READ 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-10

Society tells me that to live life to the fullest, to be a real success, I have to be clever, confidant and self-sufficient. That showing any sign of weakness is simply revealing a soft spot for people to attack. That I need to strive to conceal any flaws that I do have – and to keep them locked up and to myself. That the people that are worth anything in this world are strong – bullet proof – impervious to anything that gets thrown their way.

But I’m sick of pretending like I’m tough all the time. Pretending that I’ve got it all together when the truth is I’m a weak, fragile, broken person.

What if there was such a thing as beauty in weakness? Not that we should wallow in our own misery and self-pity – but what if when we’re at our lowest, at our most pathetic, at our most honest – that something sort of beautiful happened.

When you think about it – beauty in weakness can be seen all around us.
…in the way that people look beautiful when they cry, And in the way that it’s beautiful when mother comforts a child who’s grazed there knee or has been bullied at school. Or the beauty of everyone chipping in to help push a car to a garage when it’s helpless owner has broken down at an intersection. Jesus dying on a cross was brutal and grotesque – but at the same time the act was indescribably beautiful.

Maybe us humans are at our best – or worst – when we’re in the midst of weakness. We’re forced to either help, or take advantage, of the situation in front of us… and when we help, that’s when true beauty emerges.

I think the Kitchen should be a place where we can come and be weak together. A place where we can drop our guard and be honest around one another. Where we can rely on people other than ourselves to help us along… where we can stop protecting our precious reputations, and let it all hang out.

Because without weakness – without crisis – or as Paul put it in Corinthians, without handicaps – we don’t really get to road test what it means to be a community. Because without weakness we would never need other people – and God created us to need other people. Our defining moments in life – the times that change us forever – are when we are weak and out of control. And it’s only through Jesus that such a crazy idea where a bunch of broken, limping people with all sorts of issues and baggage and anxieties like us could somehow come together and actually find strength amongst each other.

So today – rather than spending time celebrating success and being strong and invincible and tough – we’re going to celebrate the beauty of weakness, and the way in which our own times of weakness – the battle scares we carry around, the bruises that are still healing, and our weak tendencies – allow our lives to be better than if we were strong and self sufficient all the time.

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*Share when a time of weakness changed your perspective on life for the better…
*What are your scars and bruises that you’ve learnt from?
*What is an area in your life that you feel weakness in?
*How could you allow yourself to rely on others more with this? How could you rely on God more?
*Why do you think God allows us to be weak?
*Why do we always try to hide it? What are we really afraid of?
*By Jesus choosing to become human he opted into weakness when he could have stayed in total control. Why would he do this?
*Does this change how you think of your own weaknesses?

READ PSALMS 34

Beauty makes no sense, it’s illogical. It serves no biological function, it doesn’t satisfy any of our primal urges. But imagine life without being able to recognise beauty? Sunsets were nothing more than light dissipation, flowers were just elaborate sexual organs, you’d marry someone purely because of there genetic hardiness. If life was without beauty, the earth may as well be one giant concrete tennis court.

We take our ability to enjoy and appreciate and receive beauty for granted – but what if beauty is God’s big neon sign yelling at us? And when our beauty detector which God has put within us see’s something else that God has made with the beauty gene in it – it creates this chemical-spiritual-emotional reaction that lets us know that there must be a creator who’s orchestrating this show called life.

Ok, so why the penguins? Because today we’re talking about the Beauty of Grace. Penguins are the greatest clash of ideas – on the land they are one of the clumsiest, impractical animals on earth. Beautiful – but also hopeless in some ways.

But when they get into the water – when a bird that can’t fly and lives on ice takes a breath and jumps into the ocean – they are the most graceful creatures God has ever made. Looking at them on land you would never have guessed… but water allows them to be the best they can be,

So what is grace? Grace isn’t static or still – for someone to have Grace it means there has to be movement, motion, flow. A penguin under the water staying still isn’t graceful – more likely it’s just dead! But it’s from the fluent motions as it ducks and dives and glides that we see Grace.

The same goes for God’s grace towards us. Our world has this idea that we can be self-sufficient – that we can do things on our own, that we don’t need to reply on others… Ultimately that we can impress God into loving us or letting us into heaven or whatever by what we do and how we act.

