SUNDAY 28

9-15 October

Matthew 22: 1-14

Philippians 4: 1-9

Exodus 32: 1-14

Psalm 106: 1-6, 47-48

ENTRY INTO WORSHIP

The love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all!

And also with you!

Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say rejoice!

Give thanks to our God who is so good,

whose unconditional love endures forever!

Who could ever speak of all that Christ has done?

Or let loose a praise that fits his love?

The best praise is to deal justly with others.

Happiness is doing the right thing all the time.

Whenever you come to worship,

glorify God as much as you can.

Praise God! Give thanks to the Lord

whose mercies endure forever.

Don’t be anxious about anything,

but in all you offer of prayer and praise,

let it be done with thankful hearts.

Lord God, remember us with favour,

and visit us with your salvation.

Whatever things are true,

whatever things are noble,

whatever things are just,

whatever things are pure,

whatever things are beautiful,

whatever things make good news:

if you find things worthy of praise

then fix your minds on these virtues.

PRAYER OF APPROACH

Loving God, Joy of the universe, we cannot bring you even one tiny item of perfect praise. Your love is too great for words or deeds, your holiness is beyond all music and song. But we can bring you our sincere love, the very cream of our heart. You have made us for love, and we yearn to love you more and more until earth and heaven become one complete circle of joy. Through Christ Jesus, our Brother and Lord.

Amen!

CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE

Introduction:

A poet (Chris Freebairn) has written:

“If only I could meet a friend

who at a glance sees through me,

who without frown or threat,

comes unconditionally to me.

No more forced laughter,

no more pretence or hiding,

no telling but half the truth

or anxiously confiding.

Then I’d give a great sigh,

of monumental release.

I could let go of all conceit

and find myself at peace.

If such a friend could find me

I’d leave the past behind me.”

We have such a friend in Christ Jesus, the divine friend of sinners.

Let our confession be a great sigh of release.

Let us pray:

Loving Lord, we are flawed creatures who need a Healer,

foolish and lost children we need a Saviour.

We trust ourselves to your penetrating glance,

we relax our anxieties and discard our excuses.

We are what we are, and there is not or word on our tongue

or a thought in our mind, but you know it all together.

Have mercy on us, all-seeing Lord.

Have mercy on us, all-saving Lord.

Have mercy on us all-conquering Lord.

As we breath out all that is stagnant, infected and shameful,

we breathe in your Holy Breath until it flushes

through every part of our body, mind and soul.

For your name’s sake.

Amen!

FORGIVENESS

“If such a friend could find me

I’d leave the past behind me.”

People of God, for us there is no more “if”. If has been replaced with God’s overwhelming “Yes!” We are found and recovered by the love of Christ Jesus. Lift up your hearts with peace and joy, for you no longer have anything to be ashamed of. We are a totally forgiven people!

Thanks be to God!

PRAYER FOR CHILDREN

We like parties, God.

It feels good to be invited.

It’s also nice to be able

to be loving and invite others

to our own parties.

Do you like parties, God?

You must do,

because your son

told parable-stories about parties

where everyone was welcome

to come and share your love.

Thanks a million!

Amen!

PSALM 106; 1-6, 47-48

Give thanks to our God who is pure goodness,

whose unconditional love goes on forever!

Who can ever tell all that Christ has done?

Or let loose praise that matches his love?

Our best praise is to deal justly with others;

Happiness is doing the right thing all the time.

God, include me in the love you show to others.

When you deliver them, give me a hand as well.

Let me see how well off your called people are,

that I may share the happiness of your nation.

I want to glory in the heritage you have created,

even though we and our forebears have sinned,

doing many things that are iniquitous,

participating in widespread wickedness.

Save us now, God, our only true God;

gather us from among all the races on earth,

that we may give thanks to your holy name

and get high on singing your praises.

Wonderful is God, the God of Christ Jesus!

From eternity to eternity you are God!

To this let all the people shout: Amen!

Praise now, praise always, our loving God!

© B.D. Prewer 2001

WEDDING FEAST

Matthew 22: 1-14

He is off

the planet again!

This Jesus

who tells folk stories

which upend

normality and our

credulity suspend!

Where on earth

is royalty ignored?

Since

when does the guest

stay away

from the wedding feast

of a prince?

Where’s any king

who would open his table

to the street?

To garbage collectors,

back packers, buskers,

homeless kids

and the dead beat?

