Lent - Year A -- 2022
Indexed by Date. Sermons for Lent Year A
Genesis 2: 15-17; 3: 1-7
Psalm 32
Matthew 4: 1-11
I was speaking to a young child one day and asked her what she would do if she had no bedtime. Her response was that she and her brother would play Xs and Os all night under the blankets with flashlights. Oh, the temptations of childhood.
When we think of temptation, we think of it in terms of a desire to do something which wrong, or “bad” in some way. We think of it as someone dangling a proverbial carrot from a stick. We are warned by the police to lock our car doors and hide valuables so that a would be thief is not tempted to steal our car or the things inside. My neighbour hated answering the door on Halloween so she put a bucket of candy on the doorstep with a sign, “take one”. I suppose some trick-or-treater might be tempted to take two, as “no one would know!”
The story of the temptation of Jesus is primarily about Jesus’ upcoming ministry. Following that, it is not just about Jesus, but about his church.
Many people who are in positions of power have a list of “privileges and perk” accorded to them which they can use to make their job easier. I think that the phrase, “Just because I can, does not mean I should,” applies well to the temptation of Jesus and to temptation in general.
I remember well the day a pre-teen, a good and eager reader, read the passage about Jesus’ temptation and he clearly said, “get behind me satin ! for it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” Did you hear the slip? A little surprised and amused, I looked at his mom, sitting near the organ and she was clearly stifling a laugh. That boy has long since grown up, is married with a child and now has a PhD in environmental engineering!
Satin is a slippery fabric, and when we talk about sin we often talk about “the slippery slope.” For most people the real temptations are not the things that are clearly wrong, but the things that seem good at first but turn out to have unintended consequences or lead from one small temptation to a larger one, and a still larger one, and so on. As they say, “in for a penny, in for a pound.”
All too often we have the cartoon devil in our minds, that little red imp with a maniacal smile, a pitchfork and a horned “bunny hug”. Or we have the horror movie devil breathing fire and inciting all sorts of terrible catastrophes. Neither of those brought temptation to Jesus.
Jesus’ FIRST temptation was to turn stones into bread. This temptation was not just about Jesus cheating on his self-imposed fast, but to make the material more important than it is. We need food; we cannot live without it. But people need more than food; people need more than the material things necessary for human existence. Perhaps Jesus could have garnered quite a following if he fed them every time they showed up to listen to him. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy - “one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” During the wilderness journey of the time called “the exodus” the people had to learn how to live in trust - in the desert. They often let God down and succumbed to various temptations!
The SECOND temptation is for Jesus to place himself in danger and force God to rescue him from certain death, and for what: acclaim and momentary awe. That sounds more like expecting God to be a first-century version of Superman than it sounds like the leadership of one who is caring and compassionate. You may argue that the Bible does tell of Jesus performing miracles, but there is always a broader purpose to them. His miracles are a part of the whole package and designed to show God’s ways, not to gain power and fame. There would be nothing to gain in trying such a stunt.
The THIRD temptation needs to be viewed in terms of the Roman Empire, under whose power Jesus lived, or perhaps some other, more modern empire which seeks to place the whole world under the rule of a cruel regime. While democracy was unheard of in Jesus’ day, democracies are not immune to this kind of power if the proper checks and balances are not included in the constitution and enforced by the other elected leaders or the public.
These kinds of empires define the truth and then they use this new “truth” to gain and increase their power. Jesus rebuttal again speaks of the laws upon which Israel was founded; allegiance to God alone is what gives true life.
For us, here in Canada in 2023, the question really is: what then does all of this say about the church and it’s identity and mission?
For me, one of the things that the temptation of Jesus tells us is that the Christian church needs to be in a position where it can speak “truth to power” and not be a part of those powerful systems which harm and destroy people.
Politically speaking, it is far easier to speak of this in the somewhat distant past than it is to speak in the present; especially when history has come down on our side. Students of history will know that there were churches in Germany who supported the Nazis and churches which did not. In France there were the collaborators and “the resistance” and these divides were also present in the churches.
We had a government in Canada not that long ago which put fear into the heart of justice seeking churches and charities. To use one example, they defined “action to eliminate poverty” as political and decreed that charities could only “work to alleviate poverty”.
Brazilian social activist and Catholic Priest, Dom Helder Camara, is quoted as having said, “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”
About this time last year Ukraine was invaded by Russia but any assumptions on their part about a quick victory were quickly dashed by the tenacity of the Ukranian people and their various armies. Canada’s support has been given in terms of training and equipment and even some phone companies have made calls to Ukraine free for those worried about their relatives and friends under attack. Churches and community organizations have been involved with the sponsorship of refugees seeking temporary or more permanent respite from the war zone that their country has become.
I believe that the church, as an organization of disciples of Jesus is called to provide food for both body and soul. While feeding the hungry, it is important that we proclaim a way of life that is not focussed on greed, or an over abundance of bread. Life must include the experience of justice. Some people are starving because of weather events or natural disasters beyond human control, but in many cases, the greed of richer nations have made it worse.
Climate scientists tell us that the life style of rich nations has changed the weather patterns which affect poor nations much more than the rich ones. Typhoons, tsunamis and severe flooding wreak much more havoc in the developing world. I have also read that the destruction in Turkey and Syria was made worse by shoddy building practices - when they knew better they cut costs and thus the buildings collapsed as if they had been taken down by a controlled demolition!
In the hippie generation, “bread” was a euphemism for “cash”. Followers of Jesus need to speak when cash become more important than the lives of innocent people who have little choice where they live.
When I think about the second temptation I also think of some of the people I knew when I was in university. the nuclear peril was a concern and it has become so again. Some of my more conservative friends in university were not at all concerned because, they believed that “God will not let us blow up the world, but it he does, the faithful Christians will be rescued first and whisked off to glory.” I think that this is exactly what the second temptation is about. We have to have some responsibility for our own mess!