It may hurt our ego’s, but God’s Grace towards us has nothing to do with us – it’s something he’s given to us. It’s a simple exchange – if we choose to trust him, then he will look after our short fallings. The hardest thing for us is accepting that he’s got us covered. Yes, we have to keep up our end of the bargain by continuing to trust in him – but gods Grace can handle whatever we have to throw at him.

You know how on the bottom of your power bill when you pay late you have this Grace period of a few days before they start hitting you with late payment fees? That’s not really a Grace period at all! God’s grace doesn’t give you a few days where he’ll turn a blind eye, but then sting you with interest if you haven’t paid up. For us Grace means being willing to give up our control complex and to let God foot the bill.

That’s why people say grace before they eat – because as hard as we might try and work and think and cultivate, the food on the table couldn’t have happened without God doing most of the work. We say grace because we’re grateful for something that we don’t deserve and didn’t earn. Worship is like saying Grace to God for life.

And just like the Penguins in the water – God’s grace isn’t static, but it’s something in motion. It flows through us – and for us to accept Gods grace we need to continue the flow of Grace… this flow is broken when you accept God’s grace and then trea the people around you like shit. If you do that you’re damming up God’s grace when you should be letting it flow through you.

You know, when we live like we can pull off life without God we’re like clumsy penguins waddling on ice… we fool ourselves into thinking we’re self-sufficient – that we’re an island – and even if we don’t say that we certainly live like it.

But when we decide to accept the grace of God, when we talk the first plunge into God’s grace like those baby penguins at the end and decide to swim in God’s flow of grace…even if we’re not very good at it to start with – that’s when life become s beautiful, and that’s when we’re free to live gracefully.

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Talk about the creature that you find most Graceful. What makes it full of Grace? How is this like God?
WRITE A LINE OF YOUR GRACE INSPIRED BY THIS
(God, you remind me of a… because of the way you…)

What thing in your life are you most thankful for? What thing do you take most for granted?
WRITE A LINE OF YOUR GRACE THANKING GOD FOR THESE IN YOUR LIFE
(Thankyou for giving me…. Help me to more appreciate….)

Has anyone ever showed Grace towards you? Taking you with your weaknesses and reacting to situations without a flinch? Were you grateful, or did you feel frustrated at not being perfect and in control?
WRITE A LINE OF YOUR GRACE THANKING GOD FOR HIS UN FLINCHING ACCEPTANCE
(Your Grace is amazing! Whenever I….. you…..)

How will you let God’s Grace continue to move through your life onto other people? Who will you let the beauty of Grace flow out of you to? How will you keep the cycle of Grace going?
WRITE A LINE OF YOUR GRACE SAYING HOW YOU WILL SHOW GRACE TO OTHERS
(Just as you show Grace to me, I will let it flow through me by….)

READ ROMANS 8:18-27

When you watch the news you’ve got to say that something isn’t quite right with the world. Day in , day out humans find unique ways of hurting each other, themselves and the environment around them. We really are very good at it. But this wasn’t how God created things to be.

God made humans to be perfectly synced up. Now try and absorb this…In sync with God. In sync with each other. In sync with ourselves. In sync with the environment.

But then it got all messed up and we started living out of sync with all those things. Think about it – every single problem in the world can be put down to one of those things. At the root of today’s problems isn’t politics or wars or sexism or racism or greed. The big thing behind all of those things is that we have lost the natural ability to live in the right relationship with ourselves, with other people, with the environment, and ultimately, with God.

This is big news! It’s easy to look at the world and say “There’s so many problems! But what’s the root cause here? I bet Democracy would sort this out!” But now that we know what the root behind the scenes problem where all the other problems come from– it’s easier for us to get our heads around it, and for us to work out how to make things better and live better ourselves.

And that’s what Jesus came to help us with – to save us from. He came to teach us how to get back in Sync with God’s plan and to teach us how he made us to be.

Being a follower of Jesus means living a life that tries to get back in sync with all of these things… while at the same time not expecting to get it perfect – because our in-syncness can only be totally restored by God.

That’s what Heaven is – at the end of our long struggling human history, where we continued to find new and marvelous ways to live our of sync with everything, God will recreate us so we will have the right relationships with everything. The bible verse we just heard from in Romans talks about how the earth Groaning for this recreation to come… When I look at the newspaper I groan for this recreation to come!

If there is one thing I’m really excited about – even more excited about than owning a pair of Llamas or eating Polenta Fries at the Bicycle Thief or looking into the eyes of my first child after they’re born – it’s for the day that God recreates all of us to live in Synch with things.

