Job 42: 1-6, 10-17
Psalm 34: 1-8
Hebrews 7: 23-28
Mark 10: 46-52

In the only healing in the Gospel of Mark in which the one being healed has a name, we have a man named Bartimaeus receiving the gift of sight and responding in discipleship. Of course, there is more to the story than meets the eye! Of course, there is almost always more to the story than meets the eye when you are dealing with the gospels.

One of the most popular call-in shows on the last half of Maritime Noon is the “Genealogy Call-In” with Terry Punch. You probably have heard it if you listen to any CBC at all: people call in and ask where their families came from or how they came to use the names they did. Terry tells us that surnames are a relatively new phenomenon. Many of our surnames are derived from English or non-English words for occupations, or merely living in a town or other significant place. So a stone worker would eventually take on the surname Mason; and the person who made horseshoes would become a Smith. Some come from simply being the son of a particular person. So at some point Harry son of Tom eventually adopted the surname Thomson. So the name Thomson literally means “son of Tom”.

While names no longer serve this purpose, nicknames are the way in which we confer identity today. My brother had a friend called ‘Worm” because he was small, wiry and could wiggle out of trouble, and I went to school with ‘Snowball” , named so because of his extremely blond hair. Sometimes we choose other ways of identifying people with the same name. Not intending to pick on anyone in particular, in St Andrew’s we have two people named Linda Hannay: many people call them “Linda Donald” and “Linda Rodney”!

Similarly, in Jesus day names, even men’s names, were based on the name of one’s father. So Simon sometimes called Simon Peter, is also called Simon bar Jonah, meaning that he was Simon son of John. The name Bartimaeus automatically means son of Timaeus, a fact which the gospel writer tells us, twice!! It may have been a fact added to explain this to readers unfamiliar with Jewish names. He seems to have no “personal” name, no identity of his own.

As I was researching the passage this week I came across the work of a scholar who believes that this man’s name is stressed because Timaeus was a name that the average reader of the gospels would readily recognize. Timaeus was the name of a famous play by Plato, the ancient Greek writer and philosopher. Incidentally, this play contains the first reference to Atlantis, the legendary city which is said to have disappeared, without a trace, into the ocean. More relevant to our discussion today though, in ths play all people, except for the enlightened philosophers, are blind to the real truths about life. The name “Timaeus” would be a symbol of all that was enlightened and knowledgeable, according to the accepted philosophies of the Greek speaking world. For a son of Timaeus to admit his blindness, seek Jesus out, receive sight, and follow, would be an obvious indictment of the ways and thoughts of prevailing and popular Greek philosophy. So this simple healing could have broad social and religious implications. However Jesus is also quick to challenge what he saw as mis-conceptions about the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Its not just the non-Jews; in the gospels, everything is to be open to the scrutiny of the Good News.

This and other stories in the gospels made it very clear then that the Jesus’ way was one of sight while the old ways were ones of blindness. While modern liberal Protestantism is not so quick to dismiss the truth that is found in other ways of thinking and being in the world, the gospel writers had no such qualms. They were trying to persuade others of the truths that they had discovered in Jesus of Nazareth. As one evangelist has out it, they were one beggar trying to tell other beggars where to find bread.

In addition, the events recorded in this passage are meant to be viewed alongside the others in the same section of the gospel. Last week we encountered two disciples, James and John, who wanted positions of power, prestige and honour in Jesus’ new kingdom. They did not understand what discipleship was all about. When viewed in the light of today’s passage it becomes even more ironic that the disciples who possessed physical sight were the ones who were blind to the truth about who Jesus was and what his mission was and the one who lacked physical sight was the one who truly knew both of these things.

In this passage Jesus asks Bartimaeus what he wanted; and he asks for sight. While that may seem like a dumb question, it serves two purposes. First, as a passage meant to be read in conjunction with the one just before it, we are meant to notice the contrast between Bartimaeus’ request and that of the disciples who asked Jesus for a favour which involved power and prestige. Second, it gives Bartimaeus the opportunity to make a request other than one for sight. Perhaps he wanted some money, or some food, or just to talk to Jesus.

It’s not always apparent what people want. I made a pastoral visit one day and asked, “What can I do for you?” She asked for a prayer. On another visit I was asked to take the envelopes that had been missed to the church treasurer. On another visit I was asked to open a bottle of pills a grandchild had forgotten to open before leaving for work. Some want to sleep, some are sleepy but want to talk about something. So its not always clear what is wanted.

