1 Kings 17: 8-16
Psalm 146
Galatians 1: 11-24
Luke 7: 11-17

It’s happened to all cooks, I’m sure. You are up to your elbows in the dough and you open a container for a cup of sugar only to find it close to empty or look in the fridge for a couple of eggs only to realize that there aren’t any. You remember, too late, that you forgot to put those items on your grocery list. Maybe you wash your hands and go out to the store, or to the neighbour’s to get what you need. Maybe you do, like one of my neighbours did one day, you ‘phone your neighbour and ask her to bring some over.’

The widow of Zarephath wasn’t counting on the neighbours; she looked in her cupboard and she decided that she had better get it over with; she might as well cook one last meal and then wait for death by starvation. It’s not likely that the writer of 1 Kings was being melodramatic. A widow with children who was without an adult male relative to support her was destitute indeed. This woman may have had male relatives, or more properly male in-laws, who were supposed to support her after her husband’s death, but one thing we need to remember about THIS situation was that they were in the middle of a drought. There had been no rain, the watering holes had dried up. Things were desperate for everyone, even for those who could work.

And when times get tough some people start cutting back; when food is short you “look after your own first”; when times get tough, you start saying that “Charity begins at home”, when you break into your “rainy day” account, you want to make sure it lasts! (especially in a drought!!!!!) For whatever reason, this widow was down to her very last meal. The wolf was at the door and she knew it.

Now, as far as we know this woman was a gentile, a non-Jew and Elijah, the prophet of the God of Israel came to her and asked for a meal. Come on now! The travelling preacher asks for a free meal at the home of someone who was from another church and from a starving widow, to boot.

When she explains her predicament, Elijah does not apologize and move on. He simply asks her to grant his request and respond in faith. The story is simply and plainly told. We are informed that the food never ran out. There was always enough in the cupboard to make one more loaf.

We scratch our heads in disbelief. We know that the eents as they are told are impossible. It’s possible that in her stress she could have made a slight mis-calculation in the amount left in the jars but this is just too much of a stretch.

Then, as we are scratching our heads in disbelief, it seems that the miraculous good fortune is completely cancelled out by the death of the woman’s son; who was her only hope for the future. He was the only one she was going to be able to depend on and he became ill and died. She blamed Elijah and, you heard it, Elijah prayed for another miracle and one was granted.

Perhaps the first miracle wasn’t enough for this woman, but the second one finally convinced her that Elijah was a prophet sent from God.

In the gospel lesson Jesus is recorded as having performed a similar miracle for another widow. Although many thing has no doubt changed in Israel by the time of Jesus, as to the plight of widows, those things were still the same.

So what are we to take from these stories. We tend to focus on the miraculous nature of these three miracles. Since we know we would run out of food if we didn’t go out and buy more, and since we know that when people die, they stay that way, we may discount these stories as impossible. We can be left feeling like these are merely wishful thinking and irrelevant for our day.

Yet, if we look at what the original characters in the stories seem to felt and concluded from these events, we will be able to find real meaning for our own day.

The boundaries that separated life from what comes before it and what comes after it were much more blurry for ancient people. Everything major was blamed on God and God was given credit for everything that was to do with life and death, creation and destruction. There was so much they did not know it was second nature for them to credit God with the things they could not see or understand or control.

Yet, despite this, what I think they really focussed on was not the miracle itself, but rather the presence of God.

It was as if God was like a boss who had been temporarily absent from the office and now he had returned. Their lives had gone from bad to worse and it was as if God was absent. After the events recorded in this story took place things changed. The signs were different. The signs that were happening were signs that “God was back”, (not that God had ever left, but it seemed that God had) that “God cared”, that “God was with us and all was right with the world.” Signs are just that, they point to a greater reality, a reality that we often can’t find without this guidance.

Notice that reaction of the people focussed, not on the miracle per se , but on what these events said about the power, presence and care of God as manifest in Elijah and then Jesus. “Now we KNOW that this man is from God”. “ We know that God is with us”.

Life can be a very frightening journey, if you have noone to journey with you, no one to steady you when you stumble, no one to assure you that “this too shall pass”. These passages assure those whose worlds are falling apart that the God of heaven and earth is caring and present. We may believe that God is not bothered with “the likes of us”, we aren’t important enough. But these stories are about widows, those who were at the bottom of the heap in the ancient world and God does the only thing God can do, is to give life.

As usual it is the prophet, or the Christ, who is the agent of this “life giving.” So often people outside of the church have the image of the prophet or the soap-box preacher as the one who calls down fire and brimstone on the unsuspecting and sinful masses, but here, in these passages, we learn that God is the agent of life and health and well being.

In these passages we learn about the mission of God’s people. God’s people are to be about the mission of giving life where there was none, of giving life giving bread where that was running out. I don’t think that it is any accident that our primary and official signs of grace involve water and bread. We are blessed by the waters of baptism and we are fed by the bread of life. We rejoice in the presence of God which comes to us in and through these symbolic acts but I firmly believe that we are not supposed to sit and enjoy them for our own benefit. We are called to give life to others.

As I indicated at the beginning of the sermon, I find it very interesting that the prophet Elijah was sent to Zarephath. This is not accidental. She wasn’t even Jewish. Many in Israel at the time would not have bothered with her. When Jesus used it as a reason for his own ministry which crossed the boundaries into Gentile territory, people became very hostile to him.

