Selected Sermons

April 21, 2024

MESSAGE & READINGS

ACTS 4:5-12

And the question I ask myself concerning the first scripture passage is why does something so good cause so much trouble? Why does the healing of a lame beggar in Jerusalem who was lying in the dust outside of the temple and ending the day walking like a new man, leaping and dancing bring the entire family of the high priests to interrogate Peter and John? I call it widespread suspicion, or a nasty crackdown by the authorities and possibly, something much larger, a theological confusion…for Peter never stated that he had the power to heal but “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk”…there was the healer and the authorities couldn’t get it…so Peter had to set them straight on where the healing came from…

1 JOHN 3:16-24

When you hear this passage which Elizabeth is going to share with you, it’s not really about being a martyr and being burned at the stake or hanged or killed, it’s about “let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action”…laying one’s life down for one’s brothers and sisters, in this passage, is simply responding to people in need – not dying for people in need, but giving them what they need from our abundance… love in action…period…

JOHN 10:11-18

You know folks, sometimes we go astray. Sheep that are ill may follow the voice of a stranger instead of the sheepherder. There are many voices out there in the world vying for our attention. There are many distractions which lure us from the path. But in our choices each day as we practice our faith by saying yes to some voices and saying no to others, Jesus is there…going before us and leading us…he’s the good shepherd…

WHAT IS A TRUE SHEPHERD?

 In reading through the Gospel of John, the writer is truly a mystic… this Gospel is so different from the others and Jesus is personified in so many different ways…Jesus is the Way…he’s the door…Jesus is the vine…Jesus is the light…and so on…all of the different designations which each, in their own way, are truly poetry and prose in motion… the writer really got the message and it’s for us to embody…to understand…to hold close… and today’s Gospel is no less as moving or vivid as the others…Jesus is the Good Shepherd…

Well, I don’t know about you but for myself, if I was a sheep, I would rather have a good person looking after me…looking after all my needs…a warm place in the winter…plenty of food…water…a clean pen and lots of open grazing in the seasons where it doesn’t snow…

And this goes for cattle too or horses or bison or any other animal which needs to be tended…to have good shepherds or good owners…

What would it be like during calving season or when the lambs or colts are being born and the ranchers or the sheep herders or those who mix-farm would all be in Arizona on holidays?  Probably mayhem…

Well, the writer of John states that Jesus is the GOOD shepherd who would go as far as to lay does his life for someone else…

That’s a huge undertaking…it’s a huge risk…and I’m not sure that all of us would want to take such a risk…but folks…we need to…for I believe that we are becoming way too apathetic in our relationships with each other…it’s called ‘surface living’ and we don’t feel that we need to delve deeper for fear of pain to ourselves and maybe to others…it’s a risky thing and Jesus is inviting all of us to risk…risk being the shepherd that would give it all…risk what the community may gossip over the coffee times together…I think you understand what I’m saying…

Well, I believe, that ministers are shepherds and myself included to a certain degree…we are entrusted with the formidable task of helping people triumph over life and death…spiritual life and death…we have the privilege of ministering to those as they face their own ‘valley of the shadows’…it could be at a bedside, or counseling in the office, or many other forms of ‘ministry’…loosely put anyway…

Our task is to enable those who are facing possible terrible times and to do so in a spirit of openness and faith…our natural tendency, believe it or not, is to shun that which causes pain…sound familiar?

Well guess what? .... sometimes ministers also need shepherds to guide them through the valleys…

So, the family of God…all of you…sometimes may need to be instructed in ways that you, too, can shepherd others through the valley of the shadows…so that the shepherd becomes a GOOD shepherd…

So this implies that there must be ‘bad’ shepherds…

I wonder what that looks like?...the writer of John calls him an employee…and of course, we could argue this point because for myself, I’ve known countless employees who would give it all…and I’ve also known countless employees who only wait for payday…but the writer of this Gospel implies that it is through love, where the most importance must sit…this true…deep…giving…sacrificing love…like the love of a parent for their children…the love of a cat or a dog owner for their pet.. the love of most of us for our ailing parents or grandparents…we become the good shepherd…we become ministers of love…

And as the writer of John talks about the hired hand or the employee, let me share with you some brief statistics in terms of ministers…

A poll was taken and little less than 10% of those polled would leave the ministry for a higher-paying job…over 70% reported that pay was not a key factor of whether or not they remained in the ministry…86% cited a strong sense of call as the reason they remained in the ministry… and 83% stated that they would do it all over again… and these may be figures pointing towards paid-accountable ministers but they could also be statistics in your own life…as each of you could be or are…the good shepherd…

So, on this fourth Sunday of the Easter season…as we’ve sang the song a few minutes ago…God is my shepherd…let each of us be shepherds to many and bring this community of faith to an even higher level for each of us are pilgrims on a journey of faith….

Amen….

April 7, 2024

Readings & Message for Sunday, April 7th, 2024

ACTS 4:32-35

Our first scripture passage this morning brings us to the Acts of the Apostles and what their community of faith was putting together… they were sharing their wealth with one another so that they all had things in common…and it’s a nudge to us quite often when some folks flaunt blatant materialism…and there’s something important in this little narrative for our thinking about the church and the mission in any age really…and the short phrase “all things in common” was central in the reform movements in the church from the earliest monastic communities and later on with the Salvation Army and so on…so let’s take a listen to the first reading…

1 JOHN 1:1 – 2:2

Our second reading of the day sort of reminds me that if you cannot walk the walk, then do not talk the talk…if we say that we have fellowship with God but walk in darkness then we’re missing the whole point…as Christians, what we say should always correspond to what we do and our morals should correspond as well…God invites us into fellowship and not just me or you but invites all into community and when we walk together with god, we walk in a light of joy and of deep fellowship…

JOHN 20: 19-31

This story in the Gospel of John is something which every one of us can associate with…it’s hearing something from someone and our response being, “Prove it to me!”…and this is the doubting Thomas story which we are going to hear…everyone lets him know that they’ve seen the risen Christ and Thomas doesn’t buy it until he can see this ‘miracle’ with his own eyes…and here’s the real problem with Thomas…in rejecting the disciple’s good news about what they have seen, he rebuffs the very friends with whom he has shared life for so long…love and trust has always been central and Thomas is putting this ‘love and trust’ to the big test…so, the community that Jesus has tried so hard to build throughout the Gospel is threatened from the beginning by Thomas’s skepticism…

“IF EASTER IS TRUE….WHAT DO WE DO?”

So here we are, all of us, in the aftermath of the resurrection, and we’re still trying to figure out the world now that Jesus has been risen from the dead…and all of our lessons this Sunday, deal with the various responses to Easter…and this is important stuff because it’s nice to be a believer in the resurrection but if Easter’s true, then what do we do?... what’s our next step?...what are we now being called to accomplish or to do by the God who breathes us and shows us resurrection?....well my sense in the complete Easter story has to do with this – if the resurrection is true, then our lives need to change…and change radically…and this is because we would be living in a whole different world and we would have to adjust our lives accordingly…we, as Christians, believe that Easter is true and we believe in the fact that God definitively acted in the world…and this belief stems from our knowing that God lifts up the oppressed and those who are downtrodden, who will not allow the victims of evil and injustice ultimately to be crushed…in the end, no matter what bad stuff has happened in our world, God’s will be done…so…this is why Easter is true…and if Easter’s true, as we believe it to be, how then should we live? …well last Sunday it was proclaimed to all of you, “Jesus Christ is Risen!!”…and some of you proclaimed back, “Alleluia!!”…so if Easter’s true to you, what should we now do? …if your response was ‘Alleluia!’ then there must be something there which resonated with you…the resurrection is real – to you…to each of you…

Well in the Gospel passages we find these wonderful stories of Jesus just showing up to many of his closest friends at the most inopportune times…kind of walking through walls and just appearing…showing everyone his hands and his feet and his side where the spear had been inserted…and having to prove it all once again when Thomas comes around…and the walk to Emmaus…in fact this walk could be anyplace and we could have an encounter with the Spirit anywhere so put yourself into whatever place you’ve sensed that something or somebody was speaking to you…and if you had mentioned this sort of thing to others, that you’ve seen something or sensed something, most often, these folks may think that you’re just a little on the crazy side but an encounter with the Spirit is never crazy…an encounter with holiness is personal and we are allowed to be in that world of transparency where spirit touches humanity – your humanity...

And these two folk who were walking along the road to Emmaus had no idea who this person was who joined with them…well the women had run back from the tomb and told all those present that Christ had risen and did they believe them?...no…that’s because, Easter wasn’t true to them yet…then, at the table, that evening, when Jesus broke bread, their eyes were opened…they saw…they believed…Easter became true to them…they had thought that the Jesus Movement had ended…it was just beginning! …they thought that night was coming when it was really the dawn of a brand new day --  a new era…Easter became true…

If Easter is true, then it means that Jesus is not just a wonderful teacher or an inspiring person or a notable historical figure…Jesus is the true revelation of God…he is the new dawning in that hope will always conquer fear or doubt…new life will always come from the deepest night…the phoenix always rises from the ashes…spring comes from the coldest winter…so now we know what God looks like…what God wills for us and the world…if Easter is true…

And if Easter’s true, then never again are we permitted ever to lose heart or to despair or to give up…no place is beyond the reach of God’s redeeming grace…if Easter’s true…

And, also, if Easter’s true, then it’s a lie that death is the last word…the final act…the end…for new life comes from a cocoon…new life comes into the fields with all the baby calves, baby lambs, new colts, and little baby humans…

If Easter is true, then it isn’t over until God says it over…our end is really our beginning…at the end, when this life is over, we are not given oblivion…or darkness…or despair…no…we’re given a future, a new birth, a new beginning…if Easter is true…for we are not left alone…

the Risen Christ came back to the very disciples who disappointed and betrayed him and gathered those depressed, despairing, and pained individuals and formed them into a new family…a new community… the Risen Christ opened the door to new communities of faith…of church…

If Easter’s true, then we don’t have to climb up to God…we don’t have to think hard and go through all sorts of mental gymnastics in order to be close to God…in the bread and the wine, God comes close to all of us…we come here to church on a Sunday morning, thinking that we are getting up, getting dressed, and coming to church to seek God only to be surprised that here, in communion, in the singing and scripture reading, maybe even in the sermon…or the message of the day…the resurrected, living Christ is reaching out to us…if Easter is true…

So if Easter’s true…what do we do?

Love deeper…live deeper…wake up each morning with joy in our hearts and share compassion with all…

seek peace where sometimes peace can’t be found…and never lose hope for when this disappears, life crumbles…the road to Emmaus awaits you as you encounter the Risen Christ…the hands and feet do truly show the pain that needed to be experienced for transformation to happen…so…be ready to be transformed…each and every one of you…Alleluia! …Amen… 

March 31, 2024

READINGS & MESSAGE for EASTER SUNDAY

JOHN 20 1-18        

Our Gospel Lesson this morning will speak for itself—this is the resurrection story– at some point, the women, overcoming their fear—tell the story—and the church is born—it’s quite amazing that we have been led by church fathers for so many years and right back—in the very beginning—it’s the women who started everything— the church is born—we need to continue telling our stories so that our churches can become reborn again—it is so vital to who we are as followers of Christ—to continue this legacy—this so important legacy—for it makes all the difference in the world—Frederick Buechner, a famous theologian, has these words for this passage– “It’s not Jesus’ absence from the empty tomb that convinces us—it’s Jesus’ presence in our empty souls—which convinces us”.....Sit back and listen and internalize the resurrection story.....

MARK 16: 1-8

So now we’re going to listen to a different version of the resurrection story…some of the Gospel writers keep things simple, some add a few incidents and some make the story so much bigger…it’s all in our perspective in how we see the resurrection happen and really, you can pick which ever one suits you for the message is the same…the tomb is empty and what has been foretold has been fulfilled…the crucified Jesus is now the Risen Christ…so I’ll leave it to Jocelyn to share with us..

THE QUESTION TO ASK IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED BUT, WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

The stone is rolled away…the tomb is empty…the body which was laid in the tomb is no longer there…there’s some of the clothing left behind nicely folded up…the dust is still settling down in the morning light… there’s an air of quietness…there’s an air of profound mystery…you can hear your heart beat, it’s so quiet…something has happened…

Our first reaction is to ask the question… “What happened?”        

Who would have the audacity to round up a bunch of men in the middle of the night and secretly move the huge boulder and to take the body away…and all of this under the eyes of a watchful guard who wouldn’t even think to grab a snooze here or there on threat of losing his life…

What happened?...

It always seems that we tend to seek answers to certain things which happen…we need to find justification of why things occur…we need to find proof…point the finger and say, “Hey…you did it”… “You did it”

And quite often, this makes us happy because now we have our constructed answer or answers…we have our scapegoats, and we go on with our business…

It’s a lot like years ago if I recall, and many years ago by-the-way… there were these 1600 ducks which ended up in a tailing pond of the oil-extracting Suncor…our society spends countless dollars on legal stuff and we end up pointing fingers at who’s to blame…the papers and the airwaves and the television spend countless hours on producing ‘what happened’…how much are they going to be charged in fines?…Who’s fault was it?...Who gets the nice job of counting all the ducks?...we need to know the numbers you know!!...kind of reminds me of the old Beatles song where they had the let’s try and interview as many people as we can because, hey, this is what our advertisers like…drama…and when the culprit is found, the case often becomes closed…ultimately, what should be asked or brought forward is not what happened but:

        “What does this mean?”          “Why has this happened?”

In the case of this huge flock of dead birds…it happened because we need oil…and shareholders need their monthly dividends…economics rules…the underlying meaning is really that progress quite often supersedes logic…that shortcuts are easier than painstaking slow and steady growth…

The tomb is empty…how could this be? …someone stole the body… find them so that we can be at peace…               find the body…

And we know the story because without our faith and our belief in a risen Christ, we missed the whole thing…

So “What does this mean?”…that the tomb’s empty?...what does this mean that certain folks are having visions of seeing Christ standing there? …they’ve gone past the “What happened?” to “What does this mean?”…and I’m going to offer to all of you a rare piece of my belief and some risky words which may sit well with some of you and maybe not with others…for as most of you know, I’m not a literal biblical thinker…I live more in the realm of what is called ‘metaphor’…the understanding which is underneath it all….what’s behind the curtain?... what’s behind door #3?…What does this Easter happening point to?... What does it mean?....

My simple short answer…anything is possible with God…

anything is possible with love…

The longer answer…each of us needs to have the stones rolled away in our lives to see clearly…each of us needs to be reborn again and again into children of light…the resurrection is not only for Jesus…it’s also for our own personal lives and for those around us…Jesus always offered the gifts of hope and this is the prime example, the resurrected Christ, for when our stones are rolled away, our personal blockages, we become people of hope…of deeper hope…and anything becomes possible in our lives…

The Gospel writers all share parts of the resurrection story, and each rendition is different because the writers, themselves, were also experiencing their own stones rolled away…they were being transformed into children of light as they opened themselves to the deeper story…

And don’t think for a moment that I don’t believe in the resurrection… what I don’t believe in is the different renditions of it for there’s one thing that we all must believe in…the resurrection is your personal moment…it’s when you experience the risen Christ in your life…it’s when God calls you and you answer, “Yes”…

So, it’s not what happened but what does it mean…

I conclude with a short, ‘Once upon a time’…  (page 157)

Sunday, March 24, 2024  

Readings & Message

PSALM 118

And so, we continue with our readings this morning as we’ve already shared one of them with you with the opening drama…this reading is Psalm 118, parts of it anyway…and this Psalm is frequently quoted for it shares with us the steadfast love of God…it kind of reminds me of this story that Ernest Hemingway shared about a father who wanted to reconcile with his son who had run away to Madrid and had not been seen for years…he put an ad in the local newspaper: “Paco, meet me at Hotel Montana, Noon, Tuesday…all is forgiven, Papa”…Paco is a common name in Spain and when he arrived at the Hotel at the appointed time, he found 800 young men named Paco waiting for their fathers….that’s huge love and hopeful reconciliation…

JOHN 12:12-16

The Gospel passage for the day echoes others in terms of Jesus entering into Jerusalem…some of the other gospels go into more detail but John keeps it simple and reminds us that what is really happening needs to always be remembered by the disciples for they, and ourselves, are the ones who need to be reminded that God’s love is forever steadfast and true…Amen!

OUR PRAYER WALK

Some of you in this community of faith this morning are walkers...

some of you know almost all of the streets and cul-de-sacs and crescents and so on in this neighbourhood of Lakeview and maybe North Glenmore Park and beyond…

You walk whenever and wherever you can and sometimes with a purpose, maybe to lose a bit of weight or to ease a troubled spirit, and other times without a purpose...and some of you walk just because you want to and need to...just walking for the love of it and feeling the wind in your hair, the sun on your face and the earth beneath your feet...I call this your prayer walk...your time to connect yourself with what is Holy and of what is of most importance to you...that peace which passes all thoughts of understanding...some of us are not as fortunate...walking can be a chore or can be very painful indeed or impossible...one only has to watch those who are mobility challenged and we can see the pain and the aggravation that some of those folks feel…

So, Prayer Walks come in all guises, some of them with joy and some of them with less pleasure...and I’m mindful this morning of Nicodemus and making a decision in the evening, when it’s dark out, to do his Prayer Walk as he seeks a certain clandestine meeting with Jesus, for Nicodemus is a well-known Pharisee and to be seen and branded as one who befriends this certain rebel would not put him in any good stance whatsoever!!

I am reminded of a movie which came out many, many years ago called the “Green Mile” and the walk which took place for certain individuals who were taking their last steps...that Prayer Walk....

Or it could have been that short journey from your seat to the podium as you received your degree or your diploma...a definite Prayer Walk....

Or possibly that hurried entry into the hospital as you gave birth or possibly that dreaded operation which has been hounding you for some time...it’s a Prayer Walk...

Or possibly the entrance into the bank where you are signing a new mortgage for a dream home or some dream property....a Prayer Walk... and folks, we’ve all had our prayer walks in one way or another…

There are all types of Prayer Walks and they come to us continually and in so many different ways....we are envisioning one today and we’re standing on the sidelines – watching – waiting – anticipating – and we’re not quite sure what all the fuss is about because this ‘king’ that everyone seems to be talking about is riding on a donkey...not a white stallion that denotes power and prestige...in today’s times he would be entering this community in an old beat-up and rusted 1992 Dodge Dakota truck instead of the 2024 Cummins diesel with all of the gadgets...or a shiny Jaguar with every gadget available....We stand there in wonder as only the...lowliest of people or the common folk greet him...the dignitaries and the people of influence are nowhere to be seen...no fanfare, no balloons, no streamers or welcoming band...  all we do is rip strips off of the palm trees and lay them down on the dusty road so that at least it seems like some sort of welcoming...  some of us even lay down our cloaks or coats...it’s a parade and we get caught up in the festivities which unfold...

But there’s something different...really different...

There’s a deep sadness in the eyes of the one who comes through the gates of Jerusalem...What’s in his mind?...What’s in his heart?...The Gospel writers give us an indication but...what really is happening?... We may never know but let us surmise how this would look in our world today and how such an experience might impact our lives, in this community and in the larger world...or maybe not impact it at all because one lonely traveler does not make world news... or does it?

There are times in our lives where we must look forward...and not saying that the past was problematic, but we can’t go back there...     for going back is not an option if we desire growth and newness in our lives...going back or dodging the ‘gates of Jerusalem’ would mean that hopes and dreams would never be fulfilled...I, for one, believe that Jesus never totally knew what was in store for him on his journey to the Jewish Passover...I sense that he know that God was intervening but to what extent?...this journey was really only something which was mandated by his faith in fulfilling his ‘Jewishness”...in fulfilling that which was required...kind of like paying taxes or voting...requirements of our societies’ norms...this is what Jesus was doing but it became much more than this for something inside him knew that entering the gates of Jerusalem was not going to be a cake-walk...the rumour-mill had already been at work and all along the way, things were escalating.

So today, we get a glimpse of his Prayer Walk...we get a glimpse of his humbleness as he enters the gates and finds himself surrounded by those who are wishing and dreaming of an end to tyranny....

Life’s not this simple....

One lonely person sitting on the back of a donkey is surely not going to change the tide of the world is he?..

Or is he?....

Our being here today is the answer to this question for we all take Prayer Walks or Prayer ‘Jumps’ in our lives which bring us ever closer together to that which is authentic,1` and truthful...Jesus knew he was never alone, as each and every one of you also must realize...   

you are not alone...we are a community which breathes and bleeds together and we Prayer Walk in solidarity with each other...you may feel that sometimes you are walking in the face of adversity or pain or maybe questioning what is real in your life and you are not alone....

for many of us have the same thoughts and it is through Prayer Walking together, where we can overcome any and all obstacles...

If we search for and see the face of Christ in all of those whom we meet, then our Prayer Walk will become an action of change for the world...both our own personal and the shared world....

This is the beginning of what is known in Christendom as “Holy Week”....the beginning of the journey to the cross and the resurrection...in your own Prayer Walks, I urge you to go all the way through this time - this week, for there will be down times and there will be up times but what will come out, is that we travel together and through our common purpose and common vision, we will understand what God has in store for us and how God will use us as instruments of peace and love....Hosanna, Loud Hosanna!......

Let us pray:....God – Healer – Lover – Friend....we all too often walk life’s paths in loneliness...our days are filled with loss of hope and with the sense that all is not as it should be. We need to feel your gentle touch of healing in our lives...

Reach into the sadness and the uncertainties of our souls and place your rainbows of hope in our hearts....Give us the courage to begin anew to walk the paths of justice and peace. In the name of the one who touched and healed the lost and lonely...in the name of the one who rides into Jerusalem...who Prayer Walks by himself, yet is never alone....Amen.

MARCH 10th, 2024

READINGS & MESSAGE for SUNDAY

NUMBERS 21: 4-9 

We begin our readings today with a strange little episode out of the Book of Numbers…it has to do with the desert…the sand…and the hopelessness of the Israelites as they are being bitten by snakes…and some of them are dying…I can look at this passage as one of the many, many “murmuring texts” or, as seen so often in the Older Testament, the “Israelite equation”…the people sin against God, God punishes them, they repent, they ask Moses to intervene, Moses intervenes, God repents and then blesses the people…or….I can look at this passage through another lens – it could be seen as a covenant of love…the snake’s poison could be seen as poison in many of the people’s hearts and it might kill them…I would rather look at this passage this way – it makes more sense to me…

EPHESIANS 2: 1-10

The second reading, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, deals with that most wonderful word….grace…and Paul puts it this way “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works.”….and what’s really interesting here is this was the premise of what Martin Luther battled against the Roman Catholic Church with…we’re ‘saved’ through our faith, not the countless times you bake things or cook things for the church suppers or vacuum or clean bathrooms in the building…these are responsibilities… faith is much different…we become alive when we are “together with” Christ and God and this shows up three times in verses 5 and 6…

JOHN 3: 14-21

Imbedded in this Gospel passage this morning is something which you might see at the occasional baseball game or other sort of sport…the John 3:16 sign…and it was a deep belief for the writer of John and for many folks who lived in that culture…the greatest sacrifice was to give your son for in a patriarchal world, there was nothing more precious… so, for God to give to us what was most precious is to be a statement indeed and something which we may need to heed and how much darkness is too much for God?....we couldn’t even begin to fathom…

THE SANDS OF TIME

In these last three weeks, these four Sundays so far in this Lenten season where Bob Gibennus took one of them over for me, I’ve focused on the elements of the Earth…one Sunday, water…the next, air…and now we turn our attention to sand….the sifting sand…the desert dunes which one day have one shape and then after the winds have diminished, the whole landscape has changed again…the sand on the beach which rolls with the waves…the sand in the sand-box for children (and maybe even for some of us adults) which becomes worked into castles and drawbridges and moats and then, two hours later, becomes something totally different…sand brought in by truckloads to make a portable volley-ball court…sand that gets in your eyes…your nose…your hair and sand that is transferred onto paper to make sand-paper…the sand of the Earth…we sometimes have a love/hate relationship with sand… we can’t wait to put our bare feet into the sand alongside the ocean and when the winds pick up around our homes, the sand sifts silently through the cracks in our doors and windows and soon the broom or the damp mop comes out to clean it all up…sand…the eons and eons of rock being pulverized and pounded into little granules and God says to Abraham, “your people will be as numerous as the sands on the seashore”…this word is used frequently in the biblical text as a symbol of uncounted multitudes or a weight impossible to measure…what does a grain of sand weigh?...probably hardly anything at all but if we have a spoonful or a beach-bucket full, it becomes something…it has mass… you can write your name in it…you can add water and make little castles or whatever your mind contrives…one of the elements of the Earth and in certain places around the planet, sand becomes all-encompassing…it’s a part of your life…and it can also be a part of your death…I googled the weather page a few weeks ago and one of the short video clips was a sand-storm in Dubai…this has always intrigued me so I wanted to see what a sand-storm or a dust-storm would look like… especially in a large city…as in Dubai…it shuts things down!... in the same way as a blizzard shuts down our world around here…nature will always be in control and for us, it is to sit in wonder and to sit in awe of the power of the One who touches everything…every grain of sand… every human being…and touches with love…

And there’s lessons we need to learn from sand…lessons which have deep-rooted truths…when we build our homes on sand we open ourselves to failure…we open ourselves to possible collapse…when we build our lives on shifting sand our relationships become less than what we hoped for…and as I had mentioned last week with one of our Lenten book studies, the question was thrown out to the group on what their values were, and are, and the resounding answer was ‘relationships’… solid relationships…loving relationships and sifting sand doesn’t offer this…solid rock does…it has strength, it has durability, it can be seen as timeless…for any of you who have had the opportunity of traveling to Carefree, which is just north of Phoenix, (haver any of you been there before?)…you will see homes built on huge rocks – some of the rocks the size of a double tractor-trailer…a super ‘B’…homes which will withstand almost any sort of weather or climate…there’s no fear here of sliding down the hill…there’s no fear here of sinking…

And another lesson that we need to remember from sand is that after the rain…after the torrential down-pour, the desert blooms and this, to me, is still one of the many wonders of the world…the spring-rains that we experience here are a wonder to behold…new life always comes and we need to celebrate this…new life comes from what some would say was an impossibility…new life from those old dried bones…

Maybe sand needs to be one of the metaphors of our lives…one of the images which we need to focus more upon…we can be useless sand or we can become beautiful pottery, with a purpose…we can stand in front of a sand-dune and cry in helplessness or we can journey over it and find nothing but green grass and bubbling springs…we can see sand on a beach as useless, yet, bring a few children around with pails and with water and with imagination, and a city is built…relationships are built... newness comes into being…and what is a pearl, a real pearl, but a grain of sand which becomes something exquisite…

(story…page 80)…

And sometimes, sand needs to slip through our fingers and we need to hold on to something solid…so…hold on to each other…hold on to the relationships you have – the loving caring relationships and venture into the world making new ones…don’t be afraid…in this season of Lent, invite the stranger into your life…invite the one who may seem to be in sinking sand…and always remember, that the Spirit God is our everything – our life, our sand, our rock…our breath…Amen.

March 3, 2024

READINGS & MESSAGE

EXODUS 20:1-17

Our first scripture passage for today offers to all of the Hebrew people, at that time, the rules of living…the Ten Commandments…we have lost something today when we call this covenant, the Law, because western civilization thinks of law as rules and regulations and the Decalogue (or 10 laws) is actually more along the lines of autobiography…through it, God is revealing who God is, and therefore, who we are, created in God’s image…capturing this truth may be easier if the commandments are approached from the perspective of what we should do rather than what we should not do….so what do you think pops into our minds first when we read, “You shall not make images”?...try and tell this to anyone who has the opportunity of holding on to an Oscar or for the countless folk who have an opportunity of holding the Stanley Cup…

1 CORINTHIANS 1: 18-25

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he is trying to explain this very thing about the law – the commandments…to understand how radically Paul’s thinking has shifted, we need to remember his credentials as a Pharisee…this man knows law…once upon a time he loved law before all else (even human life)…now, he rejects it…he has given up legalism totally, with all of the passion of a convert….Paul is reminding us here that we cannot save ourselves…there is nothing we can do to be ‘safe’ because salvation lies in our being at one with God…God has already done it by creating us in God’s own image…as soon as we stop denying it by clinging to life forms of this world, we are already saved… cool!!...

JOHN 2: 13-22

In listening to the Gospel passage, we need to be reminded that it’s not about money (because, hey, that’s all some people believe that’s all that we talk about), it’s about making our relationship with God a marketplace and believing that God is a commodity that can be bought and sold…it is about believing that we can make deals with God: here, I’ll give you this dove (or this cheque) and you, God, will give me prosperity or health or a good marriage or (for a large number of us), just leave me alone to get on with my own agenda in the way that I want to….

THE AIR in WHICH WE BREATHE

In this period of Lent, this third Sunday, we take a look at another element of the Earth…we’ve focused a few Sunday’s ago if you recall, on water, one of the mainstays of life and now we turn our attention to something which is even more foundational and if we don’t have it, it would be truly critical, even deadly…air…the moving air…that which is invisible until it moves itself in action…like the desert dunes which one day have one shape and then after the winds have diminished, the whole landscape has changed again…moving air can do this…or the sand on the beach which rolls with the waves which are pushed by the winds…pushed by the moving air of the Earth….

