General: Whilst it has been a year of mixed fortunes at Emmanuel, the fundamentals of the faith remain solidly in place and the heart of the community’s spiritual life continues to be the Sunday Eucharist.

The departure of both churchwardens and some other key members in the autumn was a significant setback, but the community has bounced back strongly and is now showing signs of healthy new growth. To compliment this increase I have recently appointed two new churchwardens, which has brought the Emmanuel Committee back to almost full strength. Moreover, following an excellent response to new rotas and practices, the Sunday by Sunday operation is running smoothly again.

Without a doubt the past 6 months has been a challenging period for Emmanuel, but I am confident we have now turned a corner and that the community is moving forward, albeit slowly.  Over the next 12 months our focus will be on building and strengthening existing gifts and talents, of which there are a great many.

Under its new name of Emmanuel Kids, the Sunday School continues to make good use of Seasons of the Spirit worship material, an inclusive program integrating the learning, worship, and serving ministries of the Church. We have four enthusiastic and highly gifted teachers, and the children’s weekly gifts and presentations near the end of the Sunday service are always impressive. Sunday School ministry is vital to Emmanuel’s viability, and all of us in the community cannot thank the teachers enough for their on-going dedication.

Special Services: Pentecost Sunday saw the return of the wonderful Cantata Choir from the Ebenezer School for the visually impaired in Pokfulam. It was the choir’s 9th visit to Emmanuel and once again their singing was superb and inspirational. Their annual visit to Emmanuel is eagerly anticipated by both choir members and congregation alike, and their 10th visit to Emmanuel will again be on the Day of Pentecost on 27 May.

A Harvest Thanksgiving Service in October was well attended and the former Dean of St John’s gave the address. As in previous years a large amount of rice and other non-perishable food was collected for Bethune House, the Mission for Migrant Workers in HK.

Just before Christmas I officiated at a Nine Lessons and Carols Service which attracted 70 people, a 10% increase on last year.  Bethanie Chapel was full to capacity for Midnight Mass and Christmas Day services, and the recent Last Hour of the Passion on Good Friday and Easter Day services were well supported.

Fundraising: Proceeds from two fund raising initiatives during the year, a Family Ceilidh, and a Quiz Night raised an impressive $62,500 for the Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge. During Advent a large number of soft toys and games were collected for distribution over Christmas for the Duchess of Kent Children’s Hospital at Sandy Bay.

Stewardship: One of the highlights of the year was undoubtedly the launch and implementation of a major stewardship campaign for Emmanuel. A special dinner for every parishioner at L’hotel Island South, Aberdeen was held on 23 September. The Dean of St John’s gave the keynote address on behalf of the Archbishop, and I gave a talk on the fundamentals of Christian Stewardship. As well as enjoying some lovely fellowship, the main purpose of the evening was to raise awareness that Christian stewardship involves much more than merely raising funds for ministry – it’s a way of life! Fifty people supported the event and by Christmas it became clear that the campaign generated a 30% increase in stewardship funds.

Website: The Emmanuel website continues to bring new people to church every week. The website was originally established in 2001.  In early 2011 the third update to the Emmanuel Church – Pokfulam website with its current look and feel was launched.  The website is a challenge to keep fresh and up-to-date, but it is well worth the effort. Feedback continues to be positive and encouraging: frequent Google analytic reports clearly show the site is visited by 300+ people every week from all over the world.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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Hello World!

On the day of Jesus’ resurrection, when the women returned to the city, breathless, shocked and yet full of joy, the disciples didn’t know what to make of their news. They had seen the body of the dead Jesus taken from the cross and laid in the tomb. They had also seen the tomb sealed and a guard set. Now they were told that the tomb was open, that it was empty and that some were claiming to have seen Jesus alive.

A truly magnificent depiction of The Empty Tomb by He Qi (pronounced “huh chee”). The artist is professor of philosophy at China’s Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, and one of his nation’s most acclaimed Christian artists.

It was the sort of news the disciples could hardly bear to believe. It was all they wanted to hear and yet even hearing it made then both fearful and excited at the same time.

We can almost feel the rush of adrenaline as these sceptical men rush to the tomb to verify what they had just been told. And they found it just as the women had said.

The good news that Jesus has risen from the dead is still told, still relayed to sceptical people who do not know what to make of it. It is the most incredible thing that we are saying. It seems to deny all human experience – that a dead man now lives. But the story has been told and this event in history has been believed for two thousand years.

The Easter greeting still causes a rush of excitement is us as we realise that it is true, Jesus is risen. But that excitement may not be shared. The excitement of Easter is not just that this happened to Jesus. That is exciting enough – but a single, historical event would not have changed history.

What has changed history is that this experience of life defeating death, of goodness being stronger than evil, this experience of resurrection is not just a once and for all experience for Jesus.

Resurrection is the experience of the Church and of the people of God. As St Augustine said: ‘We are an Easter people’. He wasn’t just saying that we are a people who define ourselves in terms of an historical event. We may do that to some extent.

We may see Easter as a defining moment in the life of the Christian Church. But being an Easter people means that resurrection is part of our life experience, part of who we are, part of what it means to be us.

