In his Pentecost 10 sermon Glynn Cardy focuses on how we read the Bible. Is it a rule book or a collection of spiritual stories that serve as a heart guide? One way can blind us, the other can lead us to abundant life.

"Spiritual stories, like those contained in the Bible, are not of course written by God. They are written by pilgrims like us. Some stories endure through generations, and time and again valuably point to the presence of God. These stories come to be collectively labelled as ‘inspired’. Sometimes whole collections of stories, like the Bible, are so labelled.

Yet we need to be careful about how we use the word ‘inspired’. What might be inspirational for one person might be destructive for another. Even collective wisdom can in another time and culture be collective nonsense. Worse it can become a tool for fear, and fear’s child: oppression. There is no guarantee that so-called wise words will last the test of time."

Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=865

Pentecost 9 featured guest preacher, Linda Murphy, who works as the Verger at St Matthew's and is in her first year of preparation for the permanent diaconate. Her inaugual sermon focuses on both the challenges and necessity of active listening to following a Christ-like path.

Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=454&id=864

In his Pentecost 8 sermon Glynn Cardy wanders the world in search of paths to spirituality.

"I like to think of spirituality as footpaths through the forest. There are a variety of footpaths one can take on the search for meaning. Some paths end in disaster. Some are unsafe. Some have unhealthy consequences. Others offer a range of beauty, adventure, and satisfaction. Not everyone has to walk the same footpath. Nor is the end point the same for all."

He looks at four of the paths.

Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=863.

In his Pentecost 7 sermon, Clay Nelson shares a blog that states that Glynn Cardy and he are not Christians. He goes on to look at what defines a Christian.

Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=448&id=855.

In her Pentecost 6 sermon Denise Kelsall uses the story of Ishmael to explore conflict as exemplified by the seemingly hopeless Israeli-Palestinian impasse.

In the face of tragedy she offers a couple of heartening examples for hope.

Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=453&id=852.

In his Pentecost 5 sermon examines why Jesus sent the disciples only to the lost sheep of Israel. He points out they were the Anawim, the powerlesss, dispossessed and impoverished, trapped in their circumstances by Roman oppression and the enforcers of purity in their faith. The are also God's remnant. Today, in the church, it is the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community who number amongst the Anawim. Clay looks at our mission to them.

Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=448&id=851

In his Pentecost 4 sermon, Glynn takes a close look at the absence of God in our lives. Yes those times exist.

"The word ‘God’ is a way to construct meaning. Some would say we create God in order to have meaning. God becomes a piece of slate onto which we write our assumptions and understandings of life and the world. As the slate metaphor implies this is a fixed, static, compliant God – one who is assumed to be understanding and predictable.

But then something happens. Maybe we move, or maybe God does. Or, as is often the case, trauma comes smashing into our lives extinguishing the light. The slate shatters… maybe replaced by cloud or fire or a wrestling of the soul... but not by anything we’ve known previously as God.

With the shattering of the slate that God is gone." Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=850

On June 1, the Rt Revd John Paterson visited St Matthew's for confirmation. In this podcast the confirmands, Caitlin Gunasekara, Reece Davis, Patricia Gosper and Barry Gosper share why they are seeking to be confirmed and Bishop John and Glynn remember their confirmations.

In her Pentecost 2 sermon Denise Kelsall takes on globalisation, greed and injustice and offers some anti-dotes to worry and anxiety.

In his Trinity Sunday challenges both ancient and modern understandings of the Trinity which he begins by suggesting that "in any literal sense depicting God as a trinity is nonsense." His primary concern is that any attempt to put God in a trinitarian box is like putting God into cement filled gumboots. We need a more fluid understanding of God that moves like a dance challenging our faith.

Read full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=840

The progressive movement would like to rebrand Pentecost Sunday as Pluralism Sunday. While a worthy goal, the church will never participate. If it is going to happen it is up to us.

"Luke’s story is just as unseemly. His is a story of chaos and disorder. God is running amok. Boundaries are crossed. Taboos are broken. The young’s visions and their elders’ dreams are being voiced in confrontational language to the established order. The old order is slipping through the fingers of power faster the harder they cling to it. The unpredictable new is in the ascendancy."

Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=448&id=838.

In support of an act of civil disobedience by ANZAC Ploughshares protesting New Zealand's support of the US War on Terror and the war in Iraq by puncturing a balloon covering intelligence-gathering equipment at Waihopai in the South Island, Glynn speaks to the importance of Christians walking their faith.

