Easter Season - Year B -- 2018
Indexed by Date. Sermons for Easter Year B
Acts 10: 34-43
Psalm 118
John 20: 1-18
I might have told you before about the year the local Presbyterian minister left an Easter greeting on my answering machine, the day before Easter, that went something like,
“Beth, I saw him -
I really, really did -
He’s alive -
I saw him at Fulton’s Pharmacy -
(pause)-
Elvis is alive! -
(Pause) -
Happy Easter Beth” -
I don’t know about you, but I take “Elvis sightings” with a grain of salt; even those of a Presbyterian minister! As good as Elvis’ voice was, as many fans as he had, as much as he died too soon, we all know his voice now lives only in recordings. We know that Elvis has indeed left the building! I can’t really understand the phenomenon and what makes him different from other deceased stars such as John Lennon, George Harrison, Michael Jackson, or Stan Rogers. to name just four. I’ve never heard of sightings of any of those!
It would be fruitless to try and prove, or disprove, the “Jesus sightings” as recounted in the New Testament, as if we were taking the matter to a court of law! It was never meant to be history, as we understand that term; it is proclamation!
The resurrection account, of Mary’s encounter with the risen Christ, in today’s gospel passage, also told in John’s gospel, is the basis for the familiar hymn, so often sung at funerals, “In the Garden”. The words in the hymn, are sung from the perspective of Mary Magdalene as she stands by the empty tomb and mourns not only the death of his friend but the disappearance of his body before she discovers his living presence.
And, wouldn’t you know it; I believe Elvis also sang the song!
The stories of the first Easter morning all speak to a transformation in the hearts, minds and actions of Jesus’ followers. They begin the day much as they ended the day on Friday, in profound sadness, disillusionment and fear.
The man who had given them so much was gone. Even though they did not grasp much of what he had said there was something about him and his message that was so captivating that they left their jobs, their families, their friends, and travelled around with him, day after day. He spoke to a place so deep within them that he gave them true life as they had never known it before.
They had such hopes for him; that he was the long awaited messiah and would free them from the hated Romans, that he had the ability to make a real difference in their lives and in the world as they knew it. He was a healer. He opened the scriptures and tradition of their people in a way they had never heard before and it touched them in the deepest places in their hearts. He practised radical inclusion. It didn’t matter who you were; everyone was welcome.
Then he had been executed on trumped up charges after a speedy trial in a kangaroo court. They would, no doubt, have been wondering, “who is going to be next”.
Despite all of this, at the first opportunity one of the women who had been a part of their group, Mary from Magdala, went to the tomb early in the morning. She was the brave one.
Of course she had little hope of seeing his body because there was a stone, a really big stone, blocking the entrance. She would not possibly have been able to move it. In the end though, she did not need to.
We all heard what happened. We’ve heard this story every year for most of our lives. The STONE had been rolled away. And, the tomb was empty.
The first proclamation of what became the early church, the earliest creed, as it were is: “He is not here, he has risen.”
Note though it was not just the absence of the body, but the realization that he was with them in a new and very profound way. Here and now, 2000 years later, more important to us than Jesus’ missing body, more important than a few sightings told of in 50 days after the first Easter, was and is his unmistakable presence in the lives of the believers in that generation and in every generation since.
What happened, without question, was that something very real happened to the followers of Jesus. It was so real that it transformed them from a bunch of people afraid of their own shadows to a people prepared to die for their faith and the way of life that Jesus lived and showed to them.
As Mary left home on that first Easter morning her thought and worry was about that massive stone that blocked the entrance to the tomb. The story tells us that it had already been moved. So often we too worry about the obstacles that lie in our path and keep us from discipleship. We think of all the reasons we can’t do something.
But, when we take that courageous first step and venture forth in faith, we often find that the obstacles have been removed, that the way is cleared for us to experience the holy, to follow Jesus call to discipleship. In the end, discipleship is not something we do on our own strength anyway! We don’t need to. We can’t.
When I was a student at Atlantic School of Theology, over 30 years ago now, I met the chairperson of the Education and Students Committee of Halifax Presbytery, the Rev Bill Gibson. Yes, the same one who just retired from Windsor United! Every year the Chairs of each Presbytery E&S Committee would come to the School and interview students and meet with the faculty to talk about our readiness for ministry.
He told those of us who were from other presbyteries that we were lucky that we were not from Halifax Presbytery because those students were required to recite the “pre-Nicene” creeds, from memory, before they would be approved for ordination. I had memorized the Apostles Creed when I was a teenager and could do an acceptable job of the somewhat longer Nicene Creed, but the ones before that? What were they and how long were they?
About the third year he told me this I replied, “oh - I know those; ‘Jesus is Lord’ and ‘Christ is Risen’”.
I had gotten the joke. It was, of course, a trick question because there are NO “pre-Nicene creeds”; they don’t exist! What we do have though is the earliest courageous proclamation of the followers of Jesus - “Jesus is Lord” and “Christ is Risen”.
Notice the tense of these verbs. Christ IS risen. The resurrection is not some event of the past in which we have to believe or which we don’t believe, it is the present reality of the life of faith.
As Christians, we do not follow a dead hero but our lives and informed and transformed by the presence of the One who laid death to rest and brought new life and light to all. Our lives are informed by the one whose power rolls away the stones that weigh us down and keep us from being all that we can be.
We are now in on God’s big joke. Death is no longer the enemy it once was. Earth can breathe again. Grace and love abound. Its not about striving for wealth, power, and prestige; its about a life of self giving love. Its about living in and out of God’s promise of abundant life.
Christ is Risen.
Christ is Risen Indeed!
Amen.
1 John 3: 1-7
Psalm 4
Luke 24: 36b - 48
Even though it has only been two weeks, Easter Sunday seems like it was a great deal longer ago than that. So much seems to have changed in the past nine days.
It is not an exaggeration to say that our entire country has been in shock and mourning since the news of the bus accident near the town of Tisdale, Saskatchewan, travelled from coast to coast to coast.
