“I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship”
In her 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem philosopher and political thinker Hannah Arendt coined the phrase ‘the banality of evil’. She used this phrase after witnessing the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the main organizer of the Holocaust. Eichmann’s defense of his actions was that he was simply doing his duty, following orders and obeying the laws of the land, hence he couldn’t be held personally responsible for the deliberate murder of millions of people.
Eichmann tried to defend himself as just an ordinary person – just another human being – doing his job, but his actions made a mockery of his defense. To be human is not to simply follow orders, to be human is to act as Martin Luther outlines in his explanation of the fifth commandment: “[That] we neither endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbours, but instead help and support them in all of life’s needs”
Sadly, Hungarian-Canadian poet, Robert Zend may have been right when he said: “There are too many people in the world and too few human beings”.
~ Pastor John
I spotted a flash-looking BMW the other day sporting the number plate ‘I DOC’. I’m presuming it belongs to an ophthalmologist. That got me thinking about customized number plates, which led me to the SA government’s EzyPlates website, which led me to Googling other examples of clever (and not-so-clever) number plates. Like the number plate on a well-used four-wheel drive, ‘MUDDY 1’. Or, the hotted-up late model Commodore (P-Plate attached) with the number plate ‘BOOKME’. (Nothing like being inconspicuous!) I quite liked the number plate ‘BAA BAA’. That one is on a black Jeep, of course (Think about it). Then there’s the number plate ‘TI3VOM’ on a Ford Mustang. That one works best in the rear-view mirror!
That got me thinking, if Jesus owned a car, what sort of personalised number plate would his car have?
~ Pastor John
A small child finds a caterpillar in the garden and excitedly brings it inside, finds a jar, fills it with leaves and watches in wonder as it builds its chrysalis. The first thing the child does every day as he gets out of bed is to check the jar. One day a small hole appears in the chrysalis and a butterfly starts to struggle to come out. The child watches and starts to worry that the butterfly won’t make it out of the chrysalis, so he decides the butterfly needs some help. He takes a pair of scissors and makes the hole big enough for the butterfly to tumble out. The butterfly falls out but its body is swollen and its wings shriveled. The child waits expectantly for the butterfly to spread its wings and fly, but it never does.
In his kindness what the child didn’t understand was that the butterfly needed the struggle to push the fluid from its body to its wings to strengthen them. Without the struggle the butterfly will never fly.
~ Pastor John
On December 17 1903 bicycle shop owners Orville and Wilbur Wright sent a telegram to their hometown from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The now-famous telegram reads:
Success four flights Thursday morning all against twenty-one mile per hour wind started from level with engine power alone average speed through air thirty-one miles longest 57 seconds inform press home Christmas. Orevelle Wright.
The telegram was the announcement of the first ever powered, sustained and controlled aeroplane flight. A momentous, historic, world-changing occasion. There’s an apocryphal story told that the headline of the local paper that day was: Wright Brothers Home For Christmas. Now, no doubt, that news was worth celebrating, but perhaps the brothers themselves were expecting a different headline.
When Jesus healed ten lepers, I suspect he was expecting a different headline too.
Pastor John Strelan
If you’ve travelled along South Road recently you’d have seen that the T2D project is well underway. According to the promotional material, ‘drivers will be able to bypass 21 sets of traffic lights between the River Torrens and Darlington as they travel through two separate tunnels, connected by an open motorway’ saving up to 40 minutes in travel time! That’s the clincher isn’t it? We’ll be able to get to wherever we’re going quicker! Which, it seems, is what life is about these days. Quicker. Immediately. Instantly.
A 2015 Time Magazine article infamously reported that people now have shorter attention spans than goldfish*! (Are you still with me?)
So, perhaps we can relate to Habakkuk’s four-word cry: “How long, O Lord?” (even if it’s probably expecting too much to ask you to read the other 1384 words attributed to him).
It’s not just a lament for us in our instant-gratification world, but a challenge. Especially since God seems to run by his own schedule.
But, now that we’ll have an extra 40 minutes because of the T2D project you might spend 5 minutes of that time reading those other 1384 words.
Pastor John Strelan
* In case you were wondering, according to the article, goldfish have an attention span of 9 seconds.
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky welcome third child together. That was a headline in an online newspaper this week. Normally I wouldn’t give that sort of headline a second glance, but this made me wonder, what’s in a name? Apparently Rihanna (a.k.a Robyn Rihanna Fenty) and A$AP Rocky (a.k.a Rakim Athelston Mayers) already have two sons whom they named RZA and Riot. This third child they named Rocki Irish (it’s a girl, obviously!)
What’s in a name? Identity? Connection? Belonging? Attention? All of the above? Jesus told a story once about a poor man named Lazarus (I don’t think he was a rapper). The name means ‘Cared for by God’. There’s a lot in a name.
Pastor John Strelan
Think of a parable.
Which one are you thinking of? Is it ‘The Prodigal Son’? What a wonderful picture of God. Maybe ‘The Good Samaritan’. That’s a classic. Perhaps you’re thinking of ‘The Lost Sheep’, or ‘The Lost Coin’ (if you are, I hope you are rejoicing!) Or, maybe it’s ‘The Sower’, or ‘The Mustard Seed’? Whichever one it is, I am almost certain you aren’t thinking of the parable Jesus tells in Luke 16:1-13. ‘The Dishonest Manager’, or ‘The Shrewd Manager’. And, I am equally certain that when you go and read it in a moment you won’t come away thinking “What a wonderful picture of God!” And, maybe that’s the point. Sometimes God speaks to us in ways we don’t expect and through people we would never imagine.
According to the accumulated wisdom of the internet gathered together by Chat GPT joy is a deep feeling of happiness, contentment, or delight. It’s often more lasting and profound than momentary pleasure. Unlike fleeting emotions like excitement or amusement, joy tends to arise from something meaningful – such as love, connection, purpose, or a sense of inner peace. Hence, joy is a state of the heart and mind that can exist even in the middle of difficult circumstances.
According to Luke’s Gospel, joy is one sinner being found by God.
Mmm, grab your Bible and have a look at the passage before you read any further.
Welcome back. Now, that’s an interesting evangelism approach by Jesus, wouldn’t you say? I don’t recall Assistant Bishop Stephen Schultz promoting this kind of approach in his Prepared to Go workshop! I kinda want to say, “Steady on Jesus. Maybe just tone it down a little. At least to start with. How about leading in with a bit of an amusing anecdote? Help them to catch the vision."
But, then, who am I to tell Jesus what to do? I guess he knows what he’s doing.
[apologies - no sermon audio recording available]