That day I won’t be oppressed by my own personal emotional, mental and sexual baggage, and I’ll be able to live in harmony with the people around me, and I won’t feel this need to take more than I need from the earth – and I’ll finally have those nagging questions answered about God.

The song of life is not being played right – we’re singing flat and we’re not even using our instruments most of the time, like trying to play Mozart on a car radiator. But it’s time for us to pick up those guitars, warm up our voices and play in Sync with the Song that God wrote for us to play. Trust me, it’s a much better song than we could ever write.

Look through a newspaper and circle the stories where pain, disorder or suffering has resulted from the breakdown of relationships between people. Ask yourself these questions as you look at each story:

• What’s going wrong here?
• Is this how God intended his Creation to live?
• How would God like us to live in Sync with Him in this situation?

“When people think you’re dying, they really, really listen to you, instead of just…instead of just waiting for their turn to speak?”

When I first heard that quote in the movie Fight Club, I was so embarrassed. I realised how true it was for me – and it scared me even more to think that everyone else was the same! It seems like we sort of become so self obsessed and individualistic sometimes that we loose the ability to know how to care beyond saying “that’s sucks bro” – and then awkwardly cough.

But not today! Because we’re going to practise the long, lost art of querying…

We’re going to spend 5 minutes where the other person talks and you just query – and listen – I mean really listen. And then you’ll query some more. You’re not allowed to bring the conversation back to you – or give them your opinion on the subject – but you get to know the person and let them be known to you. You’re asking questions to go deeper into who they are.

This will be incredibly hard for some of us. No doubt some of us will find it easy to talk about ourselves, but hard to ask questions and care. But today you’re going to try and scratch beyond superficial conversation…

Others of us will hate talking about ourselves and find it scary to reveal bits of ourselves to a person we might barely know. But drop your guard! It’s something we need to do more often…

Would you believe that some people are even gifted at this whole querying thing? When they spend time with someone things just flow our of them from the queries they ask. But that takes practise, just like any art form. So today we’re learning the ancient art of querying, and starting our journey towards becoming query masters.

Pick and random question from the list below, ask your partner the question, and then continue querying from that point for a full, literal 5 minutes. You ask questions and listen, they talk. It’s fine for your talk to wander– these questions are just starting points in your queries. After that five minutes get your partner to pick a new question and swap roles. You can do this as many times as you’d like to – or with as many different people as you like.

After you’ve queried each other, stop and share with the group or each other by answering this question.

“What is God up to in the midst of your partners life?”

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What specific question would you most like to ask God?
What thing most worries you in life right now?
What aspect of your mum do you see in yourself?
What aspect of your dad do you see in yourself?
What’s something new you’ve discovered about God lately?
What was your childhood like?
What specific occasion as a kid do you remember being most happy?
What’s something you’ve recently become interested in?
What is your secret dream or aspiration?
What is one thing you want to do before you die?
What puzzles you about God?
What is your family like?
What Stresses you out? How do you unwind?
When do you feel that God is far away?
When do you feel closet to God?
What does being Gods creation, made in his Image, mean to you?
What’s the thing you’re most proud of achieving?
What’s the thing you most want to change about yourself?
What did you do in the weekend? What are you doing this weekend?
Is God challenging you to change any aspect of your life?
What’s something you’ve always wanted to do regularly, but just can’t seem to get it together?
What’s something that you regret not doing?
What do you feel most pressured to do in your life?
What do you like most about Jesus?
What scares you most in life?
When was the last time that you felt that God was speaking to you? What was he saying?
What would you most like to change in the world?
How do you deal with people that annoy you?
Have you ever forgiven someone?
What other career path would you also like to have taken?

READ GENESIS 1:26-29

Over the past few weeks we’ve been looking at what it means to be a creation of God and made in the image of God. We’ve talked about recognising the glimmer of God in other people, meeting God in nature, and how we should look after the gift of creation.

But today we’re going to be putting it all to the test.

If you’re anything like me, when the media hit upon a new big issue, suddenly I have a heart felt and strong opinion on this thing that I had never even considered for a second the previous day. I don’t know if it’s just Kiwi’s that have this ability to get worked up into a frenzy over new crazy things on a weekly basis – but it seems to be a reoccurring theme. Yesterday it was whether Pit-bulls should be banned – Right now it’s whether power companies should be able to cut your power off – tomorrow it will be something about whether boy racers will be allowed to wear Burkas while using Nos.