Its our challenge though. Whom is it that we would not normally feel compelled to help, even though we do see a real need? Perhaps it is to those people we need to take a word of life; perhaps it is to those folks we need to carry bread for their journey.

Notice also that in giving bread and thus life to the widow, Elijah received it himself. It was in and through the extension of his prophetic power that he was himself fed and sustained.

Ministry is often about mutuality. We give and receive in the same actions and in doing the same things. We are not called to sit back in our own comfortable pews and in our comfortable homes and communities and look out for one another and think we have done all we need to do.

Our call is to look for the need and then to proclaim in word and action that our God is a God of live and health and vitality. When we give of this power we have ourselves received, we will be sustained ourselves so that we can go on to continue the ministry to which we have been called.

Amen.

1 Kings 19: 1-15
Psalm 42-43
Galatians 3: 23-29
Luke 8: 26-39

Listening for the Silence

Have you ever had one of those days, or one of those weeks, when nothing goes right. You know the kind of day I mean: the baby gets the chicken pox, the five year old brings home head-lice, the cat eats the new and very expensive goldfish and promptly throws up on the brand new, pure white carpet. The car gets a broken windshield and a two flat tires at once and a tree falls on your new gazebo and someone else gets that promotion you’ve been wanting at work; a skunk digs up all your spring bulbs and your roses get aphids.

Elijah was having a bad day; a bad month; and not all that great a ministry as God’s prophet. Oh, he had won a major confrontation over the prophets of Baal and he had proven that the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God who had led them out of Egypt was the real God and the Baals were “false ones”. Yet, I suppose he might have been asking himself, why if he was the winner and the follower of the one true God why was it he that was fleeing for his life and not the King and his wicked wife? Life just wasn’t fair!

Elijah confronted God at the end of his 40 day sojourn and looked for God’s answer in the traditional ways, and did not find it. It was only in the calm after his story outburst and after the stormy absence that he heard the silence of God’s unmistakable presence. The familiar hymn: “Dear God who Loves All Humankind” ends with this verse:

“Speak through the heats of our desire
thy coolness and thy balm; let sense be dumb
let flesh retire: : 
speak through the earthquake, wind and fire,
O still small voice of calm.”  
 

The stories of Jesus that we read from week to week in church were not written down as they happened, without much reflection, as if they were travel diaries, but they were written down by the community after the stories had been told and retold and as the community found meaning for their lives as Christians in these memories and stories of the one they had come to call Lord.

The story from the Gospel of Luke read earlier in the service this evening is one of those strange stories that may leave us wondering what, if any, modern application can be gained from its telling. The bare facts of the story: that Jesus healed a man of many demons and sentenced a herd of pigs to death in the process, does not have much to do with our lives in 2007. What, in particular does it have to do with us at a time of endings and new beginnings?

However, if we look just a little below the surface and ask ourselves the question, “Why was this story put into Luke’s gospel, when he had so many to choose from?” we may be closer to some meaning for us today.

From what we know about the world in which the early church was born it is clear that the world was far from a safe place. The church and her people were in great peril. The people of Galilee and the surrounding areas were severely oppressed by Rome. The level of taxation was astronomical and merciless, and poverty was almost universal. It seemed that the tax people were bent on extracting as much as possible without the people starving or revolting. In that day and age, as in many since, the rich became richer while the poor became poorer. The local elites kept their power and their money by buying into the system Rome had set up to extract taxes. They didn’t have much choice if they wanted to keep their jobs: and this included the temple authorities and official religious leaders. Not too long after the birth of the church, these small communities came to be heavily persecuted.

In Jesus day and in the time of the early church many Farmers lost their land and were reduced to the status of day labourers, if they could find work at all, and if they could not, were reduced to begging.

The early church remembered this story and it came to be in the Bible because this passage speaks of someone who was not willing to let that defeat that the people felt, have the last word. This someone was able to work outside the normal boundaries that confined their lives and was able to confront the very strongest of forces.

We have a story of a demon possessed man. He was so overwhelmed by what we would now call a mental illness that he could no longer live in community. It is interesting to note the demons possessing this poor man referred to themselves as “legion”. The Roman Army came in legions! I don’t think it’s mere coincidence the name is the same.

Yet the power of God at work in Jesus was able to return him to health and life and vitality. He was in his right mind again.

The question for us are: What do these passages say to us in 2007? How do we confront and deal with all those forces that would seek to destroy us, cripple us and prevent us from doing God’s work in this place?

I think the first thing is that we should not be afraid of the wilderness. It seems that many of God’s people learned their biggest lessons and grew the most spiritually because of a time in the wilderness. Elijah had made a 40 day journey into the wilderness. Jesus’ ministry was prefaced by a 40 day sojourn in the wilderness and was strengthened by frequent trips to quiet places to pray. Of course the people of Israel were said to have spent 40 years in the wilderness. We need to get away from the storms that surround us so that we can her what the Spirit is saying to us. As becomes obvious from reading the Bible, the people of God, hae always had their ups and downs. There are cycles of success and failure and in the process of rising from the failures the people and their faith was renewed and the changes, for the most part, brought life and health.