For Bartimaeus, receiving his sight would not have been an easy transition to make. We are told that he threw off his cloak to get up and meet Jesus. It was most likely his only possession and he might not have been able to recover it if he had not, in fact, received his sight. While it is not likely that he actually became a disciple of Jesus, in the sense that he followed them day after day as a 13th follower, Mark tells us that he is known to have become a believer.

Left there sighted now, both physically and socially, he would have been introduced to a newer and perhaps more difficult life. What employer would hire him when his only recent work experience consisted of begging for spare change? What work could he do? Was his back up to hard labour any more? His muscles? In many very poor countries some children were and are deliberately disabled by their parents so that begging can become their means of earning money so that the family can survive. In addition he would have had to endure the social pressures placed on Jesus’ followers in the weeks leading up to the crucifixion and in the years following.

Sight is, at least in the English language, a metaphor for understanding and insight. It is not enough to see something with the eyes, it must be seen with the mind and heart.

Seeing is believing. What we see colours our reality. Someone will swear that they saw the “Loch Ness Monster” and believe while some others will believe just on the word of the first group. Others will not believe until they can see and touch Nessie for themselves.

So the question for us today is , “What do we want?” Do we want sight, the ability to see the call of God and to follow it? Or would we rather just continue along like we are. There is a song called, “Sometimes I wish my eyes had never been opened”. While written specifically for the feminist movement its sentiments can apply to many ‘awakenings’. When parents find evidence of drug use in a child’s backpack they may wish that they never had because the road ahead may become very bumpy. When someone discovers that something illegal, immoral or unethical is going on a the place where they work hey are faced with some difficult choices. A journalist of my acquaintance discovered that some local politicians were patronizing a local establishment when illegal activities were going on. Her editor would not publish it on the threat of being fired from her job. So despite the danger she leaked the story to a colleague at a radio station. Her job was no longer secure but her conscience told her that she had done the right thing.

When we come to the point where our faith is more than going to church and avoiding breaking the rules such as the ten commandments we are forced to evaluate our entire lives in the light of our understanding of the gospel. When we see injustice we are called not only to name it but to try and eradicate or, at least, lessen it. Some churches have taken this to heart by allowing refugees facing deportation to live in their church buildings until new hearings are granted. Some inner city churches operate outreach ministries to the hungry, the homeless, or those involved in the sex trade.

It’s about seeing with the eyes of faith what is wrong and that something needs to change, and then going out and doing what can be done. Its not always about applying bandaids and sometimes, the best intentioned efforts are not what should have been done, but we are called to go out and BE the hands and feet and eyes and ears of Christ in thye world.

Our Presbytery has been promoting a ‘water project’ for the last month. Labor de Falla, Guatemala has one well which has collapsed. People are foced to carry their water for long distances. People involved with our church have seen that need and our Presbytery World Outreach committee has offered the help we can. Many of you grew up without running water, but consider carrying all of your water several miles and not just from the back yard. See that with your imagination. When you have seen, respond as you can. If you have responded already, thank you.

You see, seeing isn’t always easy. Perhaps Bartimaeus lived to regret being a recipient of that long ago miracle. We don’t know. But he received his sight and he responded the only way he knew, in following the one he saw first with his heart, then with his eyes.

So open your eyes, see the need, see the call, see the Christ in our midst. And when you have seen, respond in faith and love.

Amen.

Ruth 1: 1-18
Psalm 146
Hebrews 9: 11-14
Mark 12: 28-34

It’s a beautiful story of love and devotion; a tale of obstacle-overcoming courage and affection of a woman for her mother-in-law. As the story begins, Naomi, a woman of Israel, living in the land of Moab, has lost her husband and now her sons. Her only hope of survival is to return to the homeland to which she had said, “Farewell”, so long ago, and to try and eke out an existence on the good graces of her late husband’s relatives. As we heard, her daughters-in-law both start off with her on the journey to a land known to them only in the stories of their husbands. While one, Orpah, is persuaded to return to her own home, the other, Ruth, insisted on accompanying Naomi to her homeland. Her proclamation of devotion was eloquent and forceful and it was enough to silence any of Naomi’s protests. As we continue with this story next week, we shall see that her devotion, lived out in concrete actions, turned out to be enough to give her, a foreigner from a somewhat suspect country, a place in the family tree of the most important king to ever reign in Israel. Her love for Naomi and her devotion to Israel’s God, stand as a shining beacon in the midst of stories which all too easily discount foreigners just because of their national origin. Hers is s story of love and devotion despite the obstacles put in her way.

