By the Rev’d Hilary Willett
Season: Second Sunday of Creationtide
Readings: Exodus 32:7-14 | 1 Timothy 1:12-17 | Luke 15:1-10

This week I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting. Perhaps it’s the thing you do when you are
finishing in a place, but I found myself recalling when I first learned that I would be placed as a
curate at All Saints. +Ross and I had a Zoom conversation about it. We were all doing Zoom
conversations then, because we were in the middle of a lockdown. +Ross suggested All Saints,
and I was very excited to be joining this community. I didn’t know much, but I quickly learned
that All Saints had a beautiful history of being one of the first congregations to ordain women. It
seemed to me that the Parish of Howick had a beautiful heritage of valuing God-given gifts in
people, even if those gifts didn’t always turn up in the expected ways. I was glad to be joining.
As I mentioned, we were in lockdown when I first joined All Saints. I like to think of the
experience as beautifully Anglican. My first experience of All Saints was via media1—I met many
of you by looking at a computer screen. I believe I delivered my first sermon online. It was
actually a thing to get my head around, preaching in this beautiful (but also quite large) space.
Before coming here, I was in a small church, a little larger than the Selwyn Church. To go from
that to here was a significant step in cultivating my courage.

However, something that very quickly gave me courage was how immediately accepted I felt.
From my first service, I was encouraged by you all. Many of you went out of your way to say
hello or give me encouragement. Within a few months, I had been gifted some deacon stoles, a
moment of generosity that still makes me a bit emotional. When I was ordained, a truly
overwhelming number of you came to that service to cheer me on. My parents-in-law still have
a photograph of me surrounded by a crowd of Howick people, a photo that I still treasure.
It truly is a unique experience to find yourself among people who just decide to care for you, and
this is how I have felt with you. It has felt like an incredible grace to have landed here, in a place
where I feel love so quickly.

For me, this is best summed up by the metaphor of my first time driving up over Stockade Hill. I
had never been to Howick Village before being placed at All Saints. I was driving early in the
morning, and the sun was just rising over the water at Howick Beach. It was breathtaking. I
thought then, as I have thought since, Howick has the best view in Auckland. It is a lovely grace,
1“Via media”–translation: “the middle road” (Gerald McDermott, “Why Do Anglicans Say They Walk a
Via Media?,” Patheos, https://www.patheos.com/blogs/northamptonseminar/2018/04/14/why-do
anglicans-say-they-walk-a-via-media/.). This term usually refers to the tradition that Anglicans value the
middle way, between catholic and protestant perspectives. It is a perspective that holds the diversity of
church perspectives together, trying to find a way to keep being together throughout. However, in this
case, “via media” is also a pun for engaging in a church gathering “by digital media”.
each morning as I drive over Stockade Hill, to witness the exuberance of God’s creativity, this
excessive beauty of creation.

And it has been a lovely grace, every time I have stood before you, visited your homes, gone out
for coffees, to feel love so quickly. It is breathtaking each time. This love that you all give so
generously. I mean, let’s be real, you barely knew me. And still you gave.
It really does speak to me of the heart of the church. To love, exuberantly, excessively. Regardless
of whether they have earned it at all. It is the grace of God. It is like watching the sun rise over
Howick Beach. It really is the best view.

In our gospel reading this morning (because I really should at least mention it this morning),
Jesus tells two parables: one talks about the lost sheep, and one about the lost coin. The context is
that the Pharisees are grumbling because Jesus, quote: “welcomes sinners and eats with them”
(Luke 15:2). In response to this, Jesus talks about rejoicing over finding a lost sheep, despite
having ninety-nine sheep (vv. 3-7). Then he describes the joy of a woman finding her lost coin,
despite having nine other coins (vv. 8-10).

In both of these parables, it would have been easy for the shepherd and the woman to focus on
what they already have and ignore what has been lost. But instead, they focus on the lost. Then
Jesus says, in the same way, the angels of God rejoice when one sinner repents. The implication
is that God, like the shepherd and the woman, focuses on the lost.