One thing’s sure:

Christ’s quirky kingdom

cannot be

of this world’s making.

Here kings swank

and royal halls are crammed

with pomposity.

© B.D. Prewer 1995

SERMON 1: IS OUR CHURCH TOO PERMISSIVE?

(This is a copy of a sermon from some years back. It was preached at St Andrews,

Bendigo, in October 1989, well before the issue of ordaining clergy who are gay

became such a painful debate in the Uniting Church).

* The actually preached, briefer version follows.

Matthew 22: 1-14

Is the Uniting Church in Australia too permissive?

Do you long for the “good old days” when you knew exactly what your denomination (be it Methodist, Presbyterian or Congregational) stood for? For those times when certain kinds of behaviour were not tolerated? Members could be rebuked and disciplined, and clergy could be “unfrocked.” Has the Uniting Church become so broad minded that it has lost the plot? Are we now indistinguishable from the values of the worldly society around us?

That kind of question is not new. Repeatedly in the long history of the church, the leaders and congregations have faced the same dilemma. How restrictive should they be? How open should the community of faith become?

Very early on, St Paul was keenly aware of the tension between inclusiveness and exclusiveness. It is also reflected in the reading we heard today from the Gospel According to St Matthew- the story of a wedding feast in honour of a prince.

When the king came in to see the guests [those straight from off the streets] he saw a man

there who was not wearing an appropriate wedding garment. So he said to this man:

“Friend, how did you come in here without the proper clothes?” The fellow was speechless.

The king said to his servants: “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer

darkness, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth”.

There seems to be an absurdity in that bit of the parable.

What is the king on about? He had at the last moment invited the riff raff in from the streets. What did he expect? A new outfit for the women and a freshly cleaned and pressed suit on the men?

Remember the early part of the parable. When the privileged invitees did not turn up to the wedding feast the prince, the king sent his servants out into the streets and the lanes and the highways, into the squares and the back alleys. They were to invite the poor and the disreputable to come and be his guests at the marriage festivities. There was no shortage of takers. A free feed at the palace? Lead me to it! The wedding hall was packed with grateful, happy guests.

So far so good. Then king made his grand entry and looked around at the crowd. His eagle eye spotted the man without a proper wedding garment. He had his bouncers seize the man and pitch him into the deep darkness.

How could the king expect people invited in off the street for a feast to be attired in sartorial elegance? That is neither a reasonable expectation nor a just one, is it? It sounds absurd.

A CLUE: THE SETTING

It may not make sense to us, but is must have made sense to the people for whom Matthew directed his Gospel.

I would follow those scholars who believe there are two parables of Jesus here, originally unattached. Matthew brought them together for his evangelical and pastoral purposes.

The Gospels are not miraculous books penned by the finger of God. They are collections of the treasured sayings and deeds of Jesus that had been passed on by those first brave Christians. The way they were fitted together suited the preaching and teaching of the church at that time. Each of the four Gospel writers arrange sources in their own way. They are not biographies but theologies. (Thank God!)

.
Matthew was most likely working in Syria among the Christian there, some of whom came from a Jewish background and some from a Gentile background. He slots together the material at his disposal in ways that addresses the needs of the church in that situation, so that the good news of Jesus Christ could be best heard and applied to daily life.

Here the Gospel writer brings together of two parables about wedding feasts, arranging them to address an awkward question confronting the church of that era and area. That question was; “How inclusive or exclusive should the church be? Is any lifestyle permissible to Christians as long as they profess faith? How strict or lenient should those leaders who have oversight of a congregation be?”

A TIME OF RAPID GROWTH

The young church experienced rapid growth. The numbers were not large, compared with the millions of Christians in the world today, but they were growing quickly enough to cause difficulties. Whole families, and the household servants with them, would be baptised on mass. In some places, hundreds were initiated at the same time.

Many of those converts were not Jews. They came from a variety of pagan religious and moral

practices. They had been living by codes not as strict in their ethical content as that of the Jewish converts. Some were a rough mob indeed. The differences caused discord in the church.

When these disreputable characters came flooding into the church, some Jews were deeply offended by their attitudes and mortals. Some thought they should not be admitted to the church at all. Others were willing to accept them as long as they agreed to subscribe to the laws and rituals of the Jewish religion.

What should be the rule? Those early pastors found the question just as difficult as we find it today. Some congregation lapsed in an “everything goes” mentality. Others demanded the strictest observance “of the law and the prophets.”