Today’s passage from the gospel of Mark follows several disputes Jesus had with various religious leaders. But it seems that on this day the question which is asked is not devised to test him but as part of a genuine quest for truth. We are told that this person liked the answers that Jesus was giving. So he asked a question, needing to know the answer, “What is the greatest commandment?” In his answer Jesus adapts a familiar passage from the book of Deuteronomy. He has held up this one verse on which he can base all of his teachings about ethics and behaviour and devotion and service. If your truly live out this simple command then you have understood what it is to be faithful.

In Jesus’ day there were many things that were required of the faithful Jewish person. There were, of course, the ten commandments and all of the interpretation around them. Then there were all of the laws concerning sacrifices to be made at various times of the year, the month, or after special events in one’s life. There were various titles to be paid in addition to the great burden of taxes extracted by Rome. These laws were so numerous that many of the common folk found them impossible to follow. Of course the religious leaders, with very sincere motives, held them up as being important because faithful living was very important. Since it is easier to follow detailed instructions than vague ones, no doubt, the religious leaders sought to cover all possible scenarios.

By way of contrast to some of the scribes we meet in the gospels, however, this scribe we meet in today’s gospel lesson is seeking a way back to what is at the root of all of this; to what IS actually most important. Jesus teaching is not new, it goes back to the early days of his people, almost to the time of the ten commandments.

After many centuries in Egypt and wandering in the wilderness for 40 years the people were addressed with the words “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord Is One”. They were reminded that this one God was their God and that this God demanded undivided loyalty and devotion. As they entered the promised land they would find that they had not only arrived at the end of one journey, but also at the beginning of another. Their journey was not over. They still had to walk the path of faithfulness; they still had to live out their call to be the chosen people. They had to live out their call to be a light to the nations. In the wilderness they faced many dangers but the land of promise was not to be seen as the end of their journey of faithfulness. In the promised land they faced the danger of complacency and they needed to be reminded not only who they were but also whose they were. They were also reminded that the community was a vital part of faithful living. They were reminded that one cannot claim to love God while at the same time ignoring the needs of a neighbour.

In a sense the arrival of Jesus was a renewal of this covenant and those who followed were arriving in a new promised land, figuratively speaking. They needed to be reminded that the journey was not yet over. They needed to be reminded that the journey of faithfulness was a lifelong destination.

So we have a three-fold commandment; love God completely, love neighbour as we love self.

The first commandment speaks of a love of God which encompasses heart and soul and mind and strength. Basically it speaks of loving God with all that we are and can be. What this means to me is that love of God is first in my life. It’s not what comes first in my life as professed with my lips but with my very living. It’s not about watching over our shoulders wondering when, in the fashion of Maude, the 1970's sitcom, “God is going to get us for that!” Its about living in God’s way as a part of our being, not as rules that must be followed. It’s about asking how my life intersects with God’s will as a way of living, not as if we are following directions on how to put together that new desk we bought in a big flat box on our last trip to Costco or that new bike we got for our child’s birthday at Canadian Tire It’s a way of life that comes to us more naturally the more mature we become in our faith. Its about accepting God’s care for us, AS FACT, and responding in kind. We do not respond to God in an attempt to earn that love, but simply as a way of response to a love which is total grace.

The second and third parts of this commandment are really two sides of the same coin: they go together and cannot be separated. For too long the Christian church has implied, if not explicitly taught, that Christian service involved a very unhealthy kind of extreme self-denial which bordered on self-abuse and self-loathing. In this way of looking at things, true Christians always thought of themselves last. True Christians always served others. True Christians, and especially the leaders of the Christian church, were always available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to meet the needs of neighbours, friends and anyone who was in need. True Christians were like that mom in the song about the apple pie, never thinking of getting that piece of pie for themselves because there is always some child at the table who would like seconds.

