Meditative Moments ...

Christmas Eve Service - Flesherton Pastoral Charge 2010

2011-01-04T18:23:00.003-06:00

Gathering Music:

Welcome and Announcements: (Sunday School)

Call to Worship:

One: Welcome, everyone, on this holiest of nights.
Let us prepare ourselves to welcome new birth into our lives.
Let us prepare our hearts to receive
the wonders of God’s love.
Let us sing our joyful praises to God.
ALL: Come, let us worship God together!

*Hymn: Once in Royal David’s City (vs 1 & 2) VU 62

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 9:2-6

Lighting of the Advent Wreath – The Christ Candle:

ALL: Generous God, you have given us a time of preparation
to receive again your gift of love and joy, your gift of hope and healing. In the birth of the child Jesus, you have given new life to each of us. May we experience the presence of Emmanuel, God is with us, this day and always. AMEN

*Hymn: A Candle is Burning (ALL) VU 6

Angel Choir: “Star Child”

Prayer of Approach: (Sunday School)

One: God of love, as we gather to celebrate the birth of Jesus
ALL: we thank you for the gift of new life
and new beginnings.
One: Just as a new birth brings out the tenderness
in even the hardest heart, bring out a deeper tenderness
and caring in us. Just as a new birth brings a whole family together,
bring us together as your family.
ALL: We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Childrens’ Story: “Jesus’ Christmas Party” (Shawn)

*Hymn: Will You Come and See the Light (vs 1,4 & 5) VU 96

Journeying to Bethlehem: “Setting the Stage …”

Voice One: Who is this that has come to the stable?
Voice Two: These are the animals who welcomed in the Holy
Family, and shared the warmth of their simple farm yard home.
Voice One: Why are they here?
Voice Two: The animals are here to remind us of the importance
of humility and service. By welcoming in the lost and wandering, they set the stage for what was to come.

Voice One: Who is this that has come to the stable?
Voice Two: This is Joseph, who guided and tended his family
on the long and treacherous journey.
Voice One: Why is he here?
Voice Two: Joseph travelling through the long and lonely nights,
helps to remind us to trust in God to see us through to a place of warmth and safety.

Voice One: Who is this that has come to the stable?
Voice Two: This is Mary, the one who spoke with the Angel
Gabriel and was given the promises of something wonderful.
Voice One: Why is she here?
Voice Two: The young girl who left her home and through
uncertainty journeyed to a place where God’s promises were
fulfilled. She reminds us to trust in God always for the gift of new life.

Voice One: Who is this that has come to the stable?
Voice Two: These are the shepherds who came, invited by the
angels.
Voice One: Why are they here?
Voice Two: The shepherd came as the first to see and hear what
had happened. The Shepherds stumbled through the darkness of the night to stand in the light of the stable reminding us that the promise of God’s love that is offered to all, not just to the rich and powerful.

Voice One: Who is this that has come to the stable?
Voice Two: These are the sheep of the shepherds’ flock.
Voice One: Why are they here?
Voice Two: Following the voices and footsteps of their masters,
the sheep followed them through the darkness and arrived at the stable to be welcomed in, reminding us that all we invited, and all are welcomed.

Voice One: Who is this that has come to the stable?
Voice Two: These are the Magi who have come from afar.
Voice One: Why are they here?
Voice Two: Listening to the ancient promises of the prophet, and
searching the heavens for a sign, they came following a star, travelling long and far. They come to remind us that that God’s promises reach to the far corners of the world.

Voice One: Who is this that has come to the stable?
Voice Two: These are the camels and animals belonging to the
Magi?
Voice One: Why are they here?
Voice Two: Carrying supplies and bearing the gifts, they travelled
on long and lonely roads following their masters who came beckoned by a star. The camels carry the gifts of praise and glory that honour the new born king.

Hymn: What Child is This (vs 1 & 2) VU 74

Reflection: Rev. Shawn Ankenmann

(see posting at Prairie Preacher - Sermon for December 24th 2010)

Gift of Music: David Kell

*Hymn: Silent Night (Choir processes in) verse 3
Silent night, Holy night, Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord at they birth, Jesus, Lord at thy birth.

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:26-33 – “Angel Gabriel visits Mary”

Hymn: Away in a Manger (all) VU 69

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:1-7 – “No room at the inn …”

Hymn: Gentle Mary, Laid her Child (vs 1 & 2) VU 46

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:8-12 – “While Shepherds watched …”
Hymn: Angels We Have Heard on High (vs 1,2 & 3) VU 38

Reading:

There are those who scoff at miracles.
I don’t know what they make of the birth of the Child.
for that matter,
I don’t know what they make of the birth of any child.

There are those who laugh at dreams,
so they’ve never heard an angel’s voice,
nor seen any unusual light in the night’s sky,
nor felt the yearning to set out in search of new life …

There are those who do not see the Star …
I wonder where it is they go
when everyone else sets out for Bethlehem.
To those of us who believe … into every night is born a star !

Choir: “Now all the world be silent.”

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:13-20 – “Let us go and see …”

Choir: “One Small Child.”

Reading: “This year will be different – Ann Weems”

Who among us does not have dreams
that this year will be different?
Who among us does not intend to go
peacefully, leisurely, carefully toward Bethlehem,
For who among us like to cope with the
commercialism of Christmas
which lures us to tinsel not only the tree
but also our hearts?
Who among us intend to get caught up in tearing around
and wearing down?
Who among us does not long for:
Gifts that give love?
Shopping in serenity?
Cards and presents sent off early?
Long evenings by the fireside with those we love?
(the trimming devoid of any arguing about who’s going to hang what where, the aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg mingling with the pine scent of the tree, and carols playing over our idyllic scene)
and the children! The children cheerfully talking about
giving instead of getting?
Who among us does not yearn for
time for our hearts to ponder the Word of God?
moments of kneeling and burst of song?
the peace of quiet calm for our spirit’s journey?

This year, we intend to follow the Star
instead of the crowd.
But of course we always do intend the best.
(and sometimes our best intentions tend to get the best of us!)
This year, when we find ourselves off the path again
(and we invariably will)
let’s not add to yet another stress to our Holiday days,
that of ‘trying to do Christmas correctly’!
Instead, this year,
Let’s do what Mary did and rejoice in God,
Let’s do what Joseph did and listen to our dreams,
Let’s do what the wise men did and go to worship,
Let’s do what the shepherds did and praise and glorify God!
For all we’ve seen and heard!!
This year,
let us approach the birth of our Lord with joyful ABANDON!

*Hymn: O Come All Ye Faithful (vs 1 & 2) HFG 193

Offering:

Special Music: Renate von Dahlen Klaus (recorder)

Offertory Prayer:
May these gifts open others to the blessings you give this Christmas: the gift of childlike wonder; the gift of radiant hope; the gift of peace which passes all understanding; the gift of joy which knows no bounds. With these gifts, we bring ourselves, O God, in response to the greatest gift of all— the Babe of Bethlehem. AMEN

Hymn: O Little Town of Bethlehem (vs 1,2 & 4) HFG 178

Scripture Reading: Matthew 2:1-12 – “The coming of the magi …”

Music/Hymn: We Three Kings (vs 1,2 & 5) HFG 206

Reading:

The Christmas Story is central to what the Christian believes, but for the unbeliever or the ‘doubting Thomas’ it may seem to be a sort of fairy tale filled with wonderful, but somehow unrealistic events:
a young girl who bears a child,
angelic visitations,
a mysterious new star
angel choirs
Kings from a far land kneeling in a stable
among the animals,
a peasant child receiving priceless gifts
a baby who will bring peace to the whole world.

This text is the heart’s cry
of all who want to believe in an unbelievable story,
of all who want to believe that God
does indeed keep his promises,
of all who want to believe that on that night long ago
God’s son really did come to be with us … EMMANUEL !

And most of all, it is the heart’s cry
of the sinner, the poor, the lonely, the lost …
Of all who want to be assured that EVERYONE
is welcomed at the manger
where the new life of a child means
that we too can have new life in Him.
(Mary Kay Beall)

Solo: “Is There Room at the Stable for Me” by Mary Kay Beall

Reading:
For unto us
in Aklavik
is born a child, in
Attiwapiskat Gaspé Cornerbrook Newfoundland.
And a son is given, in
Wetaskiwin Bella Coola Flin Flon.
And the future of the whole earth
is placed upon the shoulders of the daughter of
Tuktoyaktuk Tignish Swan Lake.
And the place of their birth is called Vermilion, Priceville,
Temiskaming, Kimberley, Picture Butte, Ceylon.

An angel of the Lord appears in the night sky
over Rankin Inlet, over Iqualuit, over Flesherton, saying
This shall be the sign: you will find the babe
wrapped in cast-off flannel, lying on a bed of straw, in Eugenia Ontario;
in a winter feeding stall, an open boxcar outside
Kindersley, Saskatchewan.
And sure, several hours north from Hogg’s Hollow,
just this side Engelhart,
you see a one, sleeping in its mother’s arms,
on the soft shoulder, where their car broke down.
And the dark highway shines imperishable life,
while helping them beneath these northern lights,
and driving on, through Cochrane, Kapuskasing
Hearst, past Nipigon, and onto the little town of Emo,
Rainy River Region,
least among the little dots that lie scattered as stars
and litter the map of Northwest Ontario,
where they’re expecting you,as in so many other
of these least likely dots this expectation also is;
in Miniota,Pickle Lake,Ohswekan, Feversham,
Glace Bay, and Maxwell.

For unto us.
For into all this night, is born a child,
this night bearing each,
and the places of their birth,
and nativity is given every name. AMEN

Hymn: Hark the Herald Angels Sing HFG 184

Baby Jesus Arrives at the Stable: (Sunday School)

Voice One: Who is this that has come to the stable?
Voice Two: This is the new born babe, the one foretold by the
prophets, the one proclaimed by the Angels and the one welcomed by visitors near and far.
Voice One: Why is he here?
Voice Two: This is the Baby Jesus, the Christ Child, the Messiah,
the one we come to honour and celebrate. This is the one through whom God invites us to experience the fullness of God’s gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love. This is the one we have come to welcome and greet. This is the one of whom the angels who sang and for whom the kings and shepherds rejoiced!!

Hymn: Go Tell It On The Mountain HFG 205

Choir: “A King Has Come”

Benediction:
May the eagerness of the shepherds,
the joy of the angels,
the perseverance of the Magi,
the faithfulness of Joseph and Mary,
and the peace of the Christ child
be yours this Christmas. Amen.

*Closing Hymn: Joy to the World (vs 1,2, &4) HFG 171

Sermon for May 2nd 2010 - Pulpit Supply for Easter 5

2010-05-09T09:49:00.003-05:00

In our modern world the experience of Paul and vision around food found in this morning's reading is quaint and little more – we live in a world that is full of literally hundreds of thousands of food choices. Even here in Brandon the world has arrived with curries, sushi, and spices and flavours that ten years ago we could only imagine … but now it's here.

When we arrived in Mantioba from BC we were shocked and surprised to find the only place you could get ethnic foods was in Superstore in Brandon – but even then, the Foreign Foods aisle had a selection of Old El Paso Mexican food and China Lilly and VH asian foods and little else … if we wanted curries, chutneys or the fixings for any number of traditional ethnic foods we enjoyed living in the Lower Mainland we had to make a trip to Winnipeg where we MIGHT be able to find them … since then Brandon has had no less than four sushi restaurants open, two mexican, two east asian, one korean and other restaurants and cafes are expanding their menus to include an ever increasing variety of foods and flavours …

So to stand (or rather – sit) and hear a story about certain foods being forbidden, and Paul experiencing a vision that suggests that no foods were to be considered unclean is bordering on the incoceivable in our modern world. Afterall, we live in a world where the breakfast cereal aisle has dozens upon dozens of choices alone … for most of us today, the very idea of kosher and non-kosher foods is completely alien to our understanding and experience – yet the abandonment of the Kosher system and the inclusion of the non-Jew was radical for the early Church – it marked a complete and total departure from what had been and moved the Church in to a whole new area of evangelism and outreach …

The communion table – the central place in the life of the Church became a place that welcomed ALL people, not just some … before Paul's vision though, communion – the most inclusive liturgy we have today, was a divisive moment that seperated people rather then drew them together.

In the early days of the Church, communion was not about just a tiny pinch of bread and a sip of juice – it was a liturgy that revolved around a meal – the sharing of the community both figuratively and literally.

The service would be about sharing a meal which cluminated in the breaking of the bread and the pouring out of the cup much in the same way Jesus and the disciples shared their last meal together in the upper room. The table would be set with food to be shared for all gathered, and like the Last Supper, it would end with the act of remembrance of that final night of jesus' earthly life.

The problem was the food. For the adherent Jews the food HAD to be kosher – and it could only be shared with others who are observing Kosher … a Jew and a Gentile couldn't sit down and share the meal together - so in that moment – in the holiest moment we have as Christians - the table became restrictive and exclusionary …

Paul's vision then is about building community – tearing down walls and reaching out across the boundaries and borders that seperate people and saying - “at this table ALL are welcome … and when we are AT THIS TABLE we will eat TOGETHER ...”

The idea that ALL food was now regarded as clean is radical … but it's also consistent with the teaching of Jesus who foresaw the in gathering of the nations through the messianic banquet that would mark the arrival of the Kingdom of God. The Messiah sets the table and ALL people are invited to share in the feast and the Kingdom of God begins …

SO – today in the Church the communion table and food is SO CENTRAL to our culture and our understanding of ourselves and our mission that we simply overlook the significance of opening up the table and saying - “ALL ARE WELCOME!!” … We make an assumption when we stand at the table. We are so steeped in the notion that we are open and inclusive and welcoming, that we have a hard time when it comes to readings that challenge that experience and understanding and cause us to pause and reflect critically on what we're doing and whether or not we can do it better …

A question I have long raised in Church circles, and that has often been met with hostility, anger and judgment of me as a person and a pastor, has been the question - “are we really as welcoming as we think we are?” … when we hang the words “all welcome” on the door or the sign of our Church building, do we really mean it? Or are we citing an expected statement that becomes meaningless when that unwashed “all” arrives?

In the United Church we have long struggled with the idea of being an open, welcoming and inclusive church, but we often failed miserably at living those values … we stumble … we struggle … we screw up … but we continue to try. Unfortunately, along the way we also exile and shun those who don't fit in and who dare to speak, and act in uncomfortable ways.

In the 1980's, as part of a United Church sponsored consultation on evangelism and outreach the late Gordon Turner studied the experiences of those who have been left outside looking in, and published his findings in a book entitled that - “outside looking in” … it makes a heartbreaking read … the stories of people for whom church was important and central to their lives, only to find themselves driven out by politics, by power struggles and by any number of factors that pushed them out the doors are hard to read … but they are much harder when you or your family members live them …

Turner built much of his study on the work of … Russell Hale who in the early 70's studied the experiences of those outside of the Church, and what their impressions of the church are … the “unchurched” as he called them, are outside of faith communities for a reason, and though they may be invited to consider attending or even joining, remain on the periphery as the church itself continues to shrink in size and influence … the Unchurched are those outside who will tell us clearly we are not what we think we are …

The very notion that the United Church is a welcome and inclusive community often runs hard against a reality that has voices speaking up and speaking out and saying - “sometimes that just it ain't true ...”

So what are we to do when the table is not what we have come to believe it is ? What do we do when we hear the voices of those who have been shut out and cast out and yearn to come home? What do we do about the challenge of living our faith and confronting the comfort of the status quo that keeps us happy but alienates others?

I can say from personal experience that those who are vested in maintaining the status quo WILL respond with anger and often open hostility … but fortunately there are others who respond quietly …

Palestinian Catholic Priest Elias Chacour writes of his experience as a young student who was about to be ordained into the priest hood when his mentor and teacher came and addressed the class Father Chacour was in.

Father Chacour's mentor sat before the class of eager young priests and said – "If there is a problem somewhere this is what happens. Three people will try to do something concrete to settle the issue. Ten people will give a lecture analyzing what the three are doing. One hundred people will commend or condemn the ten for their lecture. One thousand people will argue about he problem. AND one person – only ONE – will involve himself so deeply in the true solution that he is simply too busy to listen to any of it …"
"Now," the kindly mentor looked each of the young priests in the eyes as he asked the question: "which person are YOU??"
Father Chacour writes - “I reflect on this story often ... and I repeated ask myself the question: which person am I??”

Father Chacour would be ordained and sent to the village of Ibillin in the moutains not far from Nazareth. He found himself in a village that was deeply divided by conflict and differences … not only did the Muslims and the Christians NOT talk to each other, many within the tiny Christian Church didn't talk to each other including two brothers who hadn't spoken in years and yet faithfully attended church each week. For months Father Chacour struggled to bring resolution and healing to his community – then finally one spring morning he chained the back door of the church, secured the chain with an enormous lock, then tucked the key in his cassock and walked up the aisle before turning to address his congregation …

Father Chacour challenged the lack of faithfulness in a community that could be so deeply divided that brothers wouldn't talk to each other … he named the lack of openess and love within the community and boldly said – it was unfaithful and he would NOT give Communion to them until it was resolved … then he added that the doors would be unlocked only if he was killed by those gathered in the Church, or by a resolution being achieved …

In recounting the story, Father Chacour described trembling with fear as one of the brothers rose, his face contorted with anger … then a tear fell from the man's eye and he admitted that he had been a fool and was wrong to be angry at his brother and asked not only for his brother's forgiveness but for the forgiveness of his church and his priest and of God …

That day communion was served … the door was unlocked and the community began a journey that has witnessed it becoming a global leader in the peace movement … the rifts and divides within the church closed and healed and the community healed along with them …

Quietly, ignoring the rabble and the controversy, overlooking the debate and discussion – Father Chacour challenged the status quo and addressed a problem in the world … and he helped fix it …

In the United Church of Canada we ignore the voices of those Outside Looking In, and those that others have called the un-churched, at our peril …

we fail to embrace the potential that comes with asking ourselves the simple question - “which person am I?”