The good news is that if we believe what the Bible tells us: we will not be defeated in the end. British writer, G.K. Chesterton once observed:

 “Five times in the history of the church, it seemed the church had died and gone to the dogs, but it was the dog that died.  From a posting by Edward Rogosky on the PRCL-L preaching list out of Louisville, Kentucky.   

The second thing is that we have to “wait upon the Lord”. Elijah was overwhelmed by the task that was set before him. The man in the cemetery was overwhelmed by the powers that had taken over his mind. It was the calm and still power and presence of God that put things right again.

I don’t think that it was an easy fix for either of them though. It was not that God intervened and ALL of their problems were solved. Elijah’s life was still not clear sailing. I am sure the man in the tombs had some further work to do to rehabilitate his reputation, to reconnect with his family and to “ build his resume” so that he could once again become a productive member of society. Yet the power of God at work in their lives enabled them to take the steps involved in that journey.

As I look out over the pews this morning I can bring to mind all of those who sat here (or in the other churches on the Pastoral Charge ) 9 years ago, at the beginning of my ministry here, but who have died or who have moved away. I am sure that each one of is here can also see some of those faces. At a time of transition such as this we may long for those days.

We may wonder why the spots have not been filled by others. There are important questions to ask, in this regard, but in doing only this we run the risk of forgetting to value what IS new and good and life-giving. Some of you here this day were only infants when you first came here and you are involved in our Sunday School. Some of you have moved here from other places and we have come to value your presence with us.

The creation of community is one of the most important aspects of being church. In the early church community was of vital importance because the decision to follow in the way of Jesus caused early believers to be estranged from their families. They had a vital need for their church community. Such is rarely the case today. Yet the call to the kind of community that transcends our usual patterns of association is still there.

There are plans in place for the summer and fall for church events which will build community and events which will do this while we raise funds for our budgets.

We are called to care for one another in a community of faith which transcends our usual communities of family, work and leisure. Through our fellowship as community let us allow the Spirit of God to quit our restless hearts and encounter us in our deepest need.

In this encounter with the Holy may be find ourselves healed and strengthened for the journey ahead.

Amen <

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Psalm 77: 1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5: 1, 13-25
Luke 9: 51-62

Lessons in Plowing -- “Looking Back Aint No Way To Plow!”

Good Morning! Today we make a new beginning. On this day, to use the imagery from the Kings passage, I formally pick up the mantle of “minister” of this Kings United Pastoral Charge and we journey forward into the future together; on this day I put my hand to the plow and look into our future together as a Pastoral Charge.

When I took a first look at these passages about a month ago I had a good laugh. What a more appropriate passages could there be than this for beginning a new ministry than the passages from 2 Kings and from Luke, especially when I am going to be living in the home of the “plowing match”. I’m not sure I could teach any of you anything about plowing, but there it is, as the end of the Lule passage, “if you put your hand to the plow and look back you aren’t fit for the kingdom of God”.

It’s hard not to look back, especially at a time of beginnings. We wonder what changes are in the offing as this new pastoral relationship begins.

So, Ill do a bit of looking back, but just a little. Of course, the quintessential PEI question is, “Who’s yer father?” and we all know that it’s a question about much more than genealogy; so here goes. I grew up in Suffolk which is just off the St Peter’s Rd between Marshfield and Dunstaffnage. My father, Mark ran a saw mill and a small mixed farm. His mother was a Matheson from Oysterbed Bridge. Maybe I shouldn’t admit it, but his father was born near Ottawa! My grandparents met in Rouleau Saskatchewan where the Johnstons were farming by that time and where my grandmother had gone to teach. My grandfather had returned from serving in the First World War and resumed farming but the dust bowl of the 1930's forced them to move to PEI when my father was a toddler. Until his recent health problems, my father helped out my youngest brother Frank on the farm and spent much of his free time going to card parties . My mother, Charlotte, a Cairns from Lower Freetown, was trained as a registered nurse, and when we were growing up had her hands full keeping us fed, clothed and the farm and mill books organized. These days she still keeps the house running and the meals on the table. Brother Fred works for Brother Frank and lives at home. Sister Louise works in Charlottetown and lives at home. Brother Doug died in 1998. For the first six years of my education I went to two room schools in Dunstaffnage and Marshfield and then to the much, much larger Stonepark and Charlottetown Rural. I was involved in the Girl Guides and in the Church Sunday school at the Central congregation of the York-Covehead Pastoral Charge and the Charge youth group as well as a number of groups at school. After High School, I went to Mount Allison, my grandmother’s alma mater. I received my theological education at Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax - an ecumenical school which prepares people for professional and lay ministry in the Anglican, Roman Catholic and United Church of Canada traditions. My internships were in Thunder Bay Ontario and Upsalquitch New Brunswick. I have served the Alma-Albert Pastoral Charge, the Malagash-Wallace Pastoral Charge and the Rexton Pastoral Charge - a grand total of 14 congregations (if you include the summer internships).

It is with some trepidation that I return to my native province to work because there is a great deal of truth in the maxim, “you can’t go home again”. It was just a little over a month ago that a Rexton neighbour quoted the passage to me about a “prophet is not without honour - except in the hometown and among one’s own people”. I have indeed been formed by this red soil but have inevitably been changed by my years away, perhaps even in ways of which I am not even aware.

