Season Of Pentecost - Year B -- 2018
Indexed by Date. Sermons for the Season Of Pentecost Year B
Ezekiel 37: 1-14 A small boy was intent on going to church one particular morning. Because his sister was sick his mother allowed him to go alone on the condition that he tell her what the sermon was about when he returned. When he returned his mother was very curious but waited to quiz him until after he ate his lunch. He ate in silence. Finally she asked, “What was the topic of the sermon, honey? Were you listening?”
“Yes, Mom. I was listening but the sermon made no sense, the sermon was on quilts.”
“Quilts?” questioned the astonished mother. “I’ve never heard a sermon on quilts! What did the minister say about quilts?”
“Well, all I got from it was, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get a quilt”.
“You’re right dear. That doesn’t make any sense! We don’t need a quilt. Maybe they are collecting quilts for the Red Cross. They give out quilts to people who need them, you know.”
“No, Mom! Everyone will get one.”
Very puzzled the mother finally picked up
the phone and called the minister.
”Oh, Hi Teresa, before you ask, your son was as good as gold and he looked like he was really listening. You don’t have to worry about him coming alone. What can I do for you?”
The mother explained what her son had told her about the sermon and the minister started to chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” asked the mom.
“You never know what people will hear and how they will tell others. Especially the children, but what he told you IS almost exactly what I
said. I emphasize “almost”. The title of my sermon was, “Fear Not! Your Comforter Will Come.”“
Pentecost is a story about the power of God to bring about comfort, transformation and new life. In preparing the followers for his departure, Jesus had promised that the people would receive an advocate, a comforter. Pentecost is the story of the fulfilment of this promise.
Pentecost is a story of an event shrouded in mystery. It is the story of a time when the
presence of God was felt in wind and fire. As common as these are in the biblical story, when they happen they always have an element of awe, mystery and fear. These occurrences are hard to nail down, hard to describe, hard to even to attempt to understand and, when they happen, impossible to control.
The story from Ezekiel is also a story about the power of God’s Spirit. About 600 years before Jesus walked the dusty roads of Palestine, many of his ancestors had been defeated in battle and taken into captivity. The people felt their lives as a nation were over. Since their identity and their faith were so tied to “their” land, they felt abandoned by God and that there was no future. Ezekiel, the prophet, was called to tell the people otherwise. We might say that God was not back in the ruins of Jerusalem blowing around like tumbleweed in one of those old westerns.
You probably know the Spiritual, “Dem Bones.” I was surprised to learn from my friend Google that it’s only about 100 years old. In this song, the word of the Lord preached by Ezekiel
caused the toe bone to connect to the foot bone,
and the foot bone to the heel bone, and the heel bone to the ankle bone, and the ankle bone to the shin bone, and so on, all the way to the head bone, all because the word of the Lord was heard. Because God’s word was heard, the assemblage of dry bones then came to life. Even though most children would have known that the human skeleton is more complicated, the song echoes the prophetic message of hope in the midst of despair and faith in the midst of fear and uncertainty.
Unlike some generations, when we hear
this passage from Ezekiel, we don’t really have to “imagine” a field filled with bones. Most of us
have lived long enough to see news coverage of several genocides and we stop to wonder how humans can be so cruel, even in war.
If these were the remains of our relatives we might well be in despair, as were the people to whom Ezekiel preached. There may not have been an actual “abandoned battlefield” were the dead were never buried but the passage is a story powerful testimony to their despair. The
story is a powerful testimony to the kind of faith that could bring true hope.
These two stories for two very different times each speak to the power of God to bring about what human efforts alone could never do.
Imagine being in a foreign country and understanding NOTHING - and then you hear
one word, or one phrase in English, imagine how comforting that would be. I told a story a few weeks ago about a cab driver’s amazement at this white Canadian being able to sing the words of a Nigerian hymn. I believe that time of sharing
between those two men, who were strangers to one another, to have been a true Pentecost moment.
It’s hard to prove the presence of the Spirit because the Spirit cannot be seen! Yet, when it comes to wind, we know that wind exists and is real even though we can’t see it, because we can feel it and see its results.
The disciples and friends, numbering about 120 people were gathered together in one place, somewhere in Jerusalem. People from all over the world had gathered for the Jewish festival
called, Pentecost”.
Somehow, even the text is not sure, the
Spirit came upon people, in a miracle of what felt like wind and fire, and they rushed into the street, able to proclaim the good news AND be understood. I believe the real miracle was the understanding that came about.
Some of the people had dismissive explanations, including public drunkenness, but, the disciples countered this with the biblical story of Joel and his prophecy.
Other signs were that the spirit would be
poured out on everyone, not just people of a certain race or creed and that dreams and vision would belong to people of all ages, not just the people that would be expected to have such insight.
In February the school shooting in Florida
caused a great deal of outrage, especially among the population of people who are still in High School. Many of them have spoken publically about their hopes for a different way. On Friday I was shocked and saddened to hear of yet another incident, this time in Texas, and my
first reaction was to think of the students who
have been working so hard to effect changes that stand up against the culture of death brought about by easy access to guns of mass destruction. I shook my head as I heard the same old words from the same old politicians.
As a Canadian I wonder if it isn’t high time the world captures the vision of the youth.
Free The Children, is an organization started by Canadian brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger. It began when a young Craig discovered the plight of very young children
working in factories in developing countries. Several other charities that raise awareness and empower young people owe their beginnings to this pair of Canadian kids.
Generally speaking it is people of vision who make changes. We owe our medicare system to Tommy Douglas, a Saskatchewan politician, who had a vision of a better country.
Or, more simply, what about those who saw the value in knitting a shawl for someone who needed a tangible symbol of caring and shawls became a symbol for many, that, “their comforter had come”.
I didn’t get up at 4am like some of you to watch “the wedding”; I set my PCVR and watched it at a much more sensible time. I really didn’t care about her dress; what I was most interested in was the ceremony. For the most part it appeared to be traditional “Church of England” but I was beyond impressed by the sermon. The preacher was an Episcopalian Bishop. I was amused at the facial reaction of the “royals”; most had probably never heard preaching like this. This American Black Bishop, referring to the Rev Martin Luther King, injected a powerful vision of change and a word of hope into a traditionally staid and scripted occasion. Who knew that a sermon on love at a wedding could have such a wide application! The crowd outside, particularly its black members, were very moved. It was a Pentecost moment. The Spirit of change was blowing through the pillars of tradition. The word was truly coming to life.
All too often the dreams of the young and the visions of the elderly, or is it the dreams of the elderly and the visions of the young are quashed by those who see the idea as impossible,
impractical, or dangerous.
Dreamers and visionaries are in good company in every generation. The first century was no different. Jesus of Nazareth preached his vision of a renewed relationship with God
and a change in the social order from competition and everyone being out for #1, to a social order based on love and caring for one another. The Spirit gave the early followers strength to live in a culture where the “powers that be” didn’t really want them to proclaim the Good News of Jesus.
We are called to proclaim this Good News,
to speak of the visions and dreams given to us and to trust in the Spirit of Life.
In Northeastern New Brunswick, there are a number of expressions that are a combination of Fançais and English and one of them is
“worry pas”. - “don’t worry.”
When we look at this great call to proclaim the gospel but are tempted to despair, to say that it cant be done, when we feel all is lost, the word from God is “worry pas, you’ll get a quilt”.
Amen!
1 Samuel 3: 1-10 This past Sunday, the Maritime Conference began its Annual Meeting with a memorial service in which the lives and ministries of 21 people (9 “clergy” and 12 lay who made significant contributions to the life of the United Church in Maritime Conference) were remembered. On Sunday, after two very full days of business, we ordained 4 people who feel called to paid accountable ministry within the United Church of Canada. We also admitted one person who was an
ordained Presbyterian minister who felt his call was leading him work in the United Church. This concluding service was a time of joy and celebration. For the people being ordained and admitted, it was not only the end of many years of discernment, interviews, training and preparation; it was also the beginning of a new journey.