"Ploughshares differ from other types of protest in that they are liturgies, intentionally sacramental. A sacrament is a ‘window into God’. It is an action that helps us see into the nature and meaning of the Divine. The pouring of blood [sometimes the protesters own blood], the hammering of weapons of war into implements of peace, the use of sickles… all these are symbolic theatrical acts that point to a God who loves all, who desires peace, and who is prepared to confront the powers that be to achieve it. The God of this liturgy is not a couch potato but an activist intent on change."

Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=835.

In support of an act of civil disobedience by ANZAC Ploughshares protesting New Zealand's support of the US War on Terror and the war in Iraq by puncturing a balloon covering intelligence-gathering equipment at Waihopai in the South Island, Glynn speaks to the importance of Christians walking their faith.

"Ploughshares differ from other types of protest in that they are liturgies, intentionally sacramental. A sacrament is a ‘window into God’. It is an action that helps us see into the nature and meaning of the Divine. The pouring of blood [sometimes the protesters own blood], the hammering of weapons of war into implements of peace, the use of sickles… all these are symbolic theatrical acts that point to a God who loves all, who desires peace, and who is prepared to confront the powers that be to achieve it. The God of this liturgy is not a couch potato but an activist intent on change."

Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=835.

Does God break the rules? Glynn Cardy in his look at Tamar's seduction of Judah, suggests the answer is, "All the time!"

When was the last time you heard a sermon on Tamar, who disguised herself as a prostitute to make sure her father-in-law carried out his responsibilities?

"The story of Tamar [Genesis 38] is about rights, responsibilities, oppression, and God. The context is patriarchy, maybe as early as 10th century BCE. Men rule. Women serve, and are breeders. If you don’t serve and you don’t breed your worth is minimal. So on one level the story is not about Tamar at all, but about the patriarch Judah and Tamar’s male offspring."

Read full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=834

Because of anti-immigrant sentiments expressed by New Zealand politician, Peter Brown, Glynn chose to use the Good Samaritan as his text for this Easter 4 sermon. It is a strong prophetic sermon calling people everywhere to confront their fears of the stranger.

"Peter Brown, the Deputy Leader of NZ First, articulated ‘anti-Samaritan’ sentiment last week when he warned of the “real danger we will be inundated with people who have no intention of integrating into our own society. They will form mini-societies… that will lead to division, friction and resentment.”

This is the politics of suspicion and fear. It persists through every age and nation like a virus that won’t go away. Ironically it foments the division, friction, and resentment Brown and his ilk allegedly want to avoid. Fear is the motivation that justifies the powerful pushing the racially, and often economically, less powerful into prescribed roles and functions. Prejudice and racism are the gates that keep them there."

Read full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=833.

In his Easter 3 sermon Clay looked behind Luke's story of the Road to Emmaus to examine the character of Jesus. What he finds is empathy which he argues is at core of our faith. He draws from the US Democratic primary and a speech by Barach Obama to share a modern version of Luke's story.

"While the story is just that, a story, I believe it reflects the collective memory of Jesus’ followers about Jesus himself. It reflects a core truth about the character of Jesus, even if the words he uses are not his but those of the early church.

What is at his core based on this story? Jesus listens actively. Listening is a caring response. He is not defensive in his response to these disciples who still don’t understand. Nor is he coercive by arguing for who he is, subtly or overtly. Instead he draws out of them what they already know, respecting their autonomy and capacity. And lastly, he does not pull rank. He is non-authoritarian. He does not make them sit down to eat with him; he patiently waits to be invited to join them at their meal. When they finally discover for themselves how to leave the hopeless road they have been travelling, he gets out of their way."

Full text is at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=448&id=826

Glynn focuses on the story of the resurrection as a container that contains a mystical truth, but sadly we confuse the container with the truth that we have all experienced.

"Once someone approached a disciple of the Muslim mystic Naqshband said, “Tell me why your Master conceals his miracles. I have personally collected data that shows beyond doubt that he has healed and helped people by the power of his prayers. Why does he conceal this?”

'I know exactly what you are talking about,” said the disciple, “for I have observed these things myself. And I think I can give you the answer. First, the Master recoils from being the centre of attention. And secondly, he is convinced that once people develop an interest in the miraculous, they have no desire to learn anything of spiritual value.' " Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=824.

Glynn reflects on his days laying concrete and its apparent permanence until the cracks show and then the flowers growing through them.