Are we part of the discussions, or are we part of the solution?

Is our table open ? Or is our table closed ?

The radical nature of Paul's teaching – radical as a return to the heart of who we are as a community and what we are about as people of faith – is opening wide the doors of our communties and welcoming in those who are hungry – physically, spiritually, and emotionally …

The quiet welcome – the work at being inclusive and welcoming happens fortunately happens all the time and we may not even see it. It happens when a cup of coffee is poured an neighbours sit and visit … it happens when donations of food and time are made to organizations like the local food bank and the local soup kitchen … it happens when the Church is opened up and our neighbours and community groups and organizations are welcomed in and made to feel at home … it happens when the wounded are welcomed in and tended and healed and prayed for … it happens when we stand at the table ready to break bread and pour out the cup and we know that no one will be turned away …

The quiet work of welcoming ALL, not just a chosen few comes when there is an honest wrestling with what it means to be Church and to live and embody the Resurrection, not just as some high-falooting concept that is remembered as Easter, but is lived every day … Ann Weems sums it up well when she writes:

We in the church are in danger of becoming a tearless people,

unable to rage even in a starless abyss.

We have imitated a smiling society,

glossing over the hurt, the oppression and the peacelessness on earth,

we have become caustic, cynical and despairing,

insisting on looking the other way as our church members crawl to the altar

with the scraps of their lives in their arms …

We were created for covenant keeping, and yet we are in danger

of becoming a blindhearted people, buying into the system,

placing our hopes with kings and corporations …

Have we not seen?

Have we not heard?

We persist in clinging to the way things are,

eagerly placing our faith in the newest fad, the latest how-to book,

the current slogans presented as though they were the Word of God.

We are programming and papering ourselves into perpetuity,

rationalizing and excusing our immortality,

We spend our energy in complaining,

gloomily forcasting our future together.

We panic for positions, vying for first place in the Kingdom.

Perhaps it's time for remembering that Jesus stood in the Jordan

waiting to baptised with the others,

long ago casting his lot not with the good church people, but with the poor,

wherever that poverty might be found …

His name is Emmaunel (God is with us),

and yet individually and corporately we have named him

“GOD-WITH-ME”

Have we not seen?

Have we not heard?

In the light of the cross, the alternative is anything but hopelessness.

On the contrary!

There is every spiritual indication that we are called to change

who we are into the Kingdom of God.
Where change is possible, new resurrections loom!!

We are a resurrection people !

May it be so … thanks be to God … Let us pray !!

Sermon for March 28th (Palm Sunday) 2010

2010-04-05T11:00:00.002-05:00

The underlying concept of today's Gospel readings is – Expect the unexpected … Jesus and his disciples spent weeks drawing closer to Jerusalem. Jesus spoke to them in parables and stories to prepare them for what lay ahead … he offered them teachings that would make sense in the fullness of time when they looked back and remembered all those little lessons and tid bits he offered so off handedly as they journeyed through Galilea then along the highways and byways leading to Judea and on to Jerusalem …

We can assume that Jesus understood the stand off that was about to happen. He knew that the enthusiasm and hype of the crowd would eventually give way to the power and harsh response of the authorities who would use whatever means necessary to maintain the status quo … Jesus would know that the Temple authories who ruled Jerusalem under the complete control of the Romans would allow nothing to question the authority of Caesar.

History tells us that the Temple authorities cowed to the Romans in the vain hope that they could continue to rule over The Temple and Jerusalem while appeasing the demands of the Empire … History tells us that this Pax Romana lasted until 70 AD when the Romans laid waste to the temple, the city and every last vestige of the Jewish civilization.

That cataclysmic event is still thirty or so years in the future when Jesus approaches the city … the authors of the texts recording the triumphant entry in Jerusalem likely still have the stench of a burning city in their nostrils as they put pen to parchment … Their minds are reeling at the notion that a city as big and vast as Jerusalem could be laid waste in such a complete and catastrophic way.

This event radically and dramatically changed the understanding of the cosmos for Christians and Jews alike … for the follower of Jesus looking back to his life time, every pronouncement, every teaching, every lesson, every step of his journey was made embracing and anticipating the fall of Jerusalem …

Jesus' prophecies about the temple being laid waste where more about the buildings of the Temple mount, then they were about his physical person … The temple was central to the entrie world of the Biblical era Jew – the passing of the seasons, the religious life, the political power, EVERYTHING rested in the temple. The final authority in all aspects of life in Israel as a Jew emanated from the temple … so it's loss left a vacuum that is unfathomable.

Looking back it was hard to re-envision the shift that happened with the loss of the temple … so the story of Jesus confronting the temple authorities with his God given authority and power was comforting and prophetic …

Jesus approaching the temple at the head of a procession being welcomed in by the waving of palm fronds and chanting and laying down their garments and robes was a dramatic moment – a moment of history – a moment that foretold the reign of Christ that Jesus entry into Jerusalem represented …

But then, we pause and we know how it turned out … in less then a week we move from the loud and boisterous Hosannas ringing out in the narrow alleys and streets of the city, to the poisoned chants of “crucify him, crucify him ...” from the SAME crowd who so quickly turned on this Jesus …

The last days of Jesus life are a powerful series of events that challenge us and in the process also remind us that life seldom goes as expected and anticipated, but even in those twists and turns and stumbles, we WILL find holiness, and we will experience a resurrection …

The challenge for us, as people of faith is to NOT jump from the Hosannas of Palm Sunday to the Hallelujahs of Easter Sunday, but to boldly, daringly, and courageously make the journey step by step, moment by moment … if we are to stand in the blinding light of Easter Morning before the empty tomb dancing and celebrating that “He is Risen!” we must first have the courage to journey through the darkness of the week that follows his triumphant entry into Jerusalem.

(Holy Week by Ann Weems – page 67 Reaching for Rainbows)

The movie The Last Temptation of Christ has a powerful scene in the moment when Jesus stands in the temple … the crowd quietens itself as the Priests and the temple authorities arrive, bolstered by armed guards … Jesus is questioned - “what do you think you're doing? You're putting all the people at risk … you will cost ALL of us …”

And quietly Jesus confronts them and their cowardly ways … BUT, the status quo is faltering … the way things were is in danger of collapse … a new way is about to unfold …

In the movie, the disciples are standing poised for an armed coup to overturn the rules of the priests and to drive out the Romans … they are EXPECTING Jesus to lay the sword to Temple and the Romans and bring into being the anticipated Eschatological Reign of God that had been dreamed of and hoped for since the return from the Babylonian exile …

The people were sure Jesus was the one to bring this rule into being … they KNEW IT … they were SURE OF IT … but it didn't happen … in the Movie, Jesus collapses and retreats … in the Scriptures, Jesus enters the temple, drives out the money changers and begins to DIRECTLY challenge the authority not only of the temple, but of the priests and scribes and all those who support it … Jesus engaged in active treason … and in the days and hours that followed, the plot to eliminate him so he didn't bring the wrath of the Romans down on the temple, the rulers and the people …

So, where this leaves us – the Church today – is in the unenviable position of having to stand in a world that too often looks more like Holy Week, then East Sunday … a world that begins with shouts of Hosannas, and quickly spirals into cries of horror and pain … and holds us back from experiencing the transformative power of the the Hallelujah that breaks through the darkness … Our job then, is to move forward not only boldly – but with the courage of our faith that tells us that EVERY step of the journey – ever step we take is one made with the strength and protection of God …

Our calling today as a people of faith – as a church is to go into the world facing the fullness of life – and trusting in God.

… and for the journey that lies ahead this week – we have the words of Ann Weems :

(In Search of New Resurrection pg 91 - Reaching for Rainbows)

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

Sermon for March 21st 2010

2010-03-21T20:07:00.002-05:00

The Church is a funny place … you can divide a congregation by mentioning some aspect of human sexuality … issues of the role of gays and lesbians in the life and ministry of the Church, same sex marriage, even the attitudes towards sex, marriage and reproduction have been hot button issues between the pew and the pulpit. I remember as a theology student hearing one of our profs comment that if you want to have a long and successful career in the Church, stay away from issues of sexuality …

Yet, when we really get down to it – the Bible has only a small handful of verses that make any mention of sex and issues sexual – and almost all of those passages are ambiguitous in their meaning, and even more obscure in their intent. I remember hearing a lecture by a Catholic Theologian who would eventually be excommunicated by Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, who said that failing to place the few passages that speak of sex in their proper context opens our interpretation up to wild and wonderful stances, that are not what the author intended.

This theologian went on to wonder why it is that we spend inordinate amounts of time and energy fighting over a small handful or passages that are unclear in their intent, while we completely and utterly ignore the many passages throughout both the Old and New Testament that speak of poverty and justice issues, and that are any thing BUT obscure and unclear.

It is a question that has risen to the fore once again in our modern world. Why do we have such a total and almost complete reluctance to raise much less even address issues of poverty when there are over 2000 seperate references to poverty and the response of God's people throughout the Bible … 2000 references and it is a at best a marginalized conversation in the Church today … versus a couple of dozen (AT MOST) references to sex and it is one of he most divisive and explosive hot button topics the Church has …

Why the dichotomy?

Perhaps it lies in the interpretative stance we take when we approach passages like today's reading from the Gospel. In the midst of Mary's act of extravagence towards Jesus we have the comment by Judas saying - “that oinment should be sold and the money given to the poor ...”

A noble idea, but the author of the Gospel steps in to besmirch Judas by saying - “yeah, but he wasn't interested in the poor – he wanted access to the money himself because he was the one controling the purse for the disciples as they travelled ...”

Judas is regarded as a villan in the Gospels and in the Church traditions that followed … afterall, what kind of man could stand before Jesus and then turn him over to the authorities and to death … this take on Judas has dominated and coloured everything we've believed about this mysterious figure since the earliest days of the Church. Modern theologians have begun to seriously wrestle with Judas and our attitudes about him … they ask the thorny questions like – 'are his actions really any worse then that of Peter who ACTIVELY denied knowing Jesus repeatedly?” - or “was Judas any worse then the other disciples who split and ran when the authorities came for Jesus?”

They say history is written by the victors – and in the case of Judas, he was pretty much done before the story was put to parchment … the remaining disciples would have contempt for Judas and his actions, and would make sure that any of those who followed in their newly forming Church would understand that Judas was evil, and his actions contemptous at best. So any reference to Judas would be spun to reflect the badness of the man and his action … So his reference to the poor became an opportunity to make an editorial comment to ensure the reader and listener understood that Judas was a bad bad man …

Yet, if we step back – Judas' comment is consistent with Jesus' ministry and the 2000 plus references throughout the Scriptures that make reference to the poor … Modern scholarship is wrestling to reclaim Judas by asking the simple question - “is Judas perhaps the most faithful of the disciples?”

Taking the lead from the question raised by Kazantzakis in his book The Last Temptation of Christ, they are exploring what it means to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus to have one of his trusted companions take the active step of ensuring Jesus' death … we can't have the resurrection without the death … could it be that Judas was part of God's intention and plan, and that as such is more of a saint then a sinner?

It's a tough issue … it's an uncomfortable issue … it demands of us the willingness and the ability to step beyond our strongly held beliefs and understandings and be open to new ideas and interpretations … it requires keeping an open mind and being able to wrestle with the issue and see things from a new perspective.

Whether it is sex and sexuality in our faith, the role and place of Judas in the Bible, or our responses to poverty … there is a lot of work to be done … but too often we entrench our positions, we strengthen our resolve and we become – whether we're even aware of it or not – like a small child plugging our ears, closing our eyes and chanting “la la la la la la – I'm not listening ...” when we encounter new ideas such as caring for the poor …

And, this is NOT a new phenomena … it has been going on for centuries … the opposition that lead to Jesus' death was just such resistance to new ideas and visions … the condemnation people like Galileo, Luther, and even John Calvin experienced is such resistances … and it continues today … names like Martin Luther King, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Desmond Tutu and countless others who from a faith stance actively opposed the status quo and the way things ARE, to envision and proclaim the way things will be are examples of the active resistance put forth in faith …

Yet, if we step back and look at the incredible vista of Church history and heritage we are left realizing that change is not only inevitable it is unstoppable.

I remember listening enraptured by a presentation made several years ago by Anglican writer and theologian Herbert O'Driscoll who told the tale of Church history beginning with the first stirrings of the house churches seeded by the early disciples and apostles. Then he travelled through the Byzantine Church, the Medieval Church, the Rennaissence and Reform Church all the way through to the modern era … he spoke of the changes in architecture, the changes in language and liturgy, and the changes that were part of the ever evolving church … then he said - “try to take someone and move them 50 years forwards or backwards in the church and see what happens.”

They would be like a fish out of water, he noted dryly. They would find themselves in a place that is unrecognizable … everything – the music, the prayers, the liturgy, the language, the dress, even the architecture would be different … there would be some elements that are similar, and there would be vestiges that are maintained and the same – but the changes would be dramatic … he then went on to describe the changes he had experienced within his own life time …

“Look back on your experience as a person,” he urged his listeners – “and think about the church of your childhood and whether you would still be comfortable with it today …” He then went on to challenge us to reflect on the changes we've witnessed in our life times, and how profound those changes are in a few short decades … then he asked – why do we resist change?

It is inevitable, and it is happens … it is the will of the spirit.

We will always have to poor among us is not then, a call to complacency, but rather it is a reminder that in those moments when we find ourselves comfortable and content, when we are enjoying the good things of life, we must continue to be mindful of the poor and their needs. We are not to ignore them, but to remember them even as we pour out the extravagent oil …

The prophetic all is not about the pageantry and the sacred atmosphere of our worship that is rich in tradition and oppulence – but the prophetic call is about acting on our faith.

Today south of the Border a commentator on fox network is getting inordinate amounts of press coverage for his condemnation of Jim Wallis and Wallis' call to the Church to embrace and embody Social Justice and Economic reform … the commentator has identified the words – Social justice and economic reform as euphemisms of communism and nazism, and has openly said repeatedly that any pulpit that cites these words are pulpits that should be avoided … “if your minister, priest or rabbi uses those words, leave immediately,” he said, “because they are not faithful, and are nothing more than communists and nazis ...” AND, he has focused his mis-informed wrath on Wallis and all that Wallis and the Sojourners' community represents.

The topper for me was the contention by this commentator that social justice and preferential concern for the poor is NOT BIBLICAL.

When I read that, my response was – HUH? … 2000 plus references to poverty and the poor and it is NOT Biblical … now, that's a theological reading that simply defies all logic …

Unfortunately, such a reading and interpretation arises when we stand in that room with Jesus and the others and we take Jesus' own words as a call to complacency … “the poor will always be among us, don't worry about them … God'll look after them ...”

Maybe God will look after them – through us … maybe God wants us not to worry about the poor, but rather by re-orienting our view of the world and faith live the principles of love, justice and righteousness in the way the prophets like Isaiah envisioned.

The prophets were not proclaiming a message that allows us to sit content and inactive … instead they were proclaiming a message that demands an active response …

Remember your past – says Isaiah – recall ALL the things God has done for you and – to use a modern notion – PAY IT FORWARD … if someone pours out expensive oil for you – you are obligated to pour out expensive oil for another … Such a notion is the very heart of Biblical Blessings … I receive this gift, and I will return it, and you will receive it and return it, and in the process the Blessing strengthens and spreads and soon the transformative power of our faith being lived out, shared and acted upon touches dozens and hundreds and even thousands of lives …

Isaiah, Jesus, and Paul are not calling us to a complacent faith that lets us sit at home and do nothing – they are calling us to an active living faith that takes us into the world to embrace and embody the change and evolution that is part of our faith journey … a living and active faith reminds us daily that the poor are among us, and that we must never forget that …

Our faith is about sharing the Good News …

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

Sermon for March 14th 2010

2010-03-14T14:33:00.003-05:00

Robert Frost once observed that “home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in ...” Home is where we belong and are welcomed in unconditionally – where we feel safe and secure. Home is the fundamental relationship in our life. Much of our scripture is ultimately about that longing to come home … home where we belong and where we are in relationship with others.

Ultimately, life is based on entirely on relationships … this weekend I've been busy working on my Master Thesis and exploring the definitions of place, community and a relatively new buzz word idea called Social Capital … Social Capital is an intangible, and ethereal concept first envisioned in the late 1980's by a researcher working in the inner city neighbourhoods of Chicago who wondered what it is that binds communities together and gives them a step up when it comes to addressing issues, challenges and problems within them. He noted that frequently in neighbourhoods that lack any sort of traditional capital like money, property, and what economists look to to define a healthy community, - in those places, there was a lot that contributed to the quality of life by the residents in a positive and beneficial way.
Coleman, the researcher began a conversation that since has involved an enormous number of scholars, researchers and students who are constantly defining and redefining the idea of social capital … but social capital at its most basic level is the relationships between people. It is a form of trust that says “I will do this, and in time as a result of the benefit YOU have received, you will be willing to return the favour ...”

The end result – without getting too technical or too immersed in scholarly talk is that Social capital takes many forms and is difficult to predict or define, but when a society has healthy and mutually beneficial relationships between residents who in turn who form networks and social interaction you have not only an abundance of social capital, you also have a community that is able to address many of its challenges and issues itself. A community with strong social capital is a community that can face and overcome almost ANY thing that it faces …

Social capital is the mark of healthy relationships in society … and relationships are what forms communities and gives rise to societies and the values we hold.

