Category: Weekly message

To the wonderful people of the parish of South Darebin,

Grace and peace to you from the Lord Jesus Christ.

I had so hoped that this Sunday, 17 November, would be a wonderful opportunity of thanksgiving and fond farewell for me as your Acting Vicar.  It was to have been my last day in the parish, but due to my unexpected, sudden and serious illness, it cannot be so. I have thoroughly enjoyed the last eight months with you.  I feel like each member of the congregation has become a friend and I am going to miss you all. However, I rejoice that God has answered our prayers in sending Mother Linda to be the new pastor of the parish and I know that God has led her to you and that God will bless her ministry amongst you.

Expecting to be with you today, I had chosen special readings on which to preach: Micah 6: 6–8; Psalm 136: 1–9; Romans 12: 1–2; 9–18; Matthew 22: 34–40. Here are some key verses from each reading.

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6: 8)

O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. (Psalm 136: 1)

I appeal to you therefore, beloved, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12: 1–2)

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. (Romans 12: 8–10)

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he said: “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22: 37–40)

These are wonderful verses that remind us that we are people who belong to the loving God. Through the death of his son Jesus, he opened the way to new life and a new way of living. God calls us to do justice and love kindness as we walk humbly with him. Why? Because the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever. Thus, St Paul urges us to present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. He urges us to ‘let love be genuine, hate what is evil and hold fast to what is good’. And finally, he says, love one another with mutual affection.

All this is crystalised in Jesus’ summary of the law: love God with all that you are and love your neighbour as you love yourself.

As you continue to journey together – worshipping, encouraging, helping, loving – with Mother Linda as your spiritual leader, may these verses be true for each of you, just as I hope they are true for me.

Be assured of my prayers for each one of you. Please pray for me as I begin a long course of treatment for what has been described as a ‘very rare’ disease (very serious aplastic anaemia) and which will require me to alter several aspects of my life. Yet I remain at peace in the love of God, and I rest in God’s promise to us in Jeremiah 29: 11:

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

With much love,

Chris

This morning’s gospel from Mark 12 describes a scenario that has come to be known as “the widow’s mite”. Jesus was observing the people as they gave their offerings in the temple. He highlighted a widow who gave two small copper coins – practically nothing by the world’s standards. Yet Jesus declared her gift to be greater than all the others because “she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.” This story reminds us that God’s economy is different from ours. It’s not the amount we give but the heart with which we give that matters most. God sees beyond the dollar value, recognising the sacrifice, faith, and love in our offerings. This widow’s faith-filled gift reflected total trust in God’s provision, a reminder that God values our reliance on Him more than any material wealth.

In a world that often measures worth by possessions, the widow’s mite challenges us to live generously, faithfully, and with open hearts. Let us give—not just financially, but with our time, talents, and compassion. When we do, we honour God, who sees our hearts and blesses our willingness to give sacrificially, knowing He will sustain and bless us in return.

Grace and peace to you all.

Chris

Feast Days commemorating the martyrs of the church have been celebrated since the fourth century. In the British Isles, such a day began to be observed on 1 November in the ninth century, and Pope Gregory IV extended the purpose of the day to commemorate all Christian people known and unknown, living and departed, not only martyrs.

Although All Saints Day is still celebrated on 1 November in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran churches and some other denominations, the Eastern churches celebrate All Saints on the first Sunday after Pentecost, and in the Coptic church it is celebrated on 11 September. All Saints Day gives us an opportunity to reflect on all those Christian people who have gone before us and now dwell in God’s heavenly kingdom.  It is a reminder of the hope that we and all living Christians share that when we depart this earth, we too will join the heavenly throng and be reunited with them.

All Saints Day, therefore, is a day to rejoice in the wonder of our salvation and the assurance of eternal life with God.

Grace and peace to you all.

Chris

28 October is Saint Simon and Saint Jude’s day. We know very little about these two martyrs of the church, yet their witness shines through their unwavering commitment to Jesus and their willingness to serve in the background, faithfully advancing the gospel. Both are believed to have been martyred around 65–70 AD, though the exact dates and circumstances remain uncertain.

