Anglican Parish of Millmerran/Leyburn with Yandilla

11/06/2023

Wonderful service and morning tea with our regional Bishop Cam. Even Bailey was included. Very blessed.

25/03/2023

Bailey passed with flying colours with Denise today.

12/03/2023

Wonderful morning tea to celebrate a special ladies birthday. One of our loved parishioners may she have a wonderful day and a blessed year. Happy 🎂

16/12/2022

Our Christmas lights Blessings to all this Christmas time

28/08/2022

Wonderful weekend with 25/49 celebrating the 80th anniversary of Milne Bay.

29/01/2022

Hi All again. I hope to be with you on the 2nd Sunday of February for our usual Church Times. We look forward to seeing you all there. Leyburn and Millmerran.
Blessings

Padre David.

Please enjoy the following.

Luke 4:21-30I
21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” 24 And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers[a] in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
This is the Gospel of the Lord.

________________________________________

‘But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.’
Luke 4:30
Most Anglicans know that when a rector leaves a parish to accept another call or perhaps to retire, the parish itself, with the assistance of the bishop, must find a new rector. Most people also know that this can be a long and sometimes arduous process for the parish community. Because of this, the bishop will often send a seasoned priest to serve as interim Locum during the transition, providing reassurance and continuity, and preparing the parish for new pastoral leadership and the changes that it will inevitably bring. I have been Locum for Millmerran for the last 12 years. Also Locum for Oakey for the last 4 years.
The Church has come to recognize the value of Locum ministry as well as the difficulty and challenge faced by clergy who engage in it. After all, the Locum does not stay in one place long enough to form the kinds of lifelong relationships most people cherish in their churches and communities. In Locum ministry, no one church is home for long. Sometimes jokingly referred to as faster pastors Locum clergy are seemingly always on the move. Pastoral relationships are telescoped in time, and priests and people are constantly aware of the fleeting nature of their work and task. But in that, they are also reminded of the transitory nature of life itself.
A skilled Locum can help parishes achieve things they might never accomplish on their own. An honest look at the parish’s history, for example, can reveal its strengths over the decades as well as its vulnerabilities. Likewise, opportunities for mission and ministry may be discovered in places long overlooked or never before explored. Pastoral transitions also provide an excellent opportunity to challenge old ways of thinking that may no longer work and to reaffirm the parish’s commitment to the ministry of the wider Church beyond its own parish boundaries.
Of course, some people resist change no matter how sorely needed. They feel threatened by innovations and new ideas, while tradition and long-standing custom provide them comfort in a world of constant flux and instability. Newcomers and strangers — including Locum’s — may end up disrupting decades of routine in a particularly close-knit and enmeshed community.
Today’s account from the Gospel of Luke continues last Sundays story of Jesus sermon preached in the synagogue of his hometown, Nazareth. Jesus starts out just fine. All spoke well of him, we are told, and were amazed at his gracious words. But it is not long before he gets himself into trouble. His references to the widow at Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian, both foreigners and gentiles, serve to infuriate Jesus’s townsfolk. For these episodes imply to them the need for a change of attitude and an acceptance of those who are different. And the people of Nazareth are emphatically not ready for that. We read that they drove him out of the town. Jesus barely escapes with his life and sums up, ‘No prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.’
Rebuffed at Nazareth, Jesus hits the road, traversing ancient Palestine and preaching a Gospel of repentance and forgiveness to anyone who will listen. Some settled pastors and rectors might well identify with Jesus’s frustration as they minister year after year to people who have perhaps become inured or even oblivious to the Gospel message of mission and proclamation. The temptation might be to move on. After all, Jesus himself seems happier in itinerant ministry than in the settled life of a long-term rector.
Following Jesus requires changes in accustomed ways of thinking about the world and about home. It requires a readiness for transformation and a new Spirit that embraces the exile and the outcast as cherished members of the family. Jesus himself was homeless — exiled from his own land. As he says in another Gospel passage, ‘Foxes have holes, and the birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’
Home is an elusive concept, of course. After all, it is hard to think of the people of Jesus’s village as the sort one would really want to be at home with in the first place. Their self-serving expediency is not a family value anyone would cherish, then or now. No wonder Jesus passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Most of us readily identify with the sentiment expressed in proverbs and sayings such as there’s no place like home, and home, sweet home. But amid an epidemic of violence at home and in the streets of our towns and cities, we also recognize that for many people nowadays there is nothing at all sweet about that place called home. Even poets and writers of our own age are ambivalent on the subject. Home is the place, Robert Frost tells us with a note of irony, where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. Thomas Wolfe, the great American novelist of the last century, says simply, ;You can’t go home again.
The old expression, home is where the heart is perhaps best expresses a Gospel outlook, for it recognizes that our true home is not a house or a town or a dot on the map, but a dwelling and abode found only in our hearts. No matter our connections to our place of origin or current physical surroundings, it is only the geography of the human heart that matters. As Jesus reminds us, ‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’
Ultimately for followers of Christ, anyplace and everyplace can be home. The early Christians sensed this as they referred to their newly embraced faith not as home or shelter or even castle but as the way or the path. As Christians, we are all spiritual nomads, bathed in baptism at the Jordan, making our way out across the desert of the soul, and seeking acceptance and welcome at the nearest oasis or village. We offer in return the Gospel message of life and freedom.
Assistant bishops, rectors, Locums, and priests-in-charge come and go. But as our children grow up and move out, as jobs and other commitments take loved ones far away, and as our friends depart from us, we remember where home really is. We remember that we are still people of the way. Even if we never leave home, we are all interim lay people, wayfarers who have come together for a while in the Lord’s presence to be nourished for our journey.
And because we are all guests, we must learn, in turn, to welcome others as we ourselves would wish to be welcomed. Together, let us now strike camp and set out yet again on our journey, seeking our true home with the God and Father of us all.
Amen