Our New Testament story today ultimately is about relationships, and in a remarkable way, it is an example of what can happen when we are open to the ways in which interaction between people teach and inspire us to experience and live the transformative power that arises in moments of challenge …

We know the story of the prodigal son. It is a familiar story that has been repeated and retold in a myriad of ways. We know the characters, we know the out come, we know the jealousies and the resentments, and we know that ultimately, it is about acceptance, and seeing things from the perspective of God and faith, rather then from our own ego … BUT … there is far more to this story, then just the return of the lost son. It is ultimately a story that challenges us to look inward and to think seriously about which character we might be today, and when we might have been another character in a different time and place … When I was a student in University at McMaster, I had a prof who came to studying the New Testament, and more specifically, the life of Jesus from a Jewish point of view. Doctor Reinhartz, was upfront in saying she was a Jew, and she was studying Jesus as a Jew in a Jewish world. As a result, she illustrated and explained many of the teachings of Jesus that were firmly in the Jewish tradition, and whose subtly was lost because we were removed from that tradition by 19 plus centuries of Christian interpretation.

One of the areas Dr. Reinhartz was working in at the time was the role of anonymity in the Jewish Scriptures. She illustrated this idea by citing the many stories in the Old Testament that had anonymous characters in them. Her theory was that the anonymous character allows us to step into the narrative story and experience the events being told in a first hand way.

In the case of the story of Noah and the flood, she would suggest that the unnamed wife of Noah is there so that we as the listener can step into the story and be that person – hearing, seeing, experiencing first hand the events connected with Noah and the ark.

In the case of this parable, no one is given a name – the two sons, and the father are anonymous. It is not a stretch to see them as a template wherein we can place ourselves and experience the events of this story first hand.

This idea was picked up by the theologian Henri Nouwen, who wrote two amazing reflective books on his encounter with the Rembrandt painting of the Prodigal son and his wrestling with it that began in 1983, and continued for a decade and a half … Nowen in his first book – The Return of the Prodigal Son explores the lessons the various characters have to offer as he reflects on the painting, and the familiarity we have the story AND most importantly, the things we might well overlook because of that familiarity.

Nowen places himself in the story and invites us to follow – to see and experience the tale of the prodigal son from the first person perspective … how does it feel to be the father watching his youngest son leave and squander his wealth – something that took a lifetime to accumulate … how does it feel to be the youngest son – to take the money and wealth and squander it only to end up in a place that is about as low as a Jewish person can get – the youngest son found himself thinking about eating the slop he was giving to the pigs … you can't get much lower then tending pigs when you're a Jews – but to be in the place where you're thinking that the pig's food looks good – that's bad …

It is a lesson that would not have been lost on Jesus' listeners … they would catch their breath in that moment and think about where this young man had so foolishly found himself …

Or, how does it feel to be the eldest son – the loyal one who stayed home, worked the land with his father only to watch his brother run off, take his inheritance, waste it, and return home to a party … How would it feel in that moment?

All of this swirls when we read this story … much of it happens unconsciously – so when Nouwen stood before the Rembrandt story and began to think about the image of the bedraggled prodigal son kneeling before his father while the older brother looks on … he began to think of the profound lessons on relationship and faith that are embodied in this image …

The father, filled with love and forgiveness … the youngest son filled with shame and guilt and a longing to come home … and the eldest son filled with resentment and anger and likely bewilderment at how incredibly naïve and stupid his father could be …

All of this lead to a multi-year journey by Nouwen as he repeatedly returned to this image and the multi-layered reflection it offers … so much so, that in the early 1990's he offered a series of reflections on that were made into a book a couple of years ago that continued the reflection on the Prodigal Son and the lessons it offers us …

Nouwen eloquently embraced this process when he wrote in Welcome Home:

“This is an invitation then to see yourself right here and right now in the name of many brothers and sisters, believing that as something moves in you, something may also transpire in those in whose name you live.

This may be new for you, but I encourage you to imagine yourself surrounded first by family and then by loved ones, relatives, friends, acquaintances, business associates, those in your neighbourhood, church, culture, continents, and world. Perhaps some of the circles nearest you aren't easy for you. There are family struggles with spouses, parents, children, brothers and sisters. There are many painful memories and feelings about breakage, losses, and communication struggles. Also, many other people near and far are in your consciousness; some doing well while others languish in poverty, sickness, abuse, violence, loneliness, famine, refugee camps and despair. Bring them all around you, claim your humanity with them, never thinking or growing or speaking or acting just for yourself.

As you progressively become opened to others, allow all you choose in the most hidden places of your heart to be lived for all those who are alive and for those who have died. Gather them and keep them around you. You belong to every other person and to every particle of the universe.

Like a stone thrown into the water, your life has ever-widening circles of relationship surrounding it. Enter the parable with all people in your heart. Call them around you, identify yourself with them, and let your thinking be deeply one with them as you journey into the story.”

The power of the parable is found in it opening doors to the many connections and relationships we have with others … as we wrestle for ourselves with the issues of anger, resentment, guilt, shame, acceptance and all the other emotions that are contained within this brief story about a father and his sons, and the relationships between the brothers – we are connecting ourselves with our own feelings and with the relationships we have with the many circles we are part of … These relationships are the heart of social capital – the heart of our communities – the heart of how and where we connect in the world …

The power of this parable is found in the ability for us to step into the various roles occupied by the characters and to feel for ourselves the emotions and the challenges they are experiencing … we can feel the heart break of the father watching his son leave … we can feel the disdain of the elder son thinking his brother a fool … we can feel the hopelessness of the younger son feeding pigs and being SO hungry that he contemplates sharing in their feast … we can feel the wonder and joy of the father watching his lost son return … we can feel the anger and resentment of the eldest son bitterly watching the festivities and wondering why he had never been accorded such extravagance … we can feel the humility of the youngest son welcomed home … if we pause to listen to this story, it can teach us much …

The heart of our Biblical stories today – all of them – is about being welcomed home – finding a place of belonging where we are loved, cared for and given security … in the story of the Prodigal son, that gift comes to ALL three men … the sons, and the father … it comes in the restoration of relationships among them and between them … and these relationships are the foundation on which EVERYTHING else is build … these relationships are the social capital that under girds and contributes to our families, our churches, our neighbourhoods, our communities and our societies …

And it all begins by seeing our connectedness that comes from our relationships and the transformative power those relationships can bring us … all thanks to the living out of the welcome that bring us home …

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

Sermon for February 28th 2010

2010-03-01T15:12:00.001-06:00

There is a short quotation on memory that embodies the task of remembering and the two edged sword that it represents …

Everybody loves to be remembered, but if we want to be remembered, we have a duty to remember.

Memory can be a powerful thing, wrongly used it can bring death rather than life, rightly used it is a form of immortality. It keeps the past alive …

Memory is a gift – remembering and holding on to the past, while looking forward … rightly used it informs and strengthens us for the path ahead … used wrongly, it will hold us to the past and hinders our ability to move forward.

Our readings this morning are readings that embody and celebrate the collective memory of the people … the old testament reading recalls the covenant between the God Yahweh and the patriarch Abraham – the foundational promises that defined not only the religious faith, but every aspect of being a Jew in the ancient world … The words we revisted last week - “a wandering Aramean is my ancestor” were but the beginning … the promises offered to God as Abram was called to a journey from obscurity to greatness are the heart of what it means to be part of the family begun by Abram …

Yesterday I had a realization as I considered our reading – the story of the people – the Jewish people, and the Christian faith that followed – is a story of brothers in constant tension and conflict … the story begins with Abram being promised a huge family as numerous as the stars … in time he exiled his first son Ishmael, then in time he was willing to sacrifice his second son Isaac … we'll leave the obvious issues that arise from Abraham's parenting skills or lack thereof aside for the moment, and focus on the tension that arose from the relationship between the two sons … Isaac and Ishmael are looked to as the fathers who gave rise to the Arab and Israeli nations – a tension and conflict that remains present and real in our world today …

Then from Isaac, we continue forward with the stories of Jacob and Esau and the brotherly rivalry the twin sons of Isaac had … a rivalry that lead to deceptions, lies and deceit between them … then comes the twelve sons of Jacob, who becomes Israel following his reconciliation with his brother … we mainly remember one brother – Joseph and his dazzling coat of many colours.

Yet if we pause to consider the family dynamic that give rise to the story of Joseph and his amazing technicolour dream coat, we have a less then stellar example of a good family.
To recap – the story of Abram begins with hthe exile of his first sone Ishmael, the willingness to sacrifice his second son Isaac, the cheating of Esau out of his rightful birthright by his brother Jacob, the vow to kill Jacob by Esau when that deception is found out … Jacob's path eventually leads him back home, but he is the father of twelve sons who have a fierce rivalry that parallels the battles between their father and uncle … the brothers grow jealous of the obvious favourtism their father shows to young Joseph and in time hatch the plot to kill him, but then just before they can do the nasty deed, they lift him from the well, and sell him in to slavery – telling their father he was killed by a wild animal … Joseph survives and later ecks out his revenge by tricking his brothers before revealing his identity ..

Such is the legacy of faith that comes with proclaiming our heritage and history as sons of Abraham …

The next reading has Jesus standing before the city of Jerusalem and lamenting over the city and his own future … As we read this text and hear Jesus' words we stand in a place where we know what lies ahead – his words are not spoken as a prediction of what might be, but a foreshadowing of what has been … Jesus is setting his face for Jerusalem, and preparing himself, his disciples, and ultimately us, for what lies ahead … there will be the darkness of suffering, the blackness of death, and in time the resurrection – the place of restoration and transformation where things are set straight and healing and wholeness flow forth in abundance …

Our Old Testament readings that remind us of Abraham and the generation that followed him may seem to clash with this theme of the resurrection to come – but in many respects these two stories fit together as a vivid reminder of the power that the resurrection embodies and promises … Abraham and his children are not a stellar example of familial relationships … yet in time things are set straight and the covenant promises made to Abraham come to pass DESPITE the mis-steps, errors, mistakes and screw ups of his children, and subsequent generations.

That is the power of the resurrection … that is the power of God present in our world … God's ways are not our ways … God's thoughts are not our thoughts … and in time things work out …

This proclamation of trust is not about some airy fairy ideal – the writer of Luke knows as he puts to parchment the words of Jesus standing before Jerusalem that the majestic and beautiful city is a shadow of her former self … he is writing after the Romans managed to do the unthinkable – they destroyed the city.

The destruction of Israel in 70 AD was so complete and so thorough that if you look in modern Jerusalem you can still see the scorch marks from the malestrom the Roman Legions unleashed as they burned the city to the ground … not only did Jerusalem treat its prophets with dishonour, in time it shared their fate.

So in this moment the prophecy is not only about the fate of the figure of Jesus – it is about the fate of the city and the people and the promises to Abraham … it's hard to see a Covenant when the city in which your social, religious, politicial, and cultural life centres is nothing more then a smoldering ruin … yet, that is precisely the point here … the covenant still stands … despite the best efforts of Abraham and his family to mess it up by their foolishness … despite the best efforts of outside forces to oppress and destroy the people – the promise stands …

In a time and place where nothing seems to be making sense any more … when the world has obviously slipped off its axis and horrendous events are overtaking everyone … in that moment when there is no solid place on which to rest one's feet … in that moment the promises of God break through and remind us that all this other stuff is simply what it is …

The challenge is to face this moment and know – trust – and believe that life will go on, and move us from where we are to where we're meant to be. There is no room here for rose coloured nostalgia that paints everything in a glowing rosy hue, but rather it is about standing firmly in our faith and trusting God.

When we read the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and the rest and we begin to reflect on the lessons they offer us, we are struck with the power of their lives … the stories of these characters are preserved in our memories not because they are exemplary examples of faithful living, but because they are expemplary examples of just living … Jewish writer Jonathan Hirsch has carved a niche for himself by penning a variety of books that look at the stories in the Bible that we tend to over look.

He realized as a young father sitting down and reading his son stories from the Old Testament that he tended to skip over many chunks of text because the happenings were not appropriate for the tender ears of his child … he started thinking about how a book so many regarded as Holy could have stories of lying, deception, murder, sexual misconduct and numerous others mis-deeds that we could never condone in good society – yet, here they were in the very pages of our Holy Scriptures …

He began to explore the tales of these men, and a few women who made mistakes, who got messy, who wandered from the straight and narrow, and yet for some reason were still held up as extraordinary figures of faithful living … at the end of the day the realization came, that it is not the saints who teach us our strongest lessons – it is the sinners who are like us and who live lives remarkably like our own … ordinary people who make mistakes, who lose their way, and who God continues to love because of the promises offered millenia ago …

Robert Frost acknowledged that home is where, when you come back - they have to take you in … Abraham and the patriarchs, Jesus lamenting over Jerusalem, and the journey of faith celebrated by Paul and countless others since, teach us about home … home – the place that welcomes us back no matter what we might have done along the way … home – the place where we find love, acceptance and grace unconditionally … home – the place where we are able to be fully ourselves.

Remembering and living the Covenant with Abraham is remembering that this promise envelopes all of humanity and offers EVERYONE the promise of always having a place to call home in the very presence of God … Remembering Abraham and the journey that has lead from his life reminds us that no matter what we do – God's love is there to reclaim us and welcome us home …

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

Sermon for February 21st 2010

2010-03-01T15:07:00.003-06:00

(The Holy in the Ordinary – Ann Weems)

Holy is the time … Holy is this place, and Holy are the words we are to share as we begin our Lenten Journey … a journey that is familiar – we know the events and happenings, we've been this way before – some of us a few times, others many times … it is a journey that in its own familiarity insists that we need to pause and consider more fully the impact these events and happenings have on our faith … it is often said – Familiarity breeds contempt – but often familiarity closes our eyes to the profound and powerful impact things may have.

We know the destination. We've been to the events in Jerusalem before. We know about the controversy, the arrest, the trial, the torture, the suffering and the darkness of death … we've stood in the pre-dawn before the empty tomb … AND that is part of the problem – we know the ending, so the events have lost their impact on us. The 40 days of preparation stretch before us as more of an invconvenience, then anything else. Rather then embracing the spirit of “giving something up” for Lent, we tend to give up things that are superficial and unimportant … rather than commiting to a life of discipleship, we tend to marginalize even the action of a lenten fast by giving up something we can do with out like chocolate, extra sugar, salt, or one of my favourites was the proclamation by a former church member that he was giving up paprika for lent … “do you use paprika?” I asked - “no … it makes Lent much easier that way ...” he replied with a smile …

To be fair, he did observe Lenten fasts by giving up something significant …

For the vast majority of Christian lent tends to be something we clean out from under our beds and furniture, or our belly buttons, rather than something we observe in the 40 days before Easter …

Yet, Lent is central to our experience and understanding of being Church – even in the 21st Century.

In the early Church these forty days were most importantly a time of preparation for those who wished to join the Church. For Lent those seeking Baptism would observe the Fast, and spend their time actively preparing to become members of the Church. Today we as a few questions, we might hold a class or two, but we would never think of asking those wanting to join the Church to observe a forty day fast, or spend that time taking classes, engaging in prayer and meditation AND studying the Bible …

Yet, that sense of awe and wonder about being a member of this place lingers … Lent remains, even as marginalized as it is today, it remains a reminder of who we SHOULD be …
“A wandering aramean is my ancestor”, the ancient Jew would proclaim as he brought forward his offering of thanksgiving, in response to the year that has been, and in appreciation of the year that might be. With that proclamation came an understanding of who this Abraham guy was, and what he meant not only the faith of the people, but to the understanding that each member of that people had …

Abraham – once named Abram, the father of the Jews … began his life in what is today Iraq, and was called by this God Yahweh, to leave everything he knew behind and FOLLOW God – follow God into the unknown – trusting in a promise … along the way, Abraham faced many challenges and set backs, offered up his own son – a son he had waited a life time for – as a sacrifice … he watched his nephew's family flee the judgement of God … and he faced the sword and peril in very real ways … yet through it all Abraham maintained his faith …

To stand and say “a wandering Aramean is my ancestor” was a reminder of the journey that lead to this moment – to this place … to recall the history and heritage and to understand our place in it, and in the present moment … claiming a wandering Aramean as our ancestor was – and in some ways remains a way of positing and understanding ourselves in the cosmos …

To know who we are and where we fit in, allows us to let go and see where the spirit will lead us … There is a wonderful quotation that I have tried to follow over the last two years as my life has been taking what at times seems like an endless series of turns and spins … the quotation is from French novelist and nobel laureate, Andre Gide who said “one does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time ...”

The security of knowing who you are and where you come from allows you to let go and to lose sight of the shore … Abraham let go and consented to lose sight of the shore and it turned out well …

We are children of Abraham … but more over, we are followers of Jesus who in his forty day journey into the wilderness wrestled with his demons and found himself in a real and tangible way.

The first temptation was hunger … Jesus was famished and the temptation was to turn bread into stone and satiate his hunger … but in that moment of deep hunger came the teaching - “one does not live by bread alone ...”

The next temptation is to abandon one's faith … that of power and wealth and prestige … fall down and worship me and ALL of this will be yours is the offer … it is tempting when life is good and everything is wonderful – when we have the bells and whistles of a good life – the toys and the stuff – to forget about God - but Jesus reminds us of what is important … our faith …

Then comes the last temptation – to test God … when we are being tossed by life's storms and trials, the temptation is to curse God (that was the very advice offered to Job sitting in the ash heap) … yet Jesus will not bite. He hold to his faith – he keeps his attention focused on God … he will not step off the pinnacle of the temple – God will not be tested …

In his three temptations Jesus offers us the template – the example for the journey into the unknown …

We let go of the shore – we drift and soon lose sight of the shore and what we know and are comfortable with … the temptation is to give into our fear and live the poster offered by despair.com that says “until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore, you will never know the terror of being lost forever at sea ...”

Too often we give in to our fear – we let our fear stop us from continuing the journey, we let our fear hold us back … we let our fear interfere.

