The Lenten Fast…
(in the words of Pope Francis)
The Prodigal Son Luke 15.11-32
Sermon at St Peter’s Wellington, 30.3.25
Bishop Richard Randerson
richardrandersonnz [at] gmail.com
Best known of Jesus’ parables? Known as the prodigal son, also the lost son and the waiting father.
Three characters – father, elder and younger brothers (But think more
inclusively of parents and siblings).
KEY QUESTION: With whom do we
identify?
Prodigal Son– lavish, wild spending. wine, women and song. Deserted by friends.
Do we identify with him, past or present??
Lost son – types of “lost”
Most of us could identify with some loss, past or present.
The Waiting Father (or mother)
Do we identify with the father?
The elder brother (or sister)
We can identify with all three characters
Rewards? = Parties good but ultimately
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
Living on the Fault Line – Aotearoa’s bicultural future,Quentin Wilson Publishing, February 2025. The book picks up the themes of his 2022 book Becoming Pākehā, but set in the new context created by the Treaty Principles Bill, and exploring how we might become a more effective and informed partner in that debate. It also offers a deeper look at the richness of our Pākehā cultural and religious history that John first covered in a RNZ series several years ago. Available at a special prepublication price of $25 plus postage, when ordered from johnbluck22 [at] gmail.com.
Eleanor Sanderson, now Bishop of Hull, was in Christchurch recently and challenged the Church in its discipleship and mission. Her lively address, accessible via the link below, would make for good parish discussion.
https://hail.to/archdeacon-for-regeneration-mission-canon-mark/publication/Bg1Hcm5/article/2Ics6pa
The link below provides an easy way to make submissions by 7
January. It is supplied by Common Grace Aotearoa (see their
website). We hope every individual and congregation will make an
impact on the Select Committee.
https://form.jotform.com/243242163600040
This engaging address begins at the 7 minute mark and is followed
by Q&A. You can scroll through some intrusive ad breaks (not for the
Church!).
From Archbishop David Moxon
The Tainui royal family are supporters of the Pai Mārire faith internally as a whānau. This draws in the Bible and a panentheist view of the elements and ecology. However, they don’t see this as contradictory with Christian faith. There is a cross on top of their cost of arms. And the first king said ‘ hold on love, lore and the faith ‘
So they have a policy of spreading their family around the Bible based faiths including Anglican , Catholic , Methodist , Presbyterian, Ringatu and Ratana. Having said this they usually send their children to Anglican schools because if their spirituality and standards . So they have this informal affinity with us. Archdeacon Ngira Simmons is the current kingitanga chief of staff .
They chose Din the other day because they thought he would be the most articulate in both languages for this historic occasion. The kawhau will be refered to for many years.
August 2024
By Justin Duckworth and Alan Jamieson, 2024
Comments by Richard Randerson
September 2024
The authors’ call to renew the Church in mission is timely. As a spur to such renewal they challenge the Church with the juxtaposition of Centre Church (CC) and Edge Church (EC), the former being the established congregationally-based churches, the latter being the emerging gatherings of disciples who are passionate (white hot) in their love of Christ and
their service of others. The dialogues can be mutually fruitful.
While they affirm CC in some places they more often describe it as “insipid, flabby, idolatrous and compromised”. Yet it is the CC which over centuries has maintained (and revised) the liturgies, music and theology that have inspired and sustained Jesus’ disciples from generation to generation and led major movements in spiritual growth and social change. Having served in different parishes over 60 years I do not agree with the assessment of CC as flabby and insipid. I have known too many members, the large majority
in fact, for whom faith is a living and enlivening centre of their lives 24/7. Is St Peter’s insipid and flabby? Or Central Baptist?
At the same time, having just read this week’s News for our Movement, I am greatly impressed by the extent and variety of what is happening in the Diocese of Wellington (and doubtless in other places as well), events which are out of kilter with the disparaging words about the Church in the book. These events inspire, the book discourages. There is a disjunction between the book and church life in reality.
Maybe back in the 50s, when society was much more homogeneous, there were more nominal members who fell away from about 1960. But I recall congregations from those days whose members were every bit as faithful and convinced Christians as those in today’s churches. Over the years I have also known church members who have left CC because the Gospel presented to them, in personal living and society, has been too challenging.
The white hot passion of EC is commendable but not necessarily broadly based in terms of theology and context. Alan Jamieson wrote an excellent book in 2000 entitled A Churchless Faith. As a Baptist minister and sociologist he had conducted research into why people were leaving EPC (evangelical, pentecostal and charismatic) churches, one of the reasons (as I
recall) being that they found the theology too narrow and simplistic. To be told, for example, it was God’s will that a child had died of cancer was totally unreal. Many are recruited into such churches while too young for broader thought.
We can be grateful that people like John Bluck who through his books and media work contextualises theology in an accessible manner, while in Wellington Scottie Reeve writes articles for The Post that weave theology into the context of daily life and society. The Postalso runs articles on theology in daily life and society by Lyndon Drake (tikanga Maori, on Matariki) and Otago theologians David Tombs and Andrew Shepherd.
In-tensional aims to renew the Church in mission, which is good, but in my view would have more chance of doing so if it included emphasis on the Church’s mission in blending Christian faith with society and remove the disparaging references to CC. They are in my experience untrue and would be a barrier to creative dialogue between CC and EC. Describing the Church as flabby and insipid is a turnoff for audiences who would regard
such a description as not merely inaccurate but also highly judgmental.
In 2010 I published a book Engagement 21. It was based on research I did with 100 representative clergy and laity across NZ on their experience of the Church in mission. It showed the need for much improvement in mission, but also contained 125 thumbnail sketches of projects parishes were engaged in across the whole spectrum of the Anglican five marks of mission.
Perhaps a second volume with positive and practical content might be in order?
Bishop Richard Randerson
Wellington
