A couple of years ago I was at my mother’s and discovered that she had come across something I had long since forgotten. It was my “Donald Duck” night light. As I recall, my parents bought it for me when I was 5. We had moved to a new house and my new room seemed very large and very scary and, of course, everything looked very menacing at night. Little Donald kept my fears at bay for some time.

It’s not just children who are afraid of the dark and things that go bump in the night. For people who struggle with anxiety and depression, the physical darkness is the time when ‘negative’ thoughts can run amok and the dawn is often a welcome end to a restless and fitful time.

I remember when the escape from custody of a convicted murderer was the catalyst for a spike in requests to NB Power from rural customers for yard lights. It was a scary time! He truly was a very dangerous man!

I suppose that we who live in the northern hemisphere are fortunate when the focus of the season of Epiphany on light is matched by the lengthening of days as the planet goes through that part of its yearly cycle. Christians in Australia and other such places must have to work at these images!

The Bible is filled with the contrasting images of light and darkness. Light is good. Darkness is not. We are told that at the very “beginning” the first divine act was to create light. Light is equated with knowledge and darkness its opposite. We all know the expressions about being “in the dark” and “seeing the light”. They don’t need much explanation!

The history of the people of Israel was filled with times of great darkness and it was the message of the hope of something better that kept them going. The writings of Isaiah were not written to point forward hundreds and hundreds of years, to Jesus, but to speak of their very present distress in exile (or to use a more modern phrase “when they were refugees”.)

Centuries later, when Jesus came upon the scene, the people who followed him remembered their sacred texts and saw in him another example of the fulfilment of the prophetic words of a better time to come.

The promises are grand ones! In the light filled future the people would experience God’s blessings. They would follow in God’s way of justice. But this was not cheap, free, or magic! They had a part to play. Their part was to fulfil their chief mandate which was to be “a light to the nations”. They were to be a model of God’s people and what a life of righteousness and justice looked like.

Of course things did not always work out that way. The people of Israel were normal fallible human beings who had other priorities, and tended to want privilege rather than mission to come from their identity as a “chosen people”. It’s easy to be special; it’s much harder to be a light to others.

That is always a danger for the Christian community as well.

Despite the way in which the New Testament is organized, the gospels were not the first New Testament books to be written. The first to be written are letters written by church leaders, mainly Paul, to the struggling churches. If it were not for this guiding correspondence we would be missing a great deal of the New Testament.

When it comes to organizational conflict, there is probably nothing much worse than a “church fight”. It gives a church a bad name in the community where outsiders roll their eyes and say with disdain, “my, how they love one another!”

From the time I was an older teenager our denomination has been in the midst of some kind of controversy or another. There had been previous controversies which others older than I will be able to recall as well! Our task is not to avoid being controversial, it is to be able to live up to our vision to both embrace diversity and maintain unity.

Somewhere some people have gotten the idea that we should be able to get back to an ideal and perfect time when the church was without conflict but, I honestly don’t know of such a time! The pastoral epistles, of which 1 Corinthians is only one, testify to this.

We must be careful and not to mistake the call of the church to unity to be a call to uniformity. They are not the same thing!

The call of the church is not for members to be carbon copies of one another but to remember that we all seek to follow in the way of Jesus and it is in this that we find our unity.

How do we accomplish this in the midst of strong disagreements?

Focussing on that which is important and central is not always easy because that is sometimes the source of the conflict. Just what IS the “Gospel” which holds us together? What is our light?

These matters affect us as a congregation in 2017. Do we exist for ourselves, like a private club? Do we exist for the community? What priority do we put on outreach? How does our budget, fundraising and use of resources reflect our priorities? Annual meeting time is a place to have a discussion about this. Please come.

The politics of the world seem to be moving toward “looking inward,” “closing borders,” and “fearing the stranger.” It’s not just the USA and their new President, Mr Trump. The “Brexit” vote in the UK last year is another example of this tendency to be “looking inward”. I believe that the church needs to hold the challenge of openness and inclusion in front of society in general as a goal for us all. It seems to me that Jesus was always challenging his followers - and asking them to be open to the sometimes surprising movement of the Spirit.