Easter celebrates how Jesus dies and rises in each of us, in our personal lives, in family life, church, parish, community. It celebrates how Jesus dies and rises in our daily work, in our home life, in our relationships, in joys and sorrows of the world. In a world where so many people die in hopelessness, where people are poisoned by cynicism and defeated by disillusionment we have to tell our story, we have to sing our song. ‘We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song,’ concludes Augustine.

Confidence in the resurrection of Jesus is not based on wishful thinking. It is founded in truth and is developed in everyday experience – the experience of light following dark, of joy following pain, of hope out of defeat, of warmth beyond cold, of life out of death. As Christians, we each have a story to tell and a song to sing – the story of our risen Lord and a song of alleluia that should ring in the world’s ears!

Finally, I offer the following prayer which I hope you will use as part of your devotions during the 50-days of Eastertide.

Lord Jesus, risen from the dead and alive for evermore: stand in my midst as in the upper room; show me your hands and your side; speak your peace in my heart and mind; and send me out into the world as your faithful witness; for the glory of your name. Amen.

Blessings always, wherever you are in the world.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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• Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won’t stay there. (Clarence Hall)
• Easter is the demonstration of God that life is essentially spiritual and timeless. (Charles Crowe)

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Hello World!

So another Palm Sunday comes around heralding as it does every year the dramatic events of Holy Week. For months, maybe two years or more, evil hands had been stretched out to grasp Jesus and destroy him, only waiting for the most convenient moment. That moment came during the week we commemorate from today and call ‘Holy’.  For Jesus Holy Week was a week of crisis, Judas betrayed him, Peter, one of his closest companions, denied him, Caiaphas condemned him, Pilate crucified him, and a mob of people turned against him and screamed for his death. In that one week the entire mission of Jesus reached its crisis point, which explains why Holy Week is so significant for Christians.

Crucifixion (Diptych oil on oak panels) by Rogier van der Weyden in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

But how many of us really appreciate the immense implications of the events of that week of crisis? What’s more, do those dramatic events have anything to say to us in Hong Kong in 2012?  One can scarcely be a Christian, and certainly not a committed one, without at least trying to come to terms with that week of crisis in Jesus’ life. It is just too important, too critical for us not to take seriously.

Few people like crises. How many of us complain when we hear today’s news stories and comment that we seem to do nothing but lurch from one crisis to another. If it isn’t an industrial dispute, it’s a financial one, or a political one. On and on we go from one crisis to another. Any wonder then that many turn to the sports pages for some light relief….but hey, even there we encounter rows and disputes, and sometimes, sadly, even violence.

Come to think of it then when we turn to religion we might have felt free of all crises and sailed instead into some calm waters of quiet reflection, reasonable behaviour, and at least some kind of progress in the quest for sanity and goodness. But no, we are brought head on into a crisis, the crisis of Holy Week and which even has its own crisis symbol, indeed the symbol of our faith: a cross which in itself tells of an ugly, horrible thing.

I wonder if you have ever realized that the whole Bible is all of one piece in this respect. From its many stories one could argue a strong case for arguing that this library of books lurches from crisis to crisis.  After reading just the first few pages of the Bible we encounter a man and woman ejected from a garden of paradise. Then there is a flood which sinks all but a remnant of life.  Next we hear the story of a rich young man turning his back on home and family in search of a country he knows nothing about. Then its impoverished slavery in Egypt, followed by a desperate escape across water and wasteland. Still no peace.  Instead it’s battle after battle, followed by a short period of calm and a little glory, but not for long. Close on its heels comes defeat, deportation and exile.  Relentlessly the story runs and runs until it reaches Holy Week where, at the end of the road, sticks up this shocking thing: a cross with a man on it – the best man the world has ever seen!

Holy Week, with its ugly cross standing there, screams out that humanity is only saved from itself by and through a crisis. But so often we delude ourselves that we can live safe and secure lives on our own without God’s saving grace. For many, it would appear, think that all that is required is enlightenment, science, social security and education and the world will be a better place. Have not all these things existed for many years, coupled with some strange idea about the inevitability of progress.  Well, what do we see?  A disturbing increase in terrorism, fanaticism, a self-centred individualism, and a world divided by those with economic means and those without.  Will we ever learn that higher standards of living alone just do not make for higher living standards!

Every year Holy Week reminds us how our world really is when viewed without blinkers or rose-coloured spectacles. It reminds us that the human condition is such that it took God in Christ the awfulness of the crucifixion crisis to begin to deal with it.

More than likely none of this sits comfortably with many people. We just don’t like it. We don’t like admitting that humanity is unable to save itself. We don’t like having to step down, turn around and begin by truly accepting and cherishing what God has done for our salvation. So the crisis of Holy Week initiates a crisis in our view of life.  Make no mistake, Holy Week is a place where roads divide and where a decision has to be made. Can we save ourselves or must we begin with God’s salvation wrought on our behalf?

Perhaps what I have said is having little impact on you. Maybe you think that none of this is for you and doesn’t  resonate with your life.  But doesn’t it?  I mean, do we not all have to face crises in our own lives, and probably more often than we care to admit………….