In my spiritual and vocational journey I count as two of my mentors the Rev’s Gordon MacBeth and Ed Aitken, ministers who were known to many of you, and for whom I have great respect (and whose personal or family roots in this area of PEI run deep. )

I have moved in, barely, and begun the process of unpacking. (My sister and) I have been emptying boxes and putting dishes away and books on shelves and someday I’ll get it done but right now, I need to begin to get connected with the main reason I came here. I am glad to finally be here today. It seems like so long ago that I signed the “call forms”; it seemed as if this day would never come!

So we begin our journey together by taking a look at today’s scripture readings and asking what the “word from the Lord” is for us at this time in our journey.

You may know the lectionary is a set of readings organized on a three year cycle. Interestingly enough, nine years ago I was preaching on these passages for the last sermon in what is now the Three Harbours Pastoral Charge and today it is the first one in this Charge.

Moving is not easy, but in this vocation, it is a part of the package. We come to one Pastoral Charge or another for the purpose of sharing lives and journeying with people on this great adventure of sharing the Good News of Jesus of Nazareth, and then we go to a new Charge and press forward once again.

I don’t know that much about Dundas, except that it’s the community which gives its name to the “plowing match”. I know the exhibition has a more formal name but the one I have always known it by is the “DUNDAS” plowing match.

So on this day from the gospels we have a lesson in plowing. My father and brother were the ones who did the plowing, so I must confess that I don’t have much personal experience with this farm chore. Yet one thing I do know is that plowing while “looking over your shoulder” is no way to plow. You have to focus on what is ahead of you and the markers you have placed in the field to guide your progress, not on what you have already plowed.

Of course Jesus was using a commonly know fact about plowing to speak of life in the Realm of God. We follow in the ways of God by looking ahead of us, not back. Despite the warning in the gospel, however, it’s very hard not to look back.

Speaking personally: If I was “back there”, I would be able to call everyone in the pews this morning by name - except the visitors. Here, I know hardly anyone. That’s my first task, learning your names and it’s a big task. I ask for your patience.

Then mixed up with that, is learning who’s related to whom. I’m from the Island so I know how important that is! And most important I need to know the real you, some of the story of your journey, what is important to you and what your hopes and dreams are. I need to know how you live out your faith and what makes you tick. Maybe we’ll sit in your kitchen or on your verandah one of these summer days with a tall glass of cold water or lemonade and talk. (And I might as well tell you now, I don’t drink coffee or tea. I tried to like it when I was a student minister over 20 years ago and finally gave up! So when I come put the kettle on for yourself and open the water, pop or juice for me!)

Chances are, I’ll find some of you in hospital. Some of you may come before me and the community of family and friends to make your marriage vows. I will join some of you in a joy-filled welcome through the sacrament of baptism and will undoubtedly join others of you saying a sad goodbye to those who have completed their earthly journey. These are some of the opportunities I have as a minister to share your lives and share the message of the gospel with you as we journey together and I count all of this as an honour and a privilege.

I will not say that I do not feel any trepidation att his point. It’s not nearly as scary as it was when I stood in the pulpit to deliver my first sermon ever, or even the first sermon in my very own pastoral charge now almost 20 years ago> (Looking back at it now I know I probably should have been even more scared back then.) Yet if any of us knew what was going to happen in the next days, weeks or years, we would be reluctant to get out of bed in the morning. We would be even more reluctant to go forward without looking back.

Looking back will not help us to do a better job, what will help us to do the better job is guiding our lives by the course we have set before us and guiding our lives by the one who has taught us to plow in the first place. The gospel sets out the benchmarks, the stakes in the field as it were, and we are called to go forward in faith.

We face a time of discernment and possible change in this Pastoral Charge. Like those who would not listen to Jesus because he was headed for Jerusalem, this process may threaten our unity or create division among us. And while I don’t know most of you yet, I can guarantee that any change among a community of faith can create division. If it didn’t that would be a sign that what we were talking about really didn’t matter. Jesus cautions us, like he cautioned the disciples, not to feel self-righteous and retaliate and unnecessarily increase the division but simply to press on with what the majority has discerned together. It may be a slow process but it is most assuredly a process of discernment and seeking God’s guidance. As I see it we need to ask several basic questions: Who are we? Who is our neighbour? And What is God calling us to do and be in these communities in the early years of the 21st century? I can’t answer those for you. We need to journey together as we seek those answers. We need to find ways to work together as we go forward, in differences and in agreement. We need to work in new ways and perhaps with people we have not worked with before and opening ourselves to the guidance of the Spirit.

For good or for ill, we don’t know where exactly this journey will take us - and that’s OK. We are given the assurance that we are not alone on our journey of faith. As with most things in life, dwelling on the “shoulda”, “woulda” and “coulda” questions will not solve anything .

We are called to step forward in faith - knowing that whatever happens God is with us and trusting that with the guidance of the Spirit we will make the best possible decisions.

Let us begin this exciting journey.

Amen!

2 Kings 5: 1-14
Psalm 30
Galatians 6: 1-16
Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20

I can now say, without even crossing my fingers or worrying about offending anyone that PEI is the most beautiful province in Canada. It’s a place of great abundance and blessing. It’s a place where community ties and strong and people care about one another. I can also say, it’s good to be home again.

I’m very sympathetic toward the person who was offered a job in Toronto and refused saying, “Why would anyone want to live there? Its so far from anywhere!” Yet, I know from experience that it IS possible to find life and blessing and goodness in other places both nearby and more far-flung.