(( In this season of light and in midst of all of this upheaval it is important to note what these stark contrasts between light and darkness do not mean! These theological ideas of and contrasts between light and darkness have nothing to do with skin colour or race. To be blunt, if we met the human Jesus we would realize that he was as “middle eastern” as the refugees from the current conflict in Syria.))

The call of the gospel is to break down borders and to cross boundaries in the name of the Christ who calls us all. It is to bear the light of God’s love for the world in all the ways that we can, wherever we are, and to whomever we meet. If we have good news to tell and to love how can we keep it to ourselves?

Amen!

January 29, 2017

Micah 6: 1-8
Psalm 15
1 Corinthians 1: 18-31
Matthew 5: 1-12

Are We On Trial Here?

Court TV. It’s not new and, in my experience, it’s ALWAYS been a bit outlandish. I occasionally watch it for a laugh. For a number of years in doing marriage preparation, I have used one episode as an example of how to keep your priorities straight when planning your wedding. As I remember it, in that episode the bride and groom, but mostly the bride, were suing the bakery because the flowers on the wedding cake were the wrong colour (which apparently totally ruined both the wedding and the honeymoon.) To make matters worse the free cakes offered as compensation were not big enough for a child’s birthday party she subsequently held so she was suing the bakery. In the end, the judgement was in favour of the defendant!

In the fifth of the seven, Harry Potter series of books, Harry’s aunt receives a “howler” (a loud and flaming note) from Professor Dumbledore, which literally shouted, “remember, you promised”. This “promise” made by his mother’s sister, a squib,) who is, by the way, a person born in a magical family but possessing no magical ability), to give him a home and protection from the “dark lord” when Harry was just an infant and his parents had just been killed. Squibs, by the way, were preferable to Muggles because of their knowledge of the wizarding world!

Parents can be held accountable by society through “child services” if they don’t provide appropriate care and protection for their children, but what if a parent or a teacher could sue a child or former student for not listening or following basic teaching? “We taught you better than that!” It’s a very interesting thought! Perhaps students would spend more time on homework!

Let’s take this one step further. What if God could sue US when we don’t live up to the baptismal promises we made as an individual or as a congregation?

Hummmm. That’s a much more interesting idea. Or, perhaps its downright frightening!

In the passage from the writings of the prophet Micah, that seems to be exactly what is happening. These descendants of Abraham and Sarah had long been at the mercy of the powers of the world. Assyrian invasion was a constant threat and part of their now divided “country” had been destroyed. The false prophets tended to tell the powerful and rich wanted to hear. The true prophets such as Micah saw the people’s lack of devotion to God’s covenant as a primary reason for their political fate. Micah spoke his words in a place where those same powerful leaders could also hear the hard words, “you have forgotten the covenant. Make no mistake; it matters!”

Imagine a courtroom. This though, is a courtroom with a difference! Picture the judge in the robes of office, also acting as crown prosecutor, and the defence attorney, sitting also as the accused. The jury is creation itself. The charge: “You promised, but what have you done? God’s frustration is apparent as the crown’s case is laid out. God has done so much for the people - from their rescue from Egypt to the lessons learned from their time in the wilderness. These events should have been certain and ageless proof that God was with them! But NO. They had forgotten.

The nation is told to plead their case to the “mountains”, even to the foundations of the earth. Their sin, or their lack of appropriate action, is a sin against creation itself.

Last week I said that a great deal of what we know about the early church comes from the correspondence from church leaders, mainly Paul, to the churches having problems. Similarly, if it were not for the prophetic writings aimed at pointing the people in the right direction, we would be missing a great deal of that history and how it was that thngs went wrong.

The people, seeing that their only hope is to throw themselves on the mercy of the court, throw up their hands and say, “We repent. BUT, God, what DO you want”. It would seem to me that what the people had thought was an abundant show of repentance, (multiple animal or even human sacrifice, opulent offerings of valuable commodities) was not at all what God wanted. Other natons thought so, but they were not the children of Abraham and Sarah. What God wanted was “justice, kindness and humility before God”.

