21/12/2025
Dear friends, today is 4th Sunday of Advent and Christmas is just around the corner. As this appears to be the last time I’m standing here before you to give a sermon, I will try to address, the best I can, the homophobic Bondi shooting and my departure from St Matthew’s as your pastor.
These topics in turn need to be in the wider context of Advent time, when we are waiting for our Saviour and Redeemer. Advent time is supposed to be a time of peace and joy, of preparing ourselves for the coming of our humble King, first as a helpless human child and then, riding a donkey to Jerusalem, into His torture and crucifixion.
As a Swiss theologian Karl Barth has said, Christ’s way towards us always takes place through His departure.1 And, as a German theologian Jürgen Moltmann has said, Christ's coming is an ongoing promise fulfilled through the resurrection and so, every true coming is thus also giving up.2 Christ indeed gave up His divine form to be born as a human, and He gave up His human form when He was crucified for our sake.
And yet, in these recent days we have been faced with the homophobic terror attack, targeted at the Jewish Festival of Hanukkah that commemorates the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, that took place in the 2nd century BC.
Hanukkah lasts for 8 nights and days and each night is marked by lighting a Hanukkah menorah, a nine-branched candelabrum containing spaces for 8 ceremonial lights plus one additional candle, the shámash, meaning ‘attendant’, which is used to light the others.
The Archbishop Makarios has addressed the Bondi shooting with these words: “Any action that offends the sanctity of human life is reprehensible, let alone undermines our peaceful coexistence, which constitutes a fundamental conquest of Australian society… There can be no holiness in murder.”3
There can be no holiness in murder, but there can be holiness in self-sacrifice as the Church History has plentifully shown. Christian faith does not teach us to polish our skills in the Philippine terrorist camp, then take up hunting rifles and start randomly shooting down peaceful people.
Christian faith teaches us to give ourselves and be humble. Just as Christ the King was humble, riding to Jerusalem on a little donkey. Just as Apostle Paul was humble, declaring that it is no longer I that lives, but Christ who lives in me. And just as the Forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist was humble.
John did not try to gain followers for himself, but instead declared: “bear fruits worthy of repentance… I indeed baptise you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
As Martin Luther writes in his sermon for the 4th Sunday in Advent: “John’s confession comprises two things: First, his confessing, and secondly, his not denying. His confessing is his declaration about Christ, when he says, ‘I am not the Christ’… his confession is free and open… confessing that he is not the Christ, and not denying that he is the voice preparing his advent… He did not desire to draw the people to himself, but to lead them to Christ”.
In the same spirit, during my years here at St Matthew’s, I have not aspired to be a great leader, looking down my nose and telling everyone what they should be doing for their own good. Instead, I have preferred to be a humble donkey rather than a fierce war horse and have tried simply to offer you the Word of God, as this is the source from which all true blessings flow.
A war horse is a sign of strength, conquering and domination. A donkey signifies peace and servitude, he walks at a slow and unnoticeable pace. And so, I thank you all for allowing me to be not the long-awaited king, but just a humble road-worker, preparing the way for the king.
God’s plan for us had been in the making since before our creation. A long time ago, the Psalmist prayed: “Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, And upon the son of man, whom You strengthened for Yourself… You will give us life, and we will call upon Your name”.
And, Prophet Isa foretold: “the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and you shall call His name Immanuel”.
The 2nd and 3rd Advent Sundays are traditionally focused on John the Baptist. A German painter Matthias Grünewald painted his Isenheim Altar in 1512-1516. He painted his masterpiece for the Antonine monastery near Colmar, France, who specialised in caring for the sick, suffering from many skin diseases, including the plague sufferers.
Grünewald, whose name means ‘green forest’, finished his altarpiece a year before Luther nailed his theses to the church door in Wittenberg, and he is venerated as an artist and a saint, along with Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach by the Lutheran Church.
On his altar painting, Grünewald has John the Baptist, whose unnaturally long, lumpy, bony and skinny finger is pointing to Christ. Historically speaking, John could not have witnessed the Crucifixion of Christ as he had already been decapitated before. But Grünewald positions John below the Cross of Christ in order to say: the prophet does not live in chronological, but in God’s time.