As we all know, around 5 pm CST on Friday April 6, near Tisdale, a tractor trailer loaded with peat moss collided with a bus carrying 29 people headed for a hockey game in Nipawan. With the death, in hospital, of the team’s athletic therapist, the death toll has risen to 16 and several players are still in critical condition.
Many of us watched the coverage for hours, constantly or flipped back to it again and again as last weekend wore on. It was just so horrific, so unbelievable, and somehow even though Saskatchewan is hardly next door, it hit us all so very close to home.
Most of the dead and injured were young men, boys really. They were HOCKEY players!
Only a few years ago, my youngest nephew was playing in the “Q,” (the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) living with a billet family, spending hours on a bus travelling to “away games”, dreaming along with most of his team-mates that all of this could, possibly, some day, maybe, with a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, lead to a spot in the NHL. Along the way he was making great friends, seeing lots of new places, doing what he loved to do and trying not to spend too much time in the penalty box or end up with another broken limb!
Almost everyone in Canada has a connection with hockey. If it’s not our own family, we all know a family that has kids in hockey.
How many times have we come across an entire team of noisy, chattering, exuberant kids in a local restaurant and wished for their energy and enthusiasm or the patience of coaches and parent chaperones!
Our dedication to hockey is more sobering since last Friday. Our worst fears have been realized. We have changed - because tragedy has struck - and it is almost as if - as if these members of the 2017-2018 Broncos were our family.
Times like this shake us to our core. They shake our assumptions about the world being a safe place. In this instance, we fear for our own young people travelling on busses and want to keep them safe by keeping them home; but we know that this is not possible.
We want to do SOMETHING! It’s too far to send a bag or rolls and a pan of lasagna! I have send my condolences to the United Church minister in Humboldt whose congregation lost one young member, Brody Hinz, the team’s statistician who was also one of their Sunday School teachers. The West Hants Ministerial, has sent its condolences through the ministerial in Humboldt, to a town in mourning from the town “where hockey began”.
The last time I checked, yesterday afternoon, the GoFundMe campaign has seen over 11,329,500 donated to help the players injured and the families of those who have died. Tim Hortons is selling donuts with yellow and green sprinkles on Thursday in Hantsport couldn’t make them fast enough. The Chronicle Herald has promised to donate all profits from the sale of Wednesday’s poignant political Cartoon to the GoFundMe campaign.
Across the country people have put out hockey sticks of every size and quality - to remember those who lost their lives. On Thursday people wore hockey jerseys to work - (and in some cases even very expensive “collector’s item” jerseys that they never intended to wear!)
And, of course, all of Canada asks why? It’s not just the kind of “why” being asked by the RCMP, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure and the provincial auto insurance corporation. It’s a much, much deeper “why” than that!
At the end of the day, the reality is that there is no real “answer” to that, “Why?” There is no answer that really satisfies that deep sense of loss and emptiness.
What I WILL say, without any hesitation whatsoever, is “It was not in God’s plan”. “The crash that has taken 16 lives was NOT the will of God.” God does not need more hockey players in heaven! It may turn out to be a true accident. It may turn out to be the fault of one of the drivers. But, to group this with other tragic events, I will say that God does not crash buses or planes. God does not cause teenagers to shoot other teenagers. God does not will tragedy and death and destruction. God did not cause this to TEACH anyone, anything.
pause
Where IS God then, in the midst of such tragedy? A number of years ago, The Rev William Sloane Coffin, minister of Riverside Church, in New York City, lost his 24 year old son Alex when his car left the road and crashed into the harbour in Boston. Ten days later, preaching from his own pulpit, he said, “My own consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex die; that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God's heart was the first of all our hearts to break.”
The Christian message, the message of the incarnation, is that God not only shares our joys, but also, in times like this, weeps with us, walks with us in our pain, and holds us as we cry.
As I was reflecting on the tragedy I thought of a line in a song written by the Common Cup Company, that goes like this: “Love has no moments harder than this. No times when we are closer to meaning’s abyss.”
Our Christian faith proclaims that we are not alone, even in this most unthinkable of situations.
We know that no one set out last Friday to kill half a hockey team. We turn on the tv and newscasts are filled with stories of violent deaths that were indeed, in some way or other, deliberately caused, and we also ask, “Why?” We ask, “How can such evil exist?” Or “What would cause someone to do something like that?” Why does God allow these things to happen?
We may be living with other difficulties such as illness or family conflict and ask, “Why?”
We come to this event, to these many events, as Christians, in the season of Easter and wondering if Easter has anything meaningful to say in this kind of situation. Can Easter give us answers to very real-life problems such as this?
Today you heard one of the “resurrection appearance” stories. The disciples had gathered together in fear and bewilderment. They were, no doubt, asking, “Why? What had Jesus done to anyone except to help them? He did not deserve this. Were they going to be next? That’s what the Roman Empire was good at; rounding up the friends of the people they killed to make sure the others knew they meant business!
In this story Jesus appears among them, but if we are not reminded, we sometimes don’t really notice that he has not appeared, “all in halos” and “surreal glowing light”, but in his very human hunger and his wounded-ness. Like a hungry hockey player, between a practice and a game, Jesus asks, “Have you got anything to eat?” We still see the scars from the last time he had to go to the dressing room for stitches!
Even after his resurrection he was able to relate in every way to the human condition. Yet he was also able to proclaim the power of God’s healing presence even in the midst of the worst possible devastation.
I believe that all too often we want easy answers, we want to offer easy answers. Sometimes we feel that if we had “more faith” the answers would be easier, our way through that dark valley, less painful. We feel that our faith should help us to feel “better”, and “strong and full of faith.”
Yet, I think that this is a misunderstanding about what faith is about. It is not about taking away our pain and our very human struggles but it is about having someone to accompany us on the way. If you are familiar with the story of the walk to Emmaus, another of those resurrection appearance stories, you will see that Jesus came among a group of his followers shared their fears, sorrow and disappointments. They finally recognized him in the breaking of the bread.
