Sermon for August 9th 2009

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Our readings this morning are not comfortable warm pink fuzzy readings … they are challenging, and they move us deeper into a place of self-reflection.
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The first reading has David weeping over his son Absalom, who had lead an unsuccessful rebellion against his father, only to be killed after hanging by his hair in a tree for an extended period of time … yet, even in the face of this rebellion David openly weeps and laments for his son … his grief is real because what might have been has passed …
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Then we move to the reading from the book of Ephesians where we have the writer, presumably Paul, spelling out in almost painful detail the kinds of behaviour that are acceptable and those that are not within the church … one can almost hear Paul sighing with exhaustion at the thought that he has to put something so utterly simple to paper because the Church at Ephesus isn’t getting it … speak the truth, be angry but do not let your anger fester – deal with it before the sun goes down, resist evil, share with those who are needy, watch what comes out of your mouth, build one another up with your words don’t tear each other down, trust in the spirit, and put away bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, slander and all malice … and this is where the Church too often fails miserably: “be kind to one another, be tenderhearted, forgiving as Christ has been forgiving, and live in Love, as Christ has loved you …
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Simple words to say. Simple concepts to envision. But the question that resonated through Paul’s world, and that continues to resonate through ours is – why is it so hard to LIVE THOSE WORDS?
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Then we turn to the Gospel reading where we have Jesus continuing the attempt at teaching the people what it means when he says – “I am the bread of life …”
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They can’t quite wrap their heads around the concept of hungering after something other than real bread … they’ve been through the feeding of the multitudes, they’ve been following him watching the miracles and asking for more signs that he is God’s chosen on, and NOW, as he tries to enlighten them about what ALL of this means – they simply don’t get it …
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The debate today focuses on how Jesus can be descended from God while his family is here …
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They are so focused on the fine points, they are missing the big picture …
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This week I encountered a delightful quotation about living a life of faith in a time of incredible upheaval and change. Bill Easum, in his book Dancing with Dinosaurs observed: “Who, then, do we turn to when looking for clues about ministry in the twenty-first century? We certainly cannot turn to those who insist on clinging to the status quo. We turn to the people on the fringe of normalcy.”
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Jesus is standing before a crowd clinging to the status quo … their lives are filled with change and upheaval. Rome is a harsh occupying power. The stringent requirements of the temple and keeping Kosher are tough, and getting tougher. They are in a time and a place that feels like standing on sand …nothing that was once certain is any more, and the future is filled with grey and murky images of what might be … or maybe not …
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SO the people yearn for something MORE … they want their spiritual hunger fed. They want certainty …
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Jesus says – “look to God,” and they start to bicker about what he means … There is an element in these moments that the comedy team of Monty Python picked up on in their movie “the life of brian”.
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The scene where Jesus is relating the Sermon on the Mount shows the kind of unbelievable confusion that must have accompanied Jesus as he spoke and preached … IN the movie Jesus says – “blessed are the peace makers,” and as the message is relayed through the crowd it is transformed to “Blessed are the cheesemakers …” then at the back of the crowd they start debating if he meant ALL dairy producers, or JUST cheesemakers …
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Such is the world Jesus lived in … such is the world we live in … everyone is on the look out for a loophole, everyone wants to get there easily and quickly with a minimal amount of effort, everyone wants someone to do something but they would prefer if it was not them…
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“Show us a sign,” they call … and even as Jesus shows them sign after sign after sign, they don’t get it … they want more, and they understand less … even when he spells it out in plain clear language, they still don’t get it …
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And sadly, we – we as a modern society and culture – we as a modern church – we still don’t get it … we are like the folks Paul was writing to … he was spelling out things that should be common sense – yet he was writing to a Church and saying – “as members of the Body of Christ, you WILL refrain from …” and he inventoried actions and behaviours that should be regarded as abhorrent within the Church …
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But if we look back over the history of the Church we find some of the most savage and nasty fights erupting over things that we would readily say – “should be regarded as abhorrent within the Church …”
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Slavery, the vote and equal rights for women, civil rights for non-whites, treatment of Jews, First Nations People and other ethnic minorities, and if we dig deeper we find fights over “what language will the services be held in?” and “is it okay to translate the Bible into the vernacular of the people instead of just using the Latin text?” … the list of fights within the church where that litany of Paul’s to the Ephesians gets thrown out the window and the gloves come off is LONG … we even have the example of the Churches in Nazi Germany dividing over whether to support Hitler or not … it is remarkable what can happen when people cling to the status quo, as Easum says, and fail to see how unfaithful that can truly be …
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The challenge is to listen to the voices on the margins … the voices who are urging us forward in a radical way … Jesus was one of those voices … a wandering rabbi from Galilea who consorted with sinners, tax collectors, Samaritans, and the unwashed - he was already an outsider in the establishment of his day.
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Then he opened his mouth and started speaking about things that were radical – radical as a return to the fundamentals of faith … Inclusion, welcome, openness … these were the concepts at the heart of his message when he spoke of God’s gift of boundless Grace.
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Yet somewhere along the way confusion set in, and these ideas became just words on a page …
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This past week, I’ve started an online discussion with a young theology student in Toronto who has been a friend for a number of years. We’ve repeatedly had online exchanges on any number of issues. But this week he posted a link to one of the study documents going before the United Church’s General Council this week in BC. The document is asking what it means to be Church in an inter-cultural context … it is asking what it means to be a welcoming, inclusive and open community in the modern world …
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Adam and I began to discuss this when I read the material and thougth - “oh great, they’re shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic to get a better view of the ice berg instead of tending to the gaping hole in her side …”
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The modern church has such a tight grip on maintaining the status quo that we’ve lost sight of any other possibilities, and we’ve lost sight of chance to embrace and embody change by living out the welcome that Jesus offered …
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Adam replied by noting: “I like to think of this text as an Apocalyptic Welcome; I like to think of this passage as one that reveals that which God is calling out of us. But we need to get our words straight about apocalypse, which is a Greek word that means “to reveal” or “to disclose” or “to unveil.” The word welcome, on the other hand, is about the positive greeting on the arrival of a person – be they a friend or a stranger. The God that Christians worship in Jesus Christ discloses generosity through us – the Church – to those we love and to those we hate. The Apocalyptic Welcome is deeply rooted in the cross…”
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I like the concept of the Apocalyptic Welcome … I see the resonance of the Apocalyptic Welcome in our readings today.
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David is struggling to make sense in a place where all of his hopes and dreams for the future of his family, his throne, and his country are in upheaval … the only certainty is this moment, and it seems pretty bleak … so he laments …
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Paul is writing to a church who is struggling to live its faith. They are falling into their old ways, and being less than kind to each other, and they are not being good reflections of faith … so he takes a deep breath and tries to spell it out clearly …
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Jesus is standing before a crowd who simply doesn’t get it … they want the status quo to remain. They want things to go from uncertain and frightening to calm and docile … they don’t want the boat rocked. They don’t want to be confused …they want simple straight forward answers …
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SO Jesus takes a deep breath and gives it to them – “I am the Bread of Life …”
And still they debate and argue … they fail to see the Apocalyptic Welcome that is right there in front of them … they miss it …
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And perhaps most distressing of all – we miss it too.
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Too often in the Church we get caught up in the moment and we won’t let our hands that are tightly gripping the status quo let go … and most frustrating of all – we simply fail to see it … we’ve invested SO MUCH in the way things are, that we are deeply hesitant to embrace the way things might be if we dared to let go and trust in God to carry us through …
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One of the most significant quotations I’ve encountered an lived over the last three years is the simple statement: one does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time …
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It’s a scary thought – but it is the heart of what Jesus and Paul are saying … it under girds David’s life taking a turn he didn’t expect nor embrace … it’s about letting go and trusting in God to carry us forward to something new … something different … something we may not expect, but something that will be guided by the Spirit …
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One last quotation – this one from Mark Twain … Twain said -
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“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
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Our children and grandchildren have been raised on the lessons of the Magic School Bus that has teacher Ms Frizzle say in each episode – “take chances, make mistakes, get messy …”
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It’s good advice for children learning to discover and explore the world … and it’s GREAT advice for the Church seeking to continue the journey of discovery and exploration that accompanies us as we wrestle with understanding and sharing our faith in a changing time, and as we struggle to embrace our calling to ministry … it’s about letting go and trusting in God to embrace ALL of us in an Apocalyptic Welcome …
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May it be so … thanks be to God … Let us Pray …

Sermon for August 2nd 2009

King David is experiencing one of those moments when the rubber hits the road, and he’s having a hard time maintaining control … to recap … David has just about everything – power, prestige, wealth and a solid kingdom to preside over. Then one afternoon he spies his neighbour bathing on her roof, has her brought to the palace where he sleeps with her, gets her pregnant and then tried to cover his tracks.

First he sends Bathsheba’s husband home … but Uriah won’t go, instead because his fellow soldiers are sleeping on the battle field, he beds down in the guard house rather than his comfie bed at home … next David tries to get Uriah drunk and sends him home to sleep it off with Bathsheba … even that fails … so, David sends Uriah back to the battle field with secret orders that demand Uriah be placed in the most vulnerable place on the battle field, while the Israelite army falls back and leaves Uriah to his fate …

Uriah dies in battle, and David, the benevolent King brings the poor pregnant widow to the palace …

It’s a nice tidy ending … David keeps his misdeeds relatively secret, Uriah is out of the picture, Bathsheba is now one of his wives and no one is any the wiser …

Until dear old Nathan steps up and shares with the king and the court the sad story of the poor land owner who had but one lowly sheep … a sheep he loved like a child … a sheep he tended and doted upon … a sheep that was his precious animal …

As the story unfolds the poor little land owner loses that sheep to the banquet table of his wealthy neighbour who wants to host an extravagant feast but would not sacrifice any of his own animals to his own table … instead he sends his servants over to the poor landowner and they take the poor sheep and prepare it for their master’s guests …

The king hears the story … as a shepherd he understands the connection to the sheep … the fiercely protective attitude one has towards the animals under their care …they are animals, but more … The King is out raged … “who is this man to do such an outrageous thing??? How dare he. He must pay … tell me Nathan WHO IS THIS MAN??” the king bellows …

The culmination of the story is Nathan … and I picture this moment like this … Nathan has come before the king and told the story … as the King reacts he has turned and is leaving the court … he is almost to the door when the King bellows – “who is this man ??” Nathan stops … the room is quiet … Nathan slowly turns and staring into the king’s eyes lifts his finger and says – “YOU are the man … YOU are the one who did this …”

Then in the hush of the court, Nathan moves towards the King and reminds him of ALL of the blessings that God has given to David – all of the power, the wealth, the success - ALL of it … and David couldn’t be content with it … for David it wasn’t enough, and so he had to have more … and he was willing to murder poor Uriah for it …
Nathan filled with righteous indignation and anger stands before the King and says – “YOU are that man …” and in that moment David’s world comes to a screeching halt as he stares into the mirror that is held before him…


And in our Gospel reading, we encounter the crowds following Jesus and clamouring for more of what he offers …

Jesus, no doubt tired and weary begins to press the crowd about what it is that they want … “a sign, give us a sign …” they demand … “I’ve given you signs, but it isn’t enough …”

“we want more …” the crowd calls … we want more …

Jesus likens the moment they stand in to the time in the wilderness when the people clamoured for food and demanded that Moses DO SOMETHING, only to be given manna and water and quail … but still it was never enough … it is never enough … they want more …

(Ann Weems – Gifts of God)

I like to use this poem at Communion as we prepare to break bread and pour out the cup. It is a powerful reminder that sometimes OUR ways are NOT God’s ways … sometimes we clamour and yearn for things that are unimportant and that ultimately will stand in the way of our relationship with God and with each other …

Like a cosmic Oliver Twist we stand before God with our hands outstretched as we utter the words, “Please sir I would like so more …”

Except God doesn’t mock us by saying “More, you want MOOOOORRRRREEEEEE…” Instead God quietly supplies us with more and more and more, hoping all the while that perhaps we’ll pause long enough to realize how much we really have.

That’s where the Nathan’s in our world come in handy … they are the reality checks that help us pause and consider where we’re at, and what is really important.

Sometimes they are obvious and noticeable. Other times they arrive quietly and subtly, popping up where we least expect it.

The Nathan’s in our lives are those people and those moments when we are forced – and not in a negative way – but in an open way, to reflect on our path and our journey and what is important in our lives, in our faith and in our movement in the world …

It can be something as simple and unexpected as a picture in a newspaper, or it can be something as big and dramatic as a prophetic presence standing before us with a single finger pointing at our nose … the entry into the moment varies, but the outcome remains constant … the self-reflection and consideration of what is happening in our lives is central …

It’s an inner – “what would Jesus do?” moment when we consider what we are doing with our lives and our faith and the many blessings God has poured out upon us …

Taking time to reflect on our life journey and how we are living our lives is never a bad thing …

The WWJD movement began with the publishing of a simple book called “In His Steps.” A book many of us have read. The premise of the book is that a small town church is deeply affected by the visit of a tramp – a homeless guy, who arrives in the community and dies. This profoundly affects the pastor who reflects on whether his response and that of his faith community is in keeping with the values offered by Jesus and his ministry.