And what is air to us?…and I can only think especially as Calgarians or Albertans for that matter as the Chinook breezes bring us the freshness from the West…air enriches us…it fills our lungs with the hope of spring…

it changes our sometimes-bad moods into cheerier moods…it’s a lot like hanging your sheets on the clothesline after they’ve been washed (as if any of us have clotheslines as of now) and then hopping into bed at night with these most wonderful smelling, fresh sheets…

So…Jesus goes strolling down the dusty road in the early morning and senses the same things as we do…he’s off to the synagogue where every other Jewish male is also off to…he’s going there to experience the freshness of God…

the cleansing…the renewing of his Spirit…the birds are chattering in the trees and they are catching the wind currents…the flags are moving and fluttering in the breeze…little dust swirls dance around him…life is good…there’s even a little skip in his walk as his sandals dance on the road to his synagogue… what could go wrong on such a fresh and wonderful day as this…

And then he enters the synagogue and the world of serenity and peacefulness and freshness turns into mayhem, turns into chaos…he enters the place which is supposed to be ‘sanctuary’ and suddenly finds himself surrounded by ‘bad air’…something has happened…what once was a place of peace and of connection with that which was holy has turned itself into an economic and unholy monster and this sort of thing, or place, could happen, or be, to all of us when the air goes stale, when our air goes stale…when the air becomes choking instead of life-giving…and it’s one of the elements of the Earth which we really need to pay attention to…it came along with the creation process over billions of years and it’s our lifeblood…so the cleansing of the temple is not just happening in the moment but it’s also a huge metaphor for something bigger….for something which we all need to look deeper into…just think of when you use that term ‘airing out the room’…what does that really mean?... what comes to mind for me was many years ago I had attended a birthday party for an old friend and it was a surprise party held at the Legion Hall on Haddon Road (how many of you have ever been there?)…it was a wonderful buffet by the way…well I hadn’t been to this Legion for, I would say, probably close on to 25 years or more and that time, when you walked in, the room was a solid blue with all of the smoke and ashtrays filled and so on and the air was so thick that it stuck to your clothing and your skin and your hair…well this time, many years later, the air was clean, there was still the faint aroma of years gone by but there was a more healthy and a more fresh appearance to everything…the room had been ‘aired out’…the proverbial money-changer tables had been turned upside down and life was brought

back to some sort of healthy equilibrium…so what do we need to do to ‘air out’ our rooms?...where do we need to find that fresh air which our spirits so desperately need?...which tables do we have to turn upside down to experience the newness of life?...and here’s the metaphor which I spoke of which Jesus points us to in this ‘happening’ in the temple…seeking the freshness, seeking the newness, seeking the flowing air which blows away all of that dust which clogs our thinking, which jams up our filters, which chokes our lives from becoming instruments of God’s love and of God’s newness…

And there’s lessons we need to learn from the air, from that which is so valuable…lessons which have deep-rooted truths…when we build our homes on ‘bad air’ we open ourselves to failure…we open ourselves to possible collapse…the same as when we build our lives on shifting sand our relationships become less than what we hoped for…and I remember one of our book studies, the question was thrown out to the group on what their values were, and are, and the resounding answer was ‘relationships’…solid relationships… relationships that are surrounded by stale and dead air don’t offer this… relationships based upon fresh air does…it has strength, it has durability, it feeds, it nurtures, it can be seen as timeless…

And another lesson that we need to remember from air is that after the rain…after the torrential down-pour, the proverbial desert blooms and this, to me, is still one of the many wonders of the world…the freshness which is all around us with the spring-rains that we experience here are a wonder to behold and we are going to experience them soon…new life always comes and we need to celebrate this…new life comes from what some would say was an impossibility…new life from old dried bones…

Maybe air needs to be one of the metaphors of our lives…one of the images which we need to focus more upon…we can be useless stale air or we can become the breath of life, with a purpose…we can stand in front of a sand-dune and cry in helplessness or we can climb over it and see the oasis on the other side…we can see air sometimes as ‘that which is always there’, but bring a few children around, or adults for that matter, with bubble-blowers and a collage of floating bubbles are built…relationships are built…newness comes into being…

And you know folks, sometimes, air needs to float right by us and we need to hold on to something solid…hold on to each other…hold on to the relationships we have – the loving caring relationships and venture into the world making new ones…in this season of Lent, invite the stranger... invite the one who may seem to be living in ‘bad air’ …and always remember, that the Spirit God is our everything – our life, our air, our rock…our breath… Amen.

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us spend a few moments in prayer as we centre ourselves before our Creator God…plant your feet firmly where you are sitting…take a cleansing breath….close your eyes for this prayer-time and let your mind be clear of thoughts…listen to your heart…

So come…O Holy Spirit…help each of us to replace the busyness of our lives with a much simpler lifestyle…so that we can focus on the “deeper things” in life and to always allow time for others…nourish all of our yearnings to understand and to truly appreciate ourselves…keep us from being way-too self-oriented and unmindful of other’s needs….fill us with the trust in your consoling presence… calm each of us when we are anxious and troubled about so many different things…help us to have the courage to empty ourselves of everything that does not contribute to the transformation of this world…continue to create a deep hunger for you within ourselves…feed us with the “finest wheat” of your joy and your peace and your love…often replenish our weary spirits with an enthusiasm and an energy that comes from surrendering our lives to you… be our wisdom as we search for meaning in this world which is fraught with pain and suffering, hostility and division…and…keep us hungry for you, Source of Life, so that we always ache and yearn a bit for you…be with those who seek peace and work for peace in places such as Syria and Iraq…in Israel and Gaza… in the Ukraine and in Russia…in North and South Korea...in countries where death happens every day due to those who flaunt power…be with the peacekeepers here in Lakeview and beyond who do whatever is possible to make a difference…and importantly, be with all of those who know only suffering and heartache…and we ask that your Spirit be with ones who will hold to you in this quiet moment…

And now we share with you the words which have been spoken by countless voices – countless hearts…

(Lord’s Prayer) 

February 18, 2024

READINGS & MESSAGE

GENESIS 9: 8-17 

It’s one of those warm summer days and blue sky and a light breeze and then it starts building in the west…clouds…that get darker and darker and then you hear the first sounds of thunder so you look into the sky and lightning starts to flash…you take cover because you know that you just might get wet…and down it comes…feeding the earth once more and then as quickly as it started it clears up and the sun shines through the last of the raindrops and there it is…the rainbow…the reminder for each of us that God has set the covenant amongst us…and at the end of the rainbow is the pot of gold – the treasure – the promise of “God with us” – all the time…

1 PETER 3: 18-22 

In our second reading we are once again brought into the theme of water…this time it’s not a thunderstorm with life-giving rain to the earth but it has to do with baptism and what the water of baptism signifies…it’s not the removal of dirt where you jump into your shower or your bathtub but it’s an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ…baptism is a visible sign of an invisible grace…baptism is a “yes” to God and a “yes” to loving relationships… baptism is not to be seen as getting rid of ‘original sin’ because babies are truly born with original blessing and baptism bolsters this…baptism heralds it and makes it real…

MARK 1: 9-15

So our Gospel passage today is about, you guessed it, the baptism of Jesus and the significance once again of life-giving water…one of the simple things of life yet without it, we’re doomed…and what stirs me when I read this is the emergence of the Spirit when the baptism takes place for this always happens…you may not see it…you may not hear it…you may not feel it entering into your heart but folks, it’s there… and it’s powerful stuff because you can almost hear God whispering, “welcome my child”…welcome to a new place…to a new you…and to a new world which surrounds you…and as Jesus goes into the wilderness for the forty days, so a baptized child needs to go into the world and also experience the wildernesses of life…

  “OUR JOURNEY INTO the SEASON OF LENT -

FOCUSING  ON THE ELEMENT OF WATER”

 Last week I was in a place of restlessness when I had, as of yet, not come up with a theme for this Lenten season – a theme which would speak to me and then in turn, I could share it with all of you and maybe it would also speak to you in your world…and part of me also said that maybe a theme is not as important as I make it out to be…but being a somewhat-organized person, I knew that if one would be telegraphed to me through the spiritual channels, it would make the other five weeks a little easier to handle…you know, to have a focus…

So, I’m on the highway and keeping my eyes on the road but also thinking of my surroundings and it comes to me…maybe I just broke one of those ‘distracted driving laws’ because I took my hands off the wheel and went…yeh!!...and it has to do with journeying for that’s exactly what Jesus would be doing as the road to Jerusalem looms ever so much closer…and then I look around me as I’m driving down the highway and what’s all around me?...the elements of the earth…I could see water on the road as the weather was a bit warmer…I could see earth, dry earth, dry ground…I saw stone…and I passed places where sand had been piled up…and then I saw fire coming out of a burning pile of some clear-cutting and I saw wood – wood stacked up in different piles…I kept all of these elements in my mind and then began to look at the readings for the Lenten season and I almost froze…do you ever have those moments where the hair stands up on the back of your neck?... well this was a moment for me because in all of the upcoming readings, including today’s, they cover all of these six elements…and don’t tell me that it’s coincidence because quite often God speaks through the confusion and the muck of our lives…God speaks through those times of restlessness and opens up new doors…God speaks to us on our journey…our Lenten journey this time to be a little more particular…

So today, the element that we’re going to focus a little bit on is water… the essence of life…something which if we didn’t have any, we’re done... water where Jesus was baptized…

So, what might be an interesting practice for Lent for yourselves is to think of the many ways to cut down on the use of water and act upon it…if we all did this, and corporations included, places like

Saskatchewan may be greener in the summer than they are at the present…the sometimes desert may burst into bloom…and maybe even some of the areas around here at certain times of the year could also feel this sort of metamorphosis…but I’m getting away from what I want to speak about…water and the importance of it and how the use of it impacts all of our lives…historically, the two most important feast days in the Church were Epiphany and Easter….when baptisms were celebrated…Advent and Lent (in which we are now immersed) were both seasons to prepare for baptism and for new life…think of all the biblical lessons involving water --- Creation…the Flood, the great flood…the Jordan River and all of the events that happened in it and around it…the crossing of the Red Sea…Moses striking the Rock and water coming out of it…the Woman at the Well…and of course the washing of the disciples feet…the Walking on the Water and the Calming of the Sea…and so on…many, many stories having to do with water and the significance of it so it’s fitting today that we begin our Lenten Sundays and our Lenten journey with Jesus’ baptism…in water…for Jesus is a part of every story in the biblical text…everything is inter-connected…all of you are inter-connected to everything that is…you are a part of the whole and the whole is a part of you…Jesus is history and the present and the future and so are we…

And in the Gospel passage we see that Jesus leaves the water and goes into the wilderness, whatever that may be in your mind for ‘wilderness’ could mean so many things to so many people…we do know that he eventually leads his disciples into the desert and this is where he is followed by the masses to hear his teachings…the hurting masses have followed them out to the desert and are begging for attention…Jesus looks upon them as wandering sheep in the wilderness without a shepherd…so Jesus asks everyone to sit down on the green grass so he can teach…green grass?...Mark tells us repeatedly that this is a dry desert waste…what gives?....so a reflection to Psalm 23 comes to mind and God is spoken of as a shepherd who leads the helpless sheep in “green pastures”…and Isaiah states that when the Messiah comes, creation will be restored…“the desert will blossom”…even the driest, dead places will be green gardens…are you getting it?...

Wherever Jesus sets foot, all miraculously bursts into bloom…life… abundant life…for he is the water of life…and this is the good news for this first Sunday in Lent…

When you fill your bathroom sink up with warm water in the morning and wash your face, with the water trickling down your cheeks, smile into your mirror and give thanks that you, too, are the water of life, possibly for yourself and for others for each of you are truly a blessing and you know ‘who’ you are….Amen.  

February 11, 2024

READINGS & MESSAGE

2 KINGS 2: 1-12 

The Old Testament passage today is a threefold command which is used extensively in the biblical text, both old and new testaments…and Elijah is commanding Elisha to stay behind and not to follow…but Elisha seems to be on a different track…three times his disobeys a request by his teacher – not normally the actions of a good and faithful student… and in reading this passage, it’s interesting how, if we put it into today’s context, it would seem rather strange because it has to do with succession and who takes over ‘the reigns’ when the master is gone…we would hold elections or have a vice-chair or a son or daughter following in the footsteps, that sort of thing, but not here…I’ll let you hear this passage and maybe you’ll understand its complexity…

(read 2 Kings 2: 13-14 after the reader shares 2 Kings 2: 1-12) 

2 CORINTHIANS 4: 3-6

In the Epistle Lesson today, it comes quite clear that not everyone in Corinth gets what Paul is talking about so he sets out to explain it a little more in depth…he talks about light and how he was ‘dazzled’ by the light when the Spirit came to him and he doesn’t want some of those folks in Corinth to think that they can be dazzled by the gods of the world – the ones who are not the true God because they’ll get confused and disoriented and then instead of being responsible for their actions, they would only say things like what we say once in a while, “the devil made me do it”…really?...Paul’s message is that it is the truth that sets us free not the hiding behind some lame excuse… 

MARK 9: 2-9

So as we listen to this part of chapter 9 of the Gospel of Mark, we launch into something which I believe is very strange indeed…it’s the ‘mountain-top experience’ and bringing Elijah and Moses into the equation…we call this event the ‘transfiguration’ or changing in appearance…it’s almost like a teenager in blue jeans and a sweatshirt and then dressing for the graduation ceremonies – a total change of appearance…a metamorphosis…

The first question we need to ask each other is if this really happened? The second question follows this – if it didn’t happen then what does it mean?....well, the early church attached very great value to it and over time, they somewhat coloured the incident to make this evidence more definite or absolute…to link Jesus with Moses and Elijah was risky indeed for these two were the forerunners of the Jewish faith and this would fly in the face of the Jewish powers to be (Pharisees, Sadducees, Sanhedrin, and so on)…but it’s important to us because it shows the company which Jesus would be in (pretty good I figure)…this passage is also a pre-cursor to the death and the resurrection of Jesus and the writer of Mark would already know the outcome when he wrote this… so when I sit back and look deeply into this passage, something else jumps out which I believe is more important…I sense that this has to do with the power of prayer and the fact that prayer offers a transfiguration moment on our life and our character…prayer is power.

And we need to be in prayer, seeking help along the way, so that we can serve our fellow human-beings in ways that are transforming…

Jesus is ultimately fulfilling the revelation that he transcends the Law and the Prophets…our focus now needs to be on his message…

The disciples, of course, don’t get it and they need to wait until after the resurrection…kind of like many of us…also, we are met once again with a cloud and a voice from the sky…very Mosaic indeed (the 10 commandments once again)…I call it a writer’s license…

Jesus asks the disciples to not say a word and we also come into the Messianic promises of Elijah appearing before the Messiah does – and John the Baptizer has already fulfilled this role…

   WHAT!  ME CHANGE?    

It has been said over these many, many years that the only thing which is constant, is change…and some of you who may be a wee bit older than myself could attest to this wholeheartedly…and some of this change could be welcomed and some could be outright ignored…we only have to look at the advancements in the technological field and ask about who may be totally computer literate or not…

Or the advancements which have happened in the automobile industry heading into the EV world and now hydrogen…and when you open the hood to your car, you have no idea what you’re seeing…wires and gadgets and on and on…it kind of reminds me of a few years ago where we had owned a Saturn, and having owned it for a while, I lifted the hood to check the oil and brake fluid and transmission fluid and I couldn’t see the battery…it wasn’t under the hood at all…it was in the trunk…go figure!...I always thought the batteries were under the hood…the age of change and the speed which it goes at…some to make our lives easier and of course…some to make it outright frustrating… and you know what I mean by this for change can sometimes be very frustrating…

What about our lives? The changes, or not, which happen in ourselves and our environment...our families, our occupations, our health, our financial situations…our mind-set…what about all of these changes?...

Some of us view these changes as threatening and we come to them quite often, kicking and screaming…why can’t we just leave the things the way they were?   We’ve always done it that way!...

Well, when we have a look at the mountaintop experiences which were just shared from the Gospel, I have this sense that the disciples had no idea what to do but to automatically try to build something so that they could contain it…whatever it was…this apparition…

for holiness at this time needed to be enclosed…it needed to have walls, ceilings and this was the way it had always been…you can just see Jesus shaking his head and smiling at them…and the disciples saying,

“What? Do you want us to change?”…. YUP!....for the premise of this passage is that when you believe…you change…

When you believe that you can tackle a computer, you change…

When you believe that buying a goat for a family in Africa will make a huge difference between life and death in their lives…you change….

When you believe that you can overcome any obstacle…you change…

For this mountaintop experience is going to change for another mountaintop experience when crosses are thrust into the ground on Golgotha and bodies hang on them…is this passage a pre-cursor to this?...possibly…but what we need to remember is that in both places, there are transfigurations…there are huge changes which take place and we need to embrace them both…theses changes are for you and for me and for the world…

This passage in Mark tries to capture a profound and transformative moment…a snapshot of a brief and powerful revelation of something… there is no description of how Jesus changed, only a description of his clothes…and while it is fascinating to most of us to wonder what happened to him, isn’t the real point what happened to the disciples?...

It’s not that the details matter as details, but I wonder if we have lost the enormity and the chaos of this experience…have we forgotten that this event is not merely about Jesus, but about the people who were with him…and now….about us?

Mark’s profound point in this passage is the question which he implies to us….you want to see God?...well here is God standing right in front of you…on the mountaintop…God refuses to stay locked up in some heaven…remote from us…God comes and dwells among us…this is what sets us aside as United Church folk and of course, other denominations…we put more emphasis on the immanent God or the God which abides in us or is inherent in us than the concept of a transcendent God or one who works from far away…

The imminent God is the one who works changes in our lives and moves us in directions of what is needed to change our world…who helps us with and through the risks that we may have to make and take… 

There’s this story of this doll made from salt and after a long pilgrimage on dry land, comes to the sea and discovers something she had never seen and could not possibly understand…she stood on firm ground, a solid little doll of salt, and saw there was another ground that was mobile…insecure…noisy…strange and unknown…

She asked the sea, “But what are you?”…

It replied, “I am the sea.”

And the doll said, “I cannot understand, but I want to. How can I?”

The sea said to the salt-doll, “Touch me.”

So, the doll shyly put a foot forward and touched the water, and she gained the impression that the sea was beginning to be knowable.

She withdrew her leg, looked down and saw that her toe had gone…  she was afraid and said, “Oh, but where is my toe? What have you done to me?” 

The sea answered, “You have given something in order to understand.”

Gradually, the water took away bits of the doll’s salt, and the doll went further and further into the sea. At every moment, she had a sense of understanding more and more, and yet of not being able to say what the sea was. As she went deeper and deeper, she dissolved more and more, repeating, “But what is the sea?”…

At last, a wave dissolved the rest of her, and the doll said… “It is I”

She had discovered what the sea was, but not yet what the water was… the doll knew what the sea was when she became – minute as she was – the vastness of the sea…. 

So…what?…me change?....you change?...

To become a part of the vastness of this earth and to be one who wants to help heal it, along with helping to heal others, we need to…give something of ourselves away…something which holds us back…we need to dissolve into this earth, into this place of humanity and plants and animals and air and water, and become instruments of change as we allow ourselves to be transformed…transfigured…and empowered to do the work which God wants us to…God will help us…

This experience on the shore and in the water and on the mountaintop is for you…and for me…Thanks be to God….

Amen.

February 4, 2024

        READINGS & MESSAGE for SUNDAY

ISAIAH 40: 21-31

Our first reading this morning came from the prophet Isaiah and when I was reading it, it almost sounded like a kind of a court announcement.

We can imagine something like this reading being shouted before the king or queen makes a statement so that everyone will pay attention… it’s almost like “Hear ye! Hear ye!”…and then the rest of this passage seems to have national and international politics on its mind…this passage contrasts or distinguishes earthly princes and of course, God and their stances on concerns – the earthly powers usually focus, currently anyway, on border issues and God’s focus is, of course, on the whole picture of the heavens and the earth…

1 CORINTHIANS 9: 16-23

In Paul’s letter, he makes it very clear that he owes no obligation to anyone…he understands that his experience of the free gift of God’s love and forgiveness has completely freed him from all the assumptions and expectations of others…and it is out of this freedom where Paul acts out his life…Paul speaks of himself as a willing voluntary slave – something unheard of in a slave owning society or culture – perhaps this in an oxymoron… nonetheless, his willingness to truly embrace his freedom and his desire that all may share it, compels him to abandon all concern for his status…his reputation…or his honour…this is a heavy decision to make but when it is made, for each of us, we’re free…

MARK 1: 40-45

 Our gospel passage this morning is the story of the leper and Jesus healing him....Jesus asks the leper not to tell anyone and to keep this healing secret... and like he did!  As soon as he got out of Jesus’ sight....he told the world and then Jesus had to leave town because everyone wanted a piece of him...what is central to this story is that sometimes, it’s really hard to keep Good News down...it’s difficult to keep our lips zipped and more difficult when that big goofy grin gives us away...good news is just hard to keep down...the man healed from leprosy showed us the truth of that, by shouting the good news from every rooftop he could find.      Mark 1:40-45

GOOD NEWS IS DIFFICULT TO SILENCE

 The gospel reading this morning about the leper being healed and Jesus asking him to keep everything quiet is an interesting play on practicing humility...practicing how to be humble...the most important thing in the life of the leper has just happened and now he has to be quiet about it...good news is difficult to silence...especially when one has just been healed...good news is difficult to silence...especially when one has just given birth to a new child...or if your child has just announced that they he/she has found their true love and the wedding date has been set...(good news is difficult to squelch when your Mom or your sister and some of her children plan to come and spend a day!) Good News is very difficult to keep quiet...

I’m going to share a story of Good News with all of you this morning...it’s called don’t quit—keep playing...

The story is about a mother who wanted to encourage her young son’s progress in playing the piano...her son was five years old and one morning, as she was reading the newspaper, she found that Paderewski was holding a piano recital the next week and she went out and bought two tickets—one for herself and one for her aspiring–piano-playing son....the evening of the concert arrived and mom and son showed up at the Centre for the Performing Arts and they sat down in their seats...the mother saw someone whom she knew and she got up and walked down the aisle to do a quick visit...now seizing the opportunity to explore the wonders of the concert hall...the little boy got out of his chair and eventually explored his way through a door marked “NO ADMITTANCE.”...and he couldn’t really read as of yet…

When the houselights dimmed and the concert was about to begin...the mother quickly returned to her seat and discovered that her son had slipped away...suddenly the curtains parted and the spotlights focused on the impressive Steinway piano which was on the stage and in horror...the mother saw her little boy sitting at the keyboard...innocently picking out “Twinkle, twinkle, little star”...at that moment, the great piano master made his entrance...he quickly moved to the piano...and whispered in the little boy’s ear...“Don’t quit—keep playing.”...Then, leaning over, Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began filling in a bass part...soon his right hand reached around to the other side of the child and he added a running obbligato...together, the old master and the young novice transformed a frightening situation into a wonderfully creative experience...and the audience was mesmerized...and I’m sure that the mother, by now, had fainted...

Whatever our situation in life—however outrageous—however desperate— whatever dry spell of the spirit----whatever dark night of the soul----God is whispering deep within our beings...“Don’t quit–keep playing–You are not alone—Together we will transform the broken patterns into a masterwork of my creative art—together, we will mesmerize the world with our song of peace.”

This story is one of never giving up on the mysteries which God continually bestows upon us and sets before us...

The leper never gave up on his chance to be healed and the child at the piano could have been taken away by one of the attendants at the concert...but instead, the piano master worked the wonderful magic of making a tiny incident into a life-giving situation...into something extraordinary...

And this is what Jesus did with all of his healing...he brought extraordinary things to people and only asked that they...keep it a little hushed...Jesus didn’t want the world to know that he was only a healer!  Jesus wanted the world to know that he was much more than this...

Jesus was God’s breath upon the world...

There’s a place in the northern part of the British Isles which is called the island of Iona and throughout the centuries, Iona has been known as a place of healing...many years ago, at the Winter Refresher in Saskatoon, the leader of this Iona community came and was the facilitator for the weekend...this  proved to be a most exciting event and we were so blessed to have her come and share her message...there are many tales of pilgrims traveling long distances to receive the blessings of holy men and women on Iona, and often these journeys were made because of physical illness or mental pain...

On page after page in the Gospels we read about the relationship between Jesus and sick people...Christ’s healing took place on many levels of mind and body, for he was concerned with a life of wholeness----in a more contemporary word—integration...

Through his ministry, the healing touch of divine love and forgiveness reached into the deepest places of people’s lives...even to touch the hem of Christ’s garments was seen as a movement towards healing...

In the Iona Abbey, every Tuesday evening there is a service of prayers for healing and, at a later point in the liturgy, a time when people can both receive and offer the laying on of hands...large numbers of prayer requests reach Iona, and these may be for individuals, families, communities, and even countries...the requests may also be for creation itself...which is now groaning under the weight of climate change and other environmentally destructive forces... 

Prayer lies at the heart of Christ’s ministry of healing...through our intercessions we are not seeking to change God, but rather to open up the possibility that God’s healing energy may permeate our human condition... We all carry many hurts and pains in our lives, yet in the power of the Holy Spirit we can be instruments of healing...we can be “wounded healers” for one another...and why not stand upon the roof-tops of the world and proclaim the Good News...do you not think that Jesus knew that the leper would spread the Good News? Of course he did...for transforming lives is something to give praise about...and also for all of those small victories which are in our lives (I have countless numbers of them which are continually e-mailed to me and my heart always sings with joy when I read them)

Things to be happy about and things to give praise for...let us always remember that we are Children of God and that we are truly blessed...and let the world know if you feel so inclined...   Amen.

Let us pray—God of healing, we offer to you....ourselves....we offer to you the things which are in our hearts which divide us...the things in our hearts which keep us from seeing the path in the light...we open ourselves to your healing touch which soothes our souls...we do this by looking after each other and by being healing breath for each other...as Christ healed the lepers, who went out with songs of joy, let us be always mindful that we have the power to heal each other and that we are asked to be joyful people...we are invited to be instruments of your peace...and may we respond with a resounding ‘yes’....in the name of the one who healed the world and gave his life in the process.... AMEN

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Readings & Message

DEUTERONOMY 18: 15-20

In the Old Testament reading today we find the Israelites looking for a new prophet…it seems like we’re always looking for a new prophet, aren’t we…some of us anyway…nonetheless, they hadn’t figured out yet how to approach God, at least by themselves anyway…they needed a mediator or a negotiator…and they had a sense that seeing God in fire and smoke and thunder and lightning and so on, was going to bring death to them…and I would put this sort of writing into more of a metaphorical sense because what it really alludes to is not death of the body but the shrinking and the shriveling up emotionally and spiritually of the person and of course, this happens today, day-in day-out to countless numbers of people…so let’s take a listen to the words of Deuteronomy…

PSALM 111

There is one thing of which the composer of Psalm 111 is sure – God is sure….God is constant and consistent…the history of God’s dealings with God’s people, which the psalmist remembers, is a testimony to God’s faithfulness and God’s justice…the psalmist is comparing the consistency of God against the inconsistency of kings and empires…they fall…they crumble…they spend too much of their energy building themselves up and quite often, forgetting about what they are and what they are supposed to represent…it’s like we vote in our leaders and they are ones who speak for us and does this happen all the time?...I’ll leave that question for you…let’s share in the Psalm reading responsively and you’ll find it on page 833 of VU or up on the screen or in your bulletin… We’ll begin with the sung response and then Elizabeth will lead us…

MARK 1: 21-28

“Never place a period where God has placed a comma”…and this may exemplify what the passage of Mark is about…although any adult male with knowledge could teach in the synagogue, each was expected to do so in the normal fashion…well guess what?....Jesus upsets the natural order of things and this is what seems so amazing to everyone present… and what they in essence are doing, is putting a period onto this new person and not giving him a comma – an opportunity to show to them that he is more than just a no-mind from Nazareth who speaks the truth, and, even deals with evil spirits in the meantime…

That disturbing of the natural order goes deeper below the surface…

the demons also are disturbed and recognize that unless Jesus ceases and leaves, then nothing will be the same again…and indeed, this is the message Mark has for us…the world as God wants it, is dawning now and in that new dawn, darkness is being banished and a new day of relationship with God is being established….and I say “Yahoo!!”….

THE AGE OF ASTONISHMENT        

 I believe that one word that’s used quite often in our vocabulary is, and if it’s really a word anyway, it could be an expression, it’s “Wow!”….

There’s still a child way down inside of me with eyes wide open as I still become amazed at so many things around me…“Wow!”…when I’m working on my computer systems sometimes and there’s these little things that it does…Wow!...where did that come from?...when I’m listening to the radio in the car or at someone’s home, or our home, and hear some amazing new music…Wow!...driving around the countryside and experiencing sunrises, sunsets, moose standing in the fields or across the creek, eagles flying overhead, falling stars blazing in the night-sky, northern lights dancing…Wow!...moments of grandeur and moments of amazement and moments of astonishment…they become countless if you tried to number them...

It’s even like trying a brand-new recipe and Wow, it worked! and it even tastes pretty good too!...

We live, all of us, and hopefully we do, in a continual age of astonishment. I can still remember when humankind stepped foot for the first time on the moon and it was July the 21st of 1969…I was 18 years old and it was a “Wow” for me and I’m sure it was for many of you also…I can still remember the Beatles live on the Ed Sullivan show, February the 9th of 1964 – I was slightly younger and how my parents ranted about the length of their hair!…

the births of our two sons…the birth of our grand-daughters…the building of the different rock-walls at our cabin or the building of the home in which we live in now and now the second building taking shape…these are all touchstone moments and this morning we listened to one of those moments in the biblical text where Jesus stands up and literally, ‘blows everybody away’ with his wisdom and his ‘exorcism’ (and this may not be the proper word to use but it seems to fit in here anyway)…his banishing of the ‘evil spirit’ which is lurking inside an individual…

The Age of Astonishment…it always was, and it will always be…if we allow it to happen…

There was this incident that had happened in the life of one of the churches…in fact it was the proverbial straw that broke the minister’s back…he was contemplating leaving the pastorate anyway and what happened brought his decision ever so much closer…he was sitting in his office one Sunday morning, putting the final touches on the message for the day, which happened to be the passage of the Good Samaritan, when he overheard a group talking outside of his office…they were discussing some policy which the government was going to introduce in terms of welfare…and this is what he heard coming from the hallway…

“I say, give ‘em a job digging ditches or something like that and, if they don’t take it, let ‘em starve”...

Someone else said, “We’ve been generous to ‘em, now let them look after themselves!”…

The minister thought to himself, “Well, that does it. Here I am getting ready to preach on Christian service with the passage being The Good Samaritan and there they sit bashing the poor.”…he got up out of his desk to confront them all and to, finally, also submit his transfer when he stepped out into the hall and bumped into one of the men…let’s call him Harry…he was one of the most politically conservative members of the congregation…“Hey Rev, you still working on your sermon?... Thought we gave you enough time during the week for that!”…

The minister was just about to light into him when Harry cut him short and said, “Oh, by the way, here’s a cheque for five thousand dollars. It’s the church’s to use to buy breeder pigs for people in Haiti. I want to see if you can raise five thousand more by Easter…do you know what the swine flu has done to those poor people? Without their pigs, they die.”

The minister was stunned and asked Harry, “How do you know so much about Haiti?  “Well, my wife and I have gone down to Haiti most years when I get my two weeks of vacation from the plant, you may not know this for I haven’t really made it known…Great people down there, in great need. I have helped them on a variety of projects. I wish our church did more. I promise you I’m going to do all I can.”…

The Age of Astonishment…

 Something about Jesus produces astonishment. But many modern people seem more into flat explanations rather then experiences of wonder…there is something about the ‘modern mind’ that suffers from a failure of imagination, a shortage of astonishment…many of us glue ourselves to the television instead of seeking the simple, astonishing, things of life…we’ve become a ‘served to’ society and we need to pull ourselves back together…we need to be more invitational, for this place, this church, this faith community, touches upon the age of astonishment…and here’s a little story which might bring this ‘Age of Astonishment’ into light: 

A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, the preacher decided to visit him.  It was a chilly evening. The preacher found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire.

