Welcome and Announcements:Call to Worship:
Who do you say that I am? The question is asked.
The Son of the living God, we answer.
How do we share this knowledge? The question is asked.
By living our faith, we answer.
Are you prepared to come and follow me?
We come to worship, to follow and to praise you O Holy One.
Let us join together as we follow God,
Let us share our gifts and talents of faith
Together as God’s children. Thanks be to God.
Hymn: 506 Take my Life and Let It Be.
Prayer of Approach and Confession:
Who do you say I am?
The words roll off our tongue, we profess our faith
And proclaim the certainty of our belief.
A living sacrifice, good and acceptable to you O God.
Living the words, being what we believe,
These things challenge us beyond our comfort.
Be with us O Loving One, call us to our faith.
Forgive us, recreate us, renew us,
In the boundlessness of your mercy,
In the abundance of your grace,
And in the endlessness of your love.
Hear our prayers of O Holy One,
And in your love answer … Amen.
Old Testament Reading: Exodus 1:8-2:10
Responsive Reading: Psalm 124 (Page 848)
Epistle Reading: Romans 10:5-15
Gospel Reading: Matthew 14:22-33
Hymn: #595 Sister Let Me Be Your Servant
Sermon: Wanna Make God Laugh?
This past week I was thinking about what I could draw from our scripture readings this week to offer as reflection and perhaps inspiration for all of you as I stood here … the second verse in the reading from Romans stood out for me – “Do not be conformed by the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect …”
They are great words to say in church … great words to offer to one another here in this place where it is safe and easy to have such thoughts, and to earnestly believe that we can easily and simply live the notion of being transformed by the will of God … but they are harder words to carry out the door and to put into action in our day to day lives …
As I sat thinking and praying about this idea and trying to find something to say about them I was given a book by one of the people I work with in my capacity as Homelessness Coordinator for the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation.
He came into my office between the rain storms on Thursday to chat about some business we had to deal with, then as he got up to leave he smiled and laid a book on my desk with the words – “A gift. I think you’ll like it …”
The book is “Bent Hope” by Tim Huff, and is a collection of reflection pieces he’s written about encounters with street youth mainly in and around Toronto … he begins with a powerful explanation of hope as it is found in the often hopeless context of the streets where homeless youth live … then he begins to tell stories of moments shared with those same youth where holiness is found in abundance, and hope is found in absolutely hopeless situations …
But one story struck me as evidence that even in the midst of hopelessness, that which is good and acceptable and dare we say it – perfect is to be found, if we dare to open our eyes and our hearts to its presence …
The story is about a young man who lost everything, and yet helped others who he felt were in a worse place than he was … Thomas lived on the streets of Toronto and in the summer of 2005, he decided to go down to the Don River for a swim … if any of you have traveled in and around Toronto you may have a familiarity with the Don Valley Parkway … the Don River is the tiny polluted stream that gives that highway it’s name … it is NOT and has not been for dozens upon dozens of years a place where one would really want to swim, but for a street kid in Toronto in the middle of the oppressive heat of summer, its septic waters provide a cool relief … SO, Thomas went swimming …
Unfortunately, that oppressive heat brought with it a massive thunderstorm and an equally massive cloud burst that left cars stranded on the parkway in metre deep puddles of water … The torrential rain overwhelmed storm sewers and drainage ditches, and soon the trickle of the Don River turned into a MASSIVE flood and it thundered its way towards Lake Ontario …
Along the way, the flash flood swept away every possession that Thomas had except for the clothes he had been swimming in … he desperately tried to rescue his backpack, but to no avail … arriving on the scene Tim tried to calm the young man down with the assurance that they could replace all the items lost … but there was one item that could not be replaced – a picture of Thomas’ sister who had like him fled to the streets for safety from a toxic and abusive home … Thomas carried the picture with him because on the back his sister had written the words – ‘one day come and find me. I love you …’ the night she fled … and Thomas was trying to find her …
The shoes, the clothes, the personal items ALL could be replaced, but the precious picture of a missing sister … that was irreplaceable, and Thomas was inconsolable … he had lost even his hope …
Tim went on to reflect on the enormity of this young man’s loss, and he commented on how people could walk past Thomas day after day after day and know NOTHING about him and likely not even notice him on the street, and yet this young man carried an enormous pain … But then the seed of hope sprouted … one day Tim met Thomas on the street and in the young man’s hand was a Tim Horton’s Coffee cup brimming with change – a good haul for a day of pan-handling … but Thomas hadn’t collected the money for himself … in his other hand was a cardboard sign that read – “For Katarina’s Homeless, because it hurts to lose everything”
