A Prayer of thanksgiving and confession...

A female Blackbird sings in front of te matau a Pohe (the fish hook of Pohe) a bridge over the Hatea river in Whangarei

On Sunday we will be launching  Hope Whangarei. This is a new church which is an amalgamation of the three Presbyterian parishes in the city of Whangarei. I've just moved up to Northland to be part of this new adventure and this prayer is for the launch service... It reflects something of the beauty of the city and region. It is set in five groupings introduced by a two line heading and consisting of three stanza's with four lines followng this pattern  From... locating us in time and space, we... what is the action we are doing and for... the prayer itself... 

Almighty God

We praise you for the wonder of your creation

From our island home

We praise you for its unique flora and fauna

For bird song, kiwi call, gull swark

For delicate flower and giant forest kauri

From a city where we can look up and see the night sky

We thank you for the lights amidst the dark

For moon beam, star field and galaxy swirl

For the humbling vastness of the universe unfurled

From this Oceanside port

We give you thanks for the endless stretch of the sea

For rocky point and wave pounded sandy shore  

For quite Harbor beach, and mangrove lined inlet   

Loving  God

We praise you for your provision and care

From this place of fertile soil and temperate climate

We praise you for the bounty of sea and field

For food from orchard and garden

For the fresh water of rain and stream

From this city surrounded by hills

We thank you for your protection and keeping

For watching over our comings in and goings out

For guarding and guiding our footsteps

From the midst of our busy lives

We give you thanks that our times are in your hands

For being with us in all life’s stages and histories relentless march

For seeing us in our hour of need and drawing near

Father God

We praise you for mercy and grace

From standing here before the cross

We praise you for sending your son Jesus into this world

For his life and teaching to show the way

For new life in him for us, through his death and resurrection

From a church whose logo is the burning bush

We give you thanks for sending the fire of your Holy Spirit

For its leading and guiding, comfort and presence

For enabling and empowering us to live for, and witness to, Christ

From beside the Hatea river

We thank you for living water that flows through us all

For bringing us together today as one church Hope Whangarei

For your presence with us to bring healing and health to this place

Holy God

We come this morning and confess our sins

From the midst of our brokenness

We come to ask your forgiveness

For all that we have done wrong

For un love, hurtful word and action

From the midst of seeking our own comfort

We confess our inaction and neglect

For all the good we have left undone

For want ignored and love withheld

From being far off to being bought near

We thank you that you have heard our cry

For being faith and just

For forgiving us our sin and whipping the plate clean

God who is with us today

We pray that you would renew us again

From a place of being aware of our need

We pray you might fill us afresh with the Holy Spirit

For us to grow in the depth of our knowing

For us to grow in the depth of our love

From this time and place of new beginnings

May we know your presence to lead and guide

For us to come together as one church

For us together to share the hope we have in Christ

Here and now as Hope Whangarei

We ask you to help us serve you, each other and this city

For all people to come and know the love of Jesus Christ

For the glory of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Amen

God can be trusted for the journey (Psalm 121)

This sermon is on line as a recording on the St Andrew's website... so feel free to listen to it. 

Today marks a significant step in the life and journey of the Presbyterian Church here in Whangarei.

If you could imagine going on a tramp, walking through the bush and coming to a fork on the track... three paths come together and unite for the way forward. That is where we are today.

Those tracks meet on a hill side, and from here we can see where we’ve come from and from here we can see where we have been, how we got here, and from here we can catch a glimpse of where we are going. That is where we are today.

So that’s a great place to stop and to look around and take stock; to remember the journey so far and those who have walked it with us.  To celebrate and commemorate what we have shared and achieved, before we turn and walk together the new track that is before us. That is what we are doing today.

In 1 Samuel 7 after a significant victory over the Philistines, but still with so many more challenges to come, the prophet Samuel raises a stone which he calls Ebenezer, which means “thus far God has helped us”. Today is an Ebenezer moment… it’s not an ending, it’s that remembering ‘so far God has helped us’. It’s the telling of the story of that help which gives us Hope as we turn and face the future, as we embark on the next phase of the journey together as one. As we start this new adventure, this new chapter following Jesus as one church.

It’s appropriate that our bible reading for today is Psalm 121. Because Psalm 121 is a song from the road. It is a pilgrim’s song. A psalm of ascent, part of a collection of psalms in the wider book that was used as pilgrims came to Jerusalem for one of the big festivals.