Guessing the reason for his preachers visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace and waited.  The preacher made himself at home but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the dance of the flames around the burning logs.

After some minutes, the preacher took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone then he sat back in his chair, still silent. 

As the one lone ember's flame flickered and diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and dead.  Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting.

The preacher glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave. He slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow, with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it. 

As the preacher reached the door to leave, his host said with a tear running down his cheek, 'Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday.'

 May your world always be filled with ‘Wows’ and may you live in the age of astonishment as we all journey to a place of deeper understanding and of a much deeper relationship which brings us closer to the heart of God…live with eyes more open to what our Creator God places around us in terms of wonder…get away from the adage of “We’ve always done it that way” and move the pews…move the pulpit...move the choir… move yourselves to a new understanding of what it means to be a beloved child of God in this time…in this place… in this huge world of wonder…

Amen…and…Wow!

Sunday, January 21, 2024

Readings & Message

JONAH 3: 1-5, 10

Our first reading today comes from Jonah…you know Jonah…the first time, Jonah receives a call from God to go to the city of Nineveh and he runs, hiding on a boat which gets caught up in a storm and the sailors figure that he’s to blame so they need to lessen their cargo – guess who’s thrown overboard? …he lived inside the whale for awhile but this passage deals with when he ends up on dry land and God speaks to Jonah a second time…you see, he didn’t get it the first time and now he has a second chance…and this is what the whole little book of Jonah is about – it’s about change…change with Jonah and the Ninevites and more interestingly, God also changes God’s mind…and this is where the paradox lies…we believe that God is changeless and consistent yet in this passage, God is willing to learn and to change…

 1 CORINTHIANS 7: 29-31

In our second reading today, we have Paul once again speaking of the ‘end times’…we know that the world did not end soon after this letter was written so we are all still living between the time of Jesus and the time of the new world that God promised…so some questions pop up when I read this…Is it possible for us to live in the present moment and keeping always in our minds the ultimate unity of love and justice?... and if it is, how will that change how we live in this present moment?... And how might it change even the mundane things of life – how we shop…what we shop for…and so on? …

 MARK 1: 14-20

John the Baptist has just been arrested and Jesus steps in and says, “the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near…repent and believe in the good news”…words which John always used and Jesus uses them to bring in his first followers…the call of these disciples is also the call to all of us…the question is, will we, without hesitation, step forward and go on the road with Jesus? …and the writer of Mark compares Jesus to Jonah as a sign of the judgment of God…unlike Jonah, Jesus went willingly and preached to the enemies of God and called for repentance…so in my message today we’re going to have a look at how God’s light shines far beyond any boundaries we may define in our pluralistic world and how Jesus can be the epiphany of God’s love for the whole world…

HOW DO WE ENVISION CHRIST IN OUR PLURALISTIC WORLD?

It’s the season after Epiphany, that time when we celebrate the expansive light of Christ reaching into every single corner of our darkened world…each of us is here today because in some way or another, we have experienced the light of Christ shining upon us…but does that light shine only or exclusively for us?....and especially when we live in small towns or villages such as ours and we are predominantly ‘Christian’…well today I want to say something about Christ as light of the world – the whole world and how that fits into a pluralistic society or a society where we share in so many varied cultures, religions, ethics, politics, and so on…this is a question that presses in upon us today in a multicultural, multi-religious Canada when, for so many people, their next door neighbour is Hindu or the person in the desk beside another is Muslim…or possibly Sikh or Baha’i or Jewish…we’re Christians…we believe that Jesus is part of the Trinity and that he had something to do with salvation….and as Christians, we might claim that Christ is our hope, our Saviour, and our Lord…but, what about “them”?...the folks who are not Christian…the ones who believe strongly and sometimes to the death, in their religion and in their different named ‘god’?....

In the Epistle Lesson this morning we heard a few words from Paul and I have a love/hate relationship with some of his theology but one thing about Paul, his stunning theological discovery was that God is not only the God of the Jewish folk but also the God of the Gentiles…this shock of the expansiveness of God’s love is behind most everything that Paul writes…our God is not just for us…us exclusive Christians… but God is for all of creation, in whatever name we give Him…or Her…or It… for ultimately, God is Love…period!!....

And Paul’s expansive view of God was based upon a call by the inclusive Christ…he couldn’t believe that the risen Christ had reached out to him, a sworn enemy of the church…and then he was further surprised that Christ had also reached out to the Gentiles – to the ‘other’…and that’s why Paul says in Romans that we ought to welcome others as Christ has welcomed us…yup!...strange that in our time, in the minds of many, the notion that the name of Jesus Christ saves should be regarded as that which gives Christians reasons for excluding others – “we’re saved…sorry about you!”…or for the stopping of evangelization because we can’t share in the good news because that implies that we arrogantly think we are right and they are wrong…

What I have to say is that God has acted uniquely, but not exclusively, to save in Jesus Christ…there is something about the salvation or recovery in the name of Jesus Christ that blurs boundaries and creates capacity, nurturing generosity toward those in other religious or cultural traditions…and I witnessed this when I was in the Jewish synagogue… and I witnessed this when I attended a Muslim mosque and when I sat down in an Anglican church and in a Roman Catholic Mass…and I witnessed this in the pub down the street and when the voices of the Mennonites touched my spirit…

The church, at least our church, has never said that Christ died for the sins of the church….Christ died for the world as so many others have also done…so therefore, we relate to those of other faiths…we talk to them…enter into dialogue with them…listen to them…share their stories…serve them…and work to love them…not in spite of Christ but because of Christ…we see Christ working in them even if they as yet do not see that work…and more importantly, we pray that they might even see Christ through us…in what we do in our daily lives…a great part of the tension in the New Testament comes from the church, both Jewish and Gentile, awakening to the discovery that God has a considerably larger notion of “family” than they do…and in the life and death of Jesus, one of the main reasons they crucified him was because he was telling the folk that tax-collectors and prostitutes and so on we’re getting into the kingdom of God before they were…blasphemy!!... Jesus made the world wider and wider and wider…

So…the question for all of us as we journey through Epiphany is how do we share the good news of Christ in our pluralistic world?...even more so, how do we share the good news with those who aren’t here – who look at ‘church’ as a pariah?...is that truly what we are?...are we relevant anymore?...

 Shalom…

Sunday, January 14, 2024

Readings and Message

1 SAMUEL 3:1-10

As we listen to this dramatized biblical passage from 1st Samuel, you come to realize that that God is going to do a new thing…so large that it will make us tingle…and God is going to do it through a young lad…I sense that God is going to give us pins and needles and use the child as a delivery system…and you know, this story sounds a lot like the Christmas birth story…it echoes the surprise of Mary at the movement in her womb…so my question to all of you this morning is when was the last time you felt a ‘tingle’ about the word of God to you?...think about that if you will…

PSALM 121

Our second reading for this morning is from the Psalms and it’s one which is, I believe, quite familiar to many of you…Psalm 121…the words give all of us the assurance that God is always present and will always be our keeper and keep us from evil…God will be at our beginning and our end…Beth will read this for you and I’ll echo it from James Taylor’s “Everyday Psalms” entitled a hiker’s creed…

JOHN 1:43-51

I kind of like this Gospel passage this morning because it reminds me of me sometimes…the story begins with Jesus making a decision… “Where shall I go next?”… “Oh, let’s see…maybe Galilee”…and this time, he’s not driven nor is he led nor did he have to go…and it’s so cool to know that even with Jesus being Spirit-filled and in tune with God’s will he had to sort out his options and make his own decisions…and for us, this says that God honours the gift of individual freedom…think about that…

 “COME, FOLLOW ME…I NEED YOU!”       

 I have heard that one of the greatest needs of any leader is to be able to trust his or her followers and delegate some of the work to them…well, God must trust us a great deal because God gives, from the very beginning, great work for us to do…God is a great delegator.

The Gospel passage which I’ve just read, begins at the 43rd verse but if we look at the very beginning of this chapter, it begins like this… “In the beginning was the Word…” do you see what the writer of the Gospel of John is doing?...he is claiming that when Christ came in to the world, it was like the creation of a whole new world…John 1 is meant to be an echo of Genesis 1…now, if you know the story of creation, as it’s told in Genesis 1, then you know that no sooner has God begun creating the world then God creates humankind…and no sooner has God created humankind then God gives us something to do…to look after the fish in the sea…to look after the birds in the air…and look after the cattle…all of the wild animals…and everything that creeps over the earth…the creature world…and God says “Go, be fruitful and multiply, and look after my creation…” God, in essence is saying, “come, follow me…I need you!”…

This great affirmation certainly contributed to a deep sense of undeniable human worth, for each of us are created in the image of God..

But we also ought to be reminded of perhaps an even more radical assertion of this story…human beings are created to be about the business of God…we don’t only share God’s image, but God has given us a share in the work…God’s a pretty good delegator…

And, by-the-way, the Hebrew words here for “image” or “likeness” are the same words that were used in the ancient world for a statue of a king or emperor that was set up in the center of the town square…the king or emperor could not be everywhere, so he sent his images to the far-flung reaches of his Empire…the king or emperor was present through this image or likeness…statue worship…

The astounding affirmation here, is not only that we are the representatives of God, but that we are given responsibility for the work of God…God’s a pretty good delegator…come, follow me, I need you!..

And this continues on in other books of the New Testament… Paul says, “God has given us the ministry of reconciliation…”

Maybe those embroiled in the Gaza Strip might have a real close look at this…Or Russia and the Ukraine or North and South Korea or China and Taiwan or other places in the world where all that seems to control is who has the best weapons or the most military might…or even in our own cities or households…reconciling with each other…God delegates this to us…

Perhaps that’s part of what Jesus means when, in today’s Gospel, he promises Philip and Nathanael that they will be privileged to see “greater things than these”…it’s an allusion to the story of the great-great grandfather in the faith, Jacob…Jacob was called to be a progenitor of the people of Israel and he got to see a great ladder let down from heaven… (you remember, Jacob’s ladder?)…what’s amazing is not only that Jacob got this heavenly vision but that Jacob got this vision – Jacob the liar…Jacob the scoundrel…Jacob us sometimes…well, Jacob is your ancestor as well…and you, like Jacob may not be the best people in the world, and you, like Philip and Nathanael may not be the most insightful people…but what you are is the people whom Jesus has called to follow him and to be a huge part of the revolution…and that means, you’re going to see some amazing things…

Today, let’s just say that one of the most amazing things is that Jesus has given his work to people like you and to people like me…It’s like the calling of Samuel…and it reminds me that over the years, when I’ve looked over the sanctuaries which I have preached in, there’s quite often some who have drifted off to sleep…their eyes are closed…too bad I didn’t have one of those soaker-guns filled with water to revive them… but let’s be honest, we’ve all napped in church before on some occasion.. our eyes may have been open, but our minds were possibly on what’s going to happen this afternoon, or what to make for dinner with guests coming, or countless other things that detract from listening and being. Young Samuel slept in the church not only physically but spiritually, until God woke him up…he heard the words, “Come…follow me…I need you…”

 “Come….follow me….I need all of you…”…. Amen. 

Sunday, January 7, 2024          

Readings and Message

GENESIS 1:1-5

We begin our readings this morning from the first verses of Genesis… verses which first depict creation and night and day are formed with what separated it was ‘light’…and then there’s water and we might imagine a whole service renewing our baptismal vows, retouching our early water…touching the water drives us back to the beginning…of our beginning…so when Jesus becomes baptized which you will hear in the Gospel passage, he has a significant connection back to the deep waters of creation…he does what god did in the beginning…he reopens the world…so let’s hear these first five verses of Genesis…

ACTS 19:1-7

As most of you know and which I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this service, this is the day of the liturgical year when Christians celebrate the baptism of Jesus and this day is designated in many churches as a particularly appropriate one on which to baptize and welcome new members into the church family…so the reading from Acts which Ann is going to share reminds us to claim the full power of that baptism which not only includes the sprinkling or the blessing with water but maybe more importantly, by the Holy Spirit…

MARK 1:4-11

When John had mentioned to the folks that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit, he is pretty much declaring what all of his Gospel declares: that the ministry of Jesus is all about the reign of God…the Spirit that  is the sign of the turning of the ages has now ben poured upon Jesus…from now on, him and his followers will be declaring and embodying God’s reign…

COME ON IN, THE WATER’S FINE!!

The God which all of us worship has a face, a name, and a specific way of being in the world…Our God is no detached, cool, indistinct concept or idea…Our God is an active, personal being who appears, from our biblical understanding, to want to love us and to own us, to enlist us to work with God in God’s work in the world…in sermons or messages which I contrive for you folks (and myself), we get personal with God, we lay ourselves before the Holy One, and we examine our lives in the light of God as we sometimes become the voice…

But it can also be said that in sermons, and listening to them, God gets personal with us…

And sitting in my office in the last couple of days and working on bulletins and baptismal liturgy, message for the Lakeview News & Views, and beginning to think about all of the things which need to happen and countless other tasks that need my attention including the message for today and reading some of the books which I have just purchased, God got personal with me…and I with God…

One needs to step back, out of the norm for a while, and allow the Spirit to breathe its breath into us so as to recharge our batteries…Christmas has just passed and for some of us, it may have been all too hectic, even though it was filled with family and friends…there maybe wasn’t a time to sit quietly for a period of time and to reflect on the God within and the God without…so I had this opportunity and I had a conversation with…me…

I came up with this idea that we sometimes have two distinct understandings of who or what God is to us…some may see God as a ‘wholesale God’ and others may find God to be a ‘retail God’…let me expand on this a bit…

The wholesale God, I believe, is the God taken away from the language of any particular tradition…this is the God of philosophical theology and it’s the God of many popular North American streams of Christianity…

Sometimes we hear the words “Ultimate Reality”, “Being Itself”, or God is often referred to as “The More”…one only needs to take a trip one day into different areas of Calgary and spend some time at Costco…. this is the more…this is the ultimate reality…the wholesale God is what we talk about when we talk about what the word “God” means, what all of our names for God point to…The wholesale God is God emptied of anything specific and everything on a large, large scale...God often becomes, in this sense, an abstract and a rather vague concept…it’s kind of like in Star Wars… “May the force be with you”…it tends to be abstract…

On the other hand, we have the retail God…this is the way in which, I believe, most traditional religions talk about God…this is the God of the church and the synagogue…the small retail outlets and the local distributors…it’s more on a small scale and…it’s personal…the retail God has personal characteristics…a proper name, a face, it speaks, acts and has distinctive attributes…just like a person…on one hand we have the vast, vague distribution centre of places like Costco and on the other, the local grocery store, where they know your name and you know theirs and they even know what kind of meat you buy…

But we need to know what this wholesale God is to make and take the retail God seriously…the God who is personal…

If we look at today’s lessons, each of them speaks of a God who sees, speaks, acts, moves, and…intrudes…Genesis, God is acting in the complete creation story…and there’s Paul as he opens his heart to the folks and shares in his beliefs and baptizes them in the Holy Spirit…and John the Baptizer looks at Jesus and sees God personified…and now… each of you has to get your feet wet as the River Jordan is calling you to come…and to witness the new dawning of humanity…

 So, think of Sunday as your attempt to get personal with God, to give that word God, which can sometimes be terribly abstract, something specific and concrete…look at each other and see that face, for each of you are a most wonderful creation…and come on in…the water’s fine… Amen!

December 2023

CHRISTMAS EVE Message

Ahhh…the wonder of Christmas Eve and what it means in our lives as ones who believe that a newborn child can change the world…that God’s intervention takes priority over anything else…that miracles do happen – every day and every moment…to each and every one of us… and you know, sometimes Christmas to many of us seems to be a somewhat period of chaos…the unfinished things which need finishing. The getting your home in order to welcome guests over the holiday season…the drive to wherever for many of us and making sure that your gas tank is filled, and the endless thought put into packing and then unpacking…wrapping and unwrapping…making sure that you had enough medicine to tide you over for the period…enough eggnog…

a clean oven…maybe wood split for the fireplace for Christmas morning…cat-food and dog food for all the little critters…and so on… so many little tasks and putting things in order…putting all of them little pieces together and sometimes it creates nothing more than… chaos…well guess what…

Jesus was born into this world of chaos…there must have been some pretty chaotic things going on when Mary and Joseph sat down to have a close look at their situation…in fact, the situation got totally out of control…the woman to whom Joseph is engaged to, had become pregnant and not by him…Wow!...this goes against all Jewish standards and would put Mary in quite a place…she would have been ostracized from her society…and in the midst of all of this chaos is an angel…

a voice…she has this sense that something or somebody is speaking to you…and it’s the still, small voice of God – the voice of reason…and Joseph eventually allows God to come into his chaos…God, of course, has a different idea and offers the remarkable suggestion that Joseph take Mary home as his wife…as planned…explaining that her swelling belly was not caused by unfaithfulness on her part, but instead is a miraculous act of the Holy Spirit…

So in the midst of the constant commercial cacophony that hammers away at us this time of year, we are challenged to find a place in our homes…in our hearts…that is quiet enough to hear God’s suggestions for how to cope with the sometimes pandemonium or loneliness in our lives…as Joseph did…and the result was that Jesus was born into the world…Good thing for the world!!...and we, too, have to invite God to come into our chaos…

and we do this by allowing the Christ-child to be born into our lives once again…the child which represents “God with us”…and peace and hope…

And this unfolding story of salvation begins with human beings…God works best through human beings…and that’s us…God works with human wills and employs human abilities…God’s work is best done in human love…wasn’t God at work creating a family fit to nurture and grow the Saviour of the world??...

In a cold, cruel world, in an age that was best of times and the worst of times for a Messiah to come, Jesus was born into a loving family…

to my mind, that makes for more than just some beautiful paintings and pretty pictures on Christmas cards…in fact, Jesus’ family was a little out of the ordinary…as most of our families are…ask any couple of different skin colour years ago if everyone accepted their relationship?...

What about that single parent – male or female and how they were accepted into some societies…ask any gay or lesbian couple how they may have been received in certain mainstreams of society…all of these folks and others could have the most loving relationship but they oftentimes feel that they still don’t fit into the mold of the regular folk of the world…who needs molds anyway?...

It only diminishes us and tends to shift power to the masses and takes away any sort of power from those who may seem that they live on the edges…

What Jesus’ birth does for me is that it brings Emmanuel – “God with us”, that much closer to me and my experience of life…it makes a difference knowing that Jesus knew good parental love…and a ‘stable’ upbringing (in whatever sense you want to make of this)…that his parents were faithful to God in all things…that they did what was right, no matter the cost…following God’s way, no matter how fearsome the journey…

Emmanuel comes closer to us, because Mary and Joseph gave him a life like ours, and the love that is the closest thing to God’s perfect love in this world…so, we must allow God to come into our chaos…

This Christmas season…light a candle or two…put your feet up and pour yourself a hot steaming cup of tea or hot chocolate and breathe in the aroma…breathe in the breath of God…share this moment with others and allow the Spirit of Christmas to come into the chaos…

You won’t regret it!    Amen.

December 3, 2023

READINGS & MESSAGE

ISAIAH 40: 1 - 11                                              

Our Old Testament passage this morning comes to us from the book of Isaiah...chapter 40...the prophet Isaiah is calling...calling to announce God’s coming...this passage is very familiar to us at this time of year because it has HUGE connotations with the coming of the new Messiah...Every valley shall be exalted...and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed...words from Isaiah and also lines from Handel’s Messiah...and God surprises us once again...the coming Messiah is not a king, a dictator, an emperor, a Prime Minister

“God revealed” is going to be a helpless child born to a lowly peasant woman...someone as simple as one of us...no fanfare, no fireworks, no smoke signals—this is our Christian belief—which will forever alienate us from the Judaic waiting for the Messiah—and where we spend countless hours in dialogue and pluralistic endeavors to reach the centre and understand each other’s theology...“God revealed” means different things to different people...

2 PETER 3: 8 - 15(a)

The epistle lesson this morning is a lesson in cosmology or the workings of the universe...the writer of this passage is sharing with us an apocalyptical world-view which he jolts his readers with so that they will repent and begin to live their lives according to the word of God...and this writer stresses that God’s time is a lot different than our time and that maybe God has been revealed to some...and not all...and continually becomes revealed to the world in so many wonderful and exciting ways...hallelujah!...we just have to open our eyes and see...

MARK 1:1-8

Our Gospel passage this morning introduces us to John the Baptizer…imagine the reaction among his followers when John says, ”The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.” I gather that people who are willing to follow someone at least want the reassurance that they are following the right person…Who wants to follow the one who is preparing the way for somebody else? And if this was looked at today at a management level, John might have kept the thoughts about a better future savior to himself or at least until they had made a smooth transition later….but… John is not operating from a management position…he is a servant of God and he’s just called to tell the truth…

THERE IS PEACE IN SHARING

“Tell me the weight of a snowflake,” the sparrow asked the dove.

“Nothing more than nothing,” came the answer.

“In that case, I must tell you a marvelous story,” says the sparrow. “I sat on the branch of a fir tree, close to its trunk, when it began to snow - not heavily, not in a raging blizzard - no, just like in a dream, without a sound, and without any violence. Since I did not have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and the needles of my branch.   Their number was exactly 3,741,953. When the 3,741,954th  dropped onto the branch - nothing more than nothing - as you say -- the branch broke off.”

Having said that, the sparrow flew away.

The dove, since Noah’s time an authority on the matter, thought about the story for a while, and finally said to herself, “Perhaps only one person’s voice is lacking for peace to come to the world.”

Peace comes to us one step at a time and sometimes two steps forward and three steps backward...but what is of great importance is that peace is shared...Christmas...is so often a tense time...it’s a very anxious time for some families...can my family come home?...will my family be safe?...will I see my family?...we aspire to make it perfect...then...families and branches of families and children and parents collide...we sometimes can’t even find peace amongst ourselves...how in heaven’s name are we ever going to find peace on earth?...

What better way than to speak up...against the powers and principalities of this world...to not be a voice in the desert but a voice that can be heard which has an empowering and an enriching tone to it and which embodies the love and peace which Christ exemplified...and this is not always such an easy task...

I’ll share a story with you which might give you an idea of what I am talking about...and it’s an older story…

While Kruschchev was premier of the Soviet Union, he came out against his predecessor Joseph Stalin and Stalin’s abuses of power. As he was giving his speech denouncing Stalin, someone in the Congress Hall shouted, “Where were you comrade Kruschchev, when all these innocent people were being slaughtered?”

At that moment...there was total silence...as everyone wondered what would happen next...Kruschchev stopped speaking and began looking around the hall...He said, “Will the man who said that kindly stand up?”

No one stood up....Everyone was frozen in their seats...

Kruschchev then said, “Well, whoever you are, you have your answer now...I was in exactly the same position then...as you are now.”...

And this brings us back to facing the powers and principalities which take away from our freedom and our peace in this world...

So, allow me to share with you this morning one of my biases...We live in democratic countries and for this we should be thankful...we are allowed to freely vote for those folks or political parties which we deem to be the best representatives of our voices....but when world peace becomes threatened because the powers and principalities have an agenda that is different from ours...we are in trouble...in fact...our voice becomes voiceless unless we speak up against the wrongs which we see and speak up in all manner of ways...when Jesus spoke up against the evils of society, he wasn’t pointing his finger only at the pharisees and Sadducees or those who held ecclesiastical office and misused it, he wasn’t only pointing his finger at the Roman Empire and their power and greed, he wasn’t only pointing his finger at tax-collectors or money-changers.....he was denouncing the misuse of power and those who were not sharing in the gift of peace-making and bringing the kingdom of God alive...he was pointing his finger at those who turned their eyes away from reality and were tooooo busy building their own empires where they made themselves the centre.... our democratic countries, at this moment, are finding themselves embroiled in just such empire building and peace in this world is hanging by a thread...

So how do we “prepare the way of the Lord”? How do we prepare the way for God to work God’s continual creation through us when we are being constantly challenged with forces which are not our voices or our thoughts or actions??...

A simple answer....there is peace in sharing....and there is sharing in peace…we share in the raising and caring for a child....and this child, like any child needs to be looked after...so what does it mean for us to care for the Christ-child?....what does it mean for us to raise the Christ?...IT MEANS EVERYTHING....for when we raise Christ...God raises us....when we look after the lowliest...we become agents of peace in this world...we become connected to Elizabeth and Mary as they share their joy with each other....we become like John the Baptizer and stand before the powers of the world and say, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord!”...or in today’s terms...put away all of those negative things which are blocking you from being whole and open yourselves up to sharing in the spirit of peace...and this begins with reconciliation with family members...with neighbours...with our Aboriginal brothers and sisters…and on a global scale... reconciliation with other countries and working towards peace instead of war...

In my constant searching and prayerfully thinking of how to share my message with all of you...sometimes a book says it much better than the words which come into my head and this morning I would end with “Jacob the Baker” by Noah benShea and his gentle wisdom for a complicated world…this short passage is entitled “we can’t hear what is being said when our fingers are in our ears”........page 65.....

Can we hear the voices of Jesus and John and Mary and Elizabeth as they prepare to bring peace to this earth?

AMEN

November 26, 2023

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2023

Readings & Message

ISAIAH 64: 1-9

In reading the Old Testament passage on Wednesday and contemplating what the writer of Isaiah was trying to convey, something jumped out in what I would call a plea to God…it has to do with clay and how artists and potters take to this clay and slowly mold it and shape it into something beautiful…and if it doesn’t work out the first time, press it all back down again and give it another try…sooner or later, what is in a person’s mind of what this shape of clay may look like, it happens…but it takes time and this is what, I sense, the writer is trying to convey…asking God to be patient as each person grows…and that’s the key word – patient…and in this season of expectation each of us are invited to practice, diligently, in this act of patience…as God is patient with us….

1 CORINTHIANS 1: 3-9

The second reading is part of one of Paul’s letters to the folks in Corinth…it was one of the great trading cities at that time and it was all about work and advancement and influence…could have parallels today…everything in Corinth had a price and everyone was responsible for their own advancement through hard work…could have parallels today…and nothing was free, not even the Pax Romana or the peace of Rome…it came with a price…but there was something which was totally free for those who would seek it – the free gift of God in the Christ or the anointed one…the strength of Rome was in its army – the strength of this new community of faith was in its unity…and its faith…

MARK 13: 24-37

Interesting Gospel passage this morning for it seems out of place for Advent…it’s apocalyptical writing or in layperson’s language, end of time writing…you may find this strange to begin Advent with such a writing but there are sign-posts which point to the importance of what is to happen – well this passage points to the death and resurrection but we could also point it towards the birth of the Christ-child…for one never knows when the child becomes born into your life or when Christ finally takes over your world and changes you…and the writer of Mark says to all of us, “Keep Awake!”…“Pay attention!”…“Be Ready”…for something great is going to happen and each of you have been offered a front row seat – if you want it…

THE WORD ‘HOPE’ DOESN’T STAND ALONE

On this first Sunday in the season of Advent we focus on the word ‘hope’ and what this may mean in our lives…and what I understand of this word is that it can’t and it doesn’t stand alone…it needs action…it needs to be put into another context with something else…you can’t just ‘hope’ for peace – you need to move in directions which make it happen… you can’t just ‘hope’ for a life filled with joy – you need to feed it for what it needs to become…you’re the one who makes it happen…it’s with your actions and with your deliberate forward steps which makes hope a reality…and this is so important because so often, we do lip-service to some of the most crucial situations in our world and in our lives…we hope for peace but we still judge our neighbour and cause rifts in relationships…we hope for joy-filled lives but we can’t seem to wipe frowns off of our faces and face the day with a smile… sometimes we don’t reflect hope in our lives…at all…

And here’s a story which just might reflect this:

( page 67 – Wisdom Stories)

It’s not difficult in sharing in this word ‘hope’…or is it?...

In this story all the one man did was to share his visions of what he wanted to see through the brick wall and to make life for the other man, bearable…reality is sometimes bitter and intangibles can oftentimes supersede reality in that what you truly hope for can become life-giving…it changes a stark reality into a flight of the imagination which holds power on its own…your power…what you may need in that moment to help you make it through…and I sometimes think that this is what Jesus is trying to tell us through the Gospel passage today…stop hoping for something which is unattainable and begin the actions of bringing this hope alive in your daily lives – one action at a time…one gentle word at a time…for as Jesus said, “Heaven and earth may pass away, but my words never will.”…there could be a brick wall as you know it, but there’s a beautiful world out there just for you…

So the word ‘hope’ doesn’t stand alone…it never stands alone…for what is hope?...I sense that it is the inherent power that each of us has to make positive changes in this world – in our society…I sense that it’s a gift from God, to each of us, to make us grow into something which tears down brick walls and opens up a new dawning – a new sunrise that beckons each of us to pay attention to the God who breathes us…

This Sunday of Hope is the beginning of a journey -  a journey that brings us, as the story goes, into a tiny village where a child is to be born…something quite insignificant…something ordinary…but it is into this ordinariness where God breaks through for hope comes to us in the most unusual ways…in the most unusual times…it’s the Advent mystery…it’s the Advent invitation…it’s the period of expectation before the earth, once again, breaks forth in song for a new opportunity to mend this broken world…

Could we be looking at a brick wall in front of us or could we imagine that what we are really seeing is a living, loving world?

Does ‘hope’ stand alone? ...no ….we are hope for each other…and the Christ-child is the hope for us all…

May your Advent journey lead you into places of wonder…places of joy…places of hope…Amen. 

