We are a beacon of God’s light and hope welcoming all to our table of love and diversity. The Second Sunday in — 28 February 2021

TURN AROUND. GO BACK

Turn back now.

You are right to fear what lies ahead And turning back is the better option. You have taken a path that ever narrows, towards a destination that does not exist. You know the sick feeling that the path you could have taken has been lost to you. Turn around. Go back.

And yet. If you can find the courage to stay on the path new possibilities may reveal themselves.

There will be a way — may you be guided — out onto the wide open moor that awaits you. Into sunlight. Keep on.

Ian Adams, Wilderness Taunts: Revealing Your Light (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2016), p. 12.

✜ READINGS FOR NEXT WEEK 7 MARCH 2021

The Third Sunday in Lent Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; John 2:13-22 WELCOME

Acknowledgement of Country Nganyi kaaditj Noongar moort kyen kaadak nidja boodja. As we gather for worship, we acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people as the original custodians of this land, and their ongoing relationship with it. We acknowledge their leaders, past, present and emerging.

A very warm welcome to our service this morning, particularly if you are visiting St Luke’s for the first time. We hope you will join us for refreshments in the Alexandra Hall following today’s service and please be most warmly welcome. Children are welcome at all our services and there is a dedicated play area for younger children at the front of the church with Worship Bulletins and pencils available. Children are invited to join our Sunday School activities on the second Sunday of the month during school term time. If you have any questions or particular needs, please speak to one of our friendly welcomers. We invite you to share in a time of stillness and quiet before the service begins.

Our Parish Mission Statement We are a beacon of God’s light and hope welcoming all to our table of love and diversity.

Donating to St Luke’s As we move to a more cashless society, you are encouraged to give electronically. If you prefer to give cash there is an offertory bowl at the rear of the church. Our bank account details are: Name: Mosman Parish Council BSB: 706-001 Account Number: 3000 3046 Reference: Direct Giving

Community Garden Op Shop The St Luke’s Community Garden is a means to bring Our Op Shop is open Wednesday, Friday and together members of the local community through Saturday 9:30am—1:00pm. We recycle quality the invigorating and connecting activity of gardening donations of clothes for women, men and children; and is a demonstration site for organic, sustainable, jewellery; homeware items; bric a brac; and books. eco-friendly urban living. The Community Garden is Any excess donations are then sent to Clutterbugs open to anyone who would like to become a General and other charity shops including The Salvation Member or a Bed Holder. More details at Army and Save The Children. www.stlukescommunitygarden.com.

PAGE 2 FROM THE RECTOR

During our Lenten pilgrimage, as we consider our acts of piety, prayer, reading of the Scriptures, fasting, and almsgiving, we consider more deeply the history and importance of the (Daily) Office. By the beginning of the fifth century two patterns of Office—city and desert, town and country— had emerged. The nun Egeria, travelling from France or Spain, gives us a full description of her visit to Jerusalem and the Office as she encounters it: it is a city event; it is led by ordained ministers and involving the whole congregation; there is praise and intercession; the psalms and canticles of praise are chosen for their appropriateness; the lamps are ceremoniously lit at nightfall and incense is burnt. Egeria’s account may be compared with the description by John Cassian, a monk from Gaul who visited Egypt, of the Office he encounters: it is a desert event; it is celebrated by individuals without any distinction of ministry or ecclesiastical office; there is silent meditation; all 150 psalms are used and the whole Bible read as ‘food for thought;’ the community adopts similar postures but there are no ceremonies. The had been a call in third- century Alexandria for ‘perfect Christians’ to move beyond set times to continuous prayer. The emergence of the Egyptian Desert Fathers, hermits living close enough to each other to form what were effectively communities of individuals, is the supreme example of the result of this call to move from town to country ways of prayer. The remoteness of Eastern Christianity, from the vantage point of the West, has meant that the strength of the ‘town’ Office has sometimes been underestimated. The old Byzantine Office, as it developed in the fifth and sixth centuries, lasted in some regions for the best part of a thousand years. It was a ‘People’s Office’ and it survived in Constantinople until the city was attacked by crusaders in 1204. It lasted considerably longer in Thessalonica, until the Turkish invasion in the fifteenth century. In this ‘chanted Office,’ as one contemporary bishop called it, there were processions from the narthex (the vestibule) to the ambo (a raised platform) then on to the sanctuary. There was the throwing open of doors and, on certain evenings, the ceremonial lighting of lamps. Incense was in great supply and there was much singing of psalms. The robed participants provided for themselves and others a spectacle of beauty and the Christian pilgrimage from darkness to light, from death to life, was imaginatively enacted. After the attack on Constantinople, the ‘People’s Office’ gave way to a more complex Office which had originated in Palestine and had been developing in monasteries over hundreds of years. The resulting ‘Byzantine Office,’ which is still in use, has up to fourteen offices a day, with ‘inter-hours’ interspersed amongst the ‘hours.’ In it, a fully developed ‘monastic’ Office encases, as it were, a ‘cathedral’ Office, with vestments, ceremonial and music all paying a part, not least for the lucernarium, the high point of Vespers, when the lamps are lit and incense burned. Your companion, walking with you and Jesus Christ to the cross.

