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Cathedral Eucharist Sermon
St Luke the Evangelist - October 18 2009
The Rev’d Jayson Rhodes, Priest Assistant
Readings: Isaiah 35:3-6, Luke 10:1-9


If there was one story this week that made us stop and pause….it was the tragedy in Waitakere with the discovery of the body of two year old Asling Symes. So close to her home, but she was in a storm water pipe. There was nothing but despair after a week of hope and some very unenviable tasks. The feelings were so evident on the faces of the community that searched and then gathered on the night she was found. And the sadness was also visible on the face of the police inspector who headed the inquiry as he paused and paused again as he told the media and the public of the the tragic discovery. Waitakere was a bit like a wilderness as the search went on with hope for a week. It was and remains such a hard place for people as they come to terms with what happened

Today we celebrate the feast day of St Luke, and the readings tell of liberation and hope. In Isaiah the prophet speaks of the return from the wilderness to the promised city of Zion where the glory of the Lord will be seen. The idea of wilderness and its contrast to the promised city is important, as Zion would be the place where Israel congregated, the home of the new temple. For us as we read the accounts and experiences of the Israelites in the Hebrew Scriptures, we hear of the wilderness. The actual location of the wilderness is not so important as its symbolism and meaning. The wilderness is a place of hope and a place of learning and trials, but one that leads to a better place, to a mountain top experience if you like of God. The theme of the wilderness was also reflected in Jesus ministry. Jesus spends time in he wilderness, he turns to the wilderness to pray and be alone and John the Baptist was also in the wilderness, a voice that cried in the wilderness. The wilderness was for many a place of discovery.


And in Luke’s gospel the seventy are sent out to the wilderness, like lambs in the midst of wolves. They are to minister in the wilderness and tell people, “the kingdom of God has come near to you.”

My point is that I wonder how we sometimes react when we are in the wilderness, be it on a large or small scale and what is there to be discovered. As we live with and react to different situations, a belief, a view of the world and so an ethic is shown that can shape the community. We see or experience a situation and then pass judgement or come to a conclusion with our own perspectives. In Luke’s gospel the disciples are sent out with an ethic, they are to transform the world, to proclaim the gospel and to live the gospel. Jesus tells his followers to simply say the kingdom of God has come near, this is when they are welcomed but also when they are not welcome, they are not to judge but simply state the kingdom of God has come near. Judgement is left for another time, it is not the role of the followers of Jesus.

In the days that followed the discovery of two year old Asling there was plenty of judgement, as what I would call the great New Zealand blame game began, led in part by the media who so wrongly labeled the police as amateur from the comfort of their armchairs. And the Waitakere City Council was also copping criticism for the state of drains and has received a string of abusive e-mails. It is worthy to note that none of the criticism came from the Symes family, they are not seeking blame. Yes there is an absolute need to investigate what happened to try and prevent a reoccurrence but I think some of the reactions that commented and judged meant the kingdom of God, that can be experienced in times of wilderness was missed and dropped from the headlines, that experience was lost. Basically it is up to us to see those those, that is what energises us. I think in amongst that wilderness and tragedy the kingdom of God was near in many ways and an ethic was being lived that tells of God, an ethic that certainly can build community and shape community. The distraught parents and family, the police officers who tried everything, the public who drove across Auckland to help and those who gathered with candles as a sign of support, who showed what they value. There can be the times in the wilderness when you are either forced or invited to look deep inside to what matters and what keeps hope. Those if you like are the times when if you like we learn something of the saints.

So I am suggesting we can look to the saints of old who are of another time and context and we do that as we remember and celebrate our tradition, but we can also experience the same God if we take the time to experience when the kingdom of God is near. We then have more opportunities to focus on an ethic of life that reflects what we believe and have opportunities to help shape a community.

Saints seem far off; they seem in a different world. Saints like Luke and John, and medieval mystics like Julian Norwich tell of special experiences and knowledge of the divine. Popular culture today shows us figures from Bridget Jones to Ally McBeal and Jack Duckworth of Coro to Spiderman. The comic book hero Spiderman has to make choices as he fights against evil, does he save the woman he loves or the cable car that is about to fall, ethics are involved, there is a way of living with choices that create a certain world. To a degree it is easier to relate to some of these figures on the big or small screen than the far off saints as we sit in the comfort of the living room on the couch. These figures face our challenges and do not seem to be in a different world, they seem more human and like us compared to the saints we hear of.

But my suggestion is that we need to look that bit harder in the wilderness, in our daily experiences to see glimpses of the kingdom of God in the same way as the saints record and tell. We can then see the kingdom of God. The times of wilderness when we see something on television, when we ourselves experience the hopeless rather than the hope, those are times to stop and I believe to be with the tragedy and from there to look for the voice that calls out in the wilderness, the voices that tell of God. Yes the media are likely to show the voices that grumble and judge as that is what rates. But there is always more that points to world of hope, a world of grace , of the city of Zion that we are called to be members of.
Amongst the wilderness of Waitakere the divine was expressed in many ways. More than 24 thousand people joined the facebook site that was created as part of the seach for Asling. The family asked for prayer in what they described as the hardest time of their lives and Inspector Gary Davey commented regarding the night Asling was found, “The displays of grief you saw on Monday night from the community are a real testament to the local community and the compassion they have and the interest they have in locating Asling.” Davey himself in this morning’s Herald is noted for his expressions speaking louder than words as he told of Asling being found. He remained professional but as he paused and paused again you could see what it meant to him, it showed who he was and what he valued. Those values, those ethics bring about communities that bring life, communities that transform. Those who criticize such figures are frankly deconstructing community

Such conduct and ethic points to a way of life and in our communities point to the sorts of lives that were led by the saints that in a sense seem so far off. I believe each of us have people in our lives that bring the saints close to us especially in those times of wilderness, there are people who remind us of the grace of God and that is far from confined to the church or to a list of saints.

The sending out of the disciples on the mission is a way to understand that we too are sent out with an ethic and with the aim of a world to create. After Jesus earthly ministry the disciples were the focus of the mission. They carried the story of life, death and resurrection and ascension and the rituals of baptism healing and table fellowship that continued the revelation of God. That is what we do in this place and are sent out from here. All the disciples can do is what Jesus did and that is to offer the kingdom, they cannot make people accept it. In their words and deeds, by the way they lived their lives and showed what was valued, so by their ethics the kingdom of God was experienced. It is up to us to continue that task, to see the kingdom of God when it is near and to bring it near to others.