Today's Service and Sermon:

Welcome and Announcements:

Call to Worship:

Who do you say that I am? The question is asked.
The Son of the living God, we answer.
How do we share this knowledge? The question is asked.
By living our faith, we answer.
Are you prepared to come and follow me?
We come to worship, to follow and to praise you O Holy One.
Let us join together as we follow God,
Let us share our gifts and talents of faith
Together as God’s children. Thanks be to God.

Hymn: 506 Take my Life and Let It Be.

Prayer of Approach and Confession:

Who do you say I am?
The words roll off our tongue, we profess our faith
And proclaim the certainty of our belief.
A living sacrifice, good and acceptable to you O God.
Living the words, being what we believe,
These things challenge us beyond our comfort.
Be with us O Loving One, call us to our faith.
Forgive us, recreate us, renew us,
In the boundlessness of your mercy,
In the abundance of your grace,
And in the endlessness of your love.
Hear our prayers of O Holy One,
And in your love answer … Amen.

Old Testament Reading: Exodus 1:8-2:10

Responsive Reading: Psalm 124 (Page 848)

Epistle Reading: Romans 10:5-15

Gospel Reading: Matthew 14:22-33

Hymn: #595 Sister Let Me Be Your Servant

Sermon: Wanna Make God Laugh?

This past week I was thinking about what I could draw from our scripture readings this week to offer as reflection and perhaps inspiration for all of you as I stood here … the second verse in the reading from Romans stood out for me – “Do not be conformed by the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect …”
They are great words to say in church … great words to offer to one another here in this place where it is safe and easy to have such thoughts, and to earnestly believe that we can easily and simply live the notion of being transformed by the will of God … but they are harder words to carry out the door and to put into action in our day to day lives …
As I sat thinking and praying about this idea and trying to find something to say about them I was given a book by one of the people I work with in my capacity as Homelessness Coordinator for the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation.
He came into my office between the rain storms on Thursday to chat about some business we had to deal with, then as he got up to leave he smiled and laid a book on my desk with the words – “A gift. I think you’ll like it …”
The book is “Bent Hope” by Tim Huff, and is a collection of reflection pieces he’s written about encounters with street youth mainly in and around Toronto … he begins with a powerful explanation of hope as it is found in the often hopeless context of the streets where homeless youth live … then he begins to tell stories of moments shared with those same youth where holiness is found in abundance, and hope is found in absolutely hopeless situations …
But one story struck me as evidence that even in the midst of hopelessness, that which is good and acceptable and dare we say it – perfect is to be found, if we dare to open our eyes and our hearts to its presence …
The story is about a young man who lost everything, and yet helped others who he felt were in a worse place than he was … Thomas lived on the streets of Toronto and in the summer of 2005, he decided to go down to the Don River for a swim … if any of you have traveled in and around Toronto you may have a familiarity with the Don Valley Parkway … the Don River is the tiny polluted stream that gives that highway it’s name … it is NOT and has not been for dozens upon dozens of years a place where one would really want to swim, but for a street kid in Toronto in the middle of the oppressive heat of summer, its septic waters provide a cool relief … SO, Thomas went swimming …
Unfortunately, that oppressive heat brought with it a massive thunderstorm and an equally massive cloud burst that left cars stranded on the parkway in metre deep puddles of water … The torrential rain overwhelmed storm sewers and drainage ditches, and soon the trickle of the Don River turned into a MASSIVE flood and it thundered its way towards Lake Ontario …
Along the way, the flash flood swept away every possession that Thomas had except for the clothes he had been swimming in … he desperately tried to rescue his backpack, but to no avail … arriving on the scene Tim tried to calm the young man down with the assurance that they could replace all the items lost … but there was one item that could not be replaced – a picture of Thomas’ sister who had like him fled to the streets for safety from a toxic and abusive home … Thomas carried the picture with him because on the back his sister had written the words – ‘one day come and find me. I love you …’ the night she fled … and Thomas was trying to find her …
The shoes, the clothes, the personal items ALL could be replaced, but the precious picture of a missing sister … that was irreplaceable, and Thomas was inconsolable … he had lost even his hope …
Tim went on to reflect on the enormity of this young man’s loss, and he commented on how people could walk past Thomas day after day after day and know NOTHING about him and likely not even notice him on the street, and yet this young man carried an enormous pain … But then the seed of hope sprouted … one day Tim met Thomas on the street and in the young man’s hand was a Tim Horton’s Coffee cup brimming with change – a good haul for a day of pan-handling … but Thomas hadn’t collected the money for himself … in his other hand was a cardboard sign that read – “For Katarina’s Homeless, because it hurts to lose everything”
Tim helped Thomas take the money to the bank to deposit it into one of the many funds set up to help the victims of Hurricane Katarina … a young man who HAD lost everything – everything but hope … helped others because he knew what it was like to experience loss in a real way …
It’s easy to talk about people like Tim and Thomas and hear their inspiring example … it is harder to live and follow THAT example … yet, living our faith is exactly what we are called to do and to be about … to move past the words into action is what we are to be about in our lives, not just in here where it is safe and comfortable, but out there in the streets beyond the comfort and safety of the sanctuary …

