Text: Matthew 7:24-27 Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them

Principle: Values guide our actions. Have you heard the expression of a ‘moral compass’? A friend of mine was accused of lacking one, and was most offended!  This assumes that we have guiding values, which like a compass provide us with a sense of orientation and how to behave appropriately.

The problem is that no one has a monopoly on values. Phil is one of my closest friends, we started high school together and have been friends for about 60 years. He is politically conservative and has moved to Queensland where he feels perfectly at home. We have had some conversations about Donald Trump. I believe there is no high moral ground when it comes to politics in Australia, generally we vote for different agendas because we have different values. Jonathan Haidt in The Righteous Mind: why good people are divided by politics and religion (2012) is a good exploration of this theme.

I should affirm pro-social values. After all Putin has values of patriotism and ‘might is right’. Perhaps a neo-Nazi bikie gang has values as well such as loyalty and not being a snitch. But generally pro social values are simply values which appeal to us. It is like our choice in pizzas: You might like Hawaiian, but I prefer Supreme.

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Text: “Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. (Proverbs 3:3)

Principle:

We often have racing thoughts, which basically go nowhere. Especially if we are upset or in emotional turmoil. How do we sort them out? How do we get a sense of perspective? It can help if we write them down. This puts our thoughts on a page.

In previous generations it was common to have a diary. Has anyone done that for a time? Or now? Today most people post on Facebook or use social media. But that is hardly a private space. I would like to focus today on the therapeutic and spiritual value of having a journal.

How to:

Keeping a journal is natural and straightforward. You write your experiences, thoughts, and feelings down on the page. This can take many forms such as a paper diary or on your computer in a word document. You can be creative using photos or drawings or art. Think of mediaeval manuscripts which incorporated words with art and often playful cartoonlike images. See the novel by the local author Robin Cadwallader with her Book of Colours.

The writing of a journal, can be a private experience and not to be shared with others unless by your choice. So consider security, perhaps with a locked file or password USB.

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Text: Matthew 7:13-14 Enter by the narrow gate.

Principle: Exposure, as a principle, is easily understood. If we are fearful, we tend to avoid. Exposure is facing what is daunting but in manageable ‘doses’ until the fear and even paralysis reduces to a manageable level.

The theory is essentially stimulus and response, in which the mind becomes habituated and alarm signals become weaker.

How to:

Exposure is simply about facing what makes us uncomfortable. Naturally we will react or become triggered, but this is welcomed not avoided. You can observe that every time you react, it gets a little bit weaker. If you avoid, the reaction get stronger.

There is something of a paradox in the concept of avoidance. We can do all sorts of good things: find a meaningful job, engage in an exercise program, go bushwalking, take up a hobby, join a club, contribute to charity, learn a new skill or socialise with friends. Even doing a good thing ? such as helping a church ? can be an act of avoidance, for example to distract from an uncomfortable emotion. One example of this is hyperactivity to mask depression ? the manic defence. Then the good thing is unlikely to be very satisfying. But facing the uncomfortable emotion, exposure, gives us the space to do good things and find them satisfying. More about this when we consider values and committed living in a later sermon.

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Exodus 32:1-14; Exodus 33:12-17

Before we begin let us consider what has happened before the stories we heard today. The Israelites have been slaves in Egypt until God, through Moses, launches a daring plague-based escape. They are now free! God has promised to take them to a land rich with milk and honey but at the moment they are waiting in the desert for a plan and a path. The only thing they have to eat is miraculous manna, which God provides each morning and they can’t stockpile beyond the day’s needs.

In the first reading today, Moses is away in discussion with God. While they were busy, the community crafts and then begins to worship a golden calf. In response, Moses destroys it, and has many of the men killed. Even more got sick. The relationship between the community, Moses, and God, is rocky to say the least.

By the time we get to the second story, things have calmed down a bit and God has given the go-ahead, has commanded that Moses to begin the trek to the promised land. So in our reading, Moses turns to God and says outright ‘go with us’.

We will come back to Moses. For now, let us sit with his community. It can be easy, for those of us who know how the story ends, to judge the Israelites for their golden calf. It can feel absurd that they, who through Moses have a direct phone line to God, would desire an idol.

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Letter writing and receiving letters has always been important to me. When I was a child in Primary School, I had a penfriend in rural NSW and we wrote to each other for decades, although we only met once. When I first left home to teach in the country and was homesick, letters between my mother and me really mattered. Letters between me and my future husband Ron, written over several years when we lived in different countries, changed the direction of our lives from friendship to a long marriage.

These days, fewer people write real letters, which I find quite sad. Text messages can be great, and I use them all the time, but they are limited. And as for a string of emojis, that is not the same!

In the years immediately after the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, the followers of Jesus were beginning to spread into scattered communities. As new groups of Christians were gathering in places distant from each other, letters became important. The apostle Paul wrote letters to a number of communities and we can still read them in our New Testament. As Paul travelled, he met little groups in places like Rome, so he wrote a letter to the Romans. He visited the Christians in Corinth and later wrote at least two letters to the Corinthians.

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