So today we’re going to practise the art of letting God’s perspective shape our opinions on things rather than JUST the media. I’m not saying that we should become bible bashing loonies – but I think we all know that the bias of the Media often give us lopsided feelings on things.

The purpose of today is to help you think through things. It’s not like the bible has a lot specifically to say about some of the issues we find ourselves bumping into in 2007 – but the bible does have things to say – we just have to learn how to hear them. So when the new big issue comes along and someone asks your opinion you don’t just have to parrot John Cambells view on things – but you can try and get inside the mind of God on the subject.

The topic today is Euthanasia. It’s something that cut’s to the heart of what many people fear today – pain, suffering, death, the un controllable, the un known…

It’s a subject that all of us can relate to too because I’m certain that we’ve all know someone who’s died in a slow painful way from a disease or illness. But at the same time it’s something we can afford to share opinions and be challenged about because the chances are non of us will ever be faced with a Euthanasia situation anytime soon.

Now –to clarify, today we’re talking about Active (lethal injection for example) voluntary (the person wants it) or non-voluntary (the person is in a comma but the family wants it) rather than Passive (turning a machine off) euthanasia. So the typical issue is should assisted suicide be legal to allow people to end sufferings, or should our efforts be put into pain relief and allowing people to die when it would occur naturally…

And rather than me giving you my incite into things I’m going to let us go wild discussing, wrestling and throwing new perspectives and ideas around this whole issue – I want your brain to hurt. I want us to use us being God’s creation, made in the image of God, as our starting point.

Discuss the clusters of questions below with the Image of God in mind…

TRINITY & COMMUNITY

• Does Euthanasia fit with how God wants us to live together and care for each other in Community?
• Does killing our sick and old help or hinder our Community?
• Does the Trinity of God (Father, Son, Spirit) tell us anything about how a Community should treat its weakest members?

ANIMALS & HUMANS

• What’s difference does being made in the Image of God make?
• Is it fair to compare what you’d do with a suffering animal and what you’d do with a suffering human being?

WHOSE DECISION IS IT?

• Since we are Creations of God, we are God’s property – we are more like caretakers of our bodies for God. But God also gave us the free will to make our own minds up about things…
• Is it within our rights as God’s creation to take our own lives?
• Is the right time to die a decision that only God can make?

JESUS

• Would Jesus Kill someone out of Compassion?
• Does Euthanasia fit with what the Bible says of Jesus healing and restoring people?
• Does Jesus death on the Cross tell us anything about how to live with suffering?

CREATED ORDER

• Does the Created order have anything to tell us about Euthanasia?
• Is the need to control our deaths something that only Humans desire, or do we see this in other parts of creation?
• What does this tell us?

HISTORY

• Are there any negative or positive social consequence that might arise from allowing Euthanasia?
• Do these consequences fit with how God would want us to view life and living?
• Does history warn us of any dangers?

Now ask yourself this: Did you have an opinion on Euthanasia before we started? Has it changed at all since this discussion?

Read Genesis 1:26-31

We all know that the Earth isn’t feeling to great. Whenever you watch TV or open a newspaper or magazine there is some terrifying new study that seems to say that we’re even more screwed that we thought we were yesterday.

It’s terrifying. Despite our dreams in the 70’s of simply moving onto a new planet and messing that one up – it doesn’t seem to be a real option outside of Hollywood. And finally all those 2nd and 3rd world countries are starting to catch up with our resource hungry western lifestyles… and things aren’t looking good.

If nuclear war was the big concern of last century, then you can ask most people in the street and you’ll get the feeling that the environment is the big concern of this one.

So the question we’re talking about today is, if Jesus were sitting with us today, would he be a greenie? Wearing those khaki shorts and green peace T-shirt, and maybe even with some chains and a padlock in case he runs into a Kauri tree that’s about to be cut down…after all he had a beard!

Now, I’ve heard some people say things like “Well, God’s going to destroy the earth anyway, so what’s the point in trying to look after it?” . I’ve heard TV evangelists saying things like “I’m here to save the Goldfish not clean up the fish bowl.” And this idea that being followers of Jesus is all about getting your soul on a life raft to escape this burning ship called earth before it sinks! All of this obviously leads to a George Bush style “rape and pillage” view of creation.

