Exodus 32: 1-14
Isaiah 25: 1-9
Philippians 4: 1-9

Rejoice and Have Patience

One of the hardest things many children have to learn is patience. A friend of mine used to babysit a boy, of about 5 or 6, who had very little concept of time so an hour meant nothing to him in terms of how long it would be before something was to happen, for example, when his mom would come home from work. She discovered that while he did not know what an hour was, he did know how long an episode of Sesame Street took to watch. When he asked, “when is mom coming home?” she would reply, “in two Sesame Streets,” if that was the right amount of time. His question of time was answered in a way he could understand .

One of the hardest things we have to learn, as adults, is to have patience. Our impatience is generally around things that have no fixed time.

I chuckled a little at the recent missive on fire safety that came in the last (Nipawin) water bill. Basically, that article advised residents, “never leave anything unattended on the stove”. I thought I would write this response to the fire department, “Don’t you know that a watched pot never boils?” Interestingly, since the arrival of that water bill, I have had several things burn dry on the stove because I was not paying enough attention! On one occasion several of the smoke detectors kept going off; at least I know they work!

This summer I flew to the Maritime provinces, TWICE and each time I faced delays. The most frustrating of which involved a flight that had been delayed by a few minutes less than the amount of time I needed to make the next flight. It left me thinking, “if they would just let those of us, WITH TIGHT CONNECTING TIMES off of the plane first instead of having to wait till everyone else got their bag down, whether they were making a connection or not, waited for everyone who was still seated and effectively blocked the aisle for those of us who needed a quick exit, maybe I could make my next flight. I had seen that happen ONCE, on a different airline, and that time I patiently stayed seated, because I had lots of time to make my connection. This time, the cabin crew were unwilling to do so and seemed unsympathetic to my plight. I guess I had not also factored in the time that it took us to be assigned a new gate, because we had missed the first booking, and we were waiting on the tarmac for what seemed like “forever”; maybe the doors to my plane were already locked! An airline employee WAS waiting with, hotel, taxi and meal vouchers; in the end I had to cancel my hotel in Saskatoon for that night AND clear security the next mornung in Toronto. Trouble was that some of the things I had purchased in the airport in Halifax were not allowed through! I was not in a cheery mood when I boarded the final flight in my journey back.

We wait for test results from our doctor. We wait for a package in the mail. We wait for the light to turn green at one of those road construction sites that needs lights, or before it closed altogether, at the old bridge. Or we are like, Dido and Gogo, always waiting for Godot, who never shows up!

I really don’t blame the people who flocked around Moses as their hopes to arrive in the promised land were dashed, again and again. If all had gone well it was really a relatively short journey! Here they are in the desert with Aaron; Moses is off on a mountain, talking with God. All they can see is clouds and all they hear is thunder; they are afraid and in suspense. When Moses last came down from the mountain they were given commandments but little else. Moses had led them out of Egypt but he had gone off again and they were not certain when, or if, he could return.

What they did know was how to make an object on which to focus their devotion. They knew they needed something tangible. Amazingly, Aaron was quite willing.

They collected together all their gold, melted it down and formed a “golden calf” which they could worship; a tangible expression of the God who was supposed to be leading them!

Now, I am the perennial teenager - I HAVE QUESTIONS. Where did a slave population obtain this gold? They were not “family heirlooms!” The only easy answer is that they took advantage of the mayhem when all the first-born were killed and they stole it.

Well then, where did they get the oxy-acetylene torch, or similar thing, needed to melt the gold. They had not yet been invented! Whatever you have to do the melting in, the gold has to reach a temperature in excess of 1,000 ̊C. The desert might have been hot, but not that hot! Some scholars have thought the calf was made of wood and only inlaid with gold but that would involve a lot of pounding out the gold objects and fitting it into grooves on the calf; melting it and pouring it in might have set the wooden calf on fire with the heat. On the other hand, the wooden nature of the calf would have enabled Moses to burn it and grind it up once he discovered their lack of trust in God. Go home, pour yourself a cup of coffee or open a can of dietCoke and keep reading; the rest of the story is grim and scary.

In the early 1980s, the art gallery of the university I attended hosted a famous exhibit, “Ladders to Heaven”. A giant stone sarcophagus, (or casket) could not be brought into the main gallery - it was too heavy for the floor, and it stayed in the entry way, but several of its many small objects could fit into a larger pill bottle from the pharmacy, with room to spare. Some of them remind me of row counters (show one) which I use in knitting when the pattern is complex. These were displayed in locked see through display cases over the gallery. The title of the exhibit comes from that well known biblical story of Jacob’s ladder, and were “religious” objects in some way or another. They had been unearthed over the years by archaeologists working in the middle east. The professor who taught the biblical courses took his classes to see it, as did the professor who taught us Greek and Roman mythology. I don’t know about other professors. Since the internet had not been invented at that time, I could find out very little about it - but the vague dates they do give line up with my time at that university, and I did buy the expensive book! It features pictures of an amazing collection of artifacts.

One of the characteristic differences between the people who regarded themselves as children of Abraham, and the tribes of people in their vicinity, was that the people of Israel lived under a total ban on idols, or other objects of devotion. Simply put, they were taught that the God of heaven and earth could not be explained by, or confined in, an object made with human hands.

How do we wait for that thing that we know is just and right and the will of God? As I was working on this sermon I thought of a quote, attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. He said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” When I was a teenager I worked as a camp counsellor. One of our directors was a student minister who was an American who spent at least some of his youth in the civil rights movement. He was close to tears whenever we sang “We Shall Overcome” - for us it was just a moving song but he had a personal connection that went far beyond our experience. The struggle for equal rights for people of colour in the United States has come a long way, but is far from over. The very presence of a black man in the Oval Office may well have been the catalyst for the far right to move even farther to the right!