PAGE 3 OUR SERVICE TODAY

Our service is in the Lent Service booklet (purple cover). Hymns are in the Lent Hymns booklet (white cover). The Psalm is on a printed insert.

Opening Hymn Forgive us when our deeds ignore First Reading Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Psalm 22:24-32 Second Reading Romans 4:13-25 Gradual Hymn Let love be real, in giving and receiving Gospel Mark 8:31-38 Offertory Hymn The story stands, a memory remains Closing Hymn Love will be our Lenten calling Recessional Chorale Prelude on “Horsley”, Robert Groves (1912–1994) “Horsley”, composed by William Horsley (1774–1858) is the tune for the hymn “There is a green hill far away.” For Your Contemplation ✜ In the first reading God institutes a covenant between God and Abram and changes his name to Abraham. What is the covenant God has made with you? ✜ Abraham’s faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” How is your faith reckoned to you as righteousness? ✜ Jesus calls his disciples to “deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” What are you denying yourself this Lent in order to follow Jesus? ✜ How do you understand Jesus’ words “for those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it”?

Read ✜ Reflect ✜ Respond in prayer ✜ Remain in silence ✜ Return prayerfully to daily life

PAGE 4 PRAYERS

Lord of compassion, in your mercy hear us. Anglican Communion Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America Australia Theological Colleges: Australian of Theology, St Francis’ College (Brisbane), St Barnabas’ College (Adelaide), St Mark’s College (Canberra), Moore College (Sydney), St John’s College (Newcastle), Ridley College (Melbourne), Trinity College (Melbourne), Wollaston College (Perth), Nungalinga College (Darwin) and Wontulp-Bi-Buya College (Cairns). Diocese Diocese of Perth: Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy AO, Bishop Jeremy James, Bishop Kate Wilmot; Parish of Kinglsey North-Woodvale, Rev’d Gill Rookyard, Rev’d Mandy Herriman and people; Parish of Kwinana, Rev’d Alan Forsyth (Locum Tenens) and people; Parish of Lakelands, REv’d Linda Flewker-Barker (Locum Tenens) and people. Partner Diocese, Eldoret: Moiben West, clergy and people. Parishes Seeking Appointment of Clergy Bassendean, Beaconsfield, Dianella, Floreat, Morley-Noranda, Scarborough, St Mary West Perth. Warden, Head of Wollaston Theological College. Partner Parish of St Luke’s Kaptubei, Eldoret Vicar Rev’d Jonah Tabut; the needy, the elderly, those who are sick, orphans, those who have lost their job due to the pandemic, those whose loved ones have died, an end to the pandemic, growth and increased performance at Toror Primary and Kipka Primary Schools, instruments for mission, to receive drilled water. Please Pray for Barbara, Alison, Val, Maxine, Kim, those who have lost their homes and property during the Perth bushfires, the enduring COVID-19 pandemic, the sick, lonely, homeless, refugees and asylum seekers. Anniversaries of Death Joan Ruth Payne, Joyce Constance Wilson Prayer of the Week Remember, O Lord, what you have wrought in us and not what we deserve, and, as you have called us to your service, make us worthy of our calling; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