While this may be a heartwarming way to treat young children it is not easily extended to the life of faith in all circumstances. To be true to the Christian faith we must temper these extreme notions. We must order our lives in such a way that our priority for service to others is balanced by our caring for self and based in a total and complete love of God. At a particularly busy point in my life a retired minister cautioned me against the danger of working too hard, of giving so much of myself that I burn out and have nothing left to give. I was told that taking care of myself was vital to being able to take care of the needs of others. It was valuable advice.

We have the best example of this in Jesus’ own life. When we look at the gospels we note that Jesus went above and beyond the call of duty many times. He walked many miles, teaching and preaching and healing and proclaiming the good news of the gospel. Yet, Jesus also took time off to go to the wilderness to pray. He went away for the express purpose of getting away from the crowds. He spent time with those whose presence ‘fed him’ spiritually. He knew that if he did not look after himself that he would be no good to those he had been sent to serve. While he called people to take up their crosses and follow, he also knew, and taught with his life, that looking after one’s own health, spiritual and physical was essential to faithful service.

While it seems that some people have perfected the art of saying “no” because they don’t want to commit, don’t want to disrupt their own schedules, or can’t be bothered, there are others who seem driven to say ‘Yes” as if they achieve all of their self worth and their identity from that serving and busyness.

Of course, some people say “no” because they don’t feel, rightly or wrongly, that they have the ability to do what was asked. To have a healthy love for ourselves is to be able to name our gifts and our talents and gifts and to be able to know our healthy limits. Our self worth should come from within, from the fact that we are created by a loving God and loved for who we are, not for how many pies we make for the bake sale or how many committees we sit on or how well we are known in the community for all the work that we do.

So we are called to a life of faith-filled balance. We are called to a life lived under the umbrella of God’s grace. We are called to a life in community where the work that needs doing is shared among those with the gifts and where God is worshipped above all else. Like Ruth, our loyalties will be tested, and like Ruth we will receive the strength to follow if we ask, if we care for our own selves, our own relationship with God and if we seek to show this love of God and self to the neighbour we know and the neighbour we have never met.

If we can live out the great commandment with our whole being then we are not far from the life that God intends for all of us.

Let us give our lives to the God who makes all of this possible. Let us receive the love given to us and let us love others as we have been called to love.

Amen.

Ruth 3: 1-5; 4: 13-17
Psalm 127
Hebrews 9: 24-28
Mark 12: 38-44

The book of Judges concludes with the words, “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.” The book of Ruth, which follows immediately after Judges in our Bibles, begins with the words, “In the days when the judges ruled ....”. Yet this is not a story of people who did “what was right in their own eyes’, but instead, did what was right in the eyes of God. The book of Ruth is a fascinating story of courage and loyalty. It is also a story of a foreigner whose great-grandchild became the greatest king to ever reign in Israel.

When we ask ourselves the question , of the book of Ruth, or any other story for that matter, “What does this story mean?”, we first have to ask ourselves two questions, “In what time is it set?” and “When was it written?” It may surprise us to find out that the dates are not always the same. In this case, the book itself tells us when Ruth is said to have lived: the time of the judges. One of the things that was distinguished Israel from the other nations was that they were governed by leaders called ‘judges’ and not by kings. The judges were military leaders, seen as being directly appointed by God, and who governed between the times of Joshua, who led the people into the walled city of Jericho, and Samuel who anointed first Saul and then David as the first kings of Israel. During this difficult time period, while Israel had taken possession of the ‘land of promise’, the military conquest of the land was an ongoing struggle. The name ‘judge’ can be a bit misleading for us because there is little evidence to suggest they were arbiters of disputes among people or families, on anything more than an occasional basis.

We are introduced to Naomi, her husband and her sons. It was an era when most names had a meaning in and of themselves. The name of Naomi’s husbandElimelech, meaning , ‘my God is king’, shows that this is a righteous family, but the names of the two sons have ominous connotations are more ominous. The names, Mahlon and Chilion, which mean ‘diseased’ and ‘perishing’, show the reader than these two men will die young. Ironically Bethlehem, which means, literally, ‘house of bread’, has no bread; there is a famine in the land. We are told that the family of Elimelech must do the unthinkable in order to survive: they are forced leave Israel to seek their livelihood in the land of Moab.

While in Moab the young mem marry and then all of the women in the story are widowed. In that day and age a woman was completely dependant upon her husband or her adult sons for her economic well being.