Our job as people of faith is to live our faith by facing the hard questions and daring to live out the answers … when the question – “who do you say that I am?” echoes through our sanctuary and our psyche, we face one of the toughest questions imaginable.
Tough because the answer drives to the core of our being, and our understanding of the world and our place in it … Gentle Jesus meek and mild is the answer many of us are comfortable with – clean robes, combed hair, smiling, not stirring things up … a Jesus we can, and DO hang on the wall of our Sunday School rooms … But the Jesus of History steps out of the frame and is anything but meek and mild. Jesus is NOT a gentle soft spoken rabbi, but rather speaks harsh words, asks sharp questions and rocks the boat by questioning the status quo while forcing ALL OF US to look in a mirror and really see what’s there …
It is when we consider or encounter people like Thomas that we are challenged to live out that belief in who Jesus is. If we step around them or don’t see them at all our Jesus is not engaged in the real world … if we plunge into the tired simplistic opinions about why these kids are homeless in the first place, rather than considering the complexity of the crisis that is homelessness, then our Jesus is firmly nailed to the wall forever smiling and seemingly blessing our complacency and our inaction … but if we can pause and consider the story that led Thomas to the streets – a story that often involves abuse, a lack of love, and an absence of home … if we can pause and consider that for these kids there has been no fairy tale life but unknown struggles in a darkness we can only imagine in our nightmares … if we dare to pause in THAT place, our Jesus steps down off the wall, sheds his glowing clean robes and calls us to face our fears and trust in God …

Fear is an interesting thing … in the Church, the place where it has no role to play at all, it is often the underlying issue that motivates us … we want to protect the way things were and carry them forward so they will continue to be thus forever and a day … in the case of street kids, the fear of finding out our esteemed neighbour could be an abusive neglectful parent keeps us silent … in the case of newcomers to our community the fear of change to the status quo keeps us silent … in the case of the Church the easy answers to complex questions keeps us silent …

Fear is the moment in time when we MUST trust in God and dare to take the plunge into the unknown … One writer describes this moment as leaning into your fears:

Fear of fear may lead you to hang back, living a lesser life that you are capable. Fear of fear may lead you to push ahead, living a false life, off-center, tense and missing the moment. But the capacity to feel this moment, including your fear, without trying to escape it, creates a state of alive and humble spontaneity. You are ready for the unknown as it unfolds, since you are not pulled back or pushed forward from the horizon of the moment. You are hanging right over the edge ... By leaning just beyond your fear, you challenge your limits compassionately, without trying to escape the feeling of fear itself. You step beyond the solid ground of security with an open heart. You stand in the space of unknowingness, raw and awake. Here, the gravity of deep being will attend you to the only place where fear is obsolete: the eternal free fall of home. Where you always are.