Many years ago my nephew had a fall and luckily escaped serious injury. In the trust of a small boy he said to his father after he picked him up, “why didn’t you catch me.” His father’s defence, “you did not tell me you were going to fall.” We are not small children accustomed to relying on strong fathers with good reflexes and eyes in the back of their heads - we are grown ups with choices to avoid harm for ourselves and others.
Of course, there is a cost to this - so we buy good tires for our cars, equip them with air bags and ABS brakes, and have fire extinguishers and smoke detectors in our homes. We child-proof our houses when we have toddlers and try to live a healthy life. We don’t drink and drive and don’t let our friends do so. These things give us no iron clad guarantee of safety but are simple common sense. As Christians we need to practice and advocate for policies which promote the health of our planet and the people who live on it. Then after we have done everything we reasonably can, we can live in trust.
I think that one of the most egregious temptations for the church is the “prosperity gospel.” Like the Satan did in the temptation, some churches and church leaders cherry pick other verses to enable to proclaim that “the truly faithful will become rich”. On Wednesday evening, as the sounds of choir practice drifted into my office my cell phone alerted me to a post from a former parishioner who wrote, “be like Jimmy Carter and not like Joel Olseteen, the well known television evangelist. “ who apparently pays himself $54 M US per year, has a garage big enough for 20 cars with his favourite costing him $270,000. I don’t know the value of his 70,000 square foot mansion. By contrast the retired 39th president, is lives in a 2 bedroom house worth about $200,000. At the time I write this, Mr Carter is in hospice care with is best friend and wife of 77 years at his side. As far as I know Carter has lived modestly since his retirement and even into his 90s actively worked for the organization, Habitat for Humanity.” I have a colleague and friend who knows Carter personally and attests that this is all true.
Of course God wants us all to have enough and not to go hungry, but as the hymn by our former moderator, the Very Rev. Walter Farquharson puts it, “when waste and want live side by side, its gospel that we lack”.
Lent is a time for personal introspection. In Lent we ask ourselves the question, “Have we fallen short of the call of Jesus of Nazareth in our lives?”
Lent is also a time for the church to take serious stock of our mission and how our resources are used in fulfilling that mission.
Many churches, including our own two here in this part of Saskatchewan are concerned about keeping the doors open. We should ask the question, “why?” What is our reason for being here; what is it that we want to do as a community of faith?
In our Lenten journey we need to reconnect with our call and, if needed, adjust our focus. Are we everything we can be, in terms of following our call as disciples of Jesus of Nazareth?
Amen.
Genesis 12: 1-4a
John 3: 1-17
When I was in Grade 12, I worked on the school yearbook committee. One of my jobs was to type the biographies which accompanied the grad pictures. The basic bio was the names of your parents, your life plans and a saying or something important to you. There was room for a little embellishment but not much. Several students chose “John 3:16" as their saying. I want to be clear here, it was not the words of the verse, which there would probably have been room for, but simply “John 3:16.”
The story of Nicodemus is an interesting one with a secret visit, a play on words, and an unexpected ending.
The folks who like John 3:16 are almost always the folks who like to use the phrase, “born again” in that they feel one MUST BE “born again”. There is some dispute about the true meaning of the Greek words used in the original text; the version we read here in Bridging Waters does not contain those exact words. The NRSV uses “born from above” but that does not roll off the tongue in the same way, does it? Of course, this second birth is meant in the metaphorical sense, but Nicodemus’ responds as if it is meant to be taken literally. Of course a second birth is impossible. These days there are some obstetrical procedures which end up meaning that one “could” be born one and a half times but, of course, Jesus is not talking about fetal surgery which will only be possible in the distant future in a modern hospital with all sorts of technological advances.
All too often, many people stop this story at v.16 instead of going one more verse to complete the thought; beginning and ending with “the world.” God’s love is for the world and seeks the fullness of life for the world - eternal life, for Jesus is about so much more than it is about what we think of when we hear the word heaven.
Nicodemus came to see Jesus under the cover of darkness. We can assume that this was out of fear; he was a Pharisee in a time when some powerful Pharisees were not at all supportive of Jesus. He comes to Jesus and “butters him up” with some praise. Jesus uses it as a teaching moment, and challenges Nicodemus to dig into his own education, learning and spirituality to connect with what he was teaching. Nicodemus misinterprets the second birth as a literal re-birth and correctly dismisses it as impossible.
I think that Nicodemus went home and thought about this encounter. I believe he went home and prayed about this encounter. I believe the Spirit prompted Nicodemus to colour outside the lines of his current religious practice and he realized that there was a good and true world outside the lines of his experience before encountering Jesus. I say this because, in the end, Nicodemus will have gone from being a secret disciple to one of small group who go to the authorities and ask for permission to bury Jesus’ body. This was an act of great courage considering what had just happened.
Why is it that I think v 17 is so important though? Well, it is because it forces us to move from concern about our own spirituality and our own walk with God to look at the world God loves. Taken together, the two verses begin and end with God’s love for the world. The two verses challenge us to believe in God’s love for the world with our whole being.
When I talk about the world, I mean other people, and everything on this planet. We are called to believe that, as agents of God’s love, we must care for people and the planet.
It is annual meeting Sunday. When we come to our Annual Meeting it is a time to hear about what we, as a community of faith, have been doing in the past year, but it is also a time to look ahead to the year that stretches out before us. As a congregation how will we minister to and in the world God loves? Will we say, “times are tough, we will be lucky to survive and keep the doors open” or will we say, “times are tough; how can we stay open so that we can be of the most help to the people who are struggling.” and “How can we show that we love this fragile world that God created and called good?”
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Amen.
Exodus 17: 1-7
Psalm 95
John 4: 5-42
A friend of mine was walking around Vancouver, trying to find, “Gastown”, which is a trendy tourist area. She realized that she was lost and probably not very safe, given the general look of the buildings and the “looks” she was given by people she deemed to be somewhat sketchy. Someone finally came to her rescue and said, “lady, you are obviously lost, you had better leave before you get hurt. What ARE you looking for?” She told him what area she was looking for and directions were given. After walking the several blocks to her destination, the hair on the back of her neck was no longer standing up and she could relax as she walked around and enjoyed the shops and cafes.