26/01/2022

Happy Australia Day. Let us pray for our nation in this time of COVID-19. Also not forgetting our first nation brothers and sisters at this time as well. We must all listen to each other and respect each others views. Blessings to this Great South Land.

15/01/2022

Well here we are again, another Sunday not meeting together, my prayers and thoughts are with yo all this difficult time.
I hope you enjoy my sermon for this week with my and our families blessings
Padre David.

A READING FROM JOHN 2:1-11
(NIV) On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee.
Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been
invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said
to him, "They have no more wine."

"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not
yet come."

His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for
ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they
filled them to the brim.

Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of
the banquet."

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had
been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from,
though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called
the bridegroom aside and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine
first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much
to drink; but you have saved the best till now."

This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in
Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their
faith in him.

L This is the gospel of the Lord.
P Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

SERMON: "The First Sign"

O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds
and the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the
thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen.
Amen.

A small boy was asked by a visiting relative if he attended Sunday school.
When he said he did, he was asked, "What are you learning?"

"Last week," came the reply, "our lesson was about when Jesus went
to a wedding and made water into wine."

"And what did you learn from that story?" the relative inquired.

After thinking for a moment, the lad answered, "If you're having a
wedding, make sure Jesus is there!"

You know, that is pretty profound advice. It is a good thing to have Jesus
at our wedding ceremonies, indeed it is good to have Jesus everywhere that is of significance to our lives.

The gospel today about how the wine ran out at the wedding in Cana - and
how Mary asks Jesus to do something about it - and he does - ends with
these words:

“This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in
Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their
faith in him.”

He thus revealed his glory -
and his disciples put their faith in them.

The gospel of John speaks often about signs and about faith.

Signs as you all know point to something -
for those with eyes to see - they testify to something that is greater than
they are -
and it is that greater thing we are meant to grasp - and not simply the
sign itself.

The first sign that Jesus did points to many things about himself and what
he was about.
I would just like to mention a few this morning.

First - Jesus' turning water into wine is itself a picture of all that he
came to do. Jesus takes what is and shows us that it has the possibility
to become something else. What is - that which is tired, worn out, devoid
of joy, empty, and lacking purpose - can be transformed. It can be turned
into something rich, fragrant, and ripe with the fullness of joy through his presence, through his care.

There is a lot of gospel in that for all of us. Jesus can bring new life.
He can fill the emptiness in our lives - he can take whatever it is that
we bring to him - no matter how little - or how much - and utterly remake
it - giving to it a Saviour - a taste - the is beyond the best that we ourselves are capable of providing.