When we are staring into the abyss at a grave-side, or at our TV screen showing the mangled remains of a tour bus, we come face to face with the power of overwhelming loss.
When the disciples looked at the power of the military might of Rome they were meant to quake in their boots, but Jesus life, death and resurrection, said something quite different to them. It said to that power, to all the powers of sin and death and darkness and sorrow, “you will not win” God is a God of life, love and hope.”
The power of right, justice, and love, the power of God, will not let these other things win. God has other plans. When Jesus appeared to the disciples this was God’s proclamation that the way of love would win out BUT it was not a proclamation that sin, suffering and death were never going to be present in the world.
In the aftermath of the Humboldt tragedy a local church and the rink were opened so that people could gather - even if the people who came just wanted to sit by themselves, in silence.
There was comfort in being together and sharing their pain together - there was comfort in knowing that others were also in mourning. There was comfort in knowing that almost every Canadian cried with them and wanted to help in meaningful ways.
The Humbolt event reminds us that we are a broken people. As humans we are all finite, frail, and vulnerable people. There are no true quick fixes that are truly fixes but, as Christians, we are a people who do not walk the lonely path from wounding to healing alone.
There is comfort in the food that arrives in the days after a loved one has died. There is comfort in the gifts to charity. There is comfort in the offers of practical help.
Yet, we need to avoid one temptation! There is a tendency in humans to want to rush to too quick a resolution - it’s hard to walk with someone else down that lonely road . We want to say to someone in grief: “There, there don’t cry, it will be OK.” What we need is someone, or several someones, who say and mean it when they say, “I’m in it with you for the long haul, no matter how long it takes.”
In times like this we are accompanied by the community of faith; in times like this we are the community who accompanies others. We are the a community of those whose lives are lived following the one who walks on wounded feet, reaches out with wounded hands and loves us with the love of a heart that has known deep wounding and betrayal. We are accompanied by the one who transforms and gifts us with abundant life.
As a community of faith this is our promise and our commission.
I wish to close with a verse and chorus of a hymn that has been very meaningful to me in a time of tragic loss. The title is, “Be Not Afraid.”
Be not afraid.
I go before you always.
Come follow me, and
I will give you rest.
If you pass through raging waters in the sea, you shall not drown.
If you walk amid the burning flames, you shall not be harmed.
If you stand before the pow'r of hell and death is at your side,
know that I am with you through it all.
Amen.
1 John 3: 16-24
Psalm 23
John 10: 11-18
I almost didn’t have enough space at the top of the bulletin to tell you all the “special themes” for this Sunday; as it was, I forgot one. It is Earth Day. It is Camping Sunday. It is Good Shepherd Sunday. It is also Prayer Shawl Sunday. A some people might say, “it’s a bit of a dog’s breakfast!” It contains a bit of almost everything!
Today is Earth Day! On this day we try and become more aware of the ways in which human activity is putting the planet in peril and resolve to do something new to help reduce our “footprint” on this increasingly fragile planet upon which we depend for our very existence. Observing an “earth day” presumes that humans, at least in industrialized countries such as ours, have not been doing that great a job of late of looking after our planet! It also presumes that we can make changes for the better; we are not doomed to failure.
When I was in High School, “energy efficiency” was the name of the game, the game being to save money. A government agency would come around and in a big RV and, among other things, take infrared pictures of your house, or your school, and show you where heat was escaping. Insulate, seal cracks, turn down the heat and wear a sweater were often suggested as ways to save energy and thus money. These days “energy efficiency” is the means of winning the new game, which is to save the planet.
Pollution has been a on the public radar for many years. Littering has been against the law for as long as I can remember. When I was growing up on PEI there was a hotline to report littering. Call the number and give the licence plate # and the driver would be in trouble. There was still a lot of roadside litter so the Women’s Institutes spearheaded a citizen based roadside cleanup. It may have initially been a Centennial Year project; that is PEI’s Centennial Year (1973). Then line of thinking went like this, “If you care for” the community and what it looks like you will go and collect the litter that has accumulated along your property, (which can be a quite a lot if you are a farmer.) Part of the incentive, of course, was that we would “look good”, in tourist season! That was one task our mom delegated to us! It is really surprising what people throw in the ditch!
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. We’ve heard that for years. Some people are coming to the conclusion that there are some things we probably should never have invented even though they make our lives much easier. I’m talking about plastic. We find it everywhere and it never decomposes. Plastic finds its way into our oceans and is having a devastating effect on marine life. We like the convenience, but is it loving, either of the planet or our great grandchildren to use more and more without a second thought?
Today is also Camping Sunday! Hence the tent and the bulletin insert. On this day we promote church camping; particularly church camps for young people - though I will promote the “annual encampment” (as we call it) at Berwick campground any chance I get! Berwick campers range anywhere from newborns to people well into their 90s.
We recognize that it is while out in nature, in the woods, by lakes and seashores that children can be introduced to different ways to encounter God and to the spiritual practices of morning watch, bible study, seeing God in nature, vespers and the singing of some fun, some wacky, and some deeply meaningful songs in community. Many a minister has received or clarified their “call” while participating in a camping experience with peers or younger children and looking up at the stars, or out on the water in a canoe with a beautiful moon. I would say that I am among those ministers!
Good church camping involves more than an appropriate facility and good staff. It involves supporting the leaders and the camp throughout the year so that they can do their work during the summer. How many times have some of you folks gone out to Sherbrooke lake to fix “our” cabin. The camp board is in the process of refreshing their facility and we have committed some money as both church and UCW to this project. You can also donate to it as well. The information is in the bulletin.
As a family of faith, we need to encourage young people to go to the camp and to provide some financial help for them because, it’s part of showing we care and part of showing that we are a community not just as a collectoion of separate individuals and families.