As I began my preparation for this sermon, I looked back to this Sunday, three years ago, as I sometimes do, because our readings are on a three year cycle. If you don’t remember that Sunday, you will remember the next one. The next Sunday, the world had changed. The next Sunday the world was in the grips of a global pandemic of a kind not seen since the soldiers returned the battlefields of Europe in 1918. The next Sunday, I broadcast the church service from my living room because we had very limited access to the church building. The Easter service was broadcast from the Nipawin church but I felt a bit like the cartoon character “Inspector Gadget” (the cartoon inspector voiced by the man who played Maxwell Smart) with all the candles and other stuff more or less within reach. Once we clarified a few things, experimented a bit and worked out a lot of bugs, we had a small crew broadcast the worship from the Nipawin worship space, bulletins were delivered and all of our “deadlines and expectations changed”. It was a wild ride.
We went from saying “we are all in the same boat” to realizing that we “were all in the same storm” but some of us had luxury yachts while others had a rowboat with a hole and a bailing can made from an old bleach bottle! We tried to make accommodations for those who did not have the boats we did!
What did we learn? Well, I guess that depends on who you are. But what we could have learned was to keep a better eye on our neighbours - not in the sense of spying on them, - but in the sense of being aware of their needs and being of help to them. We could have learned to be more compassionate, more respectful of differing opinions . We could have learned how small gestures matter so much when people are isolated and cannot visit as they are accustomed to doing. Remember all that time when you could not visit and the nursing homes were locked. Some learned how to bake and cook and to be flexible with meal plans as shortages became the name of the grocery game.
We blamed the rules but the rule makers insisted that the rules were there for safety. Mental health took a back seat to best practices about controlling the spread of pathogen and we vowed to do better, and to be better people, when we were allowed to go back to normal. Are we better?
The sermon title from this Sunday, three years ago was “A Conversation that Should Not Have Happened.” Jesus was in Samaria, which was a foreign country (or at least a different province, if you think of Canada) and when you cross boundaries, you have to abide by different rules and norms. For example, on the Island of Montreal and in New York City you can’t turn right on a red light! I wish that was the case here as I have been almost run down crossing at the Credit Union more times than I want to count!
It used to be that men did not wear hats in buildings. In some cultures you take off your shoes in a worship space and in others the men and women worship separatelly. The best practice is always to be aware of such differences and be respectful.
But what about situations where these practices and assumptions hurt people, or prevent them from getting the help they need?
I am aware that many doctors know that women in the midst of a heart attack present with different symptoms when they arrive in the ER. We are told that many first nations people do not receive the care they need when arriving at the hospital in an emergency. Steps are being taken in some sectors to improve these situations.
The writer of John’s Gospel reminds us of some of the rules or norms for Jews interacting with Samaritans. Our non-Jewish ears also separated from these events by 2,000 years benefit from these little “heads up” tidbits!
So what does John gospel writer tell us! What makes Jesus’ actions so wrong is that Jews and Samaritans would not normally have even spoken to one another. He was in Samaria, he could have assumed that she was Samaritan but I wonder how she knew he was a Jew? He should not have asked her for a drink; a fact she mentions. Jews and Samaritans could not have shared a cup, glass or jug so drawing a bucket or jug of water. Sharing it with him would be against the social norms. In Jesus day, there was also a rule that men did not talk to women who were not close relatives in public. Additionally, Jesus was a rabbi, at least informally, and he would have been expected to avoid speaking to a woman with a “reputation”. But how would Jesus, or any rabbi, know this?!
I’m told that the first clue was that she was alone. Wells were communal and at a distance from the actual village; there was no such thing as running water and homes did not have pumps. Despite the weight of water, it was the job of the women to go and carry the water home from the community well. It was a social occasion; women would talk and share stories while they walked to and from the well! Perhaps this woman was dressed more provocatively, we don’t know. The paintings I have seen which attempt to portray this encounter do not paint her differently from other women! However, when the disciples get back they know, or assume they know, that she is “sketchy”. Jesus should not be talking with a foreigner, or a woman of any kind, but especially not a woman of THAT kind.
Not much “happens” in the story and the detailed dialogue makes it a long one to tell - but it is the dialogue which is so important.
Jesus was not one to take a poll when it came to the appropriateness of his actions; in fact he regularly went against social norms. He associated with people from “both side of the tracks,” you might say. I believe that one of the primary reasons for his execution was that his actions upset the apple cart of norms and established boundaries.
We are told that Jesus and the disciples had been travelling and Jesus sits down by the well to rest while the disciples go in search of “take-out”.
In the course of the conversation, actual, physical, food and water become metaphors for the life giving message offered by Jesus.
Please notice that this woman of dubious morals is not condemned by Jesus, the man with no bucket, but is offered life giving water. He then reminds the disciples that he, who has no food in his backpack, offers the bread of life. Long ago I heard that Christian evangelism is nothing more complicated than, “one beggar telling another beggar where to find food.” The woman, one of the first evangelists, goes back to her village and what she proclaims prompts them to go and see for themselves. Did they really believe her, this “woman”? Or did they just have to go and see for themselves the one who prompted this change, this enthusiasm in her.
A week after I moved here I began to work in the office and it was not long after I gave the first food voucher to one hungry family that the word spread there was food (not just leftovers) to be gotten at the United Church. More and more people came and then more after that. Each one was proclaiming to the next where bread was to be found!
If Jesus had decided to abide by social norms he would not have spoken to this woman and this opportunity would have been lost. If he had taken a different route and not gone through Samaria he would not have encountered this woman. John’s gospel is telling us that the Holy Spirit had plans for these two to meet on this day.