There is a lamb before John’s feet with Latin words written on the ribbon: He must increase and I must decrease. There is a theological truth here that a true witness will not draw attention to himself, but directs it to Christ. There is a tension between the Cross and the Baptist to signify that the man in decreasing for the Light to increase.
So now, on the last Advent Sunday, we look at the events, immediately preceding our Lord’s birth. An angel of the Lord appears before Joseph and tells him: Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
The time of profound change is about to take place. God Himself will enter our human history and change its course forever, by becoming one of us. The time of great joy is almost upon us.
As Apostle Paul proclaims: God made a promise “through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name”.
And, as Luther says, “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth greatly rejoice… Before the face of the Lord; for He is coming, For He is coming to judge the earth; He shall judge the world in righteousness, And the peoples with His truth… Christ… gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works”.
This child, born of the Virgin Mary, is Immanuel, meaning “God with us”. What God had promised in the OT, He has realised in the Incarnation of His Son. The Gospel also reveals the Trinity, for it is from God the Father, it concerns His Son, and it is according to the Holy Spirit.
A child is born and named Jesus, but the truth of His divinity, which had been veiled from the world, shall be revealed fully in His Passion and Resurrection. It is only Christ’s Passion, that will reveal the true meaning of His birth as a human child.
Luther further writes in his sermon: “We insist, therefore, that the Gospel, through which Christ has come into all the world, is the last message before the day of judgment; before this message and advent of Christ John came and prepared the way. John tells them to prepare the way of the Lord.”
The time has come for me as your pastor to depart in peace. I hope I have been like this bony, lumpy and skinny finger of John, pointing to Christ. My leaving does not mean that Christ is departing. On the contrary, Christ is on the move, He is approaching. He is out, looking for new donkeys, new clothes, new voices who would sing out with joy: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest!
May God give us hope and joy this coming Christmas time, as we hear in awe these amazing words: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel”.
To conclude, His Excellency, Makarios has provided us with clear guidance in regards to the Bondi shooting: “We are all obliged to struggle resolutely against every form of intolerance, fanaticism, and violence, and to proclaim unequivocally that whoever kills while invoking God does not serve their faith but betrays it. There can be no sanctity in murder.”4
I would like to end with a Jewish prayer. Ribbono Shel Olam, Creator of the world, Source of life and breath, Our hearts are broken before You.
We mourn the holy souls taken in violence at Bondi Beach men, women, and children who gathered in light and trust, who came to fulfill a mitzvah, to sanctify Your name in public,
and whose joy was shattered by terror.
Receive their neshamot with mercy. Welcome them into Olam Haba. Yehi zichram baruch.
May their memories be for a blessing.
We lift our prayers for the wounded and the traumatized, for those whose bodies ache
and for those whose spirits now carry fear and sorrow. Send them a refuah shleimah: healing of body, mind, and soul. Surround them with compassion, strength, and hope in the long days ahead.
Hashem, In a moment meant for illumination, darkness tried to prevail. Yet we refuse to let terror define us. As our ancestors lit flames in the shadow of destruction, so too will we continue to kindle light, publicly and proudly.
Bless the Jewish community in Sydney and Jewish communities everywhere with courage instead of fear, with unity instead of fracture and isolation, with resolve instead of silence.
May the light of Chanukah pierce the darkness, may justice and peace take root, and may the day come soon when weapons are set aside, when hatred loses its voice, and when Jewish people can gather in safety to celebrate life, faith, and joy. Ken yehi ratzon. May this be Your will.5
1 Barth, Karl, 1953.
2 Moltmann, Jürgen, 1972.
3 https://greekorthodox.org.au/statement-of-the-archbishop-of-australia-and-the-holy-eparchial-synod-on-the-terrorist-attack-in-sydney/.
4 Ibid.
5 https://www.australianjewishnews.com/a-prayer-for-bondi-beach/amp/.
