Archbishop David Moxon preached at the Eucharist that began the 2012 year at St John's College.

The Eucharist and powhiri were part of a service to welcome the new student community, and to install the Rev Dr Helen-Ann Hartley as the new Dean of the Tikanga Pakeha students.

If you ever want a succinct description of Jesus’ teaching… it is found in Mark 7:15 and Matthew 15:11:

“It is not what goes into a person that defiles them, but what comes out of a person.”

Jesus is talking about the Jewish temple prohibition about eating meat which had been sacrificed to idols and was therefore unclean.

By taking this food into themselves, it was believed that a person became ritually defiled.

Jesus is saying don’t be governed by that. God looks on the heart more than the mouth.

This can also mean that even though terrible things happen to us and are done to us… nevertheless it is ultimately what comes out from within us, from the heart, that counts…

It is God’s presence within us, nearer than heartbeat, closer than breathing, that cleanses, transforms and moves us out into the wide world, and not ultimately the outside intrusions, customs, barriers and superstitions, that matter.

Archbishop David then described – and demonstrated – a spiritual practice he’d first begun during his theological training

Holy Spirit, Holy One, Creator Spirit, God of all....

I lay aside my key ring, a sign of my car and house, of my main possession. I lay aside my cell phone, my means of communication.

I lay aside my credit card, my source of finance and money.

I lay aside my pen, my way of writing down my thoughts and intentions.

I lay aside my glasses, my perspectives, my frames for seeing the world.

I lay aside my watch, my timetables and timeframes.

I lay aside my comb, my way of looking at myself.

I take off my shoes, my method of transporting myself, the way I walk in the world.

Then, stripped in this way of most of my securities and techniques for coping and functioning in the world, I try to simply acknowledge the presence of the One who made all things, in whom we live and move and have our being.

I am seeking to be alone with the only true God, the one true reality behind and within everything.

This space can be used in a thousand different ways. For some, it is simply a matter of reading the Bible for a time, some people light a candle and think about Christ, the light of the world, some people listen to a piece of sacred music that moves them to their core, some people just contemplate in stillness the presence of God, the fountain of life.

Then I pick up my key ring, praying, “Use my car and house, my main possessions, for your purposes”.

I pick up my cell phone, praying, “Use my means of communication, to share messages of your goodness and grace”.

I pick up my credit card, praying, “May I spend and be spent in the ways of righteousness and justice”.

I pick up my pen, praying, “Guide me to write your thoughts”.

I pick up my glasses, praying, “Help me see the world through your eyes”.

I strap on my watch, praying, “May I live in your time.”

I pocket my comb, praying, “May I see your beauty around me”.

I put on my shoes, praying, “May I walk in your ways”.