PAGE 5 PARISH NOTICES

Confession If you would like to make your Lenten confession, please contact Fr Matthew to arrange a suitable time. Lent Studies Wednesdays 7:00pm and Fridays 10:00am Our Lent Studies are on Wednesdays at 7:00pm and Fridays at 10:00am, both held in the Parish Lounge at the Rectory. The texts we are using are: Wednesdays 7:00pm Samuel Wells, A Cross in the Heart of God Fridays 10:00am Stephen Cherry, Thy Will Be Done You do not need to have a copy of the books as material will be provided. A Virtual Lent Pilgrimage Tuesdays 7:00-8:00pm Christ Church Claremont Holy places to be visited are Rome, Canterbury, Walsingham, and Iona led by clergy of the Diocese. Held in the Mary Lockett Hall, Queenslea Drive, Claremont, and concludes 23 March. More details on the flier in the Narthex. All are welcome. Lent Lecture Series at St John’s Fremantle Thursdays 6:00pm until 25 March This series explores the themes of Religion, Law and Community and how we might live well together. The remaining speakers are Emeritus Chief Rabbi Freilich OAM; The Reverend Robin Tapper; Dr Abdul Cader Lebbe Ameer Ali; and Associate Professor Lubica Ucnik. More details on the flier in the Narthex. All are welcome. Lenten Almsgiving One of the disciplines Lent calls us to is almsgiving (Matt 6:2-4). ABM Lent Envelopes are available. CARAD’s current appeal for grocery items for asylum seekers is on the insert in the pewsheet and the list of items required is located near the CARAD baskets in the Narthex. Anglican Bushfire Appeal Those affected by the bushfires remain in our prayers. The Parishes of Midland, Swan, Ellenbrook and Mundaring are those affected most directly. Many families and staff from Guildford Grammar School have also been personally affected. To contribute please deposit funds: Account name: Anglican Bushfire Appeal BSB: 706-001 Account number: 30009201 Our Op Shop takings for a week of $1,952.20 have been donated to this Appeal. Parish Office Doorbell Before entering the Parish Office, you are asked to use the doorbell located to the right of the Office sign so we can welcome you if the door is locked. Portable CD player If you have a portable CD player/radio which you are not using, it would be gratefully received and used by us!

PAGE 6 TODAY’S REFLECTIONS

LENT

Facing the cross Lent is a time for facing the cross itself, and for peeling away some of the layers of disguise with which we are wont to cover it. It is time to remove our decorated crosses, our jewelled crosses, our crosses with softened edges. Instead, we are asked to consider the bare harsh wood on which the saviour bled and died. The cross becomes central in this part of our journey so it is important to engage with its symbolism and to contemplate its mysteries. Because it is an image of horror that is difficult to face, care needs to be given to establish appropriate boundaries for prayer and for liturgy during this time. The cross is not only a way into understanding the suffering and death of Christ, but it also helps us to confront our own sufferings. But it is also a screen — a means of shielding some things from our gaze because they are quite simply too awful to look upon. Nevertheless, the cross is a focus for penitence that assumes a particular emphasis during this season. The silent witness involved in watching others make there confession is potent. It is a reminder too that, though our sins may be individual acts, the effects can be felt within a whole community. Time for a clean up We are familiar with the idea of spring-cleaning — a time for clearing up and for clearing out. During this season we might consider ways of doing this work in the church building and we might also consider reviewing our life commitments — meeting with a spiritual director, evaluating vocation and reconsidering our giving of time and money. The Scriptures last week reminded us of the reality of evil, the pressure for temptation and the need to recognise and tackle all that would deflect us from following Jesus. There is also the opportunity to consider the wilderness places in our hearts and to consider how these places can be made to live again. These themes are picked up in different ways and run like a refrain through the lectionary Scriptures for Lent: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Yet in the midst of these harsh messages and warnings there are still notes of tenderness. As one of our Prayer after Communion [APBA pp. 143-144] reminds us, it is while we still far off that God sees us, has compassion, and goes in search of us. Trying to grasp the nature of the love that God has for us gives a different slant on the pain and anguish of the cross.

PAGE 7 LENTEN ACTS

The Lord has said in the gospel: ‘I have come to call, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’ In other words no one can be saved except through the forgiveness of their sins, and we can never know the extent to which the grace of the Spirit can enrich those whom the wisdom of the world despises. Therefore, let the people of God be holy and let them be good: holy, in order to turn away from what is prohibited; good, in order to act according to the commandments. It is a noble thing, no doubt, to have the right faith and possess sound doctrine; and sobriety, meekness, and purity are virtues that deserve high praise; but all these things remain empty if they are not accompanied by charity. Furthermore, no behaviour should be deemed excellent and fruitful if it does not proceed from love. In the Gospel of John the Lord says: ‘By this will all know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ In a letter of the same apostle we read: ‘Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God; whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.’ During this season, therefore, the faithful should enter into themselves and make a true discernment of the attitudes of their mind and heart. If they discover some store of love’s fruit in their hearts, they must not doubt that God is within them. And if they would increase their capacity to receive so great a guest, then they should practise greater generosity in doing good and persevere in charity. If God is love, charity should know no bounds, for God cannot be confined. Any time is the right time for works of charity, but these days of Lent provide a special opportunity. Those who want to be present at the Lord’s Passover in holiness of mind and body should seek above all to win this grace, for charity contains all other virtues and as Scripture says, ‘covers a multitude of sins.’ As we begin our preparations to celebrate the greatest of all the mysteries, namely, that of the blood of Jesus Christ which washes away our iniquities, let us prepare ourselves principally by the sacrifice of mercy. In so doing we will render to those who have offended us that which God has given us. May insults be cast into oblivion, may mistakes be freed from tortured remembrance, and may all offences be set free from the fear of vengeance. May the prisons have no one in them, and may the sad groans of the condemned be no longer heard echoing through gloomy dungeons. If any detain such prisoners for some misdemeanour or other, let them know well that they themselves are sinners. And, that they may obtain pardon themselves, let them rejoice to have found someone to whom they can give pardon. And so, when we say, following the Lord’s teaching: ‘forgive us the wrong we have done as we forgive those who wrong us,’ let us not doubt that, when we express our prayer, we will indeed obtain the pardon of God. We must also show more generosity to the poor and to those who suffer from various handicaps, that more numerous voices may render thanks to God. Our fasts should contribute to the relief of