But today let’s challenge that whole headspace. As we heard today, after God created the earth he said that it was very good! Why would God make something that was very good and then destroy it? That goes against the whole way that God works! The lords prayer says – “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” NOT “may we totally screw up your earth but in the end it’ll be sweet because you’ll nuke it and we’ll all just have a party in heaven, no effort required”. In the bible Paul talks about the fact that the earth is Groaning in child birth as it waits the day when God recreates it a new.

So I’m afraid we have no excuses when it comes to looking after our home planet and I’ll give you three reasons why.

You know when you go for a walk in the bush and the sun hits your face and you get this feeling of being connected to everything… that’s because we’re all part of the same creation of God, and that God is pulsing and giving life through all of the earth. Yes – humanity is special because we’re made in the image of God – but we’re also connected to everything because we’re still part of that same creation. So, we should look after ALL creation because they are like our brothers and sisters of creation. Treat the earth like it’s family.

Secondly, when God created the earth, it was exactly how he wanted it to be – it was perfect. But then us humans came along with our selfishness and self-centred ness and tainted that created order, which means the way things are now aren’t how it was supposed to be, or will be in the future. We are right now living in that messy middle period. When we screwed up the created order, three things changed:
Our relationship with God became a struggle- which is why people so often feel lost and without meaning in life.
Our relationship with each other got messy – which is why we have wars, violence, disputes and affairs rather than just getting along.
And our relationship with creation became tainted which is why humans struggle to live in synch with the environment and we keep wanting more of everything.

So, we shouldn’t be surprised that we mess the Earth up, we mess all our other relationships up after all! BUT, just like we make an effort to do what God says and buck the trend by trying to love people we don’t like or resolving things in non violent ways, and finding time to let God speak to us through the noise of life, we also should find ways to rekindle and re-synch our relationship with the environment. Because that’s how we were originally created to live.

Lastly, in Genesis the bible says that God gave Humans Dominion over the earth. Some people have thought that this has given them God’s license to use and abuse it, and get out of the earth whatever benefits humanity the most – pillage the planet for everything it has to offer because that’s what God wants us to do… But the word Dominion is most commonly used in the bible to talk about the dominion that Kings had over there people – and the bible commanded that a king should neither exalt themselves above other members of the community” Is this really the way we treat our environment? Most of us would say, not really.

So maybe we need to start thinking of our role less as kids going wild with paint and glue and food messing up the lounge because in the end mum and dad will come and clean it up anyway. And more as Caretakers who have been given a gift and responsibly to make sure God’s creation doesn’t get broken on our watch.

And as we take up the challenge of this new job, we shouldn’t feel totally helpless – like it’s all gone to shit already and it’s hopeless – because God has a plan to renew creation! And God also has a vested interest in looking after creation as well as us looking after it – it’s not our solo act to clean up the earth, that giv es us to much credit – so he’ll do his part in helping us as the official caretakers of the earth.

Ask yourself the following questions below regarding these five environmental areas: FOOD, WASTE, AIR, SOIL, ENERGY.

1. What connections come to mind between this area & God?
2. What do you already do regarding this area as God’s caretaker?
3. What are some creative & practical ideas of how members of The Kitchen could take care of this area better?

Read Psalm 19

If I asked you to tell me how many books the Christian faith is based on, most of you would probably say one – that being The Bible. You might say something clever like the lion the witch and the wardrobe or The Matrix… but most of you would say The Bible. Which is a good answer – I’m not saying your all stupid or anything.

But the bible actually talks about TWO books. One of those being The Bible – and the other one being Creation. Both books play an essential role in growing us – but for those of us that don’t like reading all the time, this creation thing is bloody good news!

Now don’t let all those Scientists take the magic of Creation away from you. Whether God took a couple of days or millions of years to do it – the design of creation is undeniable. Just go out and look at the way things fit together – atoms in cells, cells in life forms, life forms in groups, groups within an eco system, eco system within a planet, a planet within a solar system… and I think you get my point. Next time you’re outside – take a look at how things are ordered and just try, honestly believing it all just “happened” to work together. The odds are staggering.

The beauty, the colours, the smells, the tastes, the touches, the synergy of life flowing out of and into one another …non of this can be explained away by calculations… it just is!