It’s a psalm that seems to fit right where we are at today. The Psalmist has been on this long epic journey, and the caravan he is part of stops for the night, and as the desert starts to cool the heat haze dies down there for the first time he can see the hills of Judea, there for the first time he sees his destination Jerusalem far off in the distance up the top of those mountains.

The journey is far from over, but here he or she is at this juncture. The road behind was long, full of highs and lows, good times and hard yards. The road ahead still seems long and difficult, if they were coming up through Jericho, then it was a dangerous route, Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan takes place on that road up to Jerusalem from the kings way in the Jordon valley, and it rang true for his hearers because of the danger of robbers and thieves.

I don’t know about you but I don’t like hills, I like being on top of them. Being new to Whangarei, I just love coming over the Brynderwyns and having your breath taken away as you see the mystical. almost otherworldly Whangarei heads dark green against the blue of the pacific.  But walking up hills, not so much.

But also for the psalmist there is a sense of anticipation and hope, of exhilaration… here is the destination that the pilgrim has been dreaming of has been working towards and journeying to, this is where God is calling them to go.  His vision and purpose is renewed.  Facing what lies ahead the psalmist says I look to the hills where does my help come from’

Almost in answer you could see the sun setting and the stars come out and the Psalmist looks up and realizes that beyond the mountains and even the stars that his help comes from the maker of heaven and earth. From the almighty creator of all there is.

Maybe, the spirit lead him to look and see the leader of the caravan, going about his tasks setting up the camp, cooking the dinner, establishing guards against the dark night, and The psalmist is reminded that God has been like that guide.

The psalm changes from first person to second person, here is God’s answer. All the way God had watched over them…  The way that the path has been planned and picked out even though rocky terrain and up steep narrow hill sides…The Lord will not let your foot slip… When the pilgrim slept someone kept watch… The Lord does not slumber of sleep… During the long desert journey they had been provided shelter… they slipped, slopped, slapped and slurped…and prevailed over the deadly desert sun…  At night they had  heard the howl of Jackel the roar of lion under the moon but were not harmed…The Lord watches over you… the sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night… All along God had guided and sheltered and cared for the pilgrim…

The Pilgrim psalmist remembers the words of blessing that they would have received as they left on this journey, and acknowledges that they could trust God for the rest of the journey.

“the Lord will keep you from all harm”

He will watch over your life;

The Lord will watch over your comings and goings

both now and forever more.”

It’s almost as if he turns to the pilgrims who will follow and says, That God can be trusted for the whole of the journey.  It didn’t mean there wouldn’t be hard times and dark dangerous nights and hot desolate desert times, but God is there to see them through.

The psalmist turns to us and says we can trust in God’s keeping through the whole of life’s journey… It has spoken that hope into my life as my Mum asked me to read it at my father’s funeral, for her. It was read at her funeral as well… read as an affirmation of the Lord’s keeping and help.

Jesus would have known and used this psalm. Even on his last journey to Jerusalem, knowing that God could be trusted even though his path lead through the cross and that valley of suffering and death. But on to resurrection and new life and new creation and hope for humanity…

It is the story of the church down through history… Paul knew this psalm as well and you can hear it echoed in our new testament reading today, from the book of Philippians… “ we can have confidence that the one who has started a good work in you will carry it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus’.   

It is for us today… We look back and we see that God in Christ has been with us by the Holy Spirit and has kept us, has journeyed with us and been our help and our keeper. We are here now and we can see that Christ is with us, calling us on into a new Hope filled future and we can have confidence that God will continue to keep us, lead us, guide us. God watches over our goings out … our stepping through the door of farewell and change, and our comings in, that stepping out onto the new path and new journey and new adventure together…

I want to finish with a short clip from the film the Hobbit: an unexpected adventure, which encapsulates where we are at so wonderfully… Bilbo Baggins played by Martin Freeman, wakes up, realizes that his guests have left on their quest… takes one last look around his safe comfortable home Bag End and well let’s see what happens … (insert clip)

We can trust in God to keep us will you come on an adventure with me…

Lets pray

Lord,

We thank you for all you have done and all you have lead us through that has bought us to this place and this time today.

