16TH AFTER PENTECOST H.T.K. Our life is a pilgrimage, a journey; each is unique – made what it is by the various twists and turns that out path takes us. I think of my journey, it’s now a reasonably long one – I have lived in 13 different places, the last 9 all to do with where I believed God –or the Church anyway – called me to be to exercise the ministry I had been given. There are a couple of places of which I could say – “Why was I sent/called there?” – I am still not sure, but the feedback one gets, and sometimes much later – well after I had left, tells me that some good things were achieved. Over the last 15 years I have been able to journey to some fascinating places – mostly in the sense of the journey being a pilgrimage. Once we journeyed to the Wilderness of Sin – (slide 1. And the Painting) It is a barren place in the South of Jordan. There you will also find the fabled Nabataean City of Petra,. The Map highlights its remoteness (Slide 2) It was there that Israel had come some 3,200 years before, making their journey we call the Exodus. [Translated: The Way Out] heading out of Egypt to the land God had promised them through their ancestor Abraham. It was here that Aaron died and was buried on Mount Horeb - the highest peak in the painting. His tomb is still there, a two day donkey ride from Petra will get you there. It was in this wilderness that Israel was tested and purified. Here they were shaped into the people God was calling them to become; a holy nation, a kingdom of priests to bring the knowledge of God to the whole world, freeing the world from the grip of the idols and forces to which it had been subjected. But, like all of us, Israel did not make the most of their journey. They crumbled and rebelled against Moses and against God. They complained about the lack of water in the desert, and so God led them to a rock which he commanded Moses to strike, and water flowed from it. [Slide 3] Today we know the place as Wadi Musa, and over the Rock we find an unusual Mosque – because of its 3 domes. [Slide 4] For me, I find the desert the place where I encounter the sacred: have you ever sat on the ridge above the Mundi Mundi plain, west of Broken Hill? [SLIDE 5] There is a sculpture park there[ SLIDE 6], when there you are usually alone, or with your companion. You can sense the presence of the sacred, you get an understanding of the sacredness of the land our Indigenous describe in their Dreaming. It is vast and seems empty, but yet so full of the sacred. And when it rains…………….[SLIDE 7] God has touched it…………..
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Jesus’ journey, especially during its last 3 years was an extraordinary one: He was confronted with trials, hostility and great danger; yet he remained faithful in that journey to all that his heavenly Father asked of him. Today we read of an incident in the Temple. [slide 8] He is being challenged about his authority and the right which he claims to teach in the Temple. He answers them with a question – a question that confronts them: They know that John the Baptist is held by all the people to be a prophet, they have rejected John because to accept him would mean that they would have to believe his message – that the Kingdom of God was near, and that they needed to be baptised, and begin a new journey with God, a journey that they would find very unsettling – a journey that would turn their world upside down. There was no way that they wanted to go down that pathway. However, we are called to follow Jesus along the way he leads. [slide 9] Our last verse from Philippians puts the challenge before us: “Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” This throws before each one of us, How will we respond to the call of discipleship, How will we live the Gospel life in the world today – a world full of danger, a world full of beauty. This week I wrote to my Local Federal Member, Almost under the Radar, Australia is signing off on sending refugees to Cambodia – An action that under International law is illegal, That ignores very basic humanitarian responsibilities, And is a case of Australia – the rich, exploiting the poor – Cambodia. As Christians we have to challenge the things that are wrong, we have to live that which is good, or our journey will be to a very barren place. Rather, follow Him who is the way and the truth and the Life.
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