Second - John notes that the wine came from the huge thirty-gallon jugs
that stood full of water at the front of the house, vessels that were used
by observant Jews to fulfill the rules on ceremonial washing. Even a
wedding feast had to honour the rituals of cleansing. Jesus transformed
those six jugs, ponderous symbols of the old way, into wineskins,
harbingers of the new. From the purified water of the Pharisees came the
choice new wine of a whole new era. The time for ritual cleansing had
passed; the time for celebration had begun.

Third - the Gospel story emphasizes the abundance of Jesus' provision of
wine. The wedding guests went from having no wine at all to having almost
enough to swim in. Now, the age of the Messiah was long expected to be one
of abundance - one in which the wine of joy - the cup of salvation - would
always be full and overflowing. Thus this miracle is a sign, for those who
have eyes to see, of Jesus' Messiahship. He is the long-awaited deliverer
of Israel. He is the one who will purify Israel and all people. He
provides more than is needed.

Fourth - the miracle takes place at a wedding feast. Marriage has long
been a symbol of the relationship between God and the people of God. We
can notice that in this morning's reading from the Book of Isaiah, where
the prophet tells us that at the time of Israel's restoration and
vindication, God will take delight in them and their land will be married.
As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a
bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.

The fact that the first sign that Jesus did - was at a wedding would not be
lost on people. It was their belief that at the time of salvation that God
would provide a table for feasting for his servants and a cup that would
never run dry. That imagery is in fact present in the much loved twenty-
third Psalm of David whose final verses say

“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I
will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

Fifth, in this, his first sign, Jesus also stresses the place of his
mother, Mary, in the work of redemption. It is Mary who triggers Jesus'
first act of public ministry by saying to him: "They have no wine." It was
a simple request showing that she trusted that her son would immediately
respond and help. Jesus' response to her seemed slightly brusque. He
said, "Woman, what is that to me and you; my hour has not yet come."

The only other place where Jesus calls his mother "woman" is at his passion
as she stood beneath the cross. Then he handed her over to the care of John
and made her the mother of all of us. Our original mother was
the "woman" Eve. But Eve, as woman, handed down to us original sin and
death. In calling his mother "Woman," Jesus seems to be saying, "You are
the new Eve. As it was promised to her that her seed would crush the head
of the serpent - so through you I have come to do that which has been
promised - I have come to overwhelm sin and death with righteousness and
life."

Which leads me to the last thing I want you to note this day about this,
the first sign that Jesus did.

The miracle at Cana is, among other things, a preview of the last Supper,
the hour when Jesus transforms not water into wine
but wine into blood, his blood shed for all humanity.

By telling Mary "my hour has not yet come" Jesus links what she is asking
him to do with his sacrifice on the cross.

The best wine is saved for the last - the wine of salvation
- a salvation won for us completely by Christ Jesus when he gave up his
life for us,
- a salvation that is not just for one day, or the one week during which a
wedding is celebrated,
- but forever.

Mary tells the servants in today's reading to "Do whatever Jesus tells
you."
That is what faith is all about,
responding to the words of Jesus, trusting that his word will be fulfilled,
trusting that as he transformed the water of purification in the wine of
joy, so he will transform us and lead us into the kingdom
where the best is not only saved for the last, but where the best lasts.

The best is yet to come! The glory of God is at hand. Blessed be
the name of God, day by day. Amen.

09/01/2022

I had a baptism Yesterday at Oakey Love this.

In The Episcopal Church, the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord (which is always the First Sunday after the Epiphany) is considered a day especially appropriate for the Sacrament of Baptism.

09/01/2022

Well here we are again not seeing each other for this next month and who knows when. Please keep in touch with each other during this time, keep safe and healthy and I have a sermon to share with you from this morning that did not happen. Blessings to all Padre David.

Luke 3:15-22
15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah,[a] 16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with[b] the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people. 19 But Herod the ruler,[c] who had been rebuked by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added to them all by shutting up John in prison.
The Baptism of Jesus
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved;[d] with you I am well pleased.”

SERMON: "To Fulfil All Righteousness"

Let us Pray: Bless O God, the words of my lips and the
meditations of our hearts that they be of profit to us and
acceptable to thee, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

It is the message of the cross that we proclaim
- of the cross and the resurrection;
yet for many of us proclaiming the message is difficult.