Writer David Deida observes our fear of fear in this way:
“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.”.

Lent is about letting go and trusting in our faith and in our God … Lent is about preparing for the approaching darkness, and not leaping from the suffering and sorrow of Good Friday right to the glory of Easter Sunday – it is about having the courage and the boldness AND the faith to journey step by step into the darkness and know that every step is made firmly in the hands of God. Our faith is about having the ability to journey into the unknown KNOWING that we are a Child of God – a wandering aramean is our ancestor … we've faced the storms and turns in life and we've survived and become stronger for it … we've leaned into our fears and we've grown from the experience … we've LIVED as a child of God.

That's no small statement.

Being able to face life in ALL it's fullness – the good AND the bad – is seldom easy. It's down right challenging – yet, that's what we are called to do …

People will speak of those who have endured hardship in tones and words that suggest they found almost super-human strength to face and overcome the challenges they have encountered. Yet, if they have found the reserves and abilities that exist within ALL of us – they have found their security and strength within … they have lived life knowing who they are...

A wandering Aramean is our ancestor is a proclamation of FAITH that posits us in a secure place where our fears become gifts of the Spirit guiding us forward keeping us secure and guiding us forward to a place of safety.

Mark Twain once observed, “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.

I've found it fascinating that we will encourage our children to live life like that – with boldness and courage and taking chances. The childrens' programme The Magic School Bus even had the teacher Ms Frizzle saying over and over - “ Take chances! Make Mistakes! Get Messy!”

We tell our children to take chances … make mistakes … get messy … but we want our faith – life as a Church to be secure, and safe and predicitable. We let our fears – even our little insignificant fears take over and we sit …

Lent is the time when we recount the stories of our faith and our tradition. Lent is when for the next forty days we seek AND FIND the Holy in our lives …

Lent is when we let go and trust in God to guide us through … by faith we can journey into whatever lies ahead … we can let go of the shore – lose sight of the horizon and we WILL find new lands ...

(The Disciples – Ann Weems)

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

Sermon for August 9th 2009

2009-08-09T21:44:00.002-05:00

.
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.
.
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 …
.
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 …
.
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?
.
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 …”
.
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 …
.
The debate today focuses on how Jesus can be descended from God while his family is here …
.
They are so focused on the fine points, they are missing the big picture …
.
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.”
.
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 …
.
SO the people yearn for something MORE … they want their spiritual hunger fed. They want certainty …
.
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”.
.
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 …
.
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…
.
“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 …
.
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 …
.
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 …”
.
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 …
.
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.
.
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.
.
Yet somewhere along the way confusion set in, and these ideas became just words on a page …
.
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 …
.
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 …”
.
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 …
.
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…”
.
I like the concept of the Apocalyptic Welcome … I see the resonance of the Apocalyptic Welcome in our readings today.
.
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 …
.
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 …
.
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 …
.
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 …
.
And perhaps most distressing of all – we miss it too.
.
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 …
.
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 …
.
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 …
.
One last quotation – this one from Mark Twain … Twain said -
.
“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.”
.
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 …”
.
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 …
.
May it be so … thanks be to God … Let us Pray …

Sermon for August 2nd 2009

2009-08-09T11:19:00.000-05:00

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

2009-06-29T09:18:00.002-05:00

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

2009-04-26T21:42:00.002-05:00

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

2009-04-26T21:28:00.002-05:00

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 ...

2009-04-18T21:33:00.002-05:00

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 ...

2009-04-05T22:28:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-05T22:08:00.002-05:00

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

2009-03-08T22:24:00.002-05:00

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

2009-03-08T22:18:00.004-05:00

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

2009-02-23T07:47:00.002-06:00

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

2009-02-15T18:10:00.003-06:00

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

2009-02-10T11:01:00.002-06:00

How many of you remember your OWN Baptism?
.
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?
.
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.
.
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 …
.
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.
.
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 …
.
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?”
.
And everyone around the table said … “yeah …”
.
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 …
.
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.”
.
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 …
.
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.
.
And so in our modern Christian Churches, the symbol of water is the symbol of new life and new beginnings …
.
Baptism takes the miqvah – the ritual baths and lifts it to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL.
.
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.
.
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.
.
They clean their hands, feet, arms, legs and face before entering the Mosque to worship.
.
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 …
.
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 …
.
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.
.
But do we do that?
.
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 …
.
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 …
.
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.
.
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.
.
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 …
.
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

2009-01-27T12:12:00.000-06:00

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

2009-01-27T07:46:00.000-06:00

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 …

Sermon for Reign of Christ Sunday - Nov 23rd 2008

2008-11-24T00:40:00.001-06:00

November 23rd 2008 – Radical Compassion …

In the gospel accounts of his life, Jesus’ ministry is framed with two verses. The first verse comes from the scroll of Isaiah and enters the fray when Jesus stand before the congregation of his home synagogue and proclaims boldly – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because God has anointed me to share the good news with the oppressed, to heal the broken hearted and to announce freedom for prisoners and captives.”

Jesus stands in his home synagogue, among the people who watched him grow up – he was the HOME TOWN BOY, and as he read the text, then handed the scroll back to the attendant, he said – “oh by the way, those word you’ve just heard. … They’ve come true in your hearing …” the implication being that the Spirit of the Lord was upon HIM …

And their response??

They grabbed him, dragged him out the door, and across town and wanted to throw him over the nearest cliff. They were NOT impressed. They were no happy. They were ticked off. And they were ready to do him in for proclaiming the good news …

Then near the end of his Jesus life comes the text we shared earlier where he take this concept of living the Good News and makes it incredibly simple. Forming the bracket of his message from that moment in his home synagogue to the last days of his earthly life, we hear his reminder that came with he same boldness and courage as his words in Nazareth: “Truly I tell you, just as you did for one of these my brothers, and sisters, you did it for me …”

The two texts frame all that Jesus said and did …and they are both passages that we have become so familiar with that we fail to fully grasp the radical nature of these words and the profound impact that they had in his day.

Jesus was proclaiming his commitment and understanding of a ministry that was a departure from anything that went before it … no longer focused on the ritual and practices of the temple, Jesus proposed an world view that was based on action.

How you treat the people around – not just friends and familiar folks like family and aquaintences, but how we treat complete strangers and those who are marginalized – how we live our faith in our day to day encounters is what’s important. The whole idea of “just as you do it for one of the least of these my family,” is the motivating principle in our dealings with the down trodden, the oppressed, the broken hearted and those needing to hear and experience the Good News.

Last week I was privileged to be in attendance at an event in Brandon where author, and activist Tim Huff spoke and offered a new take on the whole concept of radical compassion, that he sees at the heart of what we are as a people and a faith community. Tim comes from a background of working with homeless youth on the streets of Toronto, he came to Brandon to offer words of encouragement to the folks in Brandon who work with youth on the streets of Brandon. Youth who, if it was not for groups like Youth For Christ’s U-Turn, would find themselves homeless on the streets of Brandon …

Tim gave example after example of how he has lived his life and ministry encountering the deeply marginalized and offering them something more than just a band-aid. One of his powerful lessons began with him asking us about our houses.

He noted that we would, if asked – “tell me about your house” note things like hard wood floors, age, type of heating, the number of bed rooms, size of the yard and rooms, and so on. Our house is the physical place we live …

He then asked – “tell me about your home” and noted that we will describe home as the place we are loved and cared for, the place of warmth and welcome, the place we feel safe and secure … Tim spoke in Brandon on one of the nights when the horrid details of Phoenix Sinclair’s death was being reported in the media – Phoenix, a young child who had a house – but never a home … a five year old girl who was utterly homeless as she died cold and alone on the concrete basement floor of her mother’s house …

I thought of Phoenix as Tim spoke and shared his description of “home” and his reminder that the street youth he works with have been HOME-less long before they became HOUSE-less.

Homelessness is not just a case of being without a physical shelter. Too often homelessness is about being without a place of warmth, security, care and love – those very values that we hold to be central to what a HOME truly is …

The challenge of living our faith according to the standard set by Jesus himself is simply this – “how do we respond in faith to those who are homeless? How do we share our faith with those who are cast out, oppressed, and broken hearted ??”

That night Tim shared with us the concept of Radical Compassion, not as something new, but as something that is the very heart of Jesus’ own ministry … Using the text of Isaiah, he notes the call to action that Isaiah’s words represent … “to bind up the broken hearted?”

How shall we bind up the broken hearted?

Through radical compassion … What is radical compassion?

Compassion is the spirit that grips us at this time of year when we hear calls for assistance to those struggling economically and we go to our cupboard and donate food from our larder, then we go to our closet and donate our old coats and warm winter clothing – we donate generously from our abundance – that is compassion …

Radical compassion comes when we go to our cupboard and donate not just our surplus food, but we give from our own subsistence – then we go to our closet and instead of donating the coats we don’t really wear any more and that we wouldn’t really miss, we take our favourite coat – the one we feel that we can’t live without, and we give THAT one to the poor and the outcast …

Radical compassion is no longer stepping over or around the homeless person huddled in a doorway or on a street corner – but seeing them – really seeing them as people – people with a story of homelessness that lead them from a house to here … a few weeks ago I was part of a conversation about the “shelterless” homeless in Brandon. We were trying to determine exactly how many there are, and where they were going when the weather turns bitter and cold.

After phone calls to a number of people including the chief of police, I decided that the easiest way to find out who these people are and how many there are, was to go and visit them myself. So on Friday afternoon as most people were heading home for their weekend, I headed down to the bridge where Brandon’s shelterless homeless tend to congregate.

I found them and began our conversation by saying – “hi, my name is Shawn …” and in the process I learned their names, their thoughts, a tiny portion of their story, and I learned some of the fears and frustrations they experience … I Learned about them as people with names and histories, not as just some homeless guys under the bridge …

Radical compassion is about no longer falling into simplistic easy explanations and excuses for inaction – but taking seriously our call to faith that doesn’t ASK us, but DEMANDS us to do something …

Radical compassion is about living our faith … being the sheep that the prophets spoke of … being generous not just a few weeks of the year – but ALWAYS …

The powerful lesson of our reading from Matthew is that we are called to be present through compassionate – radically compassionate action to those who are in need of care and love of mind, body and spirit … the very least of these our sisters and brothers … people with names like Dennis, David, Bruce, Ozzy, and Phoenix … people who are broken hearted and in need of care and deserving and worthy of love.

And as we care for them – as we open OUR hearts and minds and spirit to them, we live our faith and embody the very principles that Jesus shared in the synagogue of his hometown and in the streets of Jerusalem …

Today as we stand poised on the verge of the season of Advent – a season of generosity when everyone seems willing to help - its important that we of the Church – the people of faith – don’t forget nor lose sight of the foundational lessons that give rise to this spirit of giving an generosity …

Just as you do it for one of the least of these my brothers and sisters you do it for me … if we take THAT lesson seriously why would we not give deeply and generously not just once a year, but every day of our faith journey …

The calling is clear … the choice to respond is ours …

May we have the courage and boldness to follow the path to being a sheep rather than a goat …

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

That which is hurtful ... sermon for October 26th

2008-10-28T14:08:00.002-05:00

There is an ancient story about a young man who wants to learn the whole of the Torah, the collected Law of the Jewish people. But the young man is fairly impetuous and more than a little impatient. He approaches his rabbi one Sabbath after worship has concluded and says – "Rabboni, I would like you to teach me the WHOLE of the Torah …"

The Rabbi is very pleased, for it is not often that a young person approaches a Rabbi with such a request. And so he says with a broad smile – "Oh this thing you ask of me is wonderful. I will take you as my student and I will teach you the wonders of the Torah as we study together over the next few years …"

"Years????" says the young man, "No, I’m not interested in taking years to learn about the Torah. I want to learn about it now while I stand here before you on one foot …"

The learned man is insulted, and grabs a broom and begins swinging it wildly, "This is an insult to me, to the Torah and to Our God … study of the Torah is never a frivolous thing and it demands years of devoted study … you mock me …" and he drives the young man out of the synagogue and the town …

The young man then spends many weeks traveling from town to town asking each Rabbi he meets the same request – "Please, teach me the whole of the Torah …"

And each Rabbi responds in the same way … "yes, this is wonderful you will be my student and together we will study the Torah for years to teach you the meaning of the Torah …"

And to each Rabbi the young man says – "oh no, I am not prepared to spend years studying the Torah, I want you to teach me the WHOLE of the Torah while I stand here on one foot …"

Some Rabbis simply slam the door in his face, some shout at him, some hit him with their broom, some chase him from town … they may use a diversity of methods to drive the young man away but they ALL scoff at his absurd idea that he could learn the WHOLE of the Torah – the Laws handed down to Moses at Sinai and added to by the elders and the judges and that are loving preserved in the first Five books of the Bible, and that guide the thoughts and worship and life of the Jewish people … the suggestion that he could learn the WHOLE of the Torah, a document thousands of years in the making, while he stands before the Rabbi on one foot is unthinkable …

And then he meets the Great Rabbi Hillel, who is even to this day, renown for his wisdom … The young, having spent years on his fool hearty quest says to the Rabbi – "I would like you to teach me the whole of the Torah…"

The Rabbi nods, stroking his beard, "uh-huh" he says, "this thing you ask of me is easy …"

"Then I would like you to teach me the whole of the Torah," the young man says excitedly, the weariness from his search has evaporated, "while I stand here on your front step on one foot …"

The great Rabbi laughs – "the Whole of the Torah, everything on which the teachings of our God hinges is simply this – ‘that which is hurtful to another, you simply do not do – EVER’ all the rest is merely commentary …"

That which is hurtful to another you simply do not do …

That which is hurtful to another YOU simply DO NOT DO !!!

A century later another Jewish rabbi from the village of Nazareth took Hillel’s teaching and turned it into a more active notion – "love your neighbour as yourself" connected to the foundational notion that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind, this Yeshua, or Jesus as we’ve come to know him, said boldly and rightly – "on these two commandments hang ALL of the law and all of the prophets".

Jesus was being provocative and BOLD in his teaching … positing the entirety of the Jewish faith tradition on the simple teachings of "Love the Lord Your God with the whole of your being, and love your neighbour as yourself" takes the idea of doing no harm to a bigger broader level …
I wonder though, how good we are as people of faith in the Church at adhering to these teachings much less following them?

Do we live our lives in a way that does no harm to another and instead shows them love and compassion? Or do we find ourselves in a place where we can say – "these are good words to strive for, but they are seriously too idealistic … He couldn’t possibly have intended us to LIVE THEM could he???"

This past week I ended my work week by taking a half an hour and wandering off the beaten path to sit down and have a face to face conversation with some of the shelterless homeless folks in Brandon. Over the last few weeks we’ve heard repeatedly about the people living under the bridge. Then late on Friday afternoon one of my co-workers found an online discussion about the people living under the bridge in Brandon.

The discussion was dancing along the "Just go and get a job and stop welching off of welfare" that too often enters the fray when we’re talking about homelessness and poverty. I read the comments and reflected on the three conversations I had had through the day with the Chief of Police in Brandon, the director of Helping Hands Soup Kitchen and one of the police officers overseeing the down town district and I realized that there are a myriad of reasons why someone ends up living under a bridge … some are created by poor choices … some are created by circumstances far beyond their control … some are medical and psychological in orgin … EVERY person has a story and the guy sleeping under the bridge is first and foremost a person with a story …

So on Friday afternoon as almost everyone else in Brandon was heading to their HOMES for the weekend, I walked off the beaten path and found some of the homeless folks who call a bridge not far from downtown their HOME. I wanted to learn more about who they were as people, and I wanted to hear it from them – "what would help you right now?"

The answer from them was simple – "more money in welfare so we can afford to have a place to live AND eat …"

"Okay," I asked, "someone’s gonna say – ‘we don’t want to give you more welfare, why don’t you just get a job and earn more money yourself?’ how do I answer that."

The one guy laughed and said – "would you hire me? I’m an uneducated, drunk smelly Indian … just try to get me a job … I’d take it and work hard if you could find me one. But I like to drink once in a while and I kinda get lost in it … who’s gonna hire me knowing that ?"

The other guy says – "I can’t work. I’m what you call Mental … I gotta take pills every day to keep me good … who’s gonna hire me?"

We talked some more and they said that it was frustrating to have ALL their stuff taken when they were sleeping in the picnic shelters by the River bank Discovery Centre earlier in the month.

"Guys," I said, "that was a bad place to squat. The people on the north side of the river don’t want drunk, dirty homeless people messing up their park. They don’t want to know you even exist. They’re gonna phone the cops as soon as you show up …"

They laughed and one said – "hey, I like you … you get this …"

We talked for a long time about what is helping them and what is hurting them. The concept of "do not harm" or Hillel’s "that which is hurtful" danced through our conversation. They spoke of being hassled by people, city workers, train workers, and sometimes the police. They talked about the young punks who will come and beat them up for kicks on the weekends if they aren’t hidden away safely and out of view. And they talked about the good stuff that keeps them alive … the staff and volunteers at Samaritan House, the folks at Helping Hands, the kindness of strangers …

As I reflected on the conversation while I headed back to my van I realized that these men – marginalized, outcast, and cast outs – these homeless men represent the convergence of the teachings of the Prophetic voices like Moses, Hillel, Jesus and others, AND the practical engaging of these teachings in a real world – real time setting …

They are a rubber hitting the road moment … Do we see them as people with a story and respond with love – not necessarily like, but a deep seated love that flows from our faith – the love that sees EVERYONE as a child of God … OR do we hold to the stereo types and the rhetoric, and we close our eyes and shutter our hearts and chose to look through another human being and see simply "some homeless guy" and stifle our love and compassion ??