PAGE 8 those who are in need. No act of devotion on the part of the faithful gives God more pleasure than that which is lavished on his poor. Where God finds charity with its loving concern, there he recognises the reflection of his own fatherly care. In these acts of giving do not fear a lack of means. A generous spirit is itself great wealth. There can be no shortage of material for generosity where it is Christ who feeds and Christ who is fed. In all these actions there is present the hand of him who multiplies the bread by breaking it, and increases it by giving it away. Givers of alms should be free from anxiety and full of joy. Their gain will be greatest when they keep back least for themselves. A Reading from a sermon by Leo the Great (d. 461), in Robert Atwell, comp. Celebrating the Seasons: Daily Spiritual Readings for the Christian Year (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2009), pp. 166-67.

THE SMUDGE OF DEATH

In the sixth century, desiring an exact 40-day Lent, the Western Church made Lent begin on a Wednesday, but it was not till 1091 that this became ‘Ash Wednesday’ with the custom of marking foreheads with ash as a reminder that we all die and return to dust. In a culture with the ruse that material gain and acquisition keep death at bay, the rite of smudging ashes against skin proclaims the opposite, that death is inevitable for all, rich and poor alike, for acquisitive and monastic, and all between them. Connell, Eternity Today, Vol. 2, p.95. For secular culture the transience of life and all the things we own can only be a matter of sorrow, but in Lent we find joy in the fact that all things pass away, including ourselves. How can this be? In the answer to this question we find the reason for the other strange and counter- cultural thing we do in Lent: give things up. Consider why most of us want — in some sense — to live forever, and why we resist giving things up. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche believed the most affirmative way to see time was as an eternal recurrence in which we will experience our life exactly as lived over and again forever. However, for a victim of abuse, torture or starvation that is probably the realisation of their worst nightmare. Freud, indeed, regarded our strange human tendency to repeat and revisit traumatic experience as part of a ‘death drive.’ Buddhists would side with Freud here, tracing the root of our sorrows to tanha, our craving to cling on to experiences, which, since all things pass away can only create anxiety and suffering. Even in the exalted realm of the gods, where all experience is full of delight, there is, Buddhists argue, a greater sadness in the knowledge that their blissful state cannot last forever, and once gone, their joys will never come back. Lent could therefore be seen as involving the kind of learning — with which Buddhists are very familiar — not to cling on to things but let go. But it is not quite that, because for Christians the trick is not to forgo pleasures but to enjoy them to the full precisely in their transience. So for Thomas Aquinas, the joy of sex for example would have been greater in the primordial innocence of the Garden of Eden. But there would not have been any ‘concupiscence,’ the clinging to intense experiences and hunger to repeat them, which seems close to what Buddhists call tanha. The

PAGE 9 compulsion to repeat both good and bad experiences is part of the death-bound condition that has come upon us since the ‘fall,’ and it is bad news altogether since it multiplies the pain of the bad, and fills even good experience with anxious fear of loss. Blake new this. He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity’s sunrise. ‘Eternity’ In Lent, to put it simply, we prepare for ‘eternity’s sunrise’ on Easter day by learning to ‘kiss’ joys as they pass our way rather than trying to hang on to them forever. And that of course is far, far easier said than done, because our egos are programmed from time immemorial to hug anything we enjoy to ourselves. The joy of the goal of Lent then pitches us into a terrible battle against ourselves, inviting us to contradict our basic programming and find freedom from it. Ross Thompson, Spirituality in Season: Growing through the Christian Year (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2008), pp. 85-88.