We know what the message is
- but we find it difficult to express it to others,
- to get others to really feel and sense the importance of it,
sometimes, even to get others to listen to us.

It is about this last - about getting others to listen to us, that I want
to speak of today and I want to do so by looking at one of the great
riddles of Jesus' life - the riddle of his baptism.

Theologians, scholars, and just plain people like you and I are puzzled as
to why Jesus was baptized.

Jesus himself tells us that he was baptized to "fulfil all
righteousness", but that term is never explained by him, and there is
nothing else in the passage to help us understand why Jesus, who was
sinless, received, at John's hands, a baptism for the repentance of sins.

What theologians and bible scholars are all agreed on however, is the
fact that the baptism of Jesus by John at the Jordan marked the beginning
of his ministry - it was his debut as it were - his coming out ceremony -
and that at the end of it he received the approval of God, who speaks
from heaven, and says: "this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well
pleased."

There is no question that the baptism of Jesus was a significant event, a
turning point in his life and through him - a turning point in our own
lives.

So what does the baptism of Jesus show us? How does understanding it
lead us to being more able to communicate the gospel to others - to be
able to get others to listen to us?

The answer is contained in the reason that Jesus gave for his baptism
when John says to him - in verse 14 of Matthews rendition of the Baptism of Jesus reading:

"I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"

and Jesus responds

"let it be so, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all
righteousness."

Righteousness is an interesting word.

It is found 232 times in the bible - and in close to half of these
occurrences it refers to the righteousness of God - to his love and his
justice, to his saving activities and purposes.

In other words, contrary to the popular understanding, the word
"righteousness" does not primarily refer to someone who is living a good
life, rather it refers to a state in which the way of redemption is
actively offered or illustrated by someone.

To be righteous is not just to be good - it is to be in the right kind of
relationship with God and with others - to be a relationship which brings
salvation, which brings wholeness, which brings the good news of God's
love, to others.

Righteousness is something active - not simply a description of one's
moral state.

Proverbs 11:4 says
- "Righteousness delivers from death."

and again in Proverbs 15:9 we read,
- "God loves the one who pursues righteousness"

and in Proverbs 21:3 we see these words
- "To do righteousness and justice, is more acceptable to God than
sacrifice."

So when Jesus says to John:
- "let it be so, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all
righteousness"
what he is saying is
- "do it, it is a good thing to do - because in this way we will
go further towards saving others, we will deliver them from death,
we will make God's loving purpose more evident, more accessible to
others."

And indeed the baptism of Jesus does help bring the healing word of God
to others, and it shows us, as well, how the saving message of Jesus is
best delivered.

There are three points I would like make to today. (Yep - I do
occasionally give an old fashioned three-point sermon)

First - the baptism of Jesus shows us that Jesus truly did not count
equality with God a thing to be grasped - to be held on to. His baptism,
there in the muddy old Jordan - shows that he identifies with us and with
our sins - and not only with God and God's perfection.

Jesus did not need to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins - all agree
about this - but he chose this path - he chose to be seen with us - as
one of us - because in this way - so Jesus says - righteousness is
fulfilled.

Pause for a moment and think about this with me.

Each one of us here has had pronounced upon us the forgiveness and
acceptance of God, we need not have anything more to do with thinking
about ourselves as sinners.

In fact, according to the bible, we can think of ourselves as chosen by
God, as being selected by him for glory. Yet, think some more with me -
in our communication with others - with those who have not yet really
listened to the word of God's love - would this be helpful?

Who gets the better hearing?
- The perfect person, the one who has never made a mistake?
- Or the one who can stand and say - I know where you have been, let me
help you. I know how difficult it is.

In his baptism Jesus identifies with us.
He shows us the way of righteousness,
the way of saving others, is a way of empathy and understanding -
of putting ourselves in someone else's shoes.

Jesus does not "lord" his superior knowledge or virtue over others.

Instead, he sits with them in their homes, he eats their food, he answers
their questions, he laughs with them in their joy, and he cries with them
in their grief. And with them, and with us, he descends to the Jordan
and is washed for the forgiveness of sins.

Do you want to proclaim the message and be heard in it as was Jesus?