Here is a professional man arrived at the age of retirement. It is a time of crisis. Here is a woman married for 40-years only to discover that here husband has been having an affair with another woman. It is a time of crisis. Here is a hard-working fifty year old man made redundant at his factory or a young musician who, because of an accident, learns he will never play his instrument again. It is a time of crisis.  Here is a school boy who has missed his last chance to go to university, his great hope. There are crises upon crises right up to the last crisis of all – the day when all of us have to confront our own death.

Has then the crisis of Holy Week anything to say to us in 2012?  Well, if it hasn’t, then all this, this Mass, your presence at it today, our daily prayers, indeed our whole Christian faith is totally meaningless.

But Holy Week does have something to say to us, notably this: that when we think we can face crises on our own, unafraid and without God’s love and grace, then we are deluding ourselves.

Are we really any better than the disciples of Jesus?  Frankly, no! In the crisis of Holy Week they all ran away! Would we have done any better? Now that is something we can all think about this week.

Jesus, however, did not run away, and the whole rationale of our communion with him during Holy Week is that we should renew ourselves, remind ourselves afresh what God through Christ has done for us, and draw upon his strength and support.

When a crisis comes our way we need to remember that we share the experience with Christ, who has experienced it for himself on our behalf.  When a crisis comes our way it is an opportunity to put our hands into the hands of God and to rise to new heights of personal stature.

Your salvation and my salvation, your wholeness and my wholeness are not built in a day,  even if the foundations of it were laid in that day when we recognized and accepted God in Christ died in the crisis of Holy Week for us. We go on being saved, and we go on being made whole as we grasp the opportunity to react positively to the crises of life.

Always remember that God was in the midst of the many crises of that first Holy Week. He will also be in the midst of your own crises, whatever they are, and whenever they come.

Wherever you are in the world, may you know the comfort and saving power of God during Holy Week and always.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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& Maundy Thursday services at the Cathedral 

1 April – Palm Sunday (Emmanuel) 

 9:00am Holy Communion (said with hymns) 

10:15am Blessing of Palm Crosses, Procession and Sung Eucharist

5 April – Maundy Thursday (Cathedral)

8:30am Provincial Eucharist with blessing of Holy Oil and renewal of Ordination Vows

1:15pm Said Eucharist

7:30pm Solemn Eucharist with the Washing of Feet, the Stripping of the Altar and the Watch

6 April - Good Friday (Emmanuel)

10:15 Good Friday Service with Hymns

8 April - Easter Day (Emmanuel)

10:15am Sung Eucharist with Easter Egg Hunt 

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Hello World,

The Fifth Sunday of Lent marks the beginning of Passiontide – a period when we look ahead and reflect on our Lord’s suffering and death, and try to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of what he did for us in Jerusalem all those years ago.  We are now firmly on our way to Calvary with Jesus and recalling every dramatic step along the Way of the Cross and his glorious resurrection on Easter Day.

In today’s gospel we get a first warning of these momentous events: Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest.

Christ Crucified, oil on canvas, by Diego Velásquez (1599-1660) one of the best-known paintings of religious art in the Museo del Prado, Madrid

In this passage we find Jesus looking ahead – ahead to his crucifixion. He must surely have guessed from the rising tide of hostility that his enemies were plotting against him. Surely, too, he must have realised that he would most likely be put to death through the jealousy of the scribes, the Pharisees and chief priests –  to say nothing of the weakness of Pontius Pilate and Herod.

Jesus leads on, focused and resolute, all the way of Jerusalem, while the disciples walked behind confused and afraid. He knew what lay ahead, and all what he was going to face and endure. He also knew that it was all part of God’s plan, part of the divine will of his Father, and therefore went forward with courage and resolute determination.

Crucifixion was not a Jewish form of execution, as some believe. In Jesus’ time capital offenders were usually stoned to death – although sometimes the bodies of the executed were hung up for a few days as a deterrent to others.

The Romans used crucifixion as a method for dealing with condemned slaves the lowest criminals, and particularly with political rebels in the provinces.  As such it was common to crucify those who rose up against Roman rule.

We know that when the Romans put down a Jewish rebellion a few years after Jesus’ death, they actually ran out of wood when dealing with convicted trouble-makers in this way.

Roman citizens were never crucified. They were allowed the cleaner method of execution by beheading. For the cultivated Roman, the cross was a symbol of horror and shame.

Now, it’s not generally known that there were several types of cross. Some were a simple pole, others a variation of two pieces of wood, the most common being in the form of letter ‘T’, or in the traditional shape as we have come to know it.  That Jesus’ crime was pinned up over his head must mean that his cross was this last type.

Traditionally the condemned man would be made to carry his cross to the place of execution and we know that Jesus was made to do the same.  But soon the soldiers had to press a bystander into the job, which tells us something about Jesus’ physical condition even before they crucified him. Let’s remember that he had just been brutally beaten up, flogged and grossly mocked by the soldiers who were guarding him.