As I was trying to fit some relaxation into my schedule on the weekend I came across a post on Facebook by a colleague in a far away Presbytery. I figured from the post that there was something bad going on in Israel. I turned on the TV to discover what you all now know and also saw on the news. If all you had was that day’s news to go on, there was nothing else going on in the world! The complex history of Israel and Palestine had just exploded, literally’7. Ever since their creation, after WW II, the state of Israel has had factions which seem intent on driving out all of the people who lived there before and settlements are popping up in areas which had been assigned to the Palestinian residents. Israel built a wall. According to news reports, Israel now even controls what drugs can be imported to Palestine for CHILDHOOD cancer. Everyday Israelis do not feel safe from suicide bombers and other dangers and Palestinian citizens live in fear of greater restrictions on their lands, or the seemingly random destruction of their farms, which have sustained their families for thousands of years. The recent change is that Hamas, a militant group, which controls part of Palestine, but who does not speak for all Palestinians, began shelling Israel in the middle of the night on one of the holiest days of the Jewish year. Western nations are wondering how the planning was missed by the usual intelligence sources who are supposed to know that something is about to happen and stop it.

The “hard right” Prime Minister of Israel has vowed to hunt down Hamas members with a certain vengeance. The atrocities on innocent civilians, even children, are almost unimaginable. In the middle of all of this are those who just want to bury their dead and, above all, live in peace. The Palestine Israel “problem” has been going on since 1949 and has confounded the rest of the world. It leads me to ask, “Where is the justice?” “Where is God in all of this?” You can see the United Church’s statement on the back of the bulletin. I recall several General Council meetings which devoted long hours and hours to this; the United Church still has enough “moral authority” for our voice to be important. However, the Council faced heavy lobbying from the edges of both sides and the moderates in-between. The media was itching for a story, “the United Church says this.” My best friend from Jr High and High school is Palestinian, the daughter of people who were removed when the state of Israel was first created. In contrast, a good friend and colleague spent time in Israel and sides more with that perspective.

I cry with the ancients, “how long, O Lord, how long?” How long will the children of Abraham and Sarah keep killing one another and how long will the “Holy Land” be a place of fear and death and violence?” Keep in mind that while most Palestinians may be Muslim there are a significant number of Palestinian Christians who call on Allah, the father of Jesus of Nazareth. Allah is simply the Arabic word for “God.”

I pray. I try to have patience. I sign petitions calling for a mediated solution. I weep when I see this kind of unimaginable violence that has taken place in the last week, let alone in the last number of years.

I am getting very impatient. Sometimes, I echo the sentiment of Bruce Cockburn in his heartfelt and emotional song, “I f I Had A Rocket Launcher,” but I know making someone pay will just fan the violence and multiply the hurt and in the end, solve nothing. That’s what’s happening now, as Israel retaliates.

So I sit in the silence - watching the tv with the sound off, my heart weeps and I pray for peace. I pray for peace because I believe that God does not want any of us to be fighting and killing and wounding others.

Long after Moses led the people to the land of promise, a series of prophets who preached and wrote under the name of Isaiah, wrote:

“ those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
   they shall walk and not faint. 

Amen.

Exodus 33: 12-23
Psalm 99
Matthew 22: 15-22

how do we know?

At some point every March, I complete my tax return and double-check everything, making sure I have not forgotten any medical or charity receipts, or donations to a recognized political party, and then I press the button and I can see how big my refund will be. Since I have a regular job, I pay taxes every month and only once, since I have been employed full-time, have I ended up owing money at tax time!

I go to the store and I know that I will pay 6% PST and 5% GST on most goods. The oft-hated carbon tax is often blamed for the many price increases we have endured since COVID because of higher shipping cost. The higher and higher prices at the gas pump already have the taxes included but, of course, that price is always higher than we think it should be.

Last week I talked about teaching children the concept of time and waiting. When we teach children about finances we need to teach them about sales tax and why their $10 will not be enough to buy the item in the store with the $9.50 shelf price. It’s a big disappointment for kids!

Lots of people in Canada in 2023 feel they are “taxed to death.” Elections are won and lost over taxes. The struggle for responsible government in the early years of Canada was at least partly about the relation between taxation and representation in the processes of government. In case you have forgotten, income tax was a temporary measure introduced in 1917 to pay for the war, but the debt was so high, it was never repealed! I guess 106 years makes it permanent!

In Jesus day, they WERE taxed to death. AND there was no representation in the halls of power. The taxes levied by Rome were a heavy burden on a largely impoverished people.

One day I was in a mall in the city where I usually shopped. A young man stopped me and asked if I would do a short survey on radio stations. The first question was, “what is the station you listen to most often? Well, CBC radio was not even ON the list, so the rest of the questions were totally irrelevant. The survey taker did admit that he worked for one of the commercial station in the city - but not which one in specific. They were obviously trying to get a leg up on the competition; Since, even then, I rarely, if ever, listened to commercial radio, the survey was a waste of his time and mine.

I recall answering the phone one day and found myself in a survey. I innocently agreed with the first question and maybe the second, but after I was seen as “committed” to one line of thinking - the questions took me on a path I did not want to be walking, but were worded in such a way that I could hardly disagree! I told the questioner that the survey was rigged. She would not tell me who was paying for it but I was certain it was from the party in opposition, seeking to gather ammunition for the next election.

Perhaps Jesus was, as they say, “smarter than the average bear,” because in today’s reading, he avoided the seemingly simple survey question. Matthew’s description should cause suspicion in anyone who knows anything about the social climate of the day. It is clear from the beginning that “something was wrong with this picture”; it was a “trap”. The Pharisees had teamed up with “the Herodians”, presumably, supporters of Herod. Normally one group would have nothing to do with the other! Standing in the temple that long ago day, the question they posed was, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” Of course it was AGAINST the civil law to be in arrears to Caesar. It still is!

If Jesus had said, “No” he would have been reported and perhaps, arrested for sedition. That would get rid of him as far as the Jewish leaders were concerned. But if he said, “yes”, the people would turn against him, stop hanging on his every word, and the religious establishment would be free from his influence. It seemed like a “win-win” for them.

