5:30 p.m & 7:30 p.m - Candlelight Nativity with Christmas carols
11:00 p.m Candlelight service with Holy Communion
Everyone is welcome to join in the celebration!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
GOD’S JUSTICE
Text: John 1:6-8, 19-28
This is always a difficult time of year to preach sermons. It’s difficult because while all around us is celebration - shopping, baking, eating, parties and anticipation of the big day – the scripture lessons of Advent are solemn and spiritual. They admonish us to find our hope and our joy in things other than shopping, baking, eating, parties and the “big haul” we’ll receive on Christmas morning, as my brothers used to say. John the Baptist is the most serious, the gloomiest of all. He says, “Clean up your act. Be ready for the coming of the Messiah.” And the prophet Isaiah is a lot the same. He says “The good news I bring is for the oppressed, the brokenhearted, the prisoners, those who mourn.” Well, John and Isaiah may be serious, even gloomy, but they’re not Ebenezer Scrooge. They’re not saying, “Bah, humbug” about Christmas. They’re saying “Think about what you’re doing. Think about what you can really celebrate. Think about what’s real and genuine and lasting, and celebrate that.”
Reading through the lessons for today, I was struck with their focus on rejoicing, on joy and laughter. Isaiah says God has anointed him to give God’s people “a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.” There will be restoration and repair. The people of Israel knew the need for restoration and repair and for healing – they suffered greatly at the hands of their enemies…a small nation with a unique and stubborn faith in one God – a people caught between powerful surrounding nations with brutal religious practices and no tolerance for anything different. Isaiah proclaims clearly what God is about: God loves justice. And God will see that justice comes about. And what does that look like? God declares that he will faithfully give what they deserve to those who suffer: assistance and restoration; and God’s promise to them will last forever. They will be a people acknowledged as blessed by God, and all will see it to be true. God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations. This means that those who have been wrongly treated will be compensated for their pain and suffering. And that will be something to celebrate.
Similarly, in the Psalm for today, the writer celebrates the restoration of the people of Israel after the exile in Babylon. For 400 years, they have lived in a foreign land as slaves and exiles. When they are delivered, they shout with joy at the prospect of going home. Their fortunes are restored like the valleys in the Negeb desert when the rivers fill with water. The experience of exile is described as a source of “seed” which grows into crops that bring a rich harvest. The reward of those who are faithful through times of suffering is to be able to proclaim, “The Lord has done great things for us.” And even more, to hear those who witness their faithfulness say, “The Lord has done great things for them.”
Likewise, in the letter to the church in Thessalonica, Paul the Apostle exhorts the Christians there to be steadfast. They are a community under pressure from the surrounding society to turn back to their former way of life. They are in danger of persecution. But what does Paul say? He tells them to rejoice, to pray constantly, to give thanks whatever is happening. This is not a gloomy message; it’s a strong message of hope and encouragement to a community whose faith is being tested. They must hold on to the words of the prophets, look carefully at everything, abstain from evil and embrace the good, trust the Spirit. And through this experience, God will make them holy so they may present themselves pure and without blemish at the day of judgment. This time of testing is something in which they should rejoice.
So I should not complain about having to preach about such texts, which expose the deep experience of goodness and joy which is given to those who remain faithful to God. It’s not a matter of hanging on for dear life and managing to do nothing but survive. Instead, great reserves of thankfulness and joy are discovered by those who persevere to the end, trusting in God’s faithfulness.
Well, you might say, we don’t experience slavery and exile from our homeland. We don’t identify with Isaiah and the psalmist and the people of Israel. We don’t know what it’s like to live in an outpost in the Roman Empire and attempt to be a faithful Christian community, as did the church in Thessalonica in Paul’s time or in Galilee in the time of John the Baptist. So can’t we have some innocent fun preparing for Christmas? If we’re average pagans, yes, I suppose we can amuse ourselves with superficiality and senseless consumerism. But as a Christian community, we have no excuse to do that. Because even though we don’t experience exile and slavery and poverty and persecution, many people, perhaps most people, in our world, do.
Isaiah says that God loves justice. What is God’s justice? Apparently it has more to do with doing things right than simply catching those who do wrong. When we think of justice our first thought is to condemn those who break the law. But God’s first thought seems to be for the oppressed, the brokenhearted, the prisoners. Such people may well be the population of our jails. God doesn’t condemn the inmates, but rather the surrounding society which ignores and forgets those who are incarcerated, condemning them as lawbreakers who deserve no compassion and no helpful attention.
At this time of year there is a huge amount of attention paid to a certain sector of the poor in our community, children particularly. No one would argue that children living in poverty are not extremely important and in need of compassion and attention. And we have some sympathy with those who are hungry, because it challenges our guilt about having far too much to eat. Regardless of our reason for doing it, it’s a good thing to see that people who are hungry are fed. But do we have to publish advertisements that say “$2.62 will give a good meal to the hungry”? Have you seen those ads? I think they’re insulting to the poor, as if it’s that simple to deal with the problem of hunger: those of us who have disposable income can throw down a loonie and a toonie and feel as if we’ve done more than give a person a good meal. I don’t think so! The problem of hunger is not solved in that way. How many good meals does a person need in a year? At least 365, right? If each meal is worth $2.62, how much is that? It’s $956.30…almost a thousand dollars. How many of us are willing to throw down that much? And what about the issue of homelessness, which means that a person has no place to store and cook and serve food? And the issue of a living wage, which means that people who are making less than $15 an hour can hardly afford to house and feed themselves….And what about the issue of addictions, which means people are wasting any income they have on substances which destroy rather than nourish their bodies…and the issues of unemployment and lack of education and lack of job-skills and domestic violence and so on? All of a sudden it’s much more complex than a few coins will address. So it’s necessary to take a more informed approach to hunger, in order to make it possible for people to provide their own food. God is talking justice here, which means doing right by those in need.
And while we’re on the subject, I’d like to address the issue of those nifty shoeboxes that are shipped by the boatload to children in Third World countries. It’s a big Christmas project in North America – the idea of packing a box full of goodies that some child in Africa or South America or Asia will like. First thing to realize is that they don’t arrive at Christmas. They aren’t shipped until several months down the line. We have a relative who works in the warehouse owned by Samaritan’s Purse in Calgary – which is the distribution centre for all of western Canada; those boxes are brought in by the tens of thousands and each one needs to be inspected and repacked. They must take out anything that won’t last six months or more. They must take out anything sharp or inappropriate. They must take out religious materials of any kind. And they retrieve any money that’s included – people are asked to give five dollars for shipping. It’s a huge project. And the conventional wisdom that I hear people coming up with is that it’s wonderful to think of those poor children receiving these gift-boxes. At Safeway stores you see glossy pictures showing black children in Africa waving their gift-boxes in the air in joyful celebration of having received something wonderful. You’ll have to excuse me if I say “Bah, humbug!” to those gift-boxes. All that money, all that time and energy and hard work, all those hopes of doing something meaningful for the poor of our world go down the drain when you think how essentially useless that stuff is for the poor. Is it food? No. Is it educational material? Very little of it. Is it good hygiene? Maybe the odd bar of soap. Is it warm clothing for cold nights on the desert or in the mountains? No – there’s no room in a shoebox for a warm jacket. There’s no room in a shoebox for a roof over somebody’s head, or a supply of nutritious food, or a well that pumps clean water, or a supply of antibiotics or antimalarials or antiretrovirals, the treatment for HIV. Is it justice? Not by a long shot. And I am not so critical of the people who pack the shoeboxes, in the fond hope that they are doing something helpful, as I am of the people who run this program. Those people in the Billy Graham organization, the senior partner of Samaritan’s Purse, have the infrastructure and the money and the wherewithal to run a program that truly meets the needs of the people they serve. And instead of that they encourage millions of North Americans – in the name of Christ – to send boxes full of plastic junk to hungry children. I’m angry about that. And I encourage anybody in our church who wants to do something for Christmas for people who are in need in our world to think about Gifts From the Heart, a program of Canadian Lutheran World Relief. Look at their catalogue and choose something useful and helpful to give: a sack of seed potatoes for a family in Peru (that’s what I’m going to give as a gift to my own children this Christmas, because people in mountain villages I visited in that country in May this year shared their potatoes with me, and I know how important they are), a flock of chickens, a pair of goats, a bamboo granary. And if you’re feeling well off, you can give two cows and a plough for $500.
Isaiah the prophet says doing God’s justice leads to good things for those who suffer: building up the ruins, raising up the devastations, repairing the ruined cities. And it leads to good things for those who share their possessions with the poor. We will be known as a people whom the Lord has blessed.
This is always a difficult time of year to preach sermons. It’s difficult because while all around us is celebration - shopping, baking, eating, parties and anticipation of the big day – the scripture lessons of Advent are solemn and spiritual. They admonish us to find our hope and our joy in things other than shopping, baking, eating, parties and the “big haul” we’ll receive on Christmas morning, as my brothers used to say. John the Baptist is the most serious, the gloomiest of all. He says, “Clean up your act. Be ready for the coming of the Messiah.” And the prophet Isaiah is a lot the same. He says “The good news I bring is for the oppressed, the brokenhearted, the prisoners, those who mourn.” Well, John and Isaiah may be serious, even gloomy, but they’re not Ebenezer Scrooge. They’re not saying, “Bah, humbug” about Christmas. They’re saying “Think about what you’re doing. Think about what you can really celebrate. Think about what’s real and genuine and lasting, and celebrate that.”
Reading through the lessons for today, I was struck with their focus on rejoicing, on joy and laughter. Isaiah says God has anointed him to give God’s people “a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.” There will be restoration and repair. The people of Israel knew the need for restoration and repair and for healing – they suffered greatly at the hands of their enemies…a small nation with a unique and stubborn faith in one God – a people caught between powerful surrounding nations with brutal religious practices and no tolerance for anything different. Isaiah proclaims clearly what God is about: God loves justice. And God will see that justice comes about. And what does that look like? God declares that he will faithfully give what they deserve to those who suffer: assistance and restoration; and God’s promise to them will last forever. They will be a people acknowledged as blessed by God, and all will see it to be true. God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations. This means that those who have been wrongly treated will be compensated for their pain and suffering. And that will be something to celebrate.
Similarly, in the Psalm for today, the writer celebrates the restoration of the people of Israel after the exile in Babylon. For 400 years, they have lived in a foreign land as slaves and exiles. When they are delivered, they shout with joy at the prospect of going home. Their fortunes are restored like the valleys in the Negeb desert when the rivers fill with water. The experience of exile is described as a source of “seed” which grows into crops that bring a rich harvest. The reward of those who are faithful through times of suffering is to be able to proclaim, “The Lord has done great things for us.” And even more, to hear those who witness their faithfulness say, “The Lord has done great things for them.”