The gospel writers do not overplay Jesus’ physical suffering, dreadful though they were. In fact they believed Jesus went through something much more than physical agony. They make it clear that he died to pay the price for the sins of the world, and it was his suffering, death and resurrection which became the central theme when the good news was preached. This explains why the cross, arguably the most horrific death by torture ever devised, became the principal symbol of the Christian faith.

Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he set out on his last journey to Jerusalem – and it wasn’t just to inspire pity on the part of potential followers.  He went to accomplish only what he could do.

Nor was the cross just the supreme example of obedience and persistence that we must follow. It was an example of course, and Jesus actually told would-be followers that they should take up their cross if they were to follow him. And because of this many Christians down the ages have been prepared to follow Jesus by going to their deaths themselves. The history of the Church is full of bold and faithful martyrs who have paid the ultimate price for their faith.

But the Christian life is not just a matter of gritted teeth in the line of duty. We need more than just a few examples. Jesus was much more than a martyr, and his death meant much more than an example to follow.

The cross shows us that God’s love for us is so great that he was prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to rescue us from sin and death; he threw himself into the path of coming judgement because he loved us so much. And when he died, Jesus made a way back to God for all humankind.

Now that doesn’t mean that the process is automatic. Each one of us has to realise that Jesus died for us personally, and if anything is calculated to bring that home to us then surely it is the cross.

The fact that the Son of God, had to endure all that for us breaks down all our defences and crushes all our pride.

The fact that the Son of God, through whom the world was made, actually dies in our place, taking what we deserve, makes us bow in adoring wonder.

It is his amazing love for us which draws out our love for him, so that the obedience he demands is no chore, but a glad, willing response each day of our lives.

Not for nothing then we shall shortly sing that wonderful hymn to mark the start of Passiontide:

When I survey the wondrous cross,  
on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss ,
and pour contempt on all my pride.

And then there’s that extraordinary last verse that never fails to move me whenever we sing it…

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were a present far too small,
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

Wherever you are in the world, may the peace of the Lord be always with you.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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by Dorothy Law Nolte

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to be shy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with tolerance, they learn to be patient.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with praise, they learn to appreciate.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with acceptance and friendship, they learn to find love in the world.

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Hello World!

I don’t know about you, but I am always deeply moved by the words I have just read from St John’s Gospel. To his mother, Jesus said: “Woman, here is your son.”  And to his beloved disciple John: “Here is your mother.

Woman, Behold your Son (watercolour) by James Jacques Tissot, a French painter and illustrator (1836-1902). Nearly all Tissot’s religious paintings are rendered in opaque watercolour over graphite on grey-wove paper. This fine example is in the splendid Brooklyn Museum and part of a collection of studies Tissot painted on the life of Christ.

There is something personal and moving in these words, something very profound, and even more so when we remind ourselves that they were said by a man who was being crucified – a man hanging on a cross, a man about to die and saving the world through agonizing pain and suffering. Moments before his death, Jesus instructs these two people to be there for each another after his death on the cross – Look after this woman – Look after this man. It’s almost as if no one exists for those few words apart from Jesus, his mother, and his beloved disciple John. This is a moment of beautiful love, tenderness and unity. This is Jesus up close and personal, a man, totally exposed and vulnerable and in crippling pain, yet at the same time the Son of God – love itself in human form.

Jesus knows all about being a dutiful son. He is giving up his life in accordance with his Father’s will – and he knows all about being a loving father, being one with God the Father as he is, and therefore the loving parent of all humanity. And in that moment of sacrifice just look at what he does….he still manages to care so warmly, so affectionately for others.

Now, let us also remind ourselves that Jesus isn’t God’s only child. Certainly, he is unique in the nature of his relationship with God, but we too are also his children – we are all children of God. He loves us all with the deepest commitment and utmost patience that a parent could ever show. Through Jesus, we are brothers and sisters in spirit as truly as if we had all been born to the same parents. This is why we are urged in today’s other passage from Colossians to bear with one another, just as natural brothers and sisters are urged to. Let’s hear what Paul says to us again……..

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Rarely is Scripture more beautiful than that, and I wonder how we can apply Paul’s ideas to the passage from John. Jesus took two people in need and connected them. As a mother and son, they would look after each other. And John even adds: “….and from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.”

There are few few people who are not in some kind of need. Being brothers and sisters in Christ is wonderful, but there are times when a brother isn’t what you need – you need a mother. There are times when a sister can’t look after you – you need a son.

Look around you now. Look at all of the people here today in a new light. Here is your mother, your father. Here is your son, your daughter. Look at those walking down the same street as you, on the same bus or train as you, in the same office as you, in the same school as you. Those are your parents, your children – all fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Today, we celebrate Mothering Sunday, remembering and marking the incredible love shown by mothers everywhere. God gives that love – and more – to us every day. Imagine a world where everyone loves one another as perfect parents and dutiful children. Where respect is the rule, not the exception; where tenderness, compassion, forgiveness and charity are seen on every street.

Today that world can seem such a long way off. None of us can do it alone and I doubt that we’ll see that world in our lifetimes. But with the help and grace of the Holy Spirit, and with the peace of Christ in our hearts, I believe we really can make a difference and bring it closer.