Tradition holds that they were both martyred in Persia (modern-day Iran), where they had been preaching the gospel. It is thought that they were killed together, possibly during a revolt against their mission efforts. Various sources suggest that Simon was sawn in half, while Jude was either clubbed or axed to death. These details from early Christian traditions are not certain, but their martyrdom does symbolize their deep commitment to spreading the gospel, even at the cost of their lives.

Saint Simon, often called ‘the Zealot’, teaches us the importance of passion in our faith. His zealous nature reminds us that our love for God should be fervent and active, driving us to share the good news with others, regardless of the cost. Even when the world pulls us in countless directions, Simon’s life urges us to fix our hearts on Christ, to love Him fully, and to be passionate about the work of the Kingdom.

Saint Jude (also known as Thaddeus) is often unkindly referred to as the patron saint of lost causes, yet he reminds us of hope. He encourages us to turn to God in times of doubt, confusion, or when the way forward seems impossible. In his epistle, Jude exhorts believers to ‘contend for the faith’ (Jude 1: 3), urging us to stand firm in the face of trials and to trust that God is with us in our most challenging moments.

Whatever you are doing, take a moment to pause and reflect on Simon and Jude and try to draw inspiration from them. As we reflect on their lives, may we also seek to serve with humility, courage, and an unshakable trust in God’s promises to us.

Grace and peace to you all.

Chris

My five-and-a-half-week journey to Europe was a wonderful experience with many highlights. One thing that struck me was the influence of the Christian Church in every country we visited. The beauty of the churches, Christian paintings, frescos and sculptures that Roslyn and I saw were awe inspiring. However, they also made me think deeply about how the church has used its wealth over the centuries, especially in the face of poverty amongst so many of its members.

We visited Èglise de San Marcello al Corso – one of the more than 900 churches in Rome. The church has a side chapel dedicated to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, in which we found this prayer written by her:

Allow me to love as You love, to help as You help, to give as You give, to serve as You serve, to save as You save, twenty-four hours every day. Amen.

Today we celebrate Harvest Festival, which has been celebrated since ancient times.  Harvest Festival provides us with the opportunity to give thanks for all God’s goodness towards us and to share with others part of God’s prosperity to us.  It challenges us to abandon greed and look to the needs of others – to love, help, give and serve as God loves, helps, gives and serves.

Grace and peace to you all

Chris

From Rowan Callick

Today’s readings are an especially eclectic collection: a description of “a wife of noble character”, the very first psalm comparing the wicked with those who “delight in the law of the Lord”, and James imploring us to “control our tongues”, even while fearing this to be a hopeless aim.

Our gospel from Mark features two strong elements: the failure of the disciples to come to terms with Jesus’ increasingly repeated and urgent warnings about the fate of the mysterious Son of Man, and his explanation of where true greatness is to be found – in serving – and his placing a child in his arms as a model for welcoming others. Whoever does this, thereby also welcomes Jesus himself.

The pattern of leadership modelled by Jesus is also, naturally, a pattern in relationships for all of us who wish to follow him.

It is a timely gospel reading for the people of the parish of South Darebin, to contribute towards the discernment of what kind of pastor, who models what pattern of life and of leadership, is best for the flock, and for the advancement of the kingdom of God in this place.

It is also timely for the archdiocese of Melbourne as a whole, as the church starts the process of nominating people to replace Philip Freier as archbishop next year after 18 years of service, during which the church has come to resemble more closely, in its multicultural clergy, congregations and languages of worship, the broader community of Melbourne. Every Anglican is invited to provide their views on the qualities sought in a new archbishop, and to nominate candidates.

A servant-heart, we learn today from Jesus through Mark’s gospel, should be at the centre, for a new archbishop, a new priest for South Darebin, and for each of us.

Grace and Peace to you all,

Rowan Callick

From Fr Stephen Delbridge

As we continue to read through the Letter of James and juxtapose our readings from Mark’s Gospel we are called to be mindful of who we are and how we live. James is vigorous in his declaration that faith requires works and Jesus is vigorous in his holding of the tensions of the life of faith. Take up your cross and follow me, Jesus declares! No Holy holiness or pietist sect here, more like real life lived with faith and with purpose. Our inward life of faith (who we are) and our outward expression of that faith (how we live) become a seamless unity.