It was also the last ordination service of the Maritime Conference; next year, we expect, ordination will happen in the new and smaller regions. Since Nova Scotia and Bermuda are in
the same region, I’m holding on to the hope of a
winter meeting in Bermuda! In her last letter to us, Jesuly, our church’s foster child asked us if we liked to go to cold or warm countries for vacation! Though it would never happen, I can dream, can’t I?
In the United Church, as far as our structures go, at least, we are in a time of great transition. We are going from a system that is well known but no longer sustainable to something that is still being fine tuned. In some ways, we are back to the uncertainty of 1925,
when two very different systems of governance were combined so that both the Methodists and the Presbyterians could be comfortable working together. The change from Presbyteries and Conferences to Regions is one such change. The process of becoming an ordained minister is another change that was already in progress before the structural changes were approved. Though congregational life will not change much, our interactions with the wider church will.
The passage from our Older Testament, commonly called, the “Call of Samuel” is also
from a time of change. The passage Jo read begins with some interesting “hints” that all was not well in Israel when Samuel was a child. It was certainly NOT, the “good old days”. To recap: we are told the “word of the word of the Lord was rare and visions were not widespread”.
We are also told that Eli, the elderly priest, suffered from failing eyesight but we are also told that the lamp in room where Samuel slept “had not yet gone out”. While these last two details might be simple “facts”, I think they point to a spiritually grave, but still hopeful
situation. While the people, even Eli the priest, had stopped seeing signs of God’s presence, God had not stopped reaching out to the people. In this passage it is the boy Samuel, who was only at the temple because of his mother’s promise, who is called.
In ancient Israel, as far as I know, being a priest was almost always a hereditary job. Priests were born and learned their duties from their fathers. Previous to the part of the story we heard this morning, the earlier chapters tell us that the sons of Eli were scoundrels. They
were entitled rogues who abused their status and power and brought disrepute on their religion. Eli, their elderly father seemed to be powerless to rein them in. The whole situation was a sign of a general spiritual malaise in the land. They were sick and most did not care.
About 14 years ago, the United Church of Christ, our partner denomination in the United
States, launched a campaign called “God is Still Speaking.” Now shortened to “still speaking” this campaign affirms that God is not finished calling us and working through us. God does not give up
easily.
I live alone so would be quite startled if I
heard someone calling my name in the middle of the night; my cat has not learned to talk and its only when I get out of bed that she starts demanding attention! However, Samuel was not
alone and it was quite understandable that he thought it was Eli calling. The irony was that it took three times for ELI to realize what was going on; remember, HE WAS A PRIEST. He should have known! When it does dawn on him, he senses, rightly, that the message will not be “complimentary.” Samuel’s ministry ends up ushering in a new age for Israel.
Perhaps the most familiar “night-time calling” is the one from “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. Of course it is Alastair Sim’s
portrayal in that old black and white film that I
remember best. . Like many of you, I have seen that story on tv so often I almost know it by heart and have my favourite scenes!
The cities of England in the time of Charles Dickens were not a great place to be for most of the “common folks” and he uses this short story
as a social commentary on the plight of the poor. His own family had direct experience of debtors prison, or the “workhouses,” to which Mr Scrooge refers when he refuses the request from his fellow businessmen for a Christmas donation.
Due to the visits of the “three ghosts” Ebenezer Scrooge, man of business, discovers he has wasted his life on being devoted solely to the making of money and the boy, Samuel, discovers he must speak to a people, and to a beloved mentor, who have strayed from the ways of
their God. The good news is that it is not too late. The good news is that there is still time. The good news is that grace, mercy, hope and possibility still abound.
This is our Anniversary Sunday. For a couple an anniversary gives an opportunity to remember the early years of the relationship and to reinforce the ties that bind them together. In a church community, it is a good time to celebrate the past, an opportunity to remind ourselves what has brought us together and gives us a vision for the future.
identity and purpose. At only 4 years of age Avon United is one of our church’s newer congregations. Yet, our founding congregations have much older roots in these communities which go very deep. There’s a picture of the Lockhartville Church in the display cabinet behild you. On the table at the front of the church is a portrait of the minister who was here when this building was dedicated in 1865. The UCW were here cleaning and sorting on Thursday and unearthed it. We know that Hantsport Methodist Church became St James United Church in 1925
and when St James amalgamated with Juniper Grove 4 years ago, we all became Avon United
Church. The congregation of Mt Denson was also an earlier amalgamation.
As I noted in my anniversary letter you have all received next Sunday, is the 93rd Anniversary of the United Church of Canada.
Of course, we all know, but sometimes forget that Avon United Church is a group of people and not a building. That’s one reason we are putting a picture of PEOPLE on our website. Avon United Church is a people who worship and work in and out of this building but are dispersed into the world during the week.
The question for us, for any church community, is: “how do we live out our faith in the days and hours we are not here?”
In recent years many churches found a
renewed purpose in sponsoring refugees. The members who sit on our Official Board have
made a commitment to Operation Refresh at Sherbrooke Lake Camp, to match an anonymous donation. By this we show that we believe in Church Camp experiences for young people. We
have responded well to food bank appeals because we believe that it is important to share what we can with those who don’t have the resources to put food on the table. We also have helped the schools with their breakfast program because we know children with full bellies learn much better than hungry children. And we have had a bit of fun along the way as we collected these food items. In the fall we will be collecting cereal for the schools as they begin their year! Watch for the announcement in September.
The question for Avon United is, “to what is God calling us at this time and in this place?” A congregation’s vision and mission is not something we decide on a certain date and it remains once and for all. We need to reassess it constantly and ask what is God calling us to do here and now. There will be opportunities for this to happen in the near future.
Since this is our 4th Anniversary I though it would be a good idea to ask a couple of folks to talk about their hopes for the amalgamation of the two congregations. When Garth agreed to
write something I could read I thought he could not come because of his treatments. However, he is a rule breaker! He insisted on coming today but must leave as soon as he finishes because he is really not supposed to be in crowds. Sharon is speaking on behalf of the Juniper Grove.
I’ll give them the last word.
1 Samuel 15:34 - 16:13 Just about everyone in the Commonwealth knows who is supposed to ascend to the trone when Queen Elizabeth II dies. Her son, Charles, the Prince of Wales is supposed to be hern morekm successor. However, we do know that sometimes the one who is supposed to become king or queen does not. George VI never planned on being King but when his older brother Edward abdicated, he was thrust into the role and his ten year old daughter then became next in line.
The rules about who is next in line are very clear. The people who care, know these things; even the people who don’t really care also know the basics! Throughout the history of many countries the issue of succession to the throne has been controversial, divisive, and, of course, on more than one occasion, the cause of war.
How many of you have watched the tv series “Outlander”? For those of you who don’t know about this show, the primary setting of the first seasons is the time leading up the 1745 Battle of Culloden, the last ditch attempt of the highland Scots, or Jacobites, to take the throne back from the British, for the Stuart King, “Bonnie Prince Charlie”. From the highlander point of view, the battle was a total disaster, lasting less than an hour. Most of the Scottish soldiers who did not die in battle were immediately executed. Such is the result of rebellion; the price for treason is high!
I’ve known the story of the anointing of the boy David as king for about as long as I can remember. But what I did not realize until I was much older was how risky it was for just about
everyone for the prophet Samuel to go out and anoint him.
Even though Saul was the FIRST King of Israel, they all knew how these things worked in other nation states. A son of the king became the next king and other people didn’t go around expressing an aspiration to be the king.
