It takes all kinds …
No two people are alike … we look differently, we act differently, do things differently, we are different. Even identical twins are NOT identical. Yet, we live in a world that seems hell-bent on making everything the same … Our advertising industries are determined to get you to drive, to buy, to use and to consume the same things wherever you live in the world.
I noticed in Ontario this winter, when as I drove the 401 back and forth from Stratford to Toronto, that at every off ramp there was the SAME cluster of restaurants and service stations and coffee shops … On one hand we can celebrate that wherever we go we can get the food and the service and the items that we have at home without having to search. But do we ever consider the implication of that sameness …
Do we want to live in a world of beige and bland and sameness?
Do we want to live in a world where differences are NOT celebrated, but where everything is being made the same … Think of it this way – now, thanks to the huge Trans-national corporations, we can get the same crummy burger and the same crummy cup of coffee anywhere in the world. We don’t have to travel to France and learn French to order food. We can just order what we order at fast food outlets at home and be happy … and bored … and uninitiated in the wonders of ethnic and regional cuisine and culture …
It’s a cynical view of the world … but in our modern era it is becoming increasingly real and accurate. I remember traveling through the Mid-East in 1988, and hearing American travelers lamenting the inability to get things like Big Macs and Whoppers. Around them was an incredible variety of ethnic foods from around the world and they wanted crappy burgers …
We can shake our heads and say – “but we’re not like that …” But in subtle ways, within the church – we are just like that. We absorbed the notion that to be part of the Body of Christ, we have to be like “this” – whatever this is … Paul was addressing a community in HUGE conflict. Scholars think that Paul wrote to Corinth no less than 5 times. Five letters in an era when you had to go to great lengths to have a letter sent across town, much less across an empire.
Paul couldn’t sit down at a lap top and with the touch of a button, send the letter by email. He had to make arrangements for someone to carry it.
So, five times he sat down and put pen to parchment (or vellum or papyrus) and wrote to the people of Corinth about the conflicts and fights that continued to dog them.
It is fun to read Paul’s words and to consider what issue or fight has lead to his response … a body has many parts and all the parts are equally valuable … hmmm, were they ranking the members of their community, saying – this person is MORE important than that person – this person deserves more honour than those people – this task is far, far more important and valuable than those other tasks … they were trying to make everyone alike – the same – like me … and it simply didn’t work.
Paul wanted the Church – the people of Corinth, and the communities of faith that would like the Corinthians, have the same conflicts later – Paul wanted ALL OF US to take seriously the notion of the WHOLE PEOPLE of God. All of us are part of the body – we all have a place – we are all equally valuable, from the person who sweeps the floor and cleans the washrooms, to the person who gets the coffee ready to the person who stands up front and preaches. The church – what we do and what we are, could not exist without a breadth of gifts and abilities … That’s a simple fact. So, our challenge is not to think of some as better than others. Our challenge is to treat all fairly and equally. A challenge that is easy intellectually, but harder in practice.
Do you think Jesus was being valued and appreciated in his home town when he stood and preached?
As he unrolled the scroll and began to read the words of Isaiah, the people probably smiled sweetly thinking – “that’s our boy …” “that’s young Yeshua, there’s his parents over there, his brothers and sisters are here. He’s turned out well …”
Even as Jesus finished and sat down people were likely still smiling and thinking – “what a good boy he’s turned out to be …” But then, he starts to preach.
Jesus wasn’t content just to share the words of Isaiah – he has to add his interpretation, and he slams them … He says that God won’t bless them just because they sit in synagogue each week, God won’t bless them just because they are “good church goers”. God won’t bless them because they are part of the tradition and their families have been coming here for YEARS and YEARS and YEARS … God will bless the foreigners and the outsiders first because – YOU ARE NOT LIVING YOUR FAITH.
And in the blink of an eye, they are trying to hustle him not only out of the synagogue,
not only out of the town, but they want to toss him over the cliff on the outskirts of town … You can almost heart them grumbling – “who does he think HE is … his family are here, and he thinks he can tell us about God and what God is going to do …” then the gossip kicks in … “yeah, he thinks he’s God’s chosen one … I heard his mother wasn’t even married when she had HIM …” “Who is he to say such things???” and so it goes …
The prophet is seldom welcome anywhere – but is never welcomed in his own home town … Yet the words of the prophet – the words of Jesus here, are worth hearing. The resonate with the words of Paul – live your faith. Don’t rely on tradition or habit – live your faith. And Paul, stands saying – “we are all different – we are all gifted by the Spirit – we are all parts of one body …”
How do we LIVE those ideas today in Minnedosa?
