and boats and family business and follow Jesus.

We’ve already touched on the fact that the focus of the call of Jesus was into a relationship with him, but the passage tells us that that new relationship also changes the priorities that disciples have. Peter and Andrew and James and John were fishermen, the leaving their nets symbolised their willingness to give up that for Jesus, now they would be about fishing for people, living in a new community and in a new way that pointed people to life in Jesus Christ, welcomed them in and enabled them to live that life as well.

This year I simply want to encourage people to…cast your nets… to be intentional about allowing that relationship with Jesus to lead you to be outward looking. To be about… as our church vision says inspiring others to join us on the journey of growing as followers of Jesus.

One of the things I noticed about this passage was that Peter and Andrew, and James and John were fishing in totally different ways. Peter and Andrew with a small hand net and James and John in a larger commercial way.  I think that has a lot to say to us about fishing for men. It was bought home to me over summer when they closed the Old Mangere Bridge to foot traffic for good. Bethany and Isaac and I went for one final walk over the bridge, and I took my camera.

At the boat ramp, were a group of three Pilipino men, south east Asian, they were using a throw net, I’d never seen anyone doing that before in New Zealand, but obviously it was the way they were used to fishing. They throw the net, the lead weights take it to the bottom, trapping the fish, and then they haul it in.

Up on the bridge itself in the late afternoon sun were more people fishing in a more conventional way, with a rod and reel. Now I couldn’t tell who caught what, if anything…

then on the Onehunga side was the wharf where the big commercial trawlers tie up. Boats able to fish out in the Tasman sea.

We often think of evangelism and outreach as a one size fits all endeavour. We are put off by pictures of street corner preaching and mass rallies and slick pre-packaged Used car salesman like presentations.  But the call to cast your net is a call to be outward looking where you are and how you are. In the scriptures Peter stands up before a huge crowd at Pentecost he and John pray for the man born cripple at the gate beautiful. While we know Andrew was an apostle to the black sea area, in the gospel he simply speaks to one or two people about Jesus. Peter and Andrew may have been so willing to follow Jesus because Andrew had been a disciple of John the Baptist as we are told in John’s gospel and goes to his brother after John meets Jesus and say “hey I think I may have found the messiah, lets go check it out”. When a group of greeks come to Phillip, the disciple with the Greek name and ask to see Jesus Phillip,  goes to ask Andrew how to make it happen.

On a practical level, it may be involved in some of the outreach things we do here at the church, it maybe that you take a step of talking to a work mate and let them know you are a follower of Jesus or offering to pray for someone, it maybe committing to pray for friends and family… You know the number one reason people don’t come to church… no its not your ministers bad preaching or bad breath… its that no one asks them…most people come to know Jesus Christ because a friend or family member shares their faith in word and deed with them…  Cast your net.

Finally… make some ripples… make some ripples talks about change… this year we need to be open to change.

In Ezekiel, the river of God’s presence transformed the countryside from desert to fruitful healing, orchard and forest. It transformed the community that lived around the dead sea from people eking out a living to being thriving vibrant community of fishermen(what a great vision for a church community, particularly one called St Peter's). In our New Testament reading that call into relationship with Jesus and the call to be fishers of men, was the seed and start of a community, the church itself, that was willing to leave behind what it knew, its identity and its safety nets for the sake of Jesus Christ. It was the group that Jesus gave his kingdom manifesto, the Kingdom of God, whom he invited to live it out with and tech to do the things he did.

In our vision statement we say we are a authentic, vibrant and sustainable community, but it does not mean we are a settled community, in our vision we also acknowledge that we are on a journey following Jesus. Make some ripples speaks of a willingness and an openness to change and movement, as we become more a fishing community. Outward focused… On a practical level maybe its letting the spirit of God move you about a particular issue, person, situation, ministry that you may find yourself going deeper into or even changing from what you are already doing, it may be answering God’s call to be involved in leadership in the Church, service in the Church but it maybe out taking yor fruitfulness and healing to the land out there, to the places that lack life.

I want to finish with an image to tie this all together. I went for a walk at the Taumanu reserve early one morning. It was what I call a mirror Manukau morning. Not breath of wind, not a wave, The Manukau was even blue rather than its normal moody, muddy grey. I took my camera with me as I always do. But there was very little signs of life. I went round the boardwalk and the tide was coming in and the mudflats were covered. Then I spotted this blue heron. One bird out and about. It had gone out into the water up to its thighs, and as I watched it dipped its beak to fish, and where it’s beak impacted the water ripples were sent out. I took the photo behind me of it. It had put its toes into the water, it had cast its net, well its beak and it was making some ripples. It was this wonderful sign of life.

put your toe in… try something new

cast your net… be outward looking with Christ’s love

make some ripples… be open to change. To make change