The Pastor then challenges his flock to spend a year living their lives with the simple guiding principle of asking themselves “what would Jesus do?” in each and every decision they have to make …

The outcome is dramatic and challenging … one by one the characters in the story wrestle with the question – what would Jesus do when it comes to business, to pleasure, to life … their reflections lead them to challenging and interesting outcomes … but one by one they appreciate how easy it has been to live their lives without really trying to connect their faith and their day to day decisions. There has been a disconnect … the things they did Monday to Saturday, and even Sunday afternoon were not always in keeping with the values they were about on Sunday morning … so slowly they began to change. They began to take their faith more seriously. They began to place their faith in the forefront as they made decisions throughout their lives.

It wasn’t an easy process. But the outcome was a transformation of themselves and of their community … All because the pastor had an encounter with a moment in time that required of him some critical self-reflection …

Critical self-reflection is key … the 12 steps of AA are ALL about critical self reflection that leads to a better understanding of one’s self … much of the counseling and help offered to people struggling in life is about critical self-reflection to help them better understand themselves from within … I remember as a teen going to our minister in my home church and asking him tough life questions as
I struggled with issues in my life and my world.

It was frustrating that Ross would never offer a straight answer. Nine times out of ten, his answer was ANOTHER question … I would ask him a question and he would answer with a question …

I went away mad and frustrated. But looking back I’ve come to appreciate that in asking those questions – questions I didn’t want to face much less ask myself – Ross was moving me forward …

I would find the answer to my first question as I wrestled with the second questions … and as I came back and shared my reflections Ross would nod and smile and ask another DARNED question …

And so it went – step by step – question by question – struggle by struggle until I came to see with a bit of hind-sight, that each question was moving me forward and holding a mirror up before me. A mirror that required I take time to reflect on what was there, and to consider how that impacted my life …

Self-reflection isn’t easy … but, whether we are 15 or 85, it is part of remaining vital, dynamic and active in our lives, our faith and our attitudes within the world … being able to wrestle with our demons and doubts is key to growing in faith.

David stood before Nathan, no doubt with knees shaking … Nathan through a story had laid bare the King’s misdeeds and errors and called him to a different path …
Jesus stood before the crowds, weary and tired and through story challenged them to open their eyes, their hearts, their minds and their souls to what God was offering them …

We stand before a mirror, and are challenged through the story that is OUR lives, to open our eyes, our hearts, our minds and our souls to what God is offering us …
And in that moment we remember … “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases … God’s mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning … and for those who open their whole being to God, and bend their knees to praise God … for them the whole world is a gift …”

May it be so … thanks be to God … Let us Pray …

Sermon for June 28th 2009

June 28th 2009

Readings:

Psalm 130
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5: 21-43

Sermon:
What do YOU pray or?

Today, in this place, as part of this service, what have you called to mind as we’ve gathered before God and prayed?

Honestly – what do YOU pray for when you engage in prayer?

Do you pray for your family and friends? Do you pray for healing for someone close to you who is sick? Do you pray for recovery for someone in the hospital? Do you pray for what others would call a miracle?

Do you pray at all?

As I read today’s Old Testament reading I was mindful of a time in my ministry when the community where I lived prayed for the health of a young boy who was in hospital … we prayed for his recovery and healing … we prayed for his family and care givers … we prayed that God’s spirit would rest with him and grant him peace.

Then one day word came that to recover this young boy would need a heart transplant. We were ready to pray that a heart could be found for the surgery, but then even before the words escaped our lips the implication of that prayer hit …

To pray for this young boy’s recovery, was to actively pray for the death of another young person … With trembling lips and a heavy heart we prayed carefully and mindfully …

Not for the recovery of our young boy at the expense of another family, but rather we prayed that in the event of a tragic accident some good could come of it by perhaps extending life, in the face of death …

It would have been easy and callous to pray for the health of the young child needing the transplant, but the full implication of that prayer was not lost on our faith community, nor on the family … it was a moment of brutal honesty, and gut-wrenching agony … it was a lament in the fullest sense … naming the pain and the feelings of alone-ness that enveloped the family and their faith community, while also acknowledging the pain and alone-ness that came with any outcome … but then, in the midst of our tears, we also proclaimed our trust in God …

A Lament is form of prayer that names the reality of the moment, rages at God for the injustice and the hurt of this moment, and then in the midst of the anger, disappointment, sorrow and hurt, pauses to proclaim our certainty that even NOW – in this moment when we might feel completely and utterly alone – God is with us …

One of the best descriptions of a Lament I’ve eve encountered comes from Jewish writer and holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who describes a court case held in one of the darkest hours in a Nazi Death Camp.

Taking in to consideration all the suffering and death around them, a group of prisoners put God on trial. They call witnesses, they review evidence, and they argue whether God has abandoned his people or not, and ultimately if God exists at all.

At the end of the trial, having listened to the arguments, and having heard the testimony of the witnesses, the judge solemnly pronounces his sentence. With a soft voice he proclaims that God has indeed abandoned the people and that the evidence all around them compels him to pronounce God dead.

As the judge bashes his gavel on the table before him pronouncing his sentence and his words – “God is dead, there is no God” settle across the erstwhile Court room a door to the barracks opens and a young boy bursts in proclaiming – “It is Shabbot – Sabbath, it is time to pray …”

The judge then proclaims the court closed, and orders everyone outside to observe the Shabbot … he orders them to pray.

(pause)

The judge declares there to be no God, then in his very next breath demands that everyone observe the Shabbot to honour that absent, non-existent God.

Such is the power of the Lament … you can inventory all the terrible things that are happening around you, you can name the feelings of abandonment, you can weep and rage at God and declare God dead … then in the next breath fall to your knees and TRUST in God’s presence to hold and sustain you …

The Lament is an ancient prayer that is offered in times of distress and trouble … in those moments when you feel MOST alone, you can and should rage at God … and then as you fall to the ground exhausted and depleted you crumple into the presence of that God – OUR God.

Our Gospel readings echo this … the young girl’s family are exhausted … they search out Jesus … they are at their wits end … they need – they want – they yearn for healing … so they ask Jesus …

Along the way, a second healing happens. This one is of the woman who for twelve years has been hemorrhaging. She is the ultimate outcast – there is no way for her to be ritualistically clean. Her ailment renders her and outsider to her family, her friends, and her community … she is alone … utterly and totally alone …

And so, in desperation she reaches out and touches the hem … the hem of Jesus’ cloak searching for healing …

Both the family of the little girl and the woman who for twelve years has suffered from a hemorrhage receive their healing … They have each in their own way lamented to God, and in that moment when they fall to the floor exhausted and spent, they find God’s holy presence there to hold them …

So, we pray for healing … we pray for the miracle … we pray for restoration … but does it mean that if the outcome we yearn for doesn’t happen, that God hasn’t heard our prayer? Or that God has denied our prayer? Or that we haven’t prayed hard enough?

Several years ago I met a woman who was dying of terminal cancer. To look at her you would never know. She looked hale and healthy. She was active in many activities, and rode her bike and jogged. She was in better shape, than many supposedly healthy people.

But her acceptance of her diagnosis had not come easily, nor had it come without a great deal of soul searching and emotional angst. She had many long dark nights of raging at God about the unfairness of it all … then one day she encountered a book on prayer and medicine, and she came to realize that sometimes the answer to our prayer is not the miracle healing, but the gift of
wholeness …

Not the gift that flippantly says – “it’s God’s will” but rather a wholeness that proclaims life to be a gift, and every moment to be precious, and that allows us live life fully …

This is not an idealistic, pie in the sky polly-anna-ish outlook that pretends life is wonderful ALL the time, and we never experience suffering and the alone-ness that comes when the bottom seems to fall out of our world … this is the foundation of our faith – us and God … and in our weakness, we find God’s wholeness and strength and courage.

The Lament – lived and spoken – is one of the most powerful expressions available to us.
In the Lament we name the harshness of life, we rage at God, we may even doubt God’s existence at all … then when we are utterly spent … we fall into the certainty that no matter what God is with us …

It is a deeper understanding and experience of the poem Footprints that says – “during those times, I carried you …”

The Lament begins and ends before God … we can thunder at God from the deepest anguished depths of our soul and God will listen and God’s response will be to hold us even in the darkness …

… and in that moment comes the whisper from the lips of Jesus himself, who says – “do not fear, only believe …”

We may not get exactly what we want when we cry out to God, but we WILL receive the gift of life, strength, grace and most of ALL love …

We need only ask …and it will be there… "Do not fear, only believe ..."

May it be so – thanks be to God – let us pray …

Sermon for April 26th 2009

Author Sue Monk Kidd notes of the Fair Tale about Rapunzel the following:

The story of Rapunzel, recounted in Grimm's Fairy Tales, reveals a false-self pattern common to many of us at certain times in our life. Rapunzel was the damsel imprisoned by a witch in a tower without a door. The only access to the tower was through a solitary window at the top. When the witch wanted to visit, she stood below and called for Rapunzel to let down her long, golden hair from the window. Then the witch scampered up, using Rapunzel's hair as a ladder.

Year after year Rapunzel sat in the tower, singing sad songs and waiting for someone to come along and rescue her.

As I identified my false selves, I recognized Rapunzel in myself. She was the part of me that wanted daddy, mummy, husband or SOMEBODY else to come and fix it, the part that languished in whatever struggle I found myself, singing sad songs, and looking outside instead of inside for help.

Rapunzel is the helpless damsel waiting for rescue. Locked in a "towering" problem or difficulty, she waits for deliverance rather than taking responsibility for herself. her waiting is negative waiting, not the creative, active waiting that initiates growth.

As I thought of Rapunzel, stuck all those years in a tower without a door, I wondered why Rapunzel couldn't figure out a way to get out. AFTER ALL, THE WITCH WAS INGENIOUS ENOUGH TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET HER IN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE.

When I re-read the tale, especially the ending, where the witch in a fury picks up a pair of shears and cuts off Rapunzel's hair - I wondered why it had never dawned on Rapunzel to cut off her hair herself and use it as a ladder. THE ANSWER WAS THERE ALL ALONG, ONLY SHE (RAPUNZEL) WAS SO BUSY WAITING FOR RESCUE SHE DIDN'T SEE IT.

It's important to be able to ask for, and accept help, but not Rapunzel's way. She chose to forgo the contemplative experience of taping her soul-strength, (the dark night of the soul) to bury her problem-solving potential and project it onto others. Struggling with the difficulties of life, we may adopt the idea that we're too weak, too dumb, too busy, or too incompetent to take care of ourselves and extricate ourselves from pain and problems. A tape recording plays in our heads: "you can't manage that ... you aren't able to figure that out yourself ... you are too weak to do it on your own ..."

When that happens, Rapunzel makes her grand appearance.

The Rapunzel pattern reminds me of an insight ... received while watching the opening credits of the television programme "Mystery" on PBS. As the credits roll, a cartoon-animated woman whose ankles are tied waves her hands in the air and cries "Ohhh!! Ohhh!!" waiting for someone to come untie her.

I watched that show for a long while before it occurred to me that the woman's hand's weren't tied. She could, if she were so inclined, bend down and untie her own ankles.

We live in a world that wants everything new and improved, easy and fast – the easier the better and if it can be done in six easy fast steps – wonderful! But if it can be done in three even better !!

Such is the fast food society in which we live – everything is about faster, stronger, simpler and so on. Our busiest restaurants are fast food outlets that may even have signs outside that say – “15 minute parking strictly enforced”. Our news comes from stations that pride themselves at being able to reduce EVERYTHING to 30 minute rotation cycles. And our entertainment now comes in half hour or shorter packages, with audio books becoming the choice for millions of ‘readers’ – you can listen to the latest best seller while driving – rather than spending endless hours with a book in your lap, and a cup of tea at your elbow … why waste such time??

Yet, fortunately we also live in a time and a place where people are beginning to appreciate, not the speed and haste at which everything moves, but the leisurely pace that allows us to savour and enjoy things in a more timely fashion.

The whole concept of slow food is proof of the world looking at our fast-food culture and saying – “let’s slow it down and re-connect …” “let spend time over conversation rather than gulping our food and running to the next appointment …” “let savour the flavours and textures and the company … let’s take time to enjoy it …”

Time.

That’s the think that in our society we muse that we never have enough of it, and we’re always pushed for it if we find any, and we are definitely bound by it.

And in the Easter Season we are challenged to pause and consider the event that are unfolding in the narrative, and by our story today to consider the sights, the sounds, and the sensations of the Risen Christ.

We are to open our eyes, our hearts and our souls to the events happening in and around Jerusalem, and in this morning’s reading – Jesus has arrived to greet the disciples who are still wallowing in their self-pity and sorrow …

He greets them and by his actions shows them that something new is unfolding right before them – something that they are welcome and indeed invited to be part of. God is crafting something wondrous right before them that arises from the darkness of the tomb and death – and represents new life in abundance …

Rapunzel is being freed from her tower to return to that metaphor. In the moment Jesus takes the fish and eats it, he is showing those gathered that God’s rules are at play and the world has shifted to a place where the sorrow and suffering are NOT the end of the story … we are to be open to life’s possibilities and potential, and see with the WHOLE of our being, what God wants for us and what God offers us …

Opening our lives to what’s around us is a simple concept. We often say it, but we’re less open to actually doing it. We fall into old habits and fit this concept into what has been, rather than embracing what could and would be if we were to truly open ourselves to the possibilities that exist around us.