"Flowers are fragile, to be handled with tenderness and care. Unlike concrete you don’t have to be physically strong to hold a flower. Although, sometimes, the strength to be different is needed.

Flowers are visually and fragrantly beautiful. They are often riotous in their colour and gaiety. Concrete doesn’t do beautiful. It doesn’t do riots, colour, or gay either." Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=823

What is it about the cross that redeems the darkness of violence in our lives? Clay questions that it is the traditional explanations the church has offered.

"Someone who studied physics recently told me darkness doesn’t really exist. Darkness is simply the absence of light. An interesting notion as darkness seems so very real. We resist the notion because darkness gives evil a place to reside. It is a place of fear from our earliest childhood memories and why parents invest in cute little nightlights for the nursery. As young children it is the place of 'ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night.' " Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=448&id=821.

In her Maundy Thursday meditation Denise focuses on just how radical Jesus' act of washing his disciples' feet was. She wonders if we get it.

"I look at the long history of the church and the societies we have built and wonder how different we really are. Have we learned or really understood? Do we live this understanding?" See full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=453&id=820.

In his Palm Sunday sermon Clay begins with Jesus' reflection on his last week. He turns to looking at the three threads that run through scripture of bondage, exile and guilt that Jesus shows us how to deal with by his life and example.

"I understand that the institution that has based its legitimacy and power more on my suffering and death than my life and ministry calls my last days Holy Week. I think of it more as Hell Week." See full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=448&id=819

Denise Kelsall, the singing curate, begins with a rousing chorus of "O Dem dry bones" to lead into an exploration of resurrection as being hope and liberation as seen in the metaphor of the unbinding of Lazarus.

Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=453&id=818

In his Lent 4 sermon Glynn looks at Samuel's anointing of David over his brothers to be Saul's successors and remarks on how timely a 2500 year old passage of scripture can still be today. He goes on to explore what is leadership we can believe in.

"1 Samuel 16:7: “But Yahweh [God] said to Samuel, “Do not look on one’s appearance or on the height of one’s stature… for I do not see as mortals see. They look on the outward appearance, but I look on the heart.”

"It’s a great verse for the ugly, fat, and impotent! Power and looks are something that we are all meant to aspire to and never quite be satisfied with. Wouldn’t it be great if Hollywood chose its stars on the state of their hearts?

"The context of the verse though is leadership – it is part of the ‘Rise of King David’ legend. " Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=817.

On Lent 3, Larry Rasmussen, the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Ethics Emeritus from Union Theological Seminary, used the imagery of water to speak of wilderness and journey on our fragile ark, earth.

In his sermon on Lent 2 Glynn explores the history, challenges, and benefits of self-constraint.

"Anglicans generally don’t favour self-denial. We have preferred a theology that affirms the good things in life and our participation in them. Instead of abstinence Anglicans have prepared for Easter by trying to be generous towards others. This Lent, for example, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York encouraged their followers to “help to make our communities, local or global, clean and secure places of generosity.”

Yet at its best the ancient admonition to fast for Lent invites Christians to question what we need and why. There is a deep truth that the more we depend on possessions the greater the danger that we will worship them."

See full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=805

On this First Sunday of Lent St Matthew-in-the-City inaugurated a new liturgy fundamentally different from traditional liturgy. Glynn's sermon explains its radical nature and why it is time for a change.

"There are some major differences between this liturgy and what you may have experienced in the past. Primarily this liturgy seeks commitment from you. It asks us to metaphorically ‘light a candle of hope’. It challenges us to do something – to act, to change – to plan, petition and protest - to dream, pray and work together to build a world of peace and justice for all.

Most church liturgies involve praising God, asking forgiveness for our sins, creedal recitation, remembrance of the salvific actions of Jesus, and a petite post-Communion mention of service to others. These liturgies are lightweight in demanding too much of us.

This new liturgy begins by acknowledging the reality of suffering and the belief that we can make a difference. God is pictured not as a benevolent supreme being who is hamstrung by our freewill, but as the sparks that ignite our commitment to making a difference." To view entire text and download the liturgy go to http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=447&id=804

In his Epiphany 3 sermon Clay Nelson focuses in on the oxymoron of "Christian Unity." He doesn't have much fire in his belly for the Ecumencial Movement but the issue of what is unity catches his interest because of what is happening in American politics and the Anglican Communion. He argues with the notion the unity means conformity.

