Sermon for January 18th 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sermon for January 11th 2009

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

Sermon for December 7th 2008

December 7th 2008
Peace on Earth by Ann Weems:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do we dare ?

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

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

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

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

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

Sermon from November 9th 2008

November 9th – 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remember who you are

Remember where you came from.

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

Remember your past …

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

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

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

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

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

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

The problem is – they’ve stayed the course.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sermon for Reign of Christ Sunday - Nov 23rd 2008

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

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 ...

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

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 ...

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 ...

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.