Rev Dr Keith Rowe is a retired minister of the NZ Methodist church. He has served both as President of the national connexion, and Principal at Trinity College tertiary college for ministry training. He served the church in Sydney for some years, then briefly at St Lukes, Remuera, before retirement in Hawkes Bay. His book, published in 2022, is a collection of sermons, all based on the lectionary reading for Sunday.

On 23 July this year I led the service at Wesley Broadway, Palmerston North, taking the book title as my worship theme. Four hymns from Alleluia Aotearoa were included: ‘In this familiar place’, ‘Come into the street with me’ ‘Let justice roll down’ and ‘Touch the earth lightly’. The words of two of these hymns are included in this article. The four prose texts are taken from Keith Rowe’s book. I chose to hold together the well-known hymns with the progressive theology of Keith Rowe. The latter illustrates both the individual and collective, the private and public, church and world, as foundation stones for building a relevant faith for the 21^st century.

‘In this familiar place’ by Colin Gibson, tells of a rural UK church service, and illustrates the eloquent simplicity and depth of a George Herbert poem: ‘Among these friends of mine/I taste the company divine’ and ‘Within this narrow sphere/I learn that you are everywhere.’ A brief quotation from Keith Rowe:

‘There is a beautiful legend about the Christian church in Ephesus, the place where it is believed John died. When John was a very old man he would be brought into the group to give a blessing and he would simply say, ‘God is love; love one another’. Just imagine if every Sunday one of the older members of the congregation were, like John, to give the same reminder of what matters most. Perhaps there could be a roster, who will give the ‘John Reminder’ of what we know but often forget.’

‘Come into the streets with me’ by Shirley Erena Murray takes the Palm Sunday story into greater depths than most hymns that mark the beginning of Holy or Passion week:

 

 

 

 

 

Keith Rowe writes: ‘The Palm Sunday gospel reading tells of the day when the ‘Lord of the Dance’, the freewheeling Galilean preacher, healer and social reformer, arrived in the national centre of political, religious and economic power – the important city of Jerusalem. Jesus’ arrival in the city was a carefully staged piece of street theatre. He’s travelled from the villages of rural Galilee with a pilgrim group who thought of him as among the prophets and were attracted by his message of radical love. Like him, they sought a society that provided a secure place for the poor, the needy and the overlooked. Passover week was, and is, the Jewish time to remember and re-enter dramatic events believed to have taken place when Jewish ancestors, enslaved within an unjust system, under the leadership of Moses, escaped from captivity in Egypt. The Galilean pilgrims accompanying Jesus sought an escape from contemporary forms of slavery under the domination of the Roman Empire. Perhaps they thought and hoped, ‘The revolution might begin this week!’

What does the Palm Sunday event say to us today? The Way pioneered by Jesus is bigger than the life he lived in Palestine – it is a light shining down the corridors of history, summoning us into a future yet to be born, and the binding of those who will become the community of Jesus-Spirit.

Renewal of Christian integrity involves an ever-fresh discovery of the life transforming Way pioneered by Jesus. My use of the word ‘pioneering’ attached to the Way that claimed Jesus is important. Jesus does not represent a set of rules chiselled into concrete slabs, but rather a way of living, a style of life, that needs to be re-discovered, re-explored, and re-expressed, in every generation, every culture and nation. The resurrection stories – Palm Sunday as the opening Act – symbolise for us that the Way of Jesus continues as contemporary possibility and evocative symbol of what the future can become. Renewal of Christian integrity and contribution to the healing of our world will involve a fresh discovery of the Jesus Way as pioneered in the first century and, crucially, as continuing possibility in every time and place.’

In ‘Touch the earth lightly’ Shirley Murray highlights the destruction of the natural environment by human exploitation:

‘We who endanger / who create hunger / agents of death for all creatures that live / we who would foster / clouds of disaster / God of our planet / forestall and forgive.’