But engaging with God through creation isn’t something you do one or two days a year – but it’s something that you practice as a way of life. As you learn to look at creation as a source of insight into God, into his nature, his purpose, the whole divine order of things, you find yourself confronted with an opportunity to do something mind blowing. You are given the opportunity to enter into an encounter with God in which you’re seeking him in an entirely new kind of way.

St. Basil was a guy who lived back in the 300’s – and even back then, he said this. “I want creation to penetrate you with so much admiration that wherever you go, the least plant may bring a clear remembrance of the Creator. One blade of grass or one speck of dust is enough to occupy your entire mind in beholding the art with which it has been made.”

But all this sounds quite romantic doesn’t it – talking about seeing God in creation, but then not really acting like we can learn anything new about him from it. But today I want to challenge that – because we can learn a lot about God just by looking around us…because if God designed it, fashioned it, crafted it, made it, gave it life… then he will have left his mark on it.

A glimmer of his personality. And if our hearts are open to discovering and experiencing him through his creation…then we’ll keep finding out new aspects to God via his creation.

The grass in your backyard can be sacred; dandelion fluff and clicking beetles can be your Holy Mountain. These simple part of life reflect the face and handiwork of God…if we’re willing to search for them.

Go for a walk through creation – intentionally pick up, observe and investigate things as you do. Look at them and ask this question: What Does This Tell Me About God?

Read Genesis Chapter 1

In the beginning God created everything. I’m going to be bold enough to say that it’s not hugely important how God went about creating everything – but the important thing is, that before he had the idea and began creating – there was nothing – no time, no space, no matter, no life as we know it – nothing.

And then God, as the most skilled artist the universe has ever seen, created the ultimate work of art the universe has ever known. After all his meticulous planning, designing and fashioning – he breathed life into all of it – And Genesis tells us,God looked over it all and said it was “very good” – like any satisfied artists would.

If God said it was very good – then you can bet that’s about the biggest understatement of all time. God doesn’t go throwing around words like good or very good like we throw around words like awesome or unbelievable. Very good meant very good on God’s infinite scale of things. Lets just say it’s very high praise. And if God said it was very good, then it’s pretty fair to assume that we should think it’s pretty darn good as well.

Sometimes people seem to talk a bit like physical stuff is bad all the time – that if we could only escape this physical world and be more spiritual then we’d somehow unlock the key to happiness – but that flies in the face of God, since he said that everything he created was very good. God doesn’t make rubbish – everything that god created, he created to be good. Food, drink, smell, taste, sex it’s all good – when we embrace it in the way God intended, it’s very good.

This all isn’t to forget that the way things are now, aren’t different from how God created and intended them to be in the first place –but you only have to go for a bush walk, or feel the sun on your face or have a glass of water to know that God’s creation still sings out with that same Very Goodness that God was talking about in Genesis.

And amongst all of God’s creating, us humans had something very privileged happen to us. We were made in the image of God. The ancient church had a latin name for this – which was Imago Dei.

But what does it mean to me made in the image of god? I mean, none of us feel like Gods. Or look like Gods. And most of us definitely don’t act like Gods. We don’t seem very infinite and when can’t teleport ourselves to Paris on a whim because we want a croissant.

Or does it mean that God looks like us physically? With two arms, and a nose, and a pancreas, and he goes to the toilet. Maybe he’s really big – say 5 stories high and weighing in at around 90 tonne – but he’s got all the same bits as us….just… God-Sized.

What Imago Dei does mean is that the image of God lives inside of us – like the divine imprint of God. That’s the reason we say the word “ought” sometimes. Like “people “ought” to be living in peace rather than fighting wars all the time”, and “people ‘ought’ not be killing babies with blow torches just for fun”. That’s the image of God inside of us telling us how things were created to be. You know when we have those moments when against our better judgement we do things that are right – that’s the image of God in us shining through.

This image of God means that like God we have the free will to choose what we’re going to do. We aren’t just creatures of instinct, doing things out of natural urges. We are creatures of God, who instinctively know the difference between right and wrong – and we have the power to choose to go against that feeling or to go with it.

This image of God means we have the privilege of truly knowing God – we can relate to him personally because we have a bit of his image in side of us.

This image of God inside of us means that we desire and can find meaning and purpose in life because of God’s nature within us. Why are people constantly in search of the meaning of life? Why don’t they just ignore it and get on with life – like a budgey or a cow does. As someone who grew up on a farm, I can tell you that sheep aren’t asking a lot of questions about existence and meaning and “why am I here on earth?”. It’s not because they’re a bung piece of Gods creation – we could actually learn a lot from sheep – but it’s because sheep aren’t made in the image of god. But we are. That’s why everyone keeps asking these questions about meaning – because we have to – because we’re made in the image of God. We’re programmed to search for meaning…because there is meaning.