A few weeks ago I asked you all to hold a crucifix in the palm of your hand as a spiritual exercise during Lent. It’s still not too late to do it; in fact you can do it at any time. And the more times you do it then the more of its divine secret will be revealed to you. Simply hold a crucifix in your hand, gaze at it, pray it, and really start to reflect on what Christ has done for you.

Wherever you are in the world, may the love of the Father enfold you, the love of the Saviour uphold you, and the love of the Holy Spirit guide you.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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Hello World!

Some of you may know that before I came to Hong Kong I lived in Milan for nearly 7-years. From my home it would take me only about 5 minutes to walk to two of the city’s best known attractions: the famous La Scala Opera House and the former residence of the legendary Italian conductor, Arturo Toscanini.

As one of the most acclaimed musicians of the first 50 years of the 20^th century, Toscanini was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, and his remarkable ear for orchestral detail and sonority. He was equally well known for having a ferocious temper.  Stories abound about his frequent rages in the orchestra pit, and especially during rehearsals at La Scala.

During one rehearsal, a flat note caused the maestro to grab his valuable watch and smash it beyond repair. It was a typical Toscanini temper-tantrum!

Well, a few days later, he received from his devoted musicians a luxurious velvet-lined box containing two watches, one a beautiful gold timepiece; the other, a rather cheap one, on which was inscribed: For Rehearsals only!

I dare say we’ve all done things out of anger that we deeply regret later….silly things in the heat of the moment when we get upset and lose control.

Jesus is the perfect example of one who became very upset and angry, but who also acted appropriately, and without sin.  Moreover, his Cleansing of the Temple, as today’s gospel is sometimes called, is a supreme example of righteous anger.

Expulsion of the money-changers from the Temple by Jesus (oil on board) by the renowned Florentine master-painter and sculpture Giotto di Bondone (c.1267-1337)

On the surface the story looks pretty straightforward.  But when you start to seriously examine it you begin to realise just how awkward and complex it is. In one sense, it’s one of the strangest events in Jesus’ earthly ministry. The man we more often than not refer to as: ‘Gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ – the one who said “Blessed are the peace-makers” and “Turn the other cheek” suddenly goes berserk and starts beating up shopkeepers with a whip and smashing a load of market stalls. Why did he do it? What purpose did it serve?

The Gospels don’t tell us that. In fact, when you analyse the story in depth and how it has been presented to us, they create more problems than they solve. For instance, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all place the event right at the end of Jesus’ life – that is, after Palm Sunday and just before Good Friday. They imply that part of the reason the Jewish authorities conspired to bring about Jesus’ death was in response to this attack against the holy space and functions of the Temple. But John’s version gives us the story right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, just after the famous Wedding at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine, and even before he had called any disciples. Matthew, Mark and Luke make the Cleansing of the Temple an end-point. For John, it is just the beginning. Did, perhaps, the same event happen twice? Or did the Gospel writers forget when in Jesus’ ministry it happened? Was it a first prophetic act by Jesus to bring attention to himself? Or was it a last act of defiance before his death?

And a more serious problem is: Why did he bother? What was he so upset about in the first place? None of the four Gospel writers give us the answer.

We might think that there was some problem about the Jews conducting a market in the precincts of the Temple; but in fact the money-changers and the sellers of doves, sheep, cattle, and bread were performing an essential service. Without them, Temple worship just couldn’t have taken place.

Most of the people coming to the Temple to offer a sacrifice were pilgrims, many of whom would have travelled great distances.  They had come to offer sacrifice, as the Law required. Depending on what sacrifice they were going to offer, they needed a dove or a ram, a goat or a bull, a loaf of bread, or maybe a jug of wine. They had to get it from somewhere, and the animals and other offerings had to be perfect, unblemished – the best produce available. Now, there would have been other markets in Jerusalem, but the most convenient market, the one where you could be sure to get an untainted sacrifice, was from the market in the Temple precincts.

Furthermore, it was a strict requirement of the law that you couldn’t bring a graven image into the sacred precincts of the Temple. Roman coins, and the coinage of most other countries, had an image of the Emperor or ruler, and often an invocation to their gods as well. Such idolatrous items couldn’t be offered for the temple tax, which each Jewish man had to pay. The obvious answer was to have money-changers who could exchange coins for the sacred shekels, temple money which had equal value, but which would be accepted as a right and fitting offering to the one true God. The money-changing tables were there to enable the Jewish people to contribute properly to the Temple, so that the worship could take place. They were essential to the purity and holiness of the whole process.

So, what was Jesus’ problem? The most common suggestion is that maybe the money-changers and animal sellers were corrupt, selling second-rate goods, or giving unfair rates of exchange. And that might be true – we just don’t know and there’s no evidence one way or the other in any of the Gospels.

So we have a strange and disturbing story, of Jesus disrupting the lawful and necessary processes of Temple worship, using uncharacteristic violence in his language and his actions, and doing something which, although all four Gospels record it, we cannot say with confidence whether it happened at the beginning of his ministry, or at the end.

