Why on Earth Would we Use Te Reo Māori in our Sunday Service?
Readings:
The Sermon
“Hagar and Ishmael,” Abel Pann
1. Introduction:
while preparing for this week
- reminded by Matt Skinner that who we are shapes how we read scripture
- I am a white middle class heterosexual male
- not apologising for that
- does mean that I am a person of some privilege and power
o even when don’t feel very privileged and powerful
o here in this land not so much
o compared to so many people around world I am so privileged, powerful and wealthy
- that shapes how I read scripture
- e.g story of Hagar and Ishamel
o cruel story of slavery and rejection
o Sarah acts to preserve her son’s privilege and power
§ God seems to approve
§ God also enter covenant with Ishamel
· more to God’s story than in Bible
o some ask “did Abraham and Sarah ever know what happened to them?”
- Muslims – this is the beginning of their story
o Abraham spend half of each year with his son
o teaches him worship of true God at the Kabah
o theme used by ex Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on how to counter religious violence
- African-American women this story is their story
o story of first enslaved African woman in Bible
o story they use to make sense of their experience
o find their place in biblical story
When we read gospel stories
need to remember that most of us are not who Jesus spent time with
he spent it with those made invisible
those who were silenced
In Beatitudes he taught that they were the ones we should look up to and aspire to be like
He taught and lived God’s justice, mercy, love and hope for all people
- particularly those whose lives did not matter to privileged and powerful
o Rome
o Judean elite
that got him killed in a way that declared his life as of little value
- pest to Rome that needed to be swotted aside
he invites us to continue that work
warning us of the danger
encouraging us to not be driven by fear
knowing that in God’s eyes we matter
and
because of that we are to live in ways that others know they matter too.
2.
Te Reo Māori
Outline some of the reasons I think it is important:
· bishop said so
· honours our history - who we are as Anglicans in this country
- language first Anglican church (te Haahi Mihinare)
o not transplant (Henry Venn)
- Waiapu
· language of our tikanga partners in this land
· official language of Aotearoa New Zealand and as such deserves a place in our services
- partly because it is an official language
- partly Māori is used all around us and is part of our context
- welcoming for Māori speakers and those who value Te Reo to hear their language
· Te reo Māori is a gift from God,
- cultivated by our ancestors and bequeathed as a gift to all generations
- offers us such rich way seeing world – He Tikanga Whakapono
- it behoves us to fill our hearts with what is good and just.
· enable us to worship with Tikanga Māori partners with confidence
· Lutheran work on relationship of liturgy with culture:
- trans or beyond culture – Syrian Jacobite Orthodox Liturgy of James the Just of Jerusalem
- contextual - Malayalam
- cross cultural
- counter cultural
è when acknowledge limitations of language we use we open ourselves up to be more
è learn see world different ways
è hear scripture from different perspectives.
è invites me acknowledge my limitations as white heterosexual middle class male
è be more
3. In summary:
don’t use te reo Maori because
· it is cool or because it is PC
using te reo Māori honours:
· who is here
· who we are as an Anglican church and a diocese
· our context in these communities
· liturgy as a vehicle that moves us
o out of our culture
o helps us embrace other cultures
o hold our culture up to the gospel
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