Cathedral sermons
11th Sunday in Ordinary time, Te Pouhere, Sunday, June 6, 2010
Readings: 1 Kings 17: 8-16; Galatians 1: 11-24; John 15: 1-11.
Let me begin this morning by offering you a story:
Hinekura loved this time of the year – when men and women from the villages across the water came together in the great whare for a hui or meeting. She loved to sit, as she did today, high on the bank above the shore, watching the great waka coming in. Majestic and strong, the boats came around the headland from the far end of the bay, gliding purposefully into the shore. Standing at the front of the boat one of the men threw a thick rope around the hitching post – te pouhere. The rope was tied tightly securing each boat in place while the men and women came ashore to meet, debate and interact.
Hinekura could remember a time, some years ago when the sky was not blue like it was today, when the sun did not shine as it did this morning. Dark, heavy clouds hung overhead that day as the waka glided across the bay one after the other. Many boats were tied up to te pouhere, the hitching post. As the men and women came ashore, the rain began to fall. Gently at first, then much harder. The wind blew branches off the trees. The waves battered the beach, and the great waka were tossed too and fro. It was the worst storm Hinekura could remember. She was worried as she lay in bed that night. Scared the waka might come loose and be damaged. But when she ran down to the beach the next morning she could see that each of the boats was still there. Tied firmly to the strong hitching post, the boats sat side by side on a calm morning sea, bobbing up and down as the waves wandered into the shore.
Today is known in our liturgical calendar as Te Pouhere Sunday. Named after that hitching post to which Hinekura’s waka were tied. It is the day set aside to remember the constitution which ties together The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia – Te Pouhere. Adopted in 1992, the new constitution established three cultural pathways, or tikanga, allowing for culturally appropriate worship and autonomous leadership in each of three tikanga partners. Tikanga Maori, Tikanga Pakeha, and Tikanga Pacifica. It was designed to address past injustices in church structure and leadership, and to honour our bi-cultural heritage, embedded in Te Tiriti O Waitangi, the founding document of our nation. While some saw the constitution as a separation or even a form of apartheid, the goal of Te Pouhere was to allow for unity within diversity – honouring our differences but linking ourselves together to the one hitching post – structurally, spiritually and in terms of governance.
This idea of dynamic interconnection, mutuality and relationship was reflected in Warren’s sermon last week for Trinity Sunday. He described the dance of connection which exists between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Each separate, distinct, unique in its expression of the divine, yet the three are inseparable as they relate to and interact with each other in the Holy Trinity.
Dynamic interconnection is also reflected in Jesus image in John’s Gospel. “I am the vine,” Jesus says. “You are the branches. A branch can not bear fruit away from the vine.” Relationality, mutuality and indwelling. Ten times in these 11 verses Jesus uses the word abide. Abide in me, Jesus says to his disciples. Abide in my love. Abide in the Father as I do. God is the source of my being. I am the source of being for all who believe in me.
A branch can stretch in many directions, it can grow far from the source of its vine. But a branch can not live long if it is cut free from the vine. Nor can it bear fruit. We are all linked intimately in relationship. Connected to a common vine. Tied to a common hitching post. Jesus.
God is active in this dynamic relationship. As is the vinegrower, God tends the vine, pruning and trimming its branches so that it bears as much fruit of the best quality as possible. God is engaged and involved in what is happening.
What might God think, reading our constitution, our covenant of intimate connection and relationship and seeing the way we live it out?
Is there anything God might want to prune? Any branches in the Anglican Church in our province which are not bearing fruit?
I think it is important to note at this point that the branches are not encouraged to prune each other. I am not suggesting we point fingers at our neighbours whose fruit is different from our own. Or whose fruit we do not understand. No. Jesus is clear, it is the vinegrower who does the pruning. It is God. Our call is to look at ourselves and seek to discern what God may be pruning in us. What might God want to cut away from us because it is holding us back from growth? Where God might be encouraging us to reach out to each other in new and different ways? Pruning can be stark and ugly. It can be uncomfortable and leave a plant looking raw. But it is the beginning or new life and of new growth, which would not be possible if the plant was left alone.
There may come a time in the future, when we are a church are called by God to go back to the drawing board to reexamine our structure and our constitution. Looking at how it might need to be refreshed or change. The question is often asked by migrants for example, where do we fit in a three tikanga church. Perhaps in time we will need to explore the idea of a “tikanga other” But for now I think our primary call is to examine the ways in which we live Te Pouhere it out.
I believe our call as members of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesian is to live in genuine, interconnected relationship with our tikanga partners. It is to abide in Jesus, together and as we do so, to abide in each other. To be aware of our interrelationship, our mutuality and our indwelling. Our common hitching post. And to be open to the work the vine grower – our loving and compassionate God, who seeks to help us grow and to bear fruit.
How then might we do as the Cathedral Community better engage in genuine, indwelling, engaged relationship with our tikanga partners? This is a Cathedral for all three tikanga. Three partner bishops sit in their seats here, often. Our architecture and our stunning windows, are perhaps some of the most beautiful examples of New Zealand and Pacific religious artwork I have ever seen.
But I believe we are called, to be more than caretakers of a building that hosts three tikanga events. I believe we are called to be a community that reaches out in mutuality and respect, seeking deeper relationships, new knowledge and fresh understandings with our partners. Firmly grounded in one vine, our common source; our leaves may look and feel different, our fruit may be quite different in flavour. But each branch is made in the image of God. When we fail to engage with each other we miss the opportunity to experience a part of that beautiful image.
One of my most beautiful memories of being at St John’s Theological College is a Valedictory Service at the end of the second year. During the administration of communion I sat in my seat and watched my fellow students and their families. A tall strong Tongan father dressed proudly in a black tupenu and ta’ovala , this woven mat secured around his waist with a rope, shepherds his young children to the alter. A Maori family, casually dressed, wait to come forward. The devotion of the mother and excitement of the children written on their faces. Behind her ,Zimbabwean parents explain to their fidgety daughter how important it is to keep quiet. The children of a fair skinned family who carry pacific, Maori and English blood in their veins smile watch her and giggle. Such a diverse group of people, each created in God’s image, coming forward to partake of the Eucharist – united in their love of Christ, their Anglican heritage and their desire to proclaim the gospel of Christ.
After the service the children did not play side by side in the same sandpit, they played together, unaware of their difference, united in their love of the game and the joy of relating to each other.
Jesus is clear about why we are called to engage. “I have said these things to you,” Jesus says, “so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” As we encounter the other, we learn more about ourselves, we learn more about God.
If we are each made in the image of God, when we in relationship with each other our understanding and experience of the divine within and between ourselves deepens and our joy is made complete.