International Women’s day was last Wednesday. On that day we celebrate the women who had a vision of a different world; a world “outside the lines.” Nova Scotian, Viola Desmond, sometimes called, “Canada’s Rosa Parks, whose face is on our new $10 dollar bill, was a catalyst in moving black rights to the forefront in Canada. In 1929, the “Famous 5,” Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, and Irene Parlby, who I believe were all from Alberta, took their case all the way to the Privy Council in England to have women declared to be persons. The result of the case titled, “Edwards vs Canada,” was that women could be appointed to the senate and have an increased voice in public life.
In 1936 Lydia Gruchy was ordained in Moose Jaw and became the first woman minister in the United Church and in 1953 became the first woman to be granted the degree of Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa). Emily Stowe was the first woman to practice medicine in Canada. On International Women’s Dy we honour these and other woman who crossed barriers to bring more fullness of life to women and to all people.
All too often assumptions are made about people because of things that distinguish them from the others by what is visible on the “outside,” such as gender, or race or assumed or actual sexual orientation, or age and their value and insights are ignored and discounted by society and society is the poorer for it.
Jesus did not really care what was the social norm, what was popular, but guided by the Spirit - he spoke to those he felt needed to hear and know the “Good News”.
Jesus associated with tax collectors AND pharisees and women and people experiencing disability and diseases like leprosy and what was probably epilepsy - to show that all people were children of God and worthy for this reason alone of his attention and to receive the Good News.
The good news is that the Good News is not a popularity contest where the crowd gets to decide who receives the Living Water. Popular opinion does not decide who is worthy to be called a child of God.
I think back to the news confere nces and public information during the pandemic. We know that some required to mask for their job used every opportunity to proclaim that they “trusted in God,” rather than the masks and vaccines. The doctors who guided us through COVID were telling us to trust the science while the politicians were facing a strong business lobby to get back to normal. And then the trucks went to Parliament Hill. Nothing has been as divisive and as polarizing in living memory.
The church is not immune to divisions similar to that of the Jews and the Samaritans. Perhaps we are even more susceptible! Between various denominations there are huge rifts and many churches are not above sheep stealing by telling the sheep that they have the only food worth eating. “We have the truth while others don’t”
At our outset in 1925, it was envisioned that the new United Church would provide an alternative to the need to have a different church for every small group of Protestants. In fact, many communities here in the west had “union churches”. That may have worked in rural areas but in cities, some of the churches may have changed the sign outside but remained very much the same. For generations, Methodism still seeped out of the bricks at one church while another, two blocks away, proclaimed Presbyterianism loud and clear.
All but one of the Charges I have served have been “multi-point” and, in addition to their divirget roots in Presbyterianism or Methodism, there are many other good and valid reasons why small communities remain dedicated to keeping “their” church open - they’ve lost schools, and post offices, community halls and businesses. The church is their last stand. Now with church closures and amalgamations on the horizon for many congregations, perhaps the Spirit will work to remove the barriers between congregations and enable identity to be defined by ministry rather than history and family tradition.
Who is worthy to receive the Good News of Jesus? Who is worthy to receive the Bread of Life and the Water of Life? Who is worthy to tell everyone what they found and the grace that went with it?
If we have an “except” after the “All Welcome” on our church sign then we are not watching and listening as Jesus broke down barriers, coloured outside the lines of his world and proclaimed the Gospel.
Come all you who are hungry and thirsty and you will receive what you need for abundant life.
Come.
Everyone.
Come and receive.
Amen!
1 Samuel 16: 1-13
Psalm 23
John 9: 1-41
In September, the British Commonwealth said goodbye to a beloved monarch who had reigned for an unprecedented 70 years. Sometimes we forget that she was not born to be queen. In a country where the king was expected to produce an heir and a spare, she was the daughter of “the spare.” In 1936, when she was 10 years old, her uncle, King Edward VIII abdicated in order to marry Wallis Simpson, and his brother, the SECOND in line, the Prince Albert, became King George VI. When he became King, the Princess Elizabeth became the “next in line.”
The movie, The King’s Speech, tells us that the King engaged a speech therapist to help him overcome a stutter, or stammer as the British tend to call it, so that he could speak to the people without his speech difficulty getting in the way. When war was declared, stirring speeches would be required to inspire the people of the commonwealth, and particularly those who lived in the cities which bombed by their enemy. His speech therapist, Lionel Logue, received a knighthood as a thank you.
Today’s passage from the First Book of Samuel tells of the anointing of the boy who would eventually become King David. We live in a democracy and come election time, actually just about any time, the business of politics may result in damaged reputations and the spending of obscene amounts of money but lives are rarely lost and no blood is shed. If we were in Russia, China or North Korea, or any of many countries in the world, we would not be free to express the opinion that someone else could do a better job.
In some places it would not go well for you if you were from an ethnic minority either. The world had high hopes for Myanmar when the popular leader under house arrest for years, Aung San Suu Kyi, became their elected leader but the county is now known to persecute their Muslim minority and many have had to flee the country. A family of 3 was welcomed to the Nova Scotia community where I lived before coming here and I had the joy of helping them settle into life in Canada.
Students of European history will know that the United Kingdom was not always so united - I refer to the Battle of Culloden, where some who supported a rival king, “Bonnie Prince Charlie,” were defeated by the red-coats. The memory of this has been revived by the Outlander series, a highly fictionalized drama series set in and after that time.
I Samuel is a story from the ancient world, a time when earthly kings tried to hold absolute power. In the days before the vast empires of Assyria, Persia and Rome, Israel was a relatively new and very small nation which, at first, did not have a king. They began their life as a nation with a system of religious leaders called, “Judges” because they regarded God as their true king! However, the short version of a much longer story, is that the people got the idea that great nations had kings and the people whined and complained until God gave in and gave them what they wanted. Saul was chosen as the King. As time went on though, it was clear that his leadership showed that he had turned his back on God. Samuel knew that a new king had to be chosen, from a new family entirely, NOT a son of Saul.
