Pastoral Letter 16

Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,

Monday 22 June marks the 43rd anniversary of the Uniting Church. For the last few years, we have celebrated the anniversary with Lane Cove Uniting in a Combined Service, one of the four Combined Services that we plan and organise with LCU during the year. This year unfortunately we are not able to come together with LCU to celebrate, or even to do the celebration on our own.

43 years ago, the three major reformed church denominations: Methodist, Congregational and the majority of the Presbyterian churches, including St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church Longueville, decided to unite on 22 June 1977. The church union adopted the Basis of Union. Regardless what has happened in the past 43 years and the challenges on the way forward, the church is still well and alive, because it is not my or your church, but God’s church, who provides all the needs and leads the way of the pilgrim people, as they continue to be His witnesses.

At the moment, even though the social distancing restrictions are easing step by step, we have decided not to reopen the doors of our church for worship until the Elders and the Church Council meet again in the first week of July. Please be informed that Lane Cove and Mosman are doing the same. Willoughby and Northbridge are planning to reopen on 5 July, Crows Nest on 12 July and Neutral Bay on 19 July to celebrate their church 100th Anniversary. The Willoughby Armenian congregation have already started their weekday worship services during this week and Sunday worship will resume tomorrow.

Let’s be a little bit more patient for a few more weeks and look forward with hope and faith and continue to pray as we keep on doing our worship. Until then, I ask you to be understanding and again join the others tomorrow morning in worship, following the Order of Service. I am glad to let you know that Bob Minton offered to share with us a reflection on the occasion of the Uniting Church Anniversary, which you will find on the following page, before my message. Our thanks to Bob for sharing this reflection with us.

As I mentioned in my previous week’s Pastoral Letter, a member of the Armenian Evangelical Uniting Church Congregation was diagnosed with cancer in February, passed away last Saturday morning, just after I sent my letter to you. She was 50. Please pray for the family seeking God’s comfort to be with the husband, son, daughter, mother, brother and sister.

Prayer points:

  1. Pray for the congregations, who have decided to reopen their doors this week and in the next few weeks. Pray for the safety of those who will attend and the leaders who have taken on board the responsibility of providing a safe space.
  2. Continue to pray for those countries who are still in the midst of the pandemic, where the number of cases of COVID-19 is still growing.

If you have any prayer points, please let me know and I will include them in the next week’s letter.

– Please don’t forget to contribute to the Exodus Foundation June appeal before the end of the month. Help is needed.

– Please, contribute to the COVID-19 fundraising efforts of the Armenian Missionary Association of Australia. Your support will be greatly appreciated.

Krikor

Your Minister

 

REFLECTIONS

Take Courage

Well, Happy Birthday Uniting Church, for tomorrow, congratulations on reaching 43 years. In 43 years, we’ve seen our share of triumphs and tragedies. Perhaps we remember more of the tragedies than the triumphs, yet we are still here!!

Yet I have mixed feelings, celebrating this 43rd anniversary of the Uniting Church in Australia.

There is ample evidence that God is still with us, and since God is still with us our hope and purpose are intact, and yet we may have more triumphs and tragedies to look forward to in the future.

Over these past weeks we have discovered how to “do Church” in innovative and exciting ways, COVID-19 has frustrated us but has not destroyed us!!

It is with some pride we can say that Uniting (which includes Uniting Aged Care and Uniting Children’s Services, as well as Lifeline Community Care) is the largest non-government provider of community services in Australia. Sadly, fewer volunteers are involved locally across Australia because of centralisation to cope with massively increased government regulation, but those services are still there and they are still activities of the Uniting Church in Australia – and there are still many volunteers across the country.

It is with some sadness we can say that the Uniting Church is a divided church. It is less divided than it once was, but only because so many people left the church with the contentious “Resolution 84” of 2003, and the Assembly of 2018, this time ruling on same sex marriage and the two definitions of marriage.

But we have also become a vibrantly multicultural church, which I consider is a wonderful thing. However, the rise in multicultural involvement is matched by a sharp decline in those traditionally our members.