I think, I really think the key passage in our readings today comes when Paul very quietly adds the idea – “that when one part of the body hurts, the whole body hurts … when one part of the body rejoices, the whole body rejoices …”
Think about having a broken finger, or a sore finger – a silly example – but a good one … there have been times when I’ve had a broken, or cut, or infected finger – every time I brush it up against something or bang it or jam it against something else pain shoots through my hand and I KNOW it is sore … one part of the body – a mundane, relatively unimportant, very peripheral part of the body hurts, and as a result the WHOLE body is affected …
That was Paul’s point … but more significantly, it is a reality that we are living … On February 12th, we joined a very unique roster of church communities across the world. We are bound together now with Congregations who have lost their buildings through the actions of a small mis-guided and very deluded group of people who listen to the music of a very disturbed musician … We are part of that group … we have hurt … but in our hurt, we have also learned that other parts of the Body have been affected by our hurt as well …
We have said, over and over – we are not alone. And in the 11 months since our fire, we have repeatedly lived it, and we will continue to live that reality that says – we are NOT ALONE. Letters, phone calls, emails, donations, best wishes, prayers – all of it – from every corner of our nation and from around the world – we have learned that We are not, nor have we ever been alone.
We are not some big prestigious congregation with International prominence (yet), but in our hurt, we have been cared for and cared about, but all other parts of the body … Our story and our experience has been passed on and we are NOT alone …
We are living Paul’s words as a community. The challenge is to live Paul’s words as individuals …
And so we return to the idea of sameness … our world is a diverse and wonderful place … Our church community is a place of diversity and difference. The challenge is two fold. On one hand we have to avoid the divisiveness that Paul was writing in response to in Corinth. We need to open ourselves up to the possibility that we STILL need to grow and mature, and change our minds and our opinions about things … We need to have the courage and the humility to say occasionally – “oops, I might have been wrong …” as we are challenged by the Spirit and by each other.
And on the other hand we need to have the willingness and the ability to break the habit of faith and move beyond merely resting on our laurels thinking that because we come to church and our family has come to church for years and years that we’re okay and everything is fine. We lament the demise of Church, yet, we tend to attend out of habit … As hard as it is to hear – WE – you and I – are the people Jesus is directing his words towards. We are not God’s chosen ones if we can’t and won’t and don’t embrace the words he shared …
We are called to live the words of Isaiah – to go into the world and to bring substantive and dramatic change … We are called to be filled with the Spirit, and we simply can’t do that if we remain complacent and inactive.
As a community of faith, we are in rebuild mode. But our rebuilding is more than just a building … We are connected in a very real and tangible way with the Church. We are part of the Body. We are a part that has been hurt. Our rebuilding is about rebuilding who we are, and how we interact with our community, our world and one another … Our rebuilding is about taking the words of Isaiah and with boldness, with courage, with faith – living them out …
The Spirit of the Lord is upon us … (Text)
Let’s go into the world and share that gift …
Let us go into the world and live out that faith …
Let’s go into the world and embrace our true calling …
Let’s go into the world and remember - it’s what you DO with your faith that counts …
Like the shoe company says – “just do it …”
May it be so … thanks be to God … Let us pray
Monday, January 22, 2007
Sermon for January 14th 2007
It’s sooo tempting to offer a sermon this morning on the Gospel reading about why I think, as do others, that this wedding is either Jesus’ own wedding, or a wedding of one of his children … I say it’s tempting, but NOT that tempting … instead, the direction I found myself drawn to was towards a reflection on the production of over 150 gallons of wine. Not just ordinary wine, but the very best vintage …
How can you approach this reading, and NOT want to reflect on what THAT action represents?