Think of Rapunzel – poor dear Rapunzel locked in that tower by the nasty old witch. The only way Rapunzel gets visits is by lowering her hair and letting the witch climb to the window … Sue Monk Kidd is right when she asks “WHY?” – why doesn’t Rapunzel cut off her OWN hair and use it to climb down and run away … Why doesn’t the woman tied the tracks just reach down
and untie her OWN ankles and set her self free …

Because we’ve been conditioned – by the stories we tell ourselves – by the little tape that plays inside our heads – by our own past, we’ve convinced ourselves that we need to be rescued and helped and so we sit like Rapunzel playing our sad songs and lamenting as we call for help …

But Easter is the moment that breaks through and asks the blunt question – WHAT ARE YOU DOING???

Rapunzel, why are you sitting in this tower weeping and waiting for rescue when all you need to do is take the scissors and snip off your own hair and you have a rope to climb down on …

What is holding US captive?

What things in our lives are keeping us from being fully, the people we are meant to be?

What changes are we waiting for someone ELSE to make when in truth the changes are already within us?

My mind wanders to the old Saturday Night Live sketches that had Al Franken step out as self help motivator Stuart Smalley. Clad in a sweater and a big smile, he would look into the camera and say – “You’re good enough. You’re smart enough. Doggone it people like you…” and other warm pink fuzzy platitudes.

From the absurdity of this character whispers a truth … the gift of Grace that we are about as a Church is simply that – “you are good enough. You are smart enough. AND people DO like you …”

The power of the resurrection – the gift of Grace incarnate in our world is found in accepting that realization and opening ourselves to the FULL potential of what that can and does mean …

Opening our eyes to what is before us and having the courage and the faith to embrace God’s presence ALL around us …

There are countless people who have made MILLIONS of dollars from the whole self-help industry, and when you look critically at what is happening you realize that ALL of the successful self-help stories are about helping one’s self … we look out there to find what is already here …

The disciples wanted someone to push back the darkness and the fear and rescue them …and suddenly Jesus was there opening their eyes to what they already knew, but had simply forgotten …

Rapunzel cried for help and waited for rescue when the solution was there ALL the time …

We are Children of God – bound by love and grace … we can sit and lament how things are, or we can, as people of faith claim the gift of Grace and proclaim our faith in the resurrection by living IT …

The choice is ours … and doggone it - we know what we have to do!!

May it be so, Thanks be to God … Let us pray …

Sermon for April 19th 2009 - 2nd of Easter

In his book Twenty Piece Shuffle, that offers profound and moving reflections on inner city street life in downtown Toronto Greg Paul shares an experience of he and the staff at Sanctuary, a Church community not far off Yonge Street in the heart of Toronto following the brutal murder of a young woman who was involved in their ministry and community.

Cali was murdered in a subway station one Sunday afternoon, and as news of her killing spread amongst those gathering at Sanctuary for evening worship, grief, anger, exhaustion and despair over took the staff and volunteers and the community members as they wrestled with the death of a friend … in the cold-heartedness that marks life on the streets, the death of this young woman touched many in a startling way …

Paul describes the contacts they had with the you woman’s family, her friends on the street and those directly affected by her death … the emotions ran high as people struggled to make sense of the senseless, and tried to offer comfort to each other … Then one night almost a week later, the staff of Sanctuary gathered to do their usual “debrief” session and they were exhausted, beaten down, overwhelmed with grief, anger and despair. Sitting together in their meeting room they said little beyond blank stares, disjointed chatter and heart-felt sighs, until it was suggested they have communion …

Some one ran to an all-night grocery store, while some one else got a couple of glasses and a bottle of port that had been tucked away in an office … and they shared communion …

(light the candle - pour juice and break bread on small table at front of sanctuary)

They shared communion and it became an moving moment – “the brokenness of that bread stood for the shattered lives in our community, the aching sense of loss, and being lost that tore at our own hearts, our profound failure, we felt, to make a difference. It told us too, that Jesus was right there in our midst and out walking around in our neighbourhood among our friends who, like us were desperately trying to find a way to ease the pain. … But it didn’t feel like he was there. I think we felt in that moment like Martha and Mary must have, after they had sent an urgent message about their sick brother Lazarus to Jesus: “Come quickly, the one you love is dying.” And he stayed two more days in the distant town where he was when the message had first arrived.
Waiting.
Dawdling, apparently, while their own dear brother moaned and faded and finally expired. Easy enough to say, after the fact, that is was all just preparation for the resurrection that was coming, but what comfort was that at the time?
Slim comfort, too, that he was “out there” seemingly doing nothing to change the courses of our friends who were actively seeking their own demise, doing nothing to protect those who like Cali were defenseless. … The Wine: a deep foreboding purplish red in the candlelight.
Salvation, cleansing, healing, Words – mere words. But with the cup, a subtle shift.
We must, we begin to say to each other, recount the victories we have witnessed in the past.
We must lift up our heads, look for whatever flicker of light we can spot in this present darkness, and place our hope in a dawn yet to be revealed. This, here and now, is what faith is. The only alternative is despair. (pg 198-9)

In that moment, Paul and the others lived an Upper Room experience that paralleled that of Jesus’ disciples who gathered in the upper room following Jesus death and in the wake of the news that the tomb was empty and the women returning from the cemetery proclaiming that “Jesus has Risen.”

It is significant for us, 19 centuries removed, that the disciples returned to the place where in the last hours of his earthly life, Jesus broke bread and shared the cup. The centrality of communion to all that we are, and all that we do can not be under stated. Returning literally to the communion table in the darkness and uncertainty and fear is a significant thing …

What must it have been like that night in the upper room when the disciples gathered?

It could have happened within hours of discovering the empty tomb, it could have been a couple of days later, or it could have been a week later … we simply don’t know how long it was after the discovery of the empty tomb. What we do know however, is that the disciples and those gathered were frightened – they we terrified that they could be next if the authorities found them.

In the darkness – overwhelmed by their grief, their exhaustion, their despair – in the midst of that moment, where like Martha and Mary, Jesus fells absent … SUDDENLY – he is there … standing among them.

I wonder how many of us – if we were honest with ourselves – how many of us have had Upper Room moments. Moments when we’re sitting in a time and a place where we feel very much alone – frightened, scared, trembling in the dark – then suddenly we are overwhelmed by the holy …

Paul shares with us one of those moments … when in the midst of the darkness a flicker of light is found … Theologically, I would dare to say that moment is what communion is all about … from the ordinary and the profane – ordinary bread and ordinary wine – suddenly, we are embraced and overwhelmed by the holy …

I remember one such moment in my journey when I served in Bella Coola among the first peoples there. In town there was a group of gentleman known as the troopers.

The troopers – or the troops, were the guys who got up in the morning and wandered around town – or trooped around town – gathering empties and doing odd jobs for a bit of cash. When they gathered enough they then TROOPED to the liquour store and made a variety of purchases for the remainder of their day.

I used to watch them walk past my house on their way to the liquor store, and would at times open the door and yell at them – “don’t forget to bring me back the 10% for the church …”

They ALWAYS met my call with laughter – sometimes a few cat-calls – but always laughter and the invitation to come and help them if I wanted 10% for the church.

After they made their purchase they would return to one of their houses and weather dependent - sit on the front step to enjoy it. One afternoon when I was off to visit an elder they called from the front step saying – “Hey, we got the wine – if you had some bread we could have communion …”

Later that week after fresh bread was baked in our house, I took a small loaf and slipped it into my coat and headed off into the village. As I was passing by the house where the Troops were sitting they waved their bottle and said – “hey, we got wine if you had bread we could …” their words were cut short when I pulled out the loaf of bread …

We sat in the warm spring sunshine and broke bread and poured out the wine and laughed, and cried … and embraced holiness … The full impact of the holy came later … when the Troops would call when one of their number would end up in the hospital and wanted me to visit … when I needed someone to help paint the CE Hall behind the Church and they were there … when they needed to talk about their life experiences including Residential School, they trusted me to be the one to share their hurt and pain for …

The holy came from that moment when we broke bread and shared the cup and found comfort in the circle we formed on the front step of their house … it brought them comfort that transcended the moment and helped us find the faint flicker of light that helped to guide us forward …

Unfortunately, many of us are too much like Thomas … we want instant results – we want to be able to feel and taste the Holy … we won’t believe unless we can touch it and see it for ourselves …

And yet, it is here (the broken bread, the poured cup, the candle) where we see and touch and taste the holy for ourselves … we break the bread and we remember … we pour and share the cup and we remember … we gather around the table and build and share and celebrate the community where the whisper is heard – “place your hand here and believe …” “touch and believe …”

When we break bread we are not only remembering the very presence of Jesus, we are also naming and owning our brokenness. We are broken – like the bread, we are broken and the fragments of our lives are sometimes tossed around like the crumbs that fall when we tear the loaf …

When we pour out the cup we are not only remembering the Easter Sacrifice of Jesus, we are also naming and owning the bleeding wounds that we have sometimes had to endure … the broken hearts, the bleeding spirits, and the scarring stain that remains as the wounded begins to heal. The deep dark colour of the wine connects us to this as we pour the cup …

The power of Communion is the memories and the actions … we break bread and remember our brokenness and the brokenness that Jesus himself experienced … we pour out the cup and remember the woundedness in our lives and the wounds that Jesus himself experienced … in Communion we remember that even in those moments when we feel profoundly and utterly alone … when like Martha and Mary we wonder where He is … when like Greg Paul and his associates we wonder where He is … when like the disciples gathered and cowering in the upper room we wonder not only where He is, but how ALL OF THIS COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN … in that moment as we remember – suddenly we are not alone …and we are enveloped and overwhelmed by the Holy … and we are challenged to fall to our knees and simply believe … it’s that simple …

… may it be so … thanks be to God. Let us Pray.

Easter Sunday Sermon ...

Easter Sunday – April 12th 2009 – First Presbyterian Portage

The story is familiar – we know the cast of characters, we know what happened.
Each year we mark the events of Easter and recount the story – it is familiar to us.
But – and this is the rub – what does it mean to talk about the Resurrection?
What does it mean to say – “He’s Risen”
Or “I’ve seen the Lord”

How do we celebrate something that we’ve known only from a printed story in an ancient book?
How do we embody the concept of BEING and Easter People when, if push really came to shove – we wouldn’t really have a clue of what it means to speak of the Resurrection, much less proclaim “He is Risen?” or “I’ve seen the Lord.”

On one level, that’s the power of the Easter story and the cast of characters that people it. We may find ourselves like Thomas who missed the happenings of Easter Morning and later sat in the upper room with the others who were happily chattering about the Risen Lord. It was Thomas who said – “I won’t believe until I see and feel for myself the Risen One …”

Or perhaps we’re like Peter and the other disciples who when the women arrived with the news that the tomb was empty and Jesus had been risen from the dead, ran to see for themselves. They had just enough doubt to question the veracity of the story from the women of all people – just enough doubt that they HAD to go and see for themselves …

Or perhaps we’re like the women … we approach these events in the the darkness – in the uncertainty of just not knowing for sure what has happened, only to discover … the earth has shifted, our understanding and our rational intellectual approaches are for naught … things are NOT what they should be … what we expected, anticipated and even dreamt of are simply NOT to be … things are in upheaval and uncertainty …

The women are perhaps the figures in this story where we can enter the story and experience THIS (…) for ourselves.

One of my professors at McMaster wrote a book on the role of anonymous characters in the Jewish Scriptures, and from the simple question – “why do some of the most important stories have a nameless anonymous character in them?” If the stories are so important, why aren’t all the characters named?

As an example – what’s the name of Noah’s wife??
She is central to all of the work that needed to be done, yet she has NO NAME.

Dr Reinhartz opened the door for the possibility that the anonymous characters are intentionally placed in the narrative of the story so that we – you and I – as listeners and readers can place ourselves IN the story, and experience the events in a first hand way.

In the Easter Story there are numerous anonymous individuals who break into the scene and fade away … the young man who ran away naked, the hapless servant who lost and ear, the Centurion who stood at the foot of the cross, and now this morning, we hear of the ‘disciple Jesus loved’ who figures prominently in the narrative of Jesus’ life, but is NEVER named …

Perhaps the whole point of this story – the account of Mary and Peter and the others, is to open ourselves to the possibility that we are to enter the story and be part of the moment when the disciples say – “I have seen the Lord …” and to live the consequences of that statement: “I have seen the Lord …”

This past week I’ve been reading the various resources I brought back with me from the StreetLevel Conference in Ottawa and over and over I keep stumbling on modern expressions of the old Celtic Blessing – “may you see the face of Christ in everyone you meet, and may they see the face of Christ in you …”

It’s such a simple concept – such a simple idea – yet, it is one that we struggle with in the Church constantly …

We can think of numerous examples of un-Christ like behaviour in our leaders and laity that leaves us shaking our heads … but it’s the complacency of saying – NOTHING – that is most troubling.