In the passage from the book of Kings we have the story of a healing miracle, but it is a healing miracle with a twist. Back in a time when race and ethnicity meant almost everything and when city states vied either for dominance or for mere survival and independence we have a story of the grace and healing power of God and God’s people crossing normally rigid boundaries.

I remember well the night in residence at theological school when several of the St F X Alumni gloated when the X Men had won over the Mount Allison Mounties in a game of football. When the first-year gloaters were in evening class, we Allisonians got even! Don’t worry, it was a harmless university prank involving a toilet paper trail and transportation of furniture. We all have our loyalties and they are often deep seated.

Back to the story. The King of Aram has Leprosy, which was not likely what we know as leprosy but a form of psoriasis. At any rate, not something he wanted and a young girl informs him where a cure can be found: the prophet in Samaria!

He does not go to the prophet, but loads up with gifts and goes to the king. The King of Israel initially saw the request for healing as an “excuse for a fight” by asking the clearly impossible, but the prophet saved the day and sent word to send the king to him. It was the prophet he should have visited first off anyway, but kings want to talk to kings – that’s the way of the world, then and now.

At the end of this story are the words I would like to focus on. The king of Aram expected hocus-pocus, and he expected attention. He received neither. He was asked to do the simple act of washing in the Jordan, a no-account, dirty little river - in a weak foreign country no less! The furious king almost left in a huff but was convinced with the words, “If the prophet had asked you to do something difficult....”

That is so much like us, all these years later. We are all too often expecting that we will be asked to do difficult things and we are afraid that we will be found wanting, but we forget to do the small things that often matter the most. I am speaking of the small acts of kindness: offers of drives to appointments, small acts of kindness, the ways in which we put ourselves out to care for those who are nearby and those who are farther away.

In the past week my family has benefited from many of these small acts- dozens of people brought food to the house, almost more than we could eat, and there were offers of other things, and hundreds of people lined up to pay their respects. These things may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things but when your world is falling apart, they mean so very much.

Last week’s lesson from the gospels ended with words something like this, “Those who put their hand to the plow and look back are not fit for the kingdom of God”. We all know that “looking back aint no way to plow!” About a month ago as I was preparing what would have been my first sermon here, I called my father to make sure I had my facts right because I had actually never done the plowing; it was left to the men in the household, my grandfather, then my father and then my brothers. Despite my suspicions being confirmed, it’s not likely that I’ll be anything more than a spectator at the Plowing Match though!

Looking back over your shoulder will only result in crooked furrows which are hard to level out with the discs. You have to stake out your route across the field or fix your gaze on a distant and unmoving point at the edge of the field and then go toward that.

So at this time of new beginnings we have two pieces of advice: Look Forward and not backward and remember the simple things. It's hard not to look back, especially at a time of beginnings. We wonder what changes are in the offing as this new pastoral relationship begins.

But, I will do a bit of looking back, but just a little. Of course, the quintessential PEI question is, "Where's home?" and “Who are your people?” We all know that it's a question about much more than genealogy; so here goes. I grew up in Suffolk which is just off the St Peter's Rd between Marshfield and Dunstaffnage. My father, Mark ran a saw mill and a small mixed farm. His mother was a Matheson from Oysterbed Bridge. Maybe I shouldn't admit it, but his father was born near Ottawa! My grandparents met in Rouleau Saskatchewan where the Johnstons were farming by that time and where my grandmother had gone to teach. My grandfather had returned from serving in the First World War and resumed farming but the dust bowl of the 1930's forced them to move to PEI when my father was a toddler. Until his recent health problems, my father helped out my youngest brother Frank on the farm and spent much of his free time going to card parties . My mother, Charlotte, a Cairns from Lower Freetown, was trained as a registered nurse, and when we were growing up had her hands full keeping us fed, clothed and the farm and mill books organized. These days she still keeps the house running and the meals on the table. Brother Fred works for Brother Frank and lives at home. Sister Louise works in Charlottetown and lives at home. Brother Doug died in 1998.

For the first six years of my education I went to two room schools in Dunstaffnage and Marshfield and then to the much, much larger Stonepark and Charlottetown Rural. I was involved in the Girl Guides and in the Church Sunday school at the Central congregation of the York-Covehead Pastoral Charge and the Charge youth group as well as a number of groups at school. After High School, I went to Mount Allison, my grandmother's alma mater. I received my theological education at Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax - an ecumenical school which prepares people for professional and lay ministry in the Anglican, Roman Catholic and United Church of Canada traditions. My internships were in Thunder Bay Ontario and Upsalquitch New Brunswick. I have served the Alma-Albert Pastoral Charge, the Malagash-Wallace Pastoral Charge and the Rexton Pastoral Charge - a grand total of 14 congregations (if you include the summer internships).

It is with some trepidation that I return to my native province to work because there is a great deal of truth in the maxim, "you can't go home again". It was just a little over a month ago that a Rexton neighbour quoted the passage to me about a "prophet is not without honour - except in the hometown and among one's own people". I have indeed been formed by this red soil but have inevitably been changed by my years away, perhaps even in ways of which I am not even aware.