As the biblical story tells us, Samuel also knew how things worked. He knew it could mean his death, prophet or not. According to the text, it seems that God guided him to trick everyone into thinking he was merely going to offer a sacrifice. There would be no harm in that! But he is going to he home of Jesse with some very unterior motives! As we heard, David was certainly not Samuel’s first choice. He was operating on the wrong set of assumptions. In the end, the youngest son, the boy David, is presented to him. He realizes, with God’s guidance, that this young boy is the one. Samuel anointed him and is on his way.
Next come some more stories many of us learned in Sunday School. We are told that following this event, David kills Goliath whose people have been a thorn in the side of Israel for some time and he eventually earns a reputation as a musician whose music is able to soothe the king’s troubled spirit. By this time he is living in the palace and is “best buds” with Saul’s son Jonathan!
I suppose that these days he would have been considered a “mole” or a “one child sleeper cell”. Saul had invited his replacement into the palace only to have this young man take over the throne!!! To make a very long story shorter: after Saul’s death, David’s supporters recognize
his right to the throne and together they eventually defeat Saul’s son in battle and David becomes King over all of Israel.
There is a lot going on in and behind this passage. You may remember from last week that
the people had begged for a king. They wanted to be like everyone else; all the “real nations” had kings. Saul turned out to be the prime example of the warning, “you better be careful what you pray for because you just might get it.” Saul’s reign was troubled and eventually God rejected him, which was why Samuel was led to anoint
David. The King might have been above the human laws but was subject to the laws of God like everyone else.
I think that we need to remember that as this passage begins, Samuel was probably grieving. His own expectations over Saul had been dashed. Perhaps Samuel felt that he had let the people down. Perhaps he had even mixed up God’s message in the first place and Saul was never meant to be king! But, after Samuel’s personal pity party had gone on long enough God told him to “get up and get on with it! Go and
anoint the one I will tell you about!”
When we meet David in this passage he is the “kid brother” given the menial task of the keeping of sheep. He had not accomplished anything; he was too young to have anything but potential. Perhaps the lesson from this is that “the good thing is that God looks at our potential instead of our accomplishments. “
So, three thousand or so years later, what does this passage have to say to us?
I cannot help but think of the Magi who arrive in Jerusalem looking for the “one who is to
be born King of the Jews and go to the palace instead of following the star. Samuel assumed the oldest, most capable of Jesse’s sons, would be the choice for the next king, but this was not the case. The magi were surprised that the King in the palace knew nothing of this child; and would have been doubly surprised to find him born to poor parents displaced by the census.
Time and again in the biblical story the ways of the world and the ways of the God of Israel clash. It’s not about God’s favour resting on the “biggest and the best” but most often its about the underdog being the one chosen to be the leader, to show the way.
It’s about the life of risk and trust.
No one knows more about risk and trust than the farmer. Jesus used examples from the everyday lives of farmers and fishers as he sought to teach them about the way of abundant life. In today’s passage he talked about the normal cycle of planting and waiting. You plant and then you wait. When it comes to mustard the size of the plant is out of all proportion to the seed that is planted. I don’t know about the
farmers around here, but on PEI mustard was a weed (a very much hated weed) and before more widespread use of herbicides, picking mustard was a job for kids.
Perhaps the people of Palestine grew the kind of mustard people wanted for a cash crop. The mustard we buy in the grocery store must be grown somewhere! Perhaps though, that’s not really relevant. Sometimes, when it comes to seeds, the result is out of proportion to the size of the seed.
Jesus’ parables left people scratching their
heads and wondering, “What’s he getting at?”
Taken together, perhaps what these passages tell us that the life of faith is not about equating success in the world with success in the realm of God. The ways of God are about a radical equality where all will have enough and none will be in want while others live in the lap of luxury. The life of faith isn’t all about us though; it does not depend totally on us. All we can often do us to sow the seeds and then trust that they will grow.
Few species of trees grow fast enough for
those who have planted them to truly enjoy them
but that should not discourage us from planting trees or from trying to influence the world to be a little more like Jesus’ vision for the world.
The life of faith is not about success; its about living as much as possible if the vision we hold is a reality. Many people I know work hard to given their children a better life than they had as children. But what if we lived as if all the children of the world were as important as our own children.
In the 1990s Sarejevo became embroiled in
war. That beautiful country was bombed to
shreds and its people devastated by divisions. One day a little girl walking on the street was severely wounded by sniper fire. A man rushed up to her, scooped the child up and pleaded with a reporter to take her to the hospital. ‘You have a car,’ the man begged. ‘Please won’t you take us to the hospital?’ What could the reporter do. He loaded them into the back seat of his car and began to drive.
“After a minute or two, the man said urgently, ‘Please hurry; she is still living!’ The reporter drove on. A few minutes later, the man
in the back seat said, ‘Hurry please, she is still breathing!’ Soon, they pulled up to the hospital, but unfortunately doctors could do nothing as she had died on route to the hospital.
“The man and the reporter went into the restroom together to wash the child’s blood from their hands. ‘Now comes the hardest part,’ said the man. ‘What is that?’ asked the reporter. ‘Now I have to go and find that little girl’s father and tell him she is gone.’
“The reporter was stunned. ‘But I thought
you were the father! I thought she was your child!’” (I think this sermon illustration originated in a sermon by Will Willamon)
“‘Aren’t they all our children?’ the man replied.
What if people of faith marched to the beat of a different drummer? What if people of faith tried to see the world as it should be; as a gift for the benefit of all creation and not to be exploited by some at the expense of the many. What if people of faith gave up trying as hard as you can to get ahead of their rivals but instead put their efforts into proclaiming the message
of Jesus - care for the poor, the love of God for the marginalized, and for all of creation.
The people of Israel found out that being like everyone else was not ultimately the key to true success or happiness. What if we followed Jesus, sowing seeds and trusting that in time the growth would be beyond our expectations.
Amen.
1 Samuel 17: 1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49 In the movie, the Green Mile, based on a novel by Stephen King, one of the prisoners on death row is a really, really tall, barrel chested man, described by one of the guards as, “HUGE”. In the movie he towers over everyone else! I read that in reality, this actor is shorter than at least one other cast member! Creative camera angels were used to make him seem much larger than he actually was.
In today’s story from the Older Testament
the giant Goliath and his weaponry are both described using an ancient measuring system, but even though we don’t have a clue what exactly a shekel weighs, we know that 5,000 of them is more than a regular soldier could carry! It is clear that the author of the passage wanted to emphasize his size and the weight of his equipment! If it were filmed these days, creative camera angles, computerized imaging, and “green screens” would have to be used to achieve the effect that would otherwise be left to our imaginations. You may remember the
battle scenes from the movie version of, “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe”. All of those weird animals were created on a computer
as were many of the special effects.
That being said, I really wonder sometimes about the biblical stories taught to the children of my generation. With their inability to think conceptually, younger children cannot understand anything beyond a literal meaning to a story. When they come to learn that they are impossible according to basic laws of physics they end up discounting the entire story and see
nothing in them of any value.
What possible use is the story of David and Goliath to a child? What about Daniel in the Lions’ Den or that one about, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the men in the fiery furnace? Or Jesus stilling a fierce storm at sea? All of them were stories I learned in Sunday school, complete with full colour illustrations to make them seem more real.
I suppose that in the end that is an argument for another day. For today and for those of us who are adults, we are invited to
take a look at two familiar stories not as “events in history” but as stories with deep spiritual meaning. On the surface it seems that the obvious purpose of these stories was to show that God was with young David and that Jesus had the power to calm the raging seas. Yet, I believe these stories were included in the scriptures because they point to the power of faith for future generations.
The world has not stopped punishing people for their stand on the side of right and justice. The mighty and powerful have not stopped
throwing their weight and their superior weapons around and trampling on the rights of others. That, as we see, is a story as old as civilization itself.