We are called to faith.
We are called to living and sharing our faith.

And yet, when we see glaring examples of un-Christ like behaviour we will shrug our shoulders and say – “what can you do?” and at times breath a sigh of relief that it’s THEM that got caught rather than ourselves … the spot light is on their dark little corner, not ours – “WHEW!!!”

If we take seriously the notion that we are to BE the face of Christ to the world many of us have some work to do …

Our attitudes need to be fine tuned.

Our outlook needs to be reoriented.

Our ideals need to be adjusted.

Our paradigm needs to be shifted …

AND NONE OF THAT IS EASY or COMFORTABLE.

And that’s the problem. … If it was easy and comfortable we’d be there yesterday.

But when it challenges us to look critically at who we are, how we fit in the world, and what we’ve been about – right down to our most deeply held beliefs – well, that’s a whole other ball game isn’t it?

That’s the point of the Easter Story … something wondrous and amazing has happened … we are no longer prisoners to the way things were … we are no longer to fear the shadows of death and darkness … God has entered Human life and history in a startling way and said – “Hey people – here’s a radically different way of looking at and living in and moving through the world!!!”

It’s called FAITH.

It’s about GRACE.

It’s about a gift of LOVE.

The resurrection is about the Kingdom of God in our midst – here and now, not in some sweet hereafter over there in the by and by – but here and now.

When the word spread that the tomb was empty, things started to change … The Risen Christ is not dead and gone – the Risen Christ moves among us – if we have the courage to open our eyes and see …

We speak words of welcome – but are they conditional? Offered only to the people who we are comfortable and like? Or are they unconditional and open to ALL?

If we are project Christ into the world – are the words of our lips – the prayers and proclamations we make here in this place – consistent with the actions and thoughts we have on Tuesday afternoon? Or Thursday morning? Or Friday night?

Its easy to say – “may we see the face of Christ in everyone we meet.” But what if that face is in the gutter? Or in an AIDS hospice? Or looking at us from between prison bars? Or dirty and drunken?

There’s the challenge of Easter in our modern world … Christ is Risen … we can see the Risen Christ all around us … the challenge is whether we really want to …

It’s easy to say – “I’ve seen the Lord …”

It’s harder to live that understanding as we move through our days … yet we are called to see the Lord in ALL people, not just some.

May it be so – thanks be to God … let us pray.

(and as though on cue - at the conclusion of the service when everyone retreated downstairs for coffee, they were joined by a very inebriated gentleman who was given a cup of coffee, some very generously heaped sandwiches, and asked if there was anything else "we" could do for him? He headed back into his day having recieved a warm welcome and the gift of sustenance ... I felt like I'm preaching to the converted !!!)

Sermon for April 5th 2009 - Palm Sunday ...

April 5th 2009

Today is Palm Sunday …

Lord Jesus …over the broken glass of our world, over the rumours meant to hurt, over the prejudice meant to wound, over the weapons meant to kill … ride on trampling our attepts at disaster into dust … ride on, ride on in majesty.

Over the distance that separates us from you, and it is such a distance measurable in half truths, in unkept promises, in second-best obedience … ride on until you touch and heal us – we who feel for no one but ourselves … ride on, ride on in majesty …

… through the back streets and sin bins, and the sniggered-at-corners of our city where life festers and love runs cold … ride on bringing hope and dignity where most send scorn and silence. Ride on, ride on in majesty …

For you O Christ, do care, and you must show us how. On our own our ambitions rival your summons and thus threaten good faith and neglect God’s people … in your company and at your side we might yet help to bandage and heal the wounds of the world … ride on, ride on in majesty, and take us with your … (Page 76-77 – Stages on the Way.)

And so today we begin our journey into the events of Holy week … a journey that WILL carry us from the Hosannas of a triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem, through the horrors of Jesus’ arrest, his trial, his torture and abuse and his death, through the profound and utter darkness of the days that follow his death on the cross, and then after the darkness comes the glorious Hallelujahs of Easter morning …

Unfortunately, in the Church we have a propensity to jump from Hosannas to Hallelujah’s and not take time in the uncomfortable darkness that lies between.

Darkness makes us uncomfortable … it’s a scary place … we can’t see clearly … dangers might lurk just out there somewhere …

Think about horror films – from the early films with the likes of Boris Karloff and Bela Lagosi, through to the slasher films of the modern era – darkness is a simply frightening place to linger – in the case of movies, it could cost you your life …

Fortunately, at least for us, Easter doesn’t cost our lives – it cost Jesus his – but we are relatively safe …

Still, darkness is not an appealing place – it’s uncertain, confusing, disconcerting, and frightening … we walk more quickly at night … we tend to avoid certain places at night … and when we enter a darkened room we tend to flick on a light … we don’t like the darkness – so we avoid it – figuratively and literally.

So, it is somewhat natural that we tend to jump through Holy Week and skip over the dark bits … the talk of dying … the breaking of the bread and the pouring out of the cup … the abandonment … the loneliness … the gut-wrenching prayers … the pain … the sorrow … the tears … the blood … the agony … and the death …

Easter Week is a hard place to travel … it’s not about a gentle Jesus, meek and mild … Holy week is not a pleasant spring like place filled with flowers and bunnys and pastel colours … Holy Week is a hard and dark place where the deepest emotions we are capable of feeling come to the fore and we are confronted with how cold and hard our world can be …

Ann Weems writes of Holy week:

Holy is the week ,,, Holy, Consecrated, belonging to God … we move from hosanna to horrow with the predictable ease of those who know not what they do …

Our hosannas sung, our palms waved,
Let us go with passion into the week.

It is a time to curse fig trees that do not yield fruit.

It is a time to cleanse our temples of any blasphemy.

It is a time to greet Jesus at the Lord’s Anointed One, to lavishly break our alabaster and pour perfume out for him without counting the cost …

It is a time for preparation …
The time to give thanks and break the bread is upon us.
The time to give thanks and drink of the cup is imminent …

Eat, drink, remember.

On the night of night each one of us must ask as we dip our bread in the wine – IS IT I???

And on that darkest of days, each of us must stand beneath the tree and watch the dying if we are to be there when the stone is rolled away …

The only road to Easter Morning is through the unrelenting shadows of that Friday. Only then will the alleluias be sung, only then will the dancing begin. (pg 67 – Kneeling in Jerusalem)

The problem – if it really is a problem – is that Easter, when we intentionally walk thru it, makes us uncomfortable and it makes us move past our comfortable assumptions … we have to face not just the harshness of life, but also the struggles that are part of it … Fortunately, Easter offers us the vivid and breath-taking reminder that in the face of the worst life can throw at us – at you and I – God has already been there, and is ready to carry us through …

Easter is the moment when the words of the Psalmist – “yea, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou are with me …” come true.

After the darkest night – a rich beautiful dawn will break upon us … after the harshest ugliest storm – a beautiful rainbow will beckon us … after the cold flood waters recede a warm and glorious spring will come … The Resurrection is THAT profound and that simple …

The challenge is – we’ve grown complacent and comfortable in our faith. Attending – or not attending Church is easy. We can show up on Sunday morning, or not … we can join in the prayers and hymns, or not … we can drop a few dollars on the collection plate, stick around for a cup of coffee, and feel good about ourselves, or not … it’s all terribly comfortable.

Even when we look around and wrestle with some of the issues we’re facing – it’s still pretty comfortable.

And I think that is one of the biggest challenges we face as a people of faith … the comfortableness of our society has rendered faith irrelevant, not only for those folks out in the community, but for us as well … our faith has become a habit … something we do and don’t really think much about …

I point no fingers in this … I always say that my grandfather – my Presbyterian Grandfather – always told us kids not to point fingers – “for when you point a finger in judgment at another, three fingers are pointing back at yourself!!”

Instead, I include myself in this comfort … I have in many areas of my life grown complacent and almost lazy when it comes to things of faith … the challenge to be faced and over come is an openness to the intimacy that the Easter Season offers. Not the warm fuzzy, bunny filled Easter – but the journey that finds friends abandoning Jesus – the journey that finds the crowds that had so eagerly welcomed him fleeing and turning on him – the journey that finds us standing in the darkness of the garden, the courtyard, the back alley, the hillside … the journey ahead is neither easy nor comfortable, but in a full life it is necessary …

Today the journey begins … we’ve walked in the streets of Jerusalem and felt the palm branches crunch underfoot as the Chosen One of God is welcomed in as the Messiah – the Saviour – the one to rescue us … soon we will hear the thunk of the door closing as we gather in the upper room and the talk will turn from the triumph of the procession to the trials of prayer and suffering … In the coming week is the story of humanity – our story … the challenge – the call – the vocation we are called to is to walk carefully and thoughtfully knowing that even in the silent alone-ness of the darkness that lies ahead God is present …

May it be so – thanks be to God – let us pray …

Sermon for March 29th 2009

Old Testament reading for this morning places God firmly at the centre of all that we and all that we are.
We are mandated to love God with the whole of our being.
This is the first step in our faith. The first step in our ministry, and it is the thing – the essence – the grounding – the foundation of EVERYTHING we do from that point on. Loving God with the whole of our being is the axis around which all else revolves.
This past week I was in Ottawa attending the national Streetlevel 2009 Conference – a gathering of folks connected by issues of poverty and homelessness. Streetlevel is organized by the Roundtable on Poverty and Homelessness, who are a gathering of representatives of street level outreach ministries from across Canada, including Winnipeg’s Siloam Misson.
The Conference itself had Executive Directors, Board Members, Front Line Staff, Clients, Supporters, policy makers, politicians, and community representatives. Almost 400 people in all gathered for 3 days of worship, reflection, story telling, prayer, celebration and a commitment to the important work done everyday amongst the most vulnerable, broken and needy on the streets of our communities.
It was in a word – INCREDIBLE.
It was busy, exhausting, inspiring, and at times heart-breaking. As we celebrate the good work that is being accomplished, we are reminded of the failures and set backs and the ache of knowing there will always be those we simply can not reach …
The tone of the Conference was set for me when at the first night’s session several speakers noted that perhaps that as a Church we missed Jesus’ real commissioning when we place the emphasis on Matthew where the RISEN Christ commands his followers to go into the world and make disciples of everyone on earth.
They mused on whether the mechanics of discipleship – the action required to do the outreach – was missing the point, and whether we would do well to return to the Gospel of Luke where Jesus addresses the assembled crowd in his home synagogue – his home congregation – and with great flourish unrolls the massive scroll of Isaiah to the words – “the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because God has anointed me…” Anointed him to heal the sick, to give sight to the blind, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to set the prisoners free and to proclaim the Kingdom of God !!

What if that – that call to action – was the Great Commissioning of the Church? That was the question posed to us – at the Conference – and today as the Church – what if caring for the outcasts and the cast offs was our Commissioning as people of Faith?What if we are to care for the poor, the addicted, the mentally ill, the homeless, the imprisoned – what if these are the people we are to make, not just disciples of, but to welcome and to include them in our life and work?
What if ?
It’s a radical thought … and in saying it’s a radical thought, there is an understanding of Radical that comes into play that has profound – incredibly profound implications … We use ‘radical’ for anything that is “out there” and that doesn’t fit the norm and is a bit off the wall – Radical tends to be applied to the things that rock the boat and stir the pot and challenge the status quo.
But it turns out that radical is about returning to the basics – to the foundations – the very roots of our faith.
In the modern Church, radical is not the out there stuff that rocks the boat and ruffles feathers, but radical is the stuff that is at the very heart of our faith – the stuff that is really important – and that is the simple idea that God is present and manifest in our lives!!

Speaker after speaker reminded us of the centrality of God in all that we do and in all that we are … trusting in God, not just to strengthen us in our work and ministry, but to heal and render WHOLE those we encounter daily who are in need of wholeness and healing.
The reminder – “I can’t heal any body” helped to recall that it is God who heals and it is God who offers the gift of wholeness.
But the true radical-ness of faith comes in that moment when we realize what a return to the foundations of our faith really means.
The Roundtable on poverty and homelessness affirmed the Ottawa Manifesto three years ago that reads in part:
Abandoning people to poverty increases health problems and welfare rolls, and sometimes drives people to crime – all major burdens for governments, and therefore, tax payers. The generational entrenchment of poverty diminishes hope (the capacity to dream) and the sense of personal value in the individual. Children, the unrealized potential of our nation, when they are born into poverty, start life so far behind others that they may never be able to catch up. The whole of society is enriched when the creative gifts of the poor are supported by governmental and social systems that affirm the value of what they have to offer. When people are shut out because of their poverty, poverty itself “snowballs”, at once increasing our societal burden and diminishing our societal capacity. Homelessness in Canada is a clear and concrete manifestation of this truth.
That is the true radicalness of our faith – embracing our call – our call to include the outsider, to love the unlovable, and to embrace the outcasts.
Discipleship at a distance is easy – radical inclusion is a whole other ball of wax. Glenn Paul writes of radical inclusion when he notes:
“giving some money to a panhandler is something I know I can manage; it can even make me feel good about myself. But embracing him as brother, literally putting my arms around his smelly, drunken, psychotic and possibly bug-ridden person, grappling with the concept that he, too is beloved of God, precious and made in his image – well, this provides and unnerving peek into my own soul.”