And so, we begin our story with God telling Samuel that it was time to get up and act. It was time to choose a new king. Yet there were some very real and practical problems with such a course of action. I expect that Saul had spies everywhere and the king “would know” if Samuel went off and anointed someone else as king! Under God’s guidance, a ruse is devised and Samuel, and his entourage, with a heifer in tow, set out to Bethlehem to choose one of Jesse’s sons as the new king.
If you were choosing a king, whom would you choose? What would you look for? Stature? Good looks? Skill with weapons of war? Good at diplomacy? Brawn? Brains? What else is important?
Jesse is asked to summon his sons and to prepare for a worship involving a sacrifice and presumably a feast! All of Jesse’s sons seem to be fine fellows - as far as Samuel is concerned, but God makes it clear that something else is needed and wanted in a king. God is not looking at the outer appearance but at the heart and soul. Samuel asks, “is it this one?” “Is it this one?” Over and over again. “OK God, this is the last one, is it him?” “Uh-oh”, he must have thought, “something has gone wrong. There is no one left. Someone made a mistake here.” Hoping against hope Samuel asks Jesse if he has forgotten a son. It turns out that there was another - it’s not like he was the black sheep, or anything like that, but more like the afterthought. He was a mere child; too young to merit much attention or consideration in a large family. As we heard, he was sent for and God’s voice assures Samuel, “yes, anoint this one. Anoint him.”
I find it ironic that while God instructs Samuel not to look at outward appearances when the other sons are brought to Jesse, when David comes to Samuel, the author of the story makes a point of saying that he was “ruddy,” had “beautiful eyes”, and was “handsome.” What is going on?
I have read that these were not the physical features that pointed to kingship. A ruddy complexion showed that he was accustomed to spending time outside, watching the sheep. Perhaps his hands were calloused and rough and his body bore the scars of a life tending animals.
Apparently shepherding was not the sort of occupation that high class people would be personally involved with, and you would want a high class person to be king. While high class people owned a lot of sheep the actual work of caring for them was farmed out to hirelings, or the youngest sons in large families where the baby had few perks. The last thing that people would have thought of when they looked at David, was “he will make a fine King!”
When I was in theological school I had a classmate who was a superb singer and he introduced us to a number of really, really great songs. Some became favourites. One that I have not actually thought much about in many years is “Look Beyond.” Written for the 1981 International Year of the Disabled, by an occupational therapist from Toronto, it asks the listener to look beyond the physical limitations which might be all is seen first, to the inner character and the tenacity of people living with disabilities. It’s second verse refers to the composer Beethoven who was deaf, to Terry Fox the young man from BC who ran from St John’s in Newfoundland and Labrador, to just east of Thunder Bay, Ontario, on an artificial leg and united this nation with his Marathon of Hope, and to American President, Franklin D Rosevelt who led his country through a war while sitting in a wheelchair. The chorus of the song calls us to see with different eyes, “Look beyond what I am not, and you’ll see just what I am, I’m a woman, I’m a child, I’m a man.” When we look, what do we see?
I am a part of various facebook groups. On Thursday evening a post shared the tragic death by suicide of a priest in the Church of England, just this month - at the age of 44. She was someone who appeared, on the outside to have “it all together,” and ministered to many people in their time of need. I never knew this person but the news of her death gave me pause. Over 25 years ago, a beloved and highly respected professor who had been president of my theological school when I was a student, took his own life. It shocked and saddened everyone who had known him, myself included.
I remember the teenager whose cry for help involved a gun, but the means of his cry for help left us with no possible response but tears and regret. The police termed it an accidental suicide. A cry for help that no one heard until it was too late to hear; too late to see the signs. I think of him on occasion and wonder what kind of person he would have become if someone had seen, heard and been able to help.
In the face of a passage about Samuel looking at the sons of Jesse with different eyes and a passage about Jesus healing a man born blind, what does it say to the followers of Jesus about seeing and sight.
In the case of deaths by suicide, I think we are we are called to see others with more compassion, more openness and to be wary of placing so many completely unreasonable expectations on people so that there is no room for failure and no second chances. If you “see” someone who looks like they are having trouble reach out and listen. It could save a life.
If God does see the little sparrow fall, what can the church, as God’s servants, do to see them before they fall? “Look Beyond” is a song about physical disabilities - but a similar note could be sounded with regard to gender or race.
When we look at someone who is different from ourselves in some way, what is the first thing we see, what is the first thing we think? Do we only see the “difference,” and does that difference make that person of less value than others.
Broadview Magazine published an article this past month on the development of the belief in the western world that Jesus was white, based mostly on artistic renditions of him. It refers to a particular painting because it is so, so common; so well known. I suppose that we tend to pattern Jesus after ourselves in order to see us in him and his relevance to our lives.
There is good reason to believe that he would have actually looked more like a resident of a village in Palestine than a long haired business executive with western European features. As I said, It’s normal to depict a Jesus that looks like us, but when the predominant image, overshadows all others, it presents a skewed view of Jesus and blinds us to the value of the people from other places.
We read in this article that black children in oppressive states went to Sunday school and saw the white Jesus on their classroom walls. This Jesus was a not-so-subtle reminder of the white men who turned fire hoses on them and who kept them from any kind of advancement. They likely saw (this) (the) very image (that hangs on the church wall in Codette! (One of my churches has this picture on the wall behind the pulpit. I suppose it’s been there for years. I don’t know.) I’m not saying we should toss it, but rather that we make room for other images who reflect the features of others who are also Children of God and beloved. I’m sure there are images which depict Jesus as a member of the Cree nation or as a black man! If you don’t get Broadview, you can read the article on the internet.
As we gather the food here at the front for the Salvation Army Food Bank , I am reminded of the Salvation Army ad I saw one Christmas. It was a photograph of a park bench - but if you looked more closely a man was sleeping on that bench. I believe it also ran with another ad, of a homeless family almost blending into a brick wall, in a city somewhere in Canada.
Look.
Really, really look.
Use the eyes God gave you, not just the ones you were born with.
Look.