In the 21st century the relationship between Israel and their Palestinian neighbours is a very troubled one to say the least. In comparison to the biblical tale read to us just moments ago, the modern power dynamic is almost completely reversed and Israel can be seen as playing role of “Goliath” and causing much destruction and hardship to the population that
have lived in the area for generations. To take this passage as a sign that the modern state of Israel has a claim to the land is to do a great disservice to the text.
At this point the military might of Israel has the armour of many Goliaths and the Palestinians are being severely punished simply for trying to live a normal life. The deaths of unarmed Palestinians are far out of proportion to the casualties on the side of Israelis , military and civilian.
The problem with these biblical stories,
when looked at today is that while they assume a perspective of, “God is on our side”, we forget that we must take a longer and broader view. Much has changed in the world since David loaded his little sling with pebbles.
In other biblical passages this “self-centred” perspective is somewhat tempered by the writings of the prophets who remind the people again and again of their call to teat the alien and the stranger with compassion and justice because they were once aliens and strangers in a new land.
In 1989, when I was in my first pastoral charge, I watched the coverage of the populist protests in China with great interest. I had a very small B&W TV but, as I recall, most of my information came from the CBC news and from Maclean’s. One particular photograph from Tiananmen Square (show picture) has remained seared into my memory for all those years and I pull it out from time to time.
The government had cracked down on the protest movements. The ability of foreign journalists to tell the world what was happening
was severely curtailed, but some stories were smuggled out. This story was one of them! In the aftermath of hundreds, and maybe thousands of deaths, one lone man, rumoured to be a student, whose name has never been
verified, is pictured here, bravely standing in front of a column of tanks. Apparently he moved each time they moved, preventing them from leaving the square. At one point he climbed onto a tank and attempted to have a conversation with the soldiers inside. Eventually he was hustled off into the crowd.
Considering that China is still not anywhere near what would be called “an open society,” reports of his death by execution or survival cannot be verified. The current regime still wants the events of that time to be forgotten. All information about the event is suppressed and when confronted with photographic evidence, I am told that modern students think the images have been faked.
On the 25th Anniversary, Senator Jim Munson, the son of a United Church minister, then the CTV’s China Correspondent wrote, “If
you are a witness to history you can never forget. You need to speak out loudly for those whose voices were crushed in Tiananmen Square.”
Some populist movements have resulted in greater freedoms. In June of 1989 who would have predicted that the Berlin Wall would fall by that Christmas and the very next year the F. W. deKlerk government of South Africa would begin negotiations to end the evils of Apartheid.
I recall the funeral I performed for a man who was from Berlin. His son put a piece of the Berlin wall, about the size of a ping pong ball, in
his casket. While he had been living in New Brunswick for years, this was an important symbol of freedom to his family.
Looking at today’s stories, we are left with the question of their meaning in the 21st century. What can we take home from these stories?
In many, if not most wars, each side often claims the “side of God.” They may, or may not, end up being the winners! In every fishing community I have ministered in there are the never forgotten tragedies of those who drowned at sea. My own family has had it’s personal tragedy along this vein. My mother’s elder brother drowned while going for a swim one July day in 1947. It changed their family forever!
Tragedies happen and prayer and trusting in God does not always save lives. We know this.
Do these stories tell us that if we are defeated it is a failure on our part?
The reality is that there will be storms in life, there will be opposition that seems like we might as well cut our losses and ask for terms of surrender. But the passages speak of faith in
the midst of seemingly impossible odds.
The situation in which the church finds itself these days seems to be one of those situations. As the church ages and our pews empty, not just here but in many, many congregations, shall we just ask the last one left standing to shut out the lights when they leave? Shall we go back to the good old days when things were sure and certain, the pews were full, and ignore everything that has happened in science and culture in the last 100 years? Do we wring our hands in fear and trembling, too
paralysed to even do the familiar things.
Or do we step forward in faith. Do we take
what we know from our day to day lives and apply it to the problems at hand. According to the story David knew how to protect his sheep from wild animals, surely Goliath could be no different. Unlike the grown men, represented by his older brothers and by King Saul, he did not assume the battle had already been lost.
Of course there are no easy answers. It’s not like we have to wait for a child saviour to come out of the woodwork with the magic rocks
and a little sling. We have to be the ones to make the connections, to see the possibilities
and to try them.
Even though it’s a traditional “Africal Amerrican” tune, one of our “newer” hymns, in “More Voices” is called, “Over my Head.” I will admit that when I first learned it, I absolutely hated it. When I learned it, all that was ever sung was the chorus, and it was sung over and over and OVER and over and over and OVER . Then I learned a few verses. And I love it. It speaks of opening our eyes and earys and seeing
possibilities and listening to a different music, a music of possibility and of not being alone and of good things happening.
Now here’s two verses one of which is not in More Voices.
And
There have been many crossroads in the history of the church and of the world. We are now at another such crossroad. The story for today is - have faith, the foes may be big but we can meet the challenge. Like David we have to remember who we are and whose we are and step forward in faith.
Amen.
NO SERMON - Church has been cancelled because of conflicting Canada Day events. This reflection has been linked to the website for people to read.
If you were in church this week, July 1, 2018 this is the Gospel that would be read.
The gospel reading for Sunday July 1 has two healing stories. I think it is crucial that this is a “healing within a healing” type of story. In this passage Jesus is on his way to help one family whose daughter is at the point of death and is interrupted by someone who thinks she can be healed without Jesus even noticing. She was wrong.
That’s often how life is; we are prepared to do one thing and can cope with that but are forced to deal with other things at the same time. Our lives don’t happen in neat stages; those stages often overlap like crazy. A couple find themselves sandwiched between the needs of children and ageing parents. The short years between the “empty nest” and the grandchildren coming along (or even moving in) throw all our plans out the window. Life has a way of changing our ideas and plans!
July 1 is the 151 “anniversary” of Canadian Confederation. On this day we are called to celebrate and give thanks for the country we call home. On this day we celebrate what it means to be Canadian. When we compare ourselves with other countries it is easy to become smug. On the whole, we are very blessed. Yet, we are like those who were accompanying Jesus on one mission when we realize that there are others with needs. In Canada we have disturbing rates of child poverty. Of course, every poor child is from a poor family! We have a long way to go before all Canadians can enjoy the full blessings of this country rich in resources. We are in the process of dealing with how we live with our Aboriginal Peoples in just and life giving ways.
At the same time we have a responsibility on the world stage to share what we have with those who have much less than is needed to sustain life. Famines and disasters in other countries call us to spend our foreign air both generously and wisely. Refugees are arriving on our shores, or are applying to find a new home in Canada. We must balance the voices that are crying for charity to begin at home and the voices that cry out for our abundance to be shared with others.
Our gospel for today challenges us to take the step of faith, to balance the needs of the many, and seek to welcome the stranger and the outcast because if we work together we will have more resources than we first thought possible.
If we begin from a perspective of scarcity, we will never feel ready but if we approach it from a perspective of abundance, I believe that we will find that God’s grace will multiply our efforts in ways we did not think possible.
We are a people who celebrate life in all of its abundance.
Let us seek a Canada that promises abundant life, not just for us but for as many as possible.
2 Samuel 5: 1-5, 9-10 I assume you have all heard the expression, “You can’t go home again”. If you are the person who has been living away, you have changed and so has “home”. Life at home has gone on without you and going home and expecting to fit back in like you did before can often be like trying to pound a square peg into a round hole.
I started experiencing this when I went away for university at age 18. Each time I visit my family there were changes - and it worked both ways.