It seems simple, on the surface, but it is so easily forgotten.

We are accustomed to equating success with the material and financial; but the biblical vision would challenge that! When we think of the word “successful” we tend to think of those with lots of stuff; people of influence; people with lots of money, nice cars, a nice house, able to take nice vacations, etc etc. The prophetic view is that somewhere along the road to this kind of success some people, perhaps many people, lose their way. This kind of success does not automatically bring true happiness and satisfaction.

It seems to me that the biblical view of the true wealth of a nation is not how much its “well off” can amass but how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. Time and again in the biblical story, especially in the New Testament, the care of widows and orphans (primary examples of those who “fell through the cracks”) were cared for almost before all else.

I have heard that one of the biggest problems doctors have with prescribing medicines for patients is “non-compliance.” Its bigger than not getting enough exercise and losing weight and eating a more healthy diet, simply, it’s about not following the instructions on the medication package or not going and getting the medication at all. While it has a variety of reasons it results in many hospital admissions each year.

One person I know did not take his pills according to instructions because he did not want to see himself as “sick” and so, as a result of not taking the pills, he continued to BE sick! People with certain mental health conditions don’t like the side effects of their drugs and they stop taking them. Or they feel better, think they are “cured” and stop taking the pills. The trouble is that their friends and relatives can’t live with them if they don’t and eventually no one can and they end up on the streets!

What does God want from us? In 2017? Here in Nova Scotia? As Christians, our biblical call is not to “keep up with the Jonses” but to march to the beat of a different drummer. It is to live life in a way that many might see as foolish. Sacrificial giving to charitable causes is probably not the best way to grow your retirement portfolio but showing a concern for the needs of others is a way to grow your spiritual capital. It forces a reliance on the “other” in a way that connects us with God and with the community and broadens our sense of connection.

As Christians we are called to live in that uneasy tension between what the world expects of us and the radical and uncompromising call of the gospel.

This affects all aspects of our life in the “world”. Too often the church has proclaimed that we are “on God’s side”. I feel that our task is to continue to ask the question, “are we on God’s side?”

If we follow a God who is on the side of the poor and marginalized is not our call to stand for real social assistance, restorative justice and not punitive punishment and perpetuating a system which enshrines poverty? Is our call to stand with the poor and not sit in judgement against them and dole out what really amounts to “crumbs” to them? Is our call to look to the good of others and not just our own care and comfort? Do we want to get rid of the poor or to get rid of poverty?

We are on trial today. How are we going to go from here now that we know what God requires?

Amen.

February 5, 2017

Isaiah 58: 1-9a
Psalm 112
Matthew 5: 13-20

After the Tears!

The song, “Tears are Not Enough” was recorded in 1985 by a “supergroup” of Canadian artists in response to the famine in Ethiopia. Around that time a number of songs were written and performed which all had the same basic message: we must do more than cry or “feel bad” for the suffering of the world.

Since I turned on my TV Monday night I have seen and heard plenty of tears shed, shedding some myself. As you know, on Sunday night a lone gunman opened fire at a mosque in Ville de Quebec killing 6 men and critically injuring five more. They had been praying as was their custom at that time of day. Monday night, the world over, vigils were held to mourn AND to call for an end to the attitudes that may well have contributed to the massacre.

Many of us will remember that just a year and a half ago, in an African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina, a young man killed nine people, simply because they were black.

Getting back to the most recent instance; outside a church in the Quebec City borough of Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge, the next night, the teenage daughter of one of the victims held a sign that read simply, “je t’aime, papa. “ I love you papa”. Dead are her father, Azzedine Soufiane, 57, and fellow worshippers, Abdelkrim Hassane, 41, Aboubaker Thabti, 44, Mamadou Barry, 42, Ibrahima Barry, 39, and Khaled Belkacemi, 60. The name of the shooter, like the names of others before him, will be much too well known in the days to come; today, I choose not to name him, but to honour the dead.