Perhaps what we can say is that Jesus’ aggressive behaviour that day was born out of frustration and awareness that before his time, and for centuries afterwards, maybe even for ever, there would always be people who just miss the point. People who think that the kind of animal or the type of coin you bring is what is important. People who think that religion is about making a clear distinction between clean and unclean, holy and unholy, blessed and cursed, sinner and saint, when in fact Jesus taught that God makes no such distinctions, and we ALL stand equally in need of his grace, and equally in need of his love and forgiveness.

In today’s second reading, St Paul describes the cross as foolishness to those who are perishing. Those who look for definite answers, who seek proof, who want to be saved by keeping the law, or by offering the right kind of sacrifices, or by having all the answers. Because there is no law that leads to life, there are no sacrifices which can take away our sins, and to many of the most profound questions facing humanity there are no logical answers at all. There is only the cross. The cross, on which the Prince of Glory died. The cross, which is a scandal to those who look for a law, because crosses are for law-breakers, not sons and daughters of God. The cross, which is the one, perfect sacrifice that really does take away our sins, once and for all.

So then, what is the message for us in this Gospel?

I think it’s this: that Jesus wants a clean temple, and he’s not talking about church buildings. And he wasn’t talking only about his own body and its resurrection, but also his body that was to come, namely the Church. Not for nothing do we frequently declare in church services that: We are the body of Christ and his Spirit is with us! 

As Jesus presented his body as the sacrifice for all time, so we are called on to present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice—holy and acceptable to God.

Quoting another passage from Paul, this time from Romans, he says unequivocally:  “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

There you have it: we are to be different; we are to be conformed to the teachings and love of Christ, and not to the ways of the world.

Wherever you are in the world, may the peace of the Lord be always with you.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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Emmanuel Church Annual Quiz Night and Curry Supper - 2012

Our thanks to Karen Carmichael who organised the Emmanuel Quiz Night with Curry Buffet Supper held at West Island School on Friday 2nd March 2012.

We would also like to thank:

• Lucy Moore, Megan Rodricks, Harrison Holloway and May Large for marking the answers.
• Iain Carmichael and Rebecca Abraham for the manning the bar.
• Colleen Nichol for the door / greeting.
• West Island School for letting us use the venue.

And a big thank you to all those that attended and for making the quiz night go so well.  A team from the British Consulate won the Supreme Champions Mugs.

The Quiz night this year raised HKD39,000 for our chosen charity: The Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge.

For those who like statistics, we got through 3 barrels of beer and 57 bottles of wine!

Our chosen charity The Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge aims to:

• provide emergency relief and places of refuge for the up to twenty needy and distressed Asian migrants;
• make available guidance and counseling, including para legal advice to residents and drop-in clients
• provide a social center where present and past residents can interact and mutually support one another;
• encourage the residents to get involved in handicraft making during their free time. This serves as a therapy for the residents to get their minds off their problems;
• provide a continuing education for residents enabling them to better cope with problems that confront migrant workers.

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Hello World!

In today’s reading from St Mark we are taken right to heart of the Christian gospel. We are given probably what is the most difficult issue to wrestle with, that of human ‘suffering,’ together with our Lord’s injunction that you cannot be one of his followers unless you deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him.  This message applies to everyone who calls himself a Christian. There is no escaping it or fudging it!

One of the reasons we have this ‘suffering’ theme in Lent is to make us think again about what life truly is and it detaches us from the things of this world.  Of course it can have the opposite effect, but it is a powerful instrument for enabling us to be ‘holier’, which I have always understood to be as being closer to God.

El Greco's magnificent depiction of Christ Carrying his Cross to Calvary. Oil on canvas displayed in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art

Life is full of opportunities, and here I am not speaking of those great visitations of pain and suffering which come to us all from time to time – serious illnesses, great personal losses etc.,  No, I’m thinking more about the everyday hurts and upsets which are golden opportunities, and can turn out to be missed chances. Perhaps on occasions we have felt snubbed or neglected or unfairly criticised; situations where you have been hurt, or are still hurting. Look back over the last month or two and see the number of times these things have depressed you, and possibly even angered you. But how many times did you seize the opportunity?

A good practice when you are in that kind of situation is to sit down or, better, go down on your knees and say: ‘Thank you, Lord! Thank you that in a very little way I have been allowed to share in your Passion!’  Well, in 25-years of priestly life I have achieved it once! But it worked so dramatically that I have never forgotten it. But I have never done it since, even though I still get annoyed by rude and thoughtless people.

Every Christian has in some manner to embrace the cross and carry it with our Lord. We should expect that and, at one level, we should want to do it. Because when we are suffering, mentally or physically, whether in union with him during his agony in the garden of Gethsemane, or when he is carrying his own cross and being beaten up, flogged, spat upon, and totally humiliated on his way to Calvary – there is nothing that brings us closer to him than actually suffering with him. This has great significance for every Christian, because how can we be one of our Lord’s followers, how can we be of help to those who are suffering, unless we can speak from our own experience.

If you have never been through darkness, then you simply cannot speak to people about the light. If you have never been through doubt then you probably cannot speak eloquently about faith. You have to know that side of life – the Crucifixion side, the Passion side – to be able to speak eloquently about the Resurrection side!

