Are there plastic golf balls in heaven?

This coming Sunday is the First of Advent. In real terms it is the beginning of the church year. For the Christian church Advent is a season of preparation. It is not preparation for Christmas with all of the planning of what to buy, what to eat and what you might like to receive; but a time to reflect upon what the Advent (coming) of Christ – past present and future might mean for us.

Advent is very important to me and I make every effort, despite the time of year, to slow myself down and reflect on what this time really means. So many of us – me included – occasionally refer to this time as the ‘silly season’. It’s a bit sad really that the time of celebrating God’s divine intervention into history is so often an occasion of great stress and turmoil.

It is a regular frustration to me that the one time of the year when our Christian presence might really have an impact among others, we actually abandon our post and simply join the crowd rushing madly around complaining about how little time and money we have and how much we have to do.

One of the Bible readings that I will be looking at on Sunday is Isaiah 2:1-5:

‘The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

In days to come the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be raised above the hills;

all the nations shall stream to it.

Many people shall come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the house of the God of Jacob;

that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths .”

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.’

Isaiah didn’t write this when all was well with him and his nation. Indeed they were in exile and things probably could not have been worse. The prophet Isaiah – as is the role of a true prophet – was not ruled by what the eye could see or what his mind might tell him; he was ruled by what he felt God was saying and showing to him. We can learn a lot from Isaiah.

What if we as the people of God in our local communities determined to do what Isaiah suggests in the last part of the above reading? We have just come through a time when people have been offering us a whole bunch of ways forward; what if we chose God’s? What if we chose – against all the odds – to ‘walk in the light of the Lord’? Christmas is supposed to be a time of hope. What if we chose to walk in that hope? It is also supposed to be about peace, joy and love. What if we made a conscious decision this Advent and Christmas to not only light Advent candles and flip through Advent calendars; but make real the promises of God by bringing these things into view through our own lives of worship, witness and service? What if we as a local church committed to offering these things to each other and to others? Come; let us walk in the light of the Lord.

It is a personal theory of mine; but if you are reading this and have already decided that you are too busy for it; you’re right – you are too busy!

Today I was given a lesson in theology by a pre-schooler. Some months ago the families pet dog died and for whatever reason he had been pondering on this and was missing his little mate. He decided that he wanted to give his pet something to play with in heaven. When he suggested that he wanted to give a ball his dad thought that perhaps God already some balls in heaven already; but our little friend had worked out that they were probably hard ones and his pup needed a soft ball. On arrival at Playgroup I was handed a white plastic golf ball with a simple enough request; ‘Pastor John, could you give this ball to God and ask him to give it to my little dog?’

From another part of Isaiah: ‘The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.’
It’s hardly surprising that Jesus calls us to become like little children.

Buying in

Over the years I have seen some strange things go on in churches but seeing a whole bunch of women turn up last Sunday morning with their slippers on was something a little different!

How many conferences have you been to where upon arrival you are presented with a pair of slippers? Well, it happened on Saturday at our first ever ‘Live with Passion – A day for Women.’ It was a very special day where our female guests were very much pampered and made to feel special. So much so that some of our ladies were still wearing those darned slippers on Sunday morning.

These past four weeks have been for me some of the most exciting and uplifting of times. The wonderful success of our first Church Camp, closely followed by a very stormy (weather wise) but highly encouraging Melbourne Cup celebration was a good start to November; and then last weekend’s activities really nailed things. In recent days we seem to have moved to another level of ministry in this place and we should be feeling highly encouraged as we move toward Christmas and the New Year.

Some years ago I was asked by someone if it would be okay if they started coming along to our church even if they did not necessarily hold with some of the stuff we believed. Interesting; I was asked a very similar question this past weekend.

One of my favourite Christian authors is a guy called Gordon McDonald. A few years back he wrote a book called ‘Mid-Course Correction’ which Gordon wrote as he headed into his sixties and was wondering what might lie ahead for him and others of us who have passed the half way mark. He referred to some research by Anthropologists (people who study anthrops) who had found that people in various cultures align themselves in two different ways. One is a circle that is defined by its outer circumference. In this scheme a person is either in or out of the circle. Those inside the circle define what it takes for people outside to get in. Many will of course recognise this as a very common model in a whole bunch of situations, very much including church. The other alternative is not concerned with the circle, its circumference, or who is in our out. The question is not are you in or out but ‘are you moving toward the centre or away from it?’