And we have not emerged clean from the Royal Commission into sexual abuse against children, to our shame. Given our intentionally high involvement with children and community care, that could have been much worse, but it is still to our shame, as a church.

So, you can see it is with mixed feelings that we celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the Uniting Church in Australia.

My most serious reservation is that, as a nationwide church, we have about 1/3 of the membership we had in 1977, and it is still declining overall.

Yet, I want to give you the best reasons I know to keep hope and take courage within this Uniting Church in Australia.

I had a chance this week to read the message given by the first president of the Uniting Church – the Rev. David McCaughey – at the end of his term as president.

In his words he had 4 concerns to deliver:

His first was to remind the councils of the church – Assembly, Synods and Presbyteries – that the local churches were what it was all about. Everything else is secondary at best, however important some of the secondary things are. The Uniting Church recognises this.

His second concern was in relation to administrative structuring of the church, the endless tying up of many of our best people in endless meetings and pointless debates. He was concerned that the church was tying itself up in knots instead of listening to God and getting on with the core tasks assigned by God.

His third concern was a deep concern that it was impossible for anyone to speak for the Uniting Church, since there is such a range of opinion on everything. He was concerned that the age of personal opinion was driving us so far from our core beliefs that we were losing touch with who we were.

His fourth concern was about our identity as people of the Uniting Church in Australia. We were meant to simply consider ourselves Christians, not some special brand of Christian.

All of his concerns are still valid, but McCaughey hid within his four points some real gems of hope.

The local congregation is the centre because that is where Jesus Christ is present with his people. The Uniting Church Basis of Union declares it, we believe it, and it is our experience.

Jesus said: “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” The simple meaning of these words is true – it matters not if the local gathering of Christ-followers is small or large, well-educated or not, poor or rich; Jesus himself is with them. It has been so, and it will continue to be so.

Wrapping all of the other eruptions together, it has to be said that all of his concerns are matched by possibilities.

We don’t have to be bogged down in meetings and arguments. You need only turn your face to God, turn your inner ears and eyes to God – it is that simple.

You need only pursue Jesus with the faith and belief that you have, earnestly and honestly seek to know and Him better, and you have broken the power of disagreement. We will not ever all agree, but we needn’t be paralysed by it.

Don’t get hung up about belonging to the Uniting Church or not.

We have membership, but we treat everyone in this place as a contributing member, if that is how you want it to be. Identify yourself in Christ and no other and let that be the full value of our belonging together.

However, the thing we have best of all is that our foundation is securely built on Jesus. From the Basis of Union, paragraph 3 – an extract:

The Uniting Church acknowledges that the faith and unity of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church are built upon the one Lord Jesus Christ. The Church preaches Christ the risen crucified One and confesses him as Lord to the glory of God the Father. In Jesus Christ “God was reconciling the world to himself”. In love for the world, God gave the Son to take away the world’s sin…………

………………The Church as the fellowship of the Holy Spirit confesses Jesus as Lord over its own life; it also confesses that Jesus is Head over all things, the beginning of a new creation, of a new humanity. God in Christ has given to all people in the Church the Holy Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation. The Church’s call is to serve that end: to be a fellowship of reconciliation, a body within which the diverse gifts of its members are used for the building up of the whole, an instrument through which Christ may work and bear witness to himself. The Church lives between the time of Christ’s death and resurrection and the final consummation of all things which Christ will bring; the Church is a pilgrim people, always on the way towards a promised goal; here the Church does not have a continuing city but seeks one to come. On the way Christ feeds the Church with Word and Sacraments, and it has the gift of the Spirit in order that it may not lose the way.

God hasn’t given up on us, but rather still works among us by His Spirit. Jesus our Lord is still present among us, holding in His hands the keys of life and death.

You and I are still called into life and freedom in Christ and called to be life-givers in his name.

Take courage, my friends. Jesus is still Lord of all, though most in our general population do not know it. Redemption – the forgiveness of your sins; life in all its fullness and purpose; resurrection and eternal life – all are still a reality through Jesus Christ the Lord.

Into our hands is still placed the capacity to offer life, to invoke the authority of Jesus, to intercede for the lost and the hurting. Get on your knees and pray, but get ready to be lifted to the heights, because God is not finished with us yet.