I have also seen this happen in the various pastoral charges I have served where people who have “grown up here” come back “home” to retire. The people who have never left are happy to have them come back and take over the family home, and help keep local businesses open and organizations running. When they take on leadership roles though, it can become tricky. If they have enough time to “re-learn the old ways” and don’t change anything, everyone thinks it’s great that they have “come home” but if they
want to change something, depending on what that something is, they can be ridiculed or discounted. In some cases it is easier for an outsider to lead change because, well, “we expect them to be different”. Sometimes it is easier for the expert to be an “outsider” and not “one of us” because people nver get used to the idea that the kid next door is truly grown up.
I used to go to the monthly meeting of a community organization that promoted small business, community development and tourism. One night there was a special speaker on some
aspects of setting up a small business. The chair of the community committee, who was a church member, said to me, “it was nothing I could not have done or said, but I’m from here, so I had to get someone else.”
We don’t really know much about Jesus’ life before his public ministry began. For whatever reason the gospel writers don’t write about it except for one incident when Jesus was 12, on the verge of adulthood. It was obviously not that important to the early church. However, taking other information in the gospels into
account, scholars estimate that he was about 30, more or less. Given the life expectancy of the time, he was “middle aged” when he began his ministry. Clearly, he must have done something for all of those “missing” years. Today’s text indicates that he was a carpenter. That occupation might well have made him the “guy on the next street” who built the furniture for all the neighbours, or carved all the yokes for the oxen and made the wooden parts of the plows and other farm and household implements. They knew him and he knew them.
Notice also the odd reference to him as the son of Mary, NOT as the son of Joseph. In a very patriarchal culture referring to him by his mother and not his father was, if effect, an insult.
In a society like Jesus’, everyone had a place, and people didn’t often change places. I guess carpenters with dubious parentage did not become rabbis. Yet they had heard that he had earned a reputation as a doer of great deeds. He started to speak and the people were impressed but when they overcame their initial
amazement they turned their backs on him; he
didn’t belong in that role in the synagogue.
Mark’s gospel does not tell us what the content of his teaching was but others tell us that he was making prophesy relevant.
There are 17 prophetic books in the Bible but there are many more than 17 people in the biblical story who took on that sort of role. When we speak of the biblical prophets it is crucial to remember that being one did not guarantee that they were liked or popular. Some prophets were even so disliked they had to flee
for their lives; Jesus, as we know, died on the cross.
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they hear the word prophet is “fore-telling.” The popular notion of a prophet is that he or she should be able to predict when the Leaf’s will win the Stanley Cup or the Jays, the World Series! A prophet should be able to predict a plane crash, the mm of rain to fall on a certain day, or your mark on your final exam. However, that really has more to do with magic or fortune-telling than real prophesy.
In the biblical context, prophets speak for God. Prophets, generally speaking, do not arise, or are not called, when everything is hunky dory and everyone in society is enjoying the blessings of the land. They do not arise to tell people that they are doing a great job. They arise when people are not living in the ways to which God has called them. In the biblical tradition, prophets arise when there is “stuff that needs saying.”
Prophets accept the fact that they will face opposition. That’s just the nature of the calling. Prophets tell people stuff they usually don’t want to hear. It may indeed be a “prediction” for the future but its connected to behaviour. You tell your child, “if you don’t study you will fail your exams” or “of you don’t look both ways before you cross the street you may get hit by a car”. That’s prophesy! If it happens it does not do so because it was predicted but because the warning was not heeded.
When I was studying for ministry we talked about the tension between two of our roles as ministers in churches: pastors and prophets. Pastors meet people in sickness and need and
show and proclaim God’s love and presence. Prophets tell people to “listen up” and to “live the way of justice and mercy”. We cam to the conclusion that balancing these two of our roles might get very tricky.
For a number of years I have kept the “original” of the bulletin cover I have used for today, in a book in my office. About 10,000 years ago, as the glaciers were retreating from what is now the area around Niagara Falls, three waterfalls were created and began to flow with 750,000 gallons of water per SECOND.
In 1970 some clever Army Engineers figured out how build a series of coffer-dams and divert most of the water flowing over the American side to the Canadian side and the American Falls all but dried up! This enabled them to study the deterioration at the falls, and the rock pile beneath it andif possible, remediate the damage. My friend Google also informs me that a similar water stoppage had happened naturally due to an ice jam in 1848. These days the amount of water flowing over the various falls changes by season and hour of the day as the need ever increasing need for Hydroelectric power is balanced with the need for tourists to see something spectacular!
Sooooo! The front of the bulletin is a “cool” picture when you realize what it is. Im not sure how close those not directly involved in the project were allowed to get but it looks like you could walk across with no problem!
The picture is not really what I would call an example of prophecy; that’s on the back.
As I remember, in the 1970's energy conservation, in the Maritimes at least, had to do
with saving money. Insulate and save money. Turn down the heat, put on a sweater and save money. Buy a smaller car and save money. Walk to the corner store instead of driving and save money. Some people I knew would bypass the emission control system on their car to get better gas mileage and save money! I don’t think most people in rural PEI thought much about pollution - smog in big cities was, well, in the big cities. Few people were talking about its effect on the climate patterns of the world. There was no discernable air pollution on PEI, unless of course, there was that certain wind that blew the stink from the pulp mill at Abercrombie. Then we said, “I’m glad we don’t live there!”
The water powered saw and grist mill operated by my family had been in operation for many years before the 1930's when my father’s parents purchased it. A few years before my dad shut the mill down he had stopped using the water power partly because the water needs for the city of Charlottetown kept increasing so much that the flow in the stream was far less than he needed.
These days the vast majority of scientists believe that global warming has been caused by human beings either directly or indirectly. We are being told that Global warming is a serious problem and that we are years behind where we should be in enacting solutions that will make a difference.
When people of faith look at global warming we are called to look at it in terms of our call to be stewards of the gifts God has given us. We are called to care for the world in which we live.
Prophesy in the modern era is certainly not
limited to climate issues. Not that long ago the picture of the body of Alan Kurdi, a 3 year old, who had washed up on a beach on the Mediterranean Sea, flashed around the world. It was a spark which ignited a global response to take in refugees from a number of war-torn countries.
Recently published statistics on child poverty are staggering. We must realize that poor children are not living on their on - they come from poor families! Child poverty is a result of parents not having enough money to feed, clothe and house their children.
The #metoo movement has shone a bright
light on the kind of sexual harassment and abuse that used to be taken for granted.
Friends and colleagues of mine have been working against the abuses of human rights and the environment that go hand in hand with mining and extraction of precious metals, by Canadian companies in foreign countries.
The prophetic path is to speak to these situations, and others, situations and bring them to the light and scrutiny of faith. The prophetic
path is to present an alternate vision for life on this fragile beautiful planet. We are all in this together. Every person, man, woman, boy and girl
is a reflection of the divine and should be entitled to a life of blessing and safety. All
should have enough of what is needed for live and should not have to live in fear.
Most regular folks take a look at all of these, and other problems, and understandably, feel overwhelmed. What can one Canadian, or one Canadian family, of modest means do in the face of such problems? Where do we begin?
Well we could shoot the messenger?
We could look for reasons to tell ourselves and others that, “it’s not our problem” and do nothing because, we did nothing wrong, or everything is fine here. We don’t have to worry.
Or we could take the advice of some who say that the solution for the average person is to “think globally and act locally.” What this means to me is that we “think” before we perform simple actions such as shopping and try and use that little bit of power to make a difference. Buy local instead of imported where possible.
Buy less processed food (its healthier too). Take seriously the proper sorting of household waste and (this one applies to me) remember those re-useable bags when you go shopping. Having a dozen of them in the car trunk does not help!
Write a letter to the MP or MLA and support policies that actually help those who have been behind or left out. The true wealth of a country is not in how much the very rich have but that as many people as possible have enough for abundant life.