In addition to the countless vigils, cities across the country used their landmarks to show their solidarity. The Calgary tower and the “Toronto” sign outside of city hall went dark and several Alberta bridges were lit up in the colours of the Quebec flag. Of course many, many cities and towns lowered their flags to half staff in honour of those who had been killed. Our own church sign outside was changed to reflect the feelings of many.

In the last few days, some Muslims in Halifax have expressed fears for their safety - fears which, some say, have increased since the US Presidential election and the anti-Muslim rhetoric of his presidency. Indeed Michael deAdder’s cartoon in Tuesday’s Chronicle Herald, thechronicleherald.ca depicted Mr Trump at the centre of a circle of cascading dominoes, each bearing the word “hate”. Bruce MacKinnon’s cartoon on Wednesday (in the same newspaper) depicted a pool of blood flowing from under a bullet riddled door, emblazoned with a sign, “Welcome to Canada.”

Incredibly to me, President Trump’s administration has spun this tragedy as proof that his policies are much needed - ignoring the obvious - that Muslims were the victims here and in no way the perpetrators. FOX News even tweeted an erroneous report that the shooter was of Moroccan heritage but retracted it after a strongly worded letter from our Prime Minster! This time the act of terrorism was perpetrated by a young, white, Francophone and he is in custody.

The specific location of this shooting, in many ways, makes it seem worse than many others. Churches (and schools and university and college classrooms) are supposed to be places of safety. I can think of all sorts of biblical verses and stories which speak of faith as a sanctuary and the places of worship as a place of true refuge. It is no accident that the word “sanctuary” has two meanings - a room for worship -and- a place of refuge. On Sunday night the mosque provided no refuge for these worshippers from a hail of bullets.

Why? Why did this happen?

As I wrote this sermon, many discussions were taking place in the media on the causes of this event. Is it the isolated action of one disgruntled young man? Is it a reflection of a growing undercurrent of racism in Canada?

I went to school in a time when Canada’s policies of multiculturalism were taught in school and being proclaimed everywhere we went. Our “cultural mosaic” was promoted as a contrast to America’s “melting pot.” Perhaps I accept without much further thought, the “mosaic” as both a fact and an ideal. I do admit though, that in PEI it was much more a concept than a reality!

However, further thought IS necessary. More frequently than I would like, I catch myself in an “us and them” kind of thought. I wonder where a person whose skin tone is different than mine is from, in ways I don’t for a “white” person. I am told that non-whites are quite tired of being asked where they are from. After all, many come from families who have been here for generations. For some it is a question of honest inquiry - a conversation starter but for others it is a preface to “why don’t you go back where you belong”.

The wearing of veils by Muslim women or turbans by Sikhs are hot-button issues because it is such an “obvious” difference. Not that long ago I discovered that even some Muslim women are against the wearing of veils. The mother of a friend of mine, from a Muslim family who came to Canada in the 70's, told a Muslim friend that she should not be wearing a veil here in Canada.

The reality is, to ban them will isolate women who, for whatever reason, cannot leave their house without one!

The question for us is this: “How do we express differing opinions in freedom, but so as not to create a climate that promotes vandalism, violence and actions of hatred and discrimination!

As Canada’s social fabric continues to change we need to come to terms with these matters. As a people of faith, called to love our neighbours, and to be loving neighbours, these questions are vital.

Today, we need to bring together our current situation and the passages presented to us by the lectionary. The question for today: “As Christians, what salt and light do we have to add?” Has our salt grown stale and our light, dim.

The scriptures, for the most part, written in other times of difficulty, point to the faithful response to a world that is not as God intends. Since we are certainly living in a world that is not, “as God intends” it would seem that the biblical record is particularly relevant. Yet, it’s not always that easy to apply! Given a very different cultural context, it is up to us to make the connections with our faith and the unique situations of the 21st Century.

Jesus talked about us being the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

What is salt good for? A great deal, actually. Salt enhances flavour in food.

It also preserves. Before the days of freezers, our parents and grandparents relied on salted and preserved meat and fish. Some of you will remember a stash of salt cod hanging from a rafter in a shed or attic! I do! Occasionally I’d be sent to get one so my Mom could make fish cakes! I remember my mother curing meat and complaining that the butcher didn’t do as good a job of cutting the meat as her father could. She used her mother’s recipes. We grew our own beef; you can’t buy those cuts in the grocery store meat department.