Likewise, in the letter to the church in Thessalonica, Paul the Apostle exhorts the Christians there to be steadfast. They are a community under pressure from the surrounding society to turn back to their former way of life. They are in danger of persecution. But what does Paul say? He tells them to rejoice, to pray constantly, to give thanks whatever is happening. This is not a gloomy message; it’s a strong message of hope and encouragement to a community whose faith is being tested. They must hold on to the words of the prophets, look carefully at everything, abstain from evil and embrace the good, trust the Spirit. And through this experience, God will make them holy so they may present themselves pure and without blemish at the day of judgment. This time of testing is something in which they should rejoice.
So I should not complain about having to preach about such texts, which expose the deep experience of goodness and joy which is given to those who remain faithful to God. It’s not a matter of hanging on for dear life and managing to do nothing but survive. Instead, great reserves of thankfulness and joy are discovered by those who persevere to the end, trusting in God’s faithfulness.
Well, you might say, we don’t experience slavery and exile from our homeland. We don’t identify with Isaiah and the psalmist and the people of Israel. We don’t know what it’s like to live in an outpost in the Roman Empire and attempt to be a faithful Christian community, as did the church in Thessalonica in Paul’s time or in Galilee in the time of John the Baptist. So can’t we have some innocent fun preparing for Christmas? If we’re average pagans, yes, I suppose we can amuse ourselves with superficiality and senseless consumerism. But as a Christian community, we have no excuse to do that. Because even though we don’t experience exile and slavery and poverty and persecution, many people, perhaps most people, in our world, do.
Isaiah says that God loves justice. What is God’s justice? Apparently it has more to do with doing things right than simply catching those who do wrong. When we think of justice our first thought is to condemn those who break the law. But God’s first thought seems to be for the oppressed, the brokenhearted, the prisoners. Such people may well be the population of our jails. God doesn’t condemn the inmates, but rather the surrounding society which ignores and forgets those who are incarcerated, condemning them as lawbreakers who deserve no compassion and no helpful attention.
At this time of year there is a huge amount of attention paid to a certain sector of the poor in our community, children particularly. No one would argue that children living in poverty are not extremely important and in need of compassion and attention. And we have some sympathy with those who are hungry, because it challenges our guilt about having far too much to eat. Regardless of our reason for doing it, it’s a good thing to see that people who are hungry are fed. But do we have to publish advertisements that say “$2.62 will give a good meal to the hungry”? Have you seen those ads? I think they’re insulting to the poor, as if it’s that simple to deal with the problem of hunger: those of us who have disposable income can throw down a loonie and a toonie and feel as if we’ve done more than give a person a good meal. I don’t think so! The problem of hunger is not solved in that way. How many good meals does a person need in a year? At least 365, right? If each meal is worth $2.62, how much is that? It’s $956.30…almost a thousand dollars. How many of us are willing to throw down that much? And what about the issue of homelessness, which means that a person has no place to store and cook and serve food? And the issue of a living wage, which means that people who are making less than $15 an hour can hardly afford to house and feed themselves….And what about the issue of addictions, which means people are wasting any income they have on substances which destroy rather than nourish their bodies…and the issues of unemployment and lack of education and lack of job-skills and domestic violence and so on? All of a sudden it’s much more complex than a few coins will address. So it’s necessary to take a more informed approach to hunger, in order to make it possible for people to provide their own food. God is talking justice here, which means doing right by those in need.
And while we’re on the subject, I’d like to address the issue of those nifty shoeboxes that are shipped by the boatload to children in Third World countries. It’s a big Christmas project in North America – the idea of packing a box full of goodies that some child in Africa or South America or Asia will like. First thing to realize is that they don’t arrive at Christmas. They aren’t shipped until several months down the line. We have a relative who works in the warehouse owned by Samaritan’s Purse in Calgary – which is the distribution centre for all of western Canada; those boxes are brought in by the tens of thousands and each one needs to be inspected and repacked. They must take out anything that won’t last six months or more. They must take out anything sharp or inappropriate. They must take out religious materials of any kind. And they retrieve any money that’s included – people are asked to give five dollars for shipping. It’s a huge project. And the conventional wisdom that I hear people coming up with is that it’s wonderful to think of those poor children receiving these gift-boxes. At Safeway stores you see glossy pictures showing black children in Africa waving their gift-boxes in the air in joyful celebration of having received something wonderful. You’ll have to excuse me if I say “Bah, humbug!” to those gift-boxes. All that money, all that time and energy and hard work, all those hopes of doing something meaningful for the poor of our world go down the drain when you think how essentially useless that stuff is for the poor. Is it food? No. Is it educational material? Very little of it. Is it good hygiene? Maybe the odd bar of soap. Is it warm clothing for cold nights on the desert or in the mountains? No – there’s no room in a shoebox for a warm jacket. There’s no room in a shoebox for a roof over somebody’s head, or a supply of nutritious food, or a well that pumps clean water, or a supply of antibiotics or antimalarials or antiretrovirals, the treatment for HIV. Is it justice? Not by a long shot. And I am not so critical of the people who pack the shoeboxes, in the fond hope that they are doing something helpful, as I am of the people who run this program. Those people in the Billy Graham organization, the senior partner of Samaritan’s Purse, have the infrastructure and the money and the wherewithal to run a program that truly meets the needs of the people they serve. And instead of that they encourage millions of North Americans – in the name of Christ – to send boxes full of plastic junk to hungry children. I’m angry about that. And I encourage anybody in our church who wants to do something for Christmas for people who are in need in our world to think about Gifts From the Heart, a program of Canadian Lutheran World Relief. Look at their catalogue and choose something useful and helpful to give: a sack of seed potatoes for a family in Peru (that’s what I’m going to give as a gift to my own children this Christmas, because people in mountain villages I visited in that country in May this year shared their potatoes with me, and I know how important they are), a flock of chickens, a pair of goats, a bamboo granary. And if you’re feeling well off, you can give two cows and a plough for $500.
Isaiah the prophet says doing God’s justice leads to good things for those who suffer: building up the ruins, raising up the devastations, repairing the ruined cities. And it leads to good things for those who share their possessions with the poor. We will be known as a people whom the Lord has blessed.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
PREPARE THE WAY
Text: Mark 1:1-8
Three of the four scripture readings today have as their theme “prepare the way”. The Old Testament lesson from Isaiah records God’s words to the prophet: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God….” Why does God’s pathway go through the wilderness and the desert? Is God making things particularly difficult? Not at all. In fact, God speaks words of comfort, tenderness, forgiveness and reassurance: God says to Isaiah, “…comfort my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem…[let her know] that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” Does that mean double punishment? No, it means double forgiveness. And God is portrayed as coming like a kind shepherd: “…he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.”
In the Psalm, we hear about God’s gracious treatment of the people of Israel, about forgiveness and cancelling out of sins, about God’s voice assuring God’s people of steadfast love and righteousness, even of prosperity and increase of crops, and finally the promise of peace which is God’s pathway on earth.
In the Gospel reading from Mark, we learn of the appearance of God’s messenger, John the Baptist, whose mission is to prepare the way for the Lord’s coming to earth. John appears in the wilderness, in the Jordan valley, and his appearance reminds faithful Jews - and unfaithful ones too, I imagine - of the prophet Isaiah, who also made his place of residence and work in a desert environment. Again, why the desert? I suppose because the desert is an image for drought and infertility and lifelessness which suggests the state of mind and heart of the people while they are still blighted by sin. They are in danger of death from spiritual thirst and starvation because they are in a severely unfruitful and unpromising spiritual place. Have you ever seen a desert? I saw several a few weeks ago in southwestern Arizona. In its natural state it’s just sand with tufts of bunch-grass, sage and the occasional cactus. When it’s irrigated it’s brilliant green, producing huge crops of vegetables and fruit for the markets of the large urban centres in nearby states. And I saw deserts in Peru last spring: Peru has the driest deserts in the world: they are black sand, and nothing grows there. When there is water available, as in the Amazon basin just over the Andes Mountains to the east, the growth is lush, producing a jungle of trees and plants and living creatures. God’s presence is like irrigation, making the difference between deadly drought and lush fruitfulness. And how do we get that irrigation? From the waters of baptism.
So John stations himself on the banks of the Jordan River, far from the urban centres and the rain-fed fields of the coastal areas, and invites people to come. John prepares the way for God’s Anointed One to arrive. The desolate location speaks very clearly to the people: their lives are drought-ridden pockets of death; their only hope is to wade into the River Jordan and be irrigated with the life-giving water. But that is not all. There is a requirement of those who do this. As they come for baptism, they are directed to confess their sins. An irrigated field that is choked with weeds must be cleared before water is provided, so the seeds of new healthy plants can germinate.
The reading from second Peter expands on the idea of repentance. Again, the God who speaks is patient with sinners, not wanting any to perish. But that doesn’t mean God overlooks sin; rather, God’s view of sin is that it is a life-and-death issue and it must be addressed with all the salvation-resources at God’s disposal. The writer goes on to describe God’s “pathway” into the lives of God’s people: we must lead lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. God fulfills all the promises made to us, and our lives become places where “righteousness is at home”. Do you believe that your life can be such a holy place - a home for righteousness? That’s a promise made by God and you are invited to believe it. How does that look? The reading from Peter tells us: we will be “at peace, without spot or blemish.” That’s a nice thought.
The Epistle reading ends with a strange phrase: “regard the patience of our Lord as salvation”. Is the writer saying that even as we wait for the “day of God” - the day of judgment when all will be revealed and Christ’s sacrifice will gain our redemption - we are essentially saved already, just by God’s willingness to offer salvation, even though technically we not yet received salvation? I think that is what we are being told. God’s patience is enough, because it contains the promise of all that God has to give. Does that say a lot about God’s kindness and forbearance? If you’ve raised a bunch of kids, you know as a parent that you didn’t always behave wisely or keep your temper with your children. You regret many of the things you did. In spite of that, your children grew up and became responsible adults. And for the most part, they don’t even hold a grudge against you because you weren’t quite grown up yourself when you were trying to raise them. Wouldn’t it be nice if we were like God - that we could understand the past, know the future, and control ourselves in the present - so that we could exercise wisdom and understanding toward our children - and everybody else? Well, we’re human and we can’t expect perfection of ourselves or anyone else, but we can expect that of God, and trust in God’s goodness and mercy toward us. We can believe that God sees us as we shall be in God’s future, not as we are in earthly time. If salvation depended on us, I’m afraid we wouldn’t make it. But it doesn’t depend on us; it depends on God, and God is patient…so patient that even before we are ready for it, we are saved.
Hearing that God offers us salvation, even in our undeserving state, doesn’t mean that we are to sit around and do nothing. When John the Baptist came to point out how we are to receive this Messiah who is about to arrive, he says that the way of the Lord must be prepared, not only by God but by us too. That way is not only a highway in the desert, but it is a highway in our hearts, a direction and a step that we must take if we are to be ready for Christ’s coming.
In the Zen tradition of the Far East, this idea is expressed in a story about a university professor who went to visit the great master Nan-In one day.
