Mike Oliver's Messages

Now I know it’s a big word but I want to help you understand the importance of "contextualising" the Gospel message. To accomplish this I am playing for you the 2005 Coldplay hit song “Fix You.” Then will tell you a story. I will bring this to relevance with today’s readings. “Fix You” is a nice song for some and others peculiar, even odd I guess. But in 2005 our daughter Paula suffered bouts of terrible headaches, migraines; stress about up-coming examinations said one doctor. I remember well a November morning standing in the courtyard at work talking to the boss and his son when the phone call came through. Our girl had been unable to sleep with these head pains and Shelley finally took her to A&E. The doctors pumped her full of pain relief but to no avail, then relenting, took her for a CT scan. There they found a unexpected mass the size of a tennis ball in the back of her head. I remember Shelley’s words over the phone, vividly, as we enjoyed the morning sun outs...

Shelley and I were invited to take the service for St James Presbyterian at Tinwald, Ashburton on Sunday and although I had a written message the Spirit had other plans and we preached directly from a prepared clip of The Lion King where the wise man Rafiki meets the maturing runaway Simba. I recount the themes brought from the clip that may well have been inspired by John's Gospel Ch 14: Youtube: Simba meets Rafiki Youtube: Simba sees his father There was a place prepared for Simba as the heir to the kingdom of his father Mufasa. Jesus said I go to prepare a place for you that where I am you shall also be. This does not necessarily mean when you pass on into heaven but in going to the cross Jesus prepared a place for his disciples, by his shed blood instead of ours, in His kingdom of the Holy Spirit who would come fifty days later if they stayed as instructed in the prepared place in Jerusalem. When the Holy Spirit came Jesus who was in the Father and the Father in Him woul...

Some ladies could be heard outside the church a few days ago. I didn’t think much of their background chatter until my wife arrived back from town in the car and going out to help her with the heavy groceries I was asked if we had a key to the church. I informed the ladies that the church wasn’t locked and proceeded to help them to enter in, knowing the way the latch worked. It occurred to me that people have many differing views of how one may enter in to the Kingdom of God, even to the Church. Some see a theatre of coming to the sacramental altar of the historically continuous church, others a lecture room of the word and sacrament, others the presence of the Holy Spirit in Christian fellowship. Some have feared God believing there is no way their unrighteousness could ever darken the door of the church. Matthew 21 sets a similar story before us as Jesus re-enters the fallen habitation of peace (Jerusalem) for the Passover festival after a long period of being “On the road to Jerusa...

Along with so many others my own sister became a victim of the Christchurch Quake with her house being cracked, out of level and yet liveable once power, water and finally we hope sewage restored. Following the second big quake one of her much loved privacy trees began to slowly lean over until it fell against the front door. I volunteered to bring the chainsaw and cut it up so she could regain her freedom to go out and come in to her house. The operation went well and over two hours we turned the offensive tree into a couple of trailer loads ready for the dump and some logs for firewood. As you do these days communication began to emerge on Facebook about appreciation for our doing this for her and comments about the great influx of light into her house. I made the comment “Could put a whole new theology to the words "Let there be light" in removing one tree…” The offending tree would have to be the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” mentioned in Gen. 2:17 as the only...

Many people are primarily concerned that theirs will be a comfortable future. This is a principal that my father passed on to me. That future comfort is dependent on funding our needs and desires, and capitalism is the system that offers everyone an opportunity to achieve this. Meeting the mortgage, rates or rent, the power, phone, transportation, medical, clothing and food, are priorities. Everyone hopes they will have disposable income above the necessities to afford desires. This disposable income is increasingly becoming a distant illusion to young kiwi families. Far too many are feeling the “pinch” of recession and tragedy such as has befallen so many victims of the Christchurch quakes with businesses and jobs in tatters. Believe me I know what it’s like to be disciplined by business failure and by unemployment. I am also familiar with close personal and family problems. I am in no doubt therefore that we at present are going through a period of correction on two fronts, firstly i...

Insecurity is anxiety or fear. Insecurity comes across as negativity and feelings of insecurity rob us of our happiness. We may constantly feel threatened even if our external surroundings impose no real danger to our survival. Some say it’s the mind’s habitual tendency to focus on everything that can go wrong. Larry O’Hanlon says that a perfectly healthy human mind can trick itself into seeing things that are not there, and new research has exposed exactly the sort of conditions under which that happens. O’Hanlon reports on research that shows the less control a person feels, the more likely they are to see patterns or make connections that don't exist. O’Hanlon says people who feel in control are less likely to see things that aren't there and experience a wide variety of health and social benefits. When people feel in control they can also endure longer and more intense pain and recover from illness more quickly. [1]  Having control is a big thing for most people but if achi...

We read from the Sermon on the Mount that we are to be the salt of the earth and the light to the world, that we should not become flavourless or to be hidden away. When I asked the Holy Spirit this week to give me the point in a nutshell, He hit me between the eyes with the AND in between. I was also asked to remind of our obligation to God. We are supposed to be both at once. Now my wife majors on salt of the earth, doing whatever is good and right in any situation, helping everyone, doing the good works of righteousness even to her own detriment at times. Now there are many I see like this in the congregation around me. I don’t see myself so much as salt of the earth, but I am light to the world as I stand before a crowd and reveal Christ. Shelley is flavoursome but not so illuminating, while I am better at dispelling darkness but perhaps not so appetising. Yet we are obliged to be both salt AND light, hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church. We have a saying which spri...