Summer Newsletter 2015: Article

Dear Friends

A change of Season

As we move from Spring to Summer we move liturgically into the season of Advent. This is a spiritual season of hope as we prepare ourselves for our Christmas celebrations. I defined "hope" in a recent sermon as trust and expectation, a feeling that flows far deeper than the frivolities that our increasingly secular and consumerist society often serve us with at this time of year. As we enter into this time and reflect on the gifts we intend to give one another as we again celebrate the coming of God into the midst of humanity, perhaps it may be helpful to ask,  "How will this gift build trust?", "How will this gift renew expectation?" in a world where we increasingly trust less, and our expectations are often thwarted. How will your gift be God's gift?

In Parish life this change in season is marked by our Morning Market and our celebration of St Andrew's Day.
      Our Morning Market has again been a huge success, and more important than the money we raise is how the Market draws us together as a community, giving us an opportunity to serve each other and to serve the world: we come together, give of our substance and the bric-a-brac of our lives; we create space and invite the wider community in; we raise money - lots of it - and give it all away!
      St Andrew's Day, as part of this festive weekend at the end of November, importantly reminds us of the key characteristics of the Andrean community, so well laid out in the St Andrew's Day collect (An Anglican Prayer Book 1989, page 315):

Lord God, by your grace the apostle Saint Andrew obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and followed him without delay: grant that we may offer ourselves to you in joyful obedience; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN

      Andreans are those who obey God's call, follow without delay, and are joyfully obedient. How do you experience these three "gifts" in your own life, and in our Church community? Are there people whose lifestyle delineates these characteristics for you? Have there been seminal moments in life and faith that have helped define these characteristics for you? How do you live these three characteristics out in your own relationships?

Outward change demands internal transition. Along with the changes in season and liturgy, what other changes are you experiencing, and what internal transitions of attitude or perspective are these demanding of you? Where are you experiencing God both in the outward changes and in the inward spaces of transition? And how are you responding?

A New Year

2016 is just around the corner, and with Easter falling in March, Lent is but a hop-and-a-skip from Christmas.
      I encourage you to think about joining us for our Lent Course, People of the Way, a discipleship course developed in the Diocese of Johannesburg based on the liturgical imperatives of the Lent and Easter calendar. The Marriage Course will hopefully again be offered in April and May, and a course on being Christian and Anglican, Becoming Anglican: a Journey into God, from mid-July through to mid-September. In October a Stewardship Course will again be offered, with a slightly different focus to 2015. These courses will form the backbone of our Confirmation Course for anyone who would like to be Confirmed next year (adult and teenager).
      If you're interested in learning more about prayer, then our series of five Quiet Mornings in 2016 titled "Why pray?" will be helpful to you as Bishop Geoff Quinlan and Prof Denise Ackermann offer teaching and reflection on various aspects of prayer.
      We're planning another Parish Weekend at Volmoed from 8-10 April, and would love to see you there. The Parish Council has once again agreed to cover the cost of the weekend, so you'll just need to get yourself to Volmoed.
      A further innovation for 2016 is a regular Saturday morning Parish Breakfast that David and Debbie Hoffmann will be facilitating. This may alternate with men's  and women's specific events, but the first one will be an inclusive Breakfast on Saturday 30 January to which we are all invited!
      And of course the regulars: our Annual Vestry in early March, our monthly "Love Packs", our winter Curry Supper on Friday 22 July, and our Morning Market on Saturday 26 November.

A big focus for the first half of 2016 will be to finalise the funding for our new building so that we can beat any cost escalation and complete the project by the end of 2017. A reminder that you can "purchase" one or more "bricks" for R5,000 each, or together with others contribute towards one. We are still looking for someone with the necessary time and passion available to do the "leg work" for the funding initiative. Our Churchwarden and Fundraising Facilitator, William Tough, awaits your call!

Abundant Blessing

I am reminded in today's lectionary readings that God works abundantly, despite our perception that resources are scarce. It is a verse that I shared two years ago in this column, and which reminds me that as we look directly onto Table Mountain from St Andrew's it is a symbol of God's provision in our lives, and is a source of hope for us as God's people and for us as South Africans in these challenging times both locally and globally:

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all people's a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. (Isaiah 25:6 NRSV)

If you're traveling over Christmas, please drive carefully and be vigilant for other people's stupidity on our roads! If you're in Cape Town our Christmas programme of Carol Services and Christmas Worship will give you a number of opportunities to centre this season on God. Please remember that visiting family and friends are always welcome at our Services!

