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 …