Modern spiritual guru and counselor Eckhart Tolle (if you have been watching Oprah in the last six months, you’ve encountered him frequently) says simply – in life what happens is what happens … there is no positive nor negative in the moment – the meaning comes later with reflection … By leaning into our fears, or as one writer puts it – by kissing our fears and embracing them as part of our life we free ourselves of them …

In our encounter with Thomas our greatest fears have to do with complacency … could we be doing more to help him? Are we responsible for his problem? … fear of loss – could we end up like him? There but by the grace of God go I … guilt - we COULD do more? Or more ominous – are we the best parent and friend we could be? … and a multitude of other emotions that ebb and flow through us …

Who do you say that I am?

If we are free of fear, Jesus becomes the source of liberation and freedom and LIFE … in that moment we can live our faith freely and without fear …

Looking back over the last three years … I’ve watched as I’ve lost much … my marriage has failed … my reputation has been utterly destroyed … my place in the church has been taken from me … my career – one I have been called to and spent close to 20 years training for and engaged in has been taken from me … my community rejected me … and I lost almost ALL of the people I had relied on and called friends … the rejection piled upon rejection upon rejection … yet looking back, I can, with honesty say – the fear of losing these things was greater than the actual losses themselves … with each successive loss came the whisper of hope that promised a resurrection … a reminder that God’s ways our not our ways, and that even in the darkest moments – God is with us … that when it hurts even just to be breath - things WILL work out eventually …

Like Shiprah and Puah daring to save the Hebrew children … God’s hope and love will find a way … life will triumph …

In the darkness where you have the strength to draw one breath at a time and the hurt is so profound and deep … in THAT place when you’ve lost almost everything you find hope … a faint whisper that defies words … and guides you forward …

That whisper motivated a young homeless man to collect change for the victims of Katrina …

That whisper motivated the followers of Jesus become The Church that proclaimed the resurrection …

That whisper brings a smile to our face when we confront our deepest fear, because in THAT moment when we truly lean into our fear we aren’t asking “who do YOU say that I am?” you are trusting in the answer that goes beyond words and embodies the resurrection in a real way …

May we have the courage to lean into our fears and to trust in the presence of God to be with us in that moment …

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

Prayers of Pastoral Concern:

Lord’s Prayer:

Presentation of the Offering:

Offertory: #537 Your Work O God Needs Many Hands

Prayer of Dedication:

Hymn: #427 To Show By Touch and Word

Blessing and Commissioning:

Threefold Amen:

Today's Sermon:

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And all of this comes from a humble weed …

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

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

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

Let us pray …

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

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

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

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

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





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

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

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



Why do we have to talk about these things?



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



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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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

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



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





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



Grace is about wrestling with life in its fulless …



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

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



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

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



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



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

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



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



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



But to what end?



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



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



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



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


Grace abounds … a place where conflict is healed!



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



In the moment of hopelessness – God WILL break through!

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



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



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



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



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

From Palms to Palms ...

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

But such adulation is fleeting at best ...

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

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

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

We move from celebrations to savagery ...

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

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

Thanks be to God !!!
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As Ann Weems writes:

"Holy is the week ...

Holy, consecrated, belonging to God ...

we move from Hosannas to Horror

with the predictable ease

of those who know ot what they do ...

.

... the only road to Easter Morning

is through the unrelenting shadows of that Friday.

Only then will the alleluias be sung;

only then will the dancing begin ..."

Indelible Images and Impressions ...

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

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

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

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

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

The LONG Road home ...

I had a realization today ...

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

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

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

"Everything?" I asked.

"Everything," affirmed this person.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What does that mean?" I naively asked.

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

He was sooooooo right ...

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

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

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

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

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

Nelson Granade says it well when he notes:

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

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

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

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

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

Running away is NO LONGER AN OPTION !!!

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

I Have a Dream:

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

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

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

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

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

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

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

I have a dream today.

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

I have a dream today.

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

This is our hope.

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

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

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

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

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

Lessons from the Sea

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

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

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

The story (the first version) goes like this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Empty Pews ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Letter from a Friend ...

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

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

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

What Kind of Welcome??

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

Subdivisions ---
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
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CONFORM OR BE CAST OUT !!!!
This has seemingly become an operating principle in the modern Church - or at least the corners of the modern Church that are hesitant, reluctant or downright terrified of living with the changes that are spinning around us.

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

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

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

Made me say - Hmmmm ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An Internet Search Reveled:

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

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

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

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

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