Sunday, November 19, 2023

Readings & Message

PSALM 100

This morning, as we begin our readings of the day, we need to hear the two perspectives of Psalm 100…one from the Sacred Text and one through music or song or singing…Psalm 100 is a triumphal song of thanksgiving and it could also be used as a reliable call to worship…it’s not rooted in one time or one moment or one occasion…this Psalm is for all generations and helps us to claim the wonderful notes of triumph or accomplishment…and this Psalm begs to be cried aloud, not only in your personal devotions and worship preparation but also in today’s worship as well as we sing Psalm 100 after hearing the words from the Sacred Text…

EPHESIANS 1: 15-23

And as we heard and as we sang Psalm 100 with words of thanksgiving, we now turn to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians which also parallels this… the words are filled with thanksgiving and triumph…and the citizens of the Roman Empire knew what this was for victorious processions were common…there were huge parades staged whenever someone was defeated and all of their possessions were taken…the spoils of war…but in Jesus’ case, all of the authorities and the powers and the dominions were under his feet and this included everything – the Hebrew hierarchy, the Greek and Roman gods and even the Emperor himself…

MATTHEW 25: 31-46

On this last Sunday before Advent, our Gospel passage brings us directly into the understanding of what it takes to be a follower of Christ…and Jesus in this passage doesn’t line everyone up and quiz them on their communion practices or liturgical practices…there is no mention of who chaired the M & P committee, or the Worship ministry team, or any of the other things that sometimes seem so important to churches…this is what he basically says: if you’ve fed the hungry, clothed the naked, gave drink to the thirsty, visited the sick or possibly those in prison, and when you’ve served the least of these you’re in…if you haven’t and didn’t, then you’re out…this dichotomy is pretty simple…yet may be some of the toughest things which we can ever do…

OUR RESPONSE (or not) TO HUMAN NEED

 William Willimon, quite a famous theologian, writes this truism: One Sunday after church the family and I stopped into a little restaurant… I had been away from home for the week in another city holding a seminar and wanted to treat the family to a dad lunch…

The little restaurant was crowded, and our server looked tired and weary…and then after the meal and things started thinning out, I asked her: “You look tired – are you okay?” She told me she had been up most of the night with her little boy who was sick but that she was okay. I said: “It must be hard after being up all night, having to stand on your feet and work so hard.” She just nodded…

“What’s the hardest day of the week at work?” I asked…She didn’t know I was a Reverend, a minister…She said, “The hardest day of the week is Sunday…I dread all the people who come here after church… they make so many demands and some are so hateful, so depressed… and they never tip hardly anything…”

Ahhh…human need and our sometimes response or not, to it…

We are dealing today with the last parable Jesus gave…at least in our biblical text….interestingly enough, his first parable in Matthew 13 is the parable of the sower and the four kinds of soil…how the seed was received was the challenge of that parable…the response of the people would determine if the seed lived or if it died…and here in Jesus’ last parable in Matthew 25, the same theme is replayed in a different key… it’s brought to us in a different way…how shall we respond to the hurting needs around us?...

We could call this parable of the sheep and the goats Jesus’ last will and testament to the church…what a legacy he left for his followers!...to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty…to welcome the stranger and clothe the naked, and to care for the sick and reach out to the prisoner was Christ’s challenge to his followers…he reminds us in the biblical text that those in need are members of his family… ultimately…members of our family…we’ve drawn the lines differently today…we talk about doctrine and liberals and conservatives and NDP’s and right and left wing and rules and worship and culture wars, how foreign it all seems compared to that last parable…Jesus minced no words:  reach out to them and you will see the face of God…no more…no less…

There’s this little poem that crossed my desk years ago and I put it into one of my drawers for later use…here it is…

“I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see…

  I sought my God, but my God eluded me…

  I sought my brother, and I found all three…”

This is part of our response to human need…I remember many years ago, probably over 20 now, when I was attending a two week session in Winnipeg and we all congregated at the United Church in the heart of the city…a church which had its focus on social justice and being with those less fortunate…especially if you’ve been to downtown Winnipeg, you may know what I mean…

I was in the line for lunch at the church, with all of the street people, the hookers, the drug addicts, the alcoholics, the somewhat mentally unstable folks, the lonely, the washed and the unwashed…the whole gamut of downtown Winnipeg city life…I was looking for the face of Christ amongst all of these folk because just before lunch, we as a group had a session with the volunteers who would feed the hungry and someone had asked one of the volunteers to pray…this was her prayer…

“Jesus, help me to see your face when you come through the line.”…

There I was…looking at every face and what happened in that line-up was transformative…when you look at someone, and really look at them, and not with distain but with wonder and with a smile on your face, what is returned is the face of Christ…

Well, in today’s Gospel, the problem is seeing…people simply fail to see Jesus when he stands right in front of them in the needs of others…In a way, they not only failed to see Jesus but also failed to see their neighbours…perhaps one of the greatest challenges of the Christian life is the challenge of seeing Jesus when he appears…in whatever shape or form that may be…

We sometimes complain that God is elusive…difficult to know…silent… sometimes evasive…perhaps we ought to confess that the problem is on our side – we are those who tend to say, even when face-to-face with God – “When did we see you?”…

Well, everyone, Advent is coming upon us and those who live in darkness will see a great light…this is what I believe will be an underscoring theme throughout this season and it’s up to us to journey through our own dark places if need be, but if each of us takes the idea that we need to offer a positive response to human need, not only will theirs be met…so will our own…we journey together and sometimes the road seems impassable or too treacherous but we always need to remember that the road to Bethlehem, the city of bread, the road to hope and to peace, the road to a new reality, begins with……..

And then I couldn’t find the word…I couldn’t finish it…because when I had my lunch at that church in Winnipeg, I distanced myself from the street people and sat with those I knew in my group, instead of sitting and sharing with those whom God would want me to be with at that time…

I look back at this and see that it was my darkness…

may I find light…

may we all find light…

Amen.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2023

READINGS & MESSAGE

JOSHUA 3:7-17

Our first reading for this Sunday finds Joshua and the folks of Israel finally crossing the River Jordan…they have ceremoniously cleansed themselves and have washed all of their garments…with the twelve tribes of Israel present, each tribe is to select a priest and these twelve will carry the ark of the covenant across the Jordan which will stop flowing when their feet touch the banks of the river…the people will cross and the priests will cross and the promised land will become a reality…Moses’s dream will come true…

1 THESSALONIANS 2:9-13

This passage coming up from Thessalonians reminds of the value to identify our spiritual parents…kind of reminds me of Sidney Poitier who started off as a houseboy in a hotel and only one person, an older man, took time to help him learn the ropes…and on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson he was interviewed and said that he couldn’t remember the old man’s name but there was something of the man in almost everything he did…and so for us, it’s also important to remember those who have influenced our life in special ways…so let’s take a listen to our Epistle lesson this morning…

MATTHEW 23:1-12

This passage from Matthew needs to be looked at closely…it requires careful interpretation…what the writer is doing is showing profound respect for the authority of the Hebrew Scriptures and of course, the richness of the Jewish tradition…and remember, without Judaism, there would be no Christianity…

but what we need to recognize in this passage is that this is not just something specific to the Jewish leaders, but it could be a universal human characteristic…

I sense that the passage concerns the true nature of discipleship and not a condemnation of a particular people or possibly a religion…

                                     WEARING THE UNIFORM OF PEACE      or

How Does One Connect God with the Subject of War and Destruction?

In August of 2015, eight years ago, when I had spent some time in Newfoundland, Corner Brook to be exact, as a Commissioner to the 42nd General Council of The United Church of Canada, one of the commissioners at our table was a chaplain with the armed forces of this country…we nicknamed him the “Mad Padre” because he had a wonderful, Newfoundland craziness to him that made all of us connect with his humour and his love of life and his stories – real stories…stories of fellow comrades, male and female, who he had the opportunity of ministering to…so this Sunday, this Remembrance Sunday, I think of him as no doubt he’s been invited to preach at some small church in Newfoundland, maybe somewhere along the craggy shores, and to share his stories of life…stories of tragedy, of pain, of love lost, of loneliness, of despair… and…of small and large victories…

And I’m sure that one of his questions or many questions will be on how do we connect our Christian faith with the subject of Remembrance Day?…How does one connect God with the subject of war and destruction?...What does the name of God mean when spoken together with the names of young men and women who died too soon?...What comfort can the name of God offer to those who remember the names of the dead and wounded?...questions…questions which touch our spirts deeply…

Well the first thing I would say is that all of us, as Canadians and as followers of Christ, wear two hats on a day like this…the Canadian bit is pretty straightforward is it not?...as Canadians, I think we all feel sorrow and pride… we feel sorrow because of the lives that were taken and ruined in places such as Passchendaele, or Normandy, or Kandahar, or any other large city or small village where guns were blazing and bodies were piling up…we mourn the waste of it all, but we take some pride in what our veterans did…we remember the sense of Canadian identity that was reinforced in the trenches of Flanders…we remember the people of Holland we saved from tyranny and starvation…we think of how South Korea is a modern, prosperous country because Canadians helped to defend it and we’re still doing this in the face of North Korea’s escalating military presence …we are thankful that our veterans earned us the freedom to wear a red poppy, or even a white one…or none at all…I see young Canadians of all races and faiths wearing a red poppy and this makes me proud to be a Canadian…

As Canadians who are also Christians, however, I think that Remembrance Day is not so straightforward…we are a distinct people, called to follow Christ, the Prince of Peace, and to share his gospel or Good News with the world in our words and in our actions…yeah, there’s violence and conflict in the Old Testament, and many Christians find this part of the bible to be difficult, but there are also Old Testament voices such as the prophet Hosea who tells us that God desires “steadfast love and not sacrifice” or Micah who looks forward to when God brings in an era of peace…

In the preaching and parables of Jesus we find a consistent message of love and peace, including the famous verse from Matthew, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”…for the early church, non-violent resistance was the only response to the power of Rome…it was only when Christianity was the faith of both rulers and the ruled that Christians began to struggle with how we could make war on neighbours that Jesus called us to love and throughout the ages, there has been some idea of justifiable war, such as wars of self-defence or wars to stop aggression…other Christians such as the Amish or Mennonites are called by God to lives of non-violence…both views are respectable parts of our Christian tradition and both views live in tension with one another…

In 1914, when young Canadians went to war, these folks and their generation were told that they were fighting for God, King, and Country…the generation of German youth who fought against them were also told the same thing, and wore belt buckles stamped with the words, “Got Mit Uns” which means “God is with Us”…this confuses me…even today, there are those who wage war in God’s name…the Taliban were told that they were fighting for God and for all of my upbringing, God to me was Peace…was Love…compassion…undeserved generosity…so a part of me says, “huh?”…

And in these modern times, many of our soldiers came home from Afghanistan suffering in mind and spirit, injuries which we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (or PTSD) and what was different here was that there was no clear victory as there was in the first two world wars…so our soldiers and veterans have spiritual needs that may need more than just a poppy or a yellow ribbon glued to the bumper of your car…they need to be reminded of God’s love…over and over again because deep inside, may live a need for forgiveness…so how do we support them?...I have three ways I think may be helpful…

#1…continue to pray for peace…and this is more than a simple bedtime prayer… praying for peace means caring about the world and world politics…it means following the news and digging into the news…it means asking the hard questions to our elected leaders about what role Canada is playing in the world and whether their concern is only about trade or profit or is it really about justice and about war crimes and about refugees?...and in prayer, to ask that God work in the world affairs, in the theatres of the elected, bringing good out of evil…

#2…continue to pray for our soldiers and peace-keepers…and this is something which is harder than just thinking of them as heroes…they are complicated, ordinary, frail and sometimes sinful human beings…they’re just like us so really pray for them…pray for strength and for wisdom to make the right decisions… pray for those who need the healing or possibly forgiveness for things they’ve done…pray for their families, for strong marriages and relationships and for loving spouses and partners…pray for our politicians who have responsibility for our Armed Forces and for our veterans…

And #3…pray for ourselves…as human beings we are subject to all of the many disconnects which cause war: vengeance…anger…prejudice…fear of the other…unthinking and sometimes shallow patriotism…and the list goes on…

pray for the courage to reach out to others, for the strength to forgive and for the courage to do the hard work of love that Christ calls us to do…let’s pray for a spirit of generosity and love to share what we have, the example of Canada, with others…in this complicated and dangerous world of the future, let’s pray for courage and wisdom to do the right things…and, let us pray that tomorrow, and every day thereafter, we may always remember, and never forget…and in closing, this sermon or message is for him, the one who shared his life and stories with me in Newfoundland and who relentlessly, works for peace in this sometimes shattered world…one who never gives up hope that God is a God of peace…Amen.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2023

READINGS & MESSAGE

DEUTERONOMY 34: 1-12

As I read the Deuteronomy passage my first question is what kind of ending is this for the life of Moses? If Moses doesn’t make it to the promised land, his life is unfulfilled, and his story is incomplete…but the text itself does not view the life of Moses as a failure in any sense… and certainly by seeing the fulfillment of God’s promise, there is also a sense of personal fulfillment…it’s kind of like having a “bucket list”,

a list of things which we want to accomplish before our death…but like many of us, I have come to grips with what I have accomplished along with what may never happen…there’s a testimony here to the life of Moses – his energy…his gentleness…the wonder of his ministry and… the inevitability of his passing… 

1 THESSALONIANS 2: 1-8

There’s a parallel to the Deuteronomy passage in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, our second reading this morning…just as Moses led the people of God to the borders of the promised land so Paul had led the women at the riverside in Philippi including the householder Lydia and Paul’s jailer and his household and many others…Paul’s response was to continue to risk and to serve, promoting the Gospel at all costs…

the words which you’ll hear suggest disappointment and failure yet continued devotion, love, and service with his fellow believers…and what this may point to is to sit down and write a letter, whether you send it or not, thanking someone for all of their encouragement or possibly providing a haven at some time in your life…hand write it and mail it…sometimes we don’t give each other enough encouragement…  

MATTHEW 22: 34-46

The Gospel passage is one of solid truths for there are only two real commandments which stand before all of the others….love God with everything you have inside of yourself and love your neighbour as you would love yourself…if we don’t love ourselves then we’re going to have a tough time loving neighbours…Jesus responds to a rather complicated, conflicted question with a rather simple, straightforward answer, an answer that arises out of the historic faith of Israel… sometimes our big, difficult, religious questions have answers that are more simple than we admit!!

WHICH LAW IS THE GREATEST FOR YOU?        

Heaven knows that we are all immersed in a world which consists of thousands and thousands of laws…laws which were and are put into place to make our society run smoothly and to put a definition on good and evil – although somewhat slanted at times…laws which change from day-to-day, laws which become amended, laws which may come down from the supreme court and laws which we call ‘bylaws’…the local level laws…keeping your pets under leash, and in the summers of drought, watering on certain days when the water level may have dropped…keeping your yard maintained…those sorts of things and these laws and bylaws are by themselves, of great importance…I wouldn’t take away from them but there is something which drives each of us to live side-by-side in the world community…something which, if not adhered to, would have all of us live in total chaos or possibly, annihilation of who we are as human beings…this law or these laws are found in every major religion around the world and every society which is somewhat progressive or not…

Here’s some examples of what the different religions say:

Christianity: The commandment is to love God and the second is like it... Love your neighbour.

Judaism: The same words as Christianity for Christianity sprung from this.

Native American Spirituality: Do not wrong or hate your neighbour, for it is not he who you wrong, but yourself.

Sikhism:  Don’t create enmity with anyone as God is within everyone.

Islam: None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.

Yoruba: (which is a religion in Nigeria) One who is going to take a   

               pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on themself

               to feel how it hurts.

And there are countless others, but they basically say the same thing… love your neighbour and this doesn’t only mean your human neighbour but all of creation…

Religious groups, they differ greatly in their concepts of deity or God, other beliefs, and practices. Non-theistic, or non-God centred, ethical and philosophic systems, like humanism and ethical culture, also exhibit a wide range of beliefs…but there is near unanimity of opinion among almost all religions, ethical systems, and philosophies that each person should treat others in a decent manner…almost all of these groups have passages in their holy texts, or writings of their leaders, which promotes what has been called ‘the Ethic of Reciprocity’…the most commonly known version in North America is the Golden Rule of Christianity… “do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you”…and as Jesus put it, love your God and love your neighbour…period.

One result of this ethic of reciprocity is the concept that every person shares certain inherent human rights, simply because of their membership in the human race…people are individually very different: they come in two main genders (and never to leave out other genders): different sizes, colours, and shapes; many races; many sexual orientations; and different degrees of ability…they follow many religious and economic systems, speak many languages, and follow many different cultures…but these is a growing consensus that all humans are equal in importance…all should enjoy basic human rights…the United Nations ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ is one manifestation of this growing worldwide consensus…

In my opinion, the greatest failure of organized religion is its historical inability to convince their followers that the Ethic of Reciprocity applies to all humans…not merely to fellow believers…it is my belief that religions should stress that their membership use their Ethic of Reciprocity when dealing with persons of other religions, the other gender, other races, other sexual orientations, and so forth…the things that divide us…only when this is accomplished will religiously-related oppression, mass murder and genocide cease…

So, I pop back to the question which you find printed in the bulletin or see up on the screen…Which law is the greatest for you?

Of what is most important to you?...

And what kind of world would we live in if everyone had the same law of love as you…and kept it?  I believe that this would be the kingdom of heaven which has been bantered around for years…the kingdom or the ‘kin’dom on earth…It may be a dream. It may be a huge hope, but one person by one person, one moment by one moment, one act of friendship by one act of friendship, this world would heal itself…

May God direct us is ways such as this, so that all will be well… 

Let’s turn our thoughts to God in prayer for a moment…words which come from our Ojibway brothers and sisters: 

Oh, Grandfather God, look at our brokenness. We know that in all creation, only the human family has strayed from the Sacred Way. We know that we are the ones who are divided, and we are the ones who must come back together, to walk in the Sacred Way. Grandfather God, Sacred One, teach us love, compassion, and honour that we may heal the earth and heal each other…Amen.

Sunday, October 15, 2023

Readings & Message for

World Food Sunday

EXODUS 32: 1 - 14                                 

Our first reading this morning, which comes from the Hebrew scriptures, has us again...looking into some conversations with Moses and with God...this is an interesting passage because it ends with God changing his or her mind... We have the power or the responsibility of changing God’s mind if we have a platform that is filled with truths and if we have the essence of a true argument which would be life-giving and transforming for society...Moses intercedes to divert God’s anger...as we are invited to intercede in such matters which would become destructive to the world...God wants us to give thanks for the things which have been given to us and God wants nothing more than for us to show a little patience....even in the eye of diversity...

PHILIPPIANS 4: 1 - 9

The second reading–the epistle lesson this morning, has us reading a letter that Paul sent to the congregation or the pastoral charge in the city of Philippi...Paul is distinctly stating that arguing...disunity...and lack of respect are major threats to people’s faith and coincidentally...to the existence of the church...people long for a place of security, calm, and acceptance and when outsiders see the fighting and name-calling going on inside the church...this is not what the Good News of Jesus Christ and the message of God is all about.. Paul says that genuine listening does not necessarily mean agreeing...but provides the necessary base for respect and for compromise... Unity may result and this is where we got our name from...The United Church of Canada...where three or four religious bodies decided many years ago to combine their efforts and to leave their differences behind…

MATTHEW 22: 1 - 14

Most Gospel passages which I study and share with you...make a lot of sense, but this one, this morning, is a little more difficult to interpret...A certain king is throwing a wedding party and suddenly no-one arrives so he sends his servants out into the streets to pick up anyone they can to fill the chairs...One guy shows up without wearing a tie and the king throws him out into the street...my take on this is that sometimes, we as a church...are very quick to strike someone off of our rosters if they don’t show up for Sunday services anymore...maybe the scripture passage is saying.. “Hey, don’t be too hasty and don’t get mired in bureaucracy” ...

PREPARING FOR THE FEAST

How would you feel if you came into church this morning and I asked you to leave because you weren’t wearing a tie?...or what if I walked up to you and said that your dress wasn’t clean enough and you have to leave?...You would probably never come back...especially when you were invited and there were no stipulations on what you had to wear...or maybe you didn’t own a tie or have the proper dress to wear?...not all of us have tuxedos or evening gowns which some of us think are necessary to wear to the event...when’s the last time that any of you have been to a graduation prom?...the ones that I have attended in Calgary are absolutely astounding...I think that the rental places make half or more of their business for the year at these events...not forgetting about the limousine rental places, the beauty salons and barber shops, flower shops...and on and on...and don’t dare be caught...not looking and being cool...

It’s a tough world out there and when someone doesn’t adhere to the status quo.... you’re out!...

So...is this the meaning of this passage this morning? Or is there more to it?  

Let’s look a little deeper....the wedding is a party...I think that Jesus is saying to us...are you ready to party?...are our worship services times of partying and celebration or are they dirges?...do we give thanks for all of things which we are so blessed to have or do we look at it in a different light?...Jesus’ parable is about the Kingdom of Heaven...God’s kingdom is a party...and it’s a celebration beyond any celebration that we have ever seen...

The truth is that this is not our party...We are not in charge of the celebration...It’s Jesus’ party....and Jesus can invite whomever he wants....

The one who was tossed out of the party was probably one of the Pharisees because this person had a problem with the kinds of people that Jesus hung out with...God is not looking for warm bodies....God is looking for wedding guests or party people who will rise to the occasion of honouring Christ....

We would do well to focus on the party and on whether or not we are ready for it...The celebration of Christ is emerging all around us....

Can we see it?....do we know it’s there?...or here?...Are we prepared?...

I remember many years back when Karen and I had attended the Canmore Folk Music Festival and there in the middle of the crowd was this fellow reading this text-book for university...he hadn’t prepared himself to sit back and listen to the music...he still had to do the work that had to be done...I bring this story forward because...the summer after, yours truly...sitting back and listening to the wonderful music and what do I have in my lap?...my university textbook...I couldn’t process my time well enough to leave the book behind and focus on that which was empowering to me...the music...

Jesus is saying the same thing here...focus on the party and leave the rest of the stuff behind...

Life is difficult enough without laughter and sharing those special times together when we can celebrate those small moments...remembering that favourite meal when a grown son or daughter comes home to visit...and helps with the dishes! ...or when friends gather for a birthday ...cake and ice cream!... wedding showers and baby showers...candles and pizza on the edge of the weekend...the time of re-creation...hooray!...

It is poetry in mime...those graceful gestures—the salute of wineglasses even when it’s over macaroni...the lighting of a candle just because it’s suppertime and that the day is almost over and we are still alive and here... together.... Hooray!...

Or better...we might call these actions murmured prayers...a continuous inaudible litany of praise for each other’s lives...

This parable is designed to grab our attention...and how you perceive it is your understanding of what Jesus is saying to you...if the parable makes you feel uncomfortable...well...maybe that’s what it is supposed to do...

Maybe the parable says that there is something that you need to do...and be...about.  

Jesus asks us to prepare for the feast and this means taking a stand on all of the issues that marginalize people and separate them from us...Jesus doesn’t want to ask you to leave from the banquet...he invites you...continually...and he wants all of us to be prepared...and be prepared in our hearts...

And the Thanksgiving weekend is just past us and we held up those things that we are so blessed with...and we tried to put aside, just for a little while, those emotions and thoughts which held us back from feasting at the banquet...God is always with us...in everything that we do...and God would like nothing better than all of us to attend the banquet and to be part of the joyful festivities...

This passage also speaks of the kingdom of God as we envision it after our lives are complete upon this earth...Jesus is asking us to continually prepare for the wedding feast...for the kingdom of God is not only all around us but also exists in eternity...

There was a young lad who, after the family Thanksgiving meal, took a plate and served some meat...potatoes and gravy...a piece of bread and some cheese...when his mother asked him what he his intentions were, the young lad replied that he was going to feed the dog...The mom reminded him that the dog only got the scraps...

Reluctantly, the boy prepared a plate of scraps for the dog...As he put the dish down, he said...I wanted to bring you an offering, but this is just a collection.

Jesus is offering us...the offering...and we could well be advised to be prepared...for the world needs us...to continually share the Good News of love...of peace...of understanding...

Let us pray: Give us hope as we look toward tomorrow...may we have courage to face the difficult questions of our world and wisdom as we seek solutions...give us joy as we reach out to others...may we learn to appreciate the gifts we have received and help us to use them in love...May Thanksgiving or Thanks-living be with us throughout the year...and when we are called to come and be joyous...let us respond....Amen.

October 8, 2023

Message & Readings for Thanksgiving Sunday

DEUTERONOMY 8:7-18

This passage this morning, in fact the whole 8th chapter of Deuteronomy is a call to the Israelites as a remembrance of God’s providence, the quails, the manna, the water from the rock, the escape from the Egyptians, and so on…it’s a reminder to all of them with gifts given, there are obligations…and this reminder of Moses becomes more and more urgent with the advance of civilization…the very generosity of God in the growing wealth of civilization may have its end defeated by blindness of heart…so the whole generosity of the gifts calls for exceptional care against pride…self-sufficiency…and forgetfulness of the providence of God…

2 CORINTHIANS 9: 6-15

Our Epistle reading comes to us from one of Paul’s letters to the folks in Corinth…and this passage definitely speaks to us today for all of us are givers – in one way or another – and giving comes with some pre-requisites and the major one is that giving needs to come from a cheerful heart…giving can’t come from a place where you may be coerced into it for giving something away is a sort of a blessing…a blessing from abundance and I’m not focusing here on material things but possibly internal and external gifts which are priceless…the gift of a smile…the gift of song…the gift of compassion…the gift of kindness… and you can name your own…and in giving and sharing of these gifts, these personal gifts to others, you will be enriched – deeply…so today, give from your hearts and be prepared to receive in abundance…

LUKE 17: 11-19

So now we turn to the life of Jesus and how he describes thanksgiving and abundance and portrays another one of his teaching moments…this Gospel deals with the ten lepers who became healed and only one returns and gives thanks…and the focus is not on the healing but WHO this one person is – he’s a Samaritan…one from the outside…one to be shunned…in our giving and in our healing, we are to not to focus primarily on middle or upper-class Caucasian folks but on humanity as a whole – for the Samaritan is the other…and it is through our sharing of our abundance with all where the world becomes a little more connected and the walls of divisiveness become blurred and lines of demarcation are brought down…this is thanksgiving – thanks-living…

THE SPIRIT OF TRUE THANKSGIVING

Each of us are blessed in our own ways with gifts…some of these may be those tangible gifts, the things which you can touch or see…gifts such as how to fix an engine or fix that dripping tap in the sink or how to replace a toilet in less than an hour…some have gifts of making the perfect strawberry jam or crabapple jelly or amazing tasty buns or breads or possibly the gifts of playing the most exquisite music on a violin or a cello or as Cody & Colleen, the piano or organ…and then there are the intangible gifts…the ones which we can’t really see or touch…gifts such as making others smile…gifts of compassion…gifts of hospitality – gifts of presence and of course I don’t mean the presents such as what you may receive on your birthday but presence…just being…these are some of the gifts of which we have and of which some of us share openly and others hold secretly to themselves or to their family or friends…gifts…and gifts in abundance for they are found in everyone and all over the world in every culture, in every season, in every time and every place…so if we have so many of these gifts then how do we truly share in the abundance in which we have?...how do we open ourselves with the wonderful things which we possess and share it with the world?...

Well today is Thanksgiving Sunday…a day or a weekend to gather people around us and to share in food, friendship, and hopefully – family…

The kitchen is a beehive of activity with turkeys being carved, hams being sliced, potatoes and veggies being cooked and steamed and mashed…and all-in-all, a sense of something special…something which colours our culture and makes us who we are as Canadians or North Americans…makes us who we are as thankful people…

Our true gratitude comes from being able to gather through the joys and the sorrows of life…in times of abundance and also in times of struggle…and this morning in worship and praise as we offer thanks to the One who holds us all in a divine embrace that will not let us go…

The Spirit of true Thanksgiving…what may it be?...

Well, one purpose which stuck in my brain as I was thinking on this was that Thanksgiving is to help us to take our gratitude for the life we have been given, for the opportunities that are ours, and carry it into the world where we live and work and struggle…

If our times of thankfulness do not challenge us to look at our world and ask what others have to give thanks for…we’re missing something…

If Thanksgiving is only a personal public display…I believe it’s a sham…the gratitude that we feel needs to be carried into our lives…

I believe that we need to be…constantly…thankful people…we must look around and see those who seem to have little for which to be thankful and ask “Why?”…then we need to start working towards the changes that will make the world a place of thanksgiving for all…and I don’t only mean this in the sense of the possible tangible things which we may possess but also, and more importantly, our health – our psychological balance – our spiritual centeredness…the true make-up of who and what we are…

The story is told about a traditional, small-town church Thanksgiving service…the chancel steps were loaded with corn, potatoes, apples, jars of preserves…and in the middle of it all was this huge pumpkin…it took three people to carry it to the chancel…it was 4 ½ feet in diameter… that’s a good size pumpkin…the minister had grown it himself and the huge size was contributed to having it grow in the compost heap…his thoughts on this were that growing food from the decaying refuse of our lives painted an amazing metaphor from ‘junk’ to beauty…

After the service, the minister gave the pumpkin to children from a family that had just broken apart…the delight in the child’s eyes…the happiness in their mother’s eyes…who could imagine a richer reward!

And the psychological and spiritual balance of this family came closer… if just for a moment…to where they needed to be…

All because of a pumpkin…all because of some loving thought and some active giving…what did it produce? …active living…an opportunity to offer and to give deep thanks…

And I can sometimes wonder about this ‘giving thanks’ when I watch the news…and it’s usually ‘bad’ news…a newscaster was quoted one day as saying, “It isn’t news unless it’s bad news.”…there are certainly exceptions, but generally, he was quite correct at times…you’d never read the headlines on the front page – 10,000 planes arrived safely, without incident, at their destinations…and everyone left with their own luggage!...instead, it’s about the one accident…

We tend to treat our personal life stories in much the same way…we may have 100 little things going on in our lives that we completely take for granted, even though they are blessings…but what do we focus on?  The one or two things which irritate us…

So, what is true thanksgiving? It’s more than giving thanks…it is a living thanks in a variety of ways in our world of home…office… school…where we work…it comes from the heart…

And we can, with care and hard work, grow fruit that will bring joy to broken hearts from the compost of our own lives…

“…strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness and all these things will be given to you…” It’s a promise!    Amen!

October 1, 2023

Worldwide Communion Sunday

READINGS & MESSAGE for SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2023

EXODUS 17: 1 - 7                                     

The Hebrew scripture passage this morning has the Israelites....grumbling again....sounds like a broken record....last week’s reading had the Israelites starving and God brought them quail and manna...this week, there is no water to be found anywhere and people are dying of thirst...poor Moses...he gets all of the flack...again....and the people still have no idea that God is with them....and all that they have to do is to pray to God and to trust that God will deliver them...One would think that, instead of picking on Moses, the idea of a big prayer meeting would have occurred to somebody!...In our own... “wildernesses”...whatever they may be...who or what provides us with the “water” we so desperately need?....Exodus 17....1-7...