“Master,” he said, “teach me what I need to know to have a happy life.” I have studied the sacred scriptures, I have visited the greatest teachers in the land, but I have not found the answer. Please, teach me the way.”
At this point Nan-In served tea to his guest. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring and pouring so that the tea began to run over the rim of the cup and across the table, and still he poured, until tea was cascading onto the floor.
The professor watched this until he could no longer restrain himself. “It’s over-full - stop, no more will go in!” he cried.
“Like this cup,” Nan-In said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you the way unless you first empty your cup?”
Well, how can God prepare a way in our hearts and lives unless we make room there? How do we empty our cluttered spaces? In the words of second Peter, “…what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God…?” How do we clear the way, so righteousness can be at home in us? In the words of Psalm 85 which you see on the back of your bulletin: “Righteousness shall prepare a pathway for God.“ By nourishing goodness and cultivating holiness. Confessing our sins, as John the Baptist urges us to do. Accepting God’s forgiveness and proclaiming the good tidings, as Isaiah urges us to do. Recognizing God’s grace, forgiveness, salvation, glory, steadfast love and faithfulness, righteousness and peace as the psalmist urges us to do. Responding to God’s patience with repentance, as the Epistle of 2 Peter urges us to do.
We’ve had a roller-coaster week this week in Canadian politics. All around us is anger and resentment, blame and accusation. And all in the context of one of the most fortunate nations in the world, where we have plenty of space, resources, peace and hope for the future. The temptation is to unload our frustration on one party or another, one region of the country or another. But the discouraging thing is that none of our leaders have behaved particularly well. Except possibly the Governor-General - she has given the politicians time to clean up their act, take a sober second look at their behaviour and resolve to do better in the future. Doing better would suggest that they consider their priorities and begin to think about the good of the nation instead of their own careers. The situation on the national front is only a bigger image of the situation in our personal lives: each of us is tempted to pursue selfish ambition and put ourselves first. Jesus’ life has a more helpful image: he emptied himself of personal ambition in order to allow the power of the Spirit to be lived out in him. We must find ways to do likewise.
Three of the four scripture readings today have as their theme “prepare the way”. The Old Testament lesson from Isaiah records God’s words to the prophet: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God….” Why does God’s pathway go through the wilderness and the desert? Is God making things particularly difficult? Not at all. In fact, God speaks words of comfort, tenderness, forgiveness and reassurance: God says to Isaiah, “…comfort my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem…[let her know] that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” Does that mean double punishment? No, it means double forgiveness. And God is portrayed as coming like a kind shepherd: “…he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.”
In the Psalm, we hear about God’s gracious treatment of the people of Israel, about forgiveness and cancelling out of sins, about God’s voice assuring God’s people of steadfast love and righteousness, even of prosperity and increase of crops, and finally the promise of peace which is God’s pathway on earth.
In the Gospel reading from Mark, we learn of the appearance of God’s messenger, John the Baptist, whose mission is to prepare the way for the Lord’s coming to earth. John appears in the wilderness, in the Jordan valley, and his appearance reminds faithful Jews - and unfaithful ones too, I imagine - of the prophet Isaiah, who also made his place of residence and work in a desert environment. Again, why the desert? I suppose because the desert is an image for drought and infertility and lifelessness which suggests the state of mind and heart of the people while they are still blighted by sin. They are in danger of death from spiritual thirst and starvation because they are in a severely unfruitful and unpromising spiritual place. Have you ever seen a desert? I saw several a few weeks ago in southwestern Arizona. In its natural state it’s just sand with tufts of bunch-grass, sage and the occasional cactus. When it’s irrigated it’s brilliant green, producing huge crops of vegetables and fruit for the markets of the large urban centres in nearby states. And I saw deserts in Peru last spring: Peru has the driest deserts in the world: they are black sand, and nothing grows there. When there is water available, as in the Amazon basin just over the Andes Mountains to the east, the growth is lush, producing a jungle of trees and plants and living creatures. God’s presence is like irrigation, making the difference between deadly drought and lush fruitfulness. And how do we get that irrigation? From the waters of baptism.
So John stations himself on the banks of the Jordan River, far from the urban centres and the rain-fed fields of the coastal areas, and invites people to come. John prepares the way for God’s Anointed One to arrive. The desolate location speaks very clearly to the people: their lives are drought-ridden pockets of death; their only hope is to wade into the River Jordan and be irrigated with the life-giving water. But that is not all. There is a requirement of those who do this. As they come for baptism, they are directed to confess their sins. An irrigated field that is choked with weeds must be cleared before water is provided, so the seeds of new healthy plants can germinate.
The reading from second Peter expands on the idea of repentance. Again, the God who speaks is patient with sinners, not wanting any to perish. But that doesn’t mean God overlooks sin; rather, God’s view of sin is that it is a life-and-death issue and it must be addressed with all the salvation-resources at God’s disposal. The writer goes on to describe God’s “pathway” into the lives of God’s people: we must lead lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. God fulfills all the promises made to us, and our lives become places where “righteousness is at home”. Do you believe that your life can be such a holy place - a home for righteousness? That’s a promise made by God and you are invited to believe it. How does that look? The reading from Peter tells us: we will be “at peace, without spot or blemish.” That’s a nice thought.
The Epistle reading ends with a strange phrase: “regard the patience of our Lord as salvation”. Is the writer saying that even as we wait for the “day of God” - the day of judgment when all will be revealed and Christ’s sacrifice will gain our redemption - we are essentially saved already, just by God’s willingness to offer salvation, even though technically we not yet received salvation? I think that is what we are being told. God’s patience is enough, because it contains the promise of all that God has to give. Does that say a lot about God’s kindness and forbearance? If you’ve raised a bunch of kids, you know as a parent that you didn’t always behave wisely or keep your temper with your children. You regret many of the things you did. In spite of that, your children grew up and became responsible adults. And for the most part, they don’t even hold a grudge against you because you weren’t quite grown up yourself when you were trying to raise them. Wouldn’t it be nice if we were like God - that we could understand the past, know the future, and control ourselves in the present - so that we could exercise wisdom and understanding toward our children - and everybody else? Well, we’re human and we can’t expect perfection of ourselves or anyone else, but we can expect that of God, and trust in God’s goodness and mercy toward us. We can believe that God sees us as we shall be in God’s future, not as we are in earthly time. If salvation depended on us, I’m afraid we wouldn’t make it. But it doesn’t depend on us; it depends on God, and God is patient…so patient that even before we are ready for it, we are saved.
Hearing that God offers us salvation, even in our undeserving state, doesn’t mean that we are to sit around and do nothing. When John the Baptist came to point out how we are to receive this Messiah who is about to arrive, he says that the way of the Lord must be prepared, not only by God but by us too. That way is not only a highway in the desert, but it is a highway in our hearts, a direction and a step that we must take if we are to be ready for Christ’s coming.
In the Zen tradition of the Far East, this idea is expressed in a story about a university professor who went to visit the great master Nan-In one day.
“Master,” he said, “teach me what I need to know to have a happy life.” I have studied the sacred scriptures, I have visited the greatest teachers in the land, but I have not found the answer. Please, teach me the way.”
At this point Nan-In served tea to his guest. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring and pouring so that the tea began to run over the rim of the cup and across the table, and still he poured, until tea was cascading onto the floor.
The professor watched this until he could no longer restrain himself. “It’s over-full - stop, no more will go in!” he cried.
“Like this cup,” Nan-In said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you the way unless you first empty your cup?”
Well, how can God prepare a way in our hearts and lives unless we make room there? How do we empty our cluttered spaces? In the words of second Peter, “…what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God…?” How do we clear the way, so righteousness can be at home in us? In the words of Psalm 85 which you see on the back of your bulletin: “Righteousness shall prepare a pathway for God.“ By nourishing goodness and cultivating holiness. Confessing our sins, as John the Baptist urges us to do. Accepting God’s forgiveness and proclaiming the good tidings, as Isaiah urges us to do. Recognizing God’s grace, forgiveness, salvation, glory, steadfast love and faithfulness, righteousness and peace as the psalmist urges us to do. Responding to God’s patience with repentance, as the Epistle of 2 Peter urges us to do.
We’ve had a roller-coaster week this week in Canadian politics. All around us is anger and resentment, blame and accusation. And all in the context of one of the most fortunate nations in the world, where we have plenty of space, resources, peace and hope for the future. The temptation is to unload our frustration on one party or another, one region of the country or another. But the discouraging thing is that none of our leaders have behaved particularly well. Except possibly the Governor-General - she has given the politicians time to clean up their act, take a sober second look at their behaviour and resolve to do better in the future. Doing better would suggest that they consider their priorities and begin to think about the good of the nation instead of their own careers. The situation on the national front is only a bigger image of the situation in our personal lives: each of us is tempted to pursue selfish ambition and put ourselves first. Jesus’ life has a more helpful image: he emptied himself of personal ambition in order to allow the power of the Spirit to be lived out in him. We must find ways to do likewise.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
THE TRUE LIGHT THAT LIGHTENS THE DARKNESS
Text: Mark 13:24-37
Today we begin the season of Advent, the time of preparation for the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ. In comfortable places like Canada, we generally think of Advent as a time to get geared up for Christmas: shopping for gifts, sending cards, baking cookies, decorating the house, planning our holiday entertainment. In much of our world, even as we speak, those things are not even on the horizon. People in Mumbai, India, a city of more than 10 million people, mostly very poor, have even more to contend with this week: a terrorist attack in the financial district which targeted foreigners, killing 120 people, injuring more than 300 and holding others hostage. And it isn’t even clear who did it and for what reason. The lack of information makes it more frightening because people don’t know what will come next and if they are in danger. You can’t protect yourself against the unknown. So in Mumbai, people have more on their minds than getting ready for a big holiday celebration.
But not everyone in Canada is basking in pre-Christmas warmth and looking forward to the holidays. The recent financial meltdown has had dire consequences for people who depend on the stock market for income, on workers in the automobile industry and the forest industry, on people who work in construction and in the housing market. And it’s tough for people with large debts and seniors on pension incomes. The CBC in Calgary did a survey this week: 800 people responded and 51% of them said they plan to spend less on Christmas this year; another 8% said they were making their own gifts and 10% said they were not giving any gifts. Only about a third of those who responded said they intend to spend about the usual amount on Christmas. Well, for most of us that isn’t a tragedy, but it will have an impact on those who make a living in the retail business.
Do you ever have the feeling that you live a charmed life? That when most people in our world struggle with poverty, and many of them are constantly hungry and undernourished, our concerns are kind of trivial? In fact, we feel a fair amount of guilt about being so well off. We don’t exactly know what to do about it. We are blessed to live in a land of peace and plenty, and it doesn’t make sense to wish that we were poor. We wish everyone could be as fortunate as we are, but we know that realistically, it’s not possible for everyone on earth to live so well - there aren’t enough resources. So what can we do? Find out what people need and share what we have.