For joy filled celebrations, for heart felt commemorations,

For your spirit’s presence, leading and guiding

We thank you for companions on the road,

Challenges faced and victories won

For growth and new life

For Christ glorified, in this place and through this people

Lead us onwards, in fresh vision and mission

Seeking God’s best for Whangarei and beyond

be our hope and our help watch over our comings and goings

now and forevermore

 amen

My Hope is In You' (Psalm 31, John 16:32-34)

This is my first message at my New Church St Andrew's Whangarei, it is a reflection on Psalm 31... it is not designed to be a great exegetical sermon on the passage... more a chance for people to reflect on the Hope that we have in God... A hope for our lives and also the Hope we have to share in Christ.. If you do want a reasonable exegetical sermon on Psalm 31 here is a link to a sermon I preached in 2012... called Psalm 31 "When Hope and History Don't Rhyme" 

This is the Drina River house near the town of Bajina Basta in Serbia. It was built in 1969 by a group of boys who regularly sunbathed on the rock and decided they wanted a bit more comfort and luxury. So they rowed wood, and the ingredients to make concrete across and built this wonderful summer house. In this award winning photo it seems such an idyllic setting, a great place to spend lazy summer days, and long summer evenings, relaxing in a refuge and retreat from the world.

Here is another picture of the same house during a once in fifty year flood.  It’s totally different right… it’s battered and knocked about in danger of being swept away… but it survived this event with minimal damage and it’s still standing today.

Perhaps when you see these pictures Jesus parable of the two builders from the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel comes to mind. The wise builder builds his house on the rock and the rains come down and the floods come up and the house stands. The house that Jesus says represents the person that builds their life on the solid foundation of hearing his words and obeying them.

Well Psalm 31 comes from the midst of that torrential flood. It speaks of the faith that a person has holding onto that firm foundation, as they weather the storms trusting God.

Psalm 31 is one of my favorites.  I love the fact that it declares real hope; a real hope in trusting in a real God in the midst of real life. It says ‘my Hope is in you’.

Psalm 31 may seem like a strange place to start my preaching ministry here in Whangarei. But the very fact that it speaks of that real Hope in the midst of real life makes it the right place to start; it proclaims real hope in the reality of God who sees and hears and cares and acts. It proclaims that we have a real hope to hold on to and to offer to the world, a real hope in the love and grace and abiding presence of God. In the face of all that life has to throw at us we have Hope because as it said in our reading in John ‘Christ has overcome the world”.

Psalm 31 is a lament, its the Jewish blues. When you read it, it feels like a roller coaster doesn't it? It oscillates between the heights of wonderful affirmations of trust in God’s goodness and sovereignty, which in the end is the very source of our hope… and vivid expressions of the depths of human pain, suffering and sorrow.

I feel like refuse, like broken pottery no good for anything except to simply be thrown on the rubbish heap and ignored. I find refuge in you O God… you are my rock… my fortress…

 I ache at the very depth of my being, I’m wasting away. But I will trust in the Lord, Into your hands do I commit my spirit.

My neighbours treat me with distain, they whisper terror on every side… my times are in your hand. 

In panic I cried out I am cut off. Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love. 

I don’t know about you, but that’s often how I find myself reacting when confronted with pain or sorrow and the fact that in this life there will be trouble. That roller coaster rocking and rolling between it hurts God, and I trust in you. We saw some of that last week as Elaine Holwell spoke of wrestling with isolation and loneliness as she moved from working in a refugee camp in Thailand and going to work in Vietnam. And knowing God’s goodness and faithfulness allowed her to face the churn and blur of change. Like the Palmist she called us to take courage and stand strong and be prepared to change trusting and having hope in Christ.

It almost sounds a bit flippant but as I reread Psalm 31 for this message the words of a song by the band the Rembrandts came to mind… Anyone here a Rembrandt’s fan?... I don’t know many people who are and while you might not know the band… you will know the song… it’s the theme tune to the TV show F.R.I.E.N.D.S

So no one told you life was gonna be this way
Your job's a joke, you're broke
Your love life's D.O.A
It's like you're always stuck in second gear
When it hasn't been your day, your week, your month
Or even your year, but

I'll be there for you
(When the rain starts to pour)
I'll be there for you

While the song is about the wonderful support for one another that comes from friends and community, support that the psalmist specifically says he does not have… it does echo the Psalmists trust that God is there and can be trusted as a refuge and a deliverer.

