John Hebenton's Podcast

Using Isaiah and Mark John suggests that God did come and is coming ready or not. So what does that mean for us preparing and waiting through this time of Advent? What does that mean for us as people about to celebrate 200 years since Gospel and Anglicanism came to this land?

John explores Advent as a time to hear the invitation to see the world through God’s eyes, to long for all God longs for, and to be part of the coming in to being, and invites people to approach Advent slowly, out of the normal rush, taking care to be part of God’s ongoing work of salvation

John explores three ways Matthew 25:14-30 or the Parable of the Talents can be understood and invites people to reflect on which help them live in the presence of God now.

John explores the gospel reading (Matthew 25:1-13) to suggest that we need to build lives of resilient faith that will continue to keep us in the long haul. He then invites people to think about the practices that sustain their faith, and wonders how they relate to the events around this time - Parihaka Day, and Remeberance Day.

Readings: Psalm: Psalm 90:1-6, 3-17; First Reading: Deuteronomy 34:1-12; Second Reading: 1 Thess 2:1-8; Gospel: Matthew 22: 34-46. In this sermon I talk about how the yoke of Jesus changes how we understand the Torah – from rules to obey to earn God’s love and forgiveness, to the way we respond to God and love God with all our heart and mind and soul. Love is described as trust, loyalty, enduring devotion, being committed to and acting for the well-being of. I go on to talk about how we often miss is that these two commandments work together. We love God by loving our neighbour. My hope is that people will be encouraged to grow in love, of God by growing in commitment, loyalty, working for the wellbeing of their neighbour.

John uses the Exodus reading (Exodus 33:12-23) to ask, "what does the back of God look like?" Moses was most concerned about how to be a distinctive people. How does our seeing the back of God help us be distinctive? And using the gospel reading,(Matthew 22: 15-22) how to we as people who are shaped by the back of God live in such a way that all creation and all that is in it is honoured and treated as God’s?

This sermon builds on last weeks sermon. This gospel reading needs to be read both in context of the gospel, where it comes in the story and what comes before and after it, and in the context of the time. When read in this way I wonder that the chief priests and elders, the Jerusalem leadership heard as Jesus told this parable, until Jesus makes it very clear what he thinks of them. And I wonder where we now stand in the story, and what proper care of the vineyard looks like for us, and what we as tenant farmers are to give back to the one who owns all the land? Are we good fruit? More thoughts can be found here -

John explores the question posed to Jesus by the Jerusalem leadership about his authority using material from Rob Bell’s “Velvet Elvis”. In doing so he suggests that not only was Jesus acting as a revisionist Rabbi (You have heard it said, but I say to you….) but in giving the early church the power to bind and loose, gave the early church and its successors the authority and the responsibility to continue to re-read the meaning for scripture so that we might continue to determine what it means to follow the way of Christ in our ever changing world.

In this sermon John explores the notion of missional community – being a community that by the way we live for each other and the people of our local community, especially the least, we shout of God’s presence in the world. He then uses Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks by August Turak to think about what are the targets we aim for and how they limit us and prevent us being such a missional community. First Reading: Exodus 12:1-14 Second Reading: Romans 13:8-14 Gospel: Matthew 18:15-20

John uses the three readings to explore the big question – who are we? From there he asks 3 questions – what seismic shifts are we invited into ourselves? What is our vocation in this place? What is my role in that vocation?

John explores three different ways of reading the gosple for this day (Matthew 15: (10-20) 21-28). The first is that Jesus is just rude. The second that here we see both Jesus and the early Christian community struggling with the universal implications for what Jesus was teaching and living out. To read it in this way people need to keep in mind some information about how the New Testament came to be. Thirdly I want to place this story with the what Jesus is talking about before it, and to suggest this is used by Matthew as an example of what Jesus is saying, that it is not obedience to the law that makes one clean, but what comes from ones heart.

Feeding of the 5000 men plus women and children is more than a nice story. It is an embodied parable about the kingdom of heaven – a kingdom or empire where all have more than enough to eat – good news indeed for the poor and hungry who have come to Jesus for hope and consolation after the death of John. John uses this to reflect on the Lord’s prayer, and on peace. He then invites people to reflect on what the words of the Lord’s prayer mean in light of this and to wonder what kind of country Aotearoa might be if God’s kingdom come, God’s will be done, here and earth as it is in heaven.

The Kingdom of Heaven is presented as being like a weed, like a woman hiding yeast in flour, like a tenant farmer finding treasure and somehow buying it, like a merchant selling all his stock to purchase a pearl of great price, like a fishing net dragging ALL in. It is not what is expected, not where it is supposed to be, not doing what it is supposed to be doing. it is just not what we are looking for. So are we the blind ones Jesus keeps talking about? So, we are invited to look for signs on the kingdom in places we normally would not think to look, and on this Social Service Sunday, go there to join in the work of building God’s community

John suggests that in the story of the sower we are offered picture of a recklessly generous God who seeks to sow life wherever. While we can read the soil types as different people, it is also us. We are a mix of soils. And that reckless God keeps on scattering that seed of life within us. In this way we are blessed to be a blessing. How then do we nurture our good soil and help that seed grow, that we might be a blessing?

John uses the story of Rebekah and the servant of Abraham to introduce being open to a different life. He then uses Richard Rohr's "The Art of Letting Go, the wisdom of Saint Francis" to explore making room for God and opening ourselves to a greater vision for life.

In this sermon John explores this is very hard but important reading. In it He suggests that we are given a glimpse of the angst within the Godhead around the Jesus event, and an image of the faith, love, trust and hope we are invited into as followers of the way. Briefly look at others who have lived out that life. Finally he explores how this reading offers us real hope and faith in a world where churches are getting older, greyer and smaller.

Graham Cameron, (Piri Rakau and a member of St. Georges) talks about what happened here in Tauranga Moana 150 years ago, and in particular the Battle of Te Ranga. He uses Paul's letter to the churches in Rome to offer some theological reflection on what that story means for us today both as Anglicans (on this Sunday we celebrate our constitition, Te Pouhere), and as people living the Way of Christ here in Tauranga Moana.

Pentecost invites us to let go of our past and to embrace God’s future. John uses Dianne Butler-Bass’s work to explore some of what that future might include as we prepare for our AGM, and to help people feel excited about the future rather than apprehensive.

The Very Rev. Richard Giles, Visiting Fellow of St John’s College, Durham and author of Re-Pitching the Tent: Re-Ordering the Church Building for Worship and Mission , Creating Uncommon Worship: Transforming the Liturgy of the Eucharist and Time and Seasons: Creating Transformative Worship throughout the Year preached on 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11. He begins with “it’s not fair!” I was too slow turning on the recorder and I missed that. From 1999 to 2008 Richard he was Dean of Philadelphia Cathedral in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, USA, where he oversaw the radical renovation of the cathedral to become a place of transformative worship, adventurous faith, and unconditional hospitality.

When we think of missionary in this context we often, maybe usually think of English men and women bringing the gospel to Maori. But like Paul who had inside knowledge (He grew up in the Greek world and Luke reports he had some knowledge of Greek philosophical thinking) European missionaries in this country had inside help – Maori who either took the gospel home with them when released from slavery up near Kerikeri, or who worked with the misisonaires. Today we will look at two: Ihaia Te Ahu, Missionary and Priest in Te Arawa who we remember on May 13; and Piripi Taumata-a-kura Missionary in Ngati Porou who we remember on May 15.