Today we have also designated as our community Prayer Shawl Sunday. You will see prayer shawls on display at the front of the church. As you probably know, we host the ecumenical prayer shawl knitters in our church. The group members knit, weave and crochet shawls and lap robes to be given to people as a sign of our caring, our prayers and God’s presence. We gather one Friday a month for fellowship, to share concerns, to swap patterns and to pray together over the shawls we will give. It is a valued and vibrant ministry and has made a difference in people’s lives. Pause
Today is Easter 4 and it’s long been a tradition to call this day“Good Shepherd” Sunday. On this Sunday we read those passages that you just heard that talk about Jesus as a shepherd specifically, as “the Good Shepherd” and connect the beloved 23rd Psalm to that image of Jesus.
I decided not to choose and to focus on just one aspect of this Sunday’s “special options.” I see them all united under the theme of God’s love and responding in love. That theme is appropriate for any Sunday of the year.
Of course, love in this context has to do with self-giving care for and actions on behalf of the other, NOT the romantic syrupy feeling that we sometimes think it is.
When we are looking as passages such as the gospel and epistle read today we have to remember that the context is of vital importance.
We all know that the events of September 11, 2001 changed a great deal about life in the western world. When the towers fell to the ground so did our collective sense of safety and well being. If for some reason you had been out of touch with everyone and everything since then, and just came back to modern reality, you would have a hard time understanding many of the changes that have taken place - from flying on a plane to opening a bank account. Security is the name of this new game.
In a similar way the events in Jerusalem in AD 70 could be seen as a “dividing line” in their history. Of course, AD 70 was AFTER the time of Jesus’ ministry but it was BEFORE the writing of the gospel of John but it was so significant that their memories of Jesus and the life of the community had been fundamentally altered.
In that year the Roman army laid siege to the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the temple which had been the centre of their worship life for generations . Under King Herod the modest temple in Jerusalem which was about 500 years old was expanded and renovated into an enormous and magnificent structure designed to occupy the entire hilltop on which it stood.
In a world in which everything had changed, this destruction was always in the background.
I have read that because some of the religious leaders somehow escaped to safety before the siege they were seen by the common folks as self-serving and “abandoning” the people in their time of need.
It seems clear that the writers of our passages for today had those folks in mind when he penned Jesus’ words about the shepherds who are just hired hands who flee at the first signs of trouble and not real shepherds who truly care for the sheep. They weren’t talking about farm-hands!
In our country such passages about laying down one’s life and risking one’s life are often read in the context of Remembrance Day but we do have other examples.
First we have the examples of first-responders who sometimes put their lives on the line in order to help save the lives of others.
In the modern world especially, but perhaps in every age, the question, “what’s in it for me?” needs to be replaced by, “how can I give of myself?” How can I convey and show the love of God to those I meet?
As humans, particularly modern humans, we have lost our sense of connection and of mutual responsibility and care.
I have spoken with others over the course of my ministry who do not give to the food bank because they feel that they do not need to be responsible for other people’s children and for their supposedly poor choices. One parishioner felt that since she grew up on potatoes and porridge that others should too, if that was all they could afford.
I feel that one of the hallmarks of love, as it is defined in the scriptures is to take on those things that benefit others, even when its not our RESPONSIBILITY. Using the “food bank” example, sure, sometimes people waste money that should go to food (but I waste money too) and sometimes people just cant make enough to pay their other bills and buy food. There are plenty of legitimate reasons people need to ask for help at a food bank.
I donate to the food bank because I can, and as a way of expressing God’s love, and my care, for those who need a helping hand, especially for the children who did not ask for the family and situation in which they find themselves hungry.
The good shepherd, Jesus, cared for the sheep, for all the sheep, and shows us the way to abundant life by he lived out his ministry.
We all know, we’ve been to church on a regular basis for most of our lives, that the life of faith is a paradox in that it is in giving that we receive.
Let us live and give in love and we might be surprised by what we receive in return.
Amen
1 John 4: 7-21
Psalm 22
Acts 8: 26-40
On Monday on a stretch of Young Street in Toronto a van careened onto the sidewalk killing ten and injuring 15 before the driver was taken away in handcuffs. We shake our heads in disbelief. Things like this aren’t supposed to happen in Canada.
When we look at the newspaper or turn on the radio we read and hear of many events that were “not supposed to happen”. Most of these events are stories of tragedy. Someone has been seriously injured, been defrauded of their life savings or died because of a medical error. Such events shatter our sense of safety, fairness and justice. Things like that should not happen!
There are a whole list of rules for meeting the Queen. One of those rules is that you don’t offer to shake hands, SHE extends her hand first. Another is a big one - DON`T TOUCH her. I am sure each and every one of our Governors General had a briefing on these protocols as part of their vice regal orientation class. A high school might call the course, “Meeting the Queen 421!” Last year, the then Governor General, David Johnston, broke this rule when he put his hand on the Queen’s arm to steady her as she walked down a set of carpeted steps. It wasn’t supposed to have happened, but imagine, if the 91 year old monarch slipped and fell! Sometimes, stuff that isn’t supposed to happen, has to happen!
Churches are no stranger to rules; to knowing what is and is not supposed to happen, in church! There used to be an unwritten dress code for “church”. Everyone had “church clothes.” Men and boys wore suits; women and girls wore dresses and sometimes a hat but it was a major breach of etiquette for a man to leave his hat on in church - or any building for that matter.
Some churches have ushers, to welcome you but also to make sure you don’t sit in someone else’s pew! There was a day when everyone knew all of these “unwritten rules”.