But Jesus turned the tables on them in his own subtle, but forceful, way. I talked about idolatry last week. By Jesus’ day, Jewish law forbade, not only idols, but also, all images of people. The Jewish coins did not technically have a “heads” side; they only had images of plants. However you could not pay your Roman taxes with Hebrew coins; ; you needed the official Roman coins for that. Pious Jews, which is what the Pharisees claimed to be, would not normally carry such Roman coins. However, Jesus’ questioners apparently had no trouble producing one when he asked THEM for the coin used for the tax; a ROMAN coin! This coin, a denarius, was also the usual daily wage for a labourer, without it, no one could sustain life.

Canadian coins have an image of the late Queen, and soon, new ones, will have the King’s portrait. They also have an abbreviated Latin phrase meaning, “by the grace of God, Queen (or King). By contrast, the Roman denarius, the coin in question, had the image of Caesar Augustus and an inscription which essentially proclaimed his divinity. To even have such a coin, broke several commandments, but it was the currency of the living wage! The Pharisees, who did not have to worry about the “living wage,” and sticklers for the law, had at least one of them! Matthew, the gospel writer, intends that we see the irony in this!

I believe that Jesus is challenging his hearers to make their own decision; to wrestle with their faith and to make their own determination about what belonged to Caesar and what belonged to God.

What does it really mean to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s? In Canada, our Caesars are democratically elected and not even those who are party die-hards would suggest that the Prime Minister or the Premier is divine; not even a certain former premier who held office for 9 years in this province.

We will probably all agree that we have to pay our taxes, even if we think they are too high! However, as people of faith, we have to ask the question, “is being a “good citizen” the same as being a “good Christian?”” Are our lives like one of those “pie charts” with bigger and smaller pieces of pie depending on how important each piece is to us - religious belief, work, family, civic duty, and so on.

On the “tails” side, our coins bear the images of a beaver, a racing schooner, a caribou, a common loon and a polar bear. The former one cent coin had two maple leaves. (I read the other day that the image of the maple leaves, designed by G.E. Kruger Gray in 1937, is actually botanically incorrect! I’m not botanically educated enough to understand what is actually wrong!) The images on our money is supposed to speak to what is important to us in terms of our history and culture.

What does it really mean, in Canada, in 2023, to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s? We have to answer this question for ourselves as individuals and as faith communities. We are not just reading a story from the past, but one which impacts our own lives here in 2023. There is ample biblical evidence to remind us that we, as humans, have been created on God’s image. God’s image has, in a sense, been stamped on us. When we look in the mirror who do we see looking back at us? Do we see a child of God? Do we see a Canadian? Do we see a member of the United Church of Canada? Do we see a loyal member of a particular political party? Do we see the image that points to one or more of our many roles in family and community? The important question for us is: “How do we bear God’s image in our daily lives, while at the same time, living in the political reality that is this part of Saskatchewan, and Canada?”

The United States, our neighbour to the south, in particular, claims to be founded on a separation of church and state, though in practice that is not true. For as long as I can remember faith based lobbying mattered a great deal south of the border. It seems that right leaning politics is very clearly aligned with conservative Christian churches and centrist or left wing politics with the more liberal churches. Why is that?

I think it has to do with how we read, or “see” the gospel message.

It might be helpful to talk in terms of the “lenses” through which we see the world. Even if we do not wear glasses or have “contacts,” we look through lenses! Someone once said that we see the past through “rose-coloured” glasses; we know that means. I have worn glasses virtually all of my life and know what a difference the right prescription makes. We do not come to the scripture without some “lens” or point of view. We are well-off or poor, we are male or female, we are Western Canadian or from somewhere else, we work in a place that had traditionally employed only men, we are someone who struggled for everything or someone who had no real issues getting what we wanted in life, and so on.

In addition to the lenses through which we view the world we have to realize that the Bible is a collection of ancient texts which come from a world not our own. Sometimes we need some clarification! How did things work, back then! We know this in sports. I’m told that Canadian football is somewhat different from American football, but in England it looks exactly like what we call soccer.

Sometimes I shake my head and wonder how a follower of Jesus can see politics and social issues the way they do; when I too am a follower of Jesus. As I said, it is about the lenses they are using.

If we see Jesus’ teaching through lenses of justice and compassion , then our actions and our attitudes will reflect that. We will seek to feed the poor, to visit those in prison, to stand up against oppression. If we see through a lens that sees the Bible in a literal way which does not allow for modern understandings of science and medicine and social change, then we will look at those teachings in a very different way. Our faith will demand something very different.

A number of divisive issues are circulating in our culture today - do we look through a literalist lens or do we look at the bible with a modern perspective, taking it seriously but also taking into account advances in medicine and psychology. Do we look at others in judgement or with grace? Do we struggle with a text that condemns someone but also hear the Sprit speaking to us through them, showing us a beloved child of God?

I have probably said before that the United Church does not take the bible literally, but we take it seriously. It is not just about walking an “easy road” where, “anything goes” and there is no right or wrong, but the hard road of justice - of holding people of power to account for the social policies which are supposed to help people - of advocating for programs which will cost us money but truly address needs that are genuinely there of trying to change, or prevent, unjust laws, or laws with unintended consequences. Some accuse the church of meddling in politics, but those same people probably support the status quo and don’t realize that they too are meddling, just “meddling in support.” Like it or not, there is no neutrality. Our action, or lack of it, speaks to our loyalties.

When you look in the mirror, who looks back at you: a child of God or a child of Caesar; whose image is stamped on you? What is your view of Jesus and his prophetic ministry and how do you reflect that image? When you go out in the world whose image do others see?

Amen.

Joshua 3: 7-17
Psalm 107
Matthew 23: 1-12

Moderators Carry Their Own Trays!