"Some words just shouldn’t be put together in the same sentence. We call them an oxymoron. All the same I get a kick out of them and so does anyone who enjoys irony. Some of my favourites are “military intelligence,” “compassionate conservative,” “civil servant,” and “religious tolerance.” This Sunday is dedicated to one of the best of all oxymorons, “Christian Unity.”

This year is the 100th anniversary of praying for Christian Unity. In 1908 an Anglican priest and nun in a Franciscan order in a small New York town set aside the 8 days between the feasts of St Peter and St Paul to pray for Christian Unity. Unfortunately for their movement they later converted to Catholicism and the Protestants were no longer interested." Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=448&id=802

This Christmas Clay wonders about the wonder of Christmas. Can we overcome our familiarity with the story and our memories of Christmas past to hear the story as if for the first time.

"There is only one time a year that I miss the King James Bible. Somehow the Christmas story only sounds right in 16th century Elizabethan English (the way God said it). When I hear it I know where I am and what day it is.

“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.”" Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=327&id=799.

Glynn begins his Christmas sermon with a story about two rough sleepers he awakes one morning while opening the church who tell him they are following a star.

"I asked the two travellers a little more about the star and the direction it was pointing in. They told me: ‘Stars don’t point’. They also told me, with an eye of suspicion, that it was their star and I needed to find my own. The conversation ended shortly afterwards.

But the point was taken. I, we, need to find our own star, our own guide, into the mystery of the night." Full text at I asked the two travellers a little more about the star and the direction it was pointing in. They told me: ‘Stars don’t point’. They also told me, with an eye of suspicion, that it was their star and I needed to find my own. The conversation ended shortly afterwards.

But the point was taken. I, we, need to find our own star, our own guide, into the mystery of the night.. Full text at I asked the two travellers a little more about the star and the direction it was pointing in. They told me: ‘Stars don’t point’. They also told me, with an eye of suspicion, that it was their star and I needed to find my own. The conversation ended shortly afterwards.

But the point was taken. I, we, need to find our own star, our own guide, into the mystery of the night. Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=322&id=798.

In his Advent 4 sermon the day before Christmas Eve Clay Nelson focuses on the messiness of life and finding the divine in the muck. Just as Joseph was Matthew's literary device, Clay looks at Joseph's situation as a righteous person in an unrighteous situation and how he might have come to a compassionate choice. Clay's Joseph is informed by three wise men from the east: Confucius, Mahavira and Gotama and one from the west, Socrates.

"Being older he may have been pleased to be betrothed to a young woman. He may have felt it was a dream come true. Being righteous he must have felt his Christmas present was ripped from him just after being unwrapped when she turned out to be pregnant, and not by him. As a righteous man he was obliged to decline the gift. Otherwise he would have been unclean by association. It would have been unthinkable for a faithful person to do otherwise, but apparently not for God. In the first of several difficult dreams an angel explained that he should not reject Mary. Her situation was due to the Holy Spirit having conceived a child in her. When he awoke he must have sounded a little like a Tui beer ad – “Yeah, right. If I had a shekel for every time I heard that one.”" Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=327&id=797

Glynn Cardy in Advent 2 sermon looks for hope in a broken world.

"The hymns and readings of Advent speak of destruction, pain, and the hope of a divine rescuer swooping in from somewhere above the clouds. This rescuer will sort out the good from the bad, the “wheat from the chaff”, rewarding the former and barbequing the latter. The super saviour has long been the hope of communities weighed down and oppressed by savage governments and their policies.

While destruction, pain, and oppression are unfortunately a part of our global reality, a spaceman saviour is not. " Read full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=322&id=791.

In her first sermon as priest, Denise Kelsall, fearlessly takes on Matthew, Isaiah, Yahweh as a war god, the rapture, American foreign policy, apocalyptic literature and offers a softer view of Advent as we wait pregnant with the Christ within.

"In spite of the popularity of the “Left Behind” series of books, most of the Americans I have met are rational and reasonably aware, pretty much like you and me. Live and let live you could say. Often they are people I like to talk and eat and share ideas with. I even work with a couple. However, it appears that the views carried in these books may encourage or perhaps have emerged alongside misguided conservative policies.

Bernard Shaw said; “A nation armed for war can no more help going to war than a chicken can help laying an egg.” If he is right, then America, an avowedly Christian nation, with all its massive military might is a nation predicated on war, further legitimised by this lethal and aggressive fundamentalism.

This might help to explain why the powerful, in that potentially and sometimes magnificent country, continue on what is seen by much of the world as a course of intimidation, violence and domination." Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=328&id=788.

