Bulletins - Timaru Presbyterian Parish

Crown Him With Many Crowns
Hymn: Praise My Soul The King Of Heaven (Praise My Soul)
Aaronic Blessing
Forgiveness Is Your Gift
- - John 18:33–37NIV2011
A busy week in the news
All Blacks lost to France - never a good start. In fact, with the Italy match on, I’m surprise to see so many of you here!
Gang patch ban
Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East
I don’t even want to think about US politics.
Hikoi mo te Tiriti - largest protest in a generation.
All things that people get passionate about - one way or the other.
One thing that may have slipped under the radar:
Tony Campolo
How many have heard of him?
A preacher, an evangelist, and a campaigner for social justice who wasn’t afraid to point out hypocrisy in the church:
“While you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don't give a shit. What's worse is that you're more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.” ― Tony Campolo
Famous for hisdirect care and compassion for the desperately poor.
Rubbed shoulders with kings and presidents. Hugged homeless people and threw birthday parties for prostitutes. Instrumental in Jubilee 2000.
Tony Campolo used to come and speak at the YFC conference in Wellington every second year. Got to see what he was like up close and personal.
One morning, before everyone else was up, Andrea and I had breakfast with him and his wife. My friend who was with us was more interested in hearing about Clinton, and Bush & Ghaddafi. I was more interested in getting a feel for him as a person, away from the limelight.
Turns out he was just an ordinary person, living an extraordinary life.
He was just as interested in our lives, as we were in his.
He was passionate about what he believed in. He put his words into action, but he never forgot that this broken world is not the be all and end all of creation. He was always seeking the goodness of the kingdom of God, longing for that goodness to reach down from heaven and change the reality of peoples’ lives here and now.
The “noise” didn’t get to him.
Christ the King
Today is Christ the King Sunday. The culmination of six months “ordinary time” in the church calendar, and we’re thrown right back in to the chaos and drama of Jesus’ last days before his crucifixion.
The politics and the passions of Israela nd Rome are seweeping Jesus towards his death, and we have this quiet moment introspection in the eye of the storm.
“Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus doesn’t react, or reply to the anger and hatred that is being thrown against him.
If it were me, I think I’d be a blubbering mess, trying to stand up for myself. Trying to explain why they’re wrong and I’m right.
Jesus just stands there and bounces Pilate’s questions back to him.
John 18:36 NIV
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
Jesus spent his whole ministry preaching sight to the blind and Good News to the poor. You could forgive him for trying to hold on to the shreds of what he had built, but he doesn’t. He lets go. He understnads that God’s kingdom is much bigger than one person in 1st century Judea, even if that one person happens to be the Sonf of God.
The kingdom that Jesus preached is not dependent on holding on to what we’ve already got.
The kingdom Jesus preached finds its fullness in the knowledge that the best is yet to come. In this life and in the next.
So when the weekly news assaults you with cause after cause that it’s worth fighting for, remember this: In Christ, the victory has already been won.
In Jesus, the Kingdom of God has come near, and we will never be abandoned by God’s love.
I want to finish witha quote from my breakfast buddy Tony:

“Your past is important, but it is not nearly as important to your present as the way you see your future.” ― Tony Campolo
I pray that you may see your future secure in the overwhelming, never ending abundant love of God.
Hymn: Worship The Lord In His Holiness
The Lords Prayer
God Who Sets Us On A Journey

John 18:33–37NIV2011

A busy week in the news

Tony Campolo

Christ the King