I believe it was a former editor of the United Church Observer who related this encounter that took place at a meeting of the General Council. He related the following encounter. While he was speaking to a journalist from another denomination, the Moderator, carrying a cafeteria tray, walked up to the pair and addressed the editor by his first name. He introduced the moderator to his colleague by his first name. The other reporter was aghast, not only did the United Church reporter address the moderator by his first name, but, even more scandalously, the moderator was carrying his own tray! The editor concluded his little “essay” with, “in the United Church, moderators carry their own trays!”

I recall introducing my father to Walter Farquharson when he was moderator, on his visit to the church in Nova Scotia, I was serving at the time. Dad asked the moderator, “Did you know Dr. Dorey. Walter replied that he knew of him, but had never met him. George Dorey was a former moderator who had served in Saskatchewan for long enough to have known my grandparents. I also found out that he visited the farm on PEI when he was moderator because my grandfather was not well enough to travel to Charlottetown at the time to hear him preach. Roads were not like they are now and the ten or so miles to the church in town may not have been paved. My dad was a man of many stories, but that was one of the few stories my father had never told in my hearing before. I guess I never heard it because he had never met another moderator, let along one from Saskatchewan. I regret that I forgot to ask him more about before he died.

Some time before “my generation,” most clergy started to prefer to relate to parishioners on a first name basis. When I was serving my second pastoral charge an elderly woman just about everyone called, “Aunt Amy,” insisted on calling me Miss Johnston,” even though I asked her to call me Beth. She explained that she had always been more formal with ministers and addressed them as mister. She chuckled when I said, “Well Amy, you can call me anything you wish as long as it isn’t mister.”

Many people like to have a picture taken with a famous person, or to have a picture of a famous person visiting their premises. If Wayne Gretzky were to visit Tim Horton’s in Nipawin, I’m sure there would be pictures published. It’s now got his famous Loonie embedded in the new floor! (Or maybe it’s just a copy!)

When I lived in PEI, the local MP invited to me to meet the Prime Minister at his house. The Cabinet was meeting in the Capital and he decided to invite a few people to his place to meet the Prime Minister. The invitation sounded like it was a private function; maybe a few dozen people. When I arrived, I realized that the MP had invited several hundreds of his “special friends” and the entire Cabinet was in attendance. I knew one of the cabinet ministers from a previous community; we had met at several Remembrance Day banquets and were usually seated near one another at the head table. I inquired about his wife, he tried to make polite conversation by asking me, “did you know that this building used to be a potato warehouse?” I replied, “Oh, I thought it was a barn!”

I was not personally introduced to the Prime Minister but when I did shake his hand; he looked at me because perhaps I squeezed his hand too hard, or too long! One of my neighbours was absolutely delighted to obtain his autograph.

I remember when the same MP, several years later, attempted to introduce me to the province’s Lieutenant Governor, just prior to the presentation of some Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medals; I was able to reply that we had known each other for years.

On Friday while I was on my way back here I had a great conversation with that MP’s wife, who was going up to Ottawa to spend time with her husband. When she boarded the plane she said something like, “have a good trip Beth.......Oh, I suppose, I should call you Rev.” Some people are all too quick to think of themselves as deserving of special privilege, titles and deference. In the first church I served I was told that a certain person in the congregation had assumed she would be waited on first in the local store since her husband was a judge. The store owner told her that in his store it was first come, first served. She may not have liked it, but, I gather the other patrons did!

In today’s Gospel passage we have a stern warning from Jesus not to believe, or act as if, we are special, privileged, or better than everyone else. It is clear that he is speaking of some of the religious leaders who had no reservations about makings life harder for those without the privilege of time or wealth to be able to follow the rules they laid down for others. I could go into long explanations about the attitudes and lifestyles of some of the religious leaders of the day, but that might give us the false assurance of “that was then and this is now” or, “that was the Jews and we are the Christian Church!”

What I think we need to do is to put this text directly in front of us and ask, “is he talking to me; is he talking to us?” When I was in university, I knew people who divided Christians into “the saved” and those who “thought they were saved”. In their minds, there was a certain formula to being “saved” and nothing else would do. But I need to ask myself, “do I divide people in similar ways; with the goal being to have me land on the better side?” “We are the church concerned with social justoice,” or are we?

The United Church has, fairly recently, committed ourselves to becoming an inter-cultural and anti-racist church. I have gone to seminars and done some reading on the topic and some of it is hard to read and to hear. A few days before my vacation, the news (sorry I cant remember which station) carried a story about the Chinese Exclusion Act, designed to keep Chinese people from becoming Canadian citizens. After many of them lost their lives building Sir John A’s, “National Dream”, successive governments, made it as hard as possible for Chinese people to come to Canada and become citizens.

It’s amazing how what is considered normal behaviour to white people is perceived by racialized people - people who are not white and find themselves being treated as “less than” in some way. For example, how often are we willing to be challenged on an “expression” we often use, or an assumption we hold, about another racial group?

So what about those of us who read this passage as United Church folks in 2023. It’s all too easy to believe that God is on our side and, by definition, NOT on the side of the others whenever there is any kind of conflict or disagreement going on. As the “new world” was being colonized by the European nations, this kind of favouritism was front and centre. There were some very clear teachings, proclaimed by the Catholic church, in particular but supported by others, that gave western nations the right to take the lands for the use of the people from Western nations and to and to take them away from aboriginal peoples, by theft or cheating or by legislation.

It’s all to easy to see our faith as giving special privilege rather than responsibility to proclaim God’s love, in word and deed. I think that the “test” is the question, “does our work point to the health and well-being of those who need an advocate, or need to be relieved of a burden, or does it point to what good Christians we are?” Is it for “the other” or is it really to prove how “Christeian” we really are.?

Let’s go back to Jesus’ teaching on this day and be open to what it is saying to us. It is our call to humility, to true community and an antidote to thinking we are right and everyone else is wrong.

Let us seek to be a church of service and humility giving what is needed in a hurting and needy world.

Amen!