Keith talks about a gap or closed door in the life of most churches. ‘This is the gap between challenging words spoken in the pulpit or prayer at the prayer desk and decisions made in Parish Council or whatever group plans and nurtures what is usually described as the ‘mission’ of the church, the things this group of friends does in response to its exploration of the way pioneered by Jesus. This includes the church‘s contribution to the healing of the world, and the church’s presence in their local community. Pulpit or study group offer exploration of the Way pioneered by Jesus and hints as to what they might mean in our time. Words spoken with much thought and sensitivity to the purposes of God made clear in Jesus, are mislaid in the short walk from pews, pulpit and prayer desk to the meeting room and so-called ‘business agendas’.

According to denominational housekeeping, leaking downpipes and clergy leave provisions seem to take precedence over the hard thinking, careful planning and courageous action involved in exploring what and how it means to live the Way pioneered by Jesus. It’s a gap that should trouble us.

In the sermons found In my book Wounded World and Broken Church, I offer a little light in what is a dark time for the Christian adventure. It’s an even darker time for humanity and our fragile planet. Climate change and environmental destruction, the continuing and growing gap between rich and poor, possibilities and perils in the development of ‘artificial intelligence’, new knowledge in genetic engineering, and fresh awareness of human fragility revealed during Covid pandemic times – all cry out for fresh thinking and bold action. These and other challenges are the setting of our believing, our praying and our living.

‘Let justice roll down’ is arguably the finest of Colin Gibson’s justice lyrics. Any one who was fortunate enough to hear it read live by the hymnwriter, in the style of an Amos or Jeremiah, will have it in their memory box of ‘prophetic moments’:

 

 

 

 

‘I told my followers what you told me, and they accepted it. They know that I came from you, and they believe that you are the one who sent me.’ The Gospel of John is an extended reflection on the significance of Jesus, and was written about 60 or 70 years after his death. It tells us as much about the infant church and how Jesus was regarded in the churches of Asia Minor as it tells us about the historical Jesus of Galilee. The words of verse 8 offer a fresh and important description of the church as the community who received the words of Jesus and who continue to share and to explore these words on behalf of, and with, the whole human family.

We should be troubled that the words of Jesus are neither well-known nor heeded in our secular society. As stewards of these words, we have a responsibility to ensure they remain available to our culture at a time when many flounder about for a direction to life’s adventure. Their power, as recorded in the Gospels, is their capacity to jolt readers in to new ways of seeing and living life.

We take it for granted that war is an inevitable part of human living, but we read that Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.’ We live in a world where it seems to be taken for granted that starvation is a natural occurrence within some nations and regions of the earth, that prisoners and the needy beyond our own community are someone else’s problem. Jesus pictured God saying, ‘I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’

In a world where revenge has become an art form and grudges allowed to linger, Jesus, in response to a question replied that his disciples should forgive without limit, even seventy times seven! Try another text: Those who want to save their lives will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, will save if. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?

The words of Jesus could not be enshrined in law or regulations. They’re not that sort of wisdom. The words of Jesus, in parable, sayings and proverbs, typically cause hearers and readers to stop and think again about actions they take for granted but that fall short of genuinely healing truth.

Jesus called into being a community who were distinctive, not because they were smarter than others, but they were open to new possibilities and were willing to be questioned by the way Jesus lived and spoke.

Put it this way. We know very little. We live on small islands of certainty surrounded by a great sea of mystery and uncertainty. The words of Jesus, if we will enter into their world, take us towards the edge of what we are comfortable with, to the edge of our small island, and invite us to imagine another way to the way we currently live. The words of Jesus are unsettling. They speak of possibilities of sharing with others, forgiving enemies, welcoming strangers, caring for the marginalised, trusting in Divine grace to guide us through life’s tough places.

Note: Copies of Wounded World and Broken Church can be ordered from Pleroma Books, Otane: order@pleroma.org.nz. Cost: $40.00 plus p&p.

John Thornley