It begins with remembering what wine is. Like my time with the children, you can’t get wine without stomping a few grapes … you take round, ripe grapes and stomp on them. Then you gather and strain what results and with time, a little bit of rot, and some patience you move from grapes to juice to wine … and hopefully not to vinegar (that’s another sermon for another day). With the right grapes and the right blend and the right conditions you can have a fine vintage … with the wrong grapes and the wrong blend and the wrong conditions you get stuff that’s not even worthy of the screw top bottles that hold it …
So, our Gospel reading begins with a miracle not only of epic proportions, but a miracle that is almost off the scale. There were six large, huge stone jars holding over 150 GALLONS of water … and every drop was turned into the finest vintage of wine … This story is about extravagance and abundance … This story is about the generosity of God revealed not just through the abundance, but through the quality too.
God is generous. And God’s generosity knows no bounds or limits.
But the question we need to ask ourselves is simply this – “Do we tust in that abundance? Do we trust in this Grace? Do we trust in God’s generosity?”
That’s the underlying question concept comes in that moment of time when we stand bewildered before the abundance of God’s grace present and manifest or real in our lives. It’s the question we face when we feel it wash over us … when, we are REDEEMED and made new.
Do we trust in God’s generosity?
Isaiah touches on this in his reading when, in the midst of great turmoil and suffering and struggle, we suddenly find ourselves overwhelmed by God’s generous Grace and we are renamed … we, like Israel move from “forsaken” and “desolate” to “my delight is in her – Hepzibah” and “my beloved – Beulah” … It’s a significant step … it’s a crucial step.
In the Church, the action of renewal and renaming is so important that we actualize it in Baptism when we call the Child by name – we SAY their name in the presence of that Generous Grace and each of us are made new…
Individually, we experience it in our lives through our baptism, and we experience it over and over when in the midst of those dark moments we ALL struggle with, we suddenly become aware of the holy and we feel not only comforted, but made new … we are called by name and overwhelmed by the gift of limitless Grace …
As a community of faith, we have been on a journey back from the darkness … it would be too easy to say now that what we have ahead is too much, or too expensive, or too much work … and to throw our hands in the air and simply say – “forget it …” But when we step into the presence of God’s grace and feel it; when we hear our names called … called by name … we can not only stumble forward, we can plant one foot in front of the other and move forward confident that not only is God with us, but God loves us unconditionally … That extravagant, generous grace …
And so, our journey forward requires … no, our journey forward demands that each of us bring the gifts and talents that we have in abundance, and share them not only with God, but with one another … Paul, writing to the conflict riddled Church in Corinth was urging them to look beyond the petty bickering of the moment and to instead embrace the Spiritual reality - that together they had MUCH to do … and they would achieve it only when they allow that generous grace to wash over them.
We all have talents and abilities to share. We all have gifts and skills to offer. We all bring something unique and special to the table … this table, where we break bread and pour out the cup … owe need to trust in our abilities and talents … we need to trust in the abilities and talents of others … but most importantly, we need to trust in God …
Ah, there’s the rub … trust …
It’s easy to feel the doubt in moments of darkness.
It’s easy to feel the buoyancy of rejoicing when life is good.
It’s easy to look out for our own selfish interests.
But it is less easy to trust in God and the community of faith, and each other throughout life …
Yet, in the diversity of the human family, we MUST trust in others all the time … we must trust in the abundant, unending, condition-less love of God in our lives, and in the life of our community and world …
It’s NOT easy. Sometimes it takes a HUGE risk … In the commentary material for this week’s readings, they cite the example of Habitat for Humanity, which was started when a very successful, very wealthy business man Miller Fuller decided that his lifestyle wasn’t enough. He decided that with his abundant wealth, and business and political connections he could begin to make a BIG difference in the world. So he resigned from his business, sold his possessions and started a small mission is southern Georgia where he began building houses for the poor – one house at a time, with the future home owner labouring with him through something called sweat equity … One hammer blow, one nail, one board, one house at a time … Now Habitat for Humanity wraps itself around the world and has built over 200 000 homes for needy families … And it all began because one man and his wife decided to do something with their talents and abilities …
There were days he wondered – “why?” – there were times he wondered if he shouldn’t just give up … there times he thought – what difference will I really make … Now 30 years later – he has made a huge difference by bringing together people with diverse talents and abilities … one a Habitat worksite you may find yourself alongside President Jimmy Carter or some other celebrity, or the future home owner – they all work together … They live the values of I Corinthians 12 … and they celebrate the abundance of God’s grace as found and shared in God’s children …
So, we return to that 150 gallons … that’s a lot of wine. That’s a lot of very very good wine. That is extravagance that is off the scale … And yet, here it is. It grabs our attention and tells us – “This is what the Kingdom of God is really like !!”