Then you need to identify with the people you are speaking to. You need
to remember how you have "been there" before, and if you have not
actually, been there - well, you still need to try to put yourself in the
other persons shoes, and try to really understand what it is going on in
their hearts as well as in their heads.

True communication can't be done in an atmosphere of judgement,
it requires understanding, acceptance, and the willingness to link hearts
and minds together.

Secondly - Jesus shows us in his baptism that it is important to go beyond
ourselves when seeking to do the work of God - he shows us that we should
turn to God and seek God's help when we are trying
to point the way to God to others.

Jesus seeks John out at the Jordan river - it is no accident that he is
there.

Jesus deliberately goes to a place where God's power and love were being
proclaimed and he asks for that power and that love to be poured out upon
him in a special act - an act performed by a special man - a man who was
filled with God's spirit.

It is then, and only then, after this has been done, that Jesus goes on
to help others.

We often forget this in our attempt to communicate to others the love of
God.

We want to tell the story of Jesus,
we want to share the salvation of God,
but we ignore, neglect, or just plain downgrade the resources of our
faith.

We speak to others - but we do not prepare ourselves to speak:
- we do not pray for God's help,
- we do not pause to ask ourselves what Jesus would have said or done
in this circumstance,
- we do not call upon God's power to assist us in touching their
hearts.

Further, when we speak with others we all too often do not offer them
anything special.
- we do not show them anything different than that which they already
have.
- we do not offer anything that they have not already been offered.

Too often we offer common sense, pop psychology, and the wisdom we
receive from self-help books -- instead of the way of God that is found
in the bible and in our traditions.

My friends, the gospel we seek to communicate,
the saving message we want to share,
the righteousness we are called to fulfil with Jesus,
is not something that is based on a "self help" model.

Salvation is something that ultimately comes from beyond us.
Righteousness is something that is given to us by God,
given as gift through the very Jesus whose baptism we are looking at
today.

When Jesus wanted to make a beginning, he turned to a spiritual resource.

When he wanted to fulfil all righteousness, he turned to a spiritual man
speaking spiritual words. When he wanted to communicate a spiritual
message he was first baptized in a spiritual river
- the river Jordan through which Israel had passed to enter the Holy
Land.

Jesus turned to these things, and he also pointed them out to others -
which leads me to the last point.

Thirdly - Jesus in his baptism reminds us that we need to set the example.

Jesus was, above all things, authentic in his communications.

When he spoke of being able to help us carry our burdens
- he had already experienced the same trials and tribulations as we do,
When he spoke of how trusting in God could help one overcome anxiety,
- he had already trusted in God for his daily bread, his physical safety,
and his spiritual power.

People listened to Jesus
- not just because he understood and identified with him,
- and not just because he pointed out the way to God
but also, because he lived his own message.

He didn't just tell others to turn to God
- he himself sought out God blessings: at the Jordan
and in lonely places away from others
- and regularly in places of worship - the synagogues on the Sabbath
each week and at the temple at Passover Time.

He didn't just tell others to pray for people,
- he himself prayed for them.
- as he did for the disciples before going out to the Garden of
Gethsemane.

He didn't just tell others to forgive each other,
- he himself forgave them
- even from the cross when he was during his agony.

He didn't just tell others how important it was to heal others
- he himself did healings.
He spat on the clay and anointed a beggar’s eyes.
He reached out and touched the lepers.
He laid his hands upon the sick and anointed them with his prayers.

Jesus did everything he asked others to do.
And he was respected for this,
And he was heard by many because of it.

My friends - not everyone will listen to us.

No matter how good we are, how righteous we are, there will be some who
will take offense at us - as they did at Jesus. But the message of Jesus
to us is that we ought to be trying as he did.

And when we do
when we humble ourselves - like Jesus - and identify with others,
when we tell others about the source of saving power and go to it
and accept it for ourselves
then God will be well pleased with us.
And his Spirit will indeed be seen to rest upon us as it did upon Jesus

Thanks be to God - for his living word - Jesus Christ our Saviour
And for his Spirit - which gives up power day by day. Amen

08/01/2022

Dear All,
As our COVID 19 situation worsens in our area iy has been decided that Church services for January be cancelled. We will decide early February when we can start our services again. Please keep in touch with each other and keep safe. There are services available on line in our area so please join them if you can. Blessings to all in this troubled time.
Padre David Snape.