The Gradual hymn is the bridge between the Letter of James and the Gospel of Mark. In the second verse are the words: ‘Help us, O Lord, to live the faith which we proclaim, that all our thoughts and words and deeds may glorify your name.’ Yes, we have a faith to live by, a faith that sustains us in good times and in tough times, and we live this faith in our minds and hearts, in our speech and in our deeds!

The prayer of our hearts might be grasped by the third verse of the first hymn: ‘Come, Holy Spirit, create in us holiness, lift up our lives to your standard of right; stir every [our/my] will to new ventures of faithfulness [and] flood the whole church with your glorious light.

Grace and peace to you all,

Stephen

From Fr Stephen Delbridge

Canon Christopher alerted us last Sunday to these weeks that we will spend in James’ Letter. Last Sunday we had the line: ‘be doers of the word and not hearers only’. Today we have the follow-up verse: ‘faith without works is dead’ (!). We can match this verse with the actions of Jesus in today’s gospel when he heals the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman. Jesus is known by his actions, yes also by his words, but elsewhere in the gospel Jesus says to the disciples of John the Baptist: what do you see? The blind see, the lame walk, and the poor have the good news preached to them. Yes, actions and words!

As a hospital chaplain these past twenty years and more, it is this combination of words and actions that have undergirded what I do. I turn up for the patient, I listen to their story, I offer comfort and presence, and prayer as required. The patient may or may not be connected to a faith tradition, however the need for the care of their spirit is paramount to me. This ministry is ‘making the word of God fully known’ as the Archbishop formulates our vision, and yet the ability to maintain this ministry has collapsed in the face of financial pressures. This opportunity to be, as a person of spiritual alertness and connection, at the bedside of the person in their moment of need is lost.

May we continue to be alert to this tension in our own lives, that we be doers of the word as well as hearers, and that we not limit in our own minds what that doing might require as we are open to the winds of the Spirit blowing in our own lives. And gently we pray, unlike the winds that have blustered and blown our city over this last week!

Grace and peace to you all,

Stephen

For the next five weeks our Sunday epistle readings come from the epistle of James.

It is a practical and straightforward letter, attributed to James, the brother of Jesus, which emphasises the importance of living out one’s faith through actions. James declares ‘faith without works is dead’ (2: 17). The letter includes themes of perseverance, wisdom, humility and social justice, and addresses the need to control one’s speech, resist temptation, and to care for the poor. In many ways the epistle is one that speaks to the heart of the aims of our parish as we seek to do these things in the community.

In today’s reading, James instructs us to be ‘doers of the word, and not hearers only’. Merely listening to God’s word is not enough – we must put it into action. It’s easy to nod in agreement when we hear the teachings of Jesus or read Scripture, but the real challenge lies in living out those truths daily. To act out God’s teaching brings freedom!

I will be away on holidays in Europe with my wife for the next six weeks. Be assured of my prayers for you all while I am away. I encourage you to take special note of James’ instructions during this time.

Grace and peace to you all,

Chris

For the past five Wednesday evenings a small group from the congregation have been studying, via Zoom, Paul’s letter to the Colossians. This week we studied the first part of chapter three, which begins with these words:

So, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. (Colossians 3: 1–4)

Paul urges us to set our hearts on things above, where Christ is at the right hand of God. He reminds us that our lives are hidden with Christ in God. As a congregation, let us be encouraged to lift our eyes beyond the distractions and challenges of the world, and focus on the eternal hope we have in Jesus. In a world filled with uncertainty, our identity and security are not found in earthly things but in Christ, who is our life. Let this truth fill us with peace and confidence, knowing that our future is secure in Him.

As we journey together, let us strive to put on the new self, reflecting Christ’s character of compassion, kindness, humility, and patience, not only within our church family but also in our communities. Let us encourage one another to seek the things above, where Christ is. May our thoughts and actions be aligned with the heavenly perspective, knowing that when Christ, who is our life, appears, we also will appear with Him in glory. This is our glorious hope and the foundation of our faith.

Grace and peace to you all.
Chris