Jesus told his listeners that the purpose of his ministry was so that all people would have full and abundant life. This abundant life was not just a promise of pie in the sky, but something that could be experienced in the here and now. It was not a promise of wealth but of the things necessary for a full life.
Some people believe that such matters have nothing to do with faith, but even a quick look at the prophets, even a quick look at Jesus’ ministry tells us that this is not so. Everything is part of the life of faith and living faithfully.
Some people say that they come to church
to get strength for their week, to get some help to face their overwhelming lives, not to get more things to do!
In response to that, and in conclusion, I would say that I find it very comforting and empowering, in the face of overwhelming problems, to find that there is something meaningful I CAN do. I can’t solve global warming. I can’t feed all the hungry people in Hantsport, let alone Nova Scotia or the world. I can’t stop the destruction of the communities in the global south held hostage to foreign
companies but I can become more aware and I can do at least a few things that make a difference.
In the end it is the sum total of all those little things that will make more difference than we can ever imagine.
Amen!
Ephesians 1: 3-14 Today’s gospel passage begins with King Herod trying to figure out the true identity of this Jesus from Nazareth. Who is he, really? Some of the proposed answers seem like fanciful speculations, but perhaps those speculations were the only way they could make sense of his preaching and his person. Jesus was obviously “one of a kind”; a rare breed. Maybe some of the people wondered, “Perhaps that is what the living
and breathing Elijah was like?” or “Hey, most of us saw John the Baptizer when he was alive; maybe he’s come back?” They had seen in them the same courageous and deep truth that they now perceived in Jesus. However, with the mention of the name of John, the outspoken, very odd, baptizing, camel hair wearing, honey and locust eating prophet, Herod was quaking in his boots! Why would the king be worried about a scruffy prophet from the sticks? Why indeed?
It is at that point, by way of explanation, in this great “made of tv” movie version of Jesus’
life, otherwise known as the Gospel According to Mark, we get a flashback.
John had started his ministry only a short time before Jesus appeared on the scene and should still have been alive, but he wasn’t. John was dead because of Herod. Herod put him in prison because he dared to tell Herod that he should not have divorced his wife in order to marry his half-brother’s ex- wife. But prison was all the punishment Herod was prepared to dole out. . During a party with the powerful folks upon whom Herod depended for his power his
daughter began to dance and they all enjoyed her dancing so much that he made a rash promise that he would soon come to regret. “I’ll give you anything. Anything your little heart desires”.
What did he think she might want? New jewellery? Done. New clothing? Done. A servant all her own? Done. A trip? Done. But instead of coming up with something on her own, she sought her mother’s advice. Her mother was only too glad to tell her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptizer. It was the perfect way for her to get even with this
meddling prophet she had grown to hate. Once the request was made Herod was stuck; he had to oblige. He had made a foolish, rash and open-ended promise in front of everyone; his honour and power were at stake! He had to give her what she asked; he had to give the order.
So you can see, speculation that he was alive again, as silly as it sounded to his rational mind, would have put fear into his heart. He was oh so guilty on so many levels. John’s courage and strength put him to shame and his death was his fault!
Among my colleagues (and probably among
other professions) is an expression, “that’s not a hill I want to die on”. There are some church
disputes that directly involve the core values of a clergyperson’s vision for ministry and there are many that do not. When I was a student I worked for one summer in a multi-staff ministry. We got into a controversy over the scheduling of a baptism and the clergy team both decided they would resign if the Council did not support their decision. It was a little nerve wracking for me, but fortunately it did not come to that. I have
known other ministers whose ministry was effectively “finished” when they refused to do a
baptism under the conditions requested by the family! And they had congregational policy on their side.
Not many clergy would be willing to risk their ministry for something like the colour of the new carpet in the sanctuary, drapes in the parlour or even how communion is served.
The great prophets, had, in their hearts and souls, an identity, a call and a devotion to the truth that they put above self preservation. As
I have indicated before, prophets tend to arise in troubled times. Sometimes it’s the leaders who need to wake up and get back in line with God’s call to them as a nation and sometimes it the people as a whole who need to reorient their lives. This puts the prophets in a precarious position.
It’s a scary thing, to risk everything for the truth. There have always been professions which have asked people to place the lives of others over their own.
On Tuesday morning my social media lit up
with the joyous news, “they are all out”. I did
not have to look anywhere else to determine “who was out”. All around the world, people had been following the news about the 12 members of a boys soccer team and their coach who had become trapped by a flash flood in a system of caves in Thailand. Thai Navy seals, joined by people with similar training from around the world, in a carefully planned operation, raced against the clock to bring them safely out, before more rains trapped them, possibly for months. Tragically, one diver died as he was
placing spare oxygen canisters along the route,
highlighting the dangers of the operation. I did not get the sense that this death was going to call a halt to the operation but gathered it was seen as an accepted risk for people whose lives are spent in the riskiest of occupations, especially when the lives of others were at stake.
About 26 years ago there was a massive explosion at the Westray Mine in Plymouth, NS, killing all 26 miners working underground that day. We did not know for certain that they all had died until draeggermen risked their own lives
to find out for sure that the miners had died.
Nova Scotians remembered the various “Springhill Miracles” and held onto hope that this would be the same and that some had made it.
Then there are police officers, fire fighters, and the kind of search and rescue personnel whose work involves extreme danger. They all take extensive training to lessen the danger but it is still very real. They have to really want to do what they do and to be at the top of their game at all times.
So how do these two story lines intersect
with our lives as a people of faith?
As a people who follow in the way of Jesus of Nazareth, it is good for us, every so often, to take stock of “who we are and whose we are”. From time to time we will need to ask hard questions about who we are called to be ans what our message is. As I see it our message and our actions should live out Jesus’ promise of abundant life for all creation.
Parents know about the emotional, physical and financial cost of having children. Good friends of mine are new parents. They now have the usual long sleepless nights, anxious moments and lots of laundry. They know that the days are gone when they will be able to do what they want after their work day is done. Yet if people weren’t willing to try as hard as they could to be “good parents” our social fabric would unravel.
Similarly, in our church life as a community of faith we are called to a dedication to balance our love of self with our love of God and love the “other”. We are called to give of ourselves in ways that might be inconvenient or costly simply because that is who we are.
You can’t watch a tv program without encountering advertising. Businesses pay advertising companies big bucks to create ads which will bring the shoppers to their stores. The cleverly crafted messages have one purpose in mind. Buy from us. Spend your money at our store. Improve your life by buying what we are selling.
What we may not be told is that the lower prices sometimes come on the backs of exploited workers, unsafe working conditions and the demands of shareholders who don’t care how
profits are MADE.
The politicians that seem sure to win these days promise the voters lower taxes and leave more money in their pockets. This sounds good, of course, until the program cuts start and people realize how much they had depended on tax dollars. Somehow those with lots of money end up with more.
In this modern climate the command to “love your neighbour” has often become limited to those “just like us” and almost every barrier that had been broken down is slowly but surely being rebuilt.
In this second decade of the 21st century, it seems that the advances in social policies that have been achieved in the previous generation are in danger of disappearing. The only ones who seem concerned are various human rights
organizations and the mainline churches.
Since the mid 1980s I have been hearing
the term, “post Christian era”. What this means is that as church people we can no longer operate on the assumption that our culture cares about us or wants to hear from the church for any
reason. This does not mean that we should give
up speaking, BY NO MEANS! It just means we will have to speak louder and may lose some of our “popularity”.
In some ways we are closer to the situation faced by the early church where the people had to be courageous enough to follow in the way of Jesus despite the cost. They picked up the slack that the state did not even consider to be their role. For example, the church had a special ministry to widows and orphans because no one else was looking out for them.