In my spiritual and vocational journey I count as two of my mentors the Rev's Gordon MacBeth and Ed Aitken, ministers who were known to many of you, and for whom I have great respect (and whose personal or family roots in this area of PEI run deep. )

I have moved in, barely, and begun the process of unpacking. (My sister, a friend and ) I have been emptying boxes and putting dishes away and books on shelves and figuring out a new place for everything and someday I'll get it done but right now, I need to begin to get connected with the main reason I came here. I am glad to finally be here today. It seems like so long ago that I signed the "call forms"; it seemed as if this day would never come!

So we begin our journey together by taking a look at today's scripture readings and asking what the "word from the Lord" is for us at this time in our journey.

Moving is not easy, but in this vocation, it is a part of the package. We come to one Pastoral Charge or another for the purpose of sharing lives and journeying with people on this great adventure of sharing the Good News of Jesus of Nazareth, and then we go to a new Charge and press forward once again.

As a community of faith we must focus both on the grand images of God’s Reign but also on the small ways in which we show that the love of God in Christ has transformed our lives.

I am privileged to walk with you on this journey of faith. While I will not say that I do not feel any trepidation at his point, it's not nearly as scary as it was when I stood in the pulpit to deliver my first sermon ever, or even the first sermon in my very own pastoral charge now almost 20 years ago> (Looking back at it now I know I probably should have been even more scared back then.) Yet if any of us knew what was going to happen in the next days, weeks or years, we would be reluctant to get out of bed in the morning. We would be even more reluctant to go forward without looking back.

Looking back or obsessing over what we cannot do will not help us to do a better job; what will help us to do the better job is guiding our lives by the course we have set before us and seeking to have the same heart that was in Jesus, the Christ. The gospel sets out the benchmarks, the stakes in the field as it were, and we are called to go forward in faith.

We face a time of discernment and possible change in this Pastoral Charge. Like those who would not listen to Jesus because he was headed for Jerusalem, this process may threaten our unity or create division among us. And while I don't know most of you yet, I can guarantee that any change among a community of faith can create division. If it didn't that would be a sign that what we were talking about really didn't matter. Jesus cautions us, like he cautioned the disciples, not to feel self-righteous and retaliate and unnecessarily increase the division but simply to press on with what the majority has discerned together. It may be a slow process but it is most assuredly a process of discernment and seeking God's guidance. As I see it we need to ask several basic questions: Who are we? Who is our neighbour? And What is God calling us to do and be in these communities in the early years of the 21st century? I can't answer those for you. We need to journey together as we seek those answers. We need to find ways to work together as we go forward, in differences and in agreement. We need to work in new ways and perhaps with people we have not worked with before and opening ourselves to the guidance of the Spirit.

For good or for ill, we don't know where exactly this journey will take us - and that's OK. We are given the assurance that we are not alone on our journey of faith. As with most things in life, dwelling on the "shoulda", "woulda" and "coulda" questions will not solve anything .

We are called to step forward in faith - knowing that whatever happens God is with us and trusting that with the guidance of the Spirit we will make the best possible decisions.

Let us begin this exciting journey.

Amen!

Amos 7: 7-17
Psalm 82
Colossians 1: 1-14
Luke 10: 25-37

“Closing the Loopholes”

My sister sent me an email the other day which contained a test “for really smart people”. If course, even before I even read it, I knew there was a catch and that it was really a joke. It went like this:

“This is a test for SMART PEOPLE.....I have determined that you (may) qualify. The following short quiz consists of 4 questions and will tell you whether you are qualified to be a professional. Scroll down for each answer. The questions are NOT that difficult. But don't scroll down UNTIL you have answered the question!

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

Did you say, open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator?

Wrong Answer.

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and

close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend.... except one. Which animal does not attend?

Correct Answer: The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there. This tests your memory.

Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.

4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles, and you do not have a boat. How do you manage it?

Correct Answer: You jump into the river and swim across.

Have you not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the animal conference. This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong, but many preschoolers got several correct answers. Anderson Consulting says this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the brains of a four-year-old.

Apparently, the fact that she sent me a test for smart people was supposed to make me feel good. Not all tests are like that. The gospel of Luke tells us of an occasion where the test was no joke, but one designed to set a trap for Jesus. Luke starts simply: “Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus ....... What must I do to inherit eternal life.” Jesus wasn’t interested in answering such questions so he turned it back on the lawyer, saying something like. “You have studied the law. You know, as well as I do what the answer is.” The man’s answer about love of God, neighbour and self was correct. Yet he had more on his mind: Luke tells us that he wanted “to justify himself”. He may not have been wanting to make Jesus look bad so much as he was wanting a pat on the back for being an extraordinary example of helping his neighbour. He didn’t receive what he was seeking.

The story that Jesus tells is far from ordinary and it could not have set well with any lawyer, scribe or other upper class Jew of Jesus day.

The story is clearly “made up” but it makes a point that is hard to ignore. Like every good parable, it sets a life-like situation up for us to see the way the is to follow.

Now, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho runs along a riverbed flanked on either side by soaring cliffs. Apparently, it is no more than a narrow track on the side of a cliff. It is much easier to go down it than up! The road descends over 3000 feet in just ten miles. It was a very dangerous road plagued by fash floods, rock slides and robbers who had ample places to hide. No priest or Levite would have travelled it alone; Jesus would have travelled it in the company of one or more of his disciples and there would have been just enough room on the trail to ride a donkey. If a Samaritan had traveled that route it would have been unusual, for geographic reasons alone, and it would have been even more unusual for a Jewish man to have allowed a Samaritan to help him. The Jews and the Samaritans had been in conflict for over 800 years and the cultural and racial resentments were deep.