This is the moment the seed falls to the ground and dies … the status quo doesn’t cut it … a few coins in an empty cup, or an outstretched hand isn’t enough … the way things were is not how they will be … we are called to more … we are called to:

Therefore, to our brothers and sisters who struggle with poverty and homelessness, we commit to…

LEARN all we can about the systemic, sociological, economic, cultural and spiritual deficits that have left them in this state. We will listen carefully to them, for they are our greatest teachers. We will seek out the knowledge others have acquired, and teach what we ourselves have learned to those who want to care more effectively for people who are poor or homeless;

ACT with diligence and integrity to create with them healthy, nurturing relationships, and safe, secure, dignified homes;

SPEAK on their behalf when their own voices are not heard, and support them in speaking for themselves, to the end that Canadian churches, governments, media and businesses would make the substantial reduction of homelessness, poverty and their root causes a high priority; and

COOPERATE with others committed to these baseline objectives, respecting differences of approach and philosophy.

BEFORE GOD, WE MAKE THESE COMMITMENTS IN THE PLACES WHERE WE WORK AND SERVE, IN OUR COMMUNITIES OF FAITH, AND IN OUR PERSONAL LIVES.

The Ottawa manifesto calls us to faith and in faith we are to learn, act, speak and cooperate – we can no longer simply toss our pennies at the problem and say “Bless you” Now we are to roll up our sleeves and DO.
It is all about going back to our roots – reclaiming our foundations – rediscovering the basics.
We are, as Jesus counseled, to let the grain fall into the ground where it DIES … dies … the seed falls into the ground and dies …
Without the cold and snow of winter there would be no spring … without the darkness of the night there would be no glorious dawn … without the death of the seed there would be no abundant harvest … the seed has to die before it can bring forth new life.
We are the seeds. … we are the seeds that must die to produce an abundant harvest. And this analogy gains tremendous power when we consider that the Church – not just THIS church – but THE Church – is in decline. The act of dying is no longer a theoretical exercise – it is the reality we are living – it is a frighteningly real prospect.
We have become a marginalized minority.
We are poised on the verge of oblivion – and yet – WE ARE THE SEED – the grain that falls to the ground and must die before it can live …WEMUST DIE before we can experience the transformative power of the Resurrection.
Death is a physical reality, yet in the church it has many other manifestations as well.
Dying to the way things have been.
Letting go of the status quo.
Reaching out past our comfort zones.
Living a radical inclusivity – seeing the world in a new way …
ALL of these things represent a dying – and ALL of them offer the promise of a resurrection – a transformative rebirth to the Holy Presence of God in our lives and in our world.
The Lenten Season is a time for anticipating and preparing for the events of Easter. And Easter is about one thing – Death and Resurrection.
AND we are an Easter People. Yet we tend to speak of death and dying in whispers and hushed tones, lest we offend anyone … and we speak of the Resurrection as a one time event that happened long ago in a place far from here called Jerusalem …
We are an Easter People – a people of the Resurrection. We are called to proclaim the life and DEATH and RESURRECTION of Christ. We are people commissioned to go into the world and share the message of hope, and grace and love that issues forth from the transformative power God offers through the Resurrection.
We are to die to the way things are, and instead experience the Resurrection of returning to the foundations of our faith – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me …”

There’s no room for passivity or arm’s length charity. Our call – our vocation – our ministry – is to open the doors of our sanctuary – those doors back there – and the doors right here (in our hearts) AND welcome in those who desperately need to hear and experience the Hope – the life changing HOPE that our faith as an Easter People embodies.
God is present in our world and in our lives.
That is our Covenant with God – God shall be our God and WE – you and I and the stranger, the out cast, the AIDs patient, the orphan, the drunk, the soldier, the baby, the criminal, the minority, the homosexual, the mentally ill, the esteemed elder, the politician, the child, the enemy combatant, the refugee …ALL of us – all of us shall be God’s people.
And that understanding: that all of us shall be God’s people should be more than enough to send us into the world a transformed and resurrected people … may it be so … thanks be to God. Let us Pray.

Sermon for March 8th 2009

Hurting, they came to him.
Healed, they followed him.
Grateful, they gave to him what they had and what they were.
Blessed, they became a blessing and went out to all the world.

Those who are hurt, and healed,
grateful and blessed
still move among us in his name.
(Kneeling in Jerusalem by Ann Weems)

We are followers of Christ … children of God … we are the spiritual descendents of Abraham and Sarah … we are the one who have inherited the promise “I will be your God and you shall be my people …”

The promise – the Covenant with God that begins with the promise of presence and lead to the elderly couple having a new born son …

The story of Abraham and Sarah is one that begins with power and authority.

One day Abram, a resident of Ur – a great empire in what is now Iraq, is told by God that he is to travel across the deserts to a place that God will show him, and there God will make of him a great nation … AND Abram not only listens – he goes.

As the childrens’ story I shared a few minutes ago – he goes off on this strange quest without hesitation and takes his wife and members of his extended family with him, all because God said to …

The reality in today’s world is that if someone stepped up and shared an experience like Abram’s we would respond in fear … there is a very fine line between Abram’s experience and that of Vincent Li hearing voices and responding violently to them … and yet, this divine commandment stands as the defining moment in our collective faith …

I will be your God and you will be my people … stands as the foundational Covenant for the entire Judeo-Christian movement that has come from this transformation of Abram and Sarai into Abraham and Sarah, an aged couple being told they are about to become parents … The strange and miraculous keeps piling up in this story … the call from God begin this journey and the pilgrimage and preparations (things this Lenten Season is ALL about) leads them not only to a new land along with many adventures and mis-adventures, their journey leads them to parenthood while in their senior years …

Such is the miraculous nature of our God and our faith and the Covenant that we, by our presence here in the Body of Christ, partake of.

So, what does our Covenant entail?

How does the Covenant unfold in our lives?

What does it mean to LIVE the notion that “I will be your God and you shall be my people?”

One of foundational aspects of our faith is that of Prayer … not prayer that is simply crying out to God when we need help, but ignoring God the rest of the time, but prayer that is ongoing conversation with God through the day that expresses our faith and embodies our certainty of God’s presence in our day. Prayer as a conversation rather than a petition …

I once read a book that looked at the religious content and religious lessons that can be gleaned from the tv programme – The Simpsons.

Among the many wonderful lessons in the book is the contention that the father Homer is a typical Western Church goer. Homer in his life is busy looking after Homer. Donuts, beer and watching TV are his priorities. He goes to Church because he is forced to by Marge as “the thing to do” as a family. The only time Homer really prays is when he’s in trouble … which if you watch The Simpsons is actually quite often … his “aaaahhhh” is heard frequently, and in those moments Homer cries out for help …

Homer is not that different from the rest of us … how many of us prayer regularly and in a way that is more than just asking for help?

One of the things that impressed me when I began my pilgrimage within the Presbyterian Church has been the open expression of the importance of Prayer. Even in business meetings, prayer begins the meeting and ends the meeting, and to pause before a contentious discussion or debate would not be out of line.

This is not the case in other places …

I remember the DEBATE when I asked at a Congregation why they didn’t have a devotion and prayer when their Board – the equivalent of the Session. The suggestion was not met with enthusiasm … comments like “but this is a business meeting …” betrayed a strange bias that lacked the fundamental understanding of our Covenant relationship with God …

Many years ago I was privileged to be part of a presentation with representatives from the Ethiopian Coptic Church who came to talk about their faith – their background and their Church … the floor was opened to questions and the first question came – “why didn’t you speak of women in ministry?” The answer – “we’re Coptic, it’s not what we do …” drew a gasp of horror.

Then one man stood up and noted that we had sent millions of dollars in aid to Ethiopia to feed the people during a famine – and we had sent thousands of tonnes of food aid – then the man noted that the presenters spoke of over 1200 monasteries in Ethiopia. He asked – “what do SO MANY monasteries do to justify their existence?”

The presenters looked at each other and answered simply – “PRAY.” In a tone that sounded incredulous … this was met with an even louder gasp of horror from the floor …the thought of prayer as justification for the existence of monasteries was simply too much for the modern mind … despite this happening in a provincial CHURCH meeting, the mere suggestion of prayer was regarded as OUTRAGEOUS.

There is something seriously wrong in the Church when we no longer see prayer as a foundational part of our life in faith, both individually and collectively.

On Friday at the World day of prayer we heard the readings from Romans and Acts that celebrated the commonality of our Faith family with the diversity of many gifts and abilities – a commonality that is drawn together in PRAYER.

Not the – “oh God help me get out of this mess …” Prayers of Homer Simpson.

Not the – “Oh God, please heal my loved one of their illness …” Prayers that are common in our world – prayers that are a no-win situation …

If the person worsens in their illness and dies – does that mean God doesn’t care or doesn’t exist? Or if person A with this illness recovers, but person B down the hall with the same illness gets worse, does it mean person A is a more faithful and more deserving person that person B?

Or could it be that we’ve offered the WRONG prayer all together?

Perhaps instead of praying for healing we need to first pray for WHOLENESS, and seek the healing of spirit, and body simultaneously … with the acceptance of the moment and the wholeness of body remarkable things can happen … remarkable things that see the restoration of relationships and the healing of rifts and brokenness …and yes, I would never rule out the possibility of those miraculous healings … I’ve seen them happen – and there is ample evidence out there of them happening. One author Larry Dossey, a medical doctor has written a number of books on the power of prayer in medical treatment.

Dossey says – miracles DO happen through prayer, but he notes that from his scientific background the real power of prayer comes from the wholeness that it brings to the mind, body and spirit. The real miracle is the acceptance that comes and the commitment to life even in the face of a bad diagnosis …

Life is about living it fully …

I will be your God and you shall be my people … how do we live this idea ?

How do we share this covenant?

It begins with prayer … there is a Hindi poem/prayer that embodies this well: to talk with God, no breath is lost – TALK ON … to walk with God, no strength is lost – WALK ON …and to wait on God, no time is lost – WAIT ON.

Our job is not to make our conversations with God a divine shopping list of needs and wants – but our job is to talk with God in an ongoing way, and to share our joys and our sorrows, to be fully present to God in our world and our lives and to approach God in ALL moments as we would an old friend … we can pray in the shower, behind the wheel, walking along the lake, sharing tea with friends, lying on the sofa, or as we sit down to a meal … God is not somewhere out there … but remains part of this (our heart) …

Our Covenant means we need to talk to God and be open to God’s presence and power in our lives … the miraculous can and does happen … just look at the story of Abraham and Sarah … but it can only happen when we’re open and ready for it …

May it be so – thanks be to God – let us pray …

Sermon for March 1st 2009

Lent is a time to take the time to let the power
of our faith story take hold of us,
a time to let the events get up and walk around in us,
a time to intensity our living unto Christ,
a time to hover over the thoughts of our hearts,
a time to place our feet in the streets of Jerusalem
or to walk along the sea and listen to his word,
a time to touch his robe and feel the healing surge through us,
A time to ponder and a time to wonder …
Lent is a time to allow a fresh new taste of GOD!!
(Kneeling in Jerusalem by Ann Weems)

… a fresh new taste of God … ponder and wonder … and let holiness take hold of us …

When was the last time you saw a rainbow?

When you saw it did you take note of it ?Did you stop to admire it? Did it make you smile?

Have you ever thought about the role rainbows play in our world?

Rainbows are magnificent – every time I encounter one, I pause and take a moment to just enjoy it … But even more than just being impressive, Rainbows also play an important role in our stories and our mythos as a culture – for those of us who have some Irish Blood (apologies to my Scottish brethren), we tend to hold to the notion of following a leprechaun to the his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So strong is that draw that many references to the end of the rainbow and the pot of gold are found throughout our culture and society.

The rainbows also loom large – pardon the pun, in one of my favourite movies - The Wizard of Oz, where the lead character begins the film singing a powerful song of hope called somewhere over the rainbow, then finds herself transported thanks to a tornado to an enchanted and colourful land filled with memorable characters and majestic vistas … then at the end of the movie as Dorothy awakens back in Kansas, the home she yearned to return to … she finds herself surrounded by the familiar faces of her family, people whom she had taken for granted, and people whom she realized were with her in Oz …

That moment of transformation over the rainbow was about seeing the familiar – those people, places and things we might take for granted in a bold new light – or in Dorothy’s case in a bright colourful new light, so she could return home and truly appreciate what it is she has … rainbows are about something truly and utterly breath-taking appearing in the midst of the rain …

It is too easy to take for granted what we have here yearn for “something better over there …” We all say it regularly without even realizing it – “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence,” “the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” and of course – “Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, there's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.”

Whether we’re even conscious of it or not, we yearn for something more – something different … and yet, the less is repeatedly taught to us that when we get “there” to that supposedly “better” place, it is really no different, nor any better than what we’ve left behind …

The tendency, one we are all guilty of, myself included, is to feel overwhelmed in our lives and to yearn for salvation – rescue – for something better. But when we listen to the texts we have before us today as we’ve begun our Lenten Journey to Easter we hear a clear message to stay present to this moment and trust in God.