Our experience of suffering and pain will purify our intentions and enable us to get our motives right. It also unites us with Christ in wonderful friendship and total solidarity. And in this special bond, we can learn so much about the Source of his own courage and strength.

What can be annoying of course is the timing of the cross.  There are always other days when it would have been so much easier to bear. But the cross never comes at a time when it is convenient. It is never the cross we choose, and certainly not the one we want. It is all part of our ministry to experience the cross, but also to know how to embrace it, and to know how to pray it.

All of us are appalled at the magnitude of suffering in the world.  The latest nightmare is the tide of human suffering taking place right now in Syria –  it just doesn’t seem to get any better. And closer to home, all of us have met at least a handful of people who are carrying some deep inner sadness, some sorrow, some pain, and we ask ourselves: What is the meaning of all this? Well, it is at times like this we are confessing to one of the biggest problems in our lives: to know why! It is probably the biggest single argument against the existence of God.

Sit with a widow who has just lost her young husband, or with a mother who has just lost her child – to say that it is God’s will does not ease the pain. It is always a tremendous problem, and over the years, I have realised that there is not one answer that is even remotely satisfactory.  But there is one thing that always works for me. I take some time out and look deeply and meditatively at a crucifix. When one does this, one sees with the eyes of faith the outline of the risen Christ. And that’s the real point, and that’s why a crucifix is such a lovely thing.

In the St Michael’s Chapel in the cathedral you will find something very precious. On the right hand side of the altar just beneath the large crucifix, you can see what is called an aumbry which contains the Body and Blood of Christ. It’s a lovely, quiet, holy space and where you can find some peace from the hustle and bustle of the city. There is really no need for words to pray. You have only to look at the ambry with its little red light aglow above it, and reflect on the huge significance of what is kept safe inside – the real presence of the Living, Risen Christ, the Bread of life.  There you have it – Death and Life – permanently there for us to celebrate and reflect upon. (You will find an aumbry (or a tabernacle) is most Anglican and Catholic churches).

When we are called to suffer on our Christian journey it’s only because we belong to the human race. It going to happen to me, to you, and to everyone else. But try to remember that suffering is a school in which there is much to learn as well as share.

There may come a point when one is so overburdened, when the only prayer possible is the prayer our Lord himself said on the cross: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

What better prayer then to take a crucifix in the palm of your hand and just gaze upon it, and allow it to give up something of its divine secret. If you are sharing the experience of our Lord in some way, then it reveals to you something of the secret. Whatever that secret says to you will bring its own peace, and its own special joy and calm.

Wherever you are in the world, may God the giver of life, give you hope; Christ the Redeemer, give you peace; and the Holy Spirit who inspires all, give you joy.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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Pope Benedict XVI "Lent is like a long 'retreat' during which we can turn back into ourselves and listen to the voice of God, in order to defeat the temptations of the Evil One. It is a period of spiritual 'combat' which we must experience alongside Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the arms of faith: prayer, listening to the word of God and penance. In this way we will be able to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism".

Give up complaining – focus on gratitude. 

Give up pessimism - become an optimist. 

Give up harsh judgements – think kindly thoughts.

Give up worry – trust Divine Providence.

Give up discouragement – be full of hope. 

Give up bitterness – turn to forgiveness. 

Give up hatred – return good for evil.

Give up negativism – be positive. 

Give up anger – be more patient. 

Give up pettiness – become mature.

Give up jealously – pray for trust. 

Give up gossiping - control your tongue. 

Give up sin – return to virtue. 

Give up giving up – hang in there! 

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Worship without expectations is a good thing. It hollows out space in our hearts free from our own self-centredness ready for the living God. It is easy to see expectations regarding God and spirituality at work in contemporary Australia (or anywhere in the West).

Although church-hopping until the hopper finds the church they like has made churches more honest as they cannot assume people’s allegiance, overall it is unhelpful in the spiritual journey. Supermarket spirituality encourages people to think they know how God wishes to be gracious to them and so they search until they find it. This assumption might be hidden behind the search for uplifting music or a gospel minister, but it still assumes the person concerned knows what God wants for them.

Contrary to this, I don’t think we really know what God wants for us, and how much goodness God wishes to shower upon us, and the sheer weight of goodness we miss because we have tunnel vision: we only receive the goodness that our expectations allow. Breaking our addiction to ourselves by not coming to worship with expectations of what God should do and how God should achieve it can be painful. People confuse this spiritual correction going on within us as boredom, or poor preaching, or bad liturgy, etc.

Another example of this is when people stay at a church because they are receiving what they want. If you think about it, it is just the other side of the coin of people leaving because they don’t get what they want.

Coming to church without expectations of how and what God should do broadens our experience of God, and our hopefulness. Sitting in church when you don’t particularly feel God’s presence is good practice for those times when God seems particularly absent.

Feeling like God is absent at church will also give us a new sense of how shocking the crucifixion of Jesus must have been for the first disciples, not to mention a new sympathy for Jesus hanging on the cross is desolation. We are in good company!