CS Lewis once put it like this – we get hungry, therefore bread must exist. We hunger for meaning and God – therefore meaning and God exist.

Yes, to be frank, us human beings are pretty shitty sometimes. But we were also hand made by God. He crafted us out of his own hands. He poured his energy into us. He breathed life into us. He created us in his image. And he looked at us and said we were very good.

Click on the image below. Written on the card are a handful of the attributes of God which can be seen in all humans – Christian or Not. Choose a few of these qualities and share with each other people who you’ve seen examples of this in. The image of God is present in everyone…learn to recognise it in your everyday life.

Something that’s always puzzled me about this whole Jesus dying on the cross thing has been a one word question. Why?

Why did he have to die? How did it change things? If Jesus could control the weather and spit mud into a blind guys eyes and heal him – why couldn’t he have just pulled off one of those tricks to sort this whole sin thing out? And what did dying horrifically on a cross do that something else slightly more pleasant couldn’t? I mean, surely he could have chosen to die in his sleep right?

Sadly I don’t have any grand answer. The bible gives us lot of different pictures and images of what Jesus’ death on the cross was about – but it doesn’t’ seem to be a case of one size fits all. And whatever the exact reason behind it all was, it seems that God’s kept the way it all fits together to himself, at least for now.

But since Easter has just gone and Anzac day is almost here – funnily enough I think we might find some answers to this question of “Why” when we look at them side by side.

Anzac day is essential to what makes us Kiwi. As some of our Anzac memorials say “Greater love has no man than he who gave up his life for his friends”. Our young men dying with and for their friends. Dying to save a nation, to purchase freedom for Mother England and her Commonwealth family.

Anzac day gave New Zealand the twenty-first keys to our nationhood. It is a day of pride. It is a day of sacrifice, as our young men died on foreign shores. It is a day of waste, as life bled away for the follies of war and tactics that reduced Gallipoli to a meaningless side show. Today, Anzac Day is a kiwi symbol of identity through sacrifice.

But identity in sacrifice is shared not only in Anzac Day. It is also the symbol of the Cross. A young carpenter dying for his friends. A wasted life bleeding away. An innocent man dying to save a nation, to purchase freedom for his grieving mother and friends.

So this identity through sacrifice is a shared symbol of us kiwis as a nation, and also as followers of Jesus in our faith.

Anzac day is a day of participation. We stand united and gain identity as new Zealanders from the innocence of past sacrifice. For the Christian, Anzac Day is Communion. A day essential to our identity. A day to lay a wreath for a dead carpenter, to bow a lonely trumpet, to remember sacrifice and waste. A day to stand together in unity. A chance for us to identify with, and gain identity from innocent sacrifice.

Anzac Day pulls back a curtain, and spotlights a shared symbol of identity between both Christians and Kiwis. And maybe we can enrich our own understanding of Jesus’ death on the cross by looking closer at why Anzac day has impacted our nation the way it has.

Listen for the undertones of Jesus on the Cross in this ANZAC Dedication recorded in the 1950’s…

Click on the image below. Read each verse and idea about Jesus on the Cross, and try and think how this idea can also be true for the soldiers at Gallipoli… If you get stuck on any of them, try reading through one of the relevant thoughts or quotes in the Cheat Sheet below to help get you in the zone.

Finish by reading the quote by Ataturk…it’s an incredibly powerful display of forgiveness that can teach us all something.

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CHEAT SHEET

Voluntary Sacrifice: Those who first went to war, choose to go and were not conscripted.

New Community: Pugsley “Men went as the Taihape, Clive or Ashburton Boys, yet would return from Gallipoli and Chunuk Bair as New Zealanders…”

Victory over Evil: Ultimate victory over evil powers and ambitions.

Freedom: Those left behind had to hear about the terrible war that they could do nothing about – but because of there victory we are now free.

Hope among the Ashes of Death: An apparently futile war lead to an ultimate victory. The poppy is a symbol of a hope of peace arising from the carnage of war… a bit like the lords supper.

Honour and Glory: Their death has lead to exaltation and honour among kiwis.

