Guests, events, more guests and more events...

House 12 PTC campus has been busy with guests passing through for a few nights. Thank you Mercy and Josiah for the blessing of your company...

...also Ronald and Anne Clements whose visit included a Friday morning and the opportunity to share in the weekly Education by Extension tutorial. 

17-18th March was a huge couple of days in College, as the Church History Department led a 500 years of Reformation event. I'll let them explain, using the text that was on their publicity...

500 YEARS OF REFORMATION – A CELEBRATION

We are liberated by God’s grace

These words go to the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ and to the soul of the Lutheran Reformation. They are linked to Luther’s key insight that helped trigger the Reformation – Christians attain salvation only by the grace of God. We call this justification by faith alone.

“Liberated by God’s Grace” is the main theme of our celebrations surrounding the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. It will also be the theme of the 2017 Assembly of The Lutheran World Federation in Windhoek, Namibia. All our celebrations, worship, study and engagement will focus on how the gracious love of God, through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, opens up opportunities for us as faithful Christians to reach out as healers and reconcilers to a world torn apart by strife and inequality.

Workshops offered by the four PTC departments:

Theology and Ethics: Luther's Theology of Creation and Climate Change in the Pacific

Dr Davis will offer an exposition of the key points of Luther's doctrine of creation and discuss this in relationship with the issue of climate change in the Pacific. While climate change was unknown to Luther, key aspects of his theology speak to the issue today, including his theology of the cross and his criticisms of indulgences and humanity's misuse of creation. Finally, the shortcoming of Luther's theology in dealing with climate change in the Pacific will be addressed as a prod to Pacific theologians to do their own theological work on this pressing issue. 

Dr Vaai focuses on employing the relational hermeneutical approach fundamental to the Pacific way of thinking and life to reconstruct a relational theology based on Luther’s Reformation teachings to effectively inform eco-justice talanoa and address issues affecting the Pacific vanua such as climate change.

Biblical Studies:  Sola Scriptura!? Luther's Biblical Hermeneutics

The workshop will offer a brief introduction to the topic, followed by a discussion based on short texts by Luther. It will centre on three questions: What did Martin Luther mean by "sola scriptura" (by Scripture alone)? How has this influenced hermeneutical strategies ever since? What sense does this make in Pacific Island contexts today?

Church and Ministry: Priesthood of all Believers – 

A relevant Option for Ministry in the Pacific today?

‘Priesthood of all Believers’ – a hallmark of Luther’s Reformation – has always been a challenge, first to the Roman Catholic Church and later to the Protestant Churches. 

What light does ‘Priesthood of all Believers’ shed on sharing power and authority in the church? Should we redefine titles and ranks in this light? What is the meaning of a church office, when all are called to be priests? What actually does ‘priesthood’ mean to me and my work today? Participants are invited to voice out such questions and, in response, share their related experi-ences and visions.

Church History: Demonizing Dissenters 

The workshop will look at the “dark side” of Luther: the excessive, at times outrageous polemics against his opponents, its reasons and its consequences. Luther’s experience of the devil will be highlighted as important background to understanding his enormous resilience, and also his of-fensive behaviour and language. Questions concerning the meaning of the devil and patterns of demonization in the pacific context may lead to discussion.

My humble role in all this was to introduce PTC's Principal the Revd Professor Dr Feleterika Uili Nokise as one of the keynote speakers, get people into discussion groups afterwards, and facilitate a feedback session. Enlightening at many levels.

Hot on the heels of the Reformation 500 event came this one, hosted by our Institute of Mission and Research. 

The Guest lecturer for the event was also the Principal of PTC. Sinning by way of 'lazy blogger' syndrome I steal my colleagues' publicity again... 

...he will be delivering his lecture on the topic 'Wellbeing: Our capacity to imagine, express new possibilities, and find new solutions to complex issues'. The overall theme of the lecture series 'Churches in Conversation with Society on Issues that Matter' is an attempt to raise awareness and debate on an issue that is far reaching in its consequences to human existence – the ecological crisis. Pertinent to the issue is the question: what are the religious, traditional and cultural resources at our disposal that will help us with reweaving the ecological mat? 

As well as being grateful for the events themselves, none would have been possible without the amazing, selfless sharing of the abundant resources and talents of the student community here who - as well as being required to engage academically with the events - prepared meals, decorated rooms, served guests, provided entertainment, set up sound systems, etc etc etc. It would be impossible to add too many 'etcs' to that sentence. Thank you community. You were and are stunning. 

If you want a sample of the musical offerings, have a look at our PTC Youth Group in action. Brilliant! 

And the PTCEE mail this week has included assignments posted from various islands, some registration forms, the phone bill... oh yes, and a bar of chocolate from Romsey Methodist Church.

PTCEE administrator Nisha kindly obliged with the photo as requested.Signage and location indicated.

Has our chocolate bar travelled the furthest?

Thanks Romsey!

(But in Lent, friends. Tut tut ...)

For Sunday consumption only!

Serpent and Son of Man

Frequent readers will know I occasionally blog a sermon. Here's the one I preached in PTC Chapel today, picking up on a key verse in the Gospel of John: 3.14. See what you make of it. Comment and critique welcome.

John 3.1-17.

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? ‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 

that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Lifted!                                                                                                               

John’s Gospel offers us a very interesting reading of Hebrew Scripture this morning. In John 3.14, reference is made to an incident in Numbers 21.6-9 when the Lord sends poisonous or fiery (depending on how the Hebrew is translated) serpents to bite those travelling in the wilderness for complaining about their rations: we hate this miserable food.  Don’t ever complain about the quality of food at a College feast eh – a warning! But it was a serious business. Many Israelites died.