We live in a time and a place where it is too easy to do nothing, and to find a MILLION justifications for our inaction and our complacency … and too often in the Church we hide behind our rules and our regulations and justify inaction by saying – "we can’t" rather than admitting that we simply won’t. … too often in the Church we’ve become a social club where we come to have things comfortable and nice while we wonder and fret over a declining membership and a graying of those who remain …

But then the spirit breaks through in unexpected places … the Drive Away hunger campaign and the amazing response across Westman is an act of generosity and caring that reminds us that at heart we are a generous and giving people (over 1 MILLION pounds of food nationally, the target for Manitoba was 100 000 pouonds of food for the WHOLE province - Westman alone gathered over 100 000 pounds of food, and the provincial total was in excess of 224 000 POUNDS !!!) … the donations of carrots, potatoes, and produce that roll through the door of places like Samaritan House from Hutterite Colonies across the region remind us AND challenge us to look at what we’re about … over and over we stumble across examples of what we SHOULD be doing … the problem, and it is a problem so long as there are children who are hungry, people who are living under bridges, and executives of corporations continuing to rake in BILLIONS of dollars in salaries, bonuses and stock options while the ecomomy continues to spiral into oblivion … so long as the gaping inequity exists that sees people living with next to nothing in a world of overwhelming plenty while too many have too much – it is a problem that should be front and centre in our faith struggles …

Yet, we will too easily shrug and say – "what can we do?"

That which is hurtful to another – you simply DO NOT DO!

Poverty, hunger, homlessness and inequity are incredibly hurtful to many … the response is ours … we can chose to do nothing … or we can be faithful in our response of life and world view …
If we dare to listen to our heart, our soul and our mind and allow the love of God and each other the response will simply flow forth and be how we live and move within the world …

May it be so – thanks be to God …

Let us pray …

Two Simple words ...

2008-10-14T07:10:00.000-05:00

I would like to begin this morning with the very non-scriptural opening three paragraphs from the Associated Press’ account of the American Congressional Hearings into the melt-down on Wall Street. A melt-down that will cost American Tax Payers, in excess of 700 BILLION US dollars to slow, but perhaps NOT entirely stop … On Tuesday the Associated Press published:

The now-bankrupt investment bank Lehman Bros. arranged millions in bonuses for fired executives as it pleaded for a federal lifeline, lawmakers learned Monday, as Congress began investigating what went so wrong on Wall Street to prompt a $700 billion government bailout.

The first in a series of congressional hearings on the roots of the financial meltdown yielded few major revelations about Lehman's collapse, and none about why government officials, as they scrambled to avert economic catastrophe, declined to rescue the flagging company while injecting tens of billions of dollars into others.

But it allowed lawmakers still smarting from a politically painful vote Friday for the largest federal market rescue in history to put a face on their outrage at corporate chieftains who took home hundreds of millions of dollars while betting on risky mortgage-backed investments that ultimately brought the financial system to its knees.

The best was yet to come in the article though … in recounting the testimony of Mr Fuld the CEO for Lehman Bros Bank, it noted that just four days before Lehman Bros collapsed there was a pay out to two departing excecutives in excess of 18.4 MILLION dollars, and another executive who was quitting received a compensation package worth in excess of 5 million dollars.

The Republican representatives noted that Mr Fuld was pretty free and loose with “other people’s money” as he headed the now bankrupt company.

But the true topper in the article came with the following exchange …

But while Fuld said he and executives did everything they could to protect the company, committee chairman, Waxman slammed Fuld for earning $484 million in salary, bonuses and stock sales since 2000.

"Your company is now bankrupt, our economy is now in a state of crisis, but you get to keep $480 million," Waxman said, displaying yearly compensation figures on large TV screens in the hearing room. "I have a very basic question for you. Is this fair?"

Fuld said the figures were not accurate and he probably received "a little bit less than $250 million, still a large number, though."

Wouldn’t it be nice to receive over 250 MILLION in bonuses and salary over 8 years ??
But what is even more shocking was the demeanour by which Mr Fuld CORRECTED the Congressmen on the actual number for his compensation over the last 7 tears … 480 MILLION or 250 MILLION – either way, it is way more money that ANY OF US will ever see, even cumulatively in our life time, and this is the NORM for Wall Street.

One commentator I heard this past week pointed out that in a single year, Wall Street would pay out more in bonuses, salaries and premiums to executives than the United States of America would send to Africa as Aid in five years … Africa the continent wracked by diseases like HIV/AIDS, poverty and famine … a continent that is desperately poor and where the average person survives on about a dollar a day … if you can call their life survival …

And half a world away executives are saying – “oh I didn’t earn THAT much, it was ONLY 240 million dollars …”

There is something wrong with your world … and this thanksgiving, it is a good time for YOU and I to pause and to give thanks for what is really important …

As I considered Mr Fuld and the 700 BILLION dollars it will take to begine to address the mess the unbridled greed of he and his cronies, I thought of a poem by poet Ann Weems, that reminds us that it is too easy to lose perspective, and to fall into the error of believing that we need more and more and more …

Ann writes:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
God’s mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning.
The Lord God gave the peoples of the earth a garden,
And the people said: “That’s very nice, God,
but that’s not enough. We’d like a little knowledge, please.”
The Lord God gave them knowledge,
And the people said: “Now that we have knowledge,
we’d like things.”
The Lord God gave the people things,
But they always said: “That’s not quite enough.”
So the Lord God gave them gifts unequaled:
The Sun
Lightening and Thunder
Rain and Flowers
Animals and Birds and Fish
Trees and Stars and the Moon
God gave them the Rainbow
God parted the Red Sea and gave them Manna
God gave them Prophets
And Children
And Each Other,
But still the people said, “That’s not quite enough.”
God loved the people,
And out of ultimate merciful goodness
God gave them the Gift of Gifts—
A Christmas present never to be forgotten—
God gave them Love
In the form of God’s Son,
Even Christ Jesus.
There are some that don’t open their eyes
or their ears or their hearts
And they still say, that’s not quite enough.
They wander through the stores looking for Christmas;
But others open their whole being to the Lord,
Bending their knees to praise God,
Carrying Christmas with them every day.
For these the whole world is a gift!

That’s not quite enough … are we a grateful and thankful people, or do we grumble and say (even if it never passes our lips but rather is lived out in our lives): “That’s NOT quite enough.”

On many levels, that the issue that underlies the story from our Gospel Reading this morning … the people, the descendents of the folks who journeyed into the Promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey had grown profoundly complacent in their faith. They were no longer appreciative nor grateful for things they received, and the words “Thank you” never escaped their lips and it even more seldom arose to their minds.

They simply were no longer a people appreciative of God’s many blessings and bounty that they so easily enjoyed …

And so Jesus is journeying from Galilea, presumably heading south towards Jerusalem and he encounters ten lepers – outcasts, who were no longer welcome in civil society. From a distance they hail him. And from a distance he heals them … he sends them to the priest to not only bless them, but to affirm their return to wholeness.

These men were not only physically sick with leprosy, by virtue of that ailment, they were now ritualistically unclean, and forbidden from contact with the rest of the Jewish people. So the blessing of the priest was the ONLY way to re-enter society and become a member of the community once more …

Yet, in the story – the ONLY man to come back and offer thanks to God, and to Jesus for the healing miracle wasn’t even a Jew … he was a Samaritan.

The problem for us – is that we simply can’t not comprehend how reviled a Samaritan was. There is NO parallel in our world to a Samaritan in Jesus. There is no one as feared and loathed and hated as a Samaritan. The Samaritan was regarded as something less than human for a wide range of reasons – and yet in Jesus’ ministry they keep popping up as the hero in parable and story … and now, THIS – the ONLY one to come back and thank God, was a non-Jewish Samaritan … the very act of HIM thanking the JEWISH God Yahweh was an abomination to the Good Jews of the day … and yet, not one of the other nine, presumably a few good Jews among them – NOT one of them has the decency to come back and thank God – THEIR God …

The lesson is lost on us – but not lost on those who first heard this story as it was passed through what would become the early church. The very fact that it was a NON-Jew thanking God, and even worse than a run of the mill non-Jew, but a Samaritan who turned back – that detail would have caused howls of outrage … yet, in those howls was a profound lesson …

I’ve frequently preached on the lesson my Grandfather taught me of not pointing a finger of accusation at someone else, lest the other three fingers point back at yourself … WELL, in this moment, the howls of – “OUTRAGEOUS !!! How could Jesus let a Samaritan praise God and offer thanks for the healing …” would catch in the throats of the speaker who would realize that AS they protested, the question – WHEN did YOU thank GOD??? Would arise in their own conscience …

“DANG !!” to quote my son …

That’s the point of the story … not that 10 men were healed and only one turned back – but the morale of the story was and remains – the ONE who remembered to turn back wasn’t a Jew at all, yet he KNEW it was important to say two simple words – “THANK YOU” when appropriate. And when you’ve been given your life back as the ten men had … there is perhaps NO more appropriate moment. And it was a contemptible, despised, and reviled Samaritan who no only remembered that lesson – but rubbed the noses of every Good and faithful person in it …

This is a radical and powerful story … the one who turned back reminds us to live our lives with gratitude, appreciation and thanksgiving … is it a lesson we are willing, and that we DARE to live? Or are we people who receive with open hands ALL of God’s blessings and bounty, only to say – “that’s nice, but it’s NOT quite enough …”

We live in a world where it is far too easy to fall into the place of being un-grateful and living our lives by not appreciating what we have around us in abundance: our lives, our family, our friends, our community, our church … food on our plates, a home to live in, and all of the wonderful things that we have around us …

This thankgiving, let’s have the courage to LIVE the chorus of the Raffi song that I shared with our children earlier:

“All I Really Need is a Song in my Heart
Food in my belly and love in my Family
All I Really Need is a Song in my Heart
And love in my family”

We are called by faith to give thanks for what’s important … may it be so – thanks be to God … Let us pray …

Sermon for Worldwide Communion - October 5th 2008

2008-10-05T21:17:00.003-05:00

Today is one of the days in the Church calendar when it is worth pausing to consider the implications of who we are, and what we are about as a people, a faith community, and most importantly a Church.

In the moment as we break bread and pour out the cup, the fundamentals of who we are and what we believe and what we live in faith, rise to the fore, and we are confronted with either the celebratory expression of our faith lived in its fullness, or the contradiction of a faith that says one thing and lives another …

We live in a world of abundance and plenty, and despite the new reports lately focusing on the economic turmoil south of the border, there is MORE than enough to go around, and MUCH MORE available to end poverty, disease and homelessness than we realize.

One commentator on the radio this week pointed out that in an average year close to five times more money is paid to CEOs on Wall Street for bonuses and premiums, than is spent on AID to Africa.

Think about that for a moment … in a continent torn apart by violence, struggling with hunger and famine, a continent shackled by HIV/AIDS … a continent where the average person survives on less than 2 dollars a day … we as investors, clients, shareholders and tax payers are PAYING CEOs and Executives of already incredibly wealthy corporations, bonuses that are almost five times what is sent to the entire continent of Africa to help address the poverty driven issues that are killing in excess of 30 000 children EVERY SINGLE day across the planet … and that doesn’t even mention the already obscene wages and salaries these guys are being paid …

We live in a world of plenty and of abundance … but we’re so conditioned to the idea of not having enough that we simply can’t see it any longer … we want to protect what we have … we want to guard what we possess … we want to ensure that we will ALWAYS have enough …

In the Church we speak of the Gospel – the Good News … and when we open the Bible and begin to read the texts, we are repeatedly confronted with proclamations of plenty and abundance and living life with an attitude of thanksgiving.

Easy words to say and think … harder words to live …

Today, though as we prepare to break bread and pour out the cup, the concept of plenty and abundance rest on the table. Not abundance and plenty as defined by the flawed business model that has fettered us – but abundance and plenty that comes from opening our eyes to what exists around us …

Bread – the staple food that comes from the very fields that surround us … wheat, grain, canola, oats, flax … the prices may not be what they SHOULD BE, but one can not dispute that the lumbering grain trucks and the full bins sitting in yards across westman speak to us about the ABUNDANCE that exists around us.

The cup – a staple food that comes from the fruit that surrounds us … grapes, strawberries, apples, blue berries, saskatoons, raspberries … a bountiful gift that comes in seasons – a reminder of the sweetness of these gifts that need only time and patience and an ice cream bucket to gather and savour and share …

The elements on the table are about simple abundance. Taking the simplest of foods and saying – “there’s MORE than enough” for all … then after giving thanks to God for these gifts we gather around a table and celebrate the abundance of community and relationship and family … we break bread and pass it to one another in COMMUNITY.

In this moment we are NOT alone. We are part of a group – a community – a family … we have the abundance of relationships as we break bread from the abundance of creation.

There is MORE than enough to share … yet, we take our tiny piece of bread and our little sip of the cup … and smile … Is THAT living ABUNDANTLY ???

When I break bread I remember a time in Theology College when we were fasting … the only food we were allowed during the fast was the bread served during our weekly chapel service … my classmates and I tore enormous hunks of bread and dipped them in the cup …our stomach aching for food savoured every crumb of the chunks of bread we took … we needed FOOD … and the bread was there for the taking, so we took … we took enormous handfuls of bread to satiate our hunger … we understood the abundance of the table in a very different way that polite little tiny pinches of bread – abundance is about grabbing a handful of bread without reservation …

Later when my now teenaged son was a toddler he came forward in his mother’s arms during communion. At the time his favourite snack was a thick slice of soft French bread spread with peanut butter. (actually it still is a favourite snack for him – except now he could gobble back most of a loaf) That day the loaf of communion bread was the same type we fed him with, so when he saw the bread he looked around for the jar of peanut butter and said – “Peanut butter?” We said “no, later!”

“want peanut butter!”

You deal with these moments, particularly when you are at the front of the church … mom took a piece of bread and dipped it in the cup, but before she could put in HER mouth a little hand reached out and snatched it and stuffed it in HIS mouth with a lipsmacking “YUMMY!!” exclaimed loudly.

For the rest of the service as the bread and the cup sat on the communion table at the front of the church, our son came up repeatedly and tore off hunk after hunk of the loaf and dipped them in the cup, then turned and while stuffing the bread in his mouth with a loud “yummy” returned to the back of the little rural church to continue playing …

At the end of the service when S-- once again came up to claim the last remnants of the loaf left on the table, I commented on the lesson this little person is offering us – if we dare to listen …

Why shouldn’t there be peanut butter, and cheese and a full meal when we break bread? That’s how communion was done that first night in Jerusalem, and how the early church practiced their meal, why do we reduce it to a tiny pinch of bread and a little sip from the cup?

Why shouldn’t we take a huge hunk of bread? This is the BREAD OF LIFE, how can you sustain life with a few piddly crumbs and a tiny sip of the cup?

Why shouldn’t we come back repeatedly and take enough bread to sustain us through the day?

We sing about loaves abounding, and our daily bread, but … we take little tiny pieces of bread and call it enough …

AND – why shouldn’t we take the bread and the cup and like my toddler son – have the audacity to say – “YUM!!” when we eat???

I also recall one day walking across the village where I lived only to be harassed by the troopers … troopers got their name because together they would troop to the liquor store to make their purchase, then troop back home to consume it … They were sitting on the front step of a house in the sunshine and one of them called out: “Hey, we got the bottle. If you had bread we could have communion …” A couple of weeks later when M—was baking bread I asked her to make a smallish loaf that would fit in my coat pocket. That afternoon while it was still warm, I went for a walk and passed the house. The boys pulled the same drill – “hey, we got the bottle. If you have bread we could have communion…”

Their laughter ended abruptly when I pulled out the loaf of bread and said – “Actually, I have some bread …”

That day in the summer sunshine of a west coast village, we broke bread, passed the bottle and celebrated communion … we celebrated with much laughter the relationships they had with each other, and that I had with them … we celebrated the abundance around us and the radical inclusivity of God’s GRACE AND LOVE.

In an unlikely and unexpected place – bread was broken and the cup poured out in lavish abundance … and I KNOW my life was never the same …

We live in a world of abundance, and we are called to proclaim and share The Good News … when we gather at the table, it is HERE where these values should be most evident and obvious … in this season of harvest and thanksgiving, we need to open our eyes, not to what we think we lack – but what we have … and as we break bread and pour out the cup, let’s be less self-conscious and more thankful …

Loaves abound … cups are full to overflowing … Our God is a good of abundance, plenty and unbound generosity … let’s have the courage to not only say these things, but to live our lives believing them !!

May it be so – thanks be to God …

Let us pray …

Sermon for today ...

2008-09-28T23:23:00.003-05:00

An old farmer once quipped to me – “You know in farming there have only ever been two good years.”
“1923 and next year…”

The old guy spoke a truth of sorts. We are very good at looking back and seeing things through the soft rose colour hue of nostalgia and seeing everything as the “good old days” … or we look forward with hopeful anticipation and expectation seeing what will be as better than what has ever been. We are not very good at living focused and present to this moment and what it offers us.

As I thought about this and considered the readings we’ve had before us this morning my mind drifted to the movie “Pay it Forward” that was released a few years ago.

The plot line of the movie involves a young man who is along with his class is challenged to pay it forward. They are to pass on acts of kindness in life – “paying it forward” … The movie has the usual Hollywood twists and turns, along with some tension, some romance, and a couple of cliff hanging scenes … but the core of the story is that the young man Trevor takes on the assignment: think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures up the notion of paying a favor not back, but forward--repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new good deeds done to three new people. Trevor's efforts to make good on his idea bring a revolution not only in the lives of himself, his mother and his physically and emotionally scarred teacher, but in those of an ever-widening circle of people completely unknown to him.

Trevor’s concept is simple – rather than paying something BACK, he pays it forward. If someone does something nice to you, rather than “owing” someone one, you take that act of kindness and offer it in kind to three OTHER people, who in turn owe you nothing, and in turn pay it forward to three others … in short order a community begins to be transformed.