On my Settlement Charge one of the four churches had a special sign, shaped like a teepee, welcoming campers visiting the local National Park, telling them it was OK to come if they had not packed their church clothes. The only “problem” was that anyone at all could pick out the locals and the ones with permanent summer homes- THEY came in suits and good dresses! Tourists came in jeans, shorts, and other forms of more casual attire. I could never get them to go that second step and leave their good clothes in the closet for the summer! It was OK for campers but not for them when they were home! I read a story of someone who went to one church, told the greeter they were looking for a new church home and the greeter named a church nearby where she was sure they would be “more comfortable”. I think it was an issue of skin colour in that instance but it may have been something else that made them appear to be “different”. It is natural, I suppose, for congregations to develop their own flavour and identity but when I read this story I just cringed. That kind of thing is not supposed to happen. Is it?
Pause
Sometimes though, what is or isn’t supposed to happen is a matter of dispute. Some of these involve the breaking down of barriers and the opening of doors.
Who is “belongs” and who is “out”? What is supposed to happen when we encounter “the other”? Let’s look at today’s story from the book of Acts.
In this story we run into a tale of “a bunch of stuff that really wasn’t supposed to happen.” But it’s in the book of Acts as “Good News”. Let me explain.
In the early church caring for the needs of widows and orphans was a very high priority. They didn’t have anyone else but their new family of brothers and sisters in Christ! However, the scriptures tell us of what might be the earliest church fight! The Greek Christians thought their widows were not receiving as much as the widows in the Hebrew Christian community. The apostles had too much to do proclaiming the gospel and couldn’t attend to such matters. The solution was the choosing of 7 men who were commissioned by the laying on of hands, to “wait on tables” . Their task was to make sure all the widows are fairly treated. We meet one of these 7 today in the reading from Acts, but today he is not wearing an apron and carrying a tray; he is proclaiming the good news of Jesus. He wasn’t supposed to do this but it is because of this event that we know his story. .
We are told that the Spirit told him to go to a certain place along a wilderness road. Along comes a man in a chariot, presumably a large chariot with a driver and a place for him to sit. Philip hears him reading from the Isaiah scroll. Before we think that this was odd, I gather it was common at that time to read out loud! That was convenient; otherwise how would Philip have known what he was reading!
So, just picture it: a rich man is riding in his nice chariot through the wilderness and a probably scruffy and poorly dressed man comes running up, keeps pace with the chariot and asks him a bold question. “Do you understand that passage?” The Ethiopian might have been offended. He might have worried that this was some sort of “chariot jacking”. Robbers were common along isolated roads.
Who was this stranger? As this story unfolds we learn several things. This man had to be wealthy and well educated. Scrolls were expensive; paperbacks are a long way in the future! He also knew how to read the language on the scrolls! He may or may not be Jewish. For hundreds of years there had been communities of Jews in other countries. There were also groups of people, often called, “God Fearers” who studied Judaism and respected it, but did not formally join. It would have been a long and difficult trip to Jerusalem; he was very dedicated. We are told that he was in charge of the treasury in the court of the Candace, or Queen. We can assume he was black, not Palestinian like Philip, the 12 disciples and Jesus.
Yet, I believe here was another reason for the inclusion of this story in the book of Acts.
This man had a lot going for him but he was doomed to forever be an outsider for he was a eunuch. Simply put, a eunuch is a man who has been castrated. Depending on his age at the time of this surgery he may have lacked the more obvious male characteristics of facial hair and deeper voice. He would probably stand out in a crowd. I gather it was common, in countries like Ethiopia, to castrate servants who were given various kinds of responsibility, especially those involving female members of a household. In Israel though, he would have been an outcast because of it.
As a good Jew Philip would have known his scriptures. He knew the rules about who was “out” and who was “in.” The eunuch was clearly “out”. It is right there in “the law” of Moses. Philip wasn’t supposed to be taking the good news to people like him!
Yet the SPIRIT compelled him to run up to this moving chariot and ask if the man understood what he was reading. WOW! What an audacious thing to do. But the man was not offended. He said that he did indeed need help. Philip climbs aboard the chariot and they journey together for a time.
The passage the man had been reading becomes a jumping off point for Philip to begin to proclaim the Goof News of Jesus and the call to baptism.
Despite all of the reasons there were to brand him as “second class” the good news of jesus and the action of Philip proclaim hope and acceptance of a kind that he may well not have received in the temple. You see, even though he had come a journey of great difficulty and a great distance he would have not been able to worship with the “real men”. That’s how it was!
They come to a pond or some body of water and the question now asked by the eunuch is, “What is to prevent me from being baptized”? The answer, of course is, “nothing”. He is baptized and the Spirit whisks Philip away to do other work! Tradition tells us that the Eunuch took Christianity to Ethiopia and within 400 years it was considered a Christian nation.
Because the Bible is really always about us and not just about what happened long ago this leads me to ask the question: “Who are the “eunuchs” in our society today?” This is where it gets tricky and even uncomfortable.
Sometimes our TV shows, especially the comedies, push the edges in ways that are designed to make us think. When Archie Bunker uttered one of his characteristically bigoted remarks, we were given pause when we realized that it sounded like something we might have said! Have you seen Roseanne? The new one?
Well, the family have all grown up. DJ’s daughter, a biracial girl lives with her grandparents and Darlene is back at home, with her children.! One has “attitude” and the other is a boy exploring his gender identity - dressing as a girl. Dan is struggling to accept his grandson but knows that he doesn’t not want him to be picked on and bullied. Viewers are forced to deal with their own attitudes about everything from the success of the American dream for the lower middle-class, gender identity and the not so pleasant effects of ageing!
It seems that LGBTQ matters are “the popular cause” these days but they are in the forefront because there are people hurting and being marginalized. As a church we have to discern what the Spirit is calling us to do and whom the Spirit calls us to welcome.
In the church we often waste too much energy worried that things are not as they should be. Too many pews are empty and there is not enough money in the bank. Our worry about the things we “can no longer do” paralyzes us, and prevents us from doing anything at all.
I opened my sermon with the story from Toronto of a car mowing down people on a busy sidewalk. That wasn’t supposed to happen. But when such things happen we can respond with what IS supposed to happen in such circumstances - care for those who have been hurt and bereaved and enact measures to make it harder for people to drive on sidewalks, either accidentally or on purpose.
