The first Sunday after Epiphany, sometimes called ‘Baptism of Jesus’ Sunday, began with a revelation of Jesus Christ and a voice from the sky. The revelation was to John. The sky split open, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, and a voice declared, ‘This is my beloved son. In him I am well pleased.

Today, the seventh Sunday after Epiphany, also known as the ‘Transfiguration of the Lord’ Sunday, the revelation is to three disciples who accompanied Jesus to the top of a mountain. Jesus becomes dazzlingly bright, Moses and Elijah appear briefly, and a voice from a cloud declares clearly, ‘This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him’.

In the intervening weeks we have seen what it is about Jesus, and about the Church, that pleases God. We have seen Jesus in action, and we have all the time been observing who we are to be as his disciples.

Today, we move from observation to deep listening. We move from where we have been, to where we are going. For the next six weeks we will be listening to Jesus teach, and seeking to encompass that into our life of discipleship also.

Certainly today, all the lectionary readings listed above offer dazzling images. Elijah is taken up in a chariot of fire. The psalm presents earthquakes, storms and fires. Paul reminds the Corinthians of ‘the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’. The Gospel presents Jesus transfigured, his clothes dazzling, brighter than anyone could bleach them.

Such glory! All we have seen of Jesus and his ministry, and of his Church, is such glory. But now, from today, it is no longer to see, but to listen, really listen.

Really listen, for just a few days earlier, Jesus had said to his disciples that what he was doing would inevitably lead to his execution, and after thee days, his resurrection.

Really listen, for just after the encounter on the mountain we mentioned earlier, Jesus asks the disciples not to tell anyone what they saw until after his resurrection.

So as we enter Lent in a few days, we are to listen. We are to listen to Jesus. As well though, as a worshiping community we must listen for the voice of the Spirit in each other as we journey together in the lead up to our celebration once again of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace and Peace

JR

Phillip Brooks, the renowned nineteenth-century Congregationalist minister and hymn writer, once said, ‘The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is’.

The smallness of his greatness: what a wonderful expression That is exactly the lesson the haughty General Naaman has to learn before he can participate in the miraculous healing of his leprosy God has in store for him.

The story of the healing of Naaman the Syrian is just one of the healing stories in today’s lectionary. It is an example of how the Lord of Israel is powerfully at work behind the scenes, guiding the fortunes of everyone from slaves through to kings, working especially through the prophet Elisha. It shows also how a little servant girl, working from a position of weakness, influences the powers that be to fulfil the will of God.

The story is fascinating to read. When Naaman turns up at the king’s palace seeking help, the king is pretty dismayed, understandably, for compared to Israel, Syria is a superpower, and to fail would not make the Syrian king very happy. Protocol is important and Naaman does all the right things, showing the king due respect, and bringing him costly gifts. However, Elisha the prophet and agent of Yahweh is not interested in all that.

When Naaman comes to visit Elisha to be cured the prophet remains in his tent and refuses to examine him. Instead, he sends him a prescription which says in effect, ‘Go jump in the Jordan River. Repeat six times’. This does not impress Naaman for he knows of better rivers, and besides, he wanted more show and magic than this. As one commentator puts it, ‘ We paid good money for a show, and all we get is ‘take a bath’!’ But with the encouragement of his servants – again, working from a position of weakness – he gives it a go, and is healed. So servants understand what the ‘mighty’ do not. Often the trappings of high office conceal reality.

So Naaman learns about ‘the smallness of his greatness’. In what is a touching display of his respect for Israel’s God, he takes two bags of earth with him back to Syria. But the story has one last twist. Elisha’s servant, an Israelite insider, cannot resist the temptation to wealth and attempts to come by riches for himself, lies to Elisha about it, and ends up the leper!

Grace and Peace

JR

Grace and Peace
JR

The Song of Glebegypt.

as recorded by the Scribe Oldman Mos and translated from the original languages by Uva Nerve (MaD).

In the years that followed Noah’s flood, as language groups formed cities, cities formed kingdoms and kingdoms formed governmental styles that varied from auto-immolation to benevolent invasion-for-your-own-good, the smaller states still maintained significance in their own eyes by being the gateway to someplace else. Such a city-state was Glebegypt.