LATE HAVE I LOVED YOU

Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! Lo, you were within, but I outside, seeking there for you, and upon the shapely things you have made I rushed headlong, I, misshapen. You were with me, but I was not with you. They held me back far from you, those things which I would have no being were they not in you. You called, shouted, broke through my deafness; you flared, blazed, banished my blindness; you lavished your fragrance, I gasped, and now I pant for you; I tasted you, and I hunger and thirst; you touched me, and I burned for your peace. Augustine (354-430), trans. Maria Boulding Anne Lewin, 1993.

PAGE 10 MISSIO DEI

In theological terms…missio Dei, [is] a Latin phrase meaning ‘the mission or sending of God’. This concept was articulated at a conference on mission in 1932 by the theologian Karl Barth. This signified a move away from understanding mission as something that the church did in response to God’s action, and instead reimagined mission as rooted primarily in God’s being and his intention in the world. The term missio Dei was later formed and identifies God himself as the initiator of mission rather than the Church or any other Christian organisation. While mission is far broader than evangelism and encompasses the scope of the Church’s presence and action in the world, such as social justice and environmental concern, the call upon the Church to witness is an integral part of its mission. Understanding mission as primarily rooted in the nature and purpose of God means also that evangelism is not our clever idea or a calculated response to try and boost church membership during a period of decline. Evangelism finds it rationale and origin in the love of God for the world, and this theme bubbles over in many of Jesus’ parables. The three lost things (a sheep, a coin and a son) collectively focus on the one who is seeking. In turn, the shepherd, the woman and the father seek diligently and sacrificially for the one that is lost. First, the shepherd leaves behind the 99 that are safe (by all accounts a high-risk strategy) and looks for the one that is lost. The woman, though she has nine other coins, is not prepared to wait for the natural light of morning but uses valuable resources to search thoroughly until the one missing is found. Finally, the father, whose son has severed his familial ties and set off for an independent life, glimpses his son in the distance and runs towards him, silencing the prodigal’s cries of regret and remorse with joyful celebration. In these stories Jesus teaches the religious leaders, who chastise him (as they do on several occasions) for his questionable choice of dinner guests, that God’s love is for the lost, the least and even the lawbreaker. In so doing, he challenges them that they should not be surprised that the Messiah acts in this way. God’s love is and has always been for such as these. God’s missional heart is revealed throughout the scriptural narrative. Chris Wright suggest that exploring the story of the Bible in this way is to approach it with a ‘missional hermeneutic’, a way of reading Scripture as telling us the story of God who is a missionary and intervenes through human history to bring about his purposes of salvation. And if you read the conversation between the risen Jesus and his disciples at the end of Luke’s Gospel (24:45-47), it appears he approaches Scripture in this way. Jesus acknowledges that the Scriptures tell the story of a missionary God whose desire is that ‘all nations’ receive forgiveness for sin. This narrative reaches its fulfilment in the person of Christ, his death and his resurrection. In this conversation Jesus is showing that the story of the Bible is all pointing towards this new way of life in the kingdom of God into which we are invited. Scripture is his story. Evangelism is the invitation to enter into the new life in Christ to which Scripture points. Hannah Steele, Living His Story: Revealing the extraordinary love of God in ordinary ways (London: SPCK, 2020), pp. 34-35. Living His Story is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2021.

PAGE 11 THIS WEEK IN THE PARISH

Monday 1 March David, bishop of Menevia, Wales (d. 601) Labour Day Public Holiday Tuesday 2 March Chad, bishop of Lichfield, missionary (d. 672) Wednesday 3 March 8:30am Morning Prayer 10:00am Eucharist 2:00pm Dorothy Genders Village Eucharist 5:00pm Evening Prayer 7:00pm Lent Study, Rectory Thursday 4 March 8:30am Morning Prayer 2:00pm Deanery Meeting at Archbishop’s House, West Perth 5:00pm Evening Prayer Friday 5 March 8:30am Morning Prayer 10:00am Lent Study, Rectory 5:00pm Evening Prayer Sunday 7 March 7:30am Said Eucharist 9:30am Sung Eucharist

20 Monument Street, Mosman Park WA 6012 | +61 8 9384 0108 [email protected] | www.stlukemosmanpark.perth.anglican.org

Rector Fr Matthew Smedley | 0412 468 522 [email protected] Parish Office Administrator Amanda Mills-Ghani Tuesday/Friday 9:00am–1:00pm, Wednesday 9:00am–5:00pm Wardens Rod Dale, Bridget Faye AM, Gwen Speirs Synod Representatives James Jegasothy, Andrew Reynolds Parish Council Angela Beeton, Anna Goodes Adrian Momber, Kate Stanford Organists Rosemary Cassidy, Don Cook Op Shop Ruth Hogarth, Coordinator PAGE 12 Wednesday, Friday, Saturday 9:30am–1:00pm