PHILIPPIANS 2: 1 - 13

Paul’s letter to the congregation in Philippi basically states that serving God is not a competition and it’s too bad if we can’t learn from each other.... Jesus never says that he is the Son of God...or God...the writers of the books do...and we do....Jesus only says that “today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”...Jesus quotes the words from Isaiah 61 which state that the Spirit of God was upon him....he was anointed to bring good news...he was to preach justice...equality...he was to open the eyes of the non-seeing...and above all, Jesus was to proclaim the year of God....he was to not only preach .....but he was to live the life that all Jewish people were to live....which somehow, had become distorted....and Jesus, through all of this, remained humble right to the end....we are invited to applaud like crazy, when someone achieves something....not sit back and be jealous of.....

MATTHEW 21: 23 - 32

The gospel passage this morning, which comes from Matthew, finds Jesus deeply embroiled in a question and answer period with the “powers to be” ... the chief priests and the elders...they are afraid of one of their own...this Jew ....that is preaching a message that not only brings people together but also is not happening in a synagogue...and the question pops up....who gives you the authority to do what you are doing?....and Jesus turns the tables on them to basically show them of who gives the authority...for them...to do what they do....and not listen to the authority of God....this passage is an example of a parable...which Jesus used so well...and made so much sense to the common person....and really ticked off the Pharisees and the Sadducees.....

HOW DO WE ANSWER THE CALL? 

Quite often in our lives, we end up being questioned on what gives us the authority to do what we do...I know that I was continually bombarded years ago with lengthy evaluations...and meetings...and screening processes...and so on…fill in this - fill in that…I don’t know on how many lists my name appears on but I’m quite sure that it is fairly lengthy...and my name appears on all of these lists because someone in authority wants to make sure that I am who I am...and that my ministry is true to that which I profess it to be....

Jesus...the day before the passage that I had read to you...had just turned all of the tables upside down in the entrance to the synagogue and had made a shambles of the money-changers and their thriving business...when he returned to the temple the next day, the boys...or those who had the authority...wanted to make sure that this Jesus...was going to disappear... religion was no longer a spiritual action...it was a place where those were to be seen and a place where your wealth was the thing which spoke volumes... at this very moment…Jesus’ name was on the hit list of those who were perceived in power by many and you can be guaranteed that he was a threat to their economy...

“By what authority do you have to come into our temple and not only turn things upside down but now you want to preach?”...

What does Jesus say? “Any of you guys heard of John the Baptist?”

They go “Well ya!”...Jesus says... “Really?...then tell me about him.”

They couldn’t answer because they were hiding behind their fears of what the people might say or their fears of being... “theologically incorrect”.

God had given them the opportunity to stand up for their beliefs and God had given them a chance to answer the call of why they were in places of authority...but for them, it was missed opportunities...

It wasn’t because Jesus was a master at debate...or that he taught in parables. Jesus knew that the system was corrupt from within, and he wanted to set it straight again...but Jesus’ authority came from somewhere else...it came from the cries and the anguish of the people...it came from the injustices and the lack of kindness which had fallen upon the world... especially the Roman Empire at that time....

And it’s easy for us to judge the chief priests and elders because we already know the story and we can point our fingers at them…but…when we point one finger at another person, there may be three pointing back at us…but the question of authority, I believe, is paramount for these religious leaders and it may be for us also, as we look at our own attitudes towards others in our community of faith…what happens when new ideas are presented and acted upon?...what happens when something in the Sunday liturgy or Sunday worship is changed or possibly furniture moved?...and you know it’s not difficult to put ourselves into this passage so that it many become real for us today…and the question of Jesus’ authority is very important…if his authority comes from humans then our church is just another human institution…his authority comes from something way, way beyond this and it comes from the God of Israel who welcomes sinners and prostitutes…and what is so important to remember through all of this is that God does act...if we are willing to respond...to stand up for what we believe is right and for what is empowering and enriching to humanity...And to listen to those nudgings which God continually...bumps us with....When I was sitting in the office the other day and reading through the scripture passages...this thought kept echoing in my head...

“How do we answer the call?”

 How do we know what God has in store for us?...how many missed opportunities do we have to go through before we realize that God is trying to get through but we are continually throwing roadblocks in the way...the news lately has bombarded us with climate change and how the ecologists are fighting against the economic powers to come to some sort of hope for the world...we know that the earth’s atmosphere is changing and that we are partially responsible...and to make a difference, we all have to be responsible. Not just one or two countries...but everyone...we have to be of one voice...and not like the chief priests and the elders in their answer...

“We do not know!”...that’s not what God wants of us...God wants us to answer the call and to make decisions based upon love for all of humanity... decisions which will heal the world and not continue to destroy it...I hear what one political party is saying and I also hear what another political party is saying but what is really happening is that these two sides are becoming very polarized and they are not speaking with one voice...their authority has taken over and the middle ground has become very distant from each other...

I don’t want to get into a political debate but I’m only using this situation as one which proves that the call that God puts out to us...becomes clouded by sometimes...personal agendas, or power, or prestige...and definitely... authority...

Jesus says to the chief priests and the elders— “the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God before you are”...they must have been stunned to hear this...how can the slime of the earth go to heaven before we do, they say...because the message that God gave through John was for all people and when authority overrules the movement of the Spirit... authority is misplaced...when God calls us to act and to react...it’s not time to give excuses...but it’s time to do the will of that which breathes us...  AMEN

September 24, 2023

READINGS & MESSAGE

EXODUS 16:2-15

So, the first reading this morning finds the Israelites grumpy once again and yes…they’re complaining…there’s no food and this land of promise is not exactly what they were looking for…so one time, God intervenes  and in the evening Quails covered the camp and they had their fill with fowl…a fowl fill…and the morning, after the dew disappeared, a substance as fine as frost on the ground…call it bread from heaven… and really, the underlying message?...God will always provide…if we believe in love, we will always be gifted in soi many wonderful ways…

PHILIPPIANS 1:21-30

We are given two options in this world: to give up and experience defeat and death or, to proclaim that even in the deepest despair we shall experience God’s goodness in the midst of it all…and like Paul…I choose life…I choose to look beyond my circumstances and I hope that you also do…this is God’s invitation for you today…in the midst of whatever you may be living through, choose life…for you are precious to many and your life matters…period!

MATTHEW 20:1-16

The Gospel passage for this morning has to do with the labourers and how they get paid – the same amount whether they work one hour or 8 hours…and if taken literally this would raise the hackles of any business person, whether in the corporate or the not-for-profit world…this parable is really about envy and being envious of others…I think that the passage invites us to turn from holding grudges because things didn’t go our way…gratefulness is at the heart of our faith…  

“THE HELLO’S AND THE GOODBYES OF OUR LIVES”

And what I want to speak about a little today has something to do with the loss of one of our longtime congregants, Eleanor McDonald and the passing a while back of Clifford Thomas and an old-time friend in Forestburg, Brian Hart who is slowly slipping away with pancreatic cancer…

But what I want to speak about today had happened many years ago… maybe over 20 but these sorts of things never leave your head…and I think because they are defining things in our lives…and it took place in Calgary…in fact, what had happened, believe it not, happened twice on the same week…folks had known at that time that we were back at our  place in Priddis for the summer and the folks from Red Deer Lake United Church wanted to keep us informed to what was happening around us while we were there…

Two of our long-time friends from the faith community passed away suddenly…one at the age of 87 and the other at the age of 83…both of these folks had been very integral in my life and it seemed like we had just said hello to each other a few years ago and met…maybe this is a sign of aging when time flies as it does…Margaret Swann…the woman who always kept the steady hand and directed me in ways in which she would never know…her husband Richard, who had passed away about 6 years earlier was hand-picked by myself to represent the church council on my discernment committee as I began the process of seeing whether ministry was made for me or not…we sat beside each other in the choir loft for 12 years…Margaret sat in front of me for 12 years… she was always ready with the wagging finger to the quiet boys in the back row…their children and ourselves grew up together…in fact the eulogy for Margaret was given by her son David…David Swann who many of you know…David was the Liberal leader of Alberta…the hello’s and goodbyes of life…

The funeral was on Monday…on Wednesday we went to another and Harold and I had just reacquainted again when I was in the process of mending after my ankle break…he was fine except for the dementia… he recognized my face but couldn’t put a name to it…I was ok with this…Harold had been everything to me that my father wasn’t…he was a listener…an advocate…a voice of reason…we knew each other for 20 years plus and there were many evenings at Harold and Donnas’ home looking out towards the rocky mountains sharing a beverage with his best friend, Peter Lougheed…in fact Peter gave the eulogy for the day…they had been friends since grade two…

Harold Millican…Chief of staff in the Premier’s office…Deputy Minister of Federal and Intergovernmental Affairs…Alberta’s trade representative during the Free Trade Talks with the U.S…President of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce…an honourary chief…a Federal Chief Negotiator for the Lubicon First Nation Land Claim…a governor with Mt. Royal College…a liberal candidate…he was bestowed with the Order of Canada…and on and on…Harold’s focus was to “Dare to be a Daniel…dare to stand alone!”…we had our hello’s and now our goodbyes…these two folks molded me…they put me on to their potter’s wheels and they reshaped me…they shifted me from a doubter to one who could stand alone in the storm of life…they formed my ministry into what it is today…and some folks and maybe some of you may ask yourselves whether God has a plan for your life and the answer I could give to this is that there are many, many avenues of how intervention happens in your life…so many times it comes through relationships with others and how they have a bearing on your life…if Jeremiah speaks of being remade on the potter’s wheel of life, it’s through interaction with others and how they form you and sort you out…I really think that scripture maintains the belief that God’s purposes are being worked out among us, in our time, and our history…and the Bible frequently shows how our efforts are sometimes improved by – or resisted – or brought to fruition – because of the unseen hand of God moving behind the scenes of our stories…

So, live your life as knowing that God is full of loving desire for your life, knowing that, while you may not always know from moment to moment just what that plan is, you know that ultimately, when all is said and done, for you and for the whole human race, God plans to continue to love us and to bring all things to glorious consummation in God’s love…

We live in a world of hellos and goodbyes…we live in a world where the potter’s wheel is always spinning for us…it is through these opportunities of change where we grow deeper and deeper into the love of life…love of self…and ultimately, the love of God…

May the words of my mouth echo the bumper sticker I saw last week: “God has a plan for your life. And it is very, very difficult!”

May you begin the road by visiting the potter’s studio…Amen.

September 17, 2023

READINGS & MESSAGE

EXODUS 14:19-31

Our first reading this morning comes to us from the Book of Exodus…the Israelites have made it to the sea and what’s behind them is the complete Egyptian army…horses and chariots and they know their in trouble…but once again, this story is about having faith in God…faith in love and hope…so many times the Israelites just don’t get it, that if they have faith, all will be well but they keep on swaying away and living their lives as if they controlled every second of their lives and not believing in a gracious and a loving Yahweh or Jehovah…so you’ve probably seen this scene (how’s that for English…seen this scene)…in the movie “The Ten Commandments” and what a story it made but with most things in the biblical text, there’s always an underlying meaning…I’m sure that God cried when God destroyed the Egyptians but again, the underlying theme was to believe in love and hope…

ROMANS 14:1-12

In this passage from the Book of Romans we are warned about being quick to judge others in light of our own opinions and ways…as believers we are called to live in community…many seem to form community only with those who are in complete agreement with their opinions or way of seeing things…we are called to live in community in a way that pushes out of our comfort zones, inviting us to listen and learn from others who see things from totally different perspectives…we need to see and to learn the beauty of diversity and to look forward to new experiences…

MATTHEW 18:21-35

What an interesting scripture passage we have for today…it has to do with forgiving…with forgiveness…and as I was thinking about the baptisms this morning and the children and how important it is that we, as parents, need to practice this act of forgiveness because truthfully, our children are going to make many mistakes and we can attribute it to the “growing up stages” but we need to be forgiving parents for this is where love lives…so let’s take a listen to the words found in the Gospel of Matthew…

                                              THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS            

I’m basing my message for all you this morning around the power of forgiveness…something which can sometimes be very difficult to do or to achieve…and what I thought that I would do is intersperse my message with some possible illustrations of where not forgiving can lead someone into places of possibly, deep regret…and Jesus speaks in the Matthew passage to the necessity of forgiveness because he knows the effects that un-forgiveness plays on individuals and of course, communities of all sorts….and there’s many situations that are within our societies or in the world or in our churches or families and so on when not dealt with, can lead to bitterness or possibly deep and painful wounds…and quite often we don’t really want to forgive someone or ask for forgiveness even though we know we should…and maybe it’s a revenge thing, I’m not sure…maybe we want to get back at someone for what they did…or maybe we’re waiting for that repayment of what we’ve experienced…again, I’m not sure…or maybe it’s pride…but truthfully – forgiveness means to release…to let go of the other and here’s an illustration:

(Story from one hundred Wisdom Stories….page 142 “Two Questions”...

Ah…the power of forgiveness and where it may lead us….

Each of us need to be reminded….we all stand on the same footing before God…so instead of judging, Paul admonishes us to take care of one another…This reminds me of a cartoon that came out years ago…it dealt with the prodigal son…the father was going down the road to meet his boy and the caption read: “I’ll be glad when this boy grows up; this is the sixth fatted calf I have to kill.”….

How many times do we forgive?...Jesus puts it quite straight, 70 X 7 which, if Peter had a calculator, would be 490 times….this isn’t in the text but I can almost hear Jesus tenderly saying: “Simon, put away your calculator…it isn’t about math…it isn’t about score-keeping….

Forgiveness is an attitude….a way of life….it’s a matter of the heart….And another illustration:

And this one comes from some church council records in Switzerland during the 16th century…a certain gentleman was asked to repeat the Lord’s Prayer and he pretended that he didn’t know it…and the reason was that if he said it, he would have to forgive the merchant who cheated him…and that was something he had no intention of ever doing…

And you know, forgiveness is also not a matter of putting other people on some sort of probation, possibly just waiting for them to do something wrong and then we jump on them…no…and we also must remember that to forgive is not necessarily to forget…

And an example of this is where Eleanor Roosevelt had found out about her husband’s infidelity, and she told him: “I can forgive you, but I won’t forget”…and some things we must never forget – the Holocaust… mistreatment of Indigenous folks all over the world…ethnic cleansing… abuse and betrayal and so on…

So often I deal with families who have lost a loved one and one of the things, and very important it is, is that someone in the family has not reconciled with the deceased….has not offered forgiveness…

This hurt will linger on for a long, long time….sometimes never to be reconciled…the power of forgiveness and how it sets our hearts free… and how it sets other hearts free…

The power of forgiveness is never simple…what are some of the last words which come from Jesus as we near the end of the passion?…

“Father, forgive them, for they have no idea what they are doing.”

He still offers forgiveness…right at the very end…

And here’s another illustration and this comes from Rabbi Harold Kushner:

A woman in my congregation comes to see me. She is a single mother, divorced, working to support herself and her three children. She says to me, “Since my husband walked out on us, every month is a struggle to pay our bills. I must tell my kids we have no money to go to the movies, while he’s living it up with his new wife in another state. How can you tell me to forgive him?”

I answer her, “I’m not asking you to forgive him because what he did was acceptable. It wasn’t; it was mean and selfish. I’m asking you to forgive because he doesn’t deserve the power to live in your head and turn you into a bitter angry woman. I’d like to see him out of your life emotionally as completely as he is out of it physically, but you keep holding on to him. You’re not hurting him by holding on to that resentment…but you’re hurting yourself.”

 Forgiveness means the power of the original wound’s power to hold us trapped…is broken…. and there’s the truism…

And in the biblical text, the Greek word translated for “forgiveness’ literally means to let go…let it go…and Jesus uses this comparison when he taught his followers to pray:

“Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is in debt to us.” …unselfish love is the basis for true forgiveness…

And we need to realize that forgiveness doesn’t mean:

            To condone the offense or

            To pretend that it never happened

            Or to allow others to take advantage of you…no…

Because this is how you forgive:

To remember what forgiveness involves…it involves an opening of  

            the heart and it may cause some unexpected pain…

You need to always recognize the benefits of forgiving…

You need to be empathetic in the realization that all of us are

            imperfect…

You need to be reasonable…

And one needs to act quickly…don’t let it sit back and fester…

And if we follow some of these basic steps, our world will become so much more of a community that lives and loves together…Amen

SUNDAY, AUGUST the 20th,  2023

READINGS & MESSAGE

GENESIS 45: 1-15

Last Sunday we listened to the story of Joseph and his brothers whereas the brothers formed a pact to get rid of Joseph and so they did…they sold him to a passing caravan on its way to Egypt…and as the story unfolds, Joseph translates dreams for the Pharaoh and receives a very high position in Pharaohs’ court… there’s a famine underway and Joseph had the sense of stockpiling grain for the duration and his brothers come to Egypt for help for they are close to starvation….with this passage today, we have the reunion of Joseph and his brothers and the important act of forgiveness…this can be a sometimes difficult place to be but it is where each of us NEEDS to be…forgiveness is not only for those who need to be forgiven but sometimes more importantly, for self, so that life moves forward in an unencumbered way…

ROMANS 11: 1-2a, 29-32

One of our Canadian beliefs is the conviction that if you work hard, you will be rewarded…effort will pay off…and similarly, those who are lazy and ineffective will find themselves at the bottom of the heap or out the door…people get what they deserve and they deserve what they get….well, our relationship with God is not so transactional, based on our being rewarded for our goodness…we receive God’s gifts in spite of ourselves…call it irrational love if you will…God’s gifts are freely given and not something we can give to, or even claim for… ourselves…grace is God’s alone to offer and this grace is given to all people… and with this grace also comes a call…it’s a call to discipleship and the world needs to learn this so that it can function as a place where humanity lives together in peace…

MATTHEW 15: 10-28

This morning’s Gospel passage happens to be one of my favourites…it really has to do with perseverance and what happens when one doesn’t give up…it’s the story of the Canaanite woman – an outsider…again and again she violates boundaries, boundaries set up because of ethnicity…of heritage…of religion... of gender…and, demon possession…she must even contend with Jesus’ reluctance to violate the ethnic boundary…but contend she does…she believes that her and her daughter are people who should benefit from God’s mercy so she breaks through the barriers to dramatize her faith…and Jesus says, “Yup…you’ve got faith!”…

TRADITION AND HOW IT CAN SOMETIMES DESTROY US

Tradition and how it can sometimes harm us and sometimes put us into a place of “freeze”…and yes, we all are challenged sometimes by tradition are we not?

Tevye in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ comes to mind and here are the words to this infamous song…

And as we read this Matthew passage, the complete 15th chapter, Jesus is moving from one encounter with the keepers of tradition, the Pharisees and the scribes, to this Canaanite woman where tradition has proven to be a “holy” fence always keeping her on the outside…the deck is stacked against her because of her gender, her different religion, and so on so tradition “freezes” her in a place of exclusion…and does tradition have a lot to play in religious life?...you bet it does!!...more than we’ll ever know…anyone involved in pastoral ministry knows of church battles fought “for God” in the name of “tradition”….tradition can mean anything from a worship practice that occurs more than once to something which the church has practiced for eons… and tradition can provide a solid foundation for faithfulness and it can also function in the opposite way and this would be the case of the Canaanite woman where her voice is ‘voiceless’…and the first part of the Matthew passage also deals with tradition in that there would be long lists of instructions about what and when things could be touched or eaten and these dietary laws placed a huge premium on the purity of the individual…tradition and how it inadvertently made the rules and you had better stick to them, or else!!...you were either in or you were out…and sometimes these ‘tradition’ things even touch our world… just think of where you sit every Sunday morning and is this tradition?...you bet it is and it could even be called ‘habit’…breaking habits are hard to do and so is breaking tradition…I remember years ago when I was serving Elk Point United Church as a student…the church was right beside the local RCMP station and one Sunday morning, about 5 minutes before the service began, a gentleman came into the church and sat down…he was First Nations and he had just been released from being in jail overnight and just wanted to come and sit for a while…but…he was sitting in the place of where a long-standing member of the congregation always sat…when this member arrived, I could see this did not sit well with him whatsoever and his Sunday worship experience was non-existent. His `tradition` had somehow got in the way of the possibility of meeting and greeting someone else in a whole new way…tradition took over from mission…  

And what if this story was remembered because Jesus` followers considered it a parable of the kingdom that Jesus didn`t just tell…but one which he enacted…. the realm of God is like a woman with a sick child…You can ignore it, but it won`t go away…. You can insult it, but it won`t leave you alone…

Turning tradition upon its head because it stopped folks from envisioning the kingdom or the `kin`dom of God…and what would it mean for the church to follow Jesus into the “toxic waste areas” of the world?  or, what would it mean for the faithful to fret less about how “we have always done it this way” and listen more to the cries of those that tradition considers “unclean” or “unwanted” and hey, let’s do something in a whole new way? On behalf of her anonymous Gentile daughter, this anonymous Gentile woman refuses to allow even Jesus to let “tradition” become an external barrier, blocking access to the grace of God…good for her!...this always reminds me that we need to pay less attention to “washing hands” and more attention to ‘cleansing hearts’…

What Christian has not claimed religious tradition as an excuse to act in a way far from the heart of Christ?...

And here’s a little story for you on what I believe this Canaanite woman was made of….   (page 46 and 47)

And may this story of the Canaanite woman take us away from some of the traditions which may block us from the true grace of God and from the mission which we have been called to do……..Amen.

August 13, 2023

READINGS & MESSAGE

GENESIS 37: 1-4, 12-28

We begin our readings this morning with the story of Joseph and how he was disposed of by his brothers…and not really in a nice way either…it’s always amazing what people will do when envy takes over…someone is given a gift and someone else wants this gift and they will go to great lengths to achieve their goal of greed…this is what’s happening in this story and Joseph ends up being stripped of his coat of many colours and then sold to a travelling Ishmaelite or Midianite caravan to eventually end up in Egypt…sometimes brothers can be amazing friends whereas other times, brothers can be ruthless…and we all know that as this story unfolds, it’s a huge story of forgiveness and maybe this is why it is so important in this part of the biblical text…

ROMANS 10: 5-15

We’ve been following along with the book of Romans for the last while and we are in the middle of Paul’s extended theological wrestling with the fate of his fellow Jews…in this passage, Paul is anguishing over the fact that most Jews continue to seek righteousness through the law rather than faith in Christ…so… we are listening to Paul’s treatment of the relationship between Christ and the law…and Paul is adamant that Christ is the ‘end of the law’….love your neighbour and then after that, love your neighbour and then once more – love your neighbour…everything else will fall into place…I believe that this would be so helpful to learn if you lived in Israel or Gaza or the Ukraine or Russia for that matter… love your neighbour…simple…is it not?....

MATTHEW 14: 22-33

This Gospel passage this morning is filled with vivid imagery…in fact, this passage has given comfort or encouragement and possibly challenges to Christians over countless generations…the picture of the disciples sent out on their own across the troubled waters and of Jesus walking on the water to save them and then to calm the waters…Jesus, the ‘Bridge over troubled waters’…

This passage really reminds all of us that we are called to go into uncharted waters, into the turbulence of life, into the heart of the fire and when we go, we go in faithfulness and we will never be abandoned…We are not alone, we live in God’s world, thanks be to God…and we’ve shared these words many times and they are real….Matthew 14, verses 22 – 33…

A VISIBLE SIGN OF AN INVISIBLE GRACE

This morning I’m reminding all of you what will be taking place in the sanctuary on September the 17th….we will witness the visible sign of an invisible grace as 8 boys will be baptized…the visible sign of water gently placed upon these boy’s foreheads and all of us offering our blessings upon their life…visible signs of God’s blessings…and baptism is filled with rich imagery and visible and invisible meanings…this is also true for the words that we’ve just heard coming from the Gospel of Matthew…in fact this passage is rich with imagery because it brings to life the important dimensions of God’s call and God’s assurance to us…it begins with the image of Jesus taking time to pray…a time for prayer, for centering and there’s a reminder here for us that things are never so turbulent or so urgent as to take us away from the necessity of prayer…of speaking to our inner selves where God is found and where God meets us…the inner voice which each of us has is very powerful indeed and we need to meet with it on a regular basis…

this is prayer – this is a connection to that which is holy…and Jesus knew this and practiced it constantly…he was hard-wired to God - he was at one with God…

And then comes the image of Jesus sending out the disciples on a mission just as we are sent out today in our mission…and Lakeview United Church’s mission is this: “Offering Christian worship, study, service, and relationships which opens all ages to experience God’s life-changing love.”…this is our mission and are we fulfilling it or are we sometimes in turbulent waters?....what is mission but to go out into the world and offer an olive branch to those who don’t have one…our mission is to love deeper…to listen more closely…to nurture this world and all which exists in it and on it….and the third image – maybe the one which most of us have experienced in one way or another in our lives - the choppy seas…when the waves are ready to swamp the boat…but the image of the choppy seas and the reality that when we set out on Christ’s mission, though we will often be in troubled waters, Jesus does not abandon us but rather comes to us, as he came to the disciples, when we need him the most…and countless songs have been crafted from this image…here’s some that come to mind… “Blessed Assurance” “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”… “Will Your Anchor Hold” … “Abide With Me” … “Amazing Grace” … just to name a few…they all have to do with choppy seas and getting through it all…and being met with the Spirit which guides us along…

And another image comes to mind – the image that Jesus and the reign of God, which he inaugurates, have power even over the forces of nature and can conquer our fears and the evil that causes them…and the image of the disciples who, because of their fears, could not recognize Jesus when he came to them in ways they never expected like walking on water…how often in our lives do we witness something which seems so incredibly ‘out-there’ that we sometimes freeze in fear…and one more image which this passage shares is the image of the calming of the waters…the troubled waters…and the reality that he can calm our troubled waters as well…and at the very end, the disciples responding, finally, to the reality, and say, “Wow!!...you are real aren’t you!!”…

Visible signs of a sometimes invisible grace…and there’s one more image which comes to us and it’s unique in this Matthew rendition for we find the parallels in Mark and in John but Matthew has something different and quite exclusive…he has Peter step out of the boat in faith and faithfulness…and why?...because we are called to step out in faith, even in the midst of troubled waters…stepping out in faith is not a guarantee that we will not face troubled waters or be filled with fear, but it is always accompanied by the assurance that we won’t be abandoned and someone will put us back in the boat…and if we look at the broader picture of the crisis which our churches are experiencing, especially in terms of numbers and age groups, I’ll always remember this line that someone said and it goes like this, “the reason that we seem to lack faith in our time is that we are not doing anything that requires it.”…period…the key to fullness of life in the Spirit is to follow Peter’s example and be willing to step out of the comfort and security of the boat and head into the troubled waters of the world to proclaim love and mercy and justice…being a disciple is a risky and exciting business, but that is exactly what God calls us to do and to be…risk-takers… and you know, this passage could also be a parallel for our baptismal sacrament which we will experience…Peter’s going in the water…but these 8 little boys baptisms will be fairly risk-free – Peter’s isn’t…his is filled with risk and trust and commitment…fierce storms and compelling risk and real danger may be better images for the life that follows baptism…but always keeping in the back of your mind that this visible grace will always have the invisible grace linked to it…the one who will pull you back into the boat…the one who won’t let you drown…

So I end this little sermon this morning with just one more observation in reading this passage…in verse 27 Jesus says to the disciples, “…take heart, it is I do not be afraid.”…it is I – ego eimi in Greek and these are the exact words which God spoke to Moses from the burning bush…Jesus is using the divine name to announce his presence…I am is here, trampling over the waves and Jesus is identifying himself with God, the liberator and the redeemer of Israel, who is at the same time the creator of the world and the victor over chaos…

and this epiphany in the storm certainly contains a message of grace and of mercy but there is always a personal cost to be paid, a radical summons to faith to be heard and to be answered…spirituality must take the form of discipleship…

The visible sign of an invisible grace….Amen.

 Sunday, July the 16, 2023                 

Readings and Message

GENESIS 25: 19-34

Our first reading this morning comes to us once again from the very first book of the Torah - Genesis… this is the time where Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for a meal and this is where things become really complicated…birthrights were of the utmost importance at these times and they still are to some degree today… who gets the farm when it’s over?... who’s the one who inherits everything?... Well, in those days and still in many cases today, the one who has the birthright or the one who was born first…these two were twins and Esau was born first and Jacob came out second holding on to Esau’s heel…pretty interesting chain of events really!...especially when Isaac, his father, fancied Esau over Jacob because of his hunting skills and Jacob was fancied more by Rebekah, his mother, because of his gentleness and possibly cooking skills…you can tell that things are definitely going to blow up in the near future…

ROMANS 8: 1-11

We’ve been going through pieces of the Romans passage in the last many weeks and Paul has just concluded his emotional and touching description of the human condition and he’s left his readers with the question of who will save us from our tendency to what he calls, the power of sin?...

Well, I believe that he sums it up in verses 3 and 4 when he states that sin’s power or whatever you want to call this sin, however great it may be, can never match the power of the Spirit…the Spirit will always free us to live as God intends us to live…so when life sometimes seems on the edge or tougher than it is supposed to be, seek the Spirit and dwell in the Spirit…it’s good for the soul!!

MATTHEW 13: 1-9, 18-23

So words of the Gospel passage today deal with the sower of the seeds and where they may or may not take root and how the seeds are sown in the first place…I always take this passage personally in that in ministry, we are always called to plant different seeds wherever we are called to serve and the results of these ‘seed-plantings’ are oftentimes not seen immediately but take some time to grow to fruition…the important thing throughout all of this “parable-sharing” is that whatever we do, we must continually plant seeds and see where the abundance comes from and then, how to somewhat manage that abundance so that it can grow more for more people and so on…feeding the world with peace and love is truly the abundance that this passage is speaking about…

“SHARING A SERMON – PLAYING GOLF: ARE THEY RELATED WHATSOEVER?”

In the culture in which we live, which for most of us is city or rural, some-what south-central (populated) Alberta, countless country-music listeners, many-many rodeo lovers, curling fanatics, acquirers of ‘big’ toys, weekend Costco or Cross Iron mills shoppers, rainfall measured in millimeters (and your neighbour down the street always seems to have more millimeters than you do), many of you believe that you come to church to hear advice for your personal problems, to get ethical instruction on how to live better lives, to feel something or to think something religious, well this Sunday’s Gospel is a reminder, to me anyway, that the purpose of church, the source of the gospel, the reason why we’re here, is the living Christ and what he means to us…and…the wonderful game of golf… and golf, by the way, is an acronym for Getting Older and Living Fine…so what is the relationship of sharing in a sermon – sharing in the message of the Good News and Golf...and are they related whatsoever?..

I thought of this on Monday and gave this message today this title and as I sat down with it on Wednesday, I thought to myself, “What was I thinking?... how can sharing in a sermon and playing golf be related?...

Well… here’s my take on this… are you ready for this?...