Joshua 24: 1-3a, 14-25
Psalm 78
Matthew 25: 1-13

The Journey is NOT Over!

During orientation weekend at the university I attended, the first year class was called to assemble in the only room big enough to hold all of us - (with room to spare)- the university’s “Convocation Hall”, a theatre style room with a capacity of about 1,500. We were told, “in three or four years HALF of you will be back here in this room, to graduate. It’s up to you, if you are one of those who graduate.” As often happens, a sizeable number did not return after the first Christmas break; still more did not return for second year. The academic transition from High School to University was too hard for some. For others there were too many social temptations to occupy themselves with other things and no one was there to make them study, or get up and go to class. I remember seeing a first-year student returning books, the second week of class; he had gotten a job. Even though he lived at home, and he got a break on tuition because his mother worked for the university, the prospect of having money in his pocket was too enticing, or perhaps his family needed him to be bringing in money instead of spending it.

An uncle told me that when he enrolled in engineering, there was a similar assembly and the all-male class was told. “Say hello to the young man on your left. Say hello to the young man on your right. Now say goodbye to one of them; he wont be graduating.” I gather similar lectures are given to medical residents in difficult specialties. I don’t recall such a gathering happening in theological school but not everyone in the first year class ended up returning for 2nd year and or graduating!

It seems Joshua used a similar psychology on the day in question - you would think that after 40 years in the wilderness they would want to finally reach their destination but Joshua needed to be sure that the people who crossed the Jordan were ready for the next part of their journey; one that would not be as easy as they thought. In fact he told them it would be “too hard”.

Perhaps, he tought, the people had seen the land of promise as their destination in that they expected everything to be perfect once they had arrived. There would be no more trials and tribulations; they would live in the lap of luxury and feast on milk and honey. Joshua is telling them that this will be no walk in the park.

In the 1970s, Ruth Duck, whose has written many hymns and several books of prayers and readings which live in my office, wrote a hymn we sing occasionally: “Lead On, O Cloud of Presence”. It uses images and events of the wilderness journey as metaphors for God’s care for us all in the here and now. The second verse ends with the lines, “ we are still God’s people, the journey is our home.” The journey is our home!

Perched at the edge of the Jordan, Joshua wants to make sure the people know that they will still be expected to be “actively faithful,” still expected to follow in their God’s way, still expected to chose this elusive but ever persistently calling God.

Through his parables, Jesus challenged his listeners to be always ready for opportunities for service. In the case of the parable in today’s reading, to always have enough oil to be able to endure a delay, in case they were caught with burned out lamps. We don’t always know when we will be called on; sometimes we have no warning.

Many immigrants came and still come to this country for a better life - but many discover that it is a very steep slope to that better life - especially if they first have to learn English or French. Sometimes professional people end up driving taxis or working in low-wage jobs, their credentials are not recognized, for various reasons, and the better life they sought comes only to their children.

In today’s passage, the people are back, more or less, where their ancestors began their journey to the land of promise. They are back to that place where Jacob buried the symbols of his old faith to follow the God who had called Abram and his descendants into a new way. They are back to once again make the same commitment and own it for themselves. They are there to renew the covenant, to recommit to the God who had called their ancestor Jacob, who was with them during the time of slavery, and who had been leading them since they had left Egypt. They had been following the dream of their ancestors, but they would not be able to rest on those hopes and dreams; they had to make their own commitment and continue the journey of faithfulness even after they had arrived. This dream was contingent on each one of them following that same promise and the God of that promise. Their dream was contingent on trusting in that God and putting aside all other loyalties.

While Baptism is our sacrament of admission to the faith community, it needs to be followed up with a more adult profession of faith, one we often call, “confirmation.” Then, when they become parents and bring their own children for baptism they re-iterate these same promises. The congregation reaffirms the promise to provide a community of welcoming, belonging and nurture in the faith; and we do so for each and every chid - over and over again.

There was once a little boy who was afraid to go to bed in his own room. Night after night he would cry out and one of his parents would have to go to his room to comfort him. One day his mom said, “God is with you, why don’t you talk to God when you are afraid?”

“Mom, I know that God is with me, but I want someone with skin on.” While we cannot be there for all of our congregation’s children at bed-time, we are some of those, “with skin on” who can model and support children in their faith journey. We all need the tangible community of faith within which to learn and practice our faith.

Some congregations have a regular renewal of baptismal vows for the entire congregation. We had one in January, on Baptism of Jesus Sunday.

Every so often I lead a couple through a renewal of their marriage vows; for many it takes place on a significant anniversary - such as the 50th, but I led one couple in a renewal of vows ceremony at 10 years. It was just the three of us and they found it very meaningful.

When we think of the people to whom Joshua was talking on that long ago day, we tend to forget that very few, if any, of them had known the reality of slavery in Egypt. In 40 years an entire generation had been born and come of age in the wilderness. Like some immigrant children, they did not want to reminded of the old ways and the old language. BUT FOR THEM the old ways of Moses, of the God of their ancestors, was their identity and gave them a name and a purpose. As they entered the land of promise, they had to stop and make this commitment, to take on that identity, for they were to always be the people formed by the call of these long ago ancestors in the faith.

When I took a course based in a hospital at the end of my training I found out just how much the resident doctors still had to learn and just how important experienced nurses were in that training. One day a young doctor left the ward after ordering a medication for a particular patient. The nurse checked the chart and immediately paged him. There was no way she would give that drug to that patient. I was told that it was the nurses who often caught such mistakes and were an essential part of bridging the gap between the doctor’s training in medical school and going out to private practice. Pharmacists also play a part in prescription safety. A experienced doctor I know well was challenged on a prescription by his own son, a newly minted pharmacist.

In years gone by there were a number of pastoral charges who took it upon themselves to continue the training of the newly ordained ministers. These pastoral charges had an important ministry in taking the newly ordained, gung-ho ordinands, with lots of book learning but perhaps not enough practical experience, and moulding them into more experienced church leaders. These days Pastoral Charges become learning sites and much the same work, except that it is now much more intentional.