This was a Sunday that Clay's sermon needed to weave a variety of events and themes into a single sermon: the end of the church year, Aotearoa (New Zealand) Sunday and the ordination of our curate, Denise Kelsall, as priest. What keeps us from ending up in the middle of nowhere on our individual and corporate journeys? Where do we find our power to reach our goal?

A glossary for those who live outside New Zealand:
Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand with means "land of the long white cloud."
Te Taura Tangata means plaited rope of the land. It is a reference to the people of the land who make the land.
Pakeha refers to New Zealanders of European descent.
Tikanga means stream. There are three interdependent streams running throught the Anglican Church in this land, Pakeha, Maori and Pacific Islander.
Maui, a forbear of the Maori who according to myth fished New Zealand up from the sea.
Kupe, one of his descendants who discovered it while chasing an octopus.
Wheke is the octopus.

The Revd Bruce Keeley, Co-Chair of the Christian-Muslim Interfaith Council and Co-Vicar of All Saints, Howick spoke on the common ground Christians and Muslims share and the challenges they face. Full text available at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=377&id=784

In his Pentecost 24 sermon challenges us to sometimes ignore Jesus. Sometimes Jesus was wrong.

"If we don’t believe what Jesus and/or his editors believed does that make us non-Christians or heretics? When it comes to Jesus are some of his beliefs optional for us? Did he get it wrong about some things? Are there central beliefs of his that every Christian should hold to, and peripheral beliefs that can be ignored?" Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=322&id=782.

On All Saints' Sunday Clay Nelson focused on the challenge of understanding the idea of saints when the idea of an external personal God in heaven no longer makes sense. He concludes with a position description for saints that could make sense to progressive Christians.

"Ultimately my problem with saints is that they perpetuate the idea that the church is a club. The concept of sainthood feeds our inclination to be exclusive. Who are named saints says a lot about who is a member. I might change my mind if Gene Robinson is ever given a feast day in our lectionary, but until that day I will maintain my position that venerating people as saints is divisive." Read entire text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=327&id=781

In his Pentecost 22 sermon, Glynn Cardy speaks eloquently regarding the struggle for justice and St Matthew's commitment in particular for human rights of gays and lesbians.

"
In the end, I believe, it comes down to us making a choice. We can choose to follow a God who wants us to conform to one particular way of being human, as defined by heterosexual norms. This God stands opposed to the direction of Western democracies as they seek to acknowledge the human rights of all their citizens. There are a number of biblical passages and preachers that will endorse this choice. Or we can choose to follow a God who in the name of love breaks through the barriers of prejudice and leads us on the road to justice. There are a number of biblical passages and preachers that will endorse this choice too." Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=322&id=779

In his Pentecost 21 sermon on the the widow and the judge, Glynn Cardy examines how justice is rooted in understanding our connection to one another. When one suffers, we all suffer.

"It’s a familiar story. Poverty is not just something that happened in the first century, in Palestine. It is something that happens in every century and in every place. It happens because we don’t feel intimately connected with each other. If our left arm was freezing or malnourished we would do something about it. We would do something about it because our whole body would be affected by the state of our arm. We don’t care for those who are cold and hungry because we see them as separate from us, needing to stand on their own two feet. We don’t see our physical and spiritual health stitched together with that of the whole community." Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=322&id=773.

In his Pentecost 20 sermon explores through Luke's story of curing the ten lepers issues surrounding the challenge of how to respond to being a stranger in a strange land. Do we attack or adapt, separate or embrace? Our response may not be clear or always the same.

"Back in 1961 a book entitled Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein became a cult classic overnight. It was controversial because of its challenge to the standard mores of the day particularly regarding sexuality and gender. Today it hardly raises an eyebrow. But that wasn’t why it took hold of my generation and has never been out of publication since. Its popularity is due primarily to identification with being a stranger in a strange land. It wasn’t until much later when studying the Bible I learned that Heinlein had nicked the title from Abraham, although at the time I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t the other way around. Kiwis with their fondness for having an Overseas Experience are quite familiar with the feeling, but even those who have not had an OE know the experience of feeling out of place in their own land. I felt it in the US after 9/11 when most of my fellow Americans seemed to think Osama attacked our country when in truth he attacked all of humanity. It is often forgotten that people from around the world died that day and the world grieved with us. When Bush ignored this to justify a pre-emptive, immoral war and then was re-elected, I never felt more alone in an alien land." Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=327&id=768.

Bishop Spong takes on questions from the Crucifixion to the Second Coming to the Gospel of John.