TURN AGAIN TO THE PARABLE

Now we can return to the two parables of Jesus which Matthew places together. as if they were one.

The first parable is set against the rejection of Jesus by the religious power brokers in Jerusalem. Hence the invited guests who fail to come to the party. They represent the Jews. They rejected the generous offer of God through his son Jesus. Some argued, some made excuses, others stood aloof or openly spurned the invitation.

If they did not welcome Jesus, then the common mob would. There was a place for them. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” So in this parable the banquet hall in the palace is crowded with the “great unwashed”, Jew and Gentile, slave or freeman, male or female, clean and unclean. Matthew was loyal to Jesus in telling this story about the inclusiveness of God’s love. He gladly affirms the message of inclusiveness, while at the same time as he laments the refusal of many Pharisees and Priests to be included in the Jesus party.

Matthew does definitely stand for an open church. An open community. . Anyone is welcome to come in response to the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. That open-hearted, open-armed Gospel it not tinkered with by Matthew. Like Paul, he knew the mind of Christ did not include prejudice or snobbery or finicky legalism.

The message was: The doors are open. The table is spread. Come to the wedding feast. No one is barred.

A CHANGE IS EXPECTED

But. (and it’s a very big BUT) once we have accepted the invitation of Christ to join him at the feast, then a change in both our attitudes and our actions is expected. A new life style must follow.

The New Testament makes it clear that the thief turned Christian does not continue stealing. The converted solider gives up bullying civilians, the money-grabber changes his goals, the sexually promiscuous must turn to fidelity, the powerful must use their power justly and mercifully, the affluent will share their wealth with the poor, those addicted to gossip must button their lips or speak only good things of their neighbours. Becoming a citizen of the realm of God, and sharing the feast of Christ, must signal a radical change in one’s whole way of living.

That seems to be why Matthew links the second parable to the first. He may not do it as skilfully as he could have. However, that man who wears no clean wedding garment stands for those whop think they can have both Christianity and their own worldly values. Which was not on! Matthew is making it clear that once we become Christ’s disciples, then a new life style is required. The man without suitable wedding clothes is ejected into the darkness.

Incidentally, some Bible commentators claim that in that context “a wedding garment” did not mean new, expensive clothing. Nobody expected the poor to have two outfits. But it did mean clean clothes. Any guest at a wedding was expected to have least washed his garments clean for the event. Some change was expected from those who were baptised.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR OUR CHURCH?

What does this mean for the Uniting Church in Australia?

Firstly the parable says to us: Be an inclusive community.

Any person, of any race, class or tongue is welcome. Church is not just for “decent” people, or smart folk, or well educated middle class citizens. It is not a private club for those who publicly display no bad habits, and live in well kept homes in respectable suburbs, and can return hospitality with generous aplomb. Prostitutes and pimps, gamblers and divorcees,

those with a gambling habit and those with aids, demoralised aborigines and the unemployed, drunkards and other drug addicts, misfits and the hard-to-love characters, sinners and those who have been grievously sinned against , are all welcome to come and share the feast with the Prince of Glory.

The Lord Jesus requires that we should go out into the world around us, and look past the “nice” people to the common mob. That is a part of what that first parable is telling us. It is not just a matter of keeping church doors open for any brave outsider who might one day pluck up courage to take a look inside. It is a pro-active outreach that Jesus is speaking about. The love feast of the king’s son is for any who hear the invitation and respond to it. But first they must have the opportunity to hear that invitation.

“Go out in to the streets, and as many people as you find there, invite them to the wedding.”

Telling the good news, evangelism, is not an optional extra for hyperactive Christians. Our church must be an inclusive community or it becomes a grave anomaly; a heretical community.

The slippery question with which each of us in the church must wrestle, in love and respect for those who have contrary opinions, is how can we best undertake our evangelism?

The second part of the parable tells us to expect changed lives.

That is what the brief second parable, about the man who is tossed out, tells us. If claiming to know the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, does not produce a change in values and actions, then something phoney is going on. Those in the church community are called to display in their deeds a different set of values and goals than those of the greedy, self-indulgent world. Some discipline is required.