I’ve recently heard someone say at the golf course that they would die if they didn’t get to play golf at least once or twice a week…I just said that you gotta be kidding because golf can’t be that great… “Oh but it is”, he said to me… “There’s nothing better than to be out on a nice day, focusing all my attention, all my thoughts and affection on that little white ball…all burdens are lifted from my back; all concerns are put on the shelf…my cell phone is nicely tucked away in my car in the parking lot… all I want to do is to get that little ball into that little hole on the green in as few shots as possible…It’s…wonderful!!”…

and you know, being a somewhat golfer and not a very good one, I can somewhat associate with what this person said to me…so how do I put this sort of explanation of a game of golf alongside another love of mine which is crafting and delivering messages or sermons for all of you?... sharing a sermon – playing golf…are they related?... and I was wondering about this question, and I rightfully have to say “Yes…they are” …

Because, what runs through my head as I tee up the ball?...I clear it…I focus only on the delivery and if it’s an errant shot – so be it…it is a wonderful, all-too-rare (in this culture anyway) moment of self-forgetfulness…and this also happens as I prepare to deliver a message to all of you…in the singing of the little ‘Hymn for Illumination’, it’s my moment to pause and ready myself to share in the Gospel passage and the message which follows…and in that pause, as in the setting up of the driver on the tee-box, in that moment just before I share the message with you, I find that I am not thinking about anything except the sermon itself…my whole being is caught up, focused on the demands of the sermon…I become what I am intended to preach…I don’t ask myself how do I look?...am I going to do well?...will you like what I say?…have I come here with the right message?...at the right time?... will they like me?....these questions are irrelevant because I need to share with all of you the messages of hope and peace, of justice and love, of joy and of hole-in-ones…and maybe self-forgetfulness, which I mentioned a moment ago, is not so much an achievement as it is, a gift… to focus on what is really real opposed to being focused on secondary or tertiary stuff…and Jesus is making this perfectly clear to his followers. The journey is not going to be easy…the walk is going to be painful… are you in?...or…are you out?...

We live in a culture in which there is constant pressure to focus upon, become preoccupied with, and to cultivate…ourselves…we all embody the aphorism or saying of Oscar Wilde, who is reported to have said to someone at a London party, “Hey, come on over here and sit next to me…I’m dying to tell you all about myself.”…self-forgetfulness… focusing on the game of golf…focusing on the one message that you may hear this week or possibly this month and making the most out of it…

My one connection with you from my heart and mind to yours…my one drive down the middle of the fairway – 275 yards…

Sharing a sermon and playing golf…are they related?... yes…

For they put us into a place of what is truly real….

and the sermon’s focus comes from the heart –

the heart of golf comes from the focus…

Sometimes when we come to church on a Sunday, we get new insights or possibly fascinating ideas…sometimes we come here anxious and perplexed and leave comforted and at peace…but our understanding… our peace…and reassurance are not the point…the main thing we get is the presence of God and that is point enough for being here…the main thing we receive on the golf course is a personal strive for excellence, in whatever way that may look…it’s your putt….Amen.

Sunday, July 9, 2023

READINGS & MESSAGE

GENESIS 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

I love the way this first reading of the morning plays out…we have a servant of Abraham being sent out to Abraham’s kindred to find his son a wife, not a Canaanite but one of Abraham’s lineage…and he is to meet a young woman by the well who will hear this servant ask for a drink of water and this woman will comply and then offer to water his camels… and the marriage proposal begins there, at the well, with Rebekah, or probably today, Beckie…and eventually, she connects with Isaac and the journey begins…

MATTHEW 11:16-19, 25-30

This Gospel passage from Matthew begins with the children of the land whose song is never really understood…when they played a glad song – no one danced…when the song was sad, no one was moved to tears…so the way I look at it, Jesus is not addressing the failure of individuals but of society as a whole…and after spending a few days in our patriotic celebrations around Canada Day, how can we fail to reflect on the ways in which our own generation understands – and fails to understand – that there are reasons for dancing and for crying…sometimes we are lulled by other songs and voices of our culture and miss the moments that matter the most…

“WHAT DOES JESUS CHALLENGE US TO DO?” 

The Gospel text which I just read to you offers to me a pastoral puzzle... it speaks of people and nations and whole generations having come up short…and while we might try to distance ourselves from those ways which Jesus describes, I believe that too much sounds familiar for us to distance this teaching entirely….there’s too much that rings true so here's some questions for you this morning…

How many of you here this morning have travelled to Lake Louise?  or how many of you have been to Moraine Lake or Maligne Lake?

Beautiful places, aren’t they?  They are some of God’s serenities…

and some of the most beautiful parts of these lakes are the trails around them…many people love to walk these trails and to contemplate life and to give thanks for such beauty…

Well, the story goes this way…one morning, years and years ago, I was walking around one of these lakes and I noticed an empty pop can laying on the trail…it looked out of place…a piece of trash in such a glorious place…I was troubled that it was there…it made me stop and I bent down and picked it up…

I carried it with me for the rest of the walk…

Next morning…on my walk…I didn’t see any more pop cans which might have been thrown carelessly aside but I did for the first time notice other, smaller pieces of trash – gum wrappers, a chocolate bar wrapper, an empty bag of chips…. I picked these up…I was amazed at how much litter had been thrown along the way…I felt like it was destroying the beauty of the trail along the lake…

Well the next morning, I came much better prepared for my walk and for the task ahead…I now carried a small bag with me and I picked up the trash once again along the way…even though I had carefully looked yesterday, there was a surprising amount of trash today…I picked it all up and put it into the bag…I even found a newly thrown pop can that day and said ‘why’?...

So began my morning practice of discovery and removal of all of the litter…Doing this every day, I was able to notice and to retrieve even the smallest bits of litter…yet as I did so, I had disgust for those who were so negligent…so, I began thinking about broadening the range of my work…I had cleaned up the trail along the lake and maybe it was time that I focused also on the parking lot…the opportunities to clean up the trash there was even better than along the lake…

Then one day as I walked along the trail, with bag in hand, rather disappointed that I had made it all the way to the parking lot without even finding one small piece of litter, a person passed me and said,

“Have you ever seen such a glorious sunrise as this morning?”…

I hadn’t noticed that there was a sunrise…you don’t see a sunrise when you’re looking down at your feet…searching for trash…rather than beholding a sunrise…

“And look at those beautiful roses!” said this person…

I had just worked around those roses and couldn’t find any garbage…

It’s hard to see trash when it is thrown under a rose bush…

I’ve learned this: it’s easier to spot trash when you are looking for it…if you look for it, you’ll find it…and, it’s difficult to see even a sunrise when you are looking for trash on the trail…

I’m sure you know that this is a modern parable and I’m sure that you get the point…. “What does Jesus challenge us to do?”

Well, if I invited you to open your purse or open your wallet and find the thing that is worth the most to you, what would it be?...

And then, find the thing in your wallet or your purse that would give you access to the most money, would they be the same?... maybe not… hopefully not…

Jesus is challenging us to stop looking for the trash along the trail…to stop thinking that the most important thing in our wallet or our purse is our charge card…Jesus is challenging us to see the sunrises…to be part of them…to be coloured by them…to see the roses…to inhale their perfume…Jesus is challenging us to give to God out of our ‘all’ rather than out of our ‘surplus’…this is rather difficult to understand sometimes from our perspective as middle-class individuals…how would our lives be different if we gave to God everything we had?...our hearts, our minds, our talents, our time, our energies…and to look at people as Jesus looked at people…noticing those for whom some of us may have overlooked…like the widow with the two copper coins for an example…

The story goes of the bishop who was standing out an undeveloped piece of property that he hoped to develop into a new church start…the property was bordered by a couple of beautiful homes in a beautiful part of town and as the bishop stood there, a little boy came by on his bike…

“What are you doing here mister?”…asked the boy…

“I’m here checking out this piece of property” …said the bishop…

“What for?” …asked the boy…

“We’re planning to build a new church here…. We’re going to build a church here for people in the neighbourhood.”

“Good”, said the boy, “And when you get that church, don’t forget about them people up on the hill,” he said, pointing to the dilapidated houses overlooking the property….

“Them is people too.” …

So, the question for all of us today is what does Jesus challenge us to do in our lives? ...And maybe the answer is to build places of worship which TRULY includes all….and emphasis on the word TRULY….no holds barred…

And maybe the answer is to understand where more means less and less means more…where our givings need to reflect the importance of having a solid United Church presence in this community…where we need to explore the possibilities of putting ourselves on the Pre Authorized Remittance program to assure that this will happen…to look at each other in the same eyes as Jesus would look at us and invite us to give from our all and not just our part…to look at sunrises and roses and not just the litter…to smile with each other….

And one last thing…this may drive it all home….A mother-in-law unexpectedly called on the recently married couple…she saw her new daughter-in-law standing naked inside the door…

“What are you doing?” she asked…

“I’m waiting for my husband to come home from work,” the daughter-in-law answered…

“But you’re not wearing clothes!” the mother-in-law exclaimed…

“This is my love dress,” the daughter-in-law explained…

“Love dress? But you’re naked!”

“My husband loves me to wear this dress! It makes him happy and it makes me happy…Now you should probably skidaddle, he will be home from work in any minute.”…

On the way home, the mother-in-law thought about the love dress… when she got home she got undressed, showered, put on her best perfume and waited by the front door…finally her husband came home…he walked in and saw her standing naked by the door…

“What are you doing?” he asked…

“This is my love dress”, she said…

He replied, “I think it might need ironing.”…

And one last thing…may we laugh more often as the Spirit of God leads us in directions of love and of peace and of laughter….Amen… 

JULY 2, 2023

READINGS & MESSAGE

GENESIS 22: 1-14

We begin our readings today with a passage from Genesis and this story is the one of Abraham and his son, Isaac…it’s one of those passages where you might say to yourself, “Really?”….for Abraham is to offer his only son (but remember that Ishmael is still a ‘son’ to him but now has been banished) to be burned as an offering to God…where this story is really going is that what are we willing to give up to follow the precepts of what God wants us to do?...I know this story may be a little severe but sometimes we have to see things in their severity to understand the depth of what discipleship really is…and…this story also proves that God will provide if we live in the realms of love and live in this world believing in true community with no Berlin walls or Israeli/Palestinian walls… let’s take a listen to the story of Abraham and Isaac – ANN?...

ROMANS 6: 12-23

Our second reading has some confusing issues in it but then sometimes Paul’s theology can be a little confusing…we need to read between the lines and work with it…this passage reminds me of one of Bob Dylan’s songs in that “You’ve got to serve somebody…it may be the devil, it may be the Lord, but you’ve gotta serve somebody, etc….”and some folks are slaves to physical fitness and others to fashion…some to personal wealth but the reality is that if you want to know who your master is, pay attention to what occupies your thoughts and how you spend your time and money…Paul sees two masters: righteousness (God) or sin (everything else) and it is only to one master which we need to pay attention to and that’s God…and as followers of The Way, we need to always pay attention to who we are as ‘God-filled’ people and to always reflect this….

MATTHEW 10: 40-42

I was told once of a friend of mine who toured a little bit of Ireland and went to a Presbyterian church one morning only to be questioned by a couple of older women, who seemed to be the elders at the door, as to his name, where he’s from, would there be any other of his friends coming to worship and what their names may be and then he realized that he was being interviewed in a way… you see, there’s still the proverbial us and them – the Protestants and the Catholics - and the ushers wanted to make sure that this stranger was at the right church…I suppose some names have Protestant connotations and other ones Catholic…well I can take this little story and make the words of this passage sound different…here’s my slant on it:

“Take that love for family, that love for your closest community, and extend it….extend it further and further still…welcome in the stranger…welcome in the one whose life you hardly understand…not to change them, but simply because they too, are God’s”…. 

 HOW’S OUR NATIONAL IDENTITY DOING?

I thought that it might be fairly appropriate to speak a little on this Canada Day weekend about our national identity and where it is at the moment in the bigger picture of the world and whether or not we are following the precepts of the Holy One in our daily lives and in our daily dealings with each other…this is not a litmus test of sort but it might shine a little light on where we’ve been travelling together in the many years of being a nation under one flag, under one banner and whether the rosy picture of “Canadians” in other countries still holds true…

I remember when I had traveled throughout parts of Europe; Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, and of course Holland and how a profound sense of nationalism came over me, especially in Holland…and not because I was born there but how I was treated by many folks out on the streets…wherever I went, I had my back-pack with me and I had a small Canadian flag or ‘patch’ sewn onto my pack…and here is where this sense of identity became the strongest…   I was just in the process of getting on to a city bus and this older woman gently pushed me aside and went onto the bus before me…she paid for my ticket….and I looked at her and asked why she did this…her answer… “I am always indebted to Canadians for liberating Holland and I’ll never stop showing my gratitude. My husband was saved by the Canadians from a fairly certain death and we had the opportunity of living together for many years after the war…and thank-you!”….I wasn’t really sure what to say but ‘thank-you’ myself but I know that it indelibly left an impression on me…about being a Canadian…and being SO proud of being a Canadian….and here’s one more and maybe a little more of an ‘identity’ situation, of a ‘Canadian’ identity situation…

We had went to Scotland on tour with the Elk Point Community Choir and were bussed everywhere…I believe it was in Edinburgh where we had toured the castle and walked the golden mile and the day was coming to an end and we still had an hour or two before jumping back on the bus…what is one supposed to do but to stop in to one of the local pubs and have a beverage…

there were probably 10 or 12 of us (with our matching choir jackets) and we sat down together with the locals at the other end…they kept looking at us suspiciously and being the extrovert that I am, I wandered over and said hello…striking up a conversation…and of course the question from them, “Where would you be from lad?”…I said “Alberta, Canada”…and his answer to me, “Oh, good, we thought you folks were ‘septic’”….I wasn’t sure what that meant so I gave him a funny look and he said, “American”….once again, I felt proud of being a Canadian and felt a little sad that Americans received such a thought-provoking name…needless to say, they asked us to sing so we did…

and then they did…and then we did and so on and so on and guess what?...

we almost missed our bus…

So were we fulfilling our national identity?....absolutely!....for we are continually being called to be in community with others…whatever their status, their race, their culture, their gender, or whatever may seem to us to be divisive and to seek what connects us…

I always look at Canada as being a huge experiment…an experiment of bringing all of the folks together from around the world and seeing if we can live together and work together and play together…and still keeping one’s heritage alive yet evolving into what we call a “Canadian”…or do we know what that is?...a Canadian?....I downloaded the lyrics to a song on Thursday which sheds a little light on who we are as Canadians…It’s called Vimy Ridge and the lyrics are by Lizzy Hoyt…

We are a country which believes in freedom and have, and still fight, to keep that freedom…who have been known around the world for our peace-keeping missions and still reflect this to a certain degree… we are a nation rich with resources and through proper management can be leaders in things such as pipeline implementation and safety, in getting our crude oil to other markets through transparency of words and actions…in moving our grain to other markets quicker and easier…to feed the hungry of other countries through our surplus…and to ultimately work together, ecologically, financially, and personally so that the kingdom of God becomes visual in our actions and our day-to-day dealings with each other …I can personally say that I’m fairly proud of being a Canadian and I’m sure that many of you folks also echo this…so with all of the positives which we have, how can we go one step further and share this peace with the rest of the world?....I wish that I had a simple answer but I believe that the answer lies within each of us…deep within…for peace begins in family….peace begins when we are in true relationship with each other…and then to neighbour and then on to all those with whom we come in contact with…on the bus…on the C train…on the streets…in the office…and so on…being truly connected – with a smile for each other…this is who we are as Canadians… and we need to continue to do these things wherever and whenever we travel… to keep remembering that when we visit another country that WE are the strangers and to seek understandings of other folks’ culture and to embrace it… not to take advantage of others but to learn from the stranger and possibly work together in coming to a common understanding of our different yet similar humanity…this was Jesus’ continual quest…in meeting people where they were and accepting hospitality and sharing in healing, in vision, in wisdom, in true friendship, regardless of status, gender, race and clan differences, and so on…

His example has become a bench-mark for ours and I believe that we are doing pretty good…so on this Canada Day weekend or whatever you want to call it, give thanks that we can still say that we are free…that we are still people of vision and that the ‘other’ is more important than ‘self’…

O Canada, our home and native land………Amen.

June 18, 2023

READINGS and MESSAGE

GENESIS 18:1-15: 21:1-7

Our first reading of the morning comes to us once again from the Book of Genesis…it’s an interesting story concerning what can and can’t happen when you have a belief system or not…100 years ago it was seen as an impossibility to reach the moon…today, we’re wandering on Mars and we’ve reached distances in space which were unheard of, galaxies which only existed in science fiction books…and having a child when one is near 100 years old…it’s a story of the possible things which can happen when one let’s God…be God…and reminds me of the choir hymn a few weeks ago “…and the word was with God and the Word was God”…God’s words are always faithful…

ROMANS 5:1-8

In Paul’s letter to the Romans he shares that peace with God is truly a benefit of the Christian faith…as recipients of peace, we gain access into a place of grace through Jesus Christ…and John Newton spoke of this grace in his hymn of “Amazing Grace”…in the words we learn that it is by faith that Newton understood himself to be saved and ushered into a stats of grace…and Paul makes it also clear that Christians stand in this grace…we stand in this grace…  it’s unearned and undeserved…. that is why grace is so amazing…

MATTHEW 9:35 --- 10:8-23 

You know sometimes Jesus makes it look easy…he goes into all of the villages and cities and gets to be invited to preach in all of the synagogues…and besides that, he gets to cure all of the different ailments…there’s no distance which is too great for him and there are no audiences which are too skeptical…in fact, there are no diseases which are too severe…Jesus gets it done!...

But here comes the difficult part…when he commissions his disciples to go out and do what he does, things get more difficult…and we can associate with this, when we set off on a brand new task, this is a sobering assessment of what may lie ahead for us when we decide to follow in Jesus’ footsteps…again, we need to take a major step of faith…

           LIVING TOGETHER IN THIS WORLD WITH OUR DIFFERING CULTURES

So this Sunday has been set aside, in the rhythm of United Church Sundays anyway, as Aboriginal Sunday…in the Common Lectionary, it doesn’t bring it up at all and the focus is really on the Third Sunday after Pentecost or the continuation of Jesus’ missional words to his disciples or the training and the learning period before they go out into the world and try to change it for the better…and I could speak on this today but I really want to focus on Aboriginal Sunday because a lot of this comes very close to my heart…in my developmental days of ministry, when I was placed in Elk Point Alberta as a student, I needed to enter into what was called the ‘shorter program’ so that I could receive my mandatory BA courses to enter into the Master of Divinity program and eventually, become ordained…in doing so, I registered in a college just outside of St. Paul which was called Blue Quills College and it was predominately First Nations students – 98-99%  First Nations students so yes, I was definitely a minority and knew it but I was there for a purpose, and that was to study First Nations history and spirituality…to live and study together with a differing culture than my own…to setup a tee-pee from scratch and go out  into the bush and cut down and debark popular trees to use…to skin and cut up a deer which was just killed in the early morning so that we could have supper later…and to also cut it up to dry…to help make bannock and feed the bunch of us…to put a sweat lodge together…the daily working of a culture which can be sometimes distant to ours – alien possibly….some might say ‘backward’…some ‘stone age’….but whatever designation folks give to this culture, it has a deepness to it that is beyond words…and some of the words of Chief Seattle which I began this worship service with may be a reflection of this….and folks soon learned that I was in a ministry program and they slowly opened up with some of their First Nations philosophy or theology if you will… and of course, with working with the local Funeral Home and getting to know these folks well, they soon also learned of my affiliation with Blue Quills College and my understanding of First Nations culture…

so the phone rang at home one night…

“Jope, the minister who lives on the Saddle Lake Reserve is away on a course in Eastern Canada and so he’s not here and we have someone who has passed on who lived in Kikino, which is just south of Lac LeBiche and Kikino is a Metis’ settlement and you understand First Nations ways…could you perform the funeral?”…I closed my eyes and said, “Ok…when”…. “In four days, for that is the time of mourning”… “And, by the way, you’re on your own.”…

I guess this is why they call this sort of thing ‘ministry training’….

You don’t sit down with the family beforehand and discuss the plans for the funeral and all of those things….no…you just show up and do your best…so I did…and there was a little church on the settlement and everyone was there – filled to the rafters and spilling outside…we sang some songs a cappella and some words of comfort and prayers and words of hope and so on and then the coffin was taken out and put onto a horse-drawn wagon with and we all proceeded to the cemetery – we all walked behind the wagon and those who couldn’t walk were put onto another wagon and we sang songs all the way there.…guess who was the leader?....

And the service at the cemetery with the coffin ready to be put down and just about at the end, where I offer a closing prayer, I look up into the clear blue sky…and there it was…a beautiful hawk going around and around above us and I invited the folks to look up….

You don’t have to be of another culture to only feel the presence of the Spirit in such a situation as this…it transcends…it illuminates from within…it breaks our human-kind barriers which we set before ourselves…ones which make us divisive…ones which Jesus clearly states for all of us to go out and to make disciples of all nations…to spread peace, understanding, and community wherever people are gathered…

The folks raised their arms to the sky and spoke in one voice, in their language and then the hawk made one more round and flew away into the sunset…taking with it, what I knew, was the Spirit of the one who we laid to rest…

Can we live together in this world with all of our differing cultures?....it’s a definite “yes” in my world…in fact, Canada is one huge example or experiment in ‘culture-sharing’ and so far, as far as I can see anyway, we seem to be doing pretty good…the last statistics of Vancouver are that there are more Asians living in its boundaries now than white Caucasians…we are experiencing more and more ethnic restaurants opening up and French is almost not the second language spoken in this country…and this is what our God wants all of us to experience and to embrace – diversity….with the common understanding that peace can happen and that peace WILL happen…

So, on this Aboriginal Sunday, book yourself an afternoon to go and enjoy a pow-wow…offer a prayer for your First Nations brothers and sisters…listen to their grievances and try to find common ground…speak words of peace…and as Alyson Huntly shared in  “Gifts of Open hands”, a worship resource for the global community, “God, you ask us to love one another as much as we love ourselves…sometimes we forget who is our neighbour, and we forget about loving….so help us to love one another as much as we love ourselves and as much as you love us.”…..Amen.

June 11, 2023

Message

                                     “HIS MERCY ENDURES FOREVER”

With our Gospel passage this morning we have three things going on…three distinct things which puts Jesus firstly in the eyes of the Pharisees as one who’s not following the precepts of what it means to be a stalwart Jewish citizen by eating with what we might call today “riff-raff”…and on the second incident, being touched by an unclean woman as she touches his cloak and going against what was considered taboo…and thirdly, to be invited by a leader of the synagogue to bring his daughter up from the dead when this would have been unheard of…three interesting incidents in this passage from Matthew…

So let’s try and extrapolate what these ‘healing’ ministries meant then and now… today…Jesus sees Matthew, the tax man, sitting at his booth, looks at him and says, “Follow me”…same words that he used for the fishermen – Peter, Andrew, James, and John…Matthew had probably heard about this prophet and being invited to follow was something which he couldn’t pass up…Jesus calls Matthew into his community of disciples…so he invites him for supper, with his tax collector friends and Jesus reorders social and communal relationships by including the excluded…you see, tax collectors were seen as being in collaboration with the Roman imperial authorities…they were social outcasts…they were Jews who not only collected taxes for Rome, but also made their margin of profit by collecting more money than was legally due so they increased their own wealth…so the Pharisees criticize these tax collectors but Jesus just looks at them and says, “I desire mercy…not sacrifice…I’ve come to call not the righteous, but the sinners”…in Matthew, mercy takes precedence over religious traditions and what is ritualistic, such as collecting taxes…so when we deal with our sometimes burdensome tax department in this country, think of those who work inside this system and know that in essence, they are fulfilling what the government dictates and that we are the ones that inadvertently make these formulations and these laws…

I sense that the ‘sinning’ part of today’s tax collecting is when there is a huge imbalance with the wealthy and the needy…I desire mercy…not sacrifice…

Well the mercy of Jesus is at the center of his healing the dead girl and the hemorrhaging woman…the Greek text, by-the-way, only identifies the father as a ‘leader’ whereas our text calls him ‘a leader of the synagogue’ and in the Greek text the father was neither a Gentile nor a Jew…so…as a Jewish leader, the father probably knows that if Jesus lays a hand on a corpse, he would be defiled…and maybe the passage from Mark 5 explains it a little more with the man identified as a synagogue leader was Jairus whose daughter was not yet dead when he comes to beg Jesus to come to his home and heal her…

And in the case of the hemorrhaging woman she knows that the Jewish law declares her unclean and that her touching Jesus will defile him…and there’s no hesitations whatsoever exhibited by either the Jewish leader of the woman…both have faith in the healing power of Jesus and also in his mercy…may we, today, have faith in the healing power of Jesus and to live our lives to be merciful people…always…

And speaking about mercy, there’s always a song which resonates with this word and it comes from a song by Mary Gautier…it’s called ‘Mercy Now’ and I’m going to share the words with you…listen closely…and maybe a good time to work into your labyrinth…

Mercy…and I was thinking of this word as the leader knelt before Jesus when asking him to lay his hand on his daughter…have mercy on my daughter…and me…and by-the-way, the act of kneeling is a gesture acknowledging social inferiority and the death of a child was quite common in the earlier days…nearly half of all children during Jesus’ day died before they reached the age of 5…and with the folks knowing this at the time it’s most likely why they laughed at Jesus when he says the girl is “not dead but sleeping”…and it’s probably one of the reasons the report of the girl being resurrected spread throughout the known world…and yes…miracles such as this still happen today…and we know this…and Matthew and the woman and the leader all have their faith and so do we…and the writer of Matthew identifies God’s healing power as residing not in the clothes that Jesus is wearing but rather in his mercy…

God’s power has always been associated with mercy…that is why Jesus says, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’….

Let us share in the words of this little prayer found up on the screen… 

June 4, 2023

Readings and Message

TRINITY SUNDAY

GENESIS 1:1-2, 4a

So we begin our readings today with three verses from Genesis, and how important they are to our lives and in our lives…they speak of darkness, then of light which points towards new life…how special can that be!! We are creatures of sunsets and creatures of sunrises, of the ebb and the flow of the tides of life…we are creatures of darkness and of light and out of all of this there is a creative force which brings order out of chaos, of the light of Christ which shines beyond the empty tomb…

PSALM 8

So as we celebrate this Trinity Sunday, I believe that my work is not so much to enable all of you to understand the mystery of one God in three divine persons but rather to acknowledge God as an incomprehensible mystery or love far beyond our ability to understand or to grasp…and this Psalm, Psalm 8, gives all of us reasons for praising our God…it was interesting when I had put the words from Psalm 8 into the bulletin and taken them from the Voices United hymnbook that one word struck me…”You have made us rulers over all creation”…hmmm…I changed this to nurturers…that made me feel better…yes…words are power are they not!

2 CORINTHIANS 13:11-13

Well in this 2nd Corinthians passage Paul offers us a comforting assurance that today’s church did not invent congregational conflicts…things like a church’s governing body changing the locks on the doors while a staff member was on vacation or a telephone campaign to plan a boycott…these could be today’s things but I assure you, in Paul’s time, they were equally as disturbing…so he states to them, put stuff in order, agree with each other… live in peace for heaven’s sakes!...and it’s the final words to them as he leaves Corinth…

MATTHEW 28:16-20

So here in Matthew we are introduced to the Trinitarian formula…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…I like how a minister in Vermont put an understanding towards what the Trinity is…he tells of an Easter vigil in his little church on a Saturday evening and only two people show up…nonetheless, he lights the paschal candle and says the prayer…the candle sputters in the half-darkness like a voice too embarrassed to proclaim that Christ is risen…but it catches fire and there they are – three people…a Trinity of sorts…kind of reminds me of all of us being a sometimes fragmented community, with a possible fragmented faith and a fragmented understanding of the Trinitarian God and then…we go out into the world with everything that Jesus has taught us… cool!!

   “Why Do We Need a Trinity Sunday?”

Almost surely the reason this passage was selected as the lectionary Gospel reading for this Sunday is because it includes the baptismal formula, which mentions all three persons of the Trinity…and yes…this is Trinity Sunday and you know what?...people who have cancer couldn’t care less…or maybe those two young married people who can’t have children…they couldn’t care less… but most worship committees around this wonderful church of ours say “But, this is Trinity Sunday!”…well even so, the couple heading for divorce or the family dealing with a wayward teenager or the person who just lost their job, they don’t care…does it really matter to them that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?...they just want to know that God is God and that God somehow knows who they are, where they are, what they are doing, and what they need…

…And what about you?...Does it really matter to you?...

if you look up the history, it was not an easy doctrine to nail down by-the-way… there is a ton of mystery that surrounds the person or persons of God and some people are clear about it and others….well…confused and still others?...couldn’t care less…so then why do we need Trinity Sunday…it doesn’t hold a candle to Christmas or Easter…it doesn’t get a lot of press…we don’t put up a Trinity tree.

The great Augustine had to reduce it to a very simple illustration…he used the example of a tree…the root is wood…the trunk is wood…the branches are wood…one wood…one substance but three different entities…short sermon!!

Well maybe we need to come at explaining the Trinity from another direction… what if there were no Trinity?...Jesus told all of us to go out into the world and baptize those in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit…what if we only baptized in the name of Father?...