The United Church has always placed a high value on continuing education and expects that learning continue for all the years that ministers serve in active ministry. Some of the learning is required of everyone and some of it must be renewed periodically. I recall “having words” with one older minister at Presbytery executive who never took any continuing education because he had learned all he needed to know before he was ordained. I am glad that there are very few ministers with that kind of attitude still working in ministry. I think of the innovations and flexibility that came first with the personal computer and then with the internet, especially high speed internet. I don’t know what would have happened if ZOOM had not been invented when COVID hit us.

The world is constantly changing and the church must change with it, yet we all need to pay attention to our call and we need to intentionally renew our commitment so that we can stay grounded during these changes. And we also need to realize that ZOOM is not the answer to everything - the church still needs people with skin on!

One of the reasons we are stopping broadcasting the Sunday service is to encourage people to come back to church in person. After today you have two more Sundays you can sit at home in your Pjs, watch our service at your leisure, and drink your coffee. After that, you’ll have to come here - you can even wear pyjamas if you really want to, and we’ll supply the coffee - and worship with us in person, raise your hearts and voices in holy song and greet one another with the peace of Christ.

Let us continue to renew our commitment to the One who leads us and gives us vision and mission. Let us renew our commitment to this community of faith by supporting one another and gathering as one body - with skin on - to praise God and share hope and strength with one another.

Amen!

Judges 4: 1-7
Psalm 123
Matthew 25: 14-30

What Did You Want From Me?

Picture this. It is evening and the gym of a middle school is filled with teenagers at a dance; to be more specific, there are teenage boys along one wall of the gym and teenage girls along the other side. They came alone or with friends but not as “couples.” Very few are dancing. A fly on the wall might say to one of them, “why don’t you ask that person you have been pretending not to look at all evening, for a dance?”

They admit that they are afraid to ask. Afraid of a “no”. “If I asked her to dance and she said no, I would just die!”

A wise adult might counsel, “Really? How likely is that? You are not asking her to marry you, it’s just one dance; what is the worst thing that could reasonably happen?” If the worst thing is that the other person says, “no” and you have to go back to your side of the gym, would that be too much to take? You could always tell your friends you just went over to say, hello.” They aren’t dancing either! And, the person might say “yes.”

Life is about taking risk. If the risk is small and the consequences of “failure” equally small then it is probably a risk worth taking.

Asking someone for one dance is not as risky as, let’s say, rescuing someone from a burning building - or skydiving, or becoming a race car driver, seriously, leave THAT STUFF to the professionals. Considering the behaviour of some people, not just teenagers, their ability in risk assessment is totally messed up.

A minister was preaching - but in the middle of the sermon, stopped, paused, and said, “I want everyone who wants to go to heaven to stand up.” Everyone stood up, except for one elderly man sitting in the front pew. So he said, “I said, I want everyone who wants to go to heaven to stand up!” The older man in the front pew remained seated. Finally the preacher said, “Brother Williams, I asked everyone who wants to go to heaven to stand up. Did you hear me? Don’t you want to go to heaven?” And the old man said, “Oh, I heard you well enough. Of course, I want to go, but I thought you were getting a group together to go right now.”

We all know the Easter story. The Gospels tell us that Jesus died and was raised from the dead and then ascended into heaven. He assured the faithful that he would return in the same way they saw him leave. This promise left the early believers with the expectation that this return would happen soon. Indeed there is at least one passage that seems to assure the people that it will happen within their generation. However, as time wore on, and people started to die, those who remained, became more and more disenchanted. Could Jesus be trusted to keep his promises?! Part of the ministry of the church leaders was advice on how to cope with this delay.

The gospels were written as it became important to tell the new generations the story of Jesus. Initially, I suppose they felt Jesus woud return and written gospels would not be needed.

Each Gospel writer had his own style and own way of explaining the important events of Jesus’ life and the things that were important to the writer. Each writer had his own expressions and quirks.

When I meet with a family to prepare the funeral of a loved one, I ask about quirks and expectations and pet peeves and favourite expressions of the recently deceased The family of Marie MacKinnon told me that they might ask their mom if they could do something and she would respond, “I’ll see how my cap sits.” They would interpret that as, mom not wanting to say “no” right now, but that was likely going to be her decision.” I recall a parishioner who would quite one of the “slogans” of Alcoholics Anonymous, the organization that probably saved her life; she would quote the sayings, whether or not they were relevant to the topic currently being discussed. Those of you who have lost someone will, no doubt, remember these favourite expressions.

The person who wrote Matthew’s gospel had an obvious love for the phrase, “the outer darkness where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” It’s a stark and harsh phrase and seems to hold no good news, but was important for Matthew to include it. For him, I guess, not following Jesus had serious consequences.

I have heard it said that this parable is one of the most abused passages in the gospels in that some preachers use it to justify a prosperity gospel - they preach on it in such a way that they claim that Jesus wants everyone to be rich. They woulkd claim that the faithful are rich and the poor not following God.

I have a friend who absolutely despises this parable; she is on the side of the poor one-talent guy, afraid of his master, and, it seems, justifiably so.

It is unfortunate that the name for the unit of money in question (talenta) is close in sound to the English word for gifts and abilities, in other words “talents.” Thisd word association is unfortunate and accidental. When I think of talents, I think of art or music or someone like Sidney Crosby with a talent for scoring goals in a hockey rink. If the parable talked about dollars, pounds , euros or yen, it is not likely we would easily have made that other association.

On a surface level this is a parable about money. The first two men in the parable doubled the money their master had entrusted to them. He was pleased with their efforts and told them so!

Whenever I go looking for investment advice it seems that there are several things to decide before I hand over my money. One is my comfort with risk. The riskier financial instruments almost always promise the higher returns; but you could lose everything! I also have to factor in the amount of time I have to invest the money before I need to use it. The closer one is to retirement the less time you have to recover a loss and the more conservative you need to be!