Salt also cleanses and has been prescribed for sore throats, toothaches, postnasal drip, bee stings, mosquito bites, painful gums, poison ivy, and poison oak among other things.

Many of you know the story of “Cap-O-Rushes” (it used to be taught in school) who declared that her love for her father was “as much as fresh meat loves salt.” He did not understand, at first, how great her love was and they spent many years apart.

What is light for?

Well. Simply put, without light, there would be no life. Without light nothing would grow on this planet. Without light we cannot see into dark closets, or make our way along a dark path. Without a good flashlight those CSI people on TV would never find those tell-tale fibres and other evidence to convict a criminal.

In the days before electricity, I think they appreciated light more than we do. Yet, I suppose you can have too much - the “proper” cycle from light to dark regulates our bodies in ways we do not yet completely understand.

Many years ago, I listened to a talk by the then Moderator, the Rt Rev Dr Lois Wilson. Barely five feet tall she is a powerhouse of experience, wisdom and has a keen mind. She told us that “Jesus called Christians to be the salt of the earth, not the whole stew!”

In the context of broad ecumenism it is important to remember that we bring to the table many things but we don’t have to convert everyone to our ways to have those things taken seriously and make a difference. In the plurality of the modern world we can still advocate for those things that are important to us, things like those mentioned in the sermon on the mount (from which our gospel passage for today comes) and by the prophets.

In the context of our modern day issues let us remember two things: First that Muslims are part of the same family of faith as Jews and Christians - the children of Abraham and Sarah. Second, that Arabic speaking Christians call God Allah! It’s simply the word God in Arabic.

We can show the other nations, or simply other people, that life is better for all concerned when there is justice and compassion for all.

According to the prophetic tradition, the people of Israel got into trouble because they regarded their identity as “God’s chosen” as being “chosen for privilege” rather than as a call to show “special responsibility”. That’s a hard distinction to make and an easy line to cross!

As Canadian Christians we are immensely privileged, but this does not mean we were given what we have for our own use absolutely - as if it is an exclusive gift. For various reasons we seldom have famines, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and the like. Are we not called to assist those whose lives have dealt them a different hand? We have an abundance of natural resources. Are we not called to share some of that which has blessed us, with others? Do we not realize that the immigrants who have come to Canada, whether as refugees or not, have made this country better and stronger.

It seems to me that time, and again, Jesus, and the prophets before him, called the people back to their roots - to the teachings of the prophets, to place first and foremost what God’s call is to us. To care for the poor. To be a light, a city set on a hill, to be salt. We are not to hide or to seek to protect what we regard as our own and not to act as if the world is around for our own use and abuse.

Let us open our hearts. Let us be salt and light.

Amen.

February 12, 2017

Deuteronomy 30: 15-20
Psalm 119

Choose Life!

Choose Life! Seems like a “no- brainer”! Well, sometimes that’s easier said than done. We are faced with many choices in life. Some are, at the end of the day, neither here nor there. They are choices like these: Will I have Swiss Chalet’s “Festive Special” or not? The festive special costs more! When I’m out with the gang, will I have this special or that special? They’re the same price.

On Friday night Churchill House was serving, “50 Shades of Chocolate” - all you could eat of a variety of decadent deserts, many of then chocolate. By the look of people’s plates, including my own, for most people, the choice was “and” instead of “or”.

Or what about this choice! What will I put on my grocery list this week? It seems that most grocery stores are designed to entice you to buy more than you intended to by making you walk by all the “impulse” items on the way to the stuff you have decided you need.

There’s nothing quite like a blizzard to make people impulse shop! You’d think by the look of the grocery carts on the eve of a storm that people are planning on being snowed in for a solid week (and keeping their power).

Of course, when it comes to choices, there are things more important than a restaurant choice or a grocery list.

The choice offered to the people in the book of Deuteronomy is stark - choose life or choose to perish! To choose life is to choose the ways of the God who has been calling to them for generations.