What is God trying to get you to see?
The encounter with Jesus on that long ago day gave the man living with blindness, the sight he never had. The work of the Spirit gave Samuel the eyes to see in David, the king he would never have noticed if he chose another of Jesse’s sons. If we allow the Spirit to change our sight, what might be right in front of our eyes, calling us to take a second, or a third, look.
Those with the eyes to see, let them see!
Amen.
Ezekiel 37: 1-14
Psalm 130
John 11: 1-45
Mortal, can these bones live?
The TV show, “Bones,” is categorized as a “crime procedural comedy drama” which ran for 12 seasons. Comedy and crime do not seem to go together but this show did it well! Dr Temperance Brennan, a brilliant forensic anthropologist, and her eventual husband, FBI Special Agent Sealey Booth, and their colleagues solve murders and sometimes leave us in stitches. Dr Brennan has little or no tact, no religion, and few social skills. Booth, on the other hand, is staunchly Catholic, suave and tactful when that is needed. She often responds, “I don’t know what that means” when someone refers to just about anything in contemporary culture. In the show she helps to identify the dead that show up in the vicinity of Washington DC and we have been told that she has helped identify the victims of massacres overseas - where, for example, activities of ethnic cleansing eliminated entire communities. In one episode she and her team identified the remains of a person from just a few bones of one hand. When she is not busy studying current remains to catch killers, like many forensic anthropologists, she studies remains of people dead for hundreds or even thousands of years.
She works with Angela, an artist who can take a skull and using the gifts of modern technology and a bit of guesswork, give that skull a face and often, a name. They seek to bring closure to families looking for answers to the fate of their loved ones. Under their skilful artistry, the bones live.
We have all seen the pictures on the news of the destruction caused by war, by earthquakes, floods and fires. There has been too much of that lately! Though most networks avoid footage of human remains that might be identifiable, if we think about it, we realize that each “death” was a person who was part of a family and a wider community. We wonder to ourselves how a community or a “people” can survive such atrocities, such destruction. We wonder if those bones can live again.
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is a well-known play by William Shakespeare. I first read it when I was in high-school. Hamlet visits a cemetery where the gravediggers are preparing to bury his sweetheart Ophelia, who has drowned herself. In the process of digging the grave they uncover a skeleton - and Hamlet asks whose it is. The answer is Yorick. Hamlet takes the skull from the gravedigger, looks at it closely and says,
“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, ....; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? (Hamlet, V.i)
In the passage from the Hebrew scriptures read just a few minutes ago, Ezekiel is given a vision of a valley of dried bones, representing his people, Israel. God asks “Mortal, can these bones live?” Ezekiel responds to God, saying, “only you know.” Upon God’s command, Ezekiel prophesies to the bones and they reconnect and are en-fleshed and appear to be humans once more. Yet they are still not alive; this comes with a further word from God; they regain their “breath”. This vision of Ezekiel is a powerful story of hope in the face of unfathomable despair.
Is this passage something we are supposed to take literally? Was it ever meant to be read that way? Is it something that has metaphorical truth, these thousands of years later?
Many of us know someone whose life was saved by the miracles of defibrillators, skilled doctors and life saving drugs. I was watching the news a few nights ago and found out that there are new concerns in the medical community about “additives” to street drugs which are “Naloxone resistant” - meaning that a timely injection of Naloxone will not be enough to save their lives. Often doctors and EMT’s cannot figure out what exactly has been injected or ingested and how to counteract it. The additives which adulterate these drugs may make them “cheaper” (and thus increase the dealer’s profit) or “more addictive” but are also making them “deadlier”. “Harm reduction” strategies are about keeping addicts alive until they are ready to do the hard work of becoming drug free. Those who work in this area of health care are hoping to bring persons experiencing addiction to a drug free life, but cannot do that if the people overdose and die.
Last Tuesday, I was speaking with a colleague on our weekly Zoom meeting, who said that he has seen this passage lived out many times. He spoke of his ministry of prison visitation where inmates can go from the brink of death as they begin their sentence to fullness of life as they end their sentence and prepare for release. He was asked, “Mortal, can these bones live?” and he responds, “Most certainly, I have seen it!”
Lets talk just a little bit about the situation Ezekiel faced. Ezekiel was an active prophet for about 22 years, 5 centuries before Jesus. I talked last week about Israel being a small country and David being the chosen king. Ezekiel lived about 400 years later in a time when the mighty superpower of Babylon was running roughshod over all the little city-states and in the process created a huge empire. The brightest and best of the defeated nations were captured and taken to Babylon. Israel’s beloved temple, build by Solomon lay in ruins. The Exile is synonymous with a “time of despair.” This vision is his message to the people that, “yes, with Go’s power, these bones can, and will, live”. Yet, we must be careful to keep in mind that it is a vision and no, individual people will not come back to life. It is a powerful metaphor for the people as a whole, to return from Exile and to live fruitfully and abundantly in the land which God gave them.
Some time after I moved here, I was given a beautiful pictorial book titled “Forgotten Saskatchewan” by photographer Chris Attrell. At first I had never heard of many of these places, but now they are somewhat familiar. At first, I was surprised to find, on the page facing the first of many photographs, a quote from Lucy Maud Montgomery, the famous Prince Edward Island author. Then I remembered that her father lived for a time in Prince Albert. She wrote, “Nothing is ever really lost to us, as long as we remember it.” The churches, stores and grain elevators remembered in the book hearken back to the era of a “homestead on every quarter.” The old vehicles are rusting into the ground, the buildings decaying and no-longer habitable, and the elevators abandoned and toppling. No milk-cows graze nearby, no chickens peck at the dirt for seed, worms and laying mash! Yet, I can picture a light in every window, a door opening quickly to friend and stranger and the farm machinery actively working and seeding and harvesting and a farmer bringing the best wheat in the world to be weighed at the local elevator on a Fairbanks Scale, invented for the purpose of weighing large loads. The families that lived in those houses and worked the land were often bone-tired yet proud of the life they found on this prairie. Their descendants have moved on, to live and work elsewhere as one family needs so much more than one quarter to make a living and with increasing mechanization farmers do not need to stable drafthorses on their homestead to work their land. We are here because they laid the foundations for our very different lives. Their bones live on, through us! It’s much more than memory!