In the early years being a Christian COULD and sometimes did, get you killed. In Canada it is unlikely we will be killed because we attend church or, for example, advocate for a fairer social safety net. We are, however, challenged to take a page from the life of John the Baptizer. When we are facing a decision and ask, “what’s in it for me?”, we are not being faithful to his prophetic call but when we look at our decisions in terns of the difference it might make in someone else’s life, then we are beginning to look at it with a prophetic vision.
In several of the TV versions of “Anne of Green Gables”, Marilla and Matthew are discussing Anne staying at Green Gables. Marilla
says, “Matthew, she just has to go back. What use is a girl to us.” Matthew responds with, “We just might be of some good to her”.
Who do we think we are? Are we a people who live out God’s love and by God’s grace who seek to make a difference in our community and in the world. As the Choir’s Anthem challenges us, are we are a people who build a house of love and caring? Are we a people whose first thought
is for ourselves or are we a people who seek to do what we can to make life better for all?
The choice is ours.
Amen.
2 Samuel 7: 1-14a My nephew and his girlfriend have just moved into their own house. It was a long time coming, mostly because he is a carpenter and it was necessary that he work for other people, for pay, rather than for himself!
As you all know, building a house does not happen overnight! Friends of mine had one built and I was surprised how little time it actually took! But it was a few YEARS ago that my nephew showed me the drawings of his planned
house. It was not his first set and it would not be the final one, as they were in the process of agreeing on what they could really afford as opposed to what they wanted! Finally a plan was agreed upon and the ground was prepared. The cement was poured, the walls put up, the siding and roof went on, the windows and doors went in, the wiring and plumbing went in, the driveway was paved and the lawn seeded, the floors were put down and then they moved in. I’ve missed a few hundred steps, but you can fill them in yourself. If you want to look up the various steps yourself on YouTube. Apparently that website can guide you through the whole process. My advice though, hire a professional!
He tells me that one of the rooms has my name on it, but he has probably said that to more than one of his aunts and to all his cousins. He wanted to build a house with space to welcome his family and friends! Now, like all couples, they have to make their house their “home”.
Today’s passage from the Old Testament is about David’s plan to build a house for God. We
begin with David being uneasy. His young city
state had entered a time of peace after a time
of multiple conflicts with the surrounding peoples and he had built a fine palace of cedar for himself. But, God’s house was still a tent and when he thought about it, that just didn’t seem right! It could have been interpreted as the God of Israel not being that important to the people. They may have thought that their priorities were all wrong.
The prophet Nathan, the religious leader, initially agreed that it was indeed the right time
to build a “house” for God. That night, however,
God told Nathan to advise David to slow down; God had other plans.
As I have already said, when you are building a house, there are steps to follow. Only after following these steps can you hang the welcome sign on the front door and invite your friends and family for a BBQ.
Nathan essentially tells David that he is putting the cart before the horse. It’s not about the grand house David could build but the actions of God on behalf of the King and the people. God will build them a house of flesh and
blood; a “royal house”. The house of stone and cedar, for God would come, in time. It was more important that they become a people of God than they “make a show” of their dedication to God.
They have to truly become a people of God first.
What does this “people” look like? How do they live and what is important to them?
It seems to me that the same theme runs throughout the scriptures, including today’s epistle passage. Despite how grand or how simple a “building” may be, it is the faith that is lived by those who worship there that really counts. In
the Epistle, the author speaks of the kind of unity that crosses barriers. The barrier, or stumbling block to unity, in the early church was the issue of circumcision.
For us, baptism is the sign of membership in the Christian community and it has been that way since the beginnings of the church. However, since the early church was a part of Judaism it was felt that the men who wanted to convert to
Christianity had to become Jewish first. Since the time of Abraham it was seen a sign of God’s covenant with the people. The Jewish Christians
did not want to give that up.
Since all Jewish boys were circumcized a few days after their birth, many felt that the men who wished to convert had to be circumcized first. Some of the gentiles who converted did not want to be circumcized.
The Epistle passage tries to get beyond this difference by citing that their unity was in Jesus and in following in the way of Jesus. Of course, one could still choose to be circumcized but it was not essential. This unity was brought about by the work of Christ.
Thus the epistle passage speaks of the unity brought to two groups of people who had been divided and were very different. This breaking down of an age old barrier was crucial to the development of the community of faith known now as the Christian church.
The gospel passage speaks of a common event in the life of Jesus. The people are so eager to hear his words and receive his healing that he and his disciples can’t get a break, even for lunch. People want to touch him, or even his
clothes, certain that this would be enough. It
seems that he finds the energy to teach and heal them. He continually crosses boundaries as he conducts his ministry and offers his message to all who come to him.
What does this all say about our lives of
faith in Nova Scotia in 2018?
When it comes to the Epistle passage it is hard for us to understand the problem in any direct way since we have a completely different context. Howver, I’m going to try to imagine what some connections might be.
There have been many times when we could
have done a better job in Canada at living out the advice to embrace diversity in the spirit of unity.
In Canada we are slowly coming to terms with the legacy of residential schools. These schools were designed to, among other things, “take then Indian out of the child”. Apart from the outright abuses at the schools, which are another matter altogether, native children were forcibly removed from their homes, deprived of their culture and made to dress like white people and speak the language of the white people without actually giving them the same opportunities upon graduation! When they went home they had no life skills for family life and did not know how to be native any more.
Spiritually speaking, we confused our
culture with the good news of Jesus. We attempted to eradicate everything that was good about their spirituality. We could have learned a great deal if we had stopped to listen and to care.
Of course this approach was also true of many “missionaries” who went overseas to spread
the “good news” of Jesus. The clothing and food of many people were very different from people
from western Europe and missionaries were offended and tried to make them look and act as much as possible like people from western Europe, when such things really had little to do with Christianity. Both were examples of the “superiority” we felt as westerners! There was very little “grace” and no respect involved.
In Canada these days, as in many “western” countries, we are having a debate on many levels about what it really means to be Canadian. Some feel that veils and turbans, for example, are not
a part of our country. I think that taking this
Epistle passage as a metaphor, we are being challenged to find unity in what binds us together and not making our norms the norms that are enforced on everyone.
These are divisive issues, and there are many more in our community and country. They will not be solved unless we find common ground. In the terms of the Epistle, the common ground was the faith in Jesus. As a people of faith who follow Jesus, who welcomed people of many backgrounds, does this not say something about how we should view others?
Lets get back to the church and our dreams for our church community. I’ve never been in a church where everyone agreed about everything. In my various congregations people have
disagreed about the speed of the music, the musical selections, the way we served communion, the service schedule, whether the musician played an organ or a piano, and the list goes on.
The important thing is not uniformity but unity. We are called to find a way to overcome the differences that will still remain.
Perhaps it is the work and outreach of the church which will give us our unity and our purpose. Jesus life was filled with was busy preaching and healing and offering the good news to many people, some of whom the religious leaders would have rejected.
Just as building a house begins with the foundation perhaps our plans should focus on making sure we have the basis covered. We have to stop dividing our families, our communities between “us” and “them”. We need to focus on building a unified house of US.
The ministry of Jesus showed us that there
is only “us”. The school breakfast program is
looking for cereal to feed children. The food bank is looking for food for hungry people. The people who live in long term care are often lonely and wanting to maintain the connections that meant so much to them in their younger years.
We are all in this together and how we form community and how we care for one another will say more about us than anything else.
Amen.