You know, besides sounding rather awkward, it would deny the very work and person of Christ and the ongoing activity of the Holy Spirit…it wouldn’t be a full picture of who God is…we would be immersed into the fullness of a very powerful, mysterious, but detached God…it would only lead to some sort of mysticism…

So what if we only baptized people in the name of Jesus?  “I baptize you in the name of Jesus…Amen.”…do you know what we would miss?...the person of “God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth”…words from the Apostle’s Creed…we would miss that part of God that is larger than what we can see or understand and is beyond our logic and reason…we’d also miss the Holy Spirit which is the ongoing presence of God with us today…

And finally, what if we only baptize in the name of Spirit?...what’s missing?... well, the awesomeness and creativity of God and the redemptive work of Christ…we would also miss the importance of resurrection and how that happens…the same God who is God the Creator and God with us and for us in the incarnation of Christ is also the God in and among us as God the Holy Spirit…

And we can’t go out into the world without all of this…we are immersed

(or sprinkled) into the whole being of God, whether we understand it or not…

We are not disconnected from the Creator God, or from the redeeming work of God in human flesh, or from the very presence of the Spirit…and this is a tremendous gift to celebrate, especially if you are feeling alone, or depressed, or deserted, or fearful, or wounded, and so on…

Jesus did not just send the church out to perform the ritual of baptism…the world will not be fixed by merely getting everyone wet…saying the words “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” is not magic…the more difficult task, and this is of great importance, is that of making disciples…of living lives of peace and hope and learning to accept the ‘other’…of practicing patience…of helping others, no matter what…and of living lives with joy…

Disciples are students…disciples are like interns, you know, the ones which your doctor brings into the room with them…interns are watching, practicing under supervision, asking questions, making mistakes, and learning from them…

Jesus said very clearly to all of us, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” and this doesn’t mean to go into another country and ram Christianity down their throats…go make students of Christ…students of giving your all back to humanity…this is a major paradigm shift from making church members or whatever else we substitute for discipleship…for making students of Christ goes hand in hand with the immersion of the fullness of God and we can’t enter into this relationship without the work of the Holy Spirit…and Christ keeps pointing to God so therein lies the power…it is in the Trinity, the fullness of God, where we are attached…

So maybe Trinity Sunday ought to much more of a bigger deal…it sits silently on our liturgical calendar and invites me to wear white…and it offers us the entire being of God in a relationship that we do not really deserve but can celebrate having…it’s a day to celebrate the One to whom we belong, in life and in death, through the gift of our baptisms…it’s a day as you, the students, pay tribute to the Teacher!...Amen

May 28, 2023

READINGS & MESSAGE

PENTECOST SUNDAY

1 CORINTHIANS 12: 3b – 13

Our scripture passages this morning begin with the reading from 1 Corinthians and the passage focuses on all of the different gifts which we have, and we have many…and…they are varied…some have gifts of wisdom, others, gifts of knowledge, some have gifts of healing, some even do miracles, some folks have the talent of knowing and understanding many languages, some folks are great at administration, others at woodworking or quilting or whatever, but all of these gifts come from the same spirit…same as all of the parts of the body make one body and when we are baptized into this one body – the body of Christ – we all drink from the same spirit…so why does the word equality become such a difficult word to understand or to act upon?...let’s listen to Paul’s words to the folks in Corinth…

 JOHN 7: 37-39

We now have a little short passage from the Gospel of John and it speaks volumes of what Pentecost is all about – living water and quenching one’s thirst by being a follower of Christ…and honestly, a lot of folks couldn’t care less of Pentecost but there is SO MUCH importance in it when it unveils the Holy Spirit…where would we be in our world if we didn’t have the Spirit alive to guide us in the things which we do?...and with today being Pentecost Sunday do you ever feel that mainline Protestantism and Catholicism have difficulty embracing Pentecost?...no problem with Christmas as the churches are full and somewhat on Easter but Pentecost?...maybe it’s something which preachers push on to their congregations…well hopefully, you find some merit in it…  

ACTS 2: 1-21

Our third reading this morning, one on which I’m going to focus upon, come to us from the book of Acts…Acts of the disciples or Acts of the apostles or Acts of Peter…what it really focuses on are the acts of the Holy Spirit and the real beginning of The Way or The Church or Christianity in its infancy…we are introduced to Peter’s first sermon as he is filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with fire and brimstone( and this is where these words came from as we give this designation to some preachers) and at the end of this there are 3000 who are baptized into this new movement…one which moved dangerously within the Roman Empire and of course, at odds with the Jewish synagogue and the powerful elite…let’s listen to the Holy Spirit moving amongst the masses of over 2000 years ago…

 FINDING THE SPIRIT WITHIN

In reading through the Acts passage a few times this week, I came to an understanding of it which I’ve never really thought about before…I think this is the magic or mystery of the biblical text and all of its different layers and strata and meanings to us as we continually grow and experience so many different things in our lives…as we change, so the meanings change with us in positive and empowering and enriching ways…and this is what the Acts passage did for me…it challenged me to find the Spirit within me and to locate and to claim and to utilize my authentic voice or gifts or skills with which to love and to serve… however, I would cheapen the Spirit and her gifts if I reduced them to dwelling exclusively within myself…this Spirit which swept through that house in Jerusalem, and many had said that it was the same place where the Last Supper had taken place, it gifted more than those disciples at Pentecost and the disciples with whom we minister today…that Spirit has been loosed into the world and its creative and life-giving power is now the gift of families, such as yours, as communities, such as the ones in which you live, of churches, which this one which can also be included, and of nations….so the relevant question becomes not just “How will I respond to these party gifts of the spirit?” but “How will we respond to these gifts?”….now there’s the question and we need to look inside of ourselves and find the spirit that is within us…the spiritual gifts that each of us has…for those folks who were in the Upper Room at this time all had spiritual gifts and they, as of yet, had been unleashed…this is what Pentecost did…it brought the Spirit within to speak its voice and to be seen – alive and well…out in the world…and it was not meant to create different denominations or different creeds or mission statements or doctrines but it was meant to show to the world that peace is possible – that love is possible-amongst all nations, cultures, colours, gender, sexual orientation or any other differing trait than our own which we often voice as being ‘the other’ and therefore ‘not normal’…remember the words which Jesus left to the disciples… “Peace be with you”….well now this peace has come to all who are gathered and they have some major work to do…and so do we…

And we need to take our blinkers off sometimes in reading these passages because we can visualize only the 12 receiving these ‘gifts’ of the Holy Spirit and why not many more?...I firmly believe there were more and they were women and men of all different ‘stripes’ who were believers…they were at the Pentecost party also…these questions become important as churches and denominations continue sometimes heated and divisive conversations about who may and who may not faithfully worship and serve in leadership positions. I like John Calvin’s words of “priesthood of all believers”…that’s you and me…

It reminds me of my theological study days where there were 12 of us, 6 men and 6 women, one male was gay and one female was a lesbian, some were divorced, some were overweight, some thin,  and we were all designated as the priesthood of believers…and when we all became ordained, we all had a feeling of inadequacy to go out and to proclaim our faith, to ‘preach’ the word, just as the disciples must have felt, especially in their unwelcoming world separated from one another and from the bodily presence of Jesus…this is why we are left with the Holy Spirit to guide us…the breath of God to help us through these transitioning times…and I sense that many folk in our pews know this fear of transitioning…some of us are transitioning from the challenges of childhood to a whole new set of challenges that accompanies raising families and planning for futures in a world full of unpredictable economies and unequal access…maybe others are sitting here realizing that while their pew never changes, their world surely does…some of these folk mourn the loss of the church…loss of their community of where they used to know everyone…loss of family and especially older family members to illness or death…or possibly the constant stability which they once had…times of life transition come with promise and hope, with fear and mourning, and I’m sure that you folks have experienced it all…

So we need to find the spirit within…the one which feeds us…we need to find our authentic voices and this is exactly what happened to the folks who received the Holy Spirit…they entered the unwelcoming world preaching and living the love of Christ…it was an incredible party and the disciples had been training for up to three years as they learned by their mistakes and by Jesus’ example – through the challenges of parables told and the crosses that were carried…so it’s a birthday party – a graduation of sorts…it’s a new paradigm where God has been planning this party forever and now we are being invited to find the Spirit within ourselves and to go out into the world with a fresh approach as we open our eyes to ‘signs and wonders’…

On this day of Pentecost, this Sunday, may the Spirit move through you as light and love – as friendship as community – as wholeness as peace…..

 Amen…

SUNDAY, MAY 21, 2023

Readings and Message

“NEVER HAVING TO GO IT ALONE!”

ACTS 1:6-14

So our first passage of the day comes from the Book of Acts and it explains the Ascension of Jesus…the apostles were standing on the Judean hillside where Jesus rises up and disappears upwards…and the good news of this happening is that Jesus not only comes from God but now returns to God…this is the true scope of the movement for us as the followers of the Way…we come from God, we return to God…the challenge for all of us of course is in the meantime we need to keep our lives centred on God…rooted and grounded in the Spirit and allowing the Holy One to be the one in whom we “live and move and have our being”…

here and now, on this planet earth…so let’s take a listen to this passage from Acts as Paul shares this with Theophilus…

1 PETER 4:12-14; 5:6-11

When you take a listen to this second reading this morning, it speaks of suffering – real suffering – as Christ did – and do we? Well there‘s this story which goes with this…his name was Benyamin Yusuf and he experienced brutal persecution for his choice of religion…we are so blessed not to, to a certain degree…he was raised in Africa by a strict Muslim family…when he decided to become Christian, his father disowned him and banished him from the home.. so Benyamin decided to leave the country and look for a more tolerant society…he left on foot and walked to the border but was captured and put into jail…the prison guards beat him nightly and tried to beat a renunciation out of him…he never renounced his faith and forgave the guards each evening…one of the jailors became intrigued with Benyamin in the face of so much cruelty and confronted him on his continual forgiving…Benyamin told the guard about Jesus and the lessons of love and forgiveness…so the guard left in disbelief but returned later that night with the surprise announcement that he was helping Benyamin to escape…which he did…he made his way to America where he earned a PhD in religious studies and eventually retuned back to Africa to plant churches…suffering?...yes…for a reason…

JOHN 17:1-11

We all have our hopes and dreams for each other and this passage from the Gospel of John truly speaks to this…he says to them, his followers, in so many words “you’re never going to have to do this alone you know”…they’ve been taught for many years the rudimentary truths about love and forgiveness…of compassion and of healing and believing in each other…so this passage is literally a prayer from Jesus to God in his saying that “I’ve done all that you’ve asked of me and now I leave it in their hands”…and with Pentecost Sunday next week, the church begins its movement…

NEVER HAVING TO GO IT ALONE!

 Interesting parallels come into my life when I absorb the Gospel passages of the week and this passage from John is no different…at the recent workshop which I attended where McInnis and Holloway brought Dr. Alan Wolfelt to us from the United States to speak on ‘Helping Mourners Replace Harmful Norms with Healing Truths’ one of the major topics that he touched upon was that if you need to move forward, if you need to seek healing in your life, you first need to visit backward…and on this last Sunday of the Easter season we look both backward and forward…we’ve all heard of Jesus’ appearances to his disciples and today we glory in his ascension and have received hints of the promised Advocate or Spirit…well next week we will celebrate the birth of the new church which explodes into mission with all of the gifts of the Spirit but today….we pause…just for a moment…to hear the prayer which Jesus prayed for his followers and I believe that it’s a prayer also for us…

And this prayer happens just before he enters the Garden of Gethsemane as we look backwards at his love and his care for his followers before his crucifixion and look forwards to his time when he ascends and still shares in the same words – he’s always caring for those he truly loves and promises them that they will never be alone – that they never have to go it alone…there was this desire to communicate to them one last time what was in the centre of Jesus’ life and the hopes which he had for the disciples for their enduring human experience…

It kind of reminds me of a story which I had heard of a young mother dying of cancer in the hospital and she finds purpose and energy from the opportunity of lying in her bed to construct a videotaped message for her preschool daughters…she was hoping that they would take a look at it years down the road when they are older so that they can listen to what she most hopes will guide their lives…it is very important to her to make sure her daughters receive her motherly care and love, even though she will not be alive to speak to them in person…so while this mother can only hope that the videotape will help keep her memory accessible to her children, Jesus speaks knowing that the Spirit which abides in each one of us is able to keep the message alive in our hearts…

And when you’ve heard the John passage, you realize that Jesus’ final hopes are not a celebration of himself but truly the recognition that his life and ministry are huge windows into God’s love and compassion…so ultimately, Jesus is praying that people will know God through him and knowing God will be truly evident in our obedience to love which is the singular commandment of the Gospel of John…and you know today, in a time when there could be great divisions in so many Christian communities the meaning of Jesus’ prayer that we believers need to be one is so important…it’s so profound…it’s so necessary…we’re never having to go it alone…especially if we live in a world of love…

There is assurance and a true certainty in Jesus’ prayer…Jesus has made God’s name known to the disciples and has given them knowledge of the truth and now prays for their protection…here he asks protection for them for a particular purpose, “So that they may be one, as we are one”…as they may be connected to each other as Jesus and God are…it’s a prayer for unity…it’s a prayer for working together which brings me to an incident in a little church in a small town…a new minister had come to the church and learns that it is barely surviving…and honestly, this is a scenario all over…there are only a few people active and they are without enthusiasm…the reason became very clear in the first weeks of being there…

The former lay minister had led the service…played the piano…and had been the choir leader…she had been so involved in the church school, that no one else felt able to do the task and soon…she was left with that as well…there was no sense of involvement in the work and the tasks were left to the paid professional…so the incoming minister soon let the folks know that he was really quite incompetent…if he could get a good sermon ready for Sunday and do the visiting each week that was all that he could manage…within a year, the church was alive and members were busy doing the tasks with more enthusiasm than they even knew they had…

            Well there’s a story told that when Jesus returned to heaven the angels asked what was going to happen to the work he had begun on earth…Jesus told them that he had left the task to his disciples…the angels were aghast and questioned the wisdom of leaving so important a task to mortals… “Ah,” said Jesus, “mortals yes, but if you knew my Peter, and John, or my Mary and Susanna, you would understand.”

            We are entrusted with the work that Jesus began…we are called to be his followers…his disciples…what do we need to do the task?...well the standard that Jesus set was pretty straightforward, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and your neighbour as yourself”…from Jesus’ example and from his stories, we know who our neighbour is…a neighbour is anyone who needs our care…

            At times people read the Bible and claim they cannot discern God’s will for their lives…perhaps we know only too well what God requires of us…we may simply be avoiding the challenge of being a disciple…God is asking, “Whom shall I send, and who will go?”  And which of us has the courage to answer, “Here I am; send me”?

And remember, we never have to do it alone for doing wonderful and enriching things in unity and in community changes the world…these were the intentions of the words which Jesus used upon this Ascension Sunday…

   Amen

Sunday, May 14, 2023

Readings and Message

"WHAT DO WE SAY TO PEOPLE WHO ARE GRIEVING?"

ACTS 17: 22-31

In the first passage of today we find Paul debating with some of the philosophers of Athens ... he's been walking around the city and has noticed that there are statues of gods everywhere and almost all of them have names and have little altars where something could be left behind for a gift or a little sacrifice … but one of these little altars intrigues

him ... the inscription says 'to an unknown god' ... well Paul knows who this 'unknown' god is and eloquently explains it to all of them ... some, in fact, even become believers and now this 'unknown' god is known ... maybe it's still up to us to show others who their unknown god is? ...

1 PETER 3: 13-22

This passage from 1 Peter really contains three imperatives:

#1 ... it acknowledges that even when we are doing the right thing ... we may suffer ... and this is a gentle reminder for many of us who expect smooth sailing and problem-free lives and maybe quick to blame God for all human misbehavior ...

#2 ... it tells us that we need to be able to speak the word of good news to anyone who asks ... Why do you go to church? .... you need to answer this with clarity and with truth ... what do you really believe, anyway? ... another question which needs to be answered directly ...

#3 ... and this is the third part of this passage ... we live, and, perhaps, suffer in a context similar to that of Jesus … in other words, our suffering is not all about us - it's for something larger ...

JOHN 14: 15-21

The centrality of the Gospel passage has this point: life is a continuum as well as an "eternal now" and we are continually being transformed as we move within this reality ... when we recognize that we are one with God, always have been and always will be, we are able to stay centered in nothing other than the immediate presence of God ... we sometimes try and model our lives after Jesus when in reality, we already, inside of ourselves, have the presence of God and only need to let it come out or come forward …deep relationship which he has made with his disciples ... and as Jesus bids adieu to his best friends, we are also reminded of the farewells that we have made in our lives to the ones that we've loved and still 'memory-love'…

"WHAT DO WE SAY TO PEOPLE WHO ARE GRIEVING?"

I sense that many folks in the congregation today have a great anxiety around what to say and what not to say to people who are grieving ... and this doesn't mean only when someone in the family passes away or friends or relatives of friends for there are many times of grieving that don't have to do with death (although it may seem like death to some folk) ... what we all experience is anxiety and possibly fear and troubled hearts and these are the realities of separation and of death ... these are the realities that we face and that we need to face ... you may not remember the very first time that your parents might have left you alone but you might remember being left with your first childcare provider or possibly the first day of school or the end of a relationship or many situations such as this... the remembering of those moments where reality takes over ... well this is happening in the Gospel passage with Jesus bidding farewell to his disciples - to his best friends ... he's taking leave of them and he's trying to be as gentle as possible and also to lay out before them the reality of what is going to happen ... and Jesus knows that there is going to be some grief so he offers to them something which each of us can off er to the other - there will be an Advocate or a Counselor or the Holy Spirit, depending on which biblical translation you use, who will look after all of your needs ... but ... and there's a big BUT here, in the face of loss do each of us really believe that we can find either a replacement or some other compensation to make us feel better? ... that's a mighty big question to lay out there because we all know that when tragedy strikes, seeking calm in the midst of calamity can be almost impossible ... you know the words, "Oh you should really be happy about your loss because the one who has left is so much better off." ... heard this before? ... as your heart is being ripped out of you? ... as the tears flow endlessly? ...

Jesus says, in certain terms, in a little while, I'm out of here ... so these disciples who have given their lives to follow the one who is going to change the world is just going to disappear? … this whole 'movement' which they have become a part of is now going to be shelved and many of them have to go back to their hometowns, possibly licking their wounds and meeting the eyes of those who told you, "I told you so!" …anxiety, fear, and troubled hearts - this is what we have right here ... But there's something which we need to pay absolute attention to - Jesus gives them one special gift - one special culmination of some simple words ... "Peace I leave with you … peace I give to you" … Reminds me of that little story where the mother can't find her little son and then sees him sitting on the lap of the old neighbour next door on the veranda ... the old man and the little boy are both rocking away on the old rocking chair ... the young lad comes home a little later and mom asks him what he was doing ... the young boy says, "I was just helping him to cry" ... peace I give to you ... sitting with someone in the hospital for a lengthy period of time and not a word being said ... only peace ... only companionship without words ... peace I give to you …

There is a word in Cree which is used to translate peace and I might or might-not have shared this with you and if you have heard it before, maybe it needs repeating for all of us, myself included ...

The root word for peace is chiyam ... and when this word is used in services there is a longer version of it ... chiyam-ayita-mowin …

The Cree's descriptive definition of chiyam is after a soft spring rain, all is fresh and green and there's a calm and beauty of that moment ... all of creation is gathering its forces to surge forward to grow, to blossom, and the world is filled with new life and new song … that's peace - that's chiyam ... that's what Jesus is offering to his friends who are dwelling in fear and anxiety ... the peace that Jesus promises as he takes leave is ­nothing less than the consequence of the presence of God ... when God is present, peace is made manifest ... when God is present, chiyam is present ... freedom from fear and anxiety and troubled hearts is directly related to our putting our whole trust in God's grace and love which becomes so possible as we remember that love created us for love ...

So what do we say to people who are grieving? … sometimes nothing … sometimes just our presence is all that's required ... maybe a hug ... maybe sharing in a cup of tea ... but what stands out the most is that our love needs to be visible and we need to offer to the other our gift of our peace ... of our chiyam ... for when we share in this, together and with the world, we are creating what is called the new heaven and the new Earth, we will walk in the light of God and there will be no night - just light - there will be no closed gates or closed hearts ... all will be well. And I end this morning's message by sharing with you a little story ... in fact it's real and had happened many years ago … might have shared it with you a while back but I forget if I did or not so take a listen …Jesus not only claims in the passage of John that God's love is true; he also claims that God's love is the source of life … this love is both the source of our own lives and the goal of our lives ... so here's the story and it comes out of Alan Paton's book ''Ah ... But Your Land Is Beautiful" and it pictures a scene that may illustrate that God's love discloses what is most true

Sunday, April 30, 2023

READINGS and MESSAGE

  “SITTING AT THE CITY GATE OF ABUNDANT LIFE”

ACTS 2: 42-47

In our first reading this morning, I have a sense that the community which this passage speaks about, believed itself to be in the end time… awaiting the imminent return of Christ…well part of me says that we haven’t really moved too far from that hypothesis today…we are all in the end time…every day…if we are going to do any sign or any wonder in this life, the only time we have to do it is right now…right now, this very moment…we live in the same world the first followers did…a world where brain aneurysms happen…accidents happen…wars happen, volcanoes, floods and tsunamis…hurricanes, tornadoes…there is no guarantee of tomorrow…so the question is, how do we convey this urgency and encourage each other to become living signs and wonders of God’s grace…generosity…love…hope…justice…right now?....

PSALM 23

Our second reading this morning is probably one which doesn’t need a whole bunch of explanation…Psalm 23…it’s a passage which many folk have underlined in their Bible…it’s where the pages have been dog-eared and stained…it’s where tear drops have fallen upon…it’s where shaking hands have sought strength…and does it have the same appeal in our secular world?...does it still make sense to the “baby-boomers” or the generation after?...I hope so…but if so much of our population lives in urban centres, some of these folk may never have seen a herd of sheep or let alone what a shepherd is or, sat beside still waters or dealt with the metaphor of spreading a table before their enemies…and this is probably why there are so many paraphrases to this Psalm so that it can become ‘real’ to those who have a difficult time living in a metaphorical world…

JOHN 10: 1-10

In dissecting the Gospel passage this week, I have to explain that I had an ‘Epiphany moment’…one of those ‘aha – now I get it’ times…we often talk of Jesus saying to us that he’s the Good Shepherd, or at least the words found in the Gospel of John…well not so!...because when the disciples don’t understand the first part of this passage, Jesus doesn’t say that he is the shepherd…he explains that he is the gate in the sheepfold through which the shepherds come and go…and this speaks volumes to me because Jesus sees himself bound intricately with the concrete, tangible universe in which he was born…and in describing this reality, we also partake of the same matter as wood, and grain, and stars…for we are at one with all that exists…that’s where the word ‘atonement’ comes from…at-one-ment…what if we believed that there can be nothing created that is not embodied divinity because God is everything?...everything is sacred...think about that…

“SITTING AT THE CITY GATE OF ABUNDANT LIFE”

 In all of the years that I’ve been involved in religious studies, some incidences out of the biblical text pop up over and over again…and this Sunday, what I want to share with all of you is the importance of the word “gate”…it pops up so many times in the Old Testament and now we have it appear here, in the Gospel passage….Jesus says, literally, “I am the gate”…since gates were the centre of city life, it is not surprising that scripture writers often described important officials as “sitting at the gate.”…understanding the important role of city gates brings new light to many biblical stories and here are some examples:

When God’s angels arrived in Sodom, Lot was “sitting in the gateway,” apparently serving as an influential judge in that evil city and this comes out of Genesis, “The two angels came to Sodom in the evening and Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom.”…

And another…from the Book of Ruth…Boaz went to the town gate to settle legal matters regarding his marriage to Ruth… “No sooner had Boaz gone up to the gate and sat down there than the next-of-kin of whom Boaz had spoken, came passing by.”…

And another…and this one’s from the Book of Samuel… “King David stood by the gate when giving last minute instructions to his army, before their fight against Absalom…and after Absalom’s death, David returned to his place at the gate, and the people came to him…”

The importance of gates and how the writers of scripture put so much emphasis on them…in fact, even today, if you drive around the newer areas of Edmonton or Calgary and other large urban areas, you probably have noticed that when you drive into these places, these newer areas, the first street sign is usually a gate…Mackenzie Gate, Terwilliger Gate, or something along this line…and when you pass through the gate, what is usually before you is abundant life – abundant homes and families – the abundance of humanity…and this is also the meaning behind all of the gates which are mentioned in the biblical text…for the gate was the entryway into the world…so Jesus is the gate…he’s the entryway into abundant life…all of the shepherds need to pass by him and encounter him and not just then, but also nowadays…

And as one of those ordained to proclaim the living word of God, I ask myself frequently whether I am serving as a channel for abundant life… or…whether I am creating structures and possibly preaching regulations that constrict or limit life…how do I balance my deeply ingrained belief that God chooses to speak through people I often find both surprising and challenging, with the belief that not everything that everyone says is actually the healthy and holy word of God?...

You see, although I know Jesus is speaking about himself here, in the Gospel of John, I believe I have a responsibility as a shepherd to be sure that I don’t get in the way of that abundant life…I have been lifted up from among the people to teach and preach, and I cannot shirk that, but I need to be willing to admit that to myself and to others…

And a quote might come in handy here from a book entitled A Circle of Quiet…and it talks about a teacher…which could be any of us… “The greatest challenge a teacher has to accept is the courage to be; if we are, we make mistakes…we say too much where we should have said nothing…we do not speak where a word might have made all the difference…if we are, we make terrible errors…but still, we have to have the courage to struggle on, trusting in our own points of reference”

So this is where we find John writing about Jesus being the gate for each of us need to go through this gate and have an encounter with this Risen Christ…it’s through this encounter, where abundant life becomes open to us to experience…the abundant life is not having more, but, as the first Christians learned in the reading from Acts, sometimes it’s making do with what you have so that you have more to share with others…it means to limit how much we acquire for ourselves so that we can be more abundant in our mercy for others…the abundant life is built on generosity of heart and joy in seeing new life spring up where there appeared only to be death…

So this is why we find Jesus sitting at the gate…so that we can learn that abundant life is really about our own, personal, sacred worth…for each of us are invaluable…we are precious…we are so much more than all of our body parts…so maybe, what we need to do, is to sit ourselves in the gateway, and to greet others as they pass by, and offer them all of our love and our compassion and to share in our bread and our cup...Amen.

Sunday, April 23, 2023

Reading

“If Easter Is True…What Do We Do?”

ACTS 2: 14a, 36-41

In reading the first passage, the Acts passage, I have to confess that I have never preached anything that was received with such enthusiasm as what Peter shared…I would only hope to at least touch his authenticity and his passion…and 3000+ become baptized on that day! That would include a major population influx of folks living here in Lakeview and Glenmore Park…I’d have to use the Glenmore Dam for a baptismal font wouldn’t I……

Of course, not everyone’s lives changed – out of these 3000 baptized folks…they probably went back to their same lives and waited for the next minister to come to town and then to follow him or her and then slowly fade away again…kind of like today…and Peter continues… never wavering from his mission…never giving up and this is a good thing!...

1 PETER 1: 17-23

In reading the letter from Peter, I feel that the whole letter is intended to be a covenant / instructional / encouragement document for those who become new converts…and the emphasis seems to be on those who are Gentiles…and remember…not all of the followers of Christ, in fact many of them, still believed that Gentiles were pariah and that they were not to be allowed to be followers of the Christ…and what this tends to lead to is self-righteousness rather than actual discipleship… this is where the red flags come up and we end up in an “I –Thou” world or an “us and them” world…but…there is one line in this passage where Peter sums it all up… “…love one another deeply from the heart”...isn’t this what it’s all about?

LUKE 24: 13-35

This story in the Gospel of Luke brings us back to Easter evening when “two of them” (followers of Jesus) were on their way out of Jerusalem, possibly to bear the bad news of the crucifixion to others…and there is something profoundly wondrous in this passage because we are simultaneously living in chronos and in kairos… or, in time (history) and in real time (right now)…and we are experiencing Holy Week and the following days in some sort of chronological order…albeit, pieces of it all coming from all of the different Gospel writers…what the two Marys saw in Luke…what Mary Magdalene saw in John…the two disciples at the tomb…the upper room…Thomas…and every one of these folks had seen, felt, heard, known, been, something different than anyone else…each one has the truth but the question becomes, What is the truth?...and if Easter is true…what do we do?....let’s take a listen to Luke 24: 13-35 before I discuss this question a little with all of you…

 Message

“IF EASTER IS TRUE….WHAT DO WE DO?”

So here we are, all of us, in the aftermath of the resurrection, and we’re still trying to figure out the world now that Jesus has been risen from the dead…and all of our lessons this Sunday, deal with the various responses to Easter…and this is important stuff because it’s nice to be a believer in the resurrection but if Easter’s true, then what do we do?... what’s our next step?...what does God require of each of us to accomplish?...well my sense in the complete Easter story has to do with this –

If the resurrection is true for you, then our lives need to change…

And, this is because we would be living in a whole different world and we would have to adjust our lives accordingly…we, as Christians, believe that Easter is true and we believe in the fact that God definitively acted in the world…

And this belief stems from our knowing that God lifts up the oppressed and those who are downtrodden, who will not allow the victims of evil and injustice ultimately to be crushed…in the end, no matter what bad stuff has happened in our world, God’s will be done… so…this is why Easter is true…and if Easter’s true, as we believe it to be, how then should we live?....

Well, a couple of Sundays ago I stood up and proclaimed to all of you, “Jesus Christ is risen!!”…and some of you proclaimed back to me, “Alleluia!!”…so if Easter’s true to you, what should we now do?

Well in the Gospel passage we find this wonderful story of the walk to Emmaus…in fact this walk could be any place and we could have an encounter with the Spirit anywhere so put yourself into whatever place you’ve sensed that something or somebody was speaking to you…and if you had mentioned this sort of thing to others, that you’ve seen something or sensed something, most often, these folks may think that you’re crazy but an encounter with the Spirit is never crazy…

An encounter with holiness is personal and we are allowed to be in that world of transparency where spirit touches humanity – your humanity...

And these two folk who were walking along the road to Emmaus had no idea who this person was who joined with them…well the women had run back from the tomb and told all those present that Christ had risen and did they believe them?...no…that’s because, Easter wasn’t true to them yet…then, at the table, that evening, when Jesus broke bread, their eyes were opened…they saw…they believed…Easter became true to them….they though that the Jesus Movement had ended…it was just beginning!...

They thought that night was coming when it was really the dawn of a brand new day --  a new era…Easter became true…

If Easter is true, then it means that Jesus is not just a wonderful teacher or an inspiring person or a notable historical figure…Jesus is the true revelation of God…he is the new dawning in that hope will always conquer fear or doubt…new life will always come from the deepest night…the phoenix always rises from the ashes…spring comes from the coldest winter…so now we know what God looks like…what God wills for us and the world…if Easter is true…

And if Easter’s true, then never again are we permitted ever to lose heart or to despair or to give up…no place is beyond the reach of God’s redeeming grace…if Easter’s true…

And also, if Easter’s true, then it’s a lie that death is the last word…the final act…the end…for new life comes from a cocoon…new life comes into the fields with all of the baby calves, baby lambs, new colts, and little baby humans…

If Easter is true, then it isn’t over until God says it over…our end is really our beginning…at the end, when this life is over, we are given not oblivion…darkness…and despair…but a future, a new birth, a new beginning…if Easter is true…for we are not left alone…the Risen Christ came back to the very disciples who disappointed and betrayed him and gathered those depressed, despairing, and pained individuals and formed them into a new family…a new community…the church…

If Easter’s true, then you don’t have to climb up to God…you don’t have to think hard and go through all sorts of mental gymnastics in order to be close to God…in the bread and the wine, God comes close to all of us…you come here to church on a Sunday morning, thinking that you are getting up, getting dressed, and coming to church to seek God only to be surprised that here, in communion, in the singing and scripture reading…maybe even in the sermon…the resurrected, living Christ is reaching out to you…if Easter is true…

So if Easter’s true…what do we do?