The fact is, we may not always be so fortunate. And that doesn’t mean that God will stop blessing those of us who have peace and plenty. Sometimes God even blesses people with conflict and need, though we often don’t see that kind of struggle as coming from God. Yet we can’t assume that God only cares about those in the western world and blesses us with material wealth. We see in Jesus’ way of doing things that he has a special care for the poor and suffering. So our turn may come when there will be struggle and difficulty. The recent troubles in the economy make it seem possible. Perhaps we should prepare ourselves for that eventuality by gaining understanding of the poverty and suffering which exist in our world and learning ways to help.
That’s not so very easy either - at least it’s not easy to help those who live far away in very different situations. How can we know what they need? And if we know about a need, how can we see that they get the resources we’re willing to share? Canadian Lutheran World Relief is our way of entering that world. Today we focus on the work of the Lutheran Church in our world. Lutheran World Relief does what we cannot do on our own: reaches out beyond our borders to do large and small projects in the name of Christ on our behalf.
One area that I know a little about is Peru, where I visited some projects in June this year - projects where Canadian Lutheran World Relief is a partner. On the front page of the summer issue of CLWR’s quarterly newsletter called “Partnership” there is a picture of a woman sitting on a steep mountainside in Peru. I saw many women like her and many mountainsides like that. This woman is a farmer. You’d wonder how people grow crops on such steep rocky hillsides, but they do. It’s hard just to stand up on those hillsides, and you certainly can’t use motorized implements of any kind - no tractor or plough or baler or combine can operate on those steep slopes or among those rocks. And the people don’t have funds to buy farm implements anyway. They’re lucky if they have a pair of oxen or a couple of donkeys. Most of the work is done by hand. Everything must be carried down the mountain to market. See the cloth tied around the woman’s shoulder? She carries bundles in the cloth - bundles of firewood, potatoes, cabbages, hay for animal feed. She carries the bundles up the mountain, and then more bundles down the mountain. If a truck goes by, everyone piles in the back. The roads are unbelievably rough and steep. The people are short and stocky and strong - the result of thousands of years of working the ground and leaning into the hills.
I met several farmers in Peru. The one I remember best is Rosita. She is a woman about 40, the mother of five children. She lives in an adobe brick house on the side of a mountain - a beautiful place in the sunshine, as it was when I saw it, but no doubt a hard place to live when the wind blows and the rains come down every day. Rosita is the star farmer in her community. She readily understands what the agriculturists are teaching the local residents: how to diversify their crops, how to build a greenhouse out of local materials, how to grow vegetables at all seasons of the year, how to conserve water, how to make fertilizer in a compost pond, how to keep the soil from blowing away in the wind. Rosita proudly showed us her groves of avocado and mango trees, her small patches of grain and corn and potatoes, her enclosures with guinea pigs and rabbits and chickens. She was recently invited by the project leaders to come to the capital city of Lima and tell some German funders about her farming methods. They were not especially interested in listening to a peasant woman from a remote village in the Andes Mountains. But when one of them challenged her by suggesting these methods don’t make a real difference to her family, Rosita had something important to say. “Because we now have vegetables all year round, my children are better nourished. And because we have extra cash from the produce we sell, my oldest daughter can go back to school. She quit school before, but now we can afford to send her to high school. And you think these methods don‘t make a difference!” The foreigners were impressed.
And Rosita’s story reflects another kind of success: the possibility that women can be equal partners with men. When I asked where Rosita’s husband was, the project leader said, “He’s probably out in the field.” And the leader smiled. “He works for Rosita;” she said, “Rosita’s the boss!” As a matter of fact, there was a large sign posted at the edge of the property. I don’t know if Rosita can read and write, but her children certainly can. This sign may have been printed by one of her children. I took a picture of it and I’ve translated the Spanish words: “Implementation and Action Project for Farm Ecology”, Owner: Rosa Carapo-Guiros (that’s Rosita), Village: Pariacolca, District: Quillo, Altitude 1880 meters (6110 feet), Project Leader: Diaconia (which was the organization I was travelling with), and down in the corner the letters “C.L.W.R.” I was impressed that Canadian Lutheran World Relief is known by people in a remote mountain area of northern Peru, and that it’s making a real difference in the daily lives of those people in terms of nutrition and education.
A certain degree of gender equality is the result of some careful work done by community development workers. Men and women are brought together through awareness meetings. Women need to be part of the development work if it is to succeed. Canadian Lutheran World Relief and their partners work within local community systems to support men and women working together in mutual respect and equality towards a goal of improved living conditions. Here’s a story about a woman in India: Anima Halder. Until 2004, Anima and her husband struggled to meet their essential needs. They were landless and depended on an irregular income from the seasonal work that Anima’s husband obtained.
After two years as the president of a CLWR-supported community group, Anima decided to take advantage of the group’s resources herself. She took out a loan of $69 and started a simple paddy-processing business, which involves preparing the rice for market after it has been harvested. The results were tangible - Anima earns about $58 a month, which is significantly more than the couple’s previous income. With her husband she managed to increase the family’s savings and invest in chickens, with their original brood increasing more than tenfold. “We have a mutual understanding,” says Anima about herself and her husband. “All decisions, including money matters, have to be taken by both of us.”
It’s known in development work that when girls have opportunities for education, even a few years of elementary schooling, their lives are significantly improved. They marry later, have children later, and have fewer children. Their incomes are better and their families are healthier. I think we would say that about the education of girls in our own country, so it makes sense that it is true for girls in the developing world as well.
How do these stories of development fit into the idea of preparation for Christmas? In the Gospel lesson today, Jesus is warning his followers: “…keep alert….keep awake….keep awake….” Keep awake for what? For the ‘Son of Man coming in clouds’. Do we know what that will look like or when it will happen? No, we don’t. We need to be “on the watch”, to be doing the things that Jesus expects of his followers, so that when he comes he will find us faithful. We must not fritter away our time doing irrelevant and useless things; we must be about our Father’s business, taking care of each other and of the needy in the world.
Last weekend we bought some new outdoor Christmas lights - solar lights. They’re more expensive than other kinds of lights. Lorne put them up on the deck and we had great expectations of them. The premise is that the little solar panel absorbs light during the day and stores enough energy to run these lights for six hours a night. They work, but not very well. In fact, they’re downright pathetic; they‘re a big disappointment. I think we need to take them back. They’re a good image for the glitzy images of Christmas that we insist on promoting. Let’s not waste our time preparing for Christmas with pathetically inadequate efforts to celebrate. Let’s focus instead on the true light that lightens the darkness: Jesus Christ himself and his promises to the world. He says to us, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Let’s focus on the real thing.
Today we begin the season of Advent, the time of preparation for the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ. In comfortable places like Canada, we generally think of Advent as a time to get geared up for Christmas: shopping for gifts, sending cards, baking cookies, decorating the house, planning our holiday entertainment. In much of our world, even as we speak, those things are not even on the horizon. People in Mumbai, India, a city of more than 10 million people, mostly very poor, have even more to contend with this week: a terrorist attack in the financial district which targeted foreigners, killing 120 people, injuring more than 300 and holding others hostage. And it isn’t even clear who did it and for what reason. The lack of information makes it more frightening because people don’t know what will come next and if they are in danger. You can’t protect yourself against the unknown. So in Mumbai, people have more on their minds than getting ready for a big holiday celebration.
But not everyone in Canada is basking in pre-Christmas warmth and looking forward to the holidays. The recent financial meltdown has had dire consequences for people who depend on the stock market for income, on workers in the automobile industry and the forest industry, on people who work in construction and in the housing market. And it’s tough for people with large debts and seniors on pension incomes. The CBC in Calgary did a survey this week: 800 people responded and 51% of them said they plan to spend less on Christmas this year; another 8% said they were making their own gifts and 10% said they were not giving any gifts. Only about a third of those who responded said they intend to spend about the usual amount on Christmas. Well, for most of us that isn’t a tragedy, but it will have an impact on those who make a living in the retail business.
Do you ever have the feeling that you live a charmed life? That when most people in our world struggle with poverty, and many of them are constantly hungry and undernourished, our concerns are kind of trivial? In fact, we feel a fair amount of guilt about being so well off. We don’t exactly know what to do about it. We are blessed to live in a land of peace and plenty, and it doesn’t make sense to wish that we were poor. We wish everyone could be as fortunate as we are, but we know that realistically, it’s not possible for everyone on earth to live so well - there aren’t enough resources. So what can we do? Find out what people need and share what we have.
The fact is, we may not always be so fortunate. And that doesn’t mean that God will stop blessing those of us who have peace and plenty. Sometimes God even blesses people with conflict and need, though we often don’t see that kind of struggle as coming from God. Yet we can’t assume that God only cares about those in the western world and blesses us with material wealth. We see in Jesus’ way of doing things that he has a special care for the poor and suffering. So our turn may come when there will be struggle and difficulty. The recent troubles in the economy make it seem possible. Perhaps we should prepare ourselves for that eventuality by gaining understanding of the poverty and suffering which exist in our world and learning ways to help.
That’s not so very easy either - at least it’s not easy to help those who live far away in very different situations. How can we know what they need? And if we know about a need, how can we see that they get the resources we’re willing to share? Canadian Lutheran World Relief is our way of entering that world. Today we focus on the work of the Lutheran Church in our world. Lutheran World Relief does what we cannot do on our own: reaches out beyond our borders to do large and small projects in the name of Christ on our behalf.
One area that I know a little about is Peru, where I visited some projects in June this year - projects where Canadian Lutheran World Relief is a partner. On the front page of the summer issue of CLWR’s quarterly newsletter called “Partnership” there is a picture of a woman sitting on a steep mountainside in Peru. I saw many women like her and many mountainsides like that. This woman is a farmer. You’d wonder how people grow crops on such steep rocky hillsides, but they do. It’s hard just to stand up on those hillsides, and you certainly can’t use motorized implements of any kind - no tractor or plough or baler or combine can operate on those steep slopes or among those rocks. And the people don’t have funds to buy farm implements anyway. They’re lucky if they have a pair of oxen or a couple of donkeys. Most of the work is done by hand. Everything must be carried down the mountain to market. See the cloth tied around the woman’s shoulder? She carries bundles in the cloth - bundles of firewood, potatoes, cabbages, hay for animal feed. She carries the bundles up the mountain, and then more bundles down the mountain. If a truck goes by, everyone piles in the back. The roads are unbelievably rough and steep. The people are short and stocky and strong - the result of thousands of years of working the ground and leaning into the hills.
