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17 November, 2024Pastor John Strelan

Benjamin Franklin once wrote that ‘in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. If he was alive today he might have added: ‘and scams’. According to the ACCC, Australians lost $2.74 billion to scams last year. Maybe you were one of them?

Last week I received an email from the LCA IT department inviting me to complete a S.C.A.M 1 Fundamentals course. Sounds helpful, right? The trouble is the email asks me to click on the link! I would, but I don’t know if it’s a scam or not!

The effects of scams go way beyond just the financial losses. Yes, the financial losses get the headlines, but it’s the emotional and psychological impacts that can have the greater and longer lasting effects: anxiety, loss of self-esteem, shame, cognitive impairment, powerlessness, loss of identity.

I guess it should be no surprise that Jesus was ahead of his time and he knew what he was talking about when he said: “Beware that no one leads you astray”.

 

Mark 13:1-8

13 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!’ ‘Do you see all these great buildings?’ replied Jesus. ‘Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.’ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, ‘Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?’ Jesus said to them: ‘Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, “I am he,” and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth-pains.

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“Do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

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You’d be hard pressed to find a more depressingly contemporary question in the Bible. And this from two of Jesus’ disciples!

Well, here’s a contemporary response. A poem by John Roedel . . .

I can’t make the world be peaceful

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I can’t turn a guided missile into a bouquet of flowers

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I can’t stave off a schoolyard being reduced to ash and rubble any of that

the only thing I can do is love the next person I encounter without any conditions or strings, to love my neighbour so fearlessly that it starts a ripple that stretches from one horizon to the next

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oh, Spirit, let me be a candle of comfort in this world

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I may be a little old-fashioned but I still believe discipline and love are not mutually exclusive, it’s just that we often get them confused, or we conflate them, or we neglect one or the other.

Which is all very interesting. But, of course, what you’re really wondering is: Who is Neil?

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“To deny the Trinity is to risk our salvation. To try to explain the Trinity is to risk our sanity.”

‘Risk’ is a dirty word these days so I think this Sunday I will make sure we will avoid any risk to your salvation, or your sanity! (It’s just not worth the paperwork!) Instead, we might go in a different direction. Luther also said, “Of what help is it to you that God is God, if he is not God to you?” Perhaps that is the question for Trinity Sunday, anyway.

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