It’s a simple concept, but one that in spite of its common sense approach is lone that challenges the way things are in our society … The underlying greed that has created the crisis in the US economy is not about paying anything forward, but is about gathering and accumulating ALL that we can for OURSELVES.

Even scholarship speaks of Social Capital in communities which is the accumulation of an intangible thing like “owing you one’ which in time is utilized for community development. In its simplest form Social Capital is the good deeds of someone shared in a community like a savings account of good deeds that will come back to you – pay back – down the road. Pay back rather than pay forward.

Pay back under girds the whole concept of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” … Being the parent of a teenager who is struggling to find his way in the world I was disheartened to hear him say recently – “I treat people around me the way they treat me …”

On one level that’s a fair statement. If someone used and abuses you – you protect yourself and keep them from using and abusing you further. Or if they pull you down, why would you want to hang out with them at all?

But on another level, the teenaged world is a pretty selfish place. They can only see what works for them … and they block out quite a lot …

Considering my son’s comment I had to wonder – “what would the world be like if ALL of us lived our lives from the perspective of – “I’ll treat the people around me the way they treat me?”

How many people having a bad day would it take in a community to create community wide chaos in the twinkling of an eye?? It could one person, like a grocery store clerk, or a manager at the local bank, that would begin the ripple that moves through the entire community filling it with negativity ...

You roll into the local café and order a coffee and the clerk is having a bad day and she snaps at you … you snap at the librarian on your way home and she rages at the bank manager when she goes into discuss her loan … and he then goes to the Coop and tears a strip off the produce manager, who then rages at his wife over the phone who then yells at the kids who go out to the park and end up in a brawl with half the neighbourhood and your son comes home battered and bloodied and miserable …

Gandhi had a point when he said – “an eye for an eye will only serve to make the whole world blind …” Pay back has bad karma energy and can in the twinkle of an eye unleash a torrent of negativity and conflict that could be incredibly unpleasant …

But what if – in that moment when you step into the local café, rather than meeting the clerk’s negativity with your own negativity, you pay it forward … you remember the kindness shown to you at the gas bar 10 minutes earlier, and you say – “Sounds like you’re having a rough day …” and with a smile you leave a tip and a cheer “THANK YOU” … I can hear it now … “A TIP? The smile maybe, but a tip … outrageous” But if that young mom has bills to pay and part of her negativity has to do with bills piling up – at 50 cents along with 50 cents from 50 other customers that day could help pay for the new shoes that her daughter needs, or buy a bag of groceries that are needed to feed her kids tonight …

Paying it forward is about GENEROUSLY sharing kindness with others unconditionally …

I can’t help but wonder if that was the WHOLE point of the story of Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness? Rather than paying back others the way they treat us, God was setting out to show us how to live life treating others in a generous abundant way …

What would it look like if God really treated us the way we tend to treat God … Take a moment to really consider that possibility on a cosmic scale …

What if God paid heed to us for an hour or so a week?? Or didn’t pay heed to us AT ALL??

The harvest around us is proof of God’s limitless generosity. The circle of family and friend we have is evidence of God’s boundless love. If we dare to live with an attitude of gratitude we will have our eyes and our beings opened to the absolute abundant and breath taking profusion of blessings that are poured out around us – EVERYDAY.

A poet once quipped that God’s blessings are without number and began counting some by saying – the sun, the moon, children, each other … Such is the overwhelming nature of God’s blessing and bounty for US.

God clearly doesn’t live life by paying back – but rather by paying forward … The people are wandering through the desert, pining for what WAS – looking back at the “flesh pots of Egypt” and wishing they could be there rather than dying in the harsh desert, hungry, thirsty and filled with fear.

They grumble and complain about what they lack and look back on Egypt with nostalgia and fondness – remembering what WAS.

Yet God could have said – “forget it” and let them simply wither and die in the desert. But instead God sent them the abundance of manna and quail, and in this week’s reading the gift of sweet fresh water in a harsh barren wilderness.

God could have said – “Forget it – just die” and leave them to perish. But God kept pouring out blessings and bounty upon the people – and instead of saying – “thanks” and being appreciative and grateful, they came to want and expect MORE. As poet Anne Weems says eloquently – “it was never quite enough. The people wanted more.”

The people demanded more …

Rather than paying it forward – they greedily grabbed at what was offered and deemed it “PROOF” that they were specially chosen and blessed by God, and began to build barriers and walls to protect this bounty from OTHERS.

It is the creation of the bureaucracy and hierarchy to protect and covet the bounty and blessings of God that gives rise to the question put to Jesus – “by whose authority do you do these things?”

They weren’t concerned with revealing and reveling in the GLORY of God. They were concerned that the wrong kind of people might get exposed to God and to God’s bounty, and take some for themselves. There are rules you know? We have customs and procedures to follow you know?

Now, I’m a firm believer in rules and regulations, customs and procedures. I have always prided myself on knowing the rules and regulation and so on … my motivation though has never been protection of what it is, but rather learning the rules to help facilitate the necessary transformation that takes what “is” and moves it to what “needs to be”.

You can bring change most effectively if you know and can work from within the structure you’re seeking to change …

But instead of gratitude and appreciation, too often we encounter outright FEAR. “By whose authority?” Is a question grounded in fear.

The people in the wilderness grumbling is an expression of fear.

Pay back is a form of fear.

Paying it forward is about seeing life in its abundance and living accordingly. Rather than dwelling on what we lack or what we may lose, we instead celebrate what we HAVE and what we may gain.

But listening to modern media, we would never imagine that we live in a world of abundance.

Tax cuts, corporate bail outs, rising prices, security concerns, … all of these things are forms of grumbling that resonate and echo with the grumbling of the Israelites who are wandering in the desert complaining and whining …

Our whining and complaining is harder to see from within.

As a faith people – we are to open our eyes to the abundance that exists around us. God has given us so much and yet we will ALWAYS focus on what we think we lack.

The bounty of creation. The gift of friends and family. Life itself. We have so much to celebrate and revel in. Yet rather than courageously and boldly LIVING it and paying it forward. We instead chose to pay it back … and try to protect and hoard what is around us in such overwhelming abundance …

They asked Jesus – by whose authority?

Instead of answering directly, I have no doubt he shook his head in disappointment, then shared a story that they simply didn’t get … so caught up in the world of “paying it back” they couldn’t conceive of a boundless, limitless place where God’s abundance and grace pours out for all …

Paying forward was an inconceivable concept that stretched their comfort zone … and yet in that moment when Moses’ staff struck the rock and water gushed forth – the lesson was offered …

Our God is the God who causes water to pour forth in the middle of a vast barren wilderness … how can we possibly keep that kind of good news to ourselves??? And why would we even try?

Pay it forward … live with hope and anticipation and most of all GRATITUDE … and in the process – Let’s transform the world …

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

Sermon from September 21st 2008 ...

2008-09-26T09:20:00.003-05:00

It is said – you are what you eat?

In this season of putting out gardens to bed and harvesting the bounty of our backyard gardens and our rolling fields of potatoes, grains and other foodstuffs, it is a good time to reflect on the fullness of this notion.

With the rise of organic, and fair trade, the 100 mile diet and numerous other initiatives that seek to inspire us to reflect on where our food comes from and what is in it – particularly with the lingering listeria crisis, these notions have gained added momentum as we begin to realize that our food is fundamental to our wholeness and wellbeing.

But even more than that, “you are what you eat” is a reflection of the very values we hold dear as a people and a culture … Take a moment to think about the last major road trip you made … whether it was out to the BC coast for a break from the rolling prairies, to Calgary to visit family, south to the warm climes of Arizona, to Ontario or even a quick dash into Winnipeg to do some shopping … take a moment to reflect on the food outlets you passed along the way …

When I was a child we had favourite stops when we were driving the hour and a half up to the village where much of my extended family lived. Fish and chips, or friend chicken from the little restaurant at the junction just outside of Clifford Ontario was a treat, ice cream for the kids and fresh coffee from one of a dozen road side stops was an even more appreciated treat. It was not that long ago, but it was before the tsunami of fast food franchises washed over the countryside of Southern Ontario.

There was no Mac’s, Tims, Kings or bright neon signs to intice you off the highway – instead there were mom and pop operations that reflected the local flavour and that offered the original “slow food” to a traveling public.

I realized the negative impact of fast food one day when I walked out of a international franchise to find a sign in the parking lot that read simply – “Customer Parking: 15 minute maximum”

15 minutes?

You were to enter, order your food, consume it, and be gone in 15 minutes … Now, the cynic in me recognizes that to maximize the “taste” of the food, it must be consumed fresh and hot, so the 15 minute window was apt … but I come from a family that lingers over the meal, talking, laughing, getting caught up on life … Conversation has been as much a part of meals in my life as the consumption of food … food is secondary to the process actually …

So, 15 minutes is counter to the conversation … you don’t have time to talk, and eat and LINGER when you have 15 minutes … yet, that’s the value system of our modern society … We rush in, grab our meal wolf it back without consideration of where it came from or even what it really is, then we rush back out the door to our busy lives …

We’re caught up in a rat race, and we’ve lost sight of what we’re racing after and even why …

So into our busy lives breaks through the whisper that says – “what is it?”

This bread from heaven – this bounty that was all around them … what is it ?? and the reflection on how we live God’s abundance and bounty in our modern world …

Theologian Walter Bruggeman notes in an essay on scarcity and abundance that:

The majority of the world's resources pour into the United States. And as we Americans grow more and more wealthy, money is becoming a kind of narcotic for us. We hardly notice our own prosperity or the poverty of so many others. The great contradiction is that we have more and more money and less and less generosity -- less and less public money for the needy, less charity for the neighbor.

In our busy world this “truth” becomes more and more real as the gap between the haves and the have nots widens …

We get caught up in the notion of FAIRNESS that Jesus touches on in our Gospel reading – ensuring that we get out fair share of what is offered as pay … it’s the whole Protestant Work Ethic in action – you have to work hard, and those that are hired first should – NO MUST – be made more than those lolly-gaggers who showed up at the end of the day … to pay those hired in the afternoon the same as those hired in the morning is an affront to our beliefs and our values … and yet, here is Jesus saying – “does it really matter?”

The parable is about money – and how incredibly unimportant it really is … what is important is ensuring that EVERYONE has enough to meet their needs … it’s about seeing the world from God’s perspective – NOT ours …

We live in a world of plenty and bounty, yet the words of Bruggemann ring far too true … we are concerned about scarcity and about protecting what we have, rather than sharing with those who have not … We’re all guilty of it – myself included …

We’ve been conditioned to work hard – to be part of the rat race and to chase after that lump of cheese that lies just around the next corner – and in the process we’ve lost sight of what is important … we see ourselves in a desert of scarcity and yearn for the easy life back in Egypt, rather than trusting in God’s generosity and care …

We have become the Israelites complaining in the desert and failing to see the presence of a caring God … Bruggeman writes of the story of Manna:

When the children of Israel of Israel are in the wilderness, beyond the reach of Egypt, they still look back and think, "Should we really go? All the world's glory is in Egypt and with Pharaoh." But when they finally turn around and look into the wilderness, where there are no monopolies, they see the glory of Yahweh.

In answer to the people's fears and complaints, something extraordinary happens. God's love comes trickling down in the form of bread. They say, "Manhue?" -- Hebrew for "What is it?" -- and the word "manna" is born. They had never before received bread as a free gift that they couldn't control, predict, plan for or own. The meaning of this strange narrative is that the gifts of life are indeed given by a generous God. It's a wonder, it's a miracle, it's an embarrassment, it's irrational, but God's abundance transcends the market economy.

Three things happened to this bread in Exodus 16. First, everybody had enough. But because Israel had learned to believe in scarcity in Egypt, people started to hoard the bread.

When they tried to bank it, to invest it, it turned sour and rotted, because you cannot store up God's generosity. Finally, Moses said, "You know what we ought to do? We ought to do what God did in Genesis I. We ought to have a Sabbath." Sabbath means that there's enough bread, that we don't have to hustle every day of our lives. There's no record that Pharaoh ever took a day off. People who think their lives consist of struggling to get more and more can never slow down because they won't ever have enough.

When the people of Israel cross the Jordan River into the promised land the manna stops coming. Now they can and will have to grow their food. Very soon Israel suffers a terrible defeat in battle and Joshua conducts an investigation to find out who or what undermined the war effort. He finally traces their defeat to a man called A'chan, who stole some of the spoils of battle and withheld them from the community. Possessing land, property and wealth makes people covetous, the Bible warns.

We who are now the richest nation are today's main coveters. We never feel that we have enough; we have to have more and more, and this insatiable desire destroys us. Whether we are liberal or conservative Christians, we must confess that the central problem of our lives is that we are torn apart by the conflict between our attraction to the good news of God's abundance and the power of our belief in scarcity -- a belief that makes us greedy, mean and unneighborly. We spend our lives trying to sort out that ambiguity.
The conflict between the narratives of abundance and of scarcity is the defining problem confronting us at the turn of the millennium. The gospel story of abundance asserts that we originated in the magnificent, inexplicable love of a God who loved the world into generous being.

We are what we eat … if our diet doesn’t take time to sit at the kitchen table and reflect – really reflect and converse on issues in our lives that are important, then we will fail to live the abundance that is ALL around us and we will foolishly covet that which is unimportant … Fast food scarf-ed back in less than 15 minutes may feed our bodies, but it will never feed our souls … God calls us to table where the conversation, the relationship – the revolution takes precedence over the simple consumption of food …

I wonder if we dare to hear these words and follow … or will we, like our spiritual ancestors remain hard headed and stubborn, grumbling our way to the promised land that flows with milk and honey … a promised land we walk through every day …

Twenty five years ago travel meant stopping along the way and taking time for our coffee and our meal … today we use drive thrus and fast food outlets that prioritize getting the “food” into our hands and sending us back on our way … it’s up to us to ponder which way is better …

But as I consider my meal choices, I think about poet Robert Frost who said –
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood,

and I--I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

When it comes to food, it would seem the path less traveled, the one with time to converse over the table does indeed make all the difference …

What is it? It is food … but it is much more than simply food … it’s a way of seeing and experiencing the world in God’s vision …

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

Today's Service and Sermon:

2008-08-24T22:16:00.002-05:00

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 …

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 …

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 …

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:

Today's Sermon:

2008-07-20T23:19:00.002-05:00

Climbing ladders, scattering seeds ….
Faith in Transition ...

As HARD as it is to say while living on the prairie, surrounded by vast weedless tracts of crops – canola, wheat, potatoes, flax, barley, oats … weeds are simply plants out of place … it may be anathema even to suggest that weeds have value …

The most ubiquitous weed around us – the dandelion is perhaps one of the most nutritious and versatile plants imaginable … if you google search dandelions you will find a HUGE number of references to dandelions … last night when I checked it was in excess of 2.1 MILLION web pages about dandelions.

You can make a salad out of the leaves, you can make ointments out of the stems, you can dry the roots and make coffee, you can dry the leaves and make an herbal tea, you can make a fine wine out of the blossoms, young children can create beautiful woven necklaces of the blossoms, bunches of the bright yellow flowers are a rite of passage for EVERY mother, and there is NOT a child alive who hasn’t delighted in making a wish as they blow the dandelion fluff into the wind … even the most die-hard gardener has to begrudgingly admit that the lawn full of blooming yellow dandelions makes a majestic sight in the spring of the year … they may be regarded as a pest or a weed, but they are high in vitamin C, nutritious, quite delicious and filled with incredible potential … they are proof that a weed is simply a plant out of OUR context … they are a blight on the modern lawn because we expect a perfect green vista, rather than the broad green leaves and bright yellow flowers of the dandelion …

The question then is one of perspective …is the problem that the dandelion is a weed, or is the problem our perspective?

Yesterday I recalled a story about a man walking across a parking lot in a rain storm. He was trying to avoid the many puddles that were under foot, and was trying to get to his destination through the driving rain … his mood was grey and dark like the weather. But then he heard a child’s voice say – “look mommy, a rainbow … a rain bow …” He glanced up and could see only grey dark clouds and rain … he glanced over at the child who was pointing at the puddle below her bright yellow rubber boots … on the surface of the puddle was a bright rainbow from the sheen of oil floating on the top of the puddle.

Now, environmental concerns about WHAT those residues could be set aside for a moment – the little girl in the midst of a grey dark rain storm found a rainbow at her feet … and the man learned a valuable lesson about perspective … pausing to consider where the gifts and blessings might be found.

This year’s canola will become next year’s weed in a field of grain or flax, just as this year’s dandelion will be regarded as a weed in the middle of a lush green front lawn … but is this what Jesus meant when he offered the harsh parable of the weeds growing amongst the crop?

If we step back and consider the story of Jacob we have before us today, and the saga of the Patriarch’s life that we are currently moving through in the lectionary cycle, our perspective on issues of faith are challenged in ways we may not have considered.

We have a tight and neat image of Jacob. He is the father of Israel. We will celebrate his devotion for Rachel, but overlook his first wife Leah . We will remember that it was from his sons that the twelve tribes of Israel arose. We remember him as the gentle aged father who warmly welcomes home his son Joseph after the nastiness of Joseph’s brothers sent the young man into slavery in Egypt. We have a warm fuzzy image of Jacob that leaves much out … we tend to forget his conniving ways that tricked Esau out of his rightful inheritance … we overlook the treachery that Laban invoked on Jacob … in short, we will gloss over the bits that don’t fit our perspective of Jacob as a hero of faith.