The story of Noah and his kin in the ark is a magnificent tale of survival and trust. Trust in God no matter what dark deep waters overwhelm you is the message. Trust in God to see you through the dark of the journey to a beautiful mountain top where you will once again stand blinking in the sun, overwhelmed by God’s grace and love.

This theme is picked up in the reading from I Peter where the writer not only likens the flood waters to our Baptism, but implicitly celebrates the TRUST that Noah and his family had in God … we are from time to time inundated by flood waters – some are intentional like our Baptism, or decisions in life that put us in challenging places for family, career, education or even fun – and some are floods that break upon us without warning, and that send us spiraling across the ebb and flow of the water – illness, life changes, accidents, disastrous acts of God – the list is quite lengthy. But the unifying feature is that simple expression of faith that the reading from I Peter proclaims that the key to “survival” in the flood waters is turning our trust to GOD.

That trust in God is foundational to our faith – that trust IS OUR FAITH. Yet we often get hung up on things that are not really important to our lives in community, or our lives as members of the Body of Christ called and commissioned to go forth into the world to share by word and deed the Good News of Jesus.

We’ve all heard the stories – and some of us have been involved in them – about Churches that spend inordinate amounts of time arguing over the colour of the carpet, or the placement of the furtniture, or other trivial things, when the work they are called to do and to be, remains unaddressed. Could you imagine what would have happened if Noah and his sons spent their time arguing over what type of floor covering would have been best in the elephant pen, or what shape the hatches into the hold had to be, or what colour the curtain on the sleeping quarters would be … Nothing would have gotten accomplished, and when the rains began to fall no one would have been ready …

Instead, Noah and the boys, along with their wives and children rolled up their sleeves and began the work that needed to be done. They built the ark, they gathered food and seed, they herded the animals and they got EVERYTHING ready. They were told to BUILD AN ARK … so they built an ark. They were told to gather the animals and enough food for all of them … so they got everything ready. They were told what to do and they did it.

Yet in the modern Church we are told repeatedly what we are to do … break bread, pour out the cup … by the waters of Baptism wash away the past and prepare for the future … by the gathering of community, gather in the lost and the stray … and by the breath-taking abundance that we have around us of relationship, food, talents, and even treasures, we are to go out in to the world and address the many challenges and burdens that bring suffering and hurt to the human family …

We are told in Scripture … in tradition … and in opportunities around us EVERY DAY what we should be about in our faith. Yet, we spend our time being distracted by other things …

We are so focused on other things we miss the opportunity that is often right here … I encountered a reflection once by a colleague in ministry on the West Coast. He shared a moment when he was crossing a parking lot during a stretch of almost intolerable grey, rainy days. It was one of those cold cloudy and crappy days when the rain just wasn’t letting up, and you walk with your head down and your collar pulled up trying to get from point A to point B as quickly and as dry as you can … One afternoon he was crossing a parking lot when he heard the insistent voice of a child saying – “look mummy, a rainbow … a rainbow …” More interested in staying dry, he ignored the voice but the voice continued – “Look mummy a beautiful rainbow!”

Not seeing or sensing any sunshine anywhere nearby he glanced around to confirm that they were surrounded with nothing but the thick grey rain clouds that the west coast is good at producing … He then noticed the child pointing at a puddle at her mother’s feet … “A rainbow” the child said, her finger out-stretched.

In the slick of oil or whatever is one the surface of our parking lots was the sheen of a rainbow … it had caught the child’s attention. She saw a rainbow … that’s all that mattered.

The subsequent reflection reminded all of us to keep our eyes open - even on the greyest and darkest days. You never know when you might find yourself stepping over a rainbow and unless you’re eyes are open you’ll miss it …

Now, aside from the icky connotation of considering WHAT was reflecting the rainbow that day – we have a good reminder to see what’s around us … partially with the awe and the holy WOW of a child … but predominantly with hearts, eyes, minds and spirits open to the divine presence – the HOLY that is all around us …

When we are in the middle of the deep dark storms that life can throw at us, our challenge as people of faith is to see these moments like our Baptism … we enter the waters broken, needy, and tainted by the world … the waters wash over us … God’s love envelops us … we find ourselves emerging from the other side bathed in God’s love … cleansed, renewed, made whole and strengthened by the presence of God in our lives and in our world …
Baptism is when we enter the waters and KNOW that we emerge the other side as the Beloved Children of God …

That’s what trust is all about … that’s the gift of the rainbow … that in THIS place – in THIS moment – we are given the gift of what lies “over the rainbow” – the “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow” – the “greener grasses from the other side” … and all it requires to experience this is FAITH … faith based on trusting in God’s presence in our lives and in our world …

Faith that allows us to journey forward and face whatever life throws at us by trusting in God’s presence and focusing on what’s important – what’s really important – OUR MINISTRY as the people of God present in this place …

Lavishly pour out the waters of our Baptism … Break the bread and share the cup without hesitation … worship our God and build community by inviting in the strangers and urging them to become friends … This is what we are called to be about … to get on with sharing the Good News …

… AND it begins here (Communion Table) … and it ends out there (the Doors) when we share our faith …

Instead of getting distracted, let’s just get on with it … It?? Being the Church and trusting God to see us through !!!!!!
May it be so – thanks be to God – let us pray …

Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday - February 22nd 2009

The transfiguration is an interesting moment in the Scriptures, particularly as we link it to the transition point between Elijah and Elisha. The Transfiguration for all intents and purposes, becomes that moment in time when the Holy breaks through the ordinary and the mundane and we are left wondering what to do … The response from Peter to build shelters for the celestial or heavenly visitors is a typical human response.

We’re confronted with the holy and we haven’t got a clue of what to do … we want to contain things and relate to them in comfortable and familiar ways. The phrase – “thinking outside the box” has always come to mind for me when I read the story of the Transfiguration.

One afternoon Jesus and his disciples went up on to a mountain top and suddenly Jesus clothes are dazzling white, two others - Moses and Elijah join them, they are enveloped in a thick cloud, and then a voice from heaven booms and announces Jesus is the beloved of God ... the heavens seem to open … it is a startling moment …

The HOLY – the very presence of God has broken through … and the moment becomes more than just unpredictable – it is off the scale …

So, what do we do with this story … if some one came to us today, breathless from a visit to Riding Mountain, or Turtle Mountain or even Delta marsh and started telling us a tale like this, we would be wanting to pack them off to Selkirk for professional help … The very thought of heavenly visions and voices and so on makes us extremely uncomfortable. And yet out Scriptures – this very book – is full of such moments and there is a remarkable propensity in the Church to accept this (…) at face value, while dismissing those among us who have similar experiences …

Where are the Holy Moments in our world today?

If not flashing lights, booming voices, and heavenly visitors? Where then do we find and encounter God and the fullness of the Holy?

In the modern church – the scientific, post-modern Church wherein we are members, it’s an interesting challenge to live out. If tomorrow a student stepped up before Presbytery and offered an experience like either the Old Testament Reading or the Gospel reading and said – “I feel called by God into Ministry …” Our very first response would be an exam and evaluation by a professional – or preferably a team of professionals. And yet, if one of our esteemed elders said – “I’ve been praying to God for you …” and told us of a deep and committed ministry of prayer, we wouldn’t bat and eye.

The problem is that we are so far removed from the Holy – we’ve compartmentalized it – we’ve built our little shelter and locked it in … Shelter ?? Sound familiar ??

We ARE Peter. We’ve encountered the Holy and instead of embracing it in its infinite fullness, we’ve built our little shelters and boxed it in … The Holy Belongs here (communion table) when we break bread and share the cup …The Holy Belongs here (Baptismal Font) when we pour out the water and remember our promises of faith … The Holy belongs here (the sanctuary) when we gather for an hour or so every week and pray and sing and be faithful …

The Holy belongs here … (the sanctuary) … but NOT out there … If we take the Holy out there we might lose control … We might lose power … we might not be able to predict what will happen and we’ll be very uncomfortable …

So like Peter, we build our shelters and we try to put the HOLY in them …
AND IT DOESN’T WORK … God breaks through … the Holy will not be contained in a building … or in a time and space of our choosing … The Holy will come when God wants it to come …
Isn’t that the WHOLE point of the Christmas story?

God’s chosen one – the Messiah – the son of God – comes, not in a palace, or a sanctuary or in a place of power – but in a humble tiny stable in a forgotten corner of vast empire … and The World took notice.

The world took notice …

The world took notice when Elijah passed the mantle of leadership to Elisha … The world took notice when Jesus and his disciples, walked to the top of a mountain and something wondrous happened … The world took notice when our God broke through the mundane and allowed something truly extra-ordinary – something truly breath-taking to happen …

The world took notice in those moments … and yet we want to lock the holy in a little box and contain it …

What ever happened to thinking outside the box and being open to whatever God offers ??

Somewhere along the line I read that the Holiest moment in ALL of creation is when a child utters the word – “wow” in response to learning something new and startling … It’s a remarkable moment when a child learns something new for the very very first time … Watching a toddler discover the world and utter “WOW” – something I’ve enjoyed thoroughly with my children – it is hard not to see the Holiness in that moment.

Yet as adults we hem that enthusiasm in … we SHUSH the WOW ...

The other day, I was talking with a friend and I said – “why is it we take such pains to teach our children to play fair, to share, to be a good friend …and then as adults, one of the common complaints we hear, and live and encounter is the simple LACK of such civilities in our society?”

I have been a Beaver leader in the past, and we taught our children the motto – “sharing, sharing, sharing” – we stressed the need for the kids to share scissors when doing a craft – it was in the leaders manual that we were to SHORT the kids on craft items like scissors and crayons so “they would have to learn to cooperate with one another by ASKING politely for the item”.

Could you imagine doing that amongst adults? Even adults in a Church?

The howls of outrage would be thick and fast and deafening …

Yet, we persist in trying to teach our children to share and cooperate when we are sometimes lousy role models in doing the same thing …

So to step back – perhaps wewould do well to learn from our children. Maybe the Holiness of WOW, is a good place to enter into a dialogue with our children wherein they teach us … they teach us to see the world through their eyes rather than through our old and jaded outlook …

Didn’t Jesus say – “to enter the Kingdom of Heaven you must become like a child …” Maybe that’s what he meant … to live present to the Holiness around us and to be open to the WOW moments when not only do we learn something new and expand our experience and our understanding of the cosmos, but when and where we encounter the LIVING GOD – present and real in our world …

Maybe we are to live present to the moment by doing more than just saying the words – “sharing, sharing, sharing,” but by (heaven forbid) LIVING those words …

One of the harshest, and perhaps most accurate complaints about the modern church is its inherent hypocrisy … People look at our history and our actions and say – “is this Christian?”

They once asked Gandhi what he thought of western Christian civilization and culture and he quipped – “it seems like a good idea that is worth trying …”

We’ve so compartmentalized the Holy and what it represents – our faith and what it values – our beliefs and what we should be doing – from the rest of our lives, that they are disconnected …

This past week I attended a food conference in Winnipeg and over and over and over we heard presenters say that we are disconnected from the source of our food – somewhere along the line we got the idea that our food comes from Co-op or Safeway, Even in a place like Manitoba where farming continues to be a way of life – there is a disconnect.

And that disconnect is what is bridged in the moment when, standing on a mountain top we suddenly encounter the holy … we can chose to respond like Peter – the comfortable option, and build out shelters and lock the holy away safely … or we can be open to the Holy in its infinite fullness and have the courage to say the words – WOW … and see where it will lead us …

The process of evangelism – the work that we as a community have before us demands the WOW response … because rather than inviting people to come and have a glimpse of the Holy in the shelters we build, we are to GO OUT INTO THE WORLD and tell the story of where and how we’ve met and encountered the Holy … we need to go into the world and re-connect with the Holy where we find it … and celebrate the awe and wonder that comes when we stand enveloped by the Holy presence of God.

We invite people to join the circle of Awe that SHOULD be the Church and join in the experience … The transfiguration is about stopping and being wholly present to the Holy in our lives as we find it – in the enthusiasm of the child who can see wonder all around them – in a sunrise or sunset – in the beauty of nature – in the subtlety of a flower – in the birth of a child – in the smell of fresh baking – in the visit with a friend over coffee … it is about finding the HOLY in THIS moment.

That’s the heart of evangelism – to share our stories – our experiences – to share ourselves … our real selves … to make God and our faith real and relevant by stepping outside our comfortable little boxes and sharing our WOW moments …

May it be so – thanks be to God – let us pray …

Sermon for January 18th 2009

In addition to the story I shared earlier from Jim Wallis, this past week I read another story by social activist and theologian Jim Wallis about asking a young woman out on a date. Jim was raised as a southern Baptist, and lived in a fairly conservative environment. He decided that as a date with this young woman they would go to the local theatre to watch The Sound of Music. Jim had, in his teenage mind, assumed this to be a safe choice …

When he arrived to pick the young woman up, her father was blocking the door and insisting that his daughter could not go to see The Sound of Music because it would “trample on everything we believe, and everything we raise you to be.”

The father went on to insist that if his daughter went to the movies, then started dancing, then drinking and smoking, she would no longer be a Christian, and then there would be nothing to differentiate her and her family from the world – there would be nothing that said “We’re Christian.”