Naomi was left without husband or sons to look after her and her only choice was to go back home and hope to be able to scrape by on the good graces of some of her dead husband’s relatives. Surprisingly, Ruth goes with her while Orpah does the sensible thing and returns to her family.

There were various laws in Israel designed to help the poor. Landowners were not supposed to harvest their fields to the very edges nor were the harvested supposed to pick up dropped stalks of grain. They were to be left for the “gleaners” who followed after these hired harvesters and picked up the dropped stalks. Under Naomi’s guidance, Ruth goes to the field of a relative to glean for food. To make a long story short, she pushes Boaz to marry her and care for Naomi as well. There were also laws in Israel about the responsibilities of the ‘nearest male relatives’ to care for widows. Many of the details of the story centre around the seemingly convoluted legal arrangements necessary for this marriage to take place. Ruth’s courageous actions ensure the survival of her husband’s name and family property. We are told that the couple is honoured with a child, Obed, who becomes grandfather of King David.

So much for the setting of the story. When was it written down? For what purposes was it told and re-told? Approximately 400 years after the great King David, the tiny nation of Israel was defeated by mighty Babylon and many of its citizens taken into exile. More than 50 years afterward Babylon was itself defeated, this time by Persia, and the people of Israel allowed to return home. The returning refugees faced a devastated city and, the worst of all, a temple in ruins. The leaders of the time, particularly Ezra and Nehemiah, decreed that all foreign influences were to be cast out, including foreign wives. This attempt to keep Israel pure was seen as an antidote to the religious laxity that was blamed for their earlier defeat. As you can imagine, this policy caused great disruptions in families where intermarriage had been common, and it created an atmosphere of racism, hatred and mistrust of foreigners.

Interestingly, in Christian Bibles, the book of Ruth is placed between Judges and Samuel, where it seems to belong historically. In Hebrew Bibles it is included among the “writings”, which include the wisdom literature and the Psalms, leading the reader to believe that there may well be more to the story than meets the eye!

So, those who are so concerned about racial purity, those who wish to go back to “the good old days”, are reminded that even the great King David did not have pure ancestry. Additionally, Ruth was not just someone who was on the family tree who ‘just happened’ to come from Moab; she was an exemplary woman who acted in faithful ways to care for her mother-in-law and to ensure the survival of her husband’s name in Israel. In this context the story of Ruth would function as a ‘parable’, warning people against hasty generalizations about foreigners and their place in God’s plans for Israel.

A little over a week ago a notice appeared on a university campus, advertising a meeting for those wanting to keep the university white. It caused shock and dismay among many members of the campus community and no one showed up. But I wonder how many would have come had it not received the adverse media attention that it did? Who are we as Canadians? We are an ethnically diverse country and unless we are ‘first nations’ we are all immigrants. Like it or not we are an ethnically diverse nation and each person and group contributes to our national fabric in vital and unique ways.

The book of Ruth leads us to ask questions of ourselves as Christians Who are we, really? At least as far as the United Church of Canada is concerned, we are an ethnically diverse church. We have congregations which worship in various First Nations languages, in Japanese and Chinese. Even in Kent County we have people who have emigrated from many different countries as well as the more ‘traditional, France, Scotland, Wales and England. Are we God’s people, first and foremost, or do our political and racial differences override the unity to which God calls us?

Remembrance Day is Tuesday. As we observe this solemn holiday, one thing it must not be used to do is to rekindle the old alliances and the old prejudices given the current nature of global politics and the peaceful and ethnically diverse nature of our Canadian mosaic. As Canadians, we are no longer at war with Germany or Imperial Japan. The Cold War is over. High speed travel and the internet have made our planet seem very small. The current conflicts in Iraq are very troubling to peace and justice loving people everywhere. We know that justice will not be achieved by war. Last week news reports of the torture of Canadians in Syrian jails were tainted with questions of the complicity of western governments. Questions about justice and human rights are always clouded in times of political and military conflict. Somewhere lies common ground and the ground for peace and we must work to find it. Instead of using our views as a weapon with which to hit others, either figuratively or literally, we can use our religious traditions to see how we can change or be more like God’s intention for us.