AMEN!

Bob Minton

Prayer

Loving God, we give You thanks for the changing of the season that reminds us again, that we are part of something so much bigger than ourselves. In the midst of times of distancing and isolation may we know even more keenly Your presence and Your plenty, by Your spirit, prompt us to know where we can serve You and love our neighbour, near and far, in new, unexpected and generous ways. Amen.

 

Message Summary

One in His Hands

Ezekiel 37:15-28      John 17:1-26

Today, as we celebrated the 43rd Anniversary of the Uniting Church. 43 years ago, a union happened between three traditional reformed churches. Ezekiel describes another kind of reunion or union, one that all of God’s people can look forward to with great anticipation.

Ezekiel is writing here to the people of Judah who are in exile in Babylon. They have been taken from their land and their city of Jerusalem and their Temple have been destroyed. But in this passage, God, through another object lesson given to Ezekiel, shows His people that there are four specific things that they can look forward to in the future that should give them hope right then and there. Each of the four reunion experiences that God’s people are going to undergo will provide a great reversal of the hopelessness and despair that they are currently facing.

  1. God’s people reconciled – from division to unity (vv. 15-22)

God uses an object lesson to demonstrate to Ezekiel and to His people His future plans for them – plans that Jeremiah described as plans for “a future and a hope”.

After the death of King Solomon his son, Rehoboam, became king. But when he continued the heavy taxation commenced under his father’s rule, the ten northern tribes united under Jeroboam, who was from the tribe of Ephraim, and revolted. The two tribes of Benjamin and Judah, along with the Levites remained loyal to Rehoboam and formed the Southern Kingdom of Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem. Although we often use the term “Jews” to refer to the entire commonwealth of Israel, technically the term refers only to the inhabitants of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The remaining ten tribes became the Northern Kingdom of Israel, with its capital in Samaria.

Because Jeroboam did not want his subjects to go to Jerusalem to worship during the feasts, he set up golden calves in Dan and Bethel, at the two extremities of the kingdom, as symbols of God. This began the idolatrous worship that continued through the history of Israel and led to their fall in 722 BC at the hands of the Assyrians.

Although there had been some attempts to re-unify the two kingdoms, that goal had never been accomplished by human hands. And now that the Northern Kingdom no longer existed, and the people had been scattered among the surrounding nations. The last 3 kings of the Southern Kingdom were all evil. The Babylonians swept down upon Jerusalem in 597 B. C. and captured it. A second attack led to Jerusalem’s second defeat in 586 B. C. Captives from both campaigns were taken to Babylonia to mark the captivity of the Southern Kingdom, leaving the Kingdom to lay in ruins that seemed that the people of God had no hope and their survival and or revival seemed impossible.

But just as we have seen consistently throughout the Old Testament prophets, God promised that one day He was going to reverse the division that existed and unify the two kingdoms again. And He commands Ezekiel to participate in the object lesson described in this passage to make this real to the people.

  1. God’s people redeemed – from rebellion to obedience (vv. 23-24)

The root cause of the split of the two kingdoms and their failure had been their rebellion against God, especially in their worship. But God promised that one day He would redeem His people from their sin and cleanse them so that they could once again be His people and He would be their God.

Originally, God had given His people the Law for their own good. It was to be a guide on how to live in a manner that would be the most beneficial for them. It would protect their dignity. But living in obedience to the Law was also to be the way in which God’s people would distinguish themselves from the nations around them for the purpose of bringing glory to God.

Throughout their history, God’s people continually allowed themselves to be influenced by and incorporated into the culture of the surrounding nations. And as a result, they lost their distinctiveness as a people. By Ezekiel’s time, the Northern Kingdom of Israel no longer existed as an identifiable people and it wouldn’t be too much longer until much of Judah would suffer the same fate.

  1. God’s people restored – from barrenness to fruitfulness (vv. 25-26)

Not only was God going to restore the people to the land, He was going to restore the land to its original fruitfulness and even beyond. Because of their rebellion, Israel had seen their land ravaged by locusts, and had consistently been overrun by foreign armies. Jerusalem had been sacked and the Temple destroyed on multiple occasions. And as a result, the people had experienced barrenness in the land.