The Kingdom of God is where gallons of the finest vintage are there … the Kingdom of God is where there us only abundance … the kingdom of God is where ALL are the beloved … The Kingdom of God is where there is only love and grace …
The Kingdom of God is without limit and without condition … if we dare to believe.
And so we stand before the huge stone jars watch as the water that moments ago we as good and loyal servants had poured in there ourselves, and with our jaws hanging agape we watch as the finest wine is poured out and passed around … Such is the Kingdom of God: abundance, extravagance, and celebration … it’s stretch, but in this moment we MUST have the courage to realize that God’s wine will never run out. Sometimes when we think it has run out, we find in the plentiful water around and within us that God’s best wine is still being served.
Today, and in the coming days, let us hold our chalices and enjoy, for the best is yet to come …
In this we can trust and believe …
May it be so, thanks be to God.
How can you approach this reading, and NOT want to reflect on what THAT action represents?
It begins with remembering what wine is. Like my time with the children, you can’t get wine without stomping a few grapes … you take round, ripe grapes and stomp on them. Then you gather and strain what results and with time, a little bit of rot, and some patience you move from grapes to juice to wine … and hopefully not to vinegar (that’s another sermon for another day). With the right grapes and the right blend and the right conditions you can have a fine vintage … with the wrong grapes and the wrong blend and the wrong conditions you get stuff that’s not even worthy of the screw top bottles that hold it …
So, our Gospel reading begins with a miracle not only of epic proportions, but a miracle that is almost off the scale. There were six large, huge stone jars holding over 150 GALLONS of water … and every drop was turned into the finest vintage of wine … This story is about extravagance and abundance … This story is about the generosity of God revealed not just through the abundance, but through the quality too.
God is generous. And God’s generosity knows no bounds or limits.
But the question we need to ask ourselves is simply this – “Do we tust in that abundance? Do we trust in this Grace? Do we trust in God’s generosity?”
That’s the underlying question concept comes in that moment of time when we stand bewildered before the abundance of God’s grace present and manifest or real in our lives. It’s the question we face when we feel it wash over us … when, we are REDEEMED and made new.
Do we trust in God’s generosity?
Isaiah touches on this in his reading when, in the midst of great turmoil and suffering and struggle, we suddenly find ourselves overwhelmed by God’s generous Grace and we are renamed … we, like Israel move from “forsaken” and “desolate” to “my delight is in her – Hepzibah” and “my beloved – Beulah” … It’s a significant step … it’s a crucial step.
In the Church, the action of renewal and renaming is so important that we actualize it in Baptism when we call the Child by name – we SAY their name in the presence of that Generous Grace and each of us are made new…
Individually, we experience it in our lives through our baptism, and we experience it over and over when in the midst of those dark moments we ALL struggle with, we suddenly become aware of the holy and we feel not only comforted, but made new … we are called by name and overwhelmed by the gift of limitless Grace …
As a community of faith, we have been on a journey back from the darkness … it would be too easy to say now that what we have ahead is too much, or too expensive, or too much work … and to throw our hands in the air and simply say – “forget it …” But when we step into the presence of God’s grace and feel it; when we hear our names called … called by name … we can not only stumble forward, we can plant one foot in front of the other and move forward confident that not only is God with us, but God loves us unconditionally … That extravagant, generous grace …
And so, our journey forward requires … no, our journey forward demands that each of us bring the gifts and talents that we have in abundance, and share them not only with God, but with one another … Paul, writing to the conflict riddled Church in Corinth was urging them to look beyond the petty bickering of the moment and to instead embrace the Spiritual reality - that together they had MUCH to do … and they would achieve it only when they allow that generous grace to wash over them.
We all have talents and abilities to share. We all have gifts and skills to offer. We all bring something unique and special to the table … this table, where we break bread and pour out the cup … owe need to trust in our abilities and talents … we need to trust in the abilities and talents of others … but most importantly, we need to trust in God …
Ah, there’s the rub … trust …
It’s easy to feel the doubt in moments of darkness.
It’s easy to feel the buoyancy of rejoicing when life is good.
It’s easy to look out for our own selfish interests.