Yet, a reading of the Book of Genesis – even a cursory reading, will reveal to us a lot of political machination, a lot of posturing and more than just a little bit of conniving and treachery by everyone involved … okay, almost everyone – I remember one of the ministers in my past pointing out that in the life of Jacob the one person who never engages in any form of deception is poor Leah who stands on the margins of the story, yet is central in being the mother of seven children – six sons and a daughter, while the other six sons came from Rachel and two maid servants Bilhah and Zilpah. Loyal and devoted Leah stands, just wanting to be loved by her husband ... But alas, that is a story for another day, for today we are offered the image of Jacob’s dream of a ladder stretching up into heaven.

The image of Jacob’s ladder is one that has become central to our understanding of the linkage between heaven and earth … lined with angels ascending and descending, and the voice of the Living God assuring Jacob that he is being accompanied by the divine promise – the covenant uttered to Abraham when God said – “I will be your God and YOU will be my people …” there is an implied understanding and experience that permeates everything that we are about …

We are chosen by God. We are the select. We are the in group. We are God’s people. … We have a specific perspective that radically defines WHO we are and how we move through the world … we can forget all the uncomfortable bits and see the world through a rose coloured set of lenses that block out the treachery, the deception, the machinations …that dub certain plants weeds, and that focus only on what makes us warm and comfortable and SAFE.

Everything outside the tight definition is to be cast into the fire and burned …

The problem arises when we begin to consider whether our perspective is valid or not …

I remember as a child spending many hours talking about life and faith and all kinds of other issues with my Grandfather … many of his lessons have stuck with me … his challenge to never judge someone harshly because when you point a finger at another, there are THREE fingers pointing back at yourself, has been central in my life … but one afternoon I remember talking to him about Church and the whole concept of who is in and who is out … and he shared with me the experience of growing up in a congregation of the Free Church of Scotland Presbyterian Church in southern Ontario.

He noted that it was a very strict and devote group, and that they had a very firm understanding that THEY were AMONG the chosen of God, and that ONLY those who shared their faith would make it into heaven. Grandpa shared with me a conversation he had had a long time before with a young cousin who was troubled by this … the Young man couldn’t conceive of a heaven without the many good people who populated their small rural village.
How could a loving God make heaven for a small handful of the human family?

My grandfather said – “my view of heaven is that it is a wondrous place filled with all manner of amazing things and people, but in the middle of it is a HUGE wall enclosing a tiny little corner of heaven.”

“What’s inside the wall?”asked the young cousin.

“That’s where they put all of the folks from our church,” answered Grandpa, “so they think they have heaven all to themselves …”

It’s too easy to lose our perspective and to become TOO focused on only that which edifies us and makes us feel good … Life and faith are far more than THAT.

The story of Jacob shows us that God has plans for ALL people, even the likes of Jacob who spent most of his life tricking those around him, and in turn being tricked and cheated … But more than that, the story of Jacob reminds us that even God’s chosen are less than perfect, and that even if we think WE ARE – a change in perspective is a helpful thing …

The image of Jacob’s ladder has often been translated into the self-help processes of groups like AA, who seek to help free us from our struggles … we live here on earth with our burdens and our challenges … and the ladder of healing and wholeness stretches upwards as a gift from God … a Coptic mystic envisioned Jacob’s ladder as an analogy of the spiritual life. The thirty rungs of this ladder begin with detachment – letting go and trusting in the divine presence … and move through a variety of reflections and meditations on ALL aspects of life from money to lying to laziness to pride … until the practitioner through a winnowing of values and understandings stands in a place of spiritual perfection fully enveloped with the Holy.

As difficult and seemingly far fetched as it may sound, the vision of St John Climacus has parallels in the 12 steps of AA, and in numerous modern self-help books like those of Eckhart Tolle, who all begin with an initial step of letting go and trusting in THIS MOMENT.
Naming OUR personal problem or burden is a dramatic shift in perspective, AND is the first step up Jacob’s ladder … trusting, not in ourselves, but in our higher power, in God, or the cosmos (whatever term people chose to use) is the second step that embodies the concept Jesus put forward when he questioned why we are so good at seeing the speck in our brother’s eye, but lousy at seeing the log in our own …

We can point those fingers at others … but we can also ignore the fingers pointing back …

When our foot touches the first rung of Jacob’s ladder and we begin to climb our perspective begins to change … today’s weed becomes tomorrow’s feast … it’s all a matter of perspective.

It’s easier to stand in a place of self-righteous judgement that sees the “weeds” cast into the eternal fire and burned … but …

The difference between a weed and a crop plant is simply a matter of perspective … our faith-filled calling is be open to God’s view of the world, that may not always be in synch with our own.

What we would be so certain to dub a weed may not be one at all … and what we are so convinced is a valuable crop, may in the fullness of time be regarded only as a weed … it’s all a matter of perspective.

If we consider the humble weed – dandelion, we can, if we are open to it, be struck by the versatility of the tenacious and ubiquitous little plant. It may be a nuisance to some, but to others it is a nutritious, delicious and beautiful gift from God’s creation … and when a tiny fist carries in a fresh picked bouquet of bright yellow flowers with the words – “Here, these are for you …” even the most hardened heart has to reluctantly admit to the beauty being offered to them …

And all of this comes from a humble weed …

It’s all a matter of perspective … and our calling of faith is to open ourselves to God’s perspective rather than holding tightly only to our own … when we point to a weed and denounce it as “useless” … my grandfather’s lesson about those other three fingers becomes relevant … it may well be a weed from our perspective … in a world of change, challenges and transitions, what we hold most dearly to may not be what we expect, and we must open our understandings and our beings to more … the lesson of Jacob’s ladder is about trusting in God’s presence, even in the darkest night to give us strength, comfort and wholeness …

In the coming days, may we have the courage, the faith and most of all the OPENESS to the fullness of life, which is a gift from God … and may we be open to the gift of dandelions in our world …

May it be so, today and always - Thanks be to God …

Let us pray …

Our plans ... God's Plans ... the cry of Ishmael ...

2008-06-22T19:25:00.003-05:00

The weather today was sunny and warm ... the Congregation that invited me to lead them in worship had gathered in an outdoor "sanctuary" created by the towering trees of a parishoners backyard backing on to a lake ... The birds were singing, the geese were honking, as we began the children of the congregation were bouncing on a trampoline and kicking an ENORMOUS soccer ball ... I couldn't have envisioned a more perfect setting to step back into a "pulpit" and reclaim the ministry of preaching ... something that has been denied me for almost a year ...

It felt so good to stand before a Congregation and lead them in worship ... it is what I have been called to do, it is something I've been blessed to be able to do well, and today I realized that it is something I miss ...

Perhaps my wanderings in the wilderness are finally drawing to an end ... for now - today's sermon:

The readings for today were:
Genesis 21: 8-21
Psalm 86: 1-10, 16-17
Romans 6: 1b-11
Matthew 10:24-39

It is safe to say – the church doesn’t like conflict.

We want the church to be a bastion of calm, peace, and serenity in our world. We’ve named where we gather – a sanctuary for a reason. We want the Church to be that to the world – a sanctuary, a place of peace and calm and serenity in the face of everything the world can and does throw at us … given that we are sitting outside with the sun shining upon us, with birds singing, the lake glistening and the geese honking in the distance, we WANT this kind of experience to be what church is about – peace, serenity, and NICE … we want to have one place where we can gather together and have a sense of the Holy present and manifest in our world …

But then we keep having these pesky conflicts over money … sex … politics …

Why do we have to talk about these things?

Why can’t we just say our prayers, sing our hymns and worship God like we always have ?

And in our comfort we then we look around and wonder why the church is in decline, and why our young people by and large simply stay away and find their spirituality and their meaning some where else …

Our Gospel reading is not an easy passage to hear … it is an even more difficult passage to wrestle with … What was Jesus thinking when he started saying things like “I do not come to being peace to the earth, but to bring the sword”?

This is not gentle Jesus, meek and mild saying that he has come to set man against his father, daughter against her mother … to divide families and make foes of a single household … what’s up with that THIS is about conflict, and we don’t like conflict ?

How can this wonderful warm and welcoming Jesus come to bring such conflict to us? That’s NOT what faith is about … that’s not like the Jesus we have smiling from the walls of our Sunday School rooms …

Then we step back and hear the cries of anguish uttered into the howling desert wind by Hagar watching her son die … They’ve been cast out and out cast by the great Patriarch Abraham who could no longer abide a usurper who cast a shadow over his chosen favoured son Isaac. Ishmael and Hagar HAD TO GO … so they were driven out for the sake of peace in the community … peace MUST be maintained !!

Sadly, and perhaps not surprisingly, these stories and these ideas are not unique … Maintaining the peace of a community by casting out the troubled one, is a long standing tradition. Sacrificial religious practices were based on the idea that if we appease the gods by offering up an innocent victim, the rest of us would be freed to continue …

In ancient Judaism the concept of the Scape Goat arose and became a regular occurance in the life of the community and nation. The sins of the people would be recorded on scrolls – ALL the sins of the people were written down, then placed PHYSICALLY on the back of a goat and then with great pomp and circumstance the goat is driven out into the wilderness to DIE … and with its death comes the freeing of the people from their sins …

With the Goat goes their sins … in its death comes freedom …and they can continue on the same way because … well, because the sins and misdeeds are all gone …

If only it worked that way … if only freedom from sins and conflict and misdeeds was THAT simple …

Grace isn’t about just letting go of our sins and walking away … Grace isn’t about dumping our conflict on the back of a goat, driving it out of the city gates and pretending that everything is

ALL better now … Life doesn’t work that way …

Grace is about wrestling with life in its fulless …

Grace is about facing change and uncertainty without flinching nor running away …

But in the Church we generally don’t do a very good job at that … we are PROGRAMMED to have a gentle calm and peaceful faith – we don’t want conflict … “why can’t we all just get along?” becomes our mantra … “why can’t we all just agree?” we cry … why does it have to be SO HARD???

We push out our Hagars and our Ishmael’s and restore calm … but in that moment, we’ve lost something …

This past week at a workshop exploring the possibility of non-profits and churches getting involved in addressing the housing crisis in the city of Brandon, one of the participants said – “we live in a time of great abundance, yet we focus on the short comings and the perceived scarcity …” he went on to talk about how we complain about minor details like taxes and wait lists rather than taking stock of how many incredible things we simply take for granted, and how much we really have … Walk into a grocery store and really look around, he noted … you can’t say we live in a place of scarcity when you stand and look at the variety of breakfast cereal alone …

Another voice chimed in and agreed but then spun this perspective of scarcity versus abundance to a different place … as a leader in the Church he noted that we talk about wanting something, but too often in the Church when we get it we realize it isn’t really what we wanted …

We want more kids in our Church, but then on Sunday morning when they show up and do what kids will do we harp about how disruptive they are and even worse – we say things like – WELL, back in my day children NEVER behaved like THAT … and we are left wondering why they never come back …

We want more people in our pews, but then when they offer their time to serve on committees, stewards and the Board, we get uncomfortable because they are trying to change things too fast, and they don’t understand that “we don’t do things THAT WAY around here …”

We need more bodies to help with the work of our declining groups, yet when new folks step forward to help out at the potluck supper they get snapped at for not putting the dishes out properly, or not knowing that “that’s how we always do this …” or worse – we offer only the icy glare of judgement that leaves the newcomer feeling unwelcome and judged …

The list of Hagars and Ishmael’s in our midst is very long … we could spend hours and hours discussing examples of where and how as a Church we’ve picked up the welcome mat and not only rolled it up, but taken swings at visitors as well … I could show you the bruised I’ve experienced at the hands of supposedly warm and welcoming Congregations across Canada that have simply and utterly failed to live their faith and their welcome …

But to what end?

To inventory the shortcomings, we would be rubbing our hands together and lamenting OUR shortcomings and our failures and achieving nothing … it would be an intellectual exercise in scape goating …

What is needed is the NAMING of this process of driving out the unwanted and the unwelcomed – the Hagars and the Ishmael’s and an owning of the wrongness of it all …

THEN – in a place of Grace – as a people of faith – as disciples of the Gospel – the very thing that Jesus speaks to us of in our reading from Matthew – in THAT moment and place we need to commit to a better way of seeing the world around us, and living out our faith …

Our sanctuary is not about creating an oasis free of conflict and strife, but rather creating a place where we can come to resolve and heal ourselves and our conflict and strife … a place where

Grace abounds … a place where conflict is healed!

Poet Ann Weems talks about the Church being a place where people come with the tattered remains of their lives in their arms as they seek the healing that comes from Grace and Faith … they are easy words to speak – harder words to live …

Saying – ALL WELCOME is a radical concept … what happens when they show up?

What happens when the immigrant arrives? Or the full coloured Biker? Or the stinky homeless person? Or the neighbour you’ve been fighting with for years?

But all is NOT hopeless … so long as there are one or two gathered, we still have a Church, and we have the potential and possibility of the Spirit to bring about a resurrection …

We live in a time and place of enormous change and uncertainty … yet, looking back over the history of the Church and even our Scriptures, we can see that in these moments, there is an openness to the transformation that God offers … Our collective history is filled with example after example of life altering change coming in a time of great uncertainty and fear …

Modern thinker and writer Eckhart Tolle, whom some of you may be familiar with thanks to Oprah – says that change is inevitable I life – change is what life is – and that when we are willing and able to not only accept that change, but to live with it and know that uncertainty is just the way things are, we will finally find a true peace …

The funny thing for me is that this is perhaps the oldest teaching we have as a Church … it is part of the very fabric we share and have shared since the beginning …

Abraham cast out Hagar and Ishmael, and in that moment when ALL seemed hopeless, God stepped in and offered transformation and change and HOPE …

To the disciples feeling the sting of rejection by their families and friends, the words of Jesus broke through and reminded them that walking a path of faith is NOT about acceptance and calm nor serenity … it’s about walking a path of faith for a higher and better ideal … and it WILL mean conflict … but it will mean a deeper peace, knowing that we are living our faith … and we are disciples …

Even to Paul and the other early followers who faced horrid persecution, torture and even death … in the face of the world, God’s presence WILL break through … be alive to God through Christ …

In the moment of hopelessness – God WILL break through!

We have all around us Ishmael’s … the challenge before us, if we see the Church as the heirs of Isaac, is to finally make peace with our brothers and sisters, and rather than continuing to cast the out – to welcome them home, and in the name of the Risen One, to claim our unity by recognizing and celebrating our diversity …

Faith calls us to face life in its fullness … to offer hope in the face of despair – to proclaim the light of grace in a dark world – and to embrace ALL OF GOD’s children, not just some – they are easy words and concepts to speak of – they are harder words to live … but thanks be to God, we have examples of HOW to live those words all around us … if only we dare to listen …

The transformation of Grace begins with us … it begins here … when we mindfully welcome in the outsider and the stranger and accept them as they are … the transformation of Grace begins as we lean into our fears and embrace our uncertainty and allow the winds of change to blow over and thru us … Jesus said – have no fear … and that my friends is where it begins … fear is just being closed to the possibilities around us … faith is about seeing uncertainties as a place of possibilities and potentials …

We are called to Faith … we are called to be disciples … we are called to live the simple concept – ALL WELCOME!!

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

From Palms to Palms ...

2008-03-16T13:42:00.003-05:00

The journey that is Holy Week has begun ... the Palms have been waved, the "Hosannas" have been shouted, and the wandering homeless one has been welcomed in as a triumphant King ...

But such adulation is fleeting at best ...

We know the journey that leads from "Hosanna" to "Hallelujah" travels through some dark and painful places ... place many of us are afraid to trod ...

Yet, the words echo within us ... "through the Valley of the Shadow of Death ..."

The darkness lies ahead as we move from the palms that we waved over our heads triumphantly to the palms that are pierced by rough hewn nails ...

We move from celebrations to savagery ...

... thankfully God takes the broken moments and the darkness and guides us to the full breaking light of EASTER Morning where transformation and Resurrection reign supreme and we claim the Fullness we deserve ...

It all begins with the words - "The Body of Christ Broken for you ..."

Thanks be to God !!!
.

As Ann Weems writes:

"Holy is the week ...

Holy, consecrated, belonging to God ...

we move from Hosannas to Horror

with the predictable ease

of those who know ot what they do ...

... 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 ..."

Indelible Images and Impressions ...

2008-02-12T11:16:00.000-06:00

I've heard it said that one's true nature shows through in a crisis ... Looking back over the last two years I've learned the truth of THAT notion ...

When the crunch comes, the resources of faith and our responses to crises and struggle shine through (or not) as the case may be ... people of Good faith with a loving heart and kindness in their soul act accordingly ...

Two years ago a promise of faith was made to support and carry a people from the crisis that enveloped them in the early morning hours ... now two years later I can say with honesty that the true faith of everyone has shown through in their actions ... for many more those were insincere and empty words, and the hollowness of those words has been revealed for all to see ...

For the moment, I'll leave the rest in the hands of God, knowing that I there has NOT been a day go by that I haven't grieved the ever mounting losses that I've been forced to endure at the hands of "The Church" ... and that I have in all things struggled to be faithful, sincere and honest in my life journey ...

Maybe one day others will see things for what they are and what they have been ...

The LONG Road home ...

2008-02-04T22:54:00.000-06:00

I had a realization today ...

I was driving in to Winnipeg for a couple of appointments and chillin' to Coltrane on the car stereo ... I was thinking about moments in time when my life takes an unexpected turn and I find myself wandering in a wilderness, both figuratively and literally ...

For some reason I began thinking about a moment in time when I walked away from my home congregation on a journey that looked at the time like it would never take me back there ...

It began one morning when, at our 9:15 Youth Class the presenter started talking about how much God loved us ... I listened to the exortations about HOW much God loves us until they said the words - "God loves us so much THAT EVERYTHING that happens in our lives happens BECAUSE God loves us ..."

"Everything?" I asked.

"Everything," affirmed this person.

I then began to question how my father's death could be regarded as a "good thing" arising from God's Love ... I don't remember the specifics of the answer, but I DO remember the intense feeling that the simplistic answers being provided were JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH ... in the coming days I left the Church ... I began a struggle with the questions of faith that lead me away ...