I met several farmers in Peru. The one I remember best is Rosita. She is a woman about 40, the mother of five children. She lives in an adobe brick house on the side of a mountain - a beautiful place in the sunshine, as it was when I saw it, but no doubt a hard place to live when the wind blows and the rains come down every day. Rosita is the star farmer in her community. She readily understands what the agriculturists are teaching the local residents: how to diversify their crops, how to build a greenhouse out of local materials, how to grow vegetables at all seasons of the year, how to conserve water, how to make fertilizer in a compost pond, how to keep the soil from blowing away in the wind. Rosita proudly showed us her groves of avocado and mango trees, her small patches of grain and corn and potatoes, her enclosures with guinea pigs and rabbits and chickens. She was recently invited by the project leaders to come to the capital city of Lima and tell some German funders about her farming methods. They were not especially interested in listening to a peasant woman from a remote village in the Andes Mountains. But when one of them challenged her by suggesting these methods don’t make a real difference to her family, Rosita had something important to say. “Because we now have vegetables all year round, my children are better nourished. And because we have extra cash from the produce we sell, my oldest daughter can go back to school. She quit school before, but now we can afford to send her to high school. And you think these methods don‘t make a difference!” The foreigners were impressed.
And Rosita’s story reflects another kind of success: the possibility that women can be equal partners with men. When I asked where Rosita’s husband was, the project leader said, “He’s probably out in the field.” And the leader smiled. “He works for Rosita;” she said, “Rosita’s the boss!” As a matter of fact, there was a large sign posted at the edge of the property. I don’t know if Rosita can read and write, but her children certainly can. This sign may have been printed by one of her children. I took a picture of it and I’ve translated the Spanish words: “Implementation and Action Project for Farm Ecology”, Owner: Rosa Carapo-Guiros (that’s Rosita), Village: Pariacolca, District: Quillo, Altitude 1880 meters (6110 feet), Project Leader: Diaconia (which was the organization I was travelling with), and down in the corner the letters “C.L.W.R.” I was impressed that Canadian Lutheran World Relief is known by people in a remote mountain area of northern Peru, and that it’s making a real difference in the daily lives of those people in terms of nutrition and education.
A certain degree of gender equality is the result of some careful work done by community development workers. Men and women are brought together through awareness meetings. Women need to be part of the development work if it is to succeed. Canadian Lutheran World Relief and their partners work within local community systems to support men and women working together in mutual respect and equality towards a goal of improved living conditions. Here’s a story about a woman in India: Anima Halder. Until 2004, Anima and her husband struggled to meet their essential needs. They were landless and depended on an irregular income from the seasonal work that Anima’s husband obtained.
After two years as the president of a CLWR-supported community group, Anima decided to take advantage of the group’s resources herself. She took out a loan of $69 and started a simple paddy-processing business, which involves preparing the rice for market after it has been harvested. The results were tangible - Anima earns about $58 a month, which is significantly more than the couple’s previous income. With her husband she managed to increase the family’s savings and invest in chickens, with their original brood increasing more than tenfold. “We have a mutual understanding,” says Anima about herself and her husband. “All decisions, including money matters, have to be taken by both of us.”
It’s known in development work that when girls have opportunities for education, even a few years of elementary schooling, their lives are significantly improved. They marry later, have children later, and have fewer children. Their incomes are better and their families are healthier. I think we would say that about the education of girls in our own country, so it makes sense that it is true for girls in the developing world as well.
How do these stories of development fit into the idea of preparation for Christmas? In the Gospel lesson today, Jesus is warning his followers: “…keep alert….keep awake….keep awake….” Keep awake for what? For the ‘Son of Man coming in clouds’. Do we know what that will look like or when it will happen? No, we don’t. We need to be “on the watch”, to be doing the things that Jesus expects of his followers, so that when he comes he will find us faithful. We must not fritter away our time doing irrelevant and useless things; we must be about our Father’s business, taking care of each other and of the needy in the world.
Last weekend we bought some new outdoor Christmas lights - solar lights. They’re more expensive than other kinds of lights. Lorne put them up on the deck and we had great expectations of them. The premise is that the little solar panel absorbs light during the day and stores enough energy to run these lights for six hours a night. They work, but not very well. In fact, they’re downright pathetic; they‘re a big disappointment. I think we need to take them back. They’re a good image for the glitzy images of Christmas that we insist on promoting. Let’s not waste our time preparing for Christmas with pathetically inadequate efforts to celebrate. Let’s focus instead on the true light that lightens the darkness: Jesus Christ himself and his promises to the world. He says to us, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Let’s focus on the real thing.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
GRACE MAKES LIGHT
Text: Matthew 25,1-13
This parable is another in a series of teachings by Jesus on the coming of the kingdom…or the end of time, or Judgment Day, or last things. The focus is not on knowing when that moment is going to happen, but on being ready whenever it comes. I sometimes have conversations with people about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and it’s common for people to look for signs indicating when that will be. They cite evidence like the floods and storms and droughts that seem to occur often in the world at present. They mention the evils of crime and violence and suffering, and make the assumption that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, as if that has never been the case before. We know that extreme weather patterns are directly related to global warming – which in itself could be part of God’s judgment on the world. We also know that violent crime at least in Canada is on the decline, probably due to better policing, good economic times, and a reasonably good social safety net. So it’s probably not justifiable to insist that Jesus is about to come back in the near future because the world is in such an evil state that it can’t survive much longer.
But that doesn’t mean we should ignore Jesus’ clear warning to his followers. What is he saying? He tells this story about a wedding. A wedding is a festive and happy occasion. A wedding involves intense emotions. A wedding is about relationships and about investment in the future…a social highlight which takes preparation and requires every effort to provide an occasion which brings credit to the individuals and families involved. The focus in this parable is particularly on those who attend the bride and groom – they are the chosen friends and closest associates. A high standard of behaviour is required of them because they support the bride and groom and because their performance is in the public eye. What I’m really saying is that a wedding is a highly significant occasion in the lives of the people getting married and in the community gathered around them. I always marvel at this: in a time when marriage seemingly is losing much of its meaning, at the time of a wedding, the people at the centre of a marriage service - the bride and groom - are sometimes almost overwhelmed by the depth and seriousness of the occasion.
So when Jesus uses the image of a wedding, everyone knows and identifies with the idea that it is an experience of high emotion and great meaning. Who is the “bridegroom” in this wedding-image Jesus presents? Jesus himself. He is the bridegroom. Who is the bride? Well, it’s not one of the ten virgins or bridesmaids; they are attendants on the bride. The “bride” is the church, the Christian community. And the whole scene – the marriage and the celebration of it – is the kingdom of God.
But since the time of arrival of the bridegroom, Jesus himself, is not exactly known, the chosen attendants wait at the appointed place. Some of them, however, are not ready for his coming. They have lamps to light their way, but they are in danger of running out of oil. It is night and they begin to fall asleep. At midnight, the coming of the bridegroom is announced and the attendants immediately jump up to light their lamps. Those who don’t have enough oil cannot light theirs and are forced to rush out to buy more oil. Meanwhile, the doors are closed and the wedding begins. When the unprepared attendants return, they are refused admission. It is too late for them to join the bridal feast.
Again, we can interpret the details of this story as Biblical images: the lamps represent the light of faith and the oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit. Remember the image in the Psalms of the oil running down Aaron’s hair and beard as he is anointed? (Psalm 133:2) That oil, just like the oil we use in anointing people at the time of baptism, is a sign of the Holy Spirit – the presence of God which dwells within a person of faith. If we used the same amount of oil as the prophet did to anoint Aaron, we’d have very slippery babies!
Jesus’ point in telling this parable seems to be encouragement to his followers to be ready at all times for his return. It could be today, or tomorrow, or a hundred years from now. None of us can know the time. But we can be prepared. It’s not our responsibility to figure out the time; our task is to be ready. So when someone gets all worried about the signs of the times and insists that the world is about to end, don’t get carried away by their anxiety. If the world is about to end, our concern and our job is to be faithful to Jesus Christ. If the world is not about to end, our concern and our job is still to be faithful to Jesus Christ. Don’t use up energy trying to second-guess what God is up to. God is quite able to decide the future of the universe without any fuss from us.
Instead of looking for signs of the end, it would be far more worthwhile to look for signs of faith in ourselves and in our communities. If there’s anything God wants to see, I believe it’s evidence of our faith in God’s goodness, Jesus’ salvation and the Spirit’s presence. So instead of looking for signs of doom, look for signs of grace. Grace is God’s fingerprint. Whatever God touches is imprinted with grace.
The loudest voices in the church are the ones which complain about sin – other people’s sin. You don’t hear those voices announcing their own shortcomings; nope, they are much more concerned with the shortcomings of others, perhaps in order to distract anyone from noticing their own. Compare that with the gracious attitude of those who know their own sins and shortcomings and cannot with honesty accuse anyone else. Compare those loud accusations with the attitude of Jesus, who was remarkably gentle and kind to those who came to him admitting their unworthiness, but desperate in their need for healing and forgiveness. So don’t assume that the loudest voice is necessarily the voice of God.
Someone said this past week that if John McCain had made his speech accepting defeat in the election some weeks earlier, he might have won the election….Why do they say that? Because his speech in defeat was gracious: he honoured his opponent; he admitted his own failure; he displayed dignity and strength of character in a time of great disappointment. Instead of crass attacks on Obama and gross bragging about the Republican Party, he was forced to admit his own limitations and his party’s poor record in government. And he was genuine: finally, he gave an honest assessment of the situation instead of inflated claims that nobody could believe. It’s ironic, but it happens often, that when we behave in such a domineering manner we are setting ourselves up for a come-down. Pride goes before a fall. Did you know that’s actually in the Bible? It is, in the book of Proverbs, chapter 16, verse 18. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” So watch out for pride and cultivate humility. And be aware of grace: how gracious God is toward us and how we may imitate that grace in our own attitudes and behaviour.
In a world where the weak are often trampled underfoot, or driven over at high speed, it’s not easy to be gracious. First, we need to know what grace is. Basically, it’s a thoughtful, kind response to negative behaviour. It’s important to be thoughtful because the automatic response will likely be negative – we need to be aware in order to catch our own bad reaction. It’s important to be kind because that will likely be more effective than nastiness in preventing the escalation of conflict. Do you know the term “de-escalation”? We used to use that word in the inner city ministry when we instructed our volunteers from the suburbs. “De-escalation” means you don’t react, because that will cause trouble, and trouble among street people can quickly become violent; instead, you think before you respond – perhaps you don’t respond at all for a few minutes – and then you use calmness and understanding. If you want to calm the waves, you pour oil on the water, not gasoline.
Second, you slow down. Slowing down helps you to pay attention, and paying attention means you are watching and listening. When I worked for L.A.M.P. in northern Canada back in the 80s and 90s, part of my job was to instruct the Vacation Bible School teams coming from the US and southern Canada about the aboriginal culture. Americans have a particularly hard time not rushing into a community loaded with enthusiasm and talking a blue streak. Native people are simply bowled over by that behaviour, and they back off and disappear. So I’d tell the visitors to watch and listen. I don’t think some of them got it, but it definitely worked better if they could keep their mouths shut and their ears open. And when they actually watched and listened, they could learn a great deal from these people whose ways are different. That’s where grace becomes evident – when we are receptive instead of aggressive.