The other day I read about the rule of 72. Apparently if you divide 72 by the interest rate; the result is the number of years it will take to double your money. At 5% its 14.5 years. However, the last time I checked, one of my accounts was paying me under 1% - at that rate it would take more than 72 years to double my money. Inflation is much higher than 1%! People generally don’t see a guaranteed investment rate as a good way to grow their capital - but it’s usually safe.

Just off the shore of Nova Scotia, about an hour south of where I used to live, is a famous Island reputed to be the hiding place for a fortune in buried pirate treasure. I think this Island, the famous Oak Island, has also been the subject of a reality TV show for a few years. I hate to tell you though, the Island itself, is privately owned; you cant go there! Any time they dig, they discover what are often believed to be booby traps. Tunnels fill with water. They encounter layers of wood and coconut fibre. In case you don’t know; coconuts don’t grow in Nova Scotia - it’s not that warm. Some scientists and geologists have come to believe these so-called, “booby traps” are common to the phenomenon of “natural sinkholes”.

I suspect more money has been spent in trying to find this treasure, than any value of gold or other treasures they might actually find. Some don’t believe that it is pirate treasure that is buried there at all, but that it could be the resting place of “the holy grail”, or even the crown jewels belonging to Marie Antoinette! I don’t know what the other theories out there are! Most are very far-fetched! My theory is that Captain Kidd, the 17th century Scottish privateer who was supposed to have buried the treasure, did bury a coin or two there, and then took the gold and put it in a sock under the floorborards in his bedroom! By the way, he was hanged for piracy in 1701.

So we have here, a wealthy man going on a journey and leaving his employees in charge of the bulk of his estate. He carefully assesses their abilities and gives the best and the brightest the most money to care for, and the next one received less and the last one less still. Yet is important to remember that each one was put in charge of massive amounts of capital - even the one with the one measly talent. When he returned the first two had doubled their master’s money while the third responded in fear. He hid the money so that he could at least return the master’s money to him, intact.

I said that parable was, on the surface, about money, but it is also a parable about risk. The employees who earned the favour of the master took risks and doubled their master’s money. The one who took no risks, was the one criticized by the master.

He feared his master and it is this servant who is harshly dealt with, whose fears proved to be true. But, I wonder what was the master was really looking for? What if the servant had purchased stock in Blockbuster or one of the versions of BitCoin or was banking on gold rising to $5,000? Those investors lost their money. If this man had lost his shirt, or his master’s shirt, what then?

There is no such thing as a life without risk; and perhaps this passage is telling us that there is no life of faith without risk. We can come into worship on Sunday morning, talk to the same one or two people we talk to each week, and when worship over, get up, walk out, shake the minister’s hand and go home; your week’s work of faithfulness is done.

Or as we go about our daily lives, we can remove the blinders of our fear and take a risk. We can open our eyes and seeing the need that is out there, in the world, try to respond to some of it. I read somewhere that the vast majority of church growth comes from one person inviting someone else to church. Then, once they are in the door, they need to feel welcomed and that they belong.

In terms of our programs and our outreach we can apply the principle, “nothing ventured, noting gained!” I wonder what objections may have been voiced to (Nipawin’s) (our) Matthew 25 program when it initially began? Or the relief fund? How often has someone looked and seen a need and wondered if we as individuals or a community of faith could do something.

What is our level of comfort with change and risk. Just as money buried in the backyard does no one any good, so burying our mission our of fear does no good. It is amazing what can happen if we harness the longings of people’s hearts to the call of the gospel. Mountains can move. Trust me.

As we look to the new year, let us open our eyes and hearts to the needs of those we are called to serve, take a deep breath, and take a risk.

Amen.

Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 20-24
Psalm 100
Matthew 25: 31-46

Be a Sheep!

A little over one year ago, Queen Elizabeth II passed away, ending a reign of over 70 years. She often spent her summers at Balmoral in Scotland. One day she was out for a walk and as usual was accompanied by Royal Protection Officer, Richard Griffin. She said hello, as usual, to the people she encountered on her walk. This day they met a pair of American hikers who did not recognize her and they engaged in conversation. They told her where they are from and she told them that she had been coming to her summer house (just over the hill) for over 80 years. Then they said something along the lines of, “we heard that the Queen often walks in this area,” and asked, “have you ever seen her?”

Then and there, her majesty decided to pull a prank. She said, “I’ve not met her, but my friend here has.” He told the pair of tourists that he knew her well, that she could be a bit cantankerous but that she had a jolly good sense of humour. As they were parting, he took a picture of the two of them with the Queen. Afterwards, the Queen and Officer Griffin wondered how long it would be before they were showing their vacation pictures to someone and were told that the woman in the photo was indeed Queen Elizabeth!.

There are dozens of stories that have been told in church and even secular circles for generations; AND usually told at Christmas time! They all have a common theme. Someone has a dream or vision that the Christ child will come to visit on Christmas Eve. The person who receives this news prepares for the visit by making special gifts, cooking a special meal and cleaning their house from top to bottom. Instead of the Christ child though, the only visitors that come are poor and hungry beggars to whom the precious gifts are given. As Christmas morning dawns the people are given a second vision or dream in which they are assured that the visiting stranger or strangers were indeed the Christ child, only in disguise.

The members of the senior preaching course, of a seminary noted for training famous preachers, were preparing to preach their graduation sermons The assignment involved being given a passage from scripture and a set amount of time to write the sermon, after which they were to walk from the residence to the chapel where they were to deliver this sermon.

As she delivered her evaluation of the sermons, the preaching professor noted that not one of them stopped to pay any attention to the poor man slouched on a campus bench, obviously having been mugged. The students were also unaware that each of them had been given the same passage, Luke 10: 25-37, known by many as “The Parable of the Good Samaritan.”