Tim helped Thomas take the money to the bank to deposit it into one of the many funds set up to help the victims of Hurricane Katarina … a young man who HAD lost everything – everything but hope … helped others because he knew what it was like to experience loss in a real way …
It’s easy to talk about people like Tim and Thomas and hear their inspiring example … it is harder to live and follow THAT example … yet, living our faith is exactly what we are called to do and to be about … to move past the words into action is what we are to be about in our lives, not just in here where it is safe and comfortable, but out there in the streets beyond the comfort and safety of the sanctuary …
They are great words to say in church … great words to offer to one another here in this place where it is safe and easy to have such thoughts, and to earnestly believe that we can easily and simply live the notion of being transformed by the will of God … but they are harder words to carry out the door and to put into action in our day to day lives …
As I sat thinking and praying about this idea and trying to find something to say about them I was given a book by one of the people I work with in my capacity as Homelessness Coordinator for the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation.
He came into my office between the rain storms on Thursday to chat about some business we had to deal with, then as he got up to leave he smiled and laid a book on my desk with the words – “A gift. I think you’ll like it …”
The book is “Bent Hope” by Tim Huff, and is a collection of reflection pieces he’s written about encounters with street youth mainly in and around Toronto … he begins with a powerful explanation of hope as it is found in the often hopeless context of the streets where homeless youth live … then he begins to tell stories of moments shared with those same youth where holiness is found in abundance, and hope is found in absolutely hopeless situations …
But one story struck me as evidence that even in the midst of hopelessness, that which is good and acceptable and dare we say it – perfect is to be found, if we dare to open our eyes and our hearts to its presence …
The story is about a young man who lost everything, and yet helped others who he felt were in a worse place than he was … Thomas lived on the streets of Toronto and in the summer of 2005, he decided to go down to the Don River for a swim … if any of you have traveled in and around Toronto you may have a familiarity with the Don Valley Parkway … the Don River is the tiny polluted stream that gives that highway it’s name … it is NOT and has not been for dozens upon dozens of years a place where one would really want to swim, but for a street kid in Toronto in the middle of the oppressive heat of summer, its septic waters provide a cool relief … SO, Thomas went swimming …
Unfortunately, that oppressive heat brought with it a massive thunderstorm and an equally massive cloud burst that left cars stranded on the parkway in metre deep puddles of water … The torrential rain overwhelmed storm sewers and drainage ditches, and soon the trickle of the Don River turned into a MASSIVE flood and it thundered its way towards Lake Ontario …
Along the way, the flash flood swept away every possession that Thomas had except for the clothes he had been swimming in … he desperately tried to rescue his backpack, but to no avail … arriving on the scene Tim tried to calm the young man down with the assurance that they could replace all the items lost … but there was one item that could not be replaced – a picture of Thomas’ sister who had like him fled to the streets for safety from a toxic and abusive home … Thomas carried the picture with him because on the back his sister had written the words – ‘one day come and find me. I love you …’ the night she fled … and Thomas was trying to find her …
The shoes, the clothes, the personal items ALL could be replaced, but the precious picture of a missing sister … that was irreplaceable, and Thomas was inconsolable … he had lost even his hope …
Tim went on to reflect on the enormity of this young man’s loss, and he commented on how people could walk past Thomas day after day after day and know NOTHING about him and likely not even notice him on the street, and yet this young man carried an enormous pain … But then the seed of hope sprouted … one day Tim met Thomas on the street and in the young man’s hand was a Tim Horton’s Coffee cup brimming with change – a good haul for a day of pan-handling … but Thomas hadn’t collected the money for himself … in his other hand was a cardboard sign that read – “For Katarina’s Homeless, because it hurts to lose everything”
Tim helped Thomas take the money to the bank to deposit it into one of the many funds set up to help the victims of Hurricane Katarina … a young man who HAD lost everything – everything but hope … helped others because he knew what it was like to experience loss in a real way …
It’s easy to talk about people like Tim and Thomas and hear their inspiring example … it is harder to live and follow THAT example … yet, living our faith is exactly what we are called to do and to be about … to move past the words into action is what we are to be about in our lives, not just in here where it is safe and comfortable, but out there in the streets beyond the comfort and safety of the sanctuary …
Our job as people of faith is to live our faith by facing the hard questions and daring to live out the answers … when the question – “who do you say that I am?” echoes through our sanctuary and our psyche, we face one of the toughest questions imaginable.