I can also picture the proud indigenous tribes tied to the rivers and the buffalo for thousands of years. Their Babylon, the mighty British empire, deliberately slaughtered the buffalo on which they depended and gathered their bones in huge piles of their bones - to eventually be sold for fertilizer or to make china in the factories of England. They tried to kill them with germ warfare. Their children were sent to residential schools to be educated in white ways and languages but were often abused, poorly nourished and and ended up not knowing their own culture while being an outcast in ours. The government was making way for the settlers - who farmed and mined the land. Ironically, many of these settlers would not have survived those first winters without the help of nearby indigenous peoples. In our time, our indigenous brothers and sisters have figuratively taken the bones of their ancestors in their hands and staring into the empty eye sockets, have said loudly and confidently, “yes, these bones will live again”. As settler peoples we can work with them toward true reconciliation, and all the bones can live.
We read this passage during the season of Lent and we are asked to bring to it all of our sorrows, all of our disappointments, all of our seeming failures and all of our grief AND to allow God’s word of life to speak to us.
This passage as metaphor is much more powerful when it is taken as a word of hope for us; not just for a tribe of exiles thousands of years ago but for us in Saskatchewan in 2023! God’s word tells us that we are not abandoned. To the grieving, the word of God allows us to give thanks for a life well-lived and to look to a future without a loved one, or without the family farm, or without a life-long vocation, that gave us identity and purpose. In the words of one of my favourite hymns, God’s word (through the poetry of Natalie Sleeth) says to us, “From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.”
To those coping with illness, or feelings of loneliness and abandonment, the word of God comes in Psalm after Psalm, “you know when I sit down and when I rise up,” “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want,” and “I called on God in my distress and God answered me.” It can be as if Jesus has called to us to come out of the tombs that imprison us and has enabled us to embrace life once again.
We can be the agents of God when we welcome the refugee from conflicts beyond their making and when we feed the hungry who have found themselves without the means to keep body and soul together. The early church was known for their care for one another, and in the words of the early Christian writings, the “care of widows and orphans.” These were the people who fell through the very wide cracks in their totally non-existent social safety net.
The enduring message of the scriptures is that our God is a God of life. We are who we are because of our past. What has heppened to us up to this point has made us who we are but we are also a people whol are called to walk into the future with purpose and hope. We know and can experience the love of a God who will not abandon us and who calls us into a future where we will have life ikn great abundance.
These bones will live.
Praise be to God; it is not hopeless, these bones will live?
Amen.
Matthew 21: 1-11
Psalm31:
I’m sure you are familiar with the sets of pictures that appear in the puzzle sections of newspapers or on cell-phone apps dedicated to this purpose; puzzles in which your task is to identify a certain number of differences between the two pictures. I suppose that in the newspaper version you would have all the time you need but on the cell phone app, at least the ones I have tried, you have only so many seconds to find all of the differences. If the pictures are of an office, with a woman at the desk, for example, the art on the wall may be different, the doorknob may be different and there may be a plant in one and not the other - and after that, the differences are harder to find and as you are anxiously looking for the last few differences you hear a beep and see a big red X as the app times out and you have to start over!
We have read the story of what is often called, “Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem” and are probably able to form a picture of it in our minds. We may have seen drawings of it in a Children’s Bible, or seen news footage of a re-enactment which are very popular in Latin America, for example. We can imagine Jesus riding a donkey, the ground covered with coats and throngs of people waving palm branches while shouting, “Hosanna,” which means, “save us!” When we hear the words, Palm Sunday, those are most likely theimages that come to mind. Now, keep in mind that Jerusalem was a “walled city” and had several “gates” or entrances. Did you know, that there was another “triumphal entry” on that day; through a different gate at the opposite side of the city. This other entry was not just one man on a donkey but a large number of soldiers, mounted on horseback, in a show of military might. Apparently, it happened every year, and was timed to be in sync with the Jewish Passover, a festival for which large crowds would flock to the city, gather and celebrate the escape from Egypt. It was not hard to see how emotions would run high when large crowds gathered to mark a festival that celebrated release from slavery. This display of military might and power was all about keeping the peace and was a warning against rebellion. Big emotions often result in short fuses, frayed nerved and violence. We have all heard about various sports riots, including various “Stanley Cup Riots” and instances of football hooliganism in Europe. I guess that people were not that different in the ancient world - huge crowds of people were unpredictable and Rome sent a show of force to contain it, to prevent it, to show the people just who was in charge.
Each event had been carefully planned. I suppose that Rome would have had its own protocol officers and so did Jesus. Rome’s entry was a show of imperial power. Jesus’ was a show of divine power. But it was not the choirs of angels kind of power, it was not the earthquake, fire and smoky mist kind of power, it was the quiet strength of the prophetic word, kind of power. As we read the story it is obvious that he had arranged the use of the donkey; it was not by some kind of ESP that the owner knew that Jesus needed it.
It is in the differences between these two “moving pictures” that the message of Jesus lies. I learned long ago that horses were for kings and armies; donkeys were beasts of burden, vehicles for the poor, a ride for a pregnant woman to get to Bethlehem for the census 30 years or so before. Donkey riding was not for kings, but for peasants!
This brings me to a humorous aside that I just have to mention. You may have noticed that Matthew tells us that Jesus was riding two animals; a donkey AND a colt. Matthew was not an eye witness. Matthew believed that Jesus was the fulfilment of ancient Hebrew prophecy. Matthew’s problem was that he did not really understand how Hebrew poetry worked. When we think of poetry we think of rhyme and metre.
While listening to “The Current” on Thursday morning, Sherry Fitch was interviewed. Among other things she is a writer of children’s poetry which works on several levels: image, cadence, nonsense, and rhyme.