The bus accident in Saskatchewan wasn’t supposed to happen but in the wake of the tragedy people donated millions and expressed caring to those associated with the team. Some performed random acts of kindness for young people on other sports teams. Those things are what is supposed to happen!
Church should not insulate us from the very real-world struggles faced by people in every province, in every community. The Spirit calls us to step outside of our comfort zone and offer our selves in service of the gospel. The people we speak to may not be the ones we thought we were sent to, but the Spirit does some surprising things.
Listen.
Let us rise up and go and be the church in today’s world.
Amen.
Acts 10: 44-48
Psalm 98
1 John 5: 1-6
John 15: 9-17
I don’t know what church I was serving when I learned it first, but I am quite sure it was in a Vacation Bible School. “Amigos de Christo, Friends of the Lord” is a peppy English and Spanish song about being Jesus’ friends. Truthfully, there are only three Spanish words, but they remind us of other friends of Jesus we might never think about otherwise. (Because most of the Vacation Bible School programs are American, the ”second language” is Spanish, not French.) <
I> More Voices , our newest hymn book, now 11 years old (I can hardly believe it), has many hymns which can be sung entirely in their original languages; from countries all over the world. Among other benefits, these songs remind us that “friends of Jesus” speak many different languages and are from many different cultures. The hymns have opened up doors of friendship in the most surprising places.
Dr. Bruce Harding is a very gifted church musician who lives in Vancouver. One day, a few years ago, he called a taxi to take him to the airport. He asked the driver where he was from and when told that he was from Nigeria, Harding asked the driver, “what tribe?” After the answer was given, Harding began to sing one of the hymns from More Voices , “Alleluia, Praise to God” which was written in Yoruba “Aleluya Y’in Oluwa” The man’s head almost did a 180 and he looked into the back seat at this balding white skinned, red-head singing the songs from HIS homeland! It was probably the last thing expected to happen while driving his taxi on a Vancouver morning - so far from home. They sang the song together, along with “Come, O Holy Spirit Come” from Voices United, also in Yoruba, Wa wa wa Emimimo . It was a time of deep spiritual connection.
Some people don’t watch the TV news and don’t read the newspaper. Their lives are full of friends, and family activities, but most of us, I hope, don’t want to go through life with that little connection to people in other places, especially when they are in the midst of a crisis.
Because so many people from the Maritimes were living in Fort McMurray when the wildfires started 2 years ago this past week, they seemed closer than a fire in some other place. It was easy to “feel for them” because they were us!
On Wednesday, after watching coverage of the flooding in Saint John, I sent an email to a colleague I know in that city expressing support and concern to him, his wife and his church. I don’t know if he has been evacuated or not but it has to be having an impact. We are told that it will get worse, before it gets better.
I realize that if we added all of the disasters together and felt we were responsible to “fix things” it would be so overwhelming that it would paralyze us and prevent us from doing anything.
How are we to respond in the face of great need?
My oldest brother gets a great kick out of Family Circus. As you probably know, it’s the cartoon, by Bil Keane, composed of a single captioned panel within a round border. They may be one of the few cartoon families who attend church and I believe they are Roman Catholic because one day the young boy was learning to pray, “Hail Mary full of grapes”!!!
In another one the mom was going down the sidewalk with Dolly, Billy, Jeffy and PJ when an older woman asked, “My, how do you divide your love among so many children?” Thel, the mom, replied, “I don’t divide it, I multiply it”.
We all know what a “zero sum game” is, even if we don’t know the term; it’s a theory in economics. In a zero sum game, a gain by one person has to be the same amount as that which is lost by another. There is only so much to be had. In a family’s budget there is only so much money. You cant spend more than you earn, or your dept will come back to bite you some day!!!!
We can be especially frugal and take full advantage of coupons and sales but at the end of the day we have only so much money. We all know of people who, as they say, have “champagne tastes on a beer budget!” We know how easily they get into financial trouble.
But what about time. “There ARE only 24 hours in a day”, I often hear. However, clergy and others who work with volunteers know, “If you need to get something done, ask a busy person.” Like everyone else, busy people only have 24 hours in the day, but they have a knack for an efficient use of time and effort.
While there IS a limit, after all I can only BE in one place at a time, the more I have to do in a week, tends to shorten the amount of time each of those things take. Unless it is REALLY hectic the quality is not affected.
Life does not have to be a zero sum game. Life can be looked at in terms of abundance and not as scarcity. We can change from “there is only so much to go around, so we had better conserve it as much as we can”, to , “we are overflowing with blessing and always have some to spare.” I am often surprised that those who appear to have very modest means are the most generous.
In today’s readings, we are called to “love one another as Jesus has loved us.” We are told that Jesus showed us in the most extravagant way possible: the cross. In this passage the cross is seen as “proof of God’s love” not as a way to “save” the world from sin.
Jesus life is seen as the lived example of God’s love; God’s love can be seen as the way to multiply our efforts to make them meet the needs of a hurting community and world.
In the passage from Acts, sometimes called “the Gentile Pentecost” we heard that the gifts of the Spirit were given to those previously thought to be unworthy - simply put, the men among them had who not been circumcized.
At the outset, all “Christ followers” were part of the Jewish faith and the argument was made that one had to become Jewish before one could be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. For the men it meant being circumcized!
After experiences like the one recounted in today’s passage, it was realized that the Spirit could not be controlled but “had a mind of her own”. The Spirit was not depleted or diminished by being poured out on too many or on people who were very different. There was more than enough to go around.
I am told that when John, George, Paul and Ringo sang “All you need is love, .....love is all you need” there were two basic reactions. One was a total agreement and one was a cynical rejection of the sentiment because “the worlds problems were far too massive for something as “airy fairy” as LOVE”.
As a people of faith we should know that love is no “airy fairy” thing! Among other things, love is the living out of a commitment to work for the best of the “other” and has little to do with “feelings”. We know that true love is not easy.