Tough because the answer drives to the core of our being, and our understanding of the world and our place in it … Gentle Jesus meek and mild is the answer many of us are comfortable with – clean robes, combed hair, smiling, not stirring things up … a Jesus we can, and DO hang on the wall of our Sunday School rooms … But the Jesus of History steps out of the frame and is anything but meek and mild. Jesus is NOT a gentle soft spoken rabbi, but rather speaks harsh words, asks sharp questions and rocks the boat by questioning the status quo while forcing ALL OF US to look in a mirror and really see what’s there …
It is when we consider or encounter people like Thomas that we are challenged to live out that belief in who Jesus is. If we step around them or don’t see them at all our Jesus is not engaged in the real world … if we plunge into the tired simplistic opinions about why these kids are homeless in the first place, rather than considering the complexity of the crisis that is homelessness, then our Jesus is firmly nailed to the wall forever smiling and seemingly blessing our complacency and our inaction … but if we can pause and consider the story that led Thomas to the streets – a story that often involves abuse, a lack of love, and an absence of home … if we can pause and consider that for these kids there has been no fairy tale life but unknown struggles in a darkness we can only imagine in our nightmares … if we dare to pause in THAT place, our Jesus steps down off the wall, sheds his glowing clean robes and calls us to face our fears and trust in God …
Tough because the answer drives to the core of our being, and our understanding of the world and our place in it … Gentle Jesus meek and mild is the answer many of us are comfortable with – clean robes, combed hair, smiling, not stirring things up … a Jesus we can, and DO hang on the wall of our Sunday School rooms … But the Jesus of History steps out of the frame and is anything but meek and mild. Jesus is NOT a gentle soft spoken rabbi, but rather speaks harsh words, asks sharp questions and rocks the boat by questioning the status quo while forcing ALL OF US to look in a mirror and really see what’s there …
It is when we consider or encounter people like Thomas that we are challenged to live out that belief in who Jesus is. If we step around them or don’t see them at all our Jesus is not engaged in the real world … if we plunge into the tired simplistic opinions about why these kids are homeless in the first place, rather than considering the complexity of the crisis that is homelessness, then our Jesus is firmly nailed to the wall forever smiling and seemingly blessing our complacency and our inaction … but if we can pause and consider the story that led Thomas to the streets – a story that often involves abuse, a lack of love, and an absence of home … if we can pause and consider that for these kids there has been no fairy tale life but unknown struggles in a darkness we can only imagine in our nightmares … if we dare to pause in THAT place, our Jesus steps down off the wall, sheds his glowing clean robes and calls us to face our fears and trust in God …
Fear is an interesting thing … in the Church, the place where it has no role to play at all, it is often the underlying issue that motivates us … we want to protect the way things were and carry them forward so they will continue to be thus forever and a day … in the case of street kids, the fear of finding out our esteemed neighbour could be an abusive neglectful parent keeps us silent … in the case of newcomers to our community the fear of change to the status quo keeps us silent … in the case of the Church the easy answers to complex questions keeps us silent …
Fear is the moment in time when we MUST trust in God and dare to take the plunge into the unknown … One writer describes this moment as leaning into your fears:
Fear of fear may lead you to hang back, living a lesser life that you are capable. Fear of fear may lead you to push ahead, living a false life, off-center, tense and missing the moment. But the capacity to feel this moment, including your fear, without trying to escape it, creates a state of alive and humble spontaneity. You are ready for the unknown as it unfolds, since you are not pulled back or pushed forward from the horizon of the moment. You are hanging right over the edge ... By leaning just beyond your fear, you challenge your limits compassionately, without trying to escape the feeling of fear itself. You step beyond the solid ground of security with an open heart. You stand in the space of unknowingness, raw and awake. Here, the gravity of deep being will attend you to the only place where fear is obsolete: the eternal free fall of home. Where you always are.