Third, think small. I often have to speak with people who are suffering from serious illness or bereavement. Nothing I can say or do will take away the pain and fear and loneliness of their present experience. I am not God…I cannot remove the cause of their pain and make everything good again. But I do assure them that God will do something to help. My own experience of various kinds of pain suggests that there are always small things that happen to comfort and encourage us. These things usually come as small surprises – that’s why we need to be watching…otherwise we’ll miss them. It’s especially important to cultivate the gracious attitude: instead of being angry with God for letting us suffer, grace allows us to appreciate even the small gifts of relief, kindness and comfort.
And the fourth thing is to extend this grace to yourself. Sometimes we are hardest on ourselves – how often do you hear a good, kind, generous person run himself or herself down for not being good enough? Grace does wonders to change attitudes, even our attitudes to ourselves – so be kind to yourself and you’re more likely to be kind to others. Remember the patience and kindness of Jesus, and believe that he reflects the patience and kindness of God toward us. Grace is characteristic of God: expect that God will treat you graciously, and in turn treat others graciously. In the parable of the ten bridesmaids, think of the oil in their lamps as the grace of God, and be prepared to fuel the light in your life with the oil of the Spirit. You may not light up the whole world, but you’ll cast a gentle light on the world around you.
This parable is another in a series of teachings by Jesus on the coming of the kingdom…or the end of time, or Judgment Day, or last things. The focus is not on knowing when that moment is going to happen, but on being ready whenever it comes. I sometimes have conversations with people about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and it’s common for people to look for signs indicating when that will be. They cite evidence like the floods and storms and droughts that seem to occur often in the world at present. They mention the evils of crime and violence and suffering, and make the assumption that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, as if that has never been the case before. We know that extreme weather patterns are directly related to global warming – which in itself could be part of God’s judgment on the world. We also know that violent crime at least in Canada is on the decline, probably due to better policing, good economic times, and a reasonably good social safety net. So it’s probably not justifiable to insist that Jesus is about to come back in the near future because the world is in such an evil state that it can’t survive much longer.
But that doesn’t mean we should ignore Jesus’ clear warning to his followers. What is he saying? He tells this story about a wedding. A wedding is a festive and happy occasion. A wedding involves intense emotions. A wedding is about relationships and about investment in the future…a social highlight which takes preparation and requires every effort to provide an occasion which brings credit to the individuals and families involved. The focus in this parable is particularly on those who attend the bride and groom – they are the chosen friends and closest associates. A high standard of behaviour is required of them because they support the bride and groom and because their performance is in the public eye. What I’m really saying is that a wedding is a highly significant occasion in the lives of the people getting married and in the community gathered around them. I always marvel at this: in a time when marriage seemingly is losing much of its meaning, at the time of a wedding, the people at the centre of a marriage service - the bride and groom - are sometimes almost overwhelmed by the depth and seriousness of the occasion.
So when Jesus uses the image of a wedding, everyone knows and identifies with the idea that it is an experience of high emotion and great meaning. Who is the “bridegroom” in this wedding-image Jesus presents? Jesus himself. He is the bridegroom. Who is the bride? Well, it’s not one of the ten virgins or bridesmaids; they are attendants on the bride. The “bride” is the church, the Christian community. And the whole scene – the marriage and the celebration of it – is the kingdom of God.
But since the time of arrival of the bridegroom, Jesus himself, is not exactly known, the chosen attendants wait at the appointed place. Some of them, however, are not ready for his coming. They have lamps to light their way, but they are in danger of running out of oil. It is night and they begin to fall asleep. At midnight, the coming of the bridegroom is announced and the attendants immediately jump up to light their lamps. Those who don’t have enough oil cannot light theirs and are forced to rush out to buy more oil. Meanwhile, the doors are closed and the wedding begins. When the unprepared attendants return, they are refused admission. It is too late for them to join the bridal feast.
Again, we can interpret the details of this story as Biblical images: the lamps represent the light of faith and the oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit. Remember the image in the Psalms of the oil running down Aaron’s hair and beard as he is anointed? (Psalm 133:2) That oil, just like the oil we use in anointing people at the time of baptism, is a sign of the Holy Spirit – the presence of God which dwells within a person of faith. If we used the same amount of oil as the prophet did to anoint Aaron, we’d have very slippery babies!
Jesus’ point in telling this parable seems to be encouragement to his followers to be ready at all times for his return. It could be today, or tomorrow, or a hundred years from now. None of us can know the time. But we can be prepared. It’s not our responsibility to figure out the time; our task is to be ready. So when someone gets all worried about the signs of the times and insists that the world is about to end, don’t get carried away by their anxiety. If the world is about to end, our concern and our job is to be faithful to Jesus Christ. If the world is not about to end, our concern and our job is still to be faithful to Jesus Christ. Don’t use up energy trying to second-guess what God is up to. God is quite able to decide the future of the universe without any fuss from us.
Instead of looking for signs of the end, it would be far more worthwhile to look for signs of faith in ourselves and in our communities. If there’s anything God wants to see, I believe it’s evidence of our faith in God’s goodness, Jesus’ salvation and the Spirit’s presence. So instead of looking for signs of doom, look for signs of grace. Grace is God’s fingerprint. Whatever God touches is imprinted with grace.
The loudest voices in the church are the ones which complain about sin – other people’s sin. You don’t hear those voices announcing their own shortcomings; nope, they are much more concerned with the shortcomings of others, perhaps in order to distract anyone from noticing their own. Compare that with the gracious attitude of those who know their own sins and shortcomings and cannot with honesty accuse anyone else. Compare those loud accusations with the attitude of Jesus, who was remarkably gentle and kind to those who came to him admitting their unworthiness, but desperate in their need for healing and forgiveness. So don’t assume that the loudest voice is necessarily the voice of God.
Someone said this past week that if John McCain had made his speech accepting defeat in the election some weeks earlier, he might have won the election….Why do they say that? Because his speech in defeat was gracious: he honoured his opponent; he admitted his own failure; he displayed dignity and strength of character in a time of great disappointment. Instead of crass attacks on Obama and gross bragging about the Republican Party, he was forced to admit his own limitations and his party’s poor record in government. And he was genuine: finally, he gave an honest assessment of the situation instead of inflated claims that nobody could believe. It’s ironic, but it happens often, that when we behave in such a domineering manner we are setting ourselves up for a come-down. Pride goes before a fall. Did you know that’s actually in the Bible? It is, in the book of Proverbs, chapter 16, verse 18. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” So watch out for pride and cultivate humility. And be aware of grace: how gracious God is toward us and how we may imitate that grace in our own attitudes and behaviour.
In a world where the weak are often trampled underfoot, or driven over at high speed, it’s not easy to be gracious. First, we need to know what grace is. Basically, it’s a thoughtful, kind response to negative behaviour. It’s important to be thoughtful because the automatic response will likely be negative – we need to be aware in order to catch our own bad reaction. It’s important to be kind because that will likely be more effective than nastiness in preventing the escalation of conflict. Do you know the term “de-escalation”? We used to use that word in the inner city ministry when we instructed our volunteers from the suburbs. “De-escalation” means you don’t react, because that will cause trouble, and trouble among street people can quickly become violent; instead, you think before you respond – perhaps you don’t respond at all for a few minutes – and then you use calmness and understanding. If you want to calm the waves, you pour oil on the water, not gasoline.
Second, you slow down. Slowing down helps you to pay attention, and paying attention means you are watching and listening. When I worked for L.A.M.P. in northern Canada back in the 80s and 90s, part of my job was to instruct the Vacation Bible School teams coming from the US and southern Canada about the aboriginal culture. Americans have a particularly hard time not rushing into a community loaded with enthusiasm and talking a blue streak. Native people are simply bowled over by that behaviour, and they back off and disappear. So I’d tell the visitors to watch and listen. I don’t think some of them got it, but it definitely worked better if they could keep their mouths shut and their ears open. And when they actually watched and listened, they could learn a great deal from these people whose ways are different. That’s where grace becomes evident – when we are receptive instead of aggressive.
Third, think small. I often have to speak with people who are suffering from serious illness or bereavement. Nothing I can say or do will take away the pain and fear and loneliness of their present experience. I am not God…I cannot remove the cause of their pain and make everything good again. But I do assure them that God will do something to help. My own experience of various kinds of pain suggests that there are always small things that happen to comfort and encourage us. These things usually come as small surprises – that’s why we need to be watching…otherwise we’ll miss them. It’s especially important to cultivate the gracious attitude: instead of being angry with God for letting us suffer, grace allows us to appreciate even the small gifts of relief, kindness and comfort.
And the fourth thing is to extend this grace to yourself. Sometimes we are hardest on ourselves – how often do you hear a good, kind, generous person run himself or herself down for not being good enough? Grace does wonders to change attitudes, even our attitudes to ourselves – so be kind to yourself and you’re more likely to be kind to others. Remember the patience and kindness of Jesus, and believe that he reflects the patience and kindness of God toward us. Grace is characteristic of God: expect that God will treat you graciously, and in turn treat others graciously. In the parable of the ten bridesmaids, think of the oil in their lamps as the grace of God, and be prepared to fuel the light in your life with the oil of the Spirit. You may not light up the whole world, but you’ll cast a gentle light on the world around you.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
“THE THEOLOGY OF THE INSECURE…”
Text: Matthew 5:1-12
This body of teaching by Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Matthew is called the Sermon on the Mount. Today’s reading is the heart of it – what we call the Beatitudes…nine “blessing statements”. My Bible commentary calls it “Matthew’s masterpiece” (The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, p. 640). It contains the main point of the Gospel, not just of Matthew’s Gospel, but the whole gospel of Jesus Christ. This is very important teaching; we could say these are the most important things that Jesus has to say to his followers in all times and places.
Some modern translators replace the word “blessed” with “happy”. I think blessed is a better word, because it suggests not everyday happiness (if anybody is fortunate enough to be happy on a daily basis) but the happiness that comes as a gift of God. There is happiness that is mere human pleasure, like eating a good meal or getting a new bicycle, and there is happiness that is deeper, like the birth of a new baby or the occasion of a wedding or the enjoyment of a loyal friendship. But in teaching his disciples the way of the Christian life, Jesus goes beyond even the deepest human experience to the heart of God. When we look at the occasions for blessedness in these beatitudes, we see that they are surprising, even unbelievable. Jesus uses a common device in Jewish rhetoric: putting together ideas that are incompatible. We call this “paradox”, and we also see it in Luther’s teaching: for instance in the concept that we are both saints and sinners at the same time. How can things which are opposite both be true? Well, they can, and that is the challenge of this central teaching of Jesus.
We should note a couple of important details in the introduction: Jesus sits down, it says; that’s the usual position of Jewish rabbis while they teach. And secondly, “his disciples came to him”. He is not teaching the crowds here; he’s teaching his committed followers. This teaching is for those who belong to the kingdom. And once they are seated and ready to listen, Jesus gives them the whole load.