Yet we should not expect too much change too quickly. The plunge of faith may happen in a moment, but the changes that the Spirit brings in our lives may be slow and painful. No two people start from the same advantage point. Those of us who have received the enormous bonus of a loving Christian upbringing, putting us out in front, should not become judgmental of those who started from much further back; those who were severely handicapped in the race of life. We who possess what is regarded as “normal” personalities, at home with ourselves and with very few blips or annoying features, should be compassionate and patient towards those who have great difficulty in getting their house on order.

Nevertheless, when Christ calls a man or a woman, repentance, change, is a necessary consequence. Inclusiveness does not justify a wilful or apathetic permissiveness.

The second slippery question with which each of us in our church must wrestle, in

love and respect for those who have contrary opinions, is what ethical and social behaviour is Biblically acceptable and what is not. What is essential to the core faith

and what are non-core matters?

We need to tread very carefully before we dare to order a guest (one who, to us, seems to have no wedding garment) to be thrown out. It is okay for the King to judge and cast out, but the other guests should be wary of taking matters into their own hands.

Those who might presume to see themselves as God’s “bouncers” should take a step backwards.

Any action we take, or word we utter, which is not done with a love which mirrors the costly love of Jesus, will certainly be overstepping our authority.

Matthew 22: 1-14

Is the Uniting Church in Australia too permissive?

When the king came in to see the guests [those straight from off the streets] he saw a man

there who was not wearing an appropriate wedding garment. So he said to this man:

“Friend, how did you come in here without the proper clothes?” The fellow was speechless.

The king said to his servants: “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer

darkness, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth”.

The servants were to invite the poor and the disreputable to come and be his guests at the marriage festivities. There was no shortage of takers. A free feed at the palace? Lead me to it! The wedding hall was packed with grateful, happy guests.

A CLUE: THE SETTING

I would follow those scholars who believe there are two parables of Jesus here, originally unattached. Matthew brought them together for his evangelical and pastoral purposes.

A TIME OF RAPID GROWTH

The young church experienced rapid growth. Whole families, and the household servants with them, would be baptised on mass. In some places, hundreds were initiated at the same time.

Many of those converts were not Jews. They came from a variety of pagan religious and moral practices. They had been living by codes not as strict in their ethical content as that of the Jewish converts. Some were a rough mob indeed. The differences caused discord in the church.

TURN AGAIN TO THE PARABLE

Now we can return to the two parables of Jesus which Matthew places together. as if they were one.

The message was: The doors are open. The table is spread. Come to the wedding feast. No one is barred.

A CHANGE IS EXPECTED

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR OUR CHURCH?

What does this mean for the Uniting Church in Australia?

Firstly the parable says to us: Be an inclusive community.

Any person, of any race, class or tongue is welcome. Church is not just for “decent” people, or smart folk, or well educated middle class citizens. It is not a private club for those who publicly display no bad habits, and live in well-kept homes in respectable suburbs, and can return hospitality with generous aplomb. Prostitutes and pimps, gamblers and divorcees,

The Lord Jesus requires that we should go out into the world around us, and look past the “nice” people to the common mob. It is not just a matter of keeping church doors open for any brave outsider who might one day pluck up courage to take a look inside. It is a pro-active outreach that Jesus is speaking about.

“Go out in to the streets, and as many people as you find there, invite them to the wedding.”

Telling the good news, evangelism, is not an optional extra for hyperactive Christians. Our church must be an outreach community or it becomes a grave anomaly; a heretical community.

The second part of the parable tells us to expect changed lives.

Yet we should not expect too much change too quickly. The plunge of faith may happen in a moment, but the changes that the Spirit brings in our lives may be slow and painful. No two people start from the same advantage point. Those of us who have received the enormous bonus of a loving Christian upbringing should not become judgmental of those who started from much further back; those who were severely handicapped in the matters of faith We should be compassionate and patient towards those who have great difficulty in getting the hang of following Jesus.

Nevertheless, when Christ calls a man or a woman, repentance, change, is a necessary consequence. Inclusiveness does not justify a wilful or apathetic permissiveness.

Those who might presume to see themselves as God’s “bouncers” should take a step backwards.

Any action we take, or word we utter, which is not done with a love which mirrors the costly love of Jesus, will certainly be overstepping our authority.

SERMON 2: WORSHIPPING THE GOLDEN CALF

Exodus 32: 1-10

Most people prefer a tangible God. One they can view, touch, admire and hopefully manipulate. The making of idols, in one form or other, is still a popular practice. The breaking of idols is much more unusual. Today’s OT reading is about the making and breaking of a golden idol.