Psalm 31 is anything but flippant. In fact it has been seen down through the ages as a model prayer for people of faith of what it means to trust in God and to have hope. A hope that Biblical scholar James Mays, not James May of top gear fame says “is dependent not on the virtue of the one praying, , rather that is based on the character of the one to whom the prayer is made…”

There are two unique declarations of hope in God in this psalm “my times are in your hand” in verse 15, and “into your hand’s do I commit my spirit” in verse 5, they are used nowhere else in the psalms or the Old Testament. But into your hands do I commit my spirit sounds familiar because Luke records it as Jesus last audible prayer on the cross. In facing immanent death Jesus uses it to declare his trust in God’s goodness and sovereignty. In the midst of all his pain and suffering, which this psalm along with others such as psalm 22 foretold, he can look to God trusting, He can have hope that looks beyond the cross to the resurrection.

In fact Jesus coming, his life, death and resurrection are the ultimate response of God to the prayer and the cry of the psalmist for help and deliverance and salvation and the continued abiding presence of God with and for his people. They are the breaking in of God’s kingdom into this world…the dawn of a new day and new creation, the real possibility of forgiveness, healing and wholeness for this fallen world and the subsequent troubles of life. It is in You, O Christ that we have hope”

The psalm finishes by giving praise to God for his faithfulness and also with the psalmist turning to his hearers and listeners and through the written scriptures to us well over two thousand years later, and encouraging us exhorting us to kia kaha to stand strong and to take heart all who trust in the Lord… and I want to finish today by reflecting on what that may mean for us. I want to do it by using two images that I’ve taken.

The first is this one I took last year.

On a day off I went up to bastion point in Auckland and walked round the savage memorial. I came across this damaged flax seed head. At some stage it had been broken, maybe in a wild storm that came sweeping across the Waitamata harbour when it was younger, or it was as a act of vandalism, someone had deliberately bent it. But here it was still standing. The damage hadn’t stopped it growing or producing flowers and seed heads. In fact to my eye there was some beauty in it…

It is a picture for me of the hope we have in Christ. Of new life and fruitfulness even amidst life’s troubles and storms… because Christ has overcome the world…We can trust God to be with us and for us and to bring us through the storms and difficulties of life. To be fruitful and stand strong trusting in Christ.

In fact, Old Testament scholar Walter Breuggermann says he has detected a process of spiritual growth and maturation in the psalms. He says that there are three types of psalms. Psalms of orientation, that’s the happy clappies, that give thanks to God because everything is going as it should be, life is blessed, and it’s the psalms of the long idyllic summer days at the beach. The focus is on giving thanks for what God has done and what we have. Then he sees psalms of disorientation, where it’s like a storm has risen on that summer day and   we’ve been caught out in the ocean and wave after wave have come and spun us round and round and we are gasping for air and can’t find the way up. Where is God in this turmoil. Then Breuggerman detects a third type what he calls psalms of reorientation, where the psalmist has learned to simply trust in God,  the focus changes to being aware and trusting in the abiding presence of God. My last Sunday at St peter’s was mother’s day and we had a café service and instead of a sermon we simply reflected on passages that contained maternal images of God. The one we used for our call to worship was psalm 131 that like psalm 31 is  psalm of reorientation and it puts that spiritual growth like this… I have learned to be content, like a weaned child on its mother lap… no longer demanding help and assistance and feeding, but being aware that God is there and that is sufficient, knowing God will care and provide and hold us.

The second image was one I took as I was coming out of the Church on Friday. There were these black clouds rolling in over the city. Which looked very much like snow clouds… It fact they caused me to have a Tui billboard moment ... welcome to the winterless north “yeah Right”… and it got cold, but not cold enough so it only started to rain. Then at the same time the sun low over the western hills came out and I looked up and I saw the cross on top of St Andrew’s lit up and shining like a beacon against the black dark storm. The cross as a light of hope in the dark of the world. I thought what a great picture of God’s call on us as a church to be Hope, to bring the Hope of Christ to this city and beyond.

Like the psalmist as we have experienced the hope and grace and love of God in the midst of our real lives, with its real pains and troubles we are to turn and proclaim, in word and deed, that people can find the same hope to kia kaha stand strong and take heart…  as they trust in the Lord. 

Church stand strong and take heart those who hope in the Lord… 

In this Life you will have trouble, but do not be afraid, for Christ has overcome the world.... Amen!