With love and Christmas blessings
Mark

Summer Newsletter 2014: Article

Dear Friends

“In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God." (Isaiah 40:3; TNIV)

Last year, as I wrote this column, I was glorying in the daily sight of Table Mountain, and reflected on a passage - also from Isaiah - that spoke of feasting and abundance and joy and fulfillment. As I write today, it is the wilderness, the desert, which catches my attention. I still awake with awe to the sight of the Mountain, I toast the evening with a glass of the Cape's finest, and occassionally see out the day with a drop of God's gift to humankind. However, in the year that has passed I have - even in this paradise - been aware of the desert encroaching on God's beauty that is Southern Africa. Perhaps this has been highlighted (darkened?) by the raft of recent load-shedding, a reminder of the levels of incompetence that mark leadership in our national arena; and the challenge of burying a newborn baby in the coming week that marks something of the deep sorrow we each carry in our own unique way.

The above passage from Isaiah 40 is a poignant reminder of the challenge we face as God's people in this beautiful land, especially in the light of Advent and our preparations for Christmas where we remind ourselves so powerfully through this season that God seeks our lives to be the road of holiness, of life, of hope. It is easy to get caught up by the despair and encroaching darkness and, therefore, we need to actively find ways to recognise, but not identify with, the actions, attitudes and thought patterns that lead us into these dark places. Anthony de Mello, Catholic Jesuit priest and one of the spiritual masters of the 20th century, tells a story in his book "Awareness" that highlights this need for transformation:

There's a famous story about a lion who came upon a flock of sheep and to his amazement found a lion among the sheep. It was a lion who had been brought up by the sheep ever since he was a cub. It would bleat like a sheep and run around like a sheep. The Lion went straight for him, and when the sheep-lion stood in front of the real one, he trembled in every limb. And the Lion said to him, "What are you doing among those sheep?" And the sheep-lion said, "I am a sheep." And the Lion said, "Oh no you're not. You're coming with me." So he took the sheep-lion to a pool and said, "Look!" And when the sheep-lion looked at his reflection in the water, he let out a mighty roar, and in that moment he was transformed. He was never the same again.

We need to be aware if we are to be transformed and transforming agents of God in the communities and society we serve, if we are to truly prepare the way of the LORD. What will it take to wake us up, to truly awaken us, that like the sheep-lion we may recognise our misidentification and awaken to who we fully are as human beings made in the image of God, as children of God, as builders of straight highways in the desert of our lives and relationships, both personal and corporate? This surely is the challenge of incarnation, of a faith environment in which we claim belief in a God who is not only Spirit and Love, but also human like us? The Christian faith is paradoxically both spiritual and material, and focuses us on a God who is both indeterminable and yet definable in human form.

And so what is your "pool"? And what do you see when you look into it? What is the image that transforms you? What is it about this Advent, this Christmas Season that transforms you, that means you will never be the same again?

de Mello goes on to say that, "The three most difficult things for a human being are not physical feats or intellectual achievments. They are, first, returning love for hate; second, including the excluded; third, admitting that you are wrong." And perhaps this is what the incarnation, the Christmas story, is all about: God with us, loving us, embracing us, and forgiving us. That is truly a wonderful gift, is it not? And it is enfolded in the story of the Messiah's birth, visible in Jesus' life and ministry, tangible in our transforming lives. But if we do not ask the question; if we do not listen for God's "word" (as Bishop Geoff has encouraged us to do in his last two sermons to us); if we seek to remain unaware, misidentified, fearful, anxious, depressed and scared; how can we be the builders of straight highways in the desert of our context and environment, be it personal, family, friendship, or community based? We can't, obviously. So, are we sufficiently courageous to stare into the "pool" which is God, and be transformed? And thereby becoming, more fully, God's transforming agents in our world?

May God bless us as we journey through this Christmas-tide towards all that 2015 will bless and challenge us with. As we take this break from work, from school and are enfolded in family and faith, may we discover anew God's strength and vision in our lives. May the peace, joy and hope embodied in the Messiah's birth so transform us that we will never be the same again!

Christmas blessings and love from Dawn and myself.

Mark

Moving beyond Christmas

A useful perspective as we move into the New Year from Hope Eternal

Immanuel: God-with-us!