For the moment though, we will leave Moses and the People of Israel in the Sinai

wilderness and go a few hundred kilometres north to the ancient city of Askelon. For over 5,000 years Askelon (not far from the modern Tel Aviv) was a busy seaport. It stayed that way until it was finally destroyed during the Crusades.

Recently, for sixteen years a team of archaeologists have been painstakingly unearthing the ruins. From the level of the dig dating from a period a little before Moses, they unearthed a small pottery shrine and in it a little silver plated bull calf. The worship of the calf or bull was widespread in ancient Canaan and the surrounding country. Sometimes the bull calf was worshipped as the powerful god of storm and tempest. Sometimes it was a god of fertility. It was popular.

I wonder how many people had sincerely yet vainly put their trust in that little silver calf which the archaeologists have retrieved from the distant past?

THEY WANTED A VISIBLE, TOUCHABLE GOD.

Now we return to Moses, Aaron and the great tribe of Hebrews on the Sinai Peninsular.

The story in Exodus is most dramatic. At the very time when Moses was on the holy mountain communing with Yahweh and receiving the Ten C’s, a period of many days, maybe weeks, and the people became extremely restless.

What good to them was a God they could not see or touch? Surely the ancient gods of the region were more accessible than the God of Moses. The longer Moses spent up the mountain the more restless the people became. Would he ever return? Did he in fact meet with God on the mountain or was that just an old man’s yarn? Why was it that only Moses was allowed to see and speak with this God? They wanted a real god! One they could see and touch.

Aaron, the brother of Moses, was left in charge of the fractious Hebrews. He did not have the courage or the spirit of Moses. The people put pressure on him. A mob gathered around him complaining of their predicament: This fellow Moses, who dragged us up away from our homes in Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him. Get up Aaron and make us some real gods that we can carry ahead of us.

Aaron does not come out of this situation in a good light. He capitulated to the demands of the most vocal members of the tribe. [Things haven’t changed that much, have they? Noisy and powerful minorities still manipulate those in authority and good and humble people still suffer the consequences.]

Aaron quickly decided on the god they should have. It would be one that had been popular in the past when the Jews had lived in Canaan, and was still popular in among many of the communities of the wilderness. It would be a golden calf. He ordered the people to hand over their gold earrings, worn by both women and men. Collecting the precious gold, he fashioned it into the likeness of a bull calf. We don’t know how skilled Aaron was at sculpture, whether it was up to the standard of the little silver calf from Askelon. But it satisfied the recalcitrant mob among the Jews.

The ring leaders cried out: Now this is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Compliant Aaron went along with this nonsense, built an altar and proclaimed a religious feast day for tomorrow. Early the next morning the people offered sacrifices to the golden calf and then feasted and got drunk. All which put them in the mood for dancing and singing around the altar. Quite party atmosphere!

Then Moses came down the mountain from meeting with Yahweh, the One God of heaven and earth. In his hands were the tablets of stone bearing the Commandments. First he heard the singing, then came into view and saw the golden calf. In his anger he threw down the tablets of stone and they shattered.

What follows is extraordinary. He took the idol, had it ground into powder, and then made the people drink it down with water. He made them consume their stupid idol while he watched them. So much for idols! What a remarkable thing to do. How could they ever again worship a god that was so powerless that it could be ground into dust and consumed? (We are not told what effect the powdered gold had on their digestive system, or whether it helped those with arthritis!)

If we read on the story gets bloodier. Moses, with the help of the loyal Levite tribe, severely put down the religious revolt. We are told that three thousand men died by the sword that day. A high price? By our standards a very high price indeed, but it must have been the only way Moses could see of saving the Hebrews from a return to paganism amongst the indigenous tribes of the land. It is not for us, who have received the. enormous benefit of Jesus Christ and his way of peace and love, to criticise ancient Moses. He did what he thought he must do to preserve the tribe as God’s chosen people.

There are hints in the story (especially in 32:25) that some of the people had been mixing with the local indigenous people. Perhaps men and women had been meeting secretly and half-castes were being born. Maybe intermarriage had started. Maybe social influences from the wider pagan world had been eating away at unique ways of the Israelites. It is likely that the sacred calf was a dominant idol among the native people of the peninsular. We are not told enough details about the situation, but perhaps this was a very critical time, when the future of the Jews was very much in the balance.

Was their religion in danger of being subverted by the dominant culture?