The first “blessedness” is the condition of being “poor in spirit”. The second is the experience of mourning. The third is the quality of meekness. So what is “blessed” about poverty, sadness and timidity? The Hebrew word for the poor is “anawim” – the little ones. This reminds us of Jesus’ teaching that his followers should come before God like children – those in need of protection, whose virtue is their readiness to trust. The “blessing” that these needy and trusting ones receive is the kingdom of heaven – Jesus’ crucial gift to his followers – comfort for their sadness, and paradoxically, ownership of the earth. In other words, these little ones will be heirs to all of God’s future. One commentator says “God’s priority is the care of the poor….” (Ibid., p. 640) I think of this every time I conduct a service at Bethany. To go there and minister in some way to the residents seems a marginal activity; that is, there are only 20 or so who come to the services, some of them hardly know they are there, and there are only a few who can appreciate the opportunity for worship and respond. But all of these are God’s “little ones”, a very important group…in Jesus’ words, those who will inherit the earth, so perhaps we can say they are the people whom it is most important to serve. Fortunately, the few who are able to respond appropriately are very sweet and very gracious. So strangely enough, it’s extremely worthwhile for those of us who have that experience; it seems unimportant, but paradoxically it’s very important.
The fourth “blessedness” is the pursuit of righteousness; the fifth is mercy; the sixth is purity of heart. In our world, we are pretty cynical. Do those whose purpose is goodness, forbearance and purity get ahead? Not likely! Maybe they get elevated to sainthood after they’re dead, but not in this life! But Jesus says this is to be the purpose of those who follow him, and there will be rewards: the righteous will be satisfied, the merciful will receive mercy, the pure in heart will see God. I venture to guess we often find ourselves saying or thinking, “No point in trying to do good – I’ll only be taken advantage of by some scam artist.” Or, “I’m not about to forgive that kind of behaviour – it simply encourages more of the same.” Or, “Those who are pure are kidding themselves – it’s just a matter of time before they’re hit on by some bad actor.” We excuse ourselves from the hard work of virtuous thought and action by saying it can’t happen.
I think one of the things that becomes more important late in life, after we’ve pursued all sorts of other goals like good looks, money and possessions, social success and all those other things that preoccupy us, is the desire to please God. Sadly, we don’t seem to come to this point until we begin to feel more vulnerable ourselves: when our health is threatened, our income is reduced, and our children are busy with their own lives. But I do think there is a time in life when righteousness, mercy and purity of heart become more important; hence, the lovely attitudes of the old folks at Bethany. They are marginalized and largely forgotten, but the faith of a lifetime bears fruit in some of them – perhaps more so in those who can’t even express it. Is true godliness more likely to be found at Bethany Care Centre than most other places around here? I think so.
The seventh blessedness is the goal of making peace. And the eighth is the willingness to suffer for the sake of doing right. These are closely related, and they both involve taking risks in order to achieve the common good. We don’t make peace only for ourselves, and we don’t suffer persecution in order to bring about good only for ourselves. The ninth blessedness expands on the eighth: it describes the persecution that we might suffer as a result of following Jesus Christ. That’s not a familiar thought to us, is it? We tend to think that when we follow Jesus, everybody will admire us and love us. But not at all. They didn’t all admire and love Jesus, and we can’t expect to fare much better than he did. Except that in our more soft and sentimental age, we are more likely to be ignored than persecuted. But there are rewards: to be named as children of God, to be members of the kingdom of heaven, to receive a great reward in heaven.
In the early Middle Ages when religious orders were first established in the church, priests and monks and nuns were thought to have a higher calling than the average Christian. They were the ones who really made sacrifices in order to follow Jesus. I think to a great extent we still think this way. But in our time – in the last 50 to 100 years – it’s become clear that not many people are willing to live that life. In the Sermon on the Mount, is Jesus only talking to priests and monks and nuns when he speaks of the blessedness of these various forms of commitment? I don’t think so. He is talking to his disciples, who are ordinary citizens with families and jobs. They are committed to following him but they must live out that commitment in the midst of their everyday responsibilities. There are not two tiers of Christian commitment: there is only one. Jesus calls all of his followers to the same level of faithfulness. So these “blessed” statements apply to us, right where we are. As difficult as they seem to be, they are not impossible. We will not achieve them perfectly but that is not what we are called to do: we aim to live that way, and Jesus’ death and resurrection fills the gap between our efforts and God’s perfection. So rejoice and be glad – get on the right path and keep walking forward. Jesus is right in front of us…and when we stumble, he is right beside us…and when we fall down, he is right behind us.
The Celtic Christians have what they call an “encircling prayer”…the idea being to pray for protection and support to surround us as we follow Jesus in this world. It goes like this:
Circle me, Lord.
Keep protection near
And danger afar.
Circle me, Lord.
Keep hope within
Keep doubt without.
Circle me, Lord.
Keep light near
And darkness afar.
Circle me, Lord.
Keep peace within
Keep evil out.
(David Adam)
Some modern translators replace the word “blessed” with “happy”. I think blessed is a better word, because it suggests not everyday happiness (if anybody is fortunate enough to be happy on a daily basis) but the happiness that comes as a gift of God. There is happiness that is mere human pleasure, like eating a good meal or getting a new bicycle, and there is happiness that is deeper, like the birth of a new baby or the occasion of a wedding or the enjoyment of a loyal friendship. But in teaching his disciples the way of the Christian life, Jesus goes beyond even the deepest human experience to the heart of God. When we look at the occasions for blessedness in these beatitudes, we see that they are surprising, even unbelievable. Jesus uses a common device in Jewish rhetoric: putting together ideas that are incompatible. We call this “paradox”, and we also see it in Luther’s teaching: for instance in the concept that we are both saints and sinners at the same time. How can things which are opposite both be true? Well, they can, and that is the challenge of this central teaching of Jesus.
We should note a couple of important details in the introduction: Jesus sits down, it says; that’s the usual position of Jewish rabbis while they teach. And secondly, “his disciples came to him”. He is not teaching the crowds here; he’s teaching his committed followers. This teaching is for those who belong to the kingdom. And once they are seated and ready to listen, Jesus gives them the whole load.
The first “blessedness” is the condition of being “poor in spirit”. The second is the experience of mourning. The third is the quality of meekness. So what is “blessed” about poverty, sadness and timidity? The Hebrew word for the poor is “anawim” – the little ones. This reminds us of Jesus’ teaching that his followers should come before God like children – those in need of protection, whose virtue is their readiness to trust. The “blessing” that these needy and trusting ones receive is the kingdom of heaven – Jesus’ crucial gift to his followers – comfort for their sadness, and paradoxically, ownership of the earth. In other words, these little ones will be heirs to all of God’s future. One commentator says “God’s priority is the care of the poor….” (Ibid., p. 640) I think of this every time I conduct a service at Bethany. To go there and minister in some way to the residents seems a marginal activity; that is, there are only 20 or so who come to the services, some of them hardly know they are there, and there are only a few who can appreciate the opportunity for worship and respond. But all of these are God’s “little ones”, a very important group…in Jesus’ words, those who will inherit the earth, so perhaps we can say they are the people whom it is most important to serve. Fortunately, the few who are able to respond appropriately are very sweet and very gracious. So strangely enough, it’s extremely worthwhile for those of us who have that experience; it seems unimportant, but paradoxically it’s very important.
The fourth “blessedness” is the pursuit of righteousness; the fifth is mercy; the sixth is purity of heart. In our world, we are pretty cynical. Do those whose purpose is goodness, forbearance and purity get ahead? Not likely! Maybe they get elevated to sainthood after they’re dead, but not in this life! But Jesus says this is to be the purpose of those who follow him, and there will be rewards: the righteous will be satisfied, the merciful will receive mercy, the pure in heart will see God. I venture to guess we often find ourselves saying or thinking, “No point in trying to do good – I’ll only be taken advantage of by some scam artist.” Or, “I’m not about to forgive that kind of behaviour – it simply encourages more of the same.” Or, “Those who are pure are kidding themselves – it’s just a matter of time before they’re hit on by some bad actor.” We excuse ourselves from the hard work of virtuous thought and action by saying it can’t happen.
I think one of the things that becomes more important late in life, after we’ve pursued all sorts of other goals like good looks, money and possessions, social success and all those other things that preoccupy us, is the desire to please God. Sadly, we don’t seem to come to this point until we begin to feel more vulnerable ourselves: when our health is threatened, our income is reduced, and our children are busy with their own lives. But I do think there is a time in life when righteousness, mercy and purity of heart become more important; hence, the lovely attitudes of the old folks at Bethany. They are marginalized and largely forgotten, but the faith of a lifetime bears fruit in some of them – perhaps more so in those who can’t even express it. Is true godliness more likely to be found at Bethany Care Centre than most other places around here? I think so.
The seventh blessedness is the goal of making peace. And the eighth is the willingness to suffer for the sake of doing right. These are closely related, and they both involve taking risks in order to achieve the common good. We don’t make peace only for ourselves, and we don’t suffer persecution in order to bring about good only for ourselves. The ninth blessedness expands on the eighth: it describes the persecution that we might suffer as a result of following Jesus Christ. That’s not a familiar thought to us, is it? We tend to think that when we follow Jesus, everybody will admire us and love us. But not at all. They didn’t all admire and love Jesus, and we can’t expect to fare much better than he did. Except that in our more soft and sentimental age, we are more likely to be ignored than persecuted. But there are rewards: to be named as children of God, to be members of the kingdom of heaven, to receive a great reward in heaven.
In the early Middle Ages when religious orders were first established in the church, priests and monks and nuns were thought to have a higher calling than the average Christian. They were the ones who really made sacrifices in order to follow Jesus. I think to a great extent we still think this way. But in our time – in the last 50 to 100 years – it’s become clear that not many people are willing to live that life. In the Sermon on the Mount, is Jesus only talking to priests and monks and nuns when he speaks of the blessedness of these various forms of commitment? I don’t think so. He is talking to his disciples, who are ordinary citizens with families and jobs. They are committed to following him but they must live out that commitment in the midst of their everyday responsibilities. There are not two tiers of Christian commitment: there is only one. Jesus calls all of his followers to the same level of faithfulness. So these “blessed” statements apply to us, right where we are. As difficult as they seem to be, they are not impossible. We will not achieve them perfectly but that is not what we are called to do: we aim to live that way, and Jesus’ death and resurrection fills the gap between our efforts and God’s perfection. So rejoice and be glad – get on the right path and keep walking forward. Jesus is right in front of us…and when we stumble, he is right beside us…and when we fall down, he is right behind us.
The Celtic Christians have what they call an “encircling prayer”…the idea being to pray for protection and support to surround us as we follow Jesus in this world. It goes like this:
Circle me, Lord.
Keep protection near
And danger afar.
Circle me, Lord.
Keep hope within
Keep doubt without.
Circle me, Lord.
Keep light near
And darkness afar.
Circle me, Lord.
Keep peace within
Keep evil out.