Now, aside from struggling with all of this happening because of The Sound of Music … the issue that Wallis raises is the struggle with what it is that makes us who we are. How do we live our faith? What defines us as Christians? What are being called to be and to do in the world by God?

How do we live our faith in a world of rapid and even breath-taking change?

These are the types of questions that we may not even be aware of facing, but that we need to face all the time … our world is experiencing change at a rate that seems unbelievable and we are called to be people of faith …

But then we look around us and … well, let’s be brutally honest – we aren’t the “in place” to be seen on a Sunday morning. The hockey rink and the Sunday morning brunch buffets have a greater appeal that we do … we have in many respects become a quaint anachronism in our world – a source of life’s ritutals like baptisms, weddings and funerals, and a place where older folks hang out …

I for one, however believe that in owning the perception of the world around us – and accepting that we are not the cool, hip place to be seen, we are opening the door to tremendous possibility and transformative change … as we wrestle with what it means to be people of faith – followers of Christ – members of the Body of Christ in the world – as we struggle to define this experience we are able to live IN the world, rather than isolate ourselves from it and hide from it. Our readings this morning are about being called and commissioned by God not to hide away from the world, but to share God’s message of transformative hope to the world around us.

Samuel, Phillip, and Nathaniel didn’t hide from the world. Instead they responded to their invitation – their call – by stepping into the world with courage and faith, and they shared the message by living it. Something new was unfolding and they shared it …

Let’s look at the call of Samuel for a moment – but rather than the perspective of Samuel and the new order he represents, let’s take a moment to consider the story from Eli’s perspective …

Eli was the good and faithful servant of Yahweh. He had been a priest in the temple for many years – he was part of the establishment (the way things are). He was a member of the dynasty that saw father and son presiding at worship for generations …

Eli was a comfortable and familiar leader in a structured society and culture that prided itself on things being maintained as they are – the proverbial status quo … Then suddenly in the pre-dawn hours one morning he is awaken by his young servant standing by his bedside asking “what do you want?”

Eli, no doubt irritated said – “I didn’t call you boy, go back to sleep …” and sent young Samuel on his way … Repeatedly the young man arrived at Eli’s bedside saying – “what do you want?” And repeatedly Eli sent him back, until in his sleep deprived brain he thought – “Hang on, maybe Yahweh is speaking to him …”

And so this time, Eli said – “Boy, when you hear your name being called say ‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening,’ And listen to what is then said …”

Samuel does as Eli asks, and Eli’s world crashes around him …

The rendering of the prophecy to Eli from the Contemporary English Bible is scathing and blunt … it reads: ... I am going to do something in Israel that will shock everyone who hears about it! I will punish Eli and his family, just as I have promised. He knew that his sons refused to respect me, and he let them get away with it, even though I said I would punish his family for ever. I warned Eli that sacrifices or offerings could never make things right ! HIs family has done too many disgusting things.

It is pretty hard to miss the harsh judgement that is being handed down on Eli and his sons … the dynasty that Eli was part of is about to end – the way things were is not going to be the way things are – tremendous change is about to unfold over not just Eli and his children, but the whole of the nation of Israel. God is about to turn things upside down …

And yet, Eli says simply – “He is the Lord, and he will do what is right …”

With profound and breath-taking grace and acceptance (at least here) Eli hears what God is about to do and offers no resistance … he accepts it …

This story – this moment of tremendous change – is a pivotal story for us in the modern church, but rather than considering it from Eli’s perspective we arrogantly assume the story from Samuel’s perspective. We are called to serve God. We are called to go out into the world in faith and “DO.” We become like the father in Wallis’ story who wants to remain isolate and different from the world around us – we hide away …

If we consider the story from Eli’s perspective we stand in a challenging place where we have to consider that rather than being called to “do something” in the name of God, perhaps we are being TOLD that our ways of doing things, the old order we cherish and value, the dynasty we embody – the status quo is about to change – dramatically and harshly, and God is about to do something new …

For the modern Church this is a bitter pill to swallow … we want to attract new members, and we want to grow and prosper, but we want to have the new while maintaining the old … we want to have the best of both worlds. Maybe trying to hold on to the way things WERE is not what God wants of us, or for us … maybe the whisper we fail to hear is the one that came to Eli and said – “your family has done too many disgusting things …” and the time has come to change …

Do we dare think it? Do we even dare to say it aloud?

Or do we want to close our eyes and our ears and keep things the way they are forever and ever amen ?

The story of Samuel and Eli arriving in our lectionary cycle in this moment is apt and appropriate … in a couple of short days the United States of America will inaugurate a black man as president. This moment is as enormous as the inauguration of Nelson Mandela almost two decades ago.

To return to Jim Wallis, I am mindful of that moment in the story I shared with the Gospel reading, when standing in the bright South African sunshine the day Mandela became president and the world said – “we knew it was inevitable.” Wallis notes that it wasn’t inevitable – that there were many deep dark days in the midst of the battle against Apartheid what seemed inevitable was that the battle would be lost and Apartheid would prevail … yet, Wallis and others clung to the Biblical teaching that says – “hope is believing in spite of the evidence and watching the evidence change.”

Faith is about HOPE … today we stand in a Hope filled place where something new is unfolding around us. Politically, spiritually, economically … things are changing, and where there is change there is possibility, and possibility is about transformation - and transformation is about resurrection.

That day in South Africa when the world said – “this was inevitable”, Wallis and others remembered the dark days when voices like Desmond Tutu kept saying – “that which opposes the will of God, cannot stand …” when they dared to confront the South African army and security forces with the open invitation to come and join the winning side …
Samuel, in our Old Testament story was on the winning side, and he carried a message to Eli that things were about to change …

Jesus came to Phillip and Nathaniel with the invitation to join the winning side because things were about to change …

The story of South Africa is about change – dramatic life altering change. Faith is about change – dramatic life altering change.

In our world today we face tremendous and enormous change. We can fight it – or we can have the courage to be like Eli and accept it … and with our acceptance, be part of the process that helps that change come into being …

In our Church today we face a choice … we can cling to the way things are – the status quo and try to maintain the delusion of things being okay … or like Eli, we can respond to the voice calling in the night by embracing that change – a change that comes from God – but letting go of the past and accepting that we’re heading into the unknown …

I offer no illusions that the road ahead will be easy nor comfortable – it will be a difficult path with many challenges … the difference between us and Eli is that we do not stand in God’s judgement the way he and his sons did. We merely stand on the verge of tremendous change and where there is change there is potential for the resurrection to break through and re-create things.

One of my favourite sayings is – “to discover new lands, you must lose sight of the familiar shore for a long time …”

The call of Samuel, Nathanial and Phillip is about losing sight of the shore and trusting God to guide us to new lands … we can cling to the shore desperately maintaining what has been – or we can let go and trust in God to see us through … The choice is ours to make – the call has been offered … the call to something new …

May it be so – thanks be to God – let us pray …

Sermon for January 11th 2009

How many of you remember your OWN Baptism?
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How many of you remember the Baptism of your children, of children who were special in your life like a neice or nephew, a god child, a grandchild?
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I remember the Baptisms of all three of my children … Sam’s baptism was on the banks of the Bella Coola River gathered with the Nuxalkmc People and members of the non-native side of the Pastoral Charge. With an eagle soaring overhead and a seal keeping an eye on things from the water, S-- was welcomed in to the Church, and then at loving hands of an elder of the Nuxalk people, was given his Indian Name – Noahkila. … H--’s Baptism was in the historic Augsburg Church that had been built 90 years earlier by the Norwegian Settlers to the Bella Coola Valley … and R---’s baptism was in the tiny sanctuary of Sharron United Church in Langley, with a huge gathering of extended family and friends who came to join in the service that day.
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My own Baptism I do not remember … but two yeas ago, over the Christmas break I was fortunate, or perhaps mis-fortune is the proper term, to be present in my home town of Stratford Ontario when our Congregation – my home Church – Centennial United began packing up its possessions and prepared to hand the building over to a new non-United Church congregation who had bought it from the few remaining folks who called Centennial home … That day, just after Christmas I rolled up my sleeves and helped clean up 130 plus years of history in preparation of closing the doors on a church that generations had lived, loved and laughed within. .
As I stood by a long wooden table in the basement, I found the Baptism registry and looking at it wondered … so I opened it … the first pages I found were from the 80’s … hmmm … flipping closer to the front I found the 70’s … then the 60’s … I soon found the entry for me … I stood for a long quiet moment with my finger resting on the entry … it would be the closest I could come to remembering my Baptism … I had the bare facts of where, when and who …
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It was a bitter sweet moment … I had begun the 2006 with the loss of an important Sanctuary in my life – that of Minnedosa …and as the year drew to a close, I was losing the most important Sanctuary in my life – the Church of my childhood and youth – the place where I always felt welcomed and at home … after reading the entry for my baptism I went up stairs and stood in the quiet of the sanctuary and had one last look around the magnificent space that it was … the 100 plus pipe pipe organ … the stained glass windows … the vaulting ceiling … the rich dark wood EVERYWHERE … I stood and felt the deep connectedness I had to that place, but more importantly, I felt the deep connectedness I had with the SPIRIT of that place … the memories, the moments, the people, and the ghosts that lurk in the building we had celebrated life’s passages and moments.
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In that moment, I felt enveloped by the “values” that Glen spoke of on Thursday night – those things that are held in common by the people who call a Church building HOME … values – those things that bring us here and keep us here – the ideas, feelings, emotions and grounding that we hold, and that in turn hold us together and in turn draw in other people … our values are what call us home, and in turn define what that home is and what it will be and how it will be open and welcoming to those around us …
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In my home congregation, there was an ability to fight like cat and dog, argue passionately and vehemently, and then be there for one another … ON Thursday night I shared the story with those gathered about a Board meeting where an argument began over a motion being considered … the conversation grew heated and tempers flared, and then at the end one of the elders of the congregation, a man who prided himself on simply being “a trucker” said – “so, are we still going out for coffee?”
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And everyone around the table said … “yeah …”
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The values I hold as a person and as a minister are about being in community first … being able to argue and even fight, but then take time to break bread together in community … In the case of my home congregation it was the bread of coffee and donuts, but it was a bread nonetheless …
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Such are the waters of Baptism that flow through me …I began 2006, on the morning of February 13th standing in the basement of what had been Minnedosa United Church and as I looked around me and saw the burned debris and the thick frozen sheets of ice I couldn’t help but think of the ancient refrain – “by the waters of Babylon, we sat down and wept as we remembered Zion.”
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That morning, the waters around me were frozen into a solid icy mass … but the emotion of weeping as we remembered what was remained as real and as raw as the cold biting wind that howled that morning …
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Waters run throughout the history of our Church and our religious heritage. Perhaps it is because our faith roots run deep in to a dry and dusty land where water means life … Life in abundance and fullness … without water in the desert you simply die, and water means life, both literally and symbolically.
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And so in our modern Christian Churches, the symbol of water is the symbol of new life and new beginnings …
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Baptism takes the miqvah – the ritual baths and lifts it to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL.
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The miqvah was the ritual baths used in Jesus’ time to clean away the dirt and dust of the country from worshippers as they arrived at the temple. They would descend one set of stairs in to the pool and the waters would clean them, then they would climb out another set of stairs, put on fresh clothes and they would be ready to enter the Temple.
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The custom of the Miqvah persists in Israel today on the Holy Mountain where Muslims worship in the shadow of the Dome of the Rock. As worshippers prepare to enter the Al Asque Mosque on the temple mount, they perform a ritual bath – wudu - in the square in front of the Mosque.
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They clean their hands, feet, arms, legs and face before entering the Mosque to worship.
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In many Christian Churches the Baptism Font is located near the main entrance so that worshippers pass it on their way in and out of Church as a reminder of who they are, and what they are about …
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Our ultimate value as a Community is that of Baptism … in the waters of Baptism we are claimed and marked by God as one of God’s beloved children. Whether we are nine hours, nine days, nine months, nine years or ninety years of age – the promise of being loved by God is confirmed and celebrated in the waters of Baptism, and it is a promise that never dries up, and never runs out …
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Our Baptism vow marks us for ever … even if we have no conscious memory of the moment – in Baptism we are affirmed as a beloved child of God, and we care called and commissioned to be members of the Body of Christ that is the Church … by our Baptism we are challenged to go into the world and share our values and to share the transformative power that is the Good News of Christ.
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But do we do that?
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Or are we more prone to sit by the waters of our Baptism and weep at our recollection and memory of what once was, rather than facing the challenge of what is and what can be …
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I’ve been in that place where it would have been easier to sit and weep and recollect at what was … but like the kids movie “Meet The Robinsons” – we must keep moving forward …
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Our building burns down – we keep moving forward.
We can’t afford our building and have to close – we keep moving forward.
We get fired and rejected – we keep moving forward.
We look around us and see fewer people each year, and realize that we’re not getting any young … we … keep … moving … FORWARD.
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By the waters of Baptism – our Baptism, we affirm that we are beloved by God, and that we ALL have a place at the table … our challenge – our calling of FAITH – is to rise from the waters, and to invite others to join us.
Join us at the table.
Join us at the font.
Join us in fellowship and in community.
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Our values are important. They are what we MUST use to invite other in and make them feel welcome. Our values are the welcome – our values embody who and what we are, and our values are about living the welcome …
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The invitation begins here with out Baptism, and the rest is in the hands of God … we are the hands of God present in the world …
May it be so – thanks be to God, let us pray …

Sermon for December 7th 2008

December 7th 2008
Peace on Earth by Ann Weems:

Peace on earth, goodwill to all …
The song came out like one loud hosanna
Hurled through the earth’s darkness,
Lighting the Bethlehem sky.
Sometimes I hear it now,
But it means a baby in a manger;
It means a time of year,
A cozy feeling,
A few coins in the salvation army bucket.
It doesn’t mean much –
And then it’s gone,
Lost in the tinsel.