I wandered to a Missionary Alliance Congregation, a Pentecostal Congregation, a Vineyard Congregation and on through a variety of other denominations ... until eventually I just left attending Church behind ...

Today as I thought about that chapter in my life I reflected on the comments of a colleague and friend who said the recent events in my life are a Biblical Jubilee moment where the Institutional aspects of ministry in my life are to lie fallow for a time, and in time perhaps I will find my way back to the Institution that is the Church ... as I thought about that I remembered the story of a First Nations elder and Church leader who spoke of the circle around the hearth and its centrality to life ...

He noted that central to ALL First Nations is the Hearth where all generations of families gather to share life and stories ... he went on to note that ALL family members eventually leave the hearth and wander into the world. They will eventually come back, but only AFTER they have been away for a time ...

Some come back as young people ... some come back as adults ... some only come back as spirits welcomed home when their earthly life draws to an end ... but ALL come back eventually ... He went on to see the hearth like the life of First Nations village AND like the life and ministry of the Church. He ended by saying - "WE ALL must find our OWN way from the hearth and BACK ..."

The important piece of the lesson that this elder taught was in the openess of the community AROUND the hearth to LET that journey happen, and to welcome BACK the wanderer ... he stressed that the welcome can not be conditional, nor can it be a case of welcoming them ONLY if they adapt to the hearth - but instead the people around the hearth need to be open to the learnings and lessons that came with the journey away ...

My home congregation in time welcomed me back unconditionally ... and together, they and I shared some of the learnings and lessons I had experienced while away ...

My hope is that in those moemnts when we find ourselves wandering in a wilderness of some kind, that when the long road leads us back "home" that we are welcomed back with open arms, open hearts and most importantly open MINDS !!!

Such moments are the heart of the resurrection in action ...

The Seeker Church MUST move beyond it's fear ...

2008-01-30T10:24:00.001-06:00

A First Nations friend used to say frequently that when people encounter stressful situations with change as an inevitable reality they will, particularly if they suffer from addiciton and/or dependency issues, react in fear ... He then went on to describe the F.E.A.R. principle that comes into play ...

"Watch," he would say, "they'll live by F.E.A.R."

"What does that mean?" I naively asked.

"F.E.A.R. ..." he said laughing, "F@*& Everything And Run!!"

He was sooooooo right ...

In so many places I've witnessed that very principle at work. People will physically run away from the challenge of the moment ... they will withdraw ... or worst of all - they will LASH OUT.

Since reading the book "Christianity for the Rest of Us" by Diana Butler Bass I've been digging through some of my Church and Theological Resources looking for more information about the difference between a Village Church and what I've dubbed a Seeker Church. This issue looms large in the work I'm undertaking around the Masters Thesis I'm currently writing.

I want to examine the role of Church Congregations as a means of community, economic and social development in rural communities ... given that the Church is often the last Institution to pull out of small rural communities, they would seemingly have opportunities to be MORE than just a weekly Worship service.

Yet, even Churches rich in resources and capital of all kinds, there has often been something hindering these communities from realizing that POTENTIAL ... Reading Butler Bass, the penny finally dropped ... I began to connect some of the theoretical threads ... Butler Bass' view of the Emerging Church ... Friedman's view of the Church as a Family Process System ... the visionary work of folks like Wallis, Stivers and others ... and the works of many calling on the Church to BE MORE THAN JUST A WORSHIPPING COMMUNITY ... have started to come together, as I've been exploring the WHY?

Some churches are just not able to face the challenge of change with anything less than fear ...the same fear that causes the F.E.A.R. principle to kick into play ...

Nelson Granade says it well when he notes:

Communities desperately need leaders to guide the way through the challenges of change, but they often reject leaders because of the anxiety associated with such change.Anxious communities, like anxious congregations, can become unhealthy systems and develop unrealistic expectations of leaders. Just as anxious congregations "over focus on their clergy" and "find it immensely difficult to see the rest of the system," anxious comunities overfocus on community leaders and fail to see the core causes of their apprehension. The community's "blurred vision" generates unrealistic expectations of leaders and distorted ideas about community problems. The leader becomes a magnet for criticism while the community stumbles along failing to see or to address radical economic and cultural shifts. Foundational issues recieve little attention and thus continue to be unresolved, creating even greater and higher levels of anxiety. The unfortunate result is that leadership is devalued and those brave enough to offer leadership often decide the results are NOT worth the effort ...

He then goes on to describe the PROBLEM that community leaders like Clergy face when they are courageous (or stupid) enough to step outside the Traditional Role (and usually unrealistic) expectation they have imposed upon them ... In trying to challenge people to critically examine the Status Quo and seek new ways of doing and being, in a community living in F.E.A.R. they face anger, rejection and ultimately the loss of their employment.

Village Churches today live in a place of F.E.A.R. The world around them is changing rapidly ... the "old" ways are fading ... Today's challenge is for them face the reality around them and overcome their fear, or accept their fate and hang up the "We're Closed" sign.

Change is inevitable ... and like the wise man once said - "we have NOTHING to fear BUT fear itself."

Today the Church (that is YOU and I) that is seeking a healthy active spirituality that transcends the strictures of Tradition MUST face its fear and seek to LIVE its faith BOLDLY and without any F.E.A.R.

Running away is NO LONGER AN OPTION !!!

Now the challenge will be to find the means of helping communities and leadership to assess and evaluate the status of a community and whether it is a Village Church or a Seeker Church ... and act accordingly. A Village Church needs a Eulogy prepared ... The Seeker Church needs a map and a guide book to help make the road ahead an adventure ...

I Have a Dream:

2008-01-23T12:52:00.001-06:00

This week I've been doing A LOT of reflecting on, and revisiting of - the life and writings of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Earlier I revisited his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Today I've been immersing myself in the exquisite truth of his "I Have a Dream" speech ... click below and take the 17 minutes to watch and listen to the video, or scroll down and read his words ... either way, let his words wash over you and hear the profound and prophetic message that continues to reverberate throughout humanity ...

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope.

This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true.
So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Lessons from the Sea

2008-01-22T23:43:00.001-06:00

I've heard two variations on the story ... both from First Nations elders ...

The first version is about fresh water crayfish - the second was salt water crabs.

Both stories spoke a truth worth considering in the Church and in small communities everywhere ...

The story (the first version) goes like this:

An old man was catching crayfish and tossing them in a small ice cream bucket. He had caught a couple of dozen cray fish when some young boys strolled by and glanced in the bucket.

"Hey old man," one of the boys called, "your cray fish are gonna escape on you."

"Nay," replied the old man without looking up, "they're Indian Cray fish."

"What does that mean?" asked one of the young men.

"It means that when one of the cray fish actually makes it up to the lip of the bucket and gets ready to climb out," the old man looked up at the boys, "the other cray fish pulls them back down into the bucket ..."

The elders who shared this story with me both lamented the with resignation the truth of this story not only for First Nations communities, but for many small towns where relationships and familial ties run strong. One of them even cited the example of Jesus returning to his hometown of Nazareth where his reading of the Prophet Isaiah is met with the crowd wanting to toss him off the nearest cliff.

Too often success in small communities, be they native or non-native, is met with derision and criticism rather than support and encouragement ...

The challenge is to escape the tendancy to be like the cray fish and crabs, and rather than viewing those who are climbing up to the edge of the bucket holding ALL of us with jealousy, we need to open our eyes to the possibility that with their success THEY might be able to lead ALL of us to FREEDOM ...

It's true in the Church ... it's true in communities ... it's true across all divides of race, colour and creed ... it's about being HUMAN and moving past petty jealousy to a place of co-operation and community building ...

Sometimes it's worth listening to old fisherman ... they've got much to teach us ... if we dare to hear!

Empty Pews ...

2008-01-18T11:18:00.001-06:00

One day, not that long ago I sat in the basement of this building as part of the faith community that used to live and worship there ... and I experienced an epiphany moment ... it was a moment that had a profound and lasting impact and effect on my life ...

In time I would have a second epiphany moment that would lead me away from the Church for a time and send me searching for something more ... it was a search that one day lead me back through the front doors of this building, after an absence of almost 5 years only to be welcomed back with open arms, an offer to teach Sunday School and ABSOLUTELY NO hint of judgement ... I never left again ...

In the coming days I will share some of my stories from this place ... but for the moment I would like to share the first epiphany moment and where it has lead ...

It began with our 9:15 youth group meeting with the minister of the day Reverend Ross Cumming. This particular day Ross hauled in an old "portable" record player (remember those heavy monolithic things from school and church???) He pulled out a black vinyl record and put it on the turntable saying - "I want to share this you ... I think it's important ..."

He then put the needle down on a recording of the 1967 Massey Lecture from CBC that was the Christmas Sermon on Peace delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The words were powerful and I was AMAZED ... it, as I've said elsewhere, lead to me devouring every word I could find about King - at 12 I even bought a copy of EBONY magazine that had a series of articles on King - do you realize the odd looks I got at the little magazine shoppe on Downie St in Stratford when I walked in there one day and as a skinny white kid asked - "Do you carry EBONY?" !!!!

Along the way I encountered and read and re-read King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail that struck a profound cord with me ... particularly where he wrote:

Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are...

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.

Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust..

Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world.

The line - "everyday I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust ..." has ALWAYS stood out for me ... I was once one of those young people, and over the last twenty some years I have repeatedly found myself drawn to those young people as I've struggled in ministry within the Church.

Over cups of coffee, pop and the occasional beer - I have heard countless voices, not all of them chronologically YOUNG who have articulated CLEARLY and CONCISELY what they see wrong within the Church. Over and over I have heard THEM say - "you're not like the OTHER ministers I've met ..." and they expressed an appreciation for my attention and time, and they've offered a deep heart felt desire, usually accompanied by a sigh that expresses the gut wrenching HOPE that one day perhaps the Church will hear them and take their words seriously ...

It's a hope I've always been very very sensitive to, and that I've tried to embody in my ministry ... but too often the faith communities are too interested, as King observes, in maintaining the STATUS QUO, rather than opening themselves up to what those "outside" want ... even the choice of language used within the Church betrays the presence of the very complacency that King was speaking of back in 1963.

Are those who express faith yearnings and who want to return to the Church really outside the BODY???

Or have we so created the boundaries and fences around the Church, that only a small narrowly defined group fit the criteria of "inside" while many of us, perhaps even ME, lie "outside" ... when in truth, we are not outside of anything ... but are instead simply advocating for a dismantling of the walls that would divide people from one another ...

The way things are is NOT working ... that much is clear ... what is needed is the willingness to expand out vision and look at some of the bold brush strokes ...

If we are to be an open and inclusive community the place to begin is perhaps by hearing the MANY voices who express contempt and disgust for the Church and actively and openly wrestle with the things they are saying ... then one day perhaps we will become the transformative community we are MEANT to be rather than a social club of the status quo ... until then we will continue to simply wring our hands over the empty pews and look for excuses about why we are in a precipitous decline ...

A Letter from a Friend ...

2008-01-16T18:57:00.000-06:00

In 1963 The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr wrote a letter from a jail cell in Birmingham Alabama. This week, as I've been reading Diana Butler Bass' book "Christianity for the Rest of Us" I have found myself thinking about this letter and its faithful and honest criticism of the Church ... words that continue to ring true even 45 years later ...

Below are excerpts from King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail - to read the complete text please click here - what follows are bits I chose to share ... The WHOLE LETTER is worth reading and reflecting on ...

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms. ...
.
... One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken .in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: "Why didn't you give the new city administration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. ... My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.
.
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant 'Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."
.
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God- given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six- year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.
.
You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may won ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there fire two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the Brat to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all"
.
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal .law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. ...
.
... We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's anti religious laws. ...
.
...the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. ...
.
... Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? l am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great- grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.
.
There was a time when the church was very powerful in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators"' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide. and gladiatorial contests.
.
Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.
.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it vi lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.
.
Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom, ...

What Kind of Welcome??

2008-01-13T14:40:00.000-06:00

I've always thought the Church could learn a lot from really listening to the music of our youth and young people. I have come to appreciate the lessons offered even more now that my children are developing their own taste in music. A couple of years ago I came to appreciate the powerful messages contained in songs my the rock group GreenDay when my son got a CD of their music for Christmas. The music may not be to my liking, but the message they convey is not one I am uncomfortable with ...
.
The medium and the message get blurred, but at the end of the day it's the message that MUST be heard ...
.
With that in mind, as I've been reading, reflecting and musing on Diana Butler Bass' book Christianity for the Rest of Us, I find myself humming the song "Subdivisions" by Canadian Rock Band Rush ... it's a song that came out in the 1980's as I was moving through the transition from High School to University ... and much of its message resonated with me at the time.
.
Lately as I've been reflecting on the challenges of transition and transformation that is confronting the modern Church, I have found myself hearing the words of the song that follow:
.
Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone

Subdivisions ---
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
.

CONFORM OR BE CAST OUT !!!!
This has seemingly become an operating principle in the modern Church - or at least the corners of the modern Church that are hesitant, reluctant or downright terrified of living with the changes that are spinning around us.

Butler Bass cites the example of a congregation who lived a faith motivated radical welcoming hospitality by allowing and encouraging the building of a tent city on their front lawn to house homeless individuals from the surrounding community. She notes that all was not easy - members made it clear THAT if the Tent City went ahead THEY would leave ... others said if the Tent City didn't proceed THEY would leave ... often in the Institutional Church (that is the Village Church we've spoken of previously) the response to such ecclesiastical black mail is to cave and maintain the status quo and reject those who advocate change - OR worse - demand that those wanting change instead conform ...

In Butler Bass' example though it was noted that the Congregation did not cave into ecclesiastical black mail (the old - Give me what I want OR I'll stop giving and NOT come back!!) but instead prayerfully and faithfully approached the issue of the Tent City and proceeded BECAUSE it was the right thing to do.

I couldn't help but wonder what would happen in the United Church of Canada under similar circumstances ... but then I know we have the example of The Rev. George Feenstra who did something remarkably similar in BC, only to be dismissed for failing to maintain the peace of the Church ...

Made me say - Hmmmm ...

What does this radical hospitality that Butler Bass writes about really look like?? (see pages 77 to 88 in her book)

How do we not only live that hospitality, but how do we transform those who would insist on conformity as the ONLY response???

The old Rush song speaks of uniformity, which is the very thing that under girds the Village Church ... in such a setting change is NOT embraced, but rather it is actively resisted ... In that moment, when conformity is demanded rather than change embraced - the outcome is not growth ...

Countless times I've encountered Congregations that say proudly - "we're a warm and welcoming place ..." only to stumble over folks who have never felt that purported welcome or warmth. In some cases it has been people who have been "there" for years and years and years, and still feel very much an outsider.

The congregation is happy to take their time, energy and money, but it remains a cliquey place where inclusion is based on relationships (familial, political, and economic), on worldview, on social class, on employment background, or common history, to name just a few. Those who are not "like us" are never fully integrated into the congregation and remain outsiders.

In the 80's a number of studies challenged the Mainline Denominations to take this issue seriously, yet when the clergy offers the observation that the congregation could do better in living out its welcome the response is often swift, negative and devastating ... Belling that cat can cost ministers their positions!!

Yet, it remains a crucial piece in the survival and more importantly the transformation of the Church. Living our welcome not only welcomes in the stranger's money - it is about integrating the stranger and transforming the community in the process. When a TWENTY year attendee says "I still don't feel part of the community" - they not only need to be heard - they DESERVE to be heard.

We can not set limits, either covert or overt when it comes to our hospitality. Our calling as people of faith is to welcome ALL people, not just some ... ALL!!! Failure to welcome in all of God's children and to open ourselves, our lives and our communities to the potential transformation this can represent is to simply cave into the ecclesiastical blackmail that insists the status quo MUST be maintained at ALL costs!!

Fortunately though, the dreamers, the misfits and the prophets are NOT alone ... they stand on the margins, or just beyond the comfortable doors of our sanctuaries and remind us that the word "welcome" can not have conditions if we are to be people of the Cross.

The Spirit will NOT be black mailed nor held hostage !!!!

Unlike the sign above which clearly puts an asterisk after "welcome" that delineates the limits for those who might be seeking more - our welcome sign as followers of Christ can have no limits, for we are here to offer the gift of God's Grace. A gift that has NO conditions and NO limits and NO boundaries.

We need to stop being gatekeepers trying in vain to protect something that is not ours to protect in the first place, and we should start tearing down the fences and walls that we ourselves have created ... we need to let God's gift of Grace simply pour forth ... and it begins by tearing down the walls that exist within us ...

We need to begin by doing as Butler Bass notes - "Christian people, themselves wayfarers, welcome strangers into the heart of God's transformative love !!"

In the seeker Church ALL are welcome with open arms - ESPECIALLY those with open hearts and MINDS !!!!!

Come Holy Spirit Come !!!!
Thanks be to God !!

An Internet Search Reveled:

2008-01-12T20:17:00.000-06:00

Today I went searching on the net for more information and writings by Diana Butler Bass ... I was NOT disappointed ... There is her own web site where there is whack of information about her six books, appearances, and writings, AND she is also found on a Blog over at BeliefNet hosted by Jim Wallis of Sojourners ...

Diana Butler Bass is one of those voices that the modern church needs to not only listen to, but also honestly and openly heed ... She's pointing in a direction that if we as a Church fail to consider, we may be watching our own demise ...

From her entry at Jim Wallis' blog I found this closing comment:

Frankly, the world has never needed the Christian practice of diversity more than it does today. ... Christians of every imaginable stripe—in the same room, doing important work together. We proved—or maybe discovered—that the only limit to diversity is the love of God.

It says so much ... maybe one day we'll have the courage to not only listen, but to follow ...