The book of Ruth is a reminder to the people of Israel that faithful action is more important and more redemptive for the people of Israel than purity of bloodlines (which was the be all and end all of faithfulness in many generations) In an era of ethnic mistrust and suspicion it was crucial that the people remembered that even the great King David’s ancestry was not pure Israel. It was crucial that they remembered that especially the great King David had foreign ancestors. We need to remember that Jesus himself was not white, not middle class, neither blue collar nor white collar!!!! He was a Jew! He was ALSO a Palestinian! He would have looked much like the poor rural Palestinians we see on the news these days. Clearly, foreigners are not all to be tarred with the same brush. The question that matters most is not, ‘who’s your father?’ but ‘who is your God?’.

Who is our God? Whom do we follow?

Amen!

1 Samuel 1: 4-20
1 Samuel 2: 1-10
Hebrews 10: 11-14
Mark 13: 1-8

There is a castle in the north of Italy. I am told that if you ask, the friendly gardener will open the gate and give you a tour of the grounds. I am also told that the grounds are kept in perfect order and in each and every season of the year they look their very possible best.

The same gardener has been there for many years and not once had the owner of the castle visited him, or given him any instructions. His instructions and his salary come from the owner’s agent in Milan. The only visitors are the tourists who know they can be taken on a tour. One of those tourists asked, “You keep this place in such fine condition, just as though you expected your master to come tomorrow. Why?”

To this the gardener replied, “My job is to keep it as if I expect him today.” Adapted from Aha Magazine, Wood Lake Books, Kelowna BC, Canada

Every so often there is a prediction of the ‘end of the world’ from some quarter or other of the religious press or the tele-evangelists. The terrorist attacks in New York a little over 2 years ago were one of those occasions. These folks look at the world and, with one eye, see the disasters that are happening, and with the other eye they see passages such as today’s passage from Mark and then upon adding 2 and 2 come up with an answer of 5.

While these passages seem, at first glance, to tell us that we have to watch out for all of these signs and avert impending disaster with our strict faithfulness, we must remember to place these passages in context. These passages were not intended to, ‘scare the hell out of people”, to put it a little crudely, but to comfort people who were already as frightened as they had ever been in their lives. You see, by the time Mark put pen to paper and wrote his gospel, the temple of which he spoke had already been totally destroyed. Christian communities were being severely persecuted. The world as everyone knew it, was falling apart. As the early church considered their situation, the words that Jesus had spoken about the temple on that long ago day, finally made sense. However, Mark’s purpose in choosing to put them down on paper was not so that the early church would dwell on these visions of destruction, but that they would come to trust in the power of a God who, time and time again came through in a time of destruction. Mark was proclaiming the good news that the God and Father of Jesus the Christ was a God of love and life.

Indeed, as we approach the climax of the church year, the Reign of Christ, we are asked to look at passages which speak of fulfilment in the midst of despair and hope in the midst of adversity. Taking a brief look at the story of Hannah, we see that not only was it a story which explained how the transition from judges to kings happened at the hand of a gracious and benevolent God, but it also assured the people that, this is the way in which God always acts! Hannah’s plight at the beginning of the account was, on the one had, the heartbreak a specific person, but also, on the other hand, a story which spoke of the power and love of a God who acted in such these loving and fulfilling ways all the time. Hannah’s story became a symbol of the story of the entire nation: God was acting to give the people life and hope.

There was once a small-town barber with a very negative attitude. He was also a barber with many opinions and didn’t mind sharing them. Once day a man went to his shop for a haircut. He announced that he and his wife were taking a European vacation. The barber asked him, "Where are you going in Europe?" The man replied, “Well, first, we are going to go to London, then Paris and finally we will spend time in Rome. Maybe well see the Pope."

The barber snorted, "London’s a terrible place. It's dirty, noisy, and way too expensive. You won't like it. Paris is worse. The people there are really very rude. And, Rome is worst of all. The food is terrible. But, whatever you do, don't bother to visit the Vatican. You’ll never get in to see the Pope and even if you do, you won't understand a word he says, because he doesn't speak very good English."

By then the haircut was complete, the man paid the barber, thanked him politely for his advice and left the shop

Six weeks later the man, returned from his trip, went back to the same barber for another haircut.

The barber asked him, "How was your trip?"

The man just beamed as he said. “My wife and I loved it. London was great. It was the most exciting city I have ever visited. The prices were really quite reasonable. Paris was a beautiful city, very hospitable, everyone was kind to us. Rome was the perfect climax to our trip. Everything was wonderful. We ignored your advice. We went to the Vatican, and even had an audience with the Pope. It was amazing, “There weren't any crowds there at all. It was like a private audience with the Pope. And he spoke to each of us personally, and in perfect English. Then he had me kneel, placed his hand on my head, and gave me a blessing. I thought I was finished and started to get up but the pope leaned forward and spoke into my ear, in perfect English, 'Who gave you that lousy haircut?"