Dear Friends

Christmas is suddenly and excitingly upon us! The year is drawing to a close, holidays are happening, families are gathering, and life pauses - briefly - for Christmas. A change in pace, perhaps a space for reflection, an opportunity to draw together the strands of the past year and of our scattered lives. An opportunity for birth and rebirth, and a rekindling of our hopes as a New Year bursts upon us.An opportunity, too, to be aware of those alone - maybe lonely - around us, and to reach out in gentleness. An awareness of those dealing with grief and loss and hopelessness, and an opportunity to be gently present.

This Sunday (22 December 2013) at 9am we will be Baptising a number of young children, a reminder of the light of God's Spirit that draws us into eternal life, that dwells within us all, that exudes God's presence through us into our world. A powerful reminder that God lives both in us and through us.There are various opportunities for worship on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and if you have family or friends visiting over this time, please invite them and encourage them to join us as we reflect on the birth of the Christ child, on the joyful and powerful mystery of God who is Immanuel: God-with-us!

I have found this following reflection from the Jesuite Institute helpful in drawing our thoughts together around Christmas and also the momentous events of the last few weeks as we have mourned the passing of a great human being in Nelson Mandela, and celebrate his legacy, and ask the hard questions of how we embrace this legacy in the paucity and brokeness of leadership in our country. I share it in the hope that you, too, will find comfort and hope:

The Jesuit Institute is passionate about building bridges between faith and broader society. Each week we offer a reflection on something topical. Feel free to reproduce or distribute but please credit the Jesuit Institute and the writer. ‘Second Angel from the Left’ by Raymond Perrier

My earliest Christmas memory is of my nursery school Nativity play, aged 4. The memory is not of the beauty of the candles, nor the harmonious singing, nor the rapturous applause of my parents. Instead it is of being elbowed all the way through the play by the first angel from the left who was next to me and was worried about toppling off the stage!Nativity plays are an enduring memory not only of children but of their loving and long-suffering parents and grand-parents. One mother I know shared her son’s indignation when he was not cast as Joseph in his school play. You see Ted, although at a Catholic school, was by virtue of his mother also Jewish. How ridiculous, he felt at the age of 8, that the lead Jewish male character was not being played by the only Jew in the school!

The reality is that, in the nativity play of life, most of us are called to be angels or shepherds or donkey drivers and are not cast as Joseph or Mary. St Ignatius invites us to contemplate the stable at Bethlehem and imagine ourselves within the scene. We can certainly adore the Mother and child, or even ask Joseph how he is feeling. But we should also spend time imagining the chat we might have with the walk-on characters.‘Was there really no room, Mr Innkeeper?’ ‘Did you all just leave your sheep on the hillside or did they follow you down?’ ‘How long did you and the other angels spend practicing that wonderful Gloria?’ ‘What did it feel like when you walked into that stable?’ ‘When did you realise that you were at the turning point of history?’

Turning points in history have been mentioned a lot recently in our national recalling of the life of Nelson Mandela. In his story too there are not just lead actors – Winnie, de Klerk, the Tambos, the Arch – but also walk-on characters. They too have a story to tell and it is much closer to our own stories: the teacher who first educated this intriguing young mind, the men who sparred with him in the boxing ring, the guards who watched the transform-ation of 27 years, the tannie who brought him his tea at the Union Buildings, the nurses who cared for him in the final days. One character that stood out for me is Cecil Williams, the actor with whom Madiba, disguised as his chauffeur, travelled the country in 1962. What were the conversations between this gay, white man and the black lawyer turned freedom fighter? How did that friendship influence Madiba? Williams was arrested at the same time – he too was an activist – but his story is just a foot note in history.

The temptation of Mandela’s story and of Jesus’ – ‘the greatest story ever told’ – is that they are too grand for us to imagine ourselves as having a role. But Jesus birth was not about Him: it was and is about us. We each have our own role to play in that great Nativity Play that began in Bethlehem 2000 years ago and which continues in history until the end of time. As the carol puts it: “Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today” (from ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ by Rev Phillips Brooks).

Christmas Services at St Andrew's, Newlands

Sun 22 18:30 Carols on the Lawn

Tues 24 17:00 Crib Service (focus for young children)
Tues 24 11:00 Midnight Mass (APB'89)

Wed 25 07:00 Holy Communion (SAPB - note early start)
Wed 25 09:00 Family Eucharist (APB'89)

Blessings
Mark