John Hebenton's Podcast

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“Show us your credentials part three." Some thoughts for the readings for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time with some interesting stories.

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In our Gospel reading, Jesus keeps poking the bear and ramping up the tension with the privileged, landowning Jerusalem Temple elite. This tense conversation started when they demanded to know who gave him the authority to do all these things—teaching, healing, forgiving sins, and flipping over the money changers' tables. Jesus links his authority back to John the Baptist and then launches into a few stories about sons and vineyard tenants who don’t pay rent – they know what to do with them. And now an utterly absurd parable about a king and a wedding feast. Seriously, who turns down a weeklong party with the best food and wine? To get what's going on here, we have to keep the Sermon on the Mount in mind, along with the parables of the lost sheep and the vineyard workers. The Kingdom of Heaven is for the poor and vulnerable. Jesus is genuinely angry at leaders who use their religious authority to line their own pockets while completely neglecting their duties as stewards of ...
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“Show us your credentials part two." Some thoughts for the readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time and the Season of Creation

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This Sunday marks the final day of this year’s Season of Creation, and we read this well-known and deeply troubling gospel story (Matthew 21:33-46). Bad tenants doing bad things to the landowner’s slaves who came for the rent. And then they kill the son. All a great metaphor for what was about to happen to Jesus and the Jews. All the bad people get what they deserve in the end. Stories like this have left us   “Gentile Christians” feeling smug and have been used to justify horrendous violence against our Jewish brothers and sisters. Maybe we need to put the story back and ask where we are in the story. Jesus came to Jerusalem and caused a stir in the Temple. The next day he returns, cursing a non-fruit bearing fig tree on the way. The Chief Priests and leading Pharisees ask, “Show us your credentials. Who authorized you to teach here?” These are the Judean elite who are profiting from their alliance with Rome. This is the third part of Jesus’ response. Talking to these absentee l...
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Anglican Worship, a relic of the past?

One of my colleagues sent an email out today advertising the up coming Manu Rui training event in Christchurch. One of his youth pastors replied as below. I include it as it raises some important issues, and I also include my response. My kids would have no interest in this at all; their focus is simply not on denominational breakdowns and focii. As a church we need to focus on WHERE OUR KIDS ARE (ie not in Anglican churches) and visit there, rather than trying to get kids to visit us (worship wise or whatever). We've been around hundreds of years and kids have voted with their feet. Modern youth ministry is totally ecumenical (ie easter camp, 82 youth groups), so this is not something I would spend time on myself. I agree there are treasures, and I personally value aspects of Anglicanism, but not at a youth level. We struggle even having "readings" (even in modern version); our kids want increasing informality and less heritage. They collect the latter later in life,...
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