JM Barry, the author of “Peter Pan” and several other works wrote, "Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?"

We are called to choose the life giving, but what is life giving? Well, it’s not always the same thing for each person!

A couple had two sons and one went to university. Everyone knew he would never be “home again” to live. The other son was destined to take over the family farm but he died in a tragic accident. The older son, home for the funeral, felt the pressure to return to the farm and work the land that had been in the family for generations. If he did not, it would inevitably be broken up and sold. His older cousin, who, years before, had decided to stay at home, advised him not to. “You are a scientist , not a farmer. You can farm and can be a decent farmer, but you will never be great at it; your heart is in science”. In the end he chose science and the life of the city. Because of the circumstances that one decision affected a lot of people.

Many of our choices are like that mused about in the Robert Frost poem, “The Road Not Taken”.

   
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
	

You may know the rest!

I seem to recall that Frost later said that it was just a simple poem about a walk in the woods, not some deep existential essay about choices in life - but whether he intended it or not, it has become one.

Often when we make one choice, another choice is lost. If I had gone to a different university or if I had taken the four year degree at Mount A instead of the three, the difference of just one year would have opened different pastoral charges to me and those different opportunities would have made a big difference in my life. I made that first choice when I was 18.

The choice to me married. Whom to marry? When and how many children to have? What line of work to pursue. And on and on. Choices are part of life.

Perhaps these kinds of choices were foreign to the people originally addressed in today’s passage from Deuteronomy but they are the kinds of choices that face us today.

The people of Deuteronomy are given a choice. Follow God’s way or do something else. When we look at the choice facing the Hebrew people there seemed to be a lot of rules involved with following this God. They had to follow these rules if they were to follow this God.

Most children would argue that rules are designed to limit their fun. There are so very many things they can’t do. In most cases the rules are designed to keep them safe. “Look both ways before you cross the street”. Or they are designed to build community. “Help people in trouble” “or “say thank you”. Or “don’t take stuff that isn’t yours” and “Don’t lie”.

Rules are a necessary part of life in any civilized society. Every culture has some differences in what is and is not acceptable. If you have ever moved to live in a different culture you will have discovered this. Most refugees who come to Canada have to be “brought up to speed” on our ways. Then there are cultural differences that we can accommodate.

In many respects there are some rules which are simply the common wisdom of how any society can best function. What would the community be like if there were no rules at all. What if we were governed (or rather not governed) by libertarianism? What if even the basic rules in a list such as the “10 Commandments” were not followed, unless people wanted to follow them? Would it be chaos? Or would it be, as one of our Sunday School students put it a few years ago, “ pandemonium.”

This is our Annual Meeting Sunday and once again we are making decisions about our future together as a congregation. In addiction to approving the reports of what we have done in 2016 we will look at what we are being called to do and be in 2017.

So for our meeting downstairs after the service we are going to be sitting at table groups, like we do for “cup and conversation”. On each table will be discussion questions - in addition to the agenda and nominating committee report. I will be leading you through the questions and a time of discussion. Please don’t sit with a relative - we want to mix things up a bit and get different ideas going.

As congregation we have many choices:

what will our outreach be in the upcoming year?

What programs will we offer?

How can we support the Christian education of our young people in an age of busy families who find it harder and harder to participate in church activities or to offer leadership like their parents did.

How will we use our resources? Considering that some were given with the stipulation that we can use only the interest, how can we make best use of the financial blessings we have received over the years?

Can we make use of some of our resources to support the people in our community having a hard time?

Maybe we can use our kitchen to teach classes on budget minded cooking? Can we come up with greater food bank support? Can we sponsor seminars on budgeting? Is there a “crack” in the social safety net that we can help fill?

When the people we heard about in the book of Deuteronomy were asked to choose life - the choice presented to them was choose God and life OR make another choice and choose death?

That’s pretty stark. As congregation our choices will certainly affect our lives together and I hope we can make choices which lead to a greater abundance of life for all of us - as congregation and as the wider community.

Amen.

