New Beginnings - Father Dave's Blog

“All the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had given to Israel.” (Nehemiah 8:1)

Starting again is difficult.

Getting kicked out of a job you love, and trying to start a different career
Having your marriage break down and adjusting to a new living situation
Being forced to move away from your family and community, and trying to replant yourself.

These are all major life transitions, and they are always painful, and sometimes we don’t survive them, but when we do survive them, they always lead to growth.

This scene we come across in the book of Nehemiah, chapter 8, is of a people in transition. These are the descendants of the people who were kicked out of Jerusalem generations earlier, when the Babylonians came in and smashed their homeland. These are people who were born in the far-flung corners of the Persian empire, being brought up on stories about their ancestral homeland, and yearning for the chance to get back there. These are the people who took up the offer of King Cyrus of Persia to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their ancestral community. They left their homes and their jobs and their friends because they latched on to a dream of rebuilding something that they had only ever heard about in stories. These are a people whose lives were built on hope!

I imagine what it must have felt like to have been a part of one of those families, gathering in the town square that morning. You’d left your home on the other side of the world some months ago. You were full of exuberance back then, being carried along by a dream. Since then, you’ve experienced months of travel, and you’ve arrived at a city that didn’t even have a wall when you got there. You’d been told that the place was flowing with milk and honey but, thus far, it has just been hard work.

So you gather together in the square, and what do you do? You ask Ezra, the Scribe, to bring out the most valuable possession your ancestors ever bequeathed to your community – the book of the Law of Moses – because you know that if you’re new community is going to have any chance of survival, it’s going to need more than makeshift walls and a volunteer army. It’s going to have to be built on the promises of God and fed with the wisdom of the Torah.

I experienced all of those transitions I mentioned earlier – all of them at once – and it was only a few years ago. My marriage broke down. I was forced to move on from my position as parish priest that I’d held for more than 30 years, and I had to make a fresh start. Transitions like this test us, and they push us back to the fundamentals.

When everything else has gone, what foundation can we build on? We do as Nehemiah and his people did. We rebuild on the promises of God and on the wisdom of God’s word.

Our Sunday Eucharist

A big thank you to our friends, Karyn Hemming and Andrew Logan, for joining me on the Sunday Eucharist panel last weekend. I’ve included a couple of shorts below. See the whole collection of shorts on the Sunday Eucharist Instagram page, or watch the entire broadcast again on either Facebook , YouTube or Twitter.

This coming Sunday is going to be a bit different. I will not be there! Well … I may sneak in at some point, but I’m going to be in Tehran (in Iran), and midday in Sydney is 4.30 am in the morning there so I am not confident that I’ll awake. I’m also very confident that I won’t be able to get any wine, so … Rob Gilland is taking the reins!

Rob is licensed to preside at Communion with the Uniting Church of Australia, so the sacrament and liturgy are going to be a little different this time. Even so, as they say, a change is as good as a holiday. While I’m on holiday, enjoy the change. Just don’t enjoy it so much that you don’t want me back (please).

Rob will be assisted by our dear brother, Doug Pyeatt, and also by Andrew Logan, who has graciously offered to come back again this Sunday and fill in for Andrew Madry who is tied down with family commitments this Australia Day long weekend.

So … join Rob and his team this Sunday from noon at TheSundayEucharist.com, Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Faithia or Streamyard, and give them your support. 😊

Let me work your corner

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What’s On?

Friday, January 24^th to Friday, January 31^st – Father Dave in Iran
February 14 t0 16 – Father and Son Camp @ Binacrombi

No boxing classes next week, I’m afraid, and no weekends in the bush. Things will resume as normal, God willing, once I return. In the meantime, say a prayer for me, and let me know whether you have any creative ideas for me while I’m away.

I currently have three things on the agenda for next week:

I’ll be a guest on the TV show, ‘Mahfel’, who are paying for my ticket. I’ll be giving a 20-minute talk on “The Christian Concept of Compassion”.
I hope to get a fight, though that is by no means certain.
I may also be launching another book.

The story of the book is a bit bizarre. It started with my friend, Dr Yahya Jahangiri, asking me to join him in giving a Zoom presentation on Animal Rights at Tehran University. He was addressing the topic from an Islamic perspective and asked me to provide a Christian one.

I worked hard on putting together a 20-minute address, but it all went disastrously wrong on the night as I hadn’t realised that my 20-minute timeslot included the translation into Farsi, which was done line-by-line as I spoke. This meant that I was less than halfway through my address when my 20 minutes was up. I was a bit upset so Dr Jahangiri suggested we distribute the printed version of my address. Then it occurred to him that if we both padded out our talks a little, our printed versions would add up to a book!

I like the cover graphic, but I thought the proposed title was a little wooden. I suggested, “All Creatures Great and Small”, which I think is better. Joy suggested, “Who’s the King of the Jungle?” which is better still. Dr Jahangiri has the final call on that one though. I’ll let you know.