When I talk to couples who have been married 50 or more years they all agree that it takes effort to make a marriage work.
I talk to people with grown up children who agree that certain stages were much harder than others, especially that stage where the parents don’t often know where the kids were and the kids didn’t want them to! “PATIENCE is important at that stage”, more than one parent has told me.
At this point we may need to be reminded that wile the living in and out of the love of Christ is not always easy, it does not have to be rocket science; it’s not always that complicated. I don’t know about cities, but in small towns and rural communities we still know these things! The small things often mean so much to the recipients. AND a church within a big city can and probably should function like a small community.
As an example, let’s look at the ministry at a time of bereavement or illness I could call, “condolences and casseroles.” When my mom died a couple of months ago, the family fridges in both households were soon filled with food. The doorbell rang (or not, people just came in) and the food rolled in the door. We had more than we could eat. I was instructed to take some of it back here, there was far too much. Hundreds of people came to the visitation; some were relatives, some knew me, some knew one or more of us, some had known my mom. My mailbox back here was full of cards.
This kind of thing is so normal to us that our only failure is to name it as a ministry, as part of our Christian calling.
A good friend of mine, of over 20 years, in another province became seriously ill and I could not visit her so I vowed to send her a card a week. I did not always live up to my “promise to self” but I heard from a mutual friend that these cards were very important to her. I tried to alternate between the funny “get well cards” and the more serious kind. After all what can you say to a single mom with a teenager on the verge of adulthood who is struggling with the reality that she may never work again!
Pray - but please do so in a way that opens you to the Spirit not in a way that simply gives God a to-do list!
When we get overwhelmed by what we cannot do, we sometimes forget to do what we can. I can’t solve a neighbour’s mobility issue, but I can walk beside her, down the street, as slowly as she needs to walk, and I can take her for groceries or I can cook a little extra and take her soup or a casserole or something else that he can eat (because I’ve asked that question) and I can offer help that will be helpful.
I can sit with an elderly neighbour, or run after their small child, when the others have stuff to do and take that one worry off their mind, if only for a few hours.
I can phone someone far away, or nearby, and say, “how are you” and really listen when they tell me.
I can read the paper to someone who is visually impairedm or volunteer at the library and pass on my love for reading by reading to a child.
I recall visiting a family one day and the little boy picked up a book and brought it over to me and then turned around with his back to me. I looked at his mom and she said, “Oh, he wants to sit on your knee so you can read him the book”. I was happy to do so.
Living in love is not about everything falling on us but it is about living the life of blessing. Just as we have been blessed by others God calls us to be a blessing for others - to friends we have known our whole lives and those we have just met and to those who may never become friends.
God loved us, let us reach out in love.
Amen.
Acts 1: 15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
John 17: 6-19
Have you seen the latest episode of Roseanne?Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! Viewers already know that Roseanne and Dan are having serious financial problems. These problems worsen when he loses an important contract, probably to undocumented workers. They cannot pay their bills and the WiFi is cut off but they do not discover this until 2 in the morning when their granddaughter is scheduled to Skype her mom, a soldier in Afghanistan. They also discover that they can no longer “borrow” the next-door neighbour’s Wi- Fi because that neighbour has moved and the new one has a new password! They make several unsuccessful attempts at guessing the password of their new MIDDLE EASTERN neighbours. It is now 2 am the disappointment of the granddaughter forces them to go next-door in desperation.
We know that Roseanne has been spying on the neighbours while they were out doing yard-work because they are middle eastern and she has noticed a stockpile of fertilizer beside their garage. She speculates that they could be making bombs; people do that, she has heard. Roseanne and her sister go over to the neighbours’ with a plant for a gift and a baseball bat in hand. The door is answered and the man of the house is also carrying a bat. After some uneasy conversation Roseanne admits that she does not “hate” them; she is afraid of them. She finds out that they are not Afghani but from Yemen, but based on some bad experiences with people in the town, they are afraid of her as well. She mentions the stockpile of fertilizer and the woman laughs and says that her husband clicked “submit” too many times when placing the order on Amazon, adding bag after bag to his cart. Finally they tell Roseanne that their password is “gocubs” because they are Cubs fans and they are giving it to them, not because they are friends but because adult fights should not harm children. They go home an the little girl gets to see and talk to her mom serving with the US military somewhere in Afghanistan.
The next day Roseanne sees the woman in the checkout line at the grocery store and notices that the cashier is being extremely rude to the newcomer who is using food stamps to pay for part of her order. When it is discovered that she is short of cash, Roseanne pays the amount owing. After the woman leaves with her groceries, Roseanne tears a strip off of the cashier for the way she treated her customer. “You have no idea what she has had to deal with in her life”.
Roseanne has found a way through her racism to seeing this neighbour as a real person with her own struggles. At 2 am the next morning the doorbell rings and the man next door returns the money Roseanne has spent! It will be interesting to see where this story line goes in the coming episodes!
Have you seen that TV commercial where the couple stop to ask for directions and after hemming and hawing for a few minutes the man trying to give those directions says, “uhhhh, you caint get there from here”.
We’re all used to signs that tell us that a street is “one way”, or “no U turns allowed”, or see “wrong way” signs on the other side of divided highways, “don’t enter” signs on the ramps on the other sides of the two lane sections, speed limit signs and, this time of year, signs warning of “bumps”. I learned long ago that the worst bumps are often the ones with no signs. On the way to Truro through Kennetcook I know most of the worst bumps by heart!
The last time I was in Charlottetown I found a parking space and said to myself, “good, I can just turn left at the next light and I’ll make a quick getaway.” I had forgotten that you CAN’T turn left at that intersection. The rest of the side streets going in that direction are one way! Getting out of the city was a little more time consuming than I had hoped!