If Jesus told this story today, he may have said something like this: a soldier from the UN was walking along a road in Afghanistan and was critically injured by a landmine. A couple of officers pass by and do not even stop to help; they are afraid that this is a trap The one who does stop is a young member of the Taliban. He takes the young soldier to safety at great risk to his life.

Maybe that is an approximation of the radical nature of this story. Maybe we can think of other scenarios.

At any rate this parable, in a few short verses, this parable turns the tables on the lawyer who thought he was “pretty good stuff”. Notice that Jesus turns the question around slightly: he doesn’t answer the question, “Who is my neighbour”, but tells the listener the story of someone who was a neighbour. The first question very well could be a way of looking for loopholes while the second is an example of someone for whom there were no boundaries around their concern, which is Jesus point. If Jesus had given a list there would have been omissions and then a case of excluding some people: in other words if he had left “blind people” off of the list, the lawyer could have said, “Whew! I don’t have to love blind people as I love myself! Now substitute any person or group for “the blind” and you have your loophole!

Jesus came preaching and teaching about the kind of love which knew no human boundaries; the kind of love which gave everything; the kind of love which never ended.

As always though, we can run into danger when we say that the whole gospel is contained in this one story. The very next event in the gospel of Luke is Jesus visit with Mary and Martha in which the one who was praised was not the one who “did” but the one who sat and basked in the presence of her Lord. I think that this says we need both aspects. That, however, is next week’s lesson and it will have to wait until then!

What is it then about this parable that we can take with us to challenge our faithfulness and guide our decision-making.

Yet there is another side to the story. This story was told by a Jewish man to a Jewish lawyer with a largely Jewish audience overhearing him. It would be the poor man in the ditch with whom they would identify. As I said, no upstanding Jewish man would have allowed himself to be helped to, or tended as a nurse would tend a patient, if that one offering the help was a Samaritan. Many years ago I watched a movie in which the son of a Southern farmer married a woman of colour and was by and large disowned. Something happened one day and the elderly farmer needed mouth to mouth resuscitation. The man who gave it to him was black. When he is informed who had saved his life he said to his son, “You should have let me die”.

That is of course an extreme example. Even Archie Bunker softens a little when he learns the blood he needed during surgery came from his black nurse. I trust that very few of us will need such a gift, but many of us are in situations where we have the opportunity to receive gifts of grace.

I know of some people who love to be givers but who can’t stand to be on the receiving end of gifts. If someone gives them something and they can’t refuse it, they have to give them something just as good or bigger and better. I know someone who has turned away gifts of food at the door when there was an illness in the house.

A friend of mine was driving near a big city and had car trouble. She pulled over to the side of the road and wrote her CAA # and her name on a piece of paper. It was in the days before everyone had a cell phone. A large luxury car pulled over and she got out to talk to the driver, a well dressed middle aged man. She gave him the information and a quarter and asked him to call the CAA. He agreed to. She went back to her car and locked the door. By and by a young guy pulled up on a motorcycle. Reeking of marijuana smoke and alcohol and offered to call CAA for her. She agreed, as much to get rid of him as anything. Eventually, the CAA tow truck arrived and she and her car were taken to a garage. The tow truck driver said to her, “You know Ma’am, I almost didn’t come. The call centre said it was up to me because the guy who called it in was either stoned or plastered.”

She said, “You should have gotten another call about half an hour earlier!”

It turns out that the middle aged man had never called and her source of help was from the least expected of the two. If she had refused his help she would ahve been waiting a long time.

There is ample pain and tragedy in life whether these events be small or large, but we do not need to be alone says this parable. We have many people who would join us in the ditch, bandage our wounds and care for us or get us to someone else who can care for us in a better way. It may be more blessed to give than to receive, but sometimes we need to receive, to realize that we cannot do everything. We are not self made and we are not meant to be completely self-sufficient. We need the grace and power of God and we need the grace of living in community.

The message of this passage, for both sides of the story is that community is far larger that we would have otherwise imagined and our help may come from the most unlikely sources.

We need to be open to those in need and we need to be open in our need to those who are seeking to help. In and on both sides of the ditch grace can be found.

Praise be to God.

Amen.

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Psalm 66: 1-12
2 Timothy 2: 8-15
Luke 17: 11-19

“Finding Life Where You Find Yourself”

Did you hear the story about the prairie farmers who moved to Vancouver Island? After unloading the moving van they spent every evening sitting on their deck and looking east. They met most of their neighbours who all knew they had farmed on the prairies. However they made no comment to anyone about the mountains. Finally one of them asked, “Say, what do you think of our mountains? Pretty impressive aren’t they?”

After giving it some thought, the man replied, “Well I suppose they are all right, but they do kind of spoil the view”!

Approximately 2600 years ago the tiny nation centred around Jerusalem was defeated by a much stronger and larger nation. The year was 597 BCE and that nation was Babylon. The brightest and best of the people of Jerusalem were carried into exile in Babylon. Their beloved temple lay in ruins and they were in the midst of a Population who worshipped false gods and whose culture was very different. They could see nothing good about their new landscape. They must have felt that they had fallen off of the face of the earth.