February 19, 2017

Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18
Psalm 119
Matthew 3: 38-48

No Longer “Business as Usual”

A number of years ago a small, in the village where I was living, a local gas station unexpectedly changed management. A regular customer pulled in, pumped his own gas even though it was a full service gas station, went in and asked the attendant to “mark down the amount.” He obviously had done this before.

The attendant replied, “Im the new manager. We don’t have charge accounts anymore. Cash or credit card, only.”

The man replied, “Well, you’ve got two choices then. I don’t have a credit card so you can suck it out of my tank or write it down. I don’t get paid till next week.”

I gather that an exception was made that day for at least that one customer but word got around; it was no longer, “business as usual at that business”.

For many people in countries with democratically elected governments being a good Christian and being a good citizen are often seen as synonymous. Canadians, and others, have been taught that being “law abiding” is, like cleanliness, next to godliness. In addition some people believe, and some churches even teach, that health, an abundance of material goods and financial prosperity is God’s reward for faithfulness and their absence, a punishment.

It’s not going to surprise you that I think that the Christian faith does not make “promises” as much as it “calls us,” by the Spirit to be so much more than we can be on our ow; it’s not about material goods.

Today’s passages have presented us with a grab-bag of images. Instead of going “All over the map” in pursuit of them, I’m going to try and focus on the ones that leave us scratching our heads.

The passage from Leviticus begins with things that seem like “common sense generosity”. Let us remember that these verses seem to be addressed to those farmers who are well off enough to have employees. I don’t think there was such a thing as what we know as “a small family farm”. The vast majority of work in agriculture was as a day labourer and the wages were subsistence level. The onus was on the landowner to provide for the worker and for the poor who could not work. Leave food on the ground and pay everyone at quitting time.

I’m not sure that is common here in the Valley - as there are not many farmers right around here, but the practise of following the potato harvester was a common way for some families to get a good start on their stash of winter potatoes. The last time I went to the field in back of my manse after the potatoes had been picked, I discovered that the harvester was very thorough; there weren’t many left on the ground! Now, I KNOW the farmer used John Deere tractors (they are a very distinctive colour) but I’m not sure about the potato harvester! an attemt at a private joke aimed at a person who sells farm equipment for the company who is the John Deere competition!!!!)

We’ve all probably been in that time of waiting for money from a first job or a new job and not having any savings. When I was a student the United Church paid its interns once a month, at the end of the month. After a year of school and little or no income, during the school year, it was a long wait. Back then, they did not give students credit cards! The first summer I was fortunate that the bank did not make me wait a week till the cheque cleared! The next summer my first two cheques were at least a week late. Fortunately the good church folks loaned me grocery money!

If the passage from Leviticus can be called “going above and beyond” the Gospel passage presents a very much more challenging way of life. Indeed some would consider it impractical, impossible, and even ill-advised!

It’s much easier to tell people how to behave; it’s much harder to tell them how to think or feel. Some people are of the belief that we can’t control attitudes, but, as a society, as a family of faith, we can certainly form and influence them.

We in North America have the benefit of being able to speak our minds freely without being arrested and jailed; we know that the citizens of many countries do not.

Yet, even in Canada, we can’t say “absolutely anything” we want to say - or perhaps we shouldn’t. We are becoming more and more aware of the negative impact of “hate speech” and speech which “incites violence.” This coming week the House of Commons is going to be debating a Private Member’s Bill addressing Islamophobia and some of its critics are speaking from the principle of protecting free speech - not on the ground they are against Muslims!

It’s an interesting debate but I think where the results of some speech against identifiable groups are violent and homicidal, we need to put some parameters around so-called “free seech”.

More than once Jesus addressed the crowds who followed him in a “you have heard it said, but today I am going to say something different-“ fashion.

I am told that, originally, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” was designed to “limit” punishment or rather, to fit the punishment to the crime. This meant that a person who stole a loaf of bread was going to be sentenced to death. However even that limitation has its down-side. The famous Indian spiritual leader, Mohandas Gandhi observed, “it only ends up making the whole world blind.”