In his final talk at St Matthew's Conference for Progressive Christianity articulates passionately and movingly the divinity he finds in Jesus' humanity.

On the Sunday nearest the Feast of St Francis, critters were Glynn Cardy's opening into a sermon. Using A. Lobel's children's story "The Grasshopper on the Road," Glynn explores the parable of the mustardseed as a story about the inclusive nature of the kingdom of God and the club nature of the church.

"Every community places boundaries around itself. It creates a sense of identity and belonging. It delineates between insiders and outsiders. Even the most inclusive community in the world has boundaries. The art of inclusion though is to recognize that your community does not have a monopoly on truth, love, God, beauty, and knowledge, and neither does any other community; and to keep the boundaries you have as porous as possible so that the challenge and love of God may freely flow through." Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=322&id=765

Bishop Spong answers wide ranging questions after his address on Jesus the Jew.

In his second talk at St Matthew-in-the-City's Conference for Progressive Religion Bishop Spong demonstrates that the Gospels were written from the Jewish perspective with Matthew viewing Jesus the Jew as the new Moses and Luke showing him as the new Elijah and Elisha.

Following Bishop's Spong's address on Jesus the Man were a wide ranging set of questions to which he offered insightful answers.

After a welcome to the Conference for Progressive Christianity by Glynn Cardy and an introduction by Clay Nelson, Bishop Spong gives his first of three talks on Rescuing Jesus from the Church. In his first address he looks at Jesus the man. He begins by establishing that he was historical person and not a myth, although myth has been imposed upon him.

On its patronal feast, Bishop John Shelby Spong uses the first 17 verses of Matthew's Gospel to preach to St Matthew-in-the-City about a very human Jesus as revealed in his scandalous family tree. No text is available.

After a welcome by Glynn Cardy and an introduction by a former priest in his diocese, Clay Nelson, Bishop Spong takes to his topic with humour, passion, and a lifetime of scholarship. While holding a deep love of scripture he challenges the church's label that it is "The Word of God."

In his Pentecost 17 sermon on Luke's parable of the Unjust Steward Clay Nelson explores how such a deplorable parable calling us to be like a scumbag ever made it into Scripture.

"Haidt argues that because of evolution and our social nature we each contain two moral systems within us. In evolutionary time, one developed before humans had language and one after. Simplifying greatly his arguments, the one before language is our gut response, controlled by our primitive brain. The second system that required language was moral judgement. In our day-to-day lives we have gut responses immediately and then the second moral system kicks in to offer a plausible rationalization for why we feel that way. His scientific way of trying to differentiate the two systems was to probe the emotion of disgust. He would propose situations that caused a reaction of disgust in his subjects. He was looking for situations that his subjects knew were wrong, but couldn’t say why. He calls it moral dumbfounding." Read entire text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=327&id=764.

In his Pentecost 16 sermon on the Lost Coin and the Lost Sheep, Glynn Cardy asks who is to repent, certainly not a coin or a sheep? These stories tell us more about God and who she is drawn to and it isn't the respectable people in church listening to them.

"The missing sheep and coin haven’t sat down and thought how bad they are, or how they miss the other sheep and coins, or even how they could possibly have got lost. Rather these stories are of an unlikely God seeking them out, finding them, cherishing them, and reconnecting them to the whole community. The strays aren’t asked to change their ways or confess their wrongdoings." Read entire text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=322&id=763.

In his Pentecost 15 sermon, the Rev Dr Philip Culbertson, lecturer in Pastoral Theology at Auckland University School of Theology, explored the relationship between the potter and the clay. He offers a view that the clay is less submissive and pliable and uninvolved in the creative process than is suggested by Jeremiah and favorite old time hymns. The clay has a say.

"I suspect that the potter metaphor wouldn’t be quite so popular in the Bible if you and I hadn’t started off as Dirt. That’s what the word Adam means: Dirt. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all three tell the traditional story that we human beings started out as dirt, or dust, and God spit into us, making us into clay, and then moulded us as male and female. It’s only a short leap from God’s moulding us out of dirt and spittle, to a potter at the potter’s wheel, shaping a lump of clay. But a potter can’t make just anything out of clay; the potter can only make what the clay allows. As Biblical scholar John Bright points out, “The quality of the clay determines what the potter can do with it, so the quality of a people determines what God will do with them.”[3] Who we are as individuals, and communities, depends both on God’s intention, and the raw material God has to work with. " See complete text at www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=377&id=762.