But it is less easy to trust in God and the community of faith, and each other throughout life …
Yet, in the diversity of the human family, we MUST trust in others all the time … we must trust in the abundant, unending, condition-less love of God in our lives, and in the life of our community and world …
It’s NOT easy. Sometimes it takes a HUGE risk … In the commentary material for this week’s readings, they cite the example of Habitat for Humanity, which was started when a very successful, very wealthy business man Miller Fuller decided that his lifestyle wasn’t enough. He decided that with his abundant wealth, and business and political connections he could begin to make a BIG difference in the world. So he resigned from his business, sold his possessions and started a small mission is southern Georgia where he began building houses for the poor – one house at a time, with the future home owner labouring with him through something called sweat equity … One hammer blow, one nail, one board, one house at a time … Now Habitat for Humanity wraps itself around the world and has built over 200 000 homes for needy families … And it all began because one man and his wife decided to do something with their talents and abilities …
There were days he wondered – “why?” – there were times he wondered if he shouldn’t just give up … there times he thought – what difference will I really make … Now 30 years later – he has made a huge difference by bringing together people with diverse talents and abilities … one a Habitat worksite you may find yourself alongside President Jimmy Carter or some other celebrity, or the future home owner – they all work together … They live the values of I Corinthians 12 … and they celebrate the abundance of God’s grace as found and shared in God’s children …
So, we return to that 150 gallons … that’s a lot of wine. That’s a lot of very very good wine. That is extravagance that is off the scale … And yet, here it is. It grabs our attention and tells us – “This is what the Kingdom of God is really like !!”
The Kingdom of God is where gallons of the finest vintage are there … the Kingdom of God is where there us only abundance … the kingdom of God is where ALL are the beloved … The Kingdom of God is where there is only love and grace …
The Kingdom of God is without limit and without condition … if we dare to believe.
And so we stand before the huge stone jars watch as the water that moments ago we as good and loyal servants had poured in there ourselves, and with our jaws hanging agape we watch as the finest wine is poured out and passed around … Such is the Kingdom of God: abundance, extravagance, and celebration … it’s stretch, but in this moment we MUST have the courage to realize that God’s wine will never run out. Sometimes when we think it has run out, we find in the plentiful water around and within us that God’s best wine is still being served.
Today, and in the coming days, let us hold our chalices and enjoy, for the best is yet to come …
In this we can trust and believe …
May it be so, thanks be to God.
Friday, January 19, 2007
WANTED: Church Pews !!
In Minnedosa, we are at the point of time when we are considering the furnishings for our new Sanctuary that we hope to open and occupy in late 2007 or early 2008 ... As part of our dreaming and planning, we would like to have wooden pews in the Sanctuary space. Our original Sanctuary built in 1901, which was destroyed by fire, had beautiful curved wooden pews that had been constructed in Dundas Ontario. We have looked into purchasing NEW pews, and have found them prohibitively expensive.
So, instead we are looking for second (or third) hand pews, perhaps from a sister congregation or church that is in the process of closing. Our preference would be for curved pews, but as the saying goes - beggars can't be choosers ...
We would welcome leads, information, and connections on where we might possibly obtain pews for our soon to be built sanctuary. We do not yet know the specific dimensions such as length, curvature, and so on of the pews we will be able to accomodate, but we will be compiling a list and contacting potential sources in the coming weeks.
Our timeframe is rather tight, and we are hoping that out there somewhere, there is a congregation who is closing, renovating or upgrading, and would be willing to consider passing on their pews to a good home ... We promise to love and care for them as they so richly deserve.
So, if you would be so kind as to pass the word around that Minnedosa United Church is looking for pews (we would prefer curved, but will take whatever is offered), we would appreciate it. And as word spreads, we would love to hear from YOU.
Any Congregation, Temple, or other places with pews looking for a good home may contact us ... phone: 1 204 867 2674 email: mdsauc@mts.net The sooner the better ... thanks in advance.
Rev. Shawn Ankenmann on behalf of the Rebuilding Committee of Minnedosa United Church, Minnedosa Manitoba.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Sunday, January 07, 2007
The Future !!
A Detail (enlargement) of the drawings from
Michael Cox Architect, of Brandon MB
of the proposed elevation of the Main St view of
Minnedosa United Church.
STAY TUNED ...
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