The reason that the Israelites had become unfruitful was that they had not stayed connected to God. When they originally entered the Promised Land, they failed to rid the land of the foreign influences as God had commanded them to do. And because of that sin, it wasn’t long until the pagan nations around them began to influence them and draw them away from God and their spiritual fruit began to wither.

God’s presence with His people is pictured here and in verse 26 as God refers to His sanctuary which will be set in their midst forevermore.

  1. God’s people rested – from distress to rest (vv. 27-28)

Ezekiel 37 ends with a beautiful picture of an intimate relationship between God and His people. God will be with them – He will be their God and they will be His people.

God’s presence with His people is pictured here and in verse 26 as God refers to His sanctuary which will be set in their midst forevermore.

This was and is God’s promise to give His people rest and provide the blessings to give them rest from their distress, pain and suffering.

Reconciliation, redemption, restoration and rest are God’s gifts to His people, to His church through His Son and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. His plan was and is to unite His people.

In Ezekiel chapter 37, where we find the well-known passage titled “The Valley of Dry Bones”, which is the vision that the prophet had and we have reflected and preached on, many times. In the same chapter we find the part where it says that the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel telling him to take two sticks of wood and write on the first the words “Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him” and the second “Ephraim’s Stick, belonging to Joseph and all the house of Israel associated with him”. Then God instructs him to join them together into one stick, so that they become one in His hands. Here God clearly says that He is going to join the two to make them one.

The thing that caught my attention was God’s expression, when He said: “They will become one in my hand”.  Naturally, it could be a simple matter to bring two things together or mix two different materials to have a mixture, or mix to colours together and have another colour, or two or few ingredients when preparing bread and food.

But the difference that we see here is that this putting together or making the two or the three into one, happens in the hands of God. The words are clear: “So that they will become one in my hand” or “They will become one in my hand”. In other words, to become One Nation under One King.

This union or putting two or three things together does not happen in our hand or the hands of those who labour and work, as our predecessors did, who toiled for years to bring the three churches together.

One Church under One God. A beautiful picture of unity, harmony and oneness.

That was the vision and the intention of the leaders of the churches in 1977, when on 22 June they came together to celebrate and give birth to the Uniting Church in Australia. It was a difficult task, that they had engaged in for at least for four decades.

There were several attempts to bring the churches together, but they were unsuccessful. They were probably trying to create this union in their own hands. I believe that when they realised that this union only could happen, if it is done in God’s hands and it did. God was at work when finally, on 22 June they came together as one, one church under one God.

In our Gospel reading we see Jesus praying for all believers, that is the church, after He prayed for His disciples. He prays saying that He is praying for those who will believe in Him through the message of the disciples. He is praying that all the believers, we, may be one. Being one or in unity is the result of Jesus’ wish and prayer. Not only they may be one, but one with Him, the Father and the Spirit. We cannot find more vivid picture or proof, that God’s wish is for all of us be one with and in Him.

So, this is another fact and truth that we and the church should be one and in unity or union. It has not been always, and it will never be easy to have the perfect unity, similar to the unity that exists in the Triune God, in the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Though we are created in the image of God and it is expected from us and each and every believer to act and behave in a godly manner, we are humans and have our weaknesses and limitations. We are not perfect, and we will never be perfect. But we should endeavour to do our best to live and act as His people; a people brought together and made one in His hand.

Hence, it is expected from the church, from us and from the Uniting Church of Australia to be one in God’s hands. Regardless of our background, culture, colour and language, we are brought together to represent Him in this world as an active, lively, vibrant, spirited and vigorous church.

It is worth on this happy occasion, as we celebrate the 43rd anniversary of the UCA, to be the church we are supposed to be. The united and uniting multicultural church, who is committed to act on God’s behalf in this world and strive to be the living and lively church, proclaiming the good news of salvation, which is our call.

God bless the Uniting Church and provide the strength we need to continue our journey of faith as we keep on proclaiming the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Amen!

Krikor Youmshajekian