Now, depending on a whole bunch of things any organisation will have movements toward and away from the centre and I recognise that we are not immune from that movement and some people choose or circumstance dictates a move away from the centre. However, alongside this is the fact that a whole bunch of people are now moving toward the centre and that excites me.

A number of people are now pulling together our big Christmas Eve event (including a kids’ choir!) and other ministry areas such as Playgroup, Ginger Bread House, finance and property matters are all being infiltrated – in the nicest possible way - by different people. At the beginning of this year I identified one of my key areas of focus in 2007 has encouraging new leadership across the life of the church. It isn’t all that often that a good plan really comes together but I have been very happy to see this come to fruition over these past months. Praise God! People are moving toward the centre.

Remember that classic Aussie movie – The Castle? Daryl’s Lawyer is stuck for words as he faces the court and the best he can do is ‘It’s the vibe - it’s all about the vibe’. Well, the vibe around here right now appears to be pretty good. There is a wonderful spirit about the different ways in which NorthWest Uniting Church is going about stuff of late. There is a strong sense of hope, optimism and energy that is quite infectious. Good grief even I’m catching it!

Just today I had cause to reflect on just what it means to be about following Christ in today’s world. I think that Jesus’ illustration of being salt is a good way of looking at it: ‘You are the salt of the earth.’ In the days of Jesus salt was vital to preserve food and give taste. The thing was though; the salt had to be absorbed - disappear - to be most effective. Much of what we do cannot easily be defined and has no obvious spiritual agenda. It’s a bit like the vibe really. You can’t quite pin down what it is or why it is; but nevertheless it IS!

This coming Sunday I will be finishing my four week series – ‘An Infectious Faith’ with a talk titled ‘Shine like stars – A life worth Catching’. Those of you who have kept up (a chocolate bar to anyone hears all four) will know that we started with Courage, then Compassion and last week Credibility. So this week to keep up with the C’s theme we have Catching. Hope you can!

Catching up with God

I am reading a really good book right now called ‘God next door.’ It is written by an Aussie guy called Simon Carey Holt, who has done his share of travel but is now reasonably settled in Melbourne. Simon focuses on something very close to my heart and the title gives it away; the issue of God being a part of our neighbourhood.

Probably my biggest frustration in ministry is this very matter. For way too many years now I and many others have suffered under the popular mindset that Sunday worship is it! If you get that right for a significant majority of people – this act alone probably would qualify you for sainthood – then you are on a winner. Get it wrong and you are condemned to a long hard slog.

My case has always been that the gathering for worship is highly important. Reality is that not being committed to this regular gathering makes it difficult to keep up! It is here that the sense of belonging is closest and it is here that we are reminded as part of the body of Christ what it is we are on about. Important, yes; be all and end all. No!

The new shopping centre at Rouse Hill has become a great place to bump into people. God is present in this bustling new place as certainly as the community centre on Sunday morning. I love bumping into people because I never view a meeting with anyone as just a meeting, accidental or not. These times are amazing opportunities to see what God might be up to at any particular moment. This does not mean that you pull out your trusty pocket size New Testament and regale them with the Gospel, it means that you listen between the words and see every meeting as a possible divine encounter.

I have many friends who do not carry the tag of Christian and I would love for them to become followers of Jesus; but they are not my friends for that reason. I don’t make friends to convert them but to enjoy their company and hopefully we can add value to each others and many other lives. However, from my perspective, God is never absent.

I get concerned at the practice of compartmentalizing our faith. It’s wrong! Check out how often Jesus sat on his backside on the Jewish Sabbath waiting for people to come to synagogue. Gosh, whenever we get a description of him being at the synagogue, he is in strife! On one occasion the crowd was going to throw him off the edge of a cliff. Even my worst message doesn’t get that response!

The whole ministry of Jesus is a description of him wandering around a variety of neighbourhoods, meeting with people and changing the environment in which they lived. Not everyone was healed and not everyone was changed; but by Jesus and his mates hanging out in these places seeds for change were grown. We are still about sowing seeds.

I reckon Jesus quite likes us hanging around his children on Melbourne Cup Day. He probably wishes he could be there himself – but of course he is. Go M.A.D. stuff, Church Camp, Ladies Day, ANZAC Day, Trivia Night, Playgroup, Scripture, Pub Chat, Movies and Matinees, Aberdoon House and even Christmas Eve is where we get the opportunity to discover what God is up to in the area. You could have a BBQ with a few neighbours, start a walking group or go and share a beer on a weekend as everyone is out gardening. God’s already there, we might as well join in the conversation.