HOMILY: Today we are reflecting on joy. It is Gaudete Sunday in the season of Advent. Joy. An ancient word with a deep tradition. We’ve remembered the shepherds who receive the announcement of joy from angels, we’ve lit a pink candle. Our bible readings point us towards joy and speak of it as a discipline …
HOMILY: In the course of his preaching, John said, “One more powerful than I is to come after me …”
HOMILY: Today is the first Sunday in the season of Advent. The Latin word means “arrival” or “coming”. On one level, we know that we will celebrate Christmas in a little under four weeks’ time. On another level, this can be a surprising event – for adventurous hands, hearts and minds. Faith is adventure.
HOMILY: The icon by Kelly Latimore (see below) shows Christ framed/enthroned by the four evangelists. Some theologians suggest that the scriptures, the gospels in particular, re-present, or stand in for, Christ.
Today’s gospel presents Christ in the six-fold works of mercy: Christ who feeds (there is enough food and drink, of course, we just need for it to be blessed, broken and given freely and fairly); Christ who welcomes, clothes, comforts and visits …
HOMILY: Our parable invites thinking about oil, light and joy. Poet-priest Ernesto Cardenal suggests we think of this oil in terms of community spirit … the oil of gladness, togetherness …
NEWS: Please Tanya Plibersek, stop approving new coal and gas projects.
HOMILY: Our Orthodox icon shows Jesus washing the feet of disciples (a scene from John’s gospel). It’s about being kind (even amid difficulty and under stress). It’s about mutual service. It’s about equality – “encouraging, comforting and urging … lives worthy of God” (as the Apostle Paul says). It’s about bare feet and holy ground, hard traveling and “walking the walk”. And it’s about overturning expectations of honour and status.
NEWS: Act2 discussion – Sunday 26 November after church service, 11:30am-1pm.
HOMILY: We can think about mission in terms of our mission statement (key words: open, creation, dare, share, seek) … in terms of a mission structure to our life and work (and website) – an underlying mission theme: congregation-community-garden (crossing back and forth, translating) … in terms of a mission motto: we pray, we serve, we grow … or mission stories bearing witness to God’s presence and promise in South Sydney.
We can think about mission, the missio dei, God’s love for the world, in a musical way.
HOMILY: A trick question elicits a trick answer. Jesus asks for the coin used to pay the Roman tax (it’s interesting that he himself does not possess the coin), then asks whose image it bears.
Most likely the coin in question bore the image of the emperor Tiberius who ruled Rome during the years 14-37 CE. One side of the coin would have deified Tiberius as a “son of the divine Augustus”. The other side would have honoured him as the “Pontifex Maximus” or “chief priest” of Roman polytheism – which is to say that the two sides of the coin celebrated absolute religious and civil authority for Tiberius.