Mabel Murple’s house was purple So was Mabel’s hair Mabel Murple’s cat was purple Purple everywhere. Mabel Murple’s bike was purple So were Mabel’s ears And when Mabel Murple cried She cried terrible purple tears.
In case you are interested Mabel Murple also has a whole book dedicated to her. Hebrew poetry, on the other hand, works on repetition, not rhyme. For example, in Psalm 99 we read: “The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake! The Lord is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.” And again from the Psalms, number 89: “I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, for ever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations. I declare that your steadfast love is established for ever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.” Matthew quotes the prophet: Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’
In his haste to make sure people knew that Jesus was fulfilling a prophet’s message, the writer of Matthew’s gospel, created a circus-like image of Jesus riding two animals, probably of differing sizes. We don’t need to get stuck on that mistake; let’s chuckle, and move on.
The spreading of cloaks on the road was a sign of respect for a king. When I was much younger I heard a story of Queen Elizabeth I and the scholar, poet and explorer, Walter Raleigh, going for a stroll. They came to a large puddle and Raleigh laid his cloak over the puddle so that the queen would not get her feet wet. I have been told that it never happened, but it’s a good story!
So we have the Roman army entering through one gate and Jesus entering through another. I think that the people greatly misunderstood Jesus’ aims and his ministry. Everything he said showed that his reign was not like those of the military empires who sought power and wealth. We are told that even the disciples were operating under a great misunderstanding of Jesus’ mission. Some of them also held to the widespread hope that the Messiah would come, defeat the Romans and make their country great once again. One was even a Zealot, a group of people who believed in overthrowing Rome and restoring the glory days of King David.
We re told that the crowds shouted, “Hosanna!” which means, “save us”. Perhaps we should ask, “Save us from what? Save us from whom?” Perhaps they should have noticed more and listened more because Jesus entry on this day and Jesus words over time were different from that of Rome, at the other side of the city. It was not a display of rival power. His rhetoric was not what other rebels would spout and his ways were not violent. This became evident when he rebuked one of his followers for attacking the slave of the high priest and cutting off one of his ears.
If Jesus was not showing the power of Empire, what was he trying to say in his so-called, “triumphal entry”. I think that he was trying to show that God’s reign, God’s kindom, was different from that of a Caesar led Rome, or the Babylon or Persia, of old.
His reign was, first and foremost a reign of peace, of love and of justice - it was the antithesis of worldly power. Throughout his upcoming trial it is clear that there is a massive misunderstanding of his aims and objectives. Christ’s reign was not “of this world” but it has and can have a profound impact on this world.
The crowd cried “Hosanna” and were probably thinking of Jesus’ reign as something which would garner a following to overthrow the power of those who entered through the other gate on the other side of the city. But that wasn’t what Jesus had in mind!
But, its now 2023. When WE wave our palm crosses, and shout, “Hosanna”, do we ever stop and ask, “Why are we doing this and what am I looking to be saved from, or saved for?”
Do we want to be saved from the kind of greed that makes some rich at the expense of others? Do we want to be saved from the kind of power struggles that start and maintain wars? Do we want to be saved from the kind of power structures that value white men over women and all people of colour. Do we want to be saved from the colonialism that values the needs of the colonizer over the needs of those who took care of the land for thousands of years? Do we want to be saved from the kind of faith that wants all blessings and no responsibilities. Do we want to be saved for a life lived in the ways of Jesus? For too long saved has had a very narrow meaning: saved meant saved from sin and heaven-bound. But it is more than that - We have been promised Abundant and even Eternal life but it is NOT just “pie in the sky, by and by.” It is a quality of life that can be experienced in the here and now, if we trust in God and in Jesus’s message of liberation.
After an initial genealogy, Matthew’s gospel is the one which tells us about the visit of the Magi. These “wise men” made a major mistake when they went looking for the baby Jesus in the palace. You may remember that, in response, Herod set out to kill Jesus but did not succeed. A large number of boys under the age of two died as a result.
On the surface Jesus posed no danger to Herod. Jesus was not after the throne of Israel. Jesus was looking to reign in the hearts of his followers from every corner in the Roman Empire and beyond. He was looking to reign in their lives. He was looking to bring in a realm of justice and mercy and unconditional love. In a world where might is right, Jesus was proclaiming the strength that can be found in weakness, the courage that can be found in turning the other cheek. His was a reign where the lost were not excluded, but sought after; a reign where the blind were given sight and the lame enabled to walk. His reign echoed the words of prophets which proclaimed release to the captives and the beginning of the year of God’s favour.
pause
On second thought, Herod WAS right to worry - Jesus’ reign, if fully realized, would turn the ways of the world upside down and inside out. A people, a nation, who followed Jesus’ way would present a great danger to the ways of the world. What would a world of justice flowing down like a mighty stream really look like? What would a world where everyone had enough to eat look like? What would a world look like where everyone had at least adequate shelter for the climate? What would a world look like where people were properly compensated for their labour and could live on their full-time wage? What would a world look like where the process of mining and producing trinkets for the rich, such as diamonds and gold, did not cause the massive environmental damage as well as exploitation of the poor or indigenous who happened to live in places where those things lie hidden in the soil? What would it look like if the gap between rich and poor was not growing ever wider? What would a world look like if we made serious attempts to reduce global warming and put our fears aside as we step into a way of being in the world that we have never had to try before? What would it look like of people asked “how can I make a positive difference?” instead of “What’s in it for me?” most of the time.
The reign of Christ would pose a great danger to a world of “waste and want” living side by side and -17- “vested power” being firmly entrenched. The reign of Christ would pose great danger to the corruption and back-room deal making that seem common in politics and big business, but ends up doing harm to many. The reign of Christ would pose a great danger to a society where wealth and power give more value to those who have it, and lessen the value of the poor and the powerless.
So when we shout Hosanna are we really calling for the Reign of Christ?
Amen.