Where did the angels’ songs go?
Who hushed the alleluias?Was it death and war and disease and poverty?
Was it darkness and chaos and famine and plaque?
Who brought violence and took away the sweet plucking
of heavenly harps?
Who brought despair and took away hope>Who brought barreness and crushed the flowers?
Who stole the music and brought the silence?
What Herods lurk within our world seeking to kill our children?
Are there still those who listen for the brush of angel wings
And look for stars above some godforsaken little stable?
Are there still those who long to hear an angel’s song
And touch a star?
To kneel beside some other shepherd
In the hope of catching a glimpse of eternity in a baby’s smile?
Are there still those who sing
“peace on earth, good will to all?”
If there are – then, O Lord,
Keep ablaze their flickering candle
In the darkness of this world …

I can’t say that I love the Chirstmas season. One of the reasons is that I know that many people struggle to find the Joy and peace of the season because of circumstances beyond their control. I don’t enjoy the hype and emphasis that goes with Christmas.

I do however, love the stories and the pageantry of Christmas – the reasons – the REAL reason for the season. I love the mystery that goes along with the narrative of the events in Bethlehem.

In the Advent season with its emphasis on preparation and making ready for the coming of Christmas I find myself thinking about the contrast between the beautiful almost poetic stories of Christmas and the earthy reality of the so-called Holy Land and the people who live there.

In the late 1980’s I was fortunate to be part of a University of Toronto study tour to the middle east and particularly to Israel. We left Toronto in mid-May and until the end of June were residents of Tantur ecumenical institute just north of Bethlehem … we could take a bus north and in 20 minutes be standing outside the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem, or we could walk south and in 20 minutes be standing outside the doors of the Church of the Nativity in Manger Square in Bethlehem.

Our university classes were reinforced by trips through Jordan, Galilee, Egypt and out into the Judean Wilderness where we would often pause on the presumed site of some Biblical or Historical event and have a laid back university lecture on the significance of both the event AND the site where we were basking in the warm Mediterranean sunshine.

This season, filled with stories of Scrooge, The Grinch, the Shepherds and angels, and others who encounter something wholly unexpected, but definitely HOLY carries the implied sub-text of transformative miracles that alters lives – the whole point of the Christmas story is the power of God taking the mundane and TRANSFORMINING it into something extraordinarily holy …

During this time of the year, I often find myself very mindful of the six weeks I lived within view of Bethlehem, and all of the experiences, the people and the places that brief chapter in my life represents … Bethlehem is a tiny town nestled on the hills south of Jerusalem. There is nothing remarkable about Bethlehem other than the historical association with the birth stories of Jesus that have subsequently drawn attention, pilgrims and religious meaning to this tiny town … I chose the hymn we just sung because one night I remember standing on the roof of Tantur – the institute we were staying at – and looking south to the lights of Bethlehem as a Palestinian demonstration was unfolding somewhere in her darkened streets …

As we heard the sound of conflict – the shouting – the barked orders over a pa system to disperse, offered in Arab, English and Hebrew – as we watched the smoke from tear gas canisters floating over the Holy Town of Bethlehem, I found myself singing softly the song – “O Little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie …” The irony of the soft gentle words of the song contrasted sharply with the reality of the ongoing occupation by the Israelis, and the even harsher reality of the first Intifada which was then ramping up …

We had in the previous days skirted street demonstrations and the counter action by the Israeli army – in one instance a metal door opened and an Arab family beckoned us in and fed us sugary treats and strong sweet arab coffee until the all-clear was sounded and we were sent on our way – SAFELY.

We had learned the underside of the occupation – and so that night under the stars over Bethlehem – a night not unlike the one we will soon read about that found shepherds on the very hill where we were standing hearing the message about the birth of a child … a child that embodied the transformation through God’s grace …

That night though, we were not thinking of shepherds and angels and softly light stables with quiet animals watching over a tiny baby in a manger – but the struggle for FREEDOM that was being waged by 10 and 12 year old children who stood before armed soldiers with modern weapons, and used stones to say – “WE WANT TO BE FREE AND LIVE IN PEACE …”

The contrast between our deeply entrenched visions of Bethlehem and what is represents in our religious understandings – and the reality of what Bethlehem is was sharp … soft focused images of stables and the baby was a world away from what was really going on in the streets of the holy town … and that perhaps is the whole point of the Christmas story …

In the cold harsh reality of a world that is enveloped with poverty, violence, war, crime and countless other issues that divide people from one another and tear communities apart … in THAT reality we prepare for a moment in history when God enters our world in a radically different way … it begins with the words of Mary we heard this morning … words that see a lot of potential in the life of the unborn child …words of promise and power …

Mary’s song – the magnificat - is a powerful proclamation of what Jesus’ ministry was to be about. The Magnificat is the embodiment of those hopes and fears that we sing about each Christmas season and think nothing of as we say the words … The Magnificat is a powerful proclamation of what God is about to do in our world … transformation … but there is no flaming chariot and sword carrying heavenly beings … the way we are preparing is for the powerful servant of God, who comes to us as a tiny frail child … a baby …

Do we dare ?

The message of the prophets – the core of the Christmas story – what we are preparing for is that transformative experience that comes from God entering history through a child … the most unexpected of arrivals … in a time and place where people are giving up hope …

Poet Ann Weems, who we began with speaks of this season – this waiting – this preparation with the words:

Church is Advent,
The unwrapping of God’s greatest gift is near.
Advent – coming.
God will take away the tinsel
And decorate our human hearts in hope
So that Christians can sit laughing in the rain,
Knowing tha the Lord is going to shine in upon their being.
For no matter how long the darkness,
God will send the Light.
In spite of cursing and violence and the massacring of human dignity, we will dance in the streets of Bethlehem, for He will be born!

Our journey leads us forward to a town whose reality is anything but a soft focused pageant, and that perhaps is the point of the Advent Journey … to speak to us in time and place when we least expect to find the transformative power of the HOLY …

May it be so - thanks be to God - Let us pray ...

Sermon from November 9th 2008

November 9th – 2008

It’s interesting that the readings this morning are about the transition of leadership, and being prepared …

Our Old Testament Reading has Joshua, having lead the people from the crossing of the Jordan into the Promised Land, through innumerable battles for control of the land, to a place of relative security and comfort – he stands before them as asks the simple question – “will you follow God in ALL things? Or will you fall away and begin to serve foreign gods and abandon our ways of faith?”

Our Epistle reading reminds us to be prepared for the Rapture – that moment in time when all of us will be taken up bodily and united with God in paradise … I remember one of my professors at Seminary quipping that his faith in the Rapture was SO STRONG that he never tied his shoes – “so they’d know we was here, but the shoes we left behind …” and with a huge grin and a bigger flourish he’s jump free of his shoes – leaving them sitting on the floor ! (I think he was being a tad sarcastic)

And our Gospel reading is one of the parables that many of us have NO IDEA what to do with … it is the story of the ten bridesmaids – five of whom trim their lamps and extinguish the flame waiting for the arrival of the wedding party, the other five who leave the lamps burning while they fall sleep …then about midnight there is a knock at the door – the Groom has arrived, the celebration can begin … but five of the bridesmaids have to rush out to find more oil, and are locked out of the feast … the other five bridesmaids who have been prepare are able to enter the feast … The placing of this story just prior to the Passion narratives – the story of Jesus arrest, trial and death – is no small coincidence …

Perhaps knowing he is about to die, Jesus wants to prepare his disciples and followers for what is ABOUT to happen … perhaps he is looking beyond the passion and wants them to be ready for BIG things God has in store for them after his death …

In our contemporary world we are watching as our neighbour to the south experiences the transition of power that comes with the election of a new president … in this case, the transition is far more than just a new president from a different party – the baggage of a new president who is dramatically unlike anyone who has gone before, and who arrives in the office with the hopes and aspirations of countless people can not be overlooked …

Joshua understood this process having inherited his leadership from the hands of Moses as they neared the promised land, and now after many months and many battles, the people are becoming settled in their new home – they are beginning to forget the narrative – the story that lead them here, so he wants them to remember.

Remember who you are

Remember where you came from.

Remember what battles and losses have been experienced to bring you here …

Remember your past …

This is far deeper then the adage – “those who fail to remember the past are doomed to repeat it …” This is a case of remembering your roots so that you hold true to your heritage and your background as you boldly move into a new and better tomorrow …

In Canada, as we approach the 90th anniversary of Armisite that came at the 11 hour of the 11th day of the 11th month ending the War to End All Wars, we are called to remember places with names like Vimy, Passechendale, Yrpes, Dieppe, Cassino, Juno, Kapyong, and now Kandahar where Canadian soldiers have stood, fought, and fallen … even though these places were half a world away, they are what helped forge our identity as a nation and a people. They are the places where young men from places like Virden, Brandon, Elkhorn, Melita and Reston journeyed to and were forever changed …

Yet, today we can in our complacency forget this … we can forget our past – our stories – our heritage … if we fail to remember …

Remembrance is an act of faithful preparation … it is a way of recalling what’s important. For a moment though, let’s digress and explore who it is the bridegrooms might represent … who among us might be the five who are welcomed in, and who might be the five who are locked out …

There is a harshness in the parable of Jesus. The notion of exclusion is hard to take, particularly in an era when we speak so often of being an inclusive and welcoming church. Yet, before us is a welcome extended only to those who are able, willing and designated acceptable … it’s a concept I wrestle with. My understanding of the Gospel is that it is for ALL people – not just the chosen few. The doors of our churches and sanctuaries must be thrown open and ALL invited in … yet, here in black and white we have a group of people who are NOT welcomed in – a group who find themselves LOCKED OUT.

The five who are locked out at the end of the parable are doing what is required of them – they’ve lit their lamps and they are actively waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom and the wedding party. They are fulfilling the obligations and social conventions foisted upon them by the expectations of a wedding. They’ve really done nothing wrong.

The problem is – they’ve stayed the course.

They’ve focused on the conventions and expectations. They’ve stayed within the lines so too speak.

They are hung up on the rules … the expectation is to be ready – so they light their lamps and wait … The other five however, don’t light their watch – they break the rules … they wait but they wait by stepping OUTSIDE the expected norms. Rather than following the check list they look around and say – “I don’t see the bride groom, and we ALL know he’s late for everything …”

“Yeah, he’s the guy who will be late for his OWN funeral …” they laugh … and they sit and visit and WAIT, while the other five tend their lamps and with great self-righteousness says – “we’ll be ready when he gets here. You won’t see us fiddling with our lamps and trying to get them lit … we’ll be all ready.”

The undercurrent is – “We’re better than them because we have our lamps all ready to go …”

How often are we the five with the lamps lit and burning brightly – fulfilling the requirements, the expectations and the conventions for their own sake? While what is REALLY needed is a creative outside the box kind of response … Rather than relying on the letter of the law and blind obedience to the RULES, perhaps what is needed is adherence to the SPIRIT of the Law …

We wait … we are involved, but NOT in the way that is expected … having learned from the past – having lived remembrance, we have land earned how to embody and share our faith creatively …

In this season of Remembrance – a season that began over a week ago with All Saints’ Day when we remember the saints of every time and place who have been part of the parade of faith that is the Church – in this season of Remembrance this parable is a timely reminder to open out hearts, our minds and our souls up to creative ways of living our faith …

We can stand year after year and actively REMEMBER the past by re-enacting it over and over … using the same customs and traditions to honour what was … or we can be open to the creativity of the Spirit …

It’s easy to be the five bridesmaids who left their lamps burning brightly – adhering to the rules … it’s harder to step into the uncertainty of the unknown – we’re SO conditioned that we ASSUME that extinguishing the lamps and waiting is simply the WRONG thing to do … yet before us is a story that says – Just cause everyone does it, doesn’t make it the RIGHT thing to do … that’s a hard jump to make – but it is nonetheless a jump we need to make in faith …

We can happily and rightly keep our lamps lit and obey the rules and expectations … or we can step beyond the expectations and the “NORMS” of our society and try something different … and the interesting thing for me is that in this season of Remembrance we repeatedly honour and celebrate in our acts of Remembrance those who stepped outside the norm and acted above and beyond the expectations and journeyed into unknown territory …

The question we MUST keep before ourselves as a people of faith is – do we dare to tread a path that leads us into the unknown, or do we stick with what we know and are comfortable with?

The answer is ours to live out … but our story today tell us to hold to our faith in God, and to open the rest of our being to something new … and the reward of taking the road less taken is well worth it …

May it be so - Thanks be to God
Let us pray …