And if you are sitting in church and you wonder where God is in all of this, well focus on the Eucharist: it proclaims the death and resurrection of the Lord until he comes. Talk about presence in absence! And the next time we find ourselves nailed to the cross, there will be some formed practice to fall back on.

Revd Dr Warren Huffa

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Hello World!

‘He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God’. (John 1:11-12)

Most of us will be familiar with this glorious passage from  John’s Gospel which is often read at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.  It was the best present the world had ever been given, that is, Jesus’ coming into the world. It was a present more precious than anything that had been given before or since. Yet the really sad thing about it was that so many people said: No thanks! Not interested!

In fact, they did quite a lot more than say no thanks. They spat at him, swore at him, nailed him to a piece of wood and killed him. They killed God’s greatest gift to humankind – his precious and holy Son, Jesus.

A serene interpretation of St John the Evangelist by Guido Reni (1575-1642), an Italian baroque painter and engraver noted for the classical idealism of his renderings of mythological and religious subjects.

Further into John’s Gospel, (and in the other Gospels, of course)  we learn that many people rejected Jesus. And when one stops to think about it, all these years on not much has changed. All of us know people who, when considering the Christian faith, have said No thanks. Not interested! 

In some parts of the world, especially in the West, there is a huge move away from the Christian faith which previous generations learned at their parent’s knees. Many children no longer hear Bible stories from their parents or at their schools.

I was reminded of this not so long ago outside a crematorium chapel in London. After the funeral service, one of the mourners enquired about what he thought was a ‘poem’ I had read near the end during the service. Apparently, the so-called ‘poem’ was unfamiliar to most of those present at the funeral. The poem was ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ – the ‘Our Father!’

It was a sharp reminder to me just how far the Church has failed to connect with a whole generation of people. I suppose one could safely assume that if they were unaware of the Lord’s Prayer, then the prologue to St John’s Gospel, one of the great gems of biblical literature, would be a load of gobbledegook to them!

These people grew up without ever having heard it. In this particular case, these people had not so much said ‘No thanks’ or even rejected Jesus; they had yet to hear even some of the basic fundamentals of the faith through the Holy Bible. They had yet to receive and believe in Jesus’ name.

There are great swaths of people to whom God, and Jesus and spirituality and religion are utterly alien. And sadly this trend seems to be growing. As recently as last Friday, the National Secular Society in Britain won a landmark court ruling banning Christian prayers as an official agenda item at hundreds of Town Council meetings in England and Wales. It remains to be seen what official response there will be from senior church leaders at this latest attack on religion.

I guess with it comes to Jesus it’s impossible to sit on the fence. You are either for him or against him. You either accept him or you reject him. You either love him or you despise him.

Certainly in Jesus’ time everyone in his sphere simply had to sit up, take notice and think. His miracles were so amazing, his teaching so challenging, his love so transforming, that you simply had to react one way or the other. You just couldn’t sit on the fence. You couldn’t be a ‘Don’t know’; you simply had to make up your mind. And despite all that Jesus did, still so many people rejected him.

But not everyone rejected him. Then, as today, it’s certainly true that a great many people have accepted him and said a mighty big ‘YES’ to him!

John tells us the wonderful good news: ‘But to all who received him, all who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.’ (John 1:12)

How did they accept him? Well, by believing in him, certainly, but also by receiving him. Believing on its own is not enough – you need to receive him as well.

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus says: ‘Here I am, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come and eat with him and he with me. (Rev 3:20).

You see, Jesus may be knocking at the door of your life right now. Will you open it and welcome him in. Jesus wants so much to know you personally, to be your Saviour and your Lord. Will you receive him into your life? If you do, then you have the assurance that he will remain with you forever, and that together you will enjoy a whole new special relationship with God.

‘But to all who received him, all who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. (John 1:12)

Belief is very important – but as John reminds us again today that that by itself is just not enough. You need to receive Jesus into your life as well. It’s the reception of Jesus that really counts, and it’s that that will sustain you through the up-and-downs of everyday life. That’s what will keep you going.

The way we know Jesus is when we begin letting him have influence in our life. When you have not only decided to believe in him, but also truly receive him into your life, that’s when your life will start to change. Reading your Bible, saying your prayers, coming to church often, all that is very important. But allowing Jesus to have influence in your life is quite another thing.

It’s what I like to call having intimacy with him, and some of you heard me say that before.  How much of that is going on for you right now. How much intimacy is there between you and God right now? When was he last real, when was he last alive, when did he last provoke you to joy and envelope you with his loving peace. For me, that is intimacy with God, and it’s that that will keep you going when the going gets tough.

God is just waiting, he’s trying, he’s knocking, he’s urging. Christ is calling us by name to truly receive him into our lives. Once we start really looking and seeing, then he begins to draw himself ever so close, against the current, against those countless voices in our ears, and the many hands that would hold us back from such firm faith, friendship and intimacy.

That at any rate is what he longs to do. For it to happen we have to receive him into our lives and see him as he is himself; not as what we have made him, not how we have chosen to understand him.

We have to let him stand before us so that we can really see him and that for some of us, maybe for the very first time. 

Wherever you are in the world, may the grace and goodness of God go with you and surround you with glory.

Fr Nigel S D Gibson

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