In the Letter to the Hebrews the author advises the faithful, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

Matthew’s gospel takes it up a notch, or two, by writing that it was not angels they had entertained, or not, WITHOUT KNOWING IT, but Christ himself.

A number of years ago CBC radio’s noon time regional “phone-in” program featured one of my former New Testament professors as a guest. I’m not really sure what the topic was supposed to be, but do remember that one caller made reference to the passage from the gospel that was read earlier in the service, and the professor clarified that the passage stated it was not the gathering together of individuals but of nations.

When I speak to some people about the biblical concept of a tithe, that is giving 10% of your income, I am invariably met with the counter-argument that this came from a time when the churches ran schools and hospitals, and what we might call “the welfare system.” This is now the responsibility of the government, at least in Canada. As costs soar though, the governments seem to be trying to off-loaded onto the charitable sector, the insurance companies, or patients themselves.

The text does indeed say that the nations are gathered together for the purposes of being separated. Apparently, sheep and goats were pastured together but at certain times (at night-time or perhaps at shearing) Except for Angora Goats, only sheep are sheared!

This is not a gathering in order to separate the religious from the heathen; faithful from reprobate. We easily note that both those classed as sheep and those deemed to be goats,called Jesus, “Lord”. The sheep people, if we can call them that, were surprised to find out that they had helped Jesus in his time of need. The goat people, if we can use that term, did not see the Christ in the needy and they did not help anyone. The sheep people helped, even though they saw no immediate connection to their faith, while it is the clear that the goat folks did not help the needy because they saw no faith connection

When I speak about the food bank or the relief fund, I sometimes get “push-back” from those who feel they have no responsibility to help the hungry, the destitute, the prisoner, the lonely. They see no connection between those in need and themselves; no connection between the needy and their faith.

Long ago, in one of my study groups one woman said something like this, “when my children were small and my husband lost his job, we had to survive on oatmeal. That’s almost all we had to eat, all one winter.” Another woman said, “well we were never that poor,but some months we had very little in the house to eat at the end of the pay period. I support the food bank because I can, and because I don’t want to live in a community where children have nothing but oatmeal to eat for weeks on end.”

I suppose we also “debated” the opposing sides of “welfare is enough if you are careful” and “how they expect a family tom live on that is beyond me.” I remember the one young mother who brought food for the food bank basket in the church even though she struggled to make ends meet herself, and may well have been a food bank client. Sharing was important to her. I recall hearing that a family with at least two children was running our of food and I called the right person, who got on the phone and bags and bags of groceries showed up on Sunday morning. When I delivered the groceries it was obvious the children had been hungry because they got so excited to see more than one loaf of bread and jar of peanut butter sitting in their entry-way. I have visited people in the hospital or at their home and they were so lonely that could barely let go of my hand.

Some people in these two congregations have taken part in a prison visitation program. And when we live here, and the prisons are in the cities, not around corner - visiting takes planning, effort and gas. Some of us are on a Pastoral Care Team that stays in touch with those who are bereaved or lonely and others drive folks to appointments in the city or for something as simple as groceries. Many take part in helping with the hot lunch program we call, “Matthew 25.” In case you did not know, it is this Gospel passage that gave the program it’s name.

Back in December of 2022 we began the yearly cycle of biblical readings once again. It was to be a 52 week journey, heading for the Reign of Christ. We began, as usual, hoping and praying for a world made new. We journeyed from Advent to Epiphany to Lent to Pentecost, learning and growing. All throughout this time we were hoping for some kind of indication that God’s ways were being followed, more than last year.

Well folks, this very Sunday is where we planned to go when we set out all those weeks ago. Our spiritual GPS has chimed and announced, “you have arrived at your destination. Right in front of you!”

Next week, we will start out again, hoping for the renewal of our own hearts, our communities, our province and country and the world.

What is really different though? Has the world changed in any significant way since last December? Is the world any better off because of our feeding, our visiting, our caring? Back then, there was a war between Russia and Ukraine. In December, the bodies of 27 migrants were found in a desert in Chad. There were hungry people in every community in Saskatchewan.

Well the war in Ukraine is still killing people and destroying physical infrastructure. A Canadian paramedic from Alberta went to Ukraine to help and was killed this past week. A few months ago, one more war has been added. In response to a surprise Sabbath morning terrorist attack, an entire nation is being bombarded and no one, on either side, is safe, especially hospitalized and civilians caught in the cross-fire.

We look back to this passage for guidance and also for grounding. How do we stand on this faith-solid-ground and use it as a launching point for our next year of life and faith? How do we stand on this ground when our resolve has been shaken? Well, first off, we know one thing that the sheep people and the goat folks did not know - and that is, what we do to, with and for the vulnerable, MATTERS. We can come to church and sing songs of praise, but if we do nothing for the vulnerable we have missed the boat. We can tell others the Good News of Jesus, but if in that proclamation there is no call to make the lives of the vulnerable better in some way, we have forgotten something in the telling. If we have done nothing, we have also been lacking in the doing!

Year aga, in one of my courses, we were taught to ask people what they needed. I remember visiting someone from my church in hospital for what I would call, “a mental health” matter. I asked her, “What can I do for you, bring you, ?” I thought that she would want me to phone someone or a magazine to pass the time. She told me that the thing she wanted most was an order of “liver and onions” from a certain restaurant close by. The next time I visited at mealtime, I brought her what she asked for. She was not in the room when I arrived but came back very shortly. I will never forget her face when she opened the take-out container to discover her favourite. About 20 years later I connected with her on Facebook (she had moved away, gotten married and changed her name). I typed, “Hello, you may not remember me but I used to be your minister. Her reply was, “How could I forget you, You saved my life with liver and onions”.

No I did not change the world with kindness or stop a war but I warmed a heart. Matthew 25 will not meet all the poverty issues in this part of Saskatchewan with one meal. One visit to a prisoner will not make the difference between him re-offending or not but it could make some difference. We don’t have to sve the world just do what we can - whether we can see a clear connection or not,

Amen.