PAUSE
Before our ancestors in faith called themselves, “Christians” they were called “The Way”. THE WAY - now that’s an intriguing name for a new religion; except that the followers of Jesus weren’t a new religion, at first. The followers of Jesus were a part of Judaism. The scholar in me would find it interesting to study and speculate what THE WAY might have become if THE WAY had not parted company with the faith of the children of Abraham and if the persecutions under Rome had not taken place. Maybe I’ll look into that when I retire and become fluent in Greek, Hebrew and Latin.
“The Way” referred to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. “Love God, love neighbour and love self”. “In serving others you will find blessing.” “Believe with all your heart AND with your actions that the teachings of Jesus bring life out of death, hope out of despair and can make enemies into friends”. These early followers met together and broke bread on the first day of the week, the day they discovered that death had no ultimate power over them. The way of Jesus was a way to abundant life. It was a way of peace. It was a way of looking at things differently. It gave them peace, fulfilment and hope, even in the midst of great darkness.
We all learned in Sunday School that Jesus called 12 disciples to be in his inner circle. We all probably memorized their names. While they were his “chosen followers” they were by no means his “only ones”. It seems that there was a much larger group, including a number of women, who were with the 13 almost all of the time. All of these folks would have bdeen the first to hear Jesus’ teachings about his way to true and abundant life.
We know also that Judas Iscariot betrayed his leader to the authorities and when he realized that Jesus would be put to death, he committed suicide. It seems that one of the first orders of business was to fill this vacancy. In today’s passage from the book of Acts we have the “election” to replace him.
Why did they need 12? Surely the other eleven would rather continue without having to integrate someone new. Perhaps it was seen as important to maintain the number of 12 disciples. 12 was an important number in the traditions of Israel. There were 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus had called 12 disciples for a reason. Replacing the missing disciple and returning to 12 leaders places “the way” firmly in the Hebrew tradition”. They developed two criteria. The person had to have been with Jesus since the beginning of his ministry and had be have been a witness to the resurrection. Even though there were women who qualified, their short list came down to 2 men. Joseph, AKA Barsabbas, AKA Justus and Matthias. Matthias is the winner. This is the first and last we hear of him.
I find their method of choosing to be intriguing, especially since I don’t think of the outcome of throwing dice to be influenced by the divine. Unless the dice are “loaded” the outcome is suppose to be pure chance. Throughout history however, and in many cultures, the throwing of “dice” of some kind has been seen as a way of discerning the will of God or ‘the gods’. Excavations of many ancient cities have uncovered many kinds of dice. They have been around for thousands of years, and not just for playing “Snakes and Ladders” or “Trivial Pursuit”. The Hebrew tradition also included objects that could be used in this way.
Yet, it is the practice of prayer that was the essential part of this process. The prayer process seems to have assumed that the result of the casting of lots would be God’s answer.
I don’t know if a Joint Search Committee in the United Church has ever drawn straws or cast lots to chose between two candidates for a new ministry position but when a United Church congregation formalizes a new pastoral relationship between a new minister, the Pastoral Charge and the Presbytery with a covenanting service, the statement is made at the worship service that the new minister has been both “prayerfully and lawfully selected”.
Some of our prayers give God a list of things we want - to heal our friend or relative, to send rain, to stop the rain, to be present with those in distress; in other words, to effect some kind of desired change. Perhaps our prayers are too often the giving of a “to-do list” to God rather than intentionally waiting on the Spirit for guidance and insight. A long time ago I read that we are to persist in prayer, not to change God, but so that God can change us! Think about that for a minute: we must persist in prayer so that God can change us”!
We heard in the reading from the gospel, a portion of what is called, “Jesus’ high priestly prayer”, in which he places the future of the church in the hands of the God he often called the equivalent of “Daddy.” As we go forward we can be sure that Jesus’ prayer was not just for the followers of “the way” he knew personally, but for those of us who still seek to follow in this way, 2,000 or more years later.
We know that in the 21st century being church is becoming more and more challenging. Society in general has less and less connection to church - even what has long been seen as the two “last hold outs” - funerals and weddings, are taking different forms these days for many people who no longer have any connection to a church community. In the liberal protestant tradition, serving the needs of the community at large, is seen as an essential second step after worshipping together and this takes resources in terms of time and money.
Here in Hantsport we are feeling all of these challenges. The congregation will be meeting this week with representatives of Presbytery to look at the challenges faced and to seek a way forward. I’m not sure I would recommend bringing a pair of dice but I would recommend prayer and seeking God’s guidance for the way forward. In the passage from Acts they replaced Judas so that the number of disciples remained at 12, but it seems clear that the status quo is no longer an option in many churches. Our denomination as a whole has seen the necessity of restructuring as we face our future with fewer resources to spend on governance and a continued need to keep God’s ministry vital and alive.
The trouble is that there is no map for where we are going. The GPS data for this journey is not yet available.
In the book of Acts the people of the way sought God’s help to find a way where none had as yet existed. They expanded their sights from people who were Jewish to also being open to those from the Gentile world.
The biggest blocks to innovation and eventual success are the two statements “we’ve never done it that way before” and “that will never work”. It is true in the world in general and in the life of faith.
Using secular examples first, great things have come from what at first seemed like failure. A sloppy scientist with dirty lab equipment by the name of Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin and revolutionized medical treatment of infections. A critical feature of Post-it notes was a failed glue recipe, and bubble wrap began both as failed wallpaper and failed insulation. I ahve read that the first pacemaker was a failed attempt at an EKG - pacemakers have saved thousands of lives.
I believe we need to seek God’s guidance, to think outside the box, to look at new ways to be the church in the time ahead of us. We need to decide what we are really called to be and then to do that well and with complete dedication and conviction.
Living in light of the resurrection, following in the footsteps of Jesus; in the way of Jesus, we are called to follow our God who always makes a way -- through betrayal, through death, and even through uncertainty.
The way may be unknown but our companion on the way IS known. We are not alone. We livi in God’s world and we are called to be the church.
Surely that is enough!
Amen!