Reflection:       Judy – video

The text of the reflection is below:                        

In the seasons of Creation calendar, today is Mountains Sunday. We in New Zealand are familiar with mountains—they are everywhere around us. Even if you live on the Canterbury Plains, there are mountains in the distance. Here in Auckland, we have mountains—maunga—everywhere.

We may think of mountains as being ageless and changeless, secure, and untouched by the things that affect us. True, in one way; mountains are not affected by which areas of the country are in Lockdown, and they tend not to get emotional if the political party they support doesn’t win the election.
But mountains are affected by change .I don’t know how many of you remember when the top fell off Aoraki-Mt Cook some years ago? And the people living around Mt Tarawera certainly noticed the changes when its three peaks erupted in 1886. Even those of us who live in Auckland may be aware that there were originally  far more maunga around. We talk about the suburb of Three Kings, but notice that only one king still remains. I live in Mount Smart Road, but there is no Mount Smart—it was quarried away years ago. Things as apparently unmovable as a mountain can change.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus says some pretty startling  things to  His disciples. Now, let me say that ,as someone who worked as a nurse for over 50 years, the nursing and medical professions take a pretty dim view of people going around cutting off hands and feet and eyes, except in extreme circumstances, like being trapped by a mountain, or portion thereof. It’s most unlikely Jesus was intending that people take His advice literally. He was using hyperbole, a common figure of speech in those days, and ours. Its other name is exaggeration. How often do you hear people say, ‘Everybody thinks the Government should do such-and-such.’ How do they know? I’ve found that ‘everybody’ really means ‘me! And all the other people who think like me! I know they exist! Don’t they??”
“Everybody’ may like to make up their own minds—and may want to do things differently.

Jesus had, in a way, already discussed this with the disciples, when John tells Him how they tried to stop someone casting out demons in the Name of Jesus ‘because he wasn’t one of us!!” And Jesus replies, ‘Well, yes, he is one of us. If he’s performing miracles in My name, he is one of My supporters.’ And He could have gone on to say, ‘Rejoice! The word is spreading, and more people are hearing it.’

We don’t know why Jesus used this type of provocative language to the disciples. To attract their attention? To make them think? To make the point that they needed to concentrate their faith, and not be distracted by power struggles ‘Who’s going to be the greatest of us?’ ‘Who’s going to sit at the right and the left hand of Jesus?’, nor by trying to control who might work with them.

James is also giving advice to his followers—plain practical advice, especially about the power of prayer. Now James and his followers would almost certainly have known that rubbing olive oil on sick people was unlikely to cure them, but the mere activity, and the touch, could bring comfort and peace. No anxious questioning like ‘If we don’t have olive oil, would canola oil do??’ Besides, I’m not sure whether they had canola oil in those days.
We don’t know whether this was early description of the anointing of the sick, or of massage to a painful part of the body, or the lubrication of painful dry skin, but it was the touch, the feeling of being cared for, coupled with the prayers, the showing of concern, the comfort from your Church family, that helped bring peace, if not a full cure.

Peace is prized commodity, especially in these times. We can feel overwhelmed by all the needs we see and hear about. We feel we should do something, but we know, realistically, that we can’t contribute to every appeal, or even pray for everyone and everything that needs it. Remember Jesus worked in one small area of the known world. Even the disciples, for all the stories about their far-flung  missionary journeys, didn’t cover all the known world. There’s an Epistle to the Colossians—the people of Colossae—but not one to the people of Colchester, in England.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the mountains of need on the horizon. Concentrate on the hills around you. Phone your Aunty Renee. Send an email to your workmate who’s working from home and finding it lonely because his workmates are his family. Pray for the people in Government who have to make the decisions, that they will have the advice of    the real experts, to overcome the advice of those who write newspaper columns or run talkback shows. Pray for yourself. You’re perfectly entitled to do so. Jesus did, and didn’t feel guilty about it. Nor should you.
And when we’ve finished praying, let’s rise up, call on the Holy Spirit to come with us, and go out to do all the good we can.]