Love deeper…Live deeper…wake up each morning with joy in your heart… share compassion with all…

Seek peace where sometimes peace can’t be found…and never lose hope for when this disappears, life crumbles…the road to Emmaus awaits you…be ready to be transformed…Alleluia!   Amen…

Sunday, April 2, 2023

Reading

PSALM 118

We begin our readings this morning with a Psalm…Psalm 118… if we

listen closely to it, we find that it speaks clearly of a gate… “and the

righteous shall enter through it”…could that be one of us?…an entry

into Jerusalem, as Jesus enters into the city would be a fitting parallel…

also… “the stone which the builders have rejected has become the chief

cornerstone”…another parallel and this is why Sunday after Sunday,

we try to put the Old Testament and the Epistle Lessons and the Gospel

passages all together and see if they come up with some sort of common

thought…and what I see, which is so important in this Psalm and which

is of utmost importance in the other readings, is that “this is the day

that God has made – let us rejoice and be glad in it”…and if we believe

in everlasting life, entering the gates of Jerusalem is mandatory…

PHILIPPIANS 2: 5-11

What Paul is doing in this passage is highlighting the character traits

that would come from a Christlike mind…selflessness and humble

regard for others and of course their interests…Jesus never exploited

any sort of status which may have come upon him but emptied himself

of all of these thoughts or ideas and entered himself into a place where

he was one with God, one with the Holy Trinity…this passage is not too

straightforward but if we use the formulation of trying to connect it to

the Psalm and the Gospel passage, this passage is a song – it was meant

to be sung – and what better words to sing to the one who rides in on a

donkey then when he enters into the holy city of Jerusalem…

MATTHEW 21: 1-11

As Jesus enters Jerusalem on this Sunday of the Passion Week, he

continues to do what he did throughout his earthly ministry – he is re-

defining our inherited assumptions about what a Messiah is, or God, or

a king…what sort of sovereign is this who rides in on a donkey, who

challenges the reigning powers, and eventually exposes the impotence of

the proud and the powerful?...in fact, tongue-in-cheek, how would it

ever look if all of the Royal Weddings, that had happened over the

years, had the bride and groom riding on donkeys to the church?...

Well this week, the holiest week of the Christian year, we shall see a

vivid and challenging revelation of the purposes of God…

Message

ENTERING THE WEEK OF MANY MOODS

As we begin the journey of this week from the gates of Jerusalem to the

meal shared in the upper room, to betrayal and denial, to being

arrested, tried and convicted, crucified and entombed, it becomes a

week of many moods and it tends to hold us in friction between the joy

and the deep sadness…from the loud Hosannas of today to the tears of a

world torn apart and everything else in-between…we call this our “Holy

Week”…our “Passion Week”…our “O My God, What I Have Done

Week”…and from a minister’s standpoint, at least from mine anyway,

from today until next Sunday, I have 5 services to put together and to

live through…it’s a grueling challenge and truthfully, it’s not for the

faint of heart because all of the years of preparation point towards this

week and if the message doesn’t get through about the importance of all

this…I’ve somehow fallen short of my calling…I’ve somehow failed

somewhere…for God’s purposes are very explicit throughout this week,

beginning with today…it’s not who you are – it’s what you are…

When Mahatma Gandhi finally visited England in the height of the

crisis between England and its colony of India, Gandhi went first to the

textile workers in Liverpool…the very ones who had been hurt by the

boycott of English textiles in India…he attempted to explain to them his

aspirations and why he was leading India in such a way…what was

Gandhi doing?...he was subverting political expectations…he was

inadvertently challenging the powers to be…if you were a political

leader, the very first thing that you did when you entered into another

country was to pay homage to that country’s political leader…Gandhi

did otherwise…he wasn’t arriving with a conquering army…he was

wrapped in his sari or sheet…it wasn’t who he was – it was what he

was…a voice for those who were voiceless….and this day, over 2000

years ago, we have Jesus entering into the holiest of cities and

demonstrating to Jerusalem that her true security is not in raising an

army and running out the Romans but entrusting yourselves to God

and in believing in the One Creator…the One who breathes us…

And where does Jesus go when he enters into Jerusalem?...not to have

an important meeting with Herod or with the Roman elite…he goes

straight to the temple…his Jewish roots…and he purifies the temple,

making things ready for the true worship of God…and we know that

this puts other noses out of joint…so in this sense, this political

statement by Jesus is really a deeply religious event…in one way, he is

teaching us how to worship…he is turning our gaze away from our false

idols toward what is real…our hope…our peace… “The stone that the

builder’s rejected has become the chief cornerstone”…the story of the

Ugly Duckling…players in the Wizard of Oz…Frodo and Bilbo in the

Lord of the Rings…or the child born in a stable…it’s not who you are –

it’s what you are…

And then later on this week we have the “state dinner” with very

unlikely guests and a very unlikely host…for the exalted leader to serve

was unthinkable…and then to wash your feet besides…no huge banquet

with dancing girls and tables and tables of food…a simple meal…a very

important meal for each breaks off a piece from the other…and the

common cup…

Well the first act of this Holy Week begins today and it’s a week of

many moods…the palms are waving in the air and the people know that

something extraordinary is about, or is, taking place…there’s

happiness…there’s excitement in the air…could this be the beginning of

a new world order?...could there be a paradigm shift – and a huge one

at that – which is about to take place?...

And we know the story…we know the ending…we’ve seen the credits as

they move down the screen…and it’s to be a week of moods…are you

ready for it?...can you handle the joy – the love and betrayal – can you

handle the terrible ending?....

Only if you believe that sometimes…mountains move…

That God may be saying to you, “Let me make you into something

new”...because sometimes…we all need to dance…

So as you enter into this week of different moods…seek each other out...

open yourselves to the possibilities of the Spirit moving you to places

where you have least expected yourself to be…and contemplate on your

significance in this world…for you are…significant…Amen

MARCH 26, 2023

Readings

EZEKIEL 37:1-14

So welcome to our first reading on this Sunday…it’s one that has garnered many paintings and illustrations and even songs…it’s about those dry bones in the desert…bones that have been bleached in the desert sun and would never come alive again…and this passage is truly metaphorical in that the writer is explaining to the folks from Israel that as God puts the bones together with sinew and skin and breath and makes them come alive so will Israel come alive and come back to their own soil and live once again in their promised land…a passage which offers hope if one puts trust in God…

ROMANS 8:6-11

Our second passage from our Epistle lesson today is a typical statement from Paul…death verses life, flesh verses spirit…

And during these Lenten times, this season offers to us a reflection upon the things on which our minds are set…how does our focused activity embody the Spirit of God dwelling in us?...well might we not see Lent in a different light if we conceived this season as a time of setting the mind on the Spirit in a disciplined fashion so that we might know peace… real true peace?...

JOHN 11:1-45

The Gospel passage is the raising of Lazarus and in reading through this something came to me…and it has to do with parallels…there are so many parallels in scripture and we need to pay attention to them…there’s one line in this passage where Jesus asks those who are present, “Where have you laid him?”…and on another day, and we’ll experience this in a few weeks, there’s Mary weeping at another tomb and asking, “Tell me where have you laid him?”…and on that day, the disciples will see a sign even greater than the raising of Lazarus…here, at the tomb of Lazarus, death is denied for a time…there, at the tomb of Jesus, death is overcome for good…

 Message:

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!

 I find it rather interesting that the liturgies for this Sunday, especially the Old Testament passage and the Gospel, both speak of incidents which may seem to many to be totally impossible…to scan the horizon in the desert and see for countless miles and miles….bones…bones which have been bleached and have been broken and are lying in piles and piles and suddenly the clacking begins…the clacking of bones coming together and muscle and tissue appearing and soon the whole desert is alive with new birth…with dancing forms…with breathing humanity….mission impossible!...

Jesus calls to a dead man…a dead Lazarus…one who has been dead for 4 days…calls him to come out and walk…

mission impossible!....

Or are they?

The biblical text is filled with metaphor…filled with parables and stories and incidents which to most of us would seem impossible to happen…impossible to comprehend…unless we look at these stories with a certain lens – that lens of looking deeply under the surface of what is read and what the story really means…to be a literalist in scripture reading can sometimes overshadow what the writers truly mean to convey….the Bible itself needs to read each and everyone of us and we need to get away from the concept of reading it…it is a living, breathing, life-changing, documentation of our faith – of our beliefs…it reads us…

A documentation of dry bones coming to life….of death coming to new life….one may even look at the Lazarus story as a precursor or a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death and resurrection…read into these whatever you need to, to push your faith further to believe in the impossible…to push the boundaries of our often closed/boxed thinking…

I don’t think that I will ever tire of Ezekiel 37 (or ez-e-kiel) as Hebrew theologians call this book ….more than any other Old Testament prophet, Ezekiel is a writer…and for those of us who read fiction and historical fiction and the such, we know that we often get lost in the story and it almost becomes real…this is because writers work on the premise that in each of us, there is the gift of dreaming and the gift of understanding and that each of us have different levels of reality…

Think of Ezekiel for a moment…this was written to a people exiled from their home, lost, wandering, scattered, back in the wilderness. I can only dimly imagine what it meant to them to be moving away from the Promised Land…to be uprooted from Canada and to be deported to North Korea (for instance) where freedom of speech could possibly have you executed…

I think of the dispossessed of this century, fleeing into exile amid bombs and bullets, all too frequently leaving behind everything which defines them…think of so many refugees fleeing the Ukraine…leaving their sacred place, their extended family, the graves of their ancestors or the unburied bodies of their loved ones slain in an unholy invasion…I hear whispers, anguished howls, hopeless sobs in a hundred languages every time I hear the words, “Can these bones live?”…

Yes they can…for we are people of hope…we are people of faith…and ultimately, we are people who have deep convictions of peace…

We believe that the impossible can happen!

Nothing to us is mission impossible…

I often lament over the perceived idea that when a family member passes away, call the minister, call the church, for death has just happened and we need to do something about it…we become a place of death…how wrong!...we are a place of rebirth – of newness – church has become for many, a place of slumber, a place where death is expected. Sad – it ought to be place of resurrection, awakening…for this is who we are…people of resurrection…people of living bones… people of empty tombs…

Close your eyes for a moment…allow yourselves to contemplate your very own, personal mortality…

Perhaps the images of the valley of dry bones, the stillness and desolation resonate for you…perhaps the tears,

the grave-clothes, and the tomb in the text from John speak more directly to what you are feeling….

Is there some regret that rises out of your heart and mind, something you wish you had done?....

A person you wish you could have embraced?...

A letter you wanted to write?....

The lessons from Ezekiel and John are, among other things, about second chances…as you move through this week, notice the colours in the world…pause and consider a “second chance” offered right then and there to do, think, feel, say, write, pray, something that you have been putting off…

Do the impossible, for through God, everything is possible….

Amen.

March 19, 2023

READINGS:

1 SAMUEL 16: 1-13

Our first reading is the choosing of David as the anointed one and the difficulties that happen when one has to make a choice out of so many people, folks that are all quite capable…who is the one among us that will lead?...which one of us has God called?...and this passage is about the precedent God sets when God chooses the smallest of the small to show forth the love for God’s people…and how do we enact this in our community of faith?...do we set up systems that honour those with seniority and experience or systems which turn us continually toward the edges?…the unexpected?…or possibly the newcomer which the Spirit has deposited upon our doorstep?...this passage is not about rejection of the others but is of celebration of the one who is chosen…

 PSALM 23

And our second reading which Ann is going to share with you momentarily is none other than the timeless Psalm 23…I have shared this Psalm countless of times at funeral and memorial services, often at weddings, sharing it with folks at their bedsides in hospitals or at a hospice…it’s a prayer and it’s a song…but most of all, it’s a proclamation of who or what our Holy One is to us…a shepherd… looking after the flock or the sheep who need loving care…and here’s a little ditty for all of you about the power of Psalm 23…

JOHN 9: 1-41

In this season of Lent we’ve heard the story of Nicodemus…the woman at the well…and now we hear about the man born blind....these stories are all progressions of seekers who dared to be transformed by an encounter…this is a fairly lengthy passage and it’s complex and filled with proclamation and any one of the characters or the groups offers a mirror in which to consider our own lives…and sitting and having a deep conversation with a blind person a while back brings this very close to home for me…this person was not blind from birth but became blind in his early life due to a brain hemorrhage…but what is truly celebratory is that he had transformed into a wonderful person of faith…a person of deep loving character and giving thanks daily… I believe that God is his centre as Jesus became the centre for the blind man in this passage…

Message:

“WHO AMONGST US WILL LEAD?

I think that we are all aware that in a few months, especially here in Alberta, we find ourselves heading to the polls once again to elect a person and collectively to elect a party to represent all of us into the next period…it’s the democratic process and it seems to work…  at least on the surface…it’s politics…it’s promises…and it’s also double-talk and back-stepping from words spoken and possibly taken out of context…but it’s the way we do our politics and elect our government or governments…maybe not the best way but it works for most of us…so the question posed this morning is “who amongst us will lead?” and bringing the scripture passages into this discussion and maybe bringing us to some possible answers…God, in the 1 Samuel passage, asks all of the sons of Jesse to pass before the great prophet Samuel in order to choose a new leader for Israel…surprising (or maybe not so surprisingly) God chooses young David…youngest of the sons of Jesse…to be the new king…it’s not age that matters…or seniority…or social status…it’s not having the greatest profile or blond hair and blue eyes and a muscular body with a voice that could calm the wind…or the best smile…it’s not about the great education or degrees obtained or the beautiful home with all the amenities…none of these… God always looks much more deeply…and very deeply…into our hearts and if our hearts are large…big…huge…we are one step closer to being anointed…we are one step closer to realizing that the question of who will lead sits deep inside of ourselves…and some of you may say,      “But I’m an introvert and I don’t want to be in the limelight”… and that’s okay but leading comes from within and begins with small actions of love and of charity…small actions of caring for others…

Leadership is based upon transparency…openness…being able to act on behalf of the common good and to involve all people in the process… Jesus did this in the Gospel passage and it got him into a lot of trouble… in fact, the Pharisees in this text opened up a whole new train of thought when they brought in the possibility of Jesus sinning on a Sabbath… instead of looking at the miracle of sight and the transforming of a person from darkness to light, all they can see is a way to trap Jesus into being something or somebody who he’s not…Jesus answered the call years ago when he knew that he was to lead…to heal…to put his life into jeopardy for the truth…so if you take all of these little pieces which I’m feeding you today and have a close look at your leadership qualities…do you see yourself fitting in here somewhere?...I hope so…

And I’ll throw a little story in just to show you what I mean…

“A traveler in modern Rio de Janeiro was in the airport…there had been a huge mix-up in her visa and her luggage was missing. (This doesn’t happen anymore does it…) While authorities tried to sort out her case, she sat alone in a foreign land feeling completely helpless and very frightened…there on the hard wooden bench…she was close to despair and close to tears…

She looked up as someone tugged on her skirt…beside her stood a little girl holding up her white plastic purse…the child was smiling and her large brown eyes were sparkling with excitement…at first the woman just wanted to turn away from her…but the child, about three years old or maybe four, was so appealing in her innocent approach that the woman smiled and touched the small plastic purse…the child giggled and pointed to the large leather bag on the bench…for the next few minutes, these two, separated by culture…age…and language…shared the contents of their handbags with great delight…for a few minutes the fear subsided and a sense of fun overtook the traveler…in the midst of her fear…she was surprised by joy…she was surprised by leadership and transparency of a child…

Who amongst us will lead?...We need to know that it comes from the most unexpected places and from the most unexpected people…

And I end with this short story…

(Page 146 – “Wisdom Stories From Around the World”

                      and this little one is called “The Guest’s Speech”…

March 12, 2023:

Readings:

EXODUS 17: 1-7

Last Sunday’s Old Testament passage spoke of Abram, Sarai, and Lot

traveling to their new land and this morning’s passage has us

journeying with the Exodus folk…what is totally different in these two

passages is that these folk are consumed and defined by fear whereas

Abram, Sarai, and Lot were not…probably because of what they left

behind – 7 plagues and a city bathed in blood (I’d be a little anxious

too!)…and Moses stops in a place called ‘Rephidim’ where there is no

water…interesting that a desert nomad would go to a place with no

water…they usually moved from oasis to oasis and knew where they all

were…and what the challenge in this passage may be is where in our

own lives do we fail to pay attention to needed resources?...maybe things

such as time, energy, creativity, sleep, silence and maybe play…

ROMANS 5: 1-11

What I can come up with in this letter which Paul is offering to the

Christian congregation in Rome seems to be that suffering produces

endurance which produces character which produces hope which does

not disappoint…and this is a difficult passage to digest because when we

watch the suffering which happens in our world and even in our own

cities or congregations, sometimes hope is non-existent…it’s too painful

of a place to be….yet…we sometimes focus on the negative and what

Paul is urging us to do is to focus on those little pieces of joy and

celebration which are always there…underneath all of the darkness and

the pain…

JOHN 4: 5-42

In reading the Gospel passage, these words from Charles Swindoll came

to mind: “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly

disguised as impossible situations.”…well this is what happened to the

Samaritan woman at the well and I sense that she responded in love – to

love…she had probably been punished enough by cultural expectations

and some brokenness within…and what is incredible in this passage is

the immediacy in which the Samaritan woman chose to act in

responding to what had been planted in her…she heard, knew and

understood that the time is now – not later…so how do we reclaim the

woman’s urgency in our own communities of faith?...a good question to

ponder….

Message:

“IS SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP ALWAYS THE ANSWER?”

Here are some common answers to what some folk say about coming to

church:

“I don’t go to church that often because, frankly, I am one of those

people who believe that I can worship God just as well on the ski slopes

or the golf course as I worship God in church.”…or…

“Oh Reverend, I haven’t been to church lately because my church is

now on television…I have my religious programs on television and I feel

much closer to Jesus watching these programs than I do with some of

those somewhat hypocrites who go to church.”…so, the question poised

this morning is Sunday morning worship always the answer?

Well at midday Jesus begins a conversation with a Samaritan woman

while she is drawing water out of the well…it’s a strange conversation

for many reasons – this woman is Samaritan and Jews were not

supposed to have anything to do with Samaritans…there was a great

rift between Jews and Samaritans, a division that was centered upon a

dispute about where is the best place to worship…the Jews said, of

course, that the best place to worship, and only place to worship, was at

Jerusalem…at the temple…

The Samaritans believed that the best place to worship was on Mt.

Gerizim…and the Samaritan woman brings this rift into the

conversation…perhaps she expects that this will be the end of the

conversation…Jesus, the Jew, will tell her that it’s all wrong and that

the place where she thinks God is most present, Mt. Gerizim, is all

wrong…or maybe she thinks that Jesus may give her a good theological

argument in which Jesus may try to sway her thinking in that the

Samaritan temple on Mt. Gerizim has been destroyed for well over a

century…but Jesus surprises her by responding, “I tell you, there will

be a day when people will worship in spirit and in truth.”…

And spirit means ‘wind’…the wind is air in motion…therefore, God in

motion…the Spirit of God brooded over the waters of creation and set

the world in motion…you see, worship is not so much a place…or a

location…as it is wherever the Spirit of God blows upon us…that is why

it is not quite right for us to say, “I am going to come to worship this

morning.”…in truth, we get worship when we have people who have

been blown together in one place by the Holy Spirit of God…people

blown in from the four corners of the earth…and worship is also a

matter of people in motion…people not only standing up and sitting

down but it’s also whenever God moves a people from place to place…

worship is not so much worshiping in Jerusalem…or on Mt. Gerizim…

or even here in this sanctuary…worship is whenever the Holy Spirit of

God blows through…blows strange people together…and it doesn’t

have to be specifically a Sunday or a Saturday or any day…but the

word ‘together’ is essential for from each other, we share in the energies

which we have…

It is quite a challenge to worship as Christians…but the challenge is not

so much that we have got to concentrate and try hard sincerely to

worship…the challenge is the challenge that God takes on in becoming

one of us, in coming to us, just like Jesus came to the woman at the

well…and whenever God comes to us, and wherever, and however God

comes to us, then it is worship in “spirit and in truth”…

Though it may pain me a bit to admit this, the guy who says that he can

worship well in front of an easel or the woman who says that she

experiences worship while watching a religious program on television,

are in a way, correct…because if worship is in “spirit and truth”, then it

is whenever, wherever, and however the risen Christ appears to us…of

course, my hope and expectation is that the fullest of worship, in “spirit

and truth”, occurs best here…here, when the body of Christ, the

church, all of you, gathers, and we dare to be engaged in conversation

and revelation with Christ… “Is Sunday morning worship always the

answer?”...maybe the question should be, “If we hold worship on

Wednesday evening, would there be standing room only?”…

Amen….

March 5, 2023:

Readings:

GENESIS 12: 1-4a

This passage of Genesis is the one where God says to Abram, “Go…go and journey to a whole new place”…and the passage says that Abram was 75 years old…and we know that Abram goes, along with his wife Sarai and his brother, Lot…and as the story unfolds, it seems that everything will flow naturally from one act of obedience…I wonder how often we end up in a spiral of negative events simply because we have not paid attention to an invitation from our Creator-Beckoner who beckons us continually…this passage, read alongside of the others this morning, is the reason why my message today is entitled, “Using Your Time to Make a Life Worth Living”…and I’ll speak to this a little later…

 PSALM 121

 This Psalm was an option this morning and I couldn’t resist sharing it… what you’re going to hear is a paraphrased version out of Leslie Brandt’s book “Psalms/Now”…

 ROMANS 4: 1-5, 13-17

In Paul’s letter here to the Roman Christian congregation, he’s wrestling with one of the issues which all of the disciples wrestled with, and maybe some of us too… “What is faith?”…what does it mean to be faithful?...is faith the same as belief?...is it the same as trust?...or what if we are doing the wrong thing?...maybe grace is the gift that makes it possible for us to lean into faith without even knowing whether we are doing it right…maybe even faith comes to us by grace…well one thing for sure, when God asks us to move…we move…we do…we act and the word faith becomes the verb…the action…the Abram going to another land…

 JOHN 3: 1-17

So often we turn our noses up to the Pharisees and the Sadducees…we sometimes or quite often only see them as ‘bad guys’….well I would almost put Nicodemus as one of my secret patron saints…he leaves the comfort of his own home to seek out Jesus and to confront him on some of the teachings which he has heard…he’s willing to question and to wrestle with the old beliefs with which he lives out day-in and day-out… Nicodemus is dancing on the edge of heresy…are we willing to dance on the edge of heresy because that is, after all, where Jesus stood in relation to his own heritage?…and encased in this passage is one verse which you’ll truly recognize and which may be the last words you hear at the Good Friday service…

Message:

        “USING YOUR TIME TO MAKE A LIFE WORTH LIVING”

One thing that we all share and one thing that some of us have plenty of, is time…at least that’s some of us because many of us don’t seem to have enough time for all of the things which we put ourselves in to…but nonetheless, we all have ‘time’…and it’s how we use this time and how time uses us which can make our lives worth living…modern thought is to take charge of your life and transform yourself into someone worth loving and use your time to make a life worth living…you can have meaning if you choose to have meaning…your life is what you make it…in fact, you are the saviour of your soul…well it may sound well and good but these statements fall short of how to make your life worth living…and maybe the Gospel passage points towards some answers on how to make our lives really worth living…Nicodemus was a curious fellow.  He had heard about the signs Jesus was doing – like turning water into wine, and cleansing the Temple.  Nicodemus was a Pharisee so he was a teacher – a teacher of the Torah – the Law and the Word…He had watched as many flocked to Jesus, to hear him teach, to watch and see if he would do another sign – hoping, perhaps, that Jesus’ next miracle would be done for them! Many were believing in Jesus because of these signs; Nicodemus was feeling attracted to him, also.  He wanted to know more about this interesting ‘healer’. Nicodemus wanted to see for himself.  So, he went to visit.  He went to Jesus at night, hoping he could show him the light of day. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do the things that you do apart from the presence of God.”  Implied in that statement is a challenge: “What are you up to?  Help me to see!”  And Jesus responds, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”  Nicodemus just doesn’t get it.  That’s actually understandable, because the word Jesus uses can actually mean both “from above” and “born again.”  Jesus meant one thing, and Nicodemus heard the other….you see, I think Nicodemus, being a powerful person and an intelligent person, has come to Jesus asking, “What do I – as a competent, intelligent person – need to do to get in on whatever it is that you are pushing?”…what is your plan, Jesus?”…  Nicodemus thinks that all he has got to do is to find out Jesus’ program, get with it, master it, and then he will be “saved”….

But we need to go back to our question once again…how do we use our time to make a life worth living?...do you think for a moment that Nicodemus would put his whole life aside and follow in the Way?...do you think that he would be “born again”?...or start a whole new life looking after the outcasts of society as Jesus does?...I highly doubt it because it’s not an easy road…and being a Pharisee – one of high status…why would he want to throw that prestige away?...but he’s still a saint in my books because he dared to use his time to see where this gift of ‘life worth living’ was and if there was any way in which he could tap into it…we have to give him some credit…

And that night Jesus told Nicodemus that the one with whom you speak…the one who invokes mysteries like birth and wind…this one is sent from God to save…mighty big words….your ultimate status with God is not your spiritual achievement…it’s God’s gracious gift…if you’re in doubt about that – take heart…as Jesus says… “The wind blows where it will”.

The God who gave you your first birth shall…as gift….birth you again and again until you are the creature whom God intends you to be…

So when the wind begins to blow…or when you feel a new self emerging from the old…in those surprising moments, when you proceed down your accustomed ruts, just busy looking after your self, and there is, as if out of nowhere…light…a voice…a summons…and we know that we’ve been cornered…we could mutter to ourselves, “So…it was you all along.”…and you’ve used your time to finally make your life worth living…

And to end my little chit-chat this morning, words from William Longstaff… “Take time to be holy…speak to God often….abide in God always and seek nourishment from the words…make friends of God’s children and help those who are weak…and don’t forget anything for it’s God’s blessing you seek”………..Amen……                                                                                                       

February 26, 2023:

READINGS :

GENESIS 2: 15-17; 3:1-7

The first reading in this Lenten season, from Genesis, opens us up to the metaphorical ‘Garden of Eden’…amid all of the gifts which God bestows upon us, we seem always to want what we don’t have…we know better, yet we continue to act in sometimes destructive ways… and I’ve been in ministry long enough to “know” that this story is about sin yet I still shy away from this because I sense that it’s really about free will and separation…I know it’s about two creatures being told not to do something - but choosing to do it anyway…but is that necessarily sin?...maybe the question to put forward in hearing this passage is what new message might there be or what truth needs telling about who we are as images of the God who created us?...I’ll leave this with you as you listen to the Genesis story…

ROMANS 5: 12-19

Traditional Christian teaching is that Adam’s sin brought death into the world and that Jesus conquered death by dying on our behalf…except... that is not yet true…death is still very operative in this universe…and, furthermore, his death definitely did not stop people from sinning… even the holiest among us continue to act in ways that are not perfect…

But the best that I can say is that in faith that the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth shifted something in the universe that has irrevocably tilted the universe toward good, toward holiness… toward God-ness…I wonder if Jesus had any more than that faith in his full humanity…maybe if it was enough for him, I can trust it will be enough for me…or for you…

MATTHEW 4: 1-11

One of the quintessential or classic theologians of late was Paul Tillich and this is one of the things which he wrote… “Life demands decisions and therefore, the exclusion of alternatives.”…he could have been speaking about Jesus facing the temptations and deciding who he really is and, therefore, how he is going to be…and this confrontation with Satan or the proverbial ‘dark side’ offers Jesus the opportunity to choose which identity he was going to live into: the one God offered (“my beloved”) or the one that Satan offers (“Son of God”)…and this is important stuff because temptation always offers us the opportunity to identify the truth about who we are and whose we are…it gives us the chance to weigh truth against illusion…our Self against our ego….

Message:

“WHY DO WE PUT OURSELVES INTO DESERT PLACES?”

(Begin with a story…………..)

So why do we put ourselves into desert places?...why do we stand in the face of uncertainty and pain?...why can’t we just avoid those times when we know that there’s going to be pain in our lives?...it’s complex…

But let me try and unpack this a little bit and bring in the temptations which Jesus had to overcome…or maybe that we have to overcome… and what this biblical event points towards is how it can become so simple to take the easy road…how it becomes so uncomplicated to just say ‘yes’ to everything which comes our way…wouldn’t telemarketers have a hey-day!...but Jesus stands his ground and knows that spiritual food feeds the soul and the importance of this can never be diminished...

and then being invited to perform a spectacular spiritual demonstration by throwing oneself off of the top of a building or a tower and miraculously landing feet-first on the ground – unscathed…and the third time, and maybe Satan at this time thinks that Jesus is not into spiritual power, so how about some show of political power?...there are few powers that we modern people recognize more than political power…and we know that we live in a world in which it is wrong to expect your child to die for religion, but it is not wrong to offer your child to die for the government…for most of us our government is the source of meaning, or protection or maybe ultimate security…wouldn’t this be wonderful power for Jesus to have?...but he refuses because he will not be a political Messiah…at least not in the way that people expected…and maybe you’re beginning to see where I’m going with my message today…we need to say “yes” when it’s right to say yes and “no” when that time comes…and sometimes it can be painful…

Just think of the choice that you would have to  make at the well in the desert…the temptation to drink the water and not dump it down the well…but then sometimes were tempted, as Jesus was tempted, to do nothing and that would never help our fellow human being…what if the world does nothing in the face of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria?... what if we all just say, “Too bad”… and the temptation to do nothing is there…we live in a world community and what happens to one affects the all…we’re in this together…and maybe it would have been easier for Jesus to turn the rocks into bread as he turned the water into wine…to give in to the simple ‘out’…but what would that prove?... nothing…

So why do we put ourselves into desert places?....because we are being continually invited – urged – pleaded – to build this kingdom or ‘kin’dom upon this earth so that this great experiment of humanity can learn to live together and to love together in ways which may seem radical to some…the desert is a metaphor for the unknown so that we can learn from it and come out a new person…may this season of Lent offer to each of you opportunities to practice this radical love and compassion and to understand in the face of all uncertainty or doubt that you are truly a beloved child of God…Shalom…