Certainly it sounds that way. We read that, following the powerful punishment of being forced to drink their idol, Moses stood at the gate of the camp and demanded that they make a choice: He shouted out: “Who is on the Lord’s side, come now and stand by me.”

Isn’t that a dramatic picture? Old Moses standing there at the gate asking them to choose?

The Levites were the first to stand with him. How many more we do not know, but there must have been many of the faithful, not necessarily those with the loudest voices, who made the choice to stand beside Moses for the Lord. Others, who were quite content with the people and the gods of the land, chose to slip away and be absorbed into the pagan tribes.

The malcontents and those who wished to blend in with their surroundings were never going to make it to the Promised Land: to that country which was poetically called “a land flowing with milk and honey.” (I loved that description when I was a child! Land flowing with milk and honey! Wow!)

THE WORD TO US?

What does this ancient story say to us?

I hope it speaks to us about the need to keep true to the faith even when the going is tough. I also hope it speaks to us about the dangers of being having our Christian values eroded by the pagan society around us, and of the temptation of joining in the worship of the idols that others pursue.

There are plenty of idols around. False gods find numerous worshippers today and each of us is sometimes tempted.

The golden idol of irresponsible pleasure, the quick satisfying of lust upon lust, is very much among us. Just look at the values portrayed in magazines and in much of our TV pop culture. See the ethics espoused by the stars of TV, film and theatre. There are millions who are dancing and singing around their golden calf today.

The golden idol of riches; the false promise that big money would bring us immediate happiness, is seductive. How many of us can say we have never daydreamed of what we would do if we won first prize in a lotto? Why do Australians gamble more money each year than the combined budget for health and education in this land? What god are we really worshipping?

And so we could go on: fame, fashion, a quick fix through drugs and alcohol, exotic dining out, the travel bug, not to mention the outlandish practices and promises of new age cults and superstitions. Golden calves?

WHAT DO I REALLY WORSHIP?

It is a wise thing for us to regularly ask ourselves: “What do I really worship?” Beware if you give yourself a quick, slick answer. The question is one which demands much time and heart searching before one should make a response, or ignore it and settle back into a comfort zone.

Putting this in a picture: If Moses could stand in our city mall and cry out: “Who is really on the Lord’s side, come and stand with me!” where would we be standing? Given the many choices we make each day, the things that most interest us, the thoughts and goals to which we give most time and energy, the causes to which we devote our money, where would we be standing?

Where are we standing?

We live in an era when going to church and saying righteous things is no longer the nice and proper thing to do. Some of us may lament the passing of the age of packed churches and bulging Sunday Schools, but at least this era is a great time for finding out what we really believe. We are no longer a pseudo-Christian society. To be a Christian and support your church these days, means paddling hard against a strong tide. The pagan culture both mirrors and reshapes the idols as the mass media invades every part of our lives.

Maybe we are in a similar situation to Moses. How we respond to the popular worship of golden calves will determine how many Christian opportunities will still be there for our great, great grandchildren. Perhaps it is time to take a few of the idols with which we have dallied, grind them into dust and swallow their tasteless futility.

Think about that. Picture in your mind the particular contemporary idol that most temps you. Picture yourself placing it between two large mill stones and grinding this idol into powder. Then visualise yourself swallowing the rubbish, even though it is like a bitter pill.

In many ways the world has come along way since ancient Moses and his fractious tribe. But in others ways it has not moved a step. We are still in the wilderness, far from the land that flows with milk and honey. Fortunately, a new Moses has come among us, with love heaped upon love.

A CREED

I put my trust in God,

Source and Soul and Summation of all things.

There are many names for God, but God is One:

the glory that is above all, and with all, and through all..

There are many divine qualities, both known and unknown to us,

but the one that is above all others is Love.

There are many seers and prophets, teachers and guides,

but only one divine Christ, the true Son of God.

There are many deeds of salvation,

but the greatest of all is found on a Cross.

There are many God-sent counsellors and friends,

but only the Holy Spirit never falters or tires.

There are many churches and denominations,

but only one Lord, one faith one birth.

I put my trust in God,

Source and Soul and Summation of all things.

PRAYERS FOR OTHERS

It is a good and necessary that we turn the eyes outwards

to the world around us, with its teeming millions.

Let us pray for some of those people.

Holy Friend please give us a measure of the Spirit of Christ, that we may exhibit more of his courage and compassion for all who share this small planet with us.