It was a devastating experience for them socially, politically and spiritually. The position of Jerusalem as the centre of their faith and its expression is hard to overestimate. Yet this rather odd prophecy seems to be telling them to make friends with their situation and even with their captors for they won’t be going home anytime soon. Hardly sounds like “good news” to me! This was one special delivery letter that I am sure the people wish hadn’t been opened!

You see, in response to this tragedy in the life of their nation, two schools of thought had developed. One was the “ don’t worry, it will all be over soon and then we’ll be going home”, school of thought and there was the school of Jeremiah, the “Trust in God and God will bring us home – but not for 70 years, so in the meantime be faithful where you find yourselves “, school of thought. He counselled them to, “ Have families. Look out for your neighbours, even though they are the enemy. If they do well, you will do well..”

70 years is far too long a long time to just “put up with it till its over”. That’s what you do while you are in the dentist’s chair for a filling or a root canal. Putting up with it is the kind of thing you do to endure a boring lecture or the flight from Honolulu to Auckland. It’s how you get through something unpleasant, but it’s no way to live.

Indeed, 70 years is almost 2 entire generations. The individual people carried into exile wouldn’t be coming back and you can’t put off anything important for 70 years. The prophet Jeremiah is saying that the God of Abraham and Sarah wants the people of Jerusalem to live and to prosper. To be sure this will not be happening in Jerusalem but is nonetheless still keeping the covenant alive by saying, “You are my people and I am your God. Now do your part.”

So they are to work for the good of their new neighbours, in essence, their captors, but they are never to forget who they are and whose they are. It’s not an easy task to take on – not for 70 years at any rate.

There are many things that happen in life that do not bring the results that we would call desirable. Many things come our way in life that we would never have chosen for ourselves.

I was reading the e-mail contributions made to an internet preaching group to which I belong. Lorinda Hoover, one of the preachers who belongs to this group cited the example of her grandfather who had to go to an assisted living facility. Two of his goals were these: to care for his wife (who was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer Disease) as best he could and to support staff morale. He joked with them and talked with them about their struggles and when a new resident arrived who was being hard on the staff, or particularly cantankerous, the staff would ask him to share a table with that new resident and he never failed to work his magic on them. He just loved being able to do something positive for the place in which he lived.

Over my years as a minister I have known a number of people who have had to either move into a nursing home or to move to a seniors apartment complex. They break down into three groups: the ones who were determined to “never like” the change; the ones who grudgingly accepted the change as a sad fact of life; and the ones who “rolled with the punches” and not only got used to it but made lemonade out of their lemons.

I remember one woman who moved from a large three storey house to a one bedroom apartment. Not long after her daughter convinced her that she could part with the mudpies that her now grown up grandchildren had made for her long before she said to me, “I should have done this ten years ago”. A few years later she had to move to double room in a nursing home and after an expected period of adjustment she said to me, “I don’t know what I was worried about, I should have done this years ago. “ Now I’m not saying that all elderly people should move to a nursing home and be happy about it; but I am saying that such a move is a kind of “exile like existence” that many of us will have to face. How we respond to this often “unwelcome” event will effect our quality of life and the quality of life for those around us.

In many life situations, we may have wished for things to have been different but when we reach the conclusion that they cannot be changed, we are called to seek life in that situation.

We must be careful of blanket statements here because not every situation should be simply “endured”. I think of people who are living with abusive partners or parents. Many chose to leave as the only way to seek true life and we as a society must provide the necessary supports to enable life to come from such circumstances.

Sometimes it’s the situation in the wider social context. Sometimes you DO have to resist, even if that resistance is only making a statement.

The Rev Norm Story, another internet colleague has offered this story as an example of choosing life in difficult circumstances:

“Along the shoreline of Israel near Tel Aviv, the "Dolphinarium" was a most popular and happening place for Israeli young people -- until a suicide bomber blew himself up on the crowded dance floor and murdered twenty-one teenagers and young adults.

The next day a spontaneous and make-shift memorial happened when people brought flowers and other meaningful objects, and they hung a sign that said, "lachaim - lo nafsik lirkode" Which means ‘choose life - we will not stop dancing'.”

It something like what happens toward the end of the movie, “The Sound of Music”. Maria and her new husband Captain Georg VonTrapp have returned from their honeymoon and are faced with the new reality of an Austria annexed to Nazi Germany. They are discussing the expectation that he take command of a ship of the Third Reich. They know that refusing the commission could very well spell their deaths but they also know that accepting it would be “unthinkable”. Their way of responding was to escape on foot to Switzerland.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and many members of the Confessing church of Germany decided after much prayerful deliberation that the only faithful course of action was to attempt, at least, to kill the Fuhrer. The attempt failed and Bonhoeffer was eventually hanged for treason. Yet it was his faith that demanded this of him. The leadership of the Nazi party was was a situation he could not tolerate.

Thankfully, most of us will never be in that kind of situation.

We are a people who will not stop dancing. We are a people who are called to chose life, despite the present circumstances – sometimes the situations in which we find ourselves do indeed call for radical action. However, in many cases there are two options presented: put our heads under our wings and wait till the situation changes or to actively work for the good of all concerned and not only to “make the best of it” but to “find LIFE in the places where we find ourselves”.

Let us seek to proclaim that we worship the God of love and life in all that we do.

Amen.