Love your enemies; pray for those who persecute you. In the early church persecution was real and a matter of life and death. To hold up the words of Jesus calling for this kind of perfection was a big challenge for the early church. In our day and age, even when the situation is very different, the challenge is equally steep.

There is a joke about a man who found a magic lantern and he took a cloth and started to polish it. Suddenly a genie appeared to grant him three wishes. (After all that’s what a genie has to do for someone who releases him from a lamp!) The genie knew that this man had a bitter rivalry with a neighbour so he said, “I will give you three wishes but only on the condition that whatever you receive, your neighbour will receive a double portion.“ The man agreed and he wished for a fine house. Poof, a fine house appeared. BUT next door, was a house twice as large and twice as nice. To his chagrin, he observed his neighbour revelling in his sudden and unexpected gift!

Next he wished for a fancy car and the result was similar. The car his neighbour found in his driveway was “twice as classy” and was worth double what his was”.

It really “got his goat” that his neighbour was receiving a blessing twice the size of his so he resolved to make his last and final wish really “count”. He wished to be struck blind in one eye!

Do you remember the episode of Cormer Gas in which several of the characters were in a competition to have the “smallest” cell phone. Each could the other getting ahead in that competition!

Sometimes I read a passage in scripture and I say, “This is too much!” Love your enemy! Ok, I can manage that. Pray for your enemy! I can manage that too. But turn the other cheek, so that I can get hit again! That’s too much; that’s downright CRAZY!

Does Jesus really expect us to turn the other cheek (in other words to invite a second dose of abuse) or to stand in the street in our underwear! (Or less) That’s what giving both the coat and cloak would do.

One of the things a Roman soldier could do was to force any citizen to carry his gear for a mile. This was one of those things that could easily be abused by young, power hungry soldiers out to show the populace who was boss.

In each case the person who is the giver, by going the second mile or by giving more than was asked, shows their power and not their powerlessness!

The “non-violent resistance” movements have taught us that we need to take a closer look at our assumptions about power and success.

As we know, our first Prime Minister, Sir John A Macdonald is being bumped from the $10 bill in favour of Nova Scotia hero and activist Viola Desmond. Canada’s Rosa Parks, Viola was arrested for sitting where she was not seen to belong. Just last week I saw the new “history moment” depicting this event which is produced by the Canadian government.

In 2017 we take it for granted, that any adult can go to any movie and sit anywhere they like - but not so in the good old days and not so for people who were not white. It was because of people like her that things changed.

It’s so much easier to see the ‘goodness and rightness’ of a movement after we have lived with it in full bloom for a while.

When we look, for example, at the protests against things like fracking, pipelines, the top 1% earning 99% of the money, recent rallies and vigils in support of multiculturalism and the welcoming nature of Canada - its harder to see where history will come down - yet when we look back we wonder of things may have changed at all if it were not for Viola and others who took the risk of non-violent protest.

Yet, every time we read the scriptures we see these counter cultural teachings. Don’t be like the society around you, act in the way of Jesus.

Mahatma Gandhi who I’ve mentioned earlier became frustrated with the Christians he knew who did not take their tradition seriously. He is reputed to have said, “I like your Christ, it is Christians I do not like. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

We know that Jesus sermons and lifestyle resulted in his crucifixion and I suspect we don’t take his teachings as seriously as we could because we don’t want to end up that way.

Yet, we are also an Easter people. Easter is God’s answer to the world’s way. Easter is Jesus’ ultimate vindication. We follow a Christ who advocated the impossible in terms of ethics, outreach and acts of love. In the end - there was Easter.

Of course the answer to the imperfect lives we live is God’s grace. Far from keeping us awake at night and making us feel like failures, grace enables us to live into the impossible and to rely on God’s ultimate promises as we seek to journey in faithfulness. Grace gives us the strength to not give up and lie into the promise - each day. Let’s not worry so much about arriving - on this journey - let us just live day by day, seeking to be loving, generous, and showing a radical trust in God.

Amen

February 26, 2017 - Transfiguration Sunday

Exodus 24: 12-18
Psalm 99
Matthew 17: 1-9

“I Can See Clearly Now”