Some people are never happy. Things could always be better. They complain and mutter and wish others saw things their way. Some people would rather preach doom and destruction. Some people would rather focus on bad news rather than the Good News of the gospel. There is enough bad news in the world, we certainly don’t need to find it in the gospel. The gospel is about life and hope and love.

That being said, we can’t ignore the problems of the world because it is to these problems that it is addressed. Contrary to what some think these days, our apocalypse is not likely to come at the hand of terrorists. It may well come at the cumulative efforts of the hands of a very dangerous force named progress. Just to give a few examples: in the name of progress we who have computers are forced to upgrade every few years or else we will be “found dead” on the information highway. And most of the old equipment is, technically, functioning properly. Our household appliances now have a useful life of 10-15 years, and our cars , a relatively short time compared with their cost. We Johnston kids are buying our dad a new VCR for Christmas. Now, he could get the old one fixed, but a new one costs much less. So some dump in PEI will get a late Christmas deposit, all because of designed obsolescence. A few years ago, water conservation was a big thing, but that seems to have had its day. Witness the number of swimming pools and hot tubs and whirlpool bathtubs that are being used. Witness the number of showers taken. Witness the amount of lawn people mow and keep up and water, on a weekly basis, or more often! The planet does not have an unlimited supply of anything, and we may be closer tan we think to taxing it to the limits.

Yet the bad news can easily overwhelm us, unless we focus on the will of God who created us for life and for good. In the book of Genesis, we are told that, at the end of each day, God looked at the creation and said that it was good.

From time to time when I turn on the TV and I hear a sermon that sounds a little like the barber’s predictions. “It will be awful and there will be fire and famine and flood and pestilence and only the elect will survive. Everything else will be thrown into the lake of fire. It will be terrible, terrible, terrible. Of course the speaker has an antidote for those who wish to be ‘on God’s side on that day.” Send a donation to a certain address and you can read all of these predictions for yourself any time you want.

As I said, Palestine had and was going through this as Mark was writing. There was the destruction of the temple, persecution of Christians, and more than one person claiming to be the second coming of Christ. Mark, the evangelist, recalled these words for good reason. “Even though it may seem like it must be the end of the world, it’s not likely that it is. What is important is that we live as faithful people day by day.”

To look at the ruins of the first century of Rome such as the Colosseum and the Parthenon is to imagine a grandeur we could hardly duplicate even with all of our technology. It is to have a glimpse of an era initially thought indestructible. To stand near the base of the Empire State Building in New York City is an awesome thing, looking upward 1250 feet to the bottom of the lightning rod. It certainly seems like an indestructible building. Then again, someone once said, in all sincerity that, “God himself could not sink the Titanic”, and all it took was a foolish captain, excessive speed, a relatively small iceberg and a couple of hours. I am told the World Trade Centres at 1350 feet were very impressive, yet we know that the seemingly unthinkable has happened and they are now little more than a massive hole in the ground and their destruction a painful memory for a city and an entire country. Clearly our world is similar to that of Mark, we don’t need news of more, we need Good News.

As Christians we are called to cultivate a Spirit of discernment. In a world of changing values and not so stable places on which to stand we need to be connected to the Spirit which is life. The old ways are disappearing but the “new” is not all good, nor is all of the old useless and out of date. Yet, sometimes, as many women can attest, it’s hard to tell the genuine birth pangs from the false labour; except that when you hold the baby in your hands you know.

We are called to exercise a spirit of patience. As in any disaster we must keep our heads clear. We must wait upon the Spirits and trust rather than doing the first knee jerk thing that comes into our heads. We must also be people of hope. To hope is to trust that God is ultimately in charge, that God’s will is indeed coming into being. This does not mean that everything that happens is God’s will, BY NO MEANS, it does mean that at the end of the day God’s people will prevail and are called not to success, or to arrival but to the journey of faithfulness.

Like a kid on a long car trip we may whine and ask, “Are we there yet?, even though its obvious that we are not! We will know when we arrive, in the meantime we are called to a life of loving faithfulness.

Amen