There are a few points I would like to highlight here.

First, our definition of “sin” will very much determine how we understand this passage. If you
think of sin as primarily an immoral action enacted by an individual that they are responsible for,
you will see this passage as primarily about an individual repenting of those immoral actions.
However, there are other ways of understanding sin. One that I find particularly helpful is the
idea of broken relationships. If we assume that all of humanity is designed to be in relationship
with God, the self, each other, and creation,2 then, within that paradigm, we can understand sin
as a disruption to those relationships.3 Sometimes these disruptions happen through human
actions. Sometimes they occur as a result of our cultural understandings and assumptions. And,
sometimes, these disruptions occur seemingly as a random consequence of living in a reality that
contains chaos. Are earthquakes sinful? Well, perhaps not in the traditional sense, in that they are
caused by humanity or as a result of the fall. But do they disrupt relationships, well… in some
ways, they really can. From this understanding, the hope of Christianity, of one day being freed
from sin, is not necessarily to remove all chaos and chance, but possibly to transform the
disruption that it causes into harmony. That we live in harmony with God, ourselves, each other,
and creation. In other words, we live in shalom.

Second, our definition of “repentance” is also key to understanding this passage. The Greek word
here is μετανοέω (metanoeō), which means to turn, or change your mind.4 If we were to use the
definition of sin I have just given, what would it mean to change our minds? I think it would
suggest that we are forever discovering new ways to change our minds towards living in shalom,
with God, each other, ourselves, and creation? In other words, we are realising that some ways of
being do not line up with the harmony of God’s realm, and we are repenting of that.

This understanding of sin and repentance pushes us from an understanding of our gospel that is
narrowly focused on moral guilt and punishment, into a broader view. It is not dismissing that
sometimes we need to say sorry, to repent in that more traditional sense, but rather, it is
expanding it. Every time we change our minds to become a little more welcoming, to care for
the environment a bit more, to know and love ourselves a little more, to know and love God a
little more, we are restoring just a little bit more of our disrupted relationships. We are moving
further from disruption and deeper into shalom.

And for myself, I experienced (and still experience) some of this restoration through being here.
My previous experiences of church have not always been easy. I have not always experienced
love first. But the kindness I’ve experienced here changed my mind about many things. Don’t
underestimate your impact. I have found myself repenting, turning towards shalom through
many of the generous little gestures of people here. You have all helped me grow, helped my
relationships, and I am very grateful.

And, I guess my encouragement here is, keep going. I have only shared my experience, and I
know that living in a community is more nuanced. But your hospitality, your kindness as a
parish, really is breathtaking. It moves people more than you realise. It brings harmony and peace
into disrupted places. Keep going. For those in disrupted relationships needing the shalom of
God. For all of your own places of disruption. Keep changing your minds towards shalom. You
are a channel for God’s grace to the world around you. Keep going. Keep living into the grace of
a sunrise over Howick Beach. Because I know that when you do, God and all the company of
heaven are rejoicing over you.

Bibliography
Goheen, Michael W., and Craig G. Bartholomew. Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to
Christian Worldview. Baker Academic, 2008.
McDermott, Gerald. “Why Do Anglicans Say They Walk a Via Media?” Patheos.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/northamptonseminar/2018/04/14/why-do-anglicans
say-they-walk-a-via-media/.
Myers, Bryant L. Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformation Development.
Kindle. Orbis Books, 1999.
Souter, Alexander. A Pocket Lexicon to the Greek New Testament. Clarendon Press, 1917.
4Alexander Souter, A Pocket Lexicon to the Greek New Testament (Clarendon Press, 1917).

2Michael W. Goheen and Craig G. Bartholomew, Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian
Worldview (Baker Academic, 2008), 38–39.

3Bryant L. Myers, Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformation Development, Kindle
(Orbis Books, 1999), location 1770–864.