The people recognise their sin and say to Moses – pray to the Lord to take away these serpents: they are bad news, offensive, they kill us. Moses prayed on behalf of the people and the Lord answered. The Lord said, ‘Actually – give them another snake!’  You see how annoying the Lord can be at answering prayer? The very thing they never want to see again, lift it higher, says the Lord, so they can’t miss it. Lift this offensive thing higher. So the Lord instructs Moses to make a poisonous serpent: out of bronze, not a wriggly one, and lift it high. Let them look it this offence, this tempter from Eden, this cursed one wriggling on its belly, with the mouth and the forked tongue and the poison – let them look and tremble. But actually – it will give them life. Or as Wisdom 16.6 puts it, it will be for them ‘a symbol of deliverance’.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life – says our Gospel this morning: John 3.14.

How do you feel about that link between serpent and Son of Man: snake and Saviour in the same breath. Offended? What would Nicodemus the Pharisee and other teachers of Israel have made of Jesus’s words? Many commentators now say that comparison is stretching it a bit in the Greek, it’s not made explicit. 

But Martin Luther, of whom we’ll be hearing a bit more this year of Reformation 500, liked it. In a sermon from 1538 he says, “Christ nailed to the cross” is our “bronze serpent,” for faith in him frees us from “the threats and terrors of the Law, sin, death, wrath, and the judgment of God.” 

Artists over the years have liked it too – there’s a picture of St John the Evangelist, a woodcut and print, around the same time as Luther, and St John is lifting up a chalice but it’s a chalice with added value – let me show you – see a serpent is rising up out of it. The serpent has mingled with the blood of Christ – snake and Saviour. It’s culturally offensive, yes? 

Other paintings and artwork over the generations have been interested in this as well. But we don’t need a serpent in our chalice this morning – we’ll send it away!

The thought I humbly offer to our community this morning is that the snake-Saviour connection probably isn’t as helpful as the idea of lifting – being lifted up - which of course runs across the Hebrew Scripture and John’s Gospel too. I’m intrigued and helped by the theme of lifting as essential to the Good News of God in Christ. The bronze serpent was lifted, offensive though it was, for the purposes of healing and saving that community. 

Jesus was lifted, on the cross that instrument of torture, a gruesome spectacle, yet for the purposes of healing and salvation. The lifting, the raising high of that which must be seen, confronted, engaged with - however offensive to the eyes, however shocking to the soul - has a place in our faith journeys.

So what will you and I gaze upon today which has been lifted up for us to see? Is it images, perhaps, of the torture marks, the gunshots wounds inflicted on West Papuan elder David Tarko? Deeply offensive, and yet lifted up, via media platforms and through the bravery of those who know, so that we might see and pray, react and act, for a community’s deliverance. Lift it up.

Perhaps there are aspects of church and community life in our world which need to be lifted and looked at again, even if it’s an uncomfortable spectacle. Wiser people than me in the Pacific can give examples on behalf of the Pacific.

In Northern Ireland at the moment, some horrible things are being lifted, literally: the bones of babies and young children. In years past there were Church run ‘mother-and-baby’ homes; supposedly places of sanctuary and care for unmarried mothers and their illegitimate babies, because pregnancy out of marriage was such a scandal. One home in the small village of Tuam – it was in operation from 1925-1961 – has 17-20 underground chambers where human remains have been found: the remains of very young children, 35 foetal weeks to two-three years. We look at this offence and ask in 2017, what on earth was going on back then? And what do Church and society need to repent about and learn for the future? Lift it up.  Look at it. It’s deeply offensive but for the sake of our healing – lift it up, don’t avoid it.

These two examples carry a lot of pain. Do they seem like another world from the jazzy chorus we sang at the start of worship about the power of lifting up – I’ll praise the name of Jesus, lift up the name of Jesus, for the name of Jesus lifted me. 

They’re not a world away, actually. Many, many followers of Christ do know the reality of being lifted. We can testify to it. We encounter deeply sinful horrors in the world and tremble before the raised serpent, yet we can look upon them and engage with them by the grace and in the power of the one who knew such horror but rose above it. The name of Jesus lifted me, a Christian sings with utter joy and gratitude, because his lifting on the cross and from the grave and to the skies gives me hope like none other.

The human experience of being lifted gives us comfort and delight. Dad scoops the little one up whose legs are tired from walking and has started to shed tears. He sits them on broad shoulders high up. 

Lifted! They don’t have to walk in their own strength anymore, they’re carried, and they laugh with delight – on top of the world. We feel the weight of sin and shame very acutely sometimes and need to be lifted from it. And the classic evangelical error is, of course, to think we can earn that elevation, we can make it happen. No. It’s the lifting up of the Son of Man that suffices and releases mercy, forgiveness, grace in such measure it defies logic. It’s a lifting up in love. More than we could ever fathom.

We must forever lift our gaze to marvel at that. As Thomas Kelly wrote many years ago in his hymn, Inscribed upon the cross we see in shining letters, God is love. When we fix our gaze on that, our hearts overflow. And we find, perhaps, that John 3.14 sets the stage for John 3.16 most wonderfully: if I may take the liberty….

For God so loved the world, that he gave and lifted up the Son, so that all might be lifted. 

Amen.