Modern spiritual guru and counselor Eckhart Tolle (if you have been watching Oprah in the last six months, you’ve encountered him frequently) says simply – in life what happens is what happens … there is no positive nor negative in the moment – the meaning comes later with reflection … By leaning into our fears, or as one writer puts it – by kissing our fears and embracing them as part of our life we free ourselves of them …
Modern spiritual guru and counselor Eckhart Tolle (if you have been watching Oprah in the last six months, you’ve encountered him frequently) says simply – in life what happens is what happens … there is no positive nor negative in the moment – the meaning comes later with reflection … By leaning into our fears, or as one writer puts it – by kissing our fears and embracing them as part of our life we free ourselves of them …
In our encounter with Thomas our greatest fears have to do with complacency … could we be doing more to help him? Are we responsible for his problem? … fear of loss – could we end up like him? There but by the grace of God go I … guilt - we COULD do more? Or more ominous – are we the best parent and friend we could be? … and a multitude of other emotions that ebb and flow through us …
Who do you say that I am?
If we are free of fear, Jesus becomes the source of liberation and freedom and LIFE … in that moment we can live our faith freely and without fear …
Looking back over the last three years … I’ve watched as I’ve lost much … my marriage has failed … my reputation has been utterly destroyed … my place in the church has been taken from me … my career – one I have been called to and spent close to 20 years training for and engaged in has been taken from me … my community rejected me … and I lost almost ALL of the people I had relied on and called friends … the rejection piled upon rejection upon rejection … yet looking back, I can, with honesty say – the fear of losing these things was greater than the actual losses themselves … with each successive loss came the whisper of hope that promised a resurrection … a reminder that God’s ways our not our ways, and that even in the darkest moments – God is with us … that when it hurts even just to be breath - things WILL work out eventually …
Like Shiprah and Puah daring to save the Hebrew children … God’s hope and love will find a way … life will triumph …
In the darkness where you have the strength to draw one breath at a time and the hurt is so profound and deep … in THAT place when you’ve lost almost everything you find hope … a faint whisper that defies words … and guides you forward …
That whisper motivated a young homeless man to collect change for the victims of Katrina …
That whisper motivated the followers of Jesus become The Church that proclaimed the resurrection …
That whisper brings a smile to our face when we confront our deepest fear, because in THAT moment when we truly lean into our fear we aren’t asking “who do YOU say that I am?” you are trusting in the answer that goes beyond words and embodies the resurrection in a real way …
May we have the courage to lean into our fears and to trust in the presence of God to be with us in that moment …
May it be so – thanks be to God … let us pray …
Prayers of Pastoral Concern:
Lord’s Prayer:
Presentation of the Offering:
Offertory: #537 Your Work O God Needs Many Hands
Prayer of Dedication:
Hymn: #427 To Show By Touch and Word
Blessing and Commissioning:
Threefold Amen:
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