Ephesians 3: 14-21 I know folks who are always feeding people. Of course they feed their families whenever they arrive but they also dish out food to almost anyone who comes in the door. One older man comes by a woman’s house, on a regular basis, with a hungry look on his face he gets fed; that’s why he comes! He used to come to talk to the woman’s husband but he still comes now that she’s a widow. She feeds him and then he’s on his way. Her friends joke with her about him
being her “boyfriend” and she laughs! I know other folks who can almost always feed two, three or four more, easily, when more people drop by than they expected. They insist that there’s plenty! And there is! I know folks who have teenagers and when their kids come in with their friends the food in the cupboards just seems to disappear and they don’t mind - insisting that “that’s why it’s there”. A friend of mine said, “When my son was a teenager, I spent a ton of money on groceries, but at least I knew where he was!” He was, however, trained to ask
if fresh baking was for the family or “someone else”. His grandmother who did all the baking was was active in the UCW, and often took baking to her friends.
In today’s gospel passage, we have what is often regarded as a “miracle” story. Jesus fed a
crowd of thousands, seemingly with only a boy’s small lunch! You might find it interesting that not only does this miracle appear in all of the gospels but that two of the Gospels tell the story twice! While each account is slightly different, it was obviously a very important
story in the life of the early church.
John’s version goes on to tell his readers that the crowds wanted to make him their king,
but he escaped! He desperately needed to get away and be with the disciples, to reflect, to teach them and to pray.
If you were living the kind of existence most of those folks were, hand to mouth, on the edge of starvation, you would want him as your king too. He’s certainly be more good to you than the Emperor and his minions whose only concern was their own wealth and power. John’s Gospel is
also the one that tells the reader that he turned water into wine. Who wouldn’t want a friend who could do that!
But I wonder if, the people who had been there that day ever stopped to think about what had happened and what it really meant? After the heat of the day had dissipated, and their chores were done, did they sit in the evening breeze and wonder, “what really happened out there?” “What did this all mean?” Was it all about the food, or was there more to it?
Do you know the story of “stone soup”? In
this story a stranger comes to a town which is suffering from a shortage of food and he essentially “tricks” them into realizing that they have enough food, IF THEY SHARED IT. This is
certainly one way to look at this Gospel story. The boy who was willing to share his lunch inspired, at best, or, at the worst, “guilt-ed” others to do the same. As they saw his small lunch being shared they opened their secret stash and shared what they had brought with those who had none. In a climate of scarcity, such sharing would still be a miraculous event!
OR we could take a much broader view of the story. The gospels are not interested in telling random stories about Jesus. Each writer has a purpose in what is included. Obviously this story has a broader meaning for the life of the
church than just telling of an event in his life. It’s not just about feeding a crowd on one long ago day; it’s ultimately about God’s relationship to the whole of creation! It’s not about keeping Jesus around so there would be lots to eat and drink - though that would be kind of cool.
It would be like Captain Jean Luc Picard
and his crew and visitors ordering their meals from the replicators scattered throughout the USS Enterprise, in the 24th century!
When they want to take him and make him king, though, Jesus leaves. It seems he does not want any of that kind of “hero worship”. Jesus is there to show them the ways and heart of a generous God, a God who calls people to live in faith and a spirit of great expectations. He’s not there to perform magic tricks!
This passage calls us to expect big things!
One student aims for a 100%, achieves an 80%
and sees it as 20% less than what was possible! Another received a 60%, seeing it as 10% more than was needed to pass!
Perhaps our problem in the church is not that we aim too high but that we don’t aim high enough!
I was reading a story about a couple who went to a foreign country to work for one of the
United Church’s overseas partners. They were
told that if they wanted to take pictures of spectacular and interesting things, for their friends and family back home, to do so in the
first few months. After that, the things they once found to be unique, spectacular, and well worth writing home about, would become commonplace and not worth mentioning.
My last manse was on a hill, facing the west. It was the “Blomidon look-off”, of Kings County, PEI. In the day time it just looked like some trees and “regular farmland” but at sunset the view was often spectacular. I became so used to them that I had to remind myself how amazing they were; in seven years there may have been a thousand really good ones! I took
pictures but missed many exquisite shots! The “Creation Time” stole I will wear in the fall was inspired by those sunsets. In case you want to have a look, the view is preserved in my Facebook pictures!
I think our first step in expanding our expectations is to be aware of “the Holy” in our midst; one we often forget to notice. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the person who wrote, “How do I love thee, let me count the ways,” also wrote a poem called Aurora Leigh which ends with these words,
When we go outside do we expect to see something beautiful and marvellous or do we just see common everyday garden flowers and vegetables? When we see the new baby in the family do we see only “grampa’s nose” or do we see a miracle of epic proportions. When we look at the sunrise, do we marvel at how blessed we are on this earth to have so much working in our favour, at least in Nova Scotia?
When we look at passages such as the one
for today we may feel that it tells us that God’s will is that all people have enough to eat. But when it comes to trying to determine what part we could play, how we could help make this happen, we can easily become paralyzed. We can’t feed all the hungry people in the world. We can’t bring about peace on earth so that fewer people are hungry and homeless because of wars. We can’t take in all the refugees looking for a new home. Most of the time we can’t stop the conflict in our own families.
About 1,600 years ago, in what is now
Algeria lived a man we now call St. Augustine and part of his many writings refer to what has been called, “the Divine-Human interface” or the relationship between the will of God and human action. It’s a simple sentence: "Without God we cannot; without us, God will not.” pause "Without God we cannot; without us, God will not.”
When 5,000 were fed on that day the disciples had already figured it all out. It would take them 6 MONTHS wages to pay for the food needed for this crowd. A small boy, not well schooled in “the ways of the world, bravely
offers his lunch. In the end, it was more than enough! There were even leftovers.
One day, well over 50 years ago, my older cousin was given the task of distributing candy at a family gathering. She took great delight in going to each person, handing them a candy and saying, “one for you, and one for you”, and so on. Until she came to the end and realized she had run out and there would not be “one for her”. I suspect an adult helped out and she got a candy, but that is our fear, I think, even as adults, that WE will end up with the short end of the stick.
So the candy that could give so many a treat stays in the bag, is hoarded by a few, and blesses no one!
Planning ahead and counting the cost is a useful and necessary task when we take on a project, such as building a house, or even having a banquet, but when it becomes our whole way of living, we have lost our sense of trust. We have lost our trust in God if everything is costed out in such a way that we do nothing because we don’t have the resources to do everything.
When I think of the great social
movements in history, people of faith seem to have just leaped into the water and started to swim. Just over a week ago the world observed the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela, who lived to the age of 95. When he began to oppose Apartheid, the oppressive system that governed the country of South Africa, I suspect that many people would not have expected him to see that system abolished. But he lived to become the new country’s president!
When William Wilberforce began to oppose
the slave trade, few thought he would win. But he did! When slavery was abolished in the USA, would Abraham Lincoln have ever thought that an African American would sit in the Oval Office!
The problems we face are huge. The needs are enormous. But we can do something. When our fear of not being able to succeed paralyzes us and we do nothing we certainly never will succeed, but if we step forward in faith and act, in the ways we can, trusting in God plan for the goodness of creation, surprising things can
happen No MIRACLES can happen.
Thanks be to God! Amen
Psalm 104
Psalm 129
Mark 2: 23-3:6
Psalm 20
Mark 4: 26-34
Psalm 9
Mark 4: 35-41
Over my head I hear music in the air.
Over my head I hear music in the air.
Over my head I hear music in the air.
There must be a God somewhere.
Ohhh when the world is silent,
I hear music in the air.
Ohhh when the world is silent,
I hear music in the air.
Ohhh when the world is silent,
I hear music in the air.
When the storms of life are ragin’
Ooooh, I hear music in the air,
When the storms of life are ragin’
Ooooh, I hear music in the air,
When the storms of life are ragin’
Ooooh, I hear music in the air,
There must be a God somewhere.
Mark 5: 21-43
A Reflection
Psalm 48
Mark 6: 1-13
Psalm 24
Mark 6: 14-29
Psalm 89
Ephesians 2: 11-22
Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56
Psalm 14
John 6: 1-15
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,”