Forgiveness Between People: Ataturk, Turkish Prime minister “Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives… You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours… you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land. They have become our sons as well.

(the content of this session is largely “borrowed” from the work of Steve Taylor.)

Last week someone asked a very good question. How can we be a Christian around non-Christians without being a dick. How do we meld these two worlds together?

Hence why today we’re exploring a subject that may well be a world first. And it’s a term that I’ve coined, called Christian Dick Syndrome.

No, it’s not some kind of strange religious STD. A Christian Dick is the way that some Christians, and only some I might add, have this way of saying or being that makes you wonder if they really get what Jesus was on about at all. They tend to deal in strong words of judgement, but aren’t so good at radical acts of love.

Normal folk look on in terror and amusement at Christian Dicks, counting their lucky stars that they themselves aren’t stuck being Christians. But before we get on our high horses, I’m even pretty sure that quite a few of us at some stage have been Christian Dicks ourselves – or at least had Christian Dick moments that we shudder when we think about. I certainly do.

But is becoming a Dick just part and parcel with being a Christian? Well I don’t think so…

Christian Dicks think they have all the answers and are willing to share them at any moment…They think they’re just a bit better than everyone else even though they’d never admit it…they aren’t willing to engage in relationships with people who society views as losers because it might make them look bad… and they’d rather cut themselves off from reality than risk being contaminated by real, alive, normal, everyday people….

None of us are like that right? So surely we’re in the clear! Hmmmm….before you think this following Jesus thing is an easy add on to your social life, I’m afraid you’ll have to think again.

Lets be honest, now days it’s actually incredibly hard to be someone that believes something. It’s much more popular to not be tied down to anything – whether it be spiritual beliefs, a political party or your internet service provider. People live for flexibility, so as soon as you say you believe something you’re sticking your neck out. And all of us want to accepted by our pears – none of us want to be rejects.

But… Jesus did say we should be in the World, but not of it. And in the verse we just heard (Matthew 5:10-16) Jesus hits us over the head with the idea that we should be prepared to suffer and be scoffed at and be lied about if we choose to follow him.

Here’s what I think Jesus is getting at. He’s saying we should fit in, but at the same time, stick out a bit. This doesn’t mean you should be a social retard for Jesus – in fact in some ways it means the opposite. You can’t get to really know people unless you really live with them. Not as some holier than thou, stand offish person, claiming to have the answers – but someone who shares there life with other people – laughs with them, cries with them, eats with them, listens to the same music, is interested in the same things.

Look at Jesus! He didn’t stay up there in the clouds looking down on us with binoculars in disgust – but instead he became human and got amongst it!

Christian Dicks have this way of being noticed– but not for the right reasons. They’re always at arms reach – never willing to get involved in the dirt but always ready to give instructions on how the clean up operation should go.

This is nothing like what Jesus told us to live like. The measure of a good Christian shouldn’t be on how much someone knows about theology, or how much someone reads the bible, or how much they go to church…they’re all good things – but the main way that a Christian should be judged – is by the way that we treat other people.

Jesus said that We are to be the light and salt to the world! That’s a pretty hefty burden. He’s got to be kidding right? Us guys, sitting in this room, are the best plan that Jesus could come up with. No billboards, no myspace profile, no readers digest “you could win $120,000 dollars and you’ll get this free watch”… It’s us.

So as opposed to taking the Christian Dick approach of telling people what they should be doing, we have a much harder job – we have to BE the message. We have to look after the weak, fight for justice for the oppressed, befriend the unpopular, like the un likeable.

Unlike the Christian Dicks, we have to fit in by being a huge part of peoples lives.

But at the same time we need to stick out by the way we treat those people we share our lives with.

This might mean making some counter-cultural, counter-social actions sometimes. Sticking up for people when it would be easier to run them down with the rest of the mob. And it might mean we’ll have to take a bit of flack from people because we’re the one’s who go against the grain when it would be easier just to pass judgment, rather than actually help out.

But the truth is, the only reason that people will diss us for being caring, loving, ethical, right living people is because deep down they know that you’re doing the right thing – and that by you going around look out for people sort of shows them up.

Click on the images below. Each one details a potentially challenging situation and then shows a typical response that a “Christian Dick Syndrome Sufferer” and a “Regular Non-Christian Kiwi Hipster” might have. Think about the situation – and creatively imagine how you would be the light and salt of Jesus in this situation.