With the great water on its western side, the country of Glebegypt was a well worn ‘shock-and-awe’ highway that linked the much larger nations around it, most of which had established a well understood and seasonally based system of retaliatory first strikes against each other. In the passing surges of the alternately advancing and retreating armies of these neighbours, the national dish of Glebegypt (Pie, peas and a Jac Iced Coffee) became internationally known; and was brought up in stone fire conversations as far away as 3Chinaducks in the East and Rumdoo, which was many weeks travel to the South past that awful place with all the insects.

(The exact length of a week is unsure, since the oriental scribes of the time used a decimal system of counting on the digits, whereas the occidental scholars from Un Sure of Anything used the octal system of counting the gaps between the digits. This octal system has continued in commerce only in USofA – 8 furlongs in a mile [8 x 1], 16 ounces in a pound [8 x 2], 2240 pounds in a ton [8 x 280], 12 months in a year [8 x one and a half], 60 minutes in an hour [8 x 7.5] OK that’s pushing it; whereas the much more widely accepted decimal system was arrived at after international negotiations held in Thatswy, a country south-west of Glebegypt. The Pharaoh of Thatswy at that time was May Beowithyou and he set aside the entire city of Jus Because for the negotiations. Thus he established not only his own family’s preeminence for generations to come, but also an abiding and unarguable reference point for closing down losing arguments for parents forever. The outcome of these decimal based negotiations was quickly understood, publicised and in common use within the era; 7 days in a week [negotiation, remember], 28, or 30 or maybe 31 days in a month [equal opportunity negotiations] and 12 months in a year [ too hard to work out so they adopted the usa's figure]. Ed.)

Having to deal with alternating travelling invasion forces was a source of steady commerce for the Glebegyptians, albeit one fraught with the constant fear of a head-lifting cultural faux pas. Panic attacks were commonplace and sooth-sayers ran dry in the mouth.

In the year 1005AF there arose a king who would lead Glebegypt from Hypertension to Mild Dispepsia and establish there a non-consequential school of diplomacy. This first King of Glebegypt was call Passme-Arennies and his diplomatic style (Obsequation) was to standardise a trading style previously unheard of in the entire whole world. This style, while not actually guaranteeing anything, you understand, at least gave a predictable, first-approach interaction point when dealing with both seething, culturally unsure mercenaries and gap-year teenagers uncertain of the state of their skin on that particular day and in need of a good non-stereotypical mentoring.

The tribal groups that had, up until this point occupied Glebegypt were the up-country Hyksos and from them did Passme-Arennies accept a forced marriage with the Princess Ovda Nile to be his Queen. The princess was the younger sister of the twin brothers who led the Southern Hyksos (Psea and Dubb-ya) and she had been in the process of re-ordering the loose Hyksos confederation when the sudden marriage was proposed by the brothers.

In 1012AF, Passme-Arennies was killed by the assassin Ulcer of Duodenum. And with the new Pharoh of Thatswy, the great grandson of May the first, on a war footing against the Babble-onagain general Catchya-Bysurprise, tension was high in Glebegypt., anticipating another military high season.

Why? Well I suppose some were not ‘religious’ and the New Testament was foreign to them. One student I talked to said something like, ‘I understand Authoritarian Leadership, Democratic Leadership, Situational Leadership, even Transactional Leadership, but Servant Leadership, it just doesn’t make sense. How can you be a servant and at the same time a leader?

Indeed, how can you be a servant as well as a leader? Robert Greenleaf, who coined the term, says this: ‘The servant-leader is servant first….It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. In Greenleaf’s further work, he articulated a ‘credo’ on the institution as servant as he witnessed a move in society from person to person caring to institutional care.

Servant Leadership defies concepts of power, authority and control as expressions of effective leadership. Jesus’ concept of the leader as servant displays a pattern of leadership that embraces deep humility, disregards personal agendas, and puts others first. One sees it in Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet (John 13). The disciples caught hold of this servant teaching. The Book of Acts tells of a caring church in which leaders and followers expressed a mutual and active servanthood toward one another (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-37). As servants, New Testament leaders understood the importance of training others to serve the body of Christ through their personal gifts and ministries (Ephesians 4: 11-13; 1 Peter 4: 8-11).

What an overwhelming joy it is for servant leaders to develop and equip the diversity that exists within the body of Christ!

Today we commission the Servant Leaders of Glebe Road Uniting Church for 2012.

Grace and Peace

JR

Grace and Peace
J.R.

JR