(David Adam)
Sunday, October 26, 2008
FREEDOM FOR FAITHFULNESS
Text: John 8:31-36
Jesus is talking to a group of his Jewish followers. At this time, most of his followers are Jews, of course, since they are the people of the land of Israel and the ones with whom Jesus has contact. In one way, these people are the most likely to become his followers, because as believers in the Jewish faith, they already understand the concept of one God…not like the Gentiles in the neighbouring countries, most of whom believe in many gods. But in another way, there is a barrier that keeps Jewish believers from understanding the Gospel of Jesus: they are still committed to keeping the Law. Jesus suggests that they are captives to the Law and they need to be set free.
These believers are indignant. “We are members of the tribe of Abraham; we’ve never been slaves to anyone.” This is a point of pride for these Jews: many centuries before, their ancestors fled from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. Every year they celebrate the Feast of Passover, remembering how God helped them to escape from slavery. And now Jesus says they are still slaves?
But Jesus isn’t talking about political slavery; he’s talking about spiritual slavery. These Jewish believers sense that God dwells in this Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth, and they are attracted to his power and his wisdom, but they aren’t ready to give up their old values. What are their old values?...the security of following old rituals, the pride of moral superiority, the comfort of complacency. “We don’t need to change: we’re Jews, descendants of Abraham; we know all the stories about the liberation of our people thousands of years back. We don’t need to be made free. We’re already free.” But their protesting so strongly in the face of Jesus suggests that true freedom frightens them. Like the addict who insists it’s possible to kick the habit anytime, their claims to freedom ring hollow.
Likewise, five hundred years ago, when Martin Luther came on the scene in Europe as it emerged from the Middle Ages, he knew he wasn’t free either. The Roman Catholic Church ruled most of the known world and had for a thousand years. Old values dominated everyone and everything: the practice of old rituals, the pride of moral superiority, the comfort of complacency. If personal faith and Christian morality were badly eroded, who could do anything about it? And if anyone tried, the religious and political powers would suppress any resistance or argument. Truth and freedom were so ground down that hardly anyone knew what they were any more. But Luther was stubborn and determined and committed. He believed the words of Jesus rather than the pronouncements of a monolithic church: “…you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” He was a man of great intelligence and deep insight. His Biblical study and his personal spiritual struggle led to strong conviction. He probably never intended to oppose the greatest religious and political power that ever existed, but his conviction grew to the point where he couldn’t avoid taking a stand. He was forced into it by his own discovery of Biblical truth and by the irresistible pressure of events. What Luther thought were merely contributions to an academic discussion became the focus of a sweeping political movement. He and his university colleagues, the monks of his religious order, the German princes and the general population of these farflung provinces in northern Europe were swept along in the waves of change. Like the teachings of Jesus, the teachings of Luther and the other leaders of the Reformation spoke to the spiritual hopes and needs of a whole continent. Look at the poster displayed in front here: it’s called “The Knight, Death and the Devil” and it’s the work of Albrecht Durer, a contemporary of Martin Luther. It gives us a strong taste of the medieval spirit: the terror of death and hell, the ever-present threat of evil spirits, the desperate hope that human courage could ward off these dangers….It’s not a picture of freedom; it’s a picture of oppression.
What was this freedom that Jesus brought, and that Luther helped to restore? It was the freedom from sin – in a word, salvation…or in two words, salvation and redemption. Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “…everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” That’s all of us, right? And further, Jesus says, “The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever.” He is not talking about himself when he uses the word “son”; he is talking about us, sons and daughters of God’s household. We are not merely servants in God’s household; we are children of the household, with all the privileges of belonging to the family of God. And one of the greatest privileges is freedom from sin, provided through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“Well,” you might be thinking, “I don’t have a problem with sin. I’m a member of the church; I’m a decent person; I’m not guilty of doing anything very bad.” The security of old rituals? The pride of moral superiority? The comfort of complacency? But if you have actually absorbed the truth of the Gospel and you do in fact take sin seriously, believe in redemption through Christ and trust that your sins are forgiven, you are unusual, even in the church. Outside the church, and for many within the church, there is little understanding of sin and little sense of the need for salvation. I don’t mean that we should be overwhelmed with fear and superstition as were the folk of Luther’s time; I just mean that we should have a clear understanding of our position before God. And most people in our immediate world have little concept of sin and the hope of salvation. I would say that our world psychologizes sin and secularizes salvation. What does that mean? Well, psychology is a useful discipline for understanding human thoughts and feelings and behaviour, but it does not explain spirituality. Likewise, secular thinking applies well to our social and political and economic context, but it does not address the world of the spirit. I would suggest that even in the church popular psychology and secular thinking have largely replaced the values taught by Jesus. That is to say, permissiveness and popularity, materialism and monoculture. Not much matters except following the crowd. I suggest that our society, and in some ways, our church, need another reformation.
Well, we can’t wait around for another Luther. At the moment, nobody like Luther seems to be on the horizon. Mind you, in Luther’s time, nobody, least of all Luther himself, expected he’d be the agent of change. So who will save the church from corruption and irrelevance? I’m not sure who might be the human agent, but certainly God is still on the job. What signs of hope do we see?
In the last few years, our own church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, has had to downsize. There are fewer national staff, synod offices have the same number of staff, and budgets are reduced, but programs are still made available to congregations, and national and synodical gatherings are high quality events. We do a lot more cooperative work with other churches, especially the Anglican Church of Canada, which has also reduced its program staff and budgets. There is a much effective work done on social justice, environmental and poverty issues by a coalition of churches in an organization called KAIROS. The internet has increased our ability to communicate with each other widely at low cost. We have good procedures in place, and lots of checks and balances so our church organizations function well. Church employees are treated fairly. We even had a decent pension plan until the crisis a couple of weeks ago! At the congregational level, here in Airdrie we are a smaller congregation than we were five years ago, but for the first time since I came here over six years ago, we are on target with our financial situation. Usually by the end of summer we have fallen behind and we don’t catch up until Christmas. But this year, things are going better. We can say that the present active members take seriously their responsibility to support the church. And what’s more, in the last three years, since November 2005, we have paid down $130,000 on our mortgage. That’s amazing, considering that we thought it was an impossible task. But in three years, we’ve paid down a third of the debt. All that while we’ve been keeping up with the operating budget as well. And this fall we completed a major renovation with interior paint and new carpets, with a lot of volunteer input from members. What does this say about hope for our church? Well, we need to survive in other areas besides finance, but our financial situation is an indicator of the health of the congregation. And the willingness of members to volunteer is another indicator of good health around here. As well, we contribute a lot of money and goods and volunteer time to people in need in our community and in the world. Lutheran Church of the Master is doing a lot of the things we are called by God to do. We’re not perfect but we’re moving in the right direction.
What does all this have to do with being free from sin? I think that our spiritual health is evident in our behaviour in the church community and in the community at large. We may be a small group but we’re making a difference to each other and to our neighbours by our efforts to live holy and committed lives. We know we are sinners but we know who can save us. And that freedom gives us the motivation and the energy to do the right things. Thanks be to God!
These believers are indignant. “We are members of the tribe of Abraham; we’ve never been slaves to anyone.” This is a point of pride for these Jews: many centuries before, their ancestors fled from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. Every year they celebrate the Feast of Passover, remembering how God helped them to escape from slavery. And now Jesus says they are still slaves?
But Jesus isn’t talking about political slavery; he’s talking about spiritual slavery. These Jewish believers sense that God dwells in this Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth, and they are attracted to his power and his wisdom, but they aren’t ready to give up their old values. What are their old values?...the security of following old rituals, the pride of moral superiority, the comfort of complacency. “We don’t need to change: we’re Jews, descendants of Abraham; we know all the stories about the liberation of our people thousands of years back. We don’t need to be made free. We’re already free.” But their protesting so strongly in the face of Jesus suggests that true freedom frightens them. Like the addict who insists it’s possible to kick the habit anytime, their claims to freedom ring hollow.
Likewise, five hundred years ago, when Martin Luther came on the scene in Europe as it emerged from the Middle Ages, he knew he wasn’t free either. The Roman Catholic Church ruled most of the known world and had for a thousand years. Old values dominated everyone and everything: the practice of old rituals, the pride of moral superiority, the comfort of complacency. If personal faith and Christian morality were badly eroded, who could do anything about it? And if anyone tried, the religious and political powers would suppress any resistance or argument. Truth and freedom were so ground down that hardly anyone knew what they were any more. But Luther was stubborn and determined and committed. He believed the words of Jesus rather than the pronouncements of a monolithic church: “…you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” He was a man of great intelligence and deep insight. His Biblical study and his personal spiritual struggle led to strong conviction. He probably never intended to oppose the greatest religious and political power that ever existed, but his conviction grew to the point where he couldn’t avoid taking a stand. He was forced into it by his own discovery of Biblical truth and by the irresistible pressure of events. What Luther thought were merely contributions to an academic discussion became the focus of a sweeping political movement. He and his university colleagues, the monks of his religious order, the German princes and the general population of these farflung provinces in northern Europe were swept along in the waves of change. Like the teachings of Jesus, the teachings of Luther and the other leaders of the Reformation spoke to the spiritual hopes and needs of a whole continent. Look at the poster displayed in front here: it’s called “The Knight, Death and the Devil” and it’s the work of Albrecht Durer, a contemporary of Martin Luther. It gives us a strong taste of the medieval spirit: the terror of death and hell, the ever-present threat of evil spirits, the desperate hope that human courage could ward off these dangers….It’s not a picture of freedom; it’s a picture of oppression.
What was this freedom that Jesus brought, and that Luther helped to restore? It was the freedom from sin – in a word, salvation…or in two words, salvation and redemption. Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “…everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” That’s all of us, right? And further, Jesus says, “The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever.” He is not talking about himself when he uses the word “son”; he is talking about us, sons and daughters of God’s household. We are not merely servants in God’s household; we are children of the household, with all the privileges of belonging to the family of God. And one of the greatest privileges is freedom from sin, provided through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“Well,” you might be thinking, “I don’t have a problem with sin. I’m a member of the church; I’m a decent person; I’m not guilty of doing anything very bad.” The security of old rituals? The pride of moral superiority? The comfort of complacency? But if you have actually absorbed the truth of the Gospel and you do in fact take sin seriously, believe in redemption through Christ and trust that your sins are forgiven, you are unusual, even in the church. Outside the church, and for many within the church, there is little understanding of sin and little sense of the need for salvation. I don’t mean that we should be overwhelmed with fear and superstition as were the folk of Luther’s time; I just mean that we should have a clear understanding of our position before God. And most people in our immediate world have little concept of sin and the hope of salvation. I would say that our world psychologizes sin and secularizes salvation. What does that mean? Well, psychology is a useful discipline for understanding human thoughts and feelings and behaviour, but it does not explain spirituality. Likewise, secular thinking applies well to our social and political and economic context, but it does not address the world of the spirit. I would suggest that even in the church popular psychology and secular thinking have largely replaced the values taught by Jesus. That is to say, permissiveness and popularity, materialism and monoculture. Not much matters except following the crowd. I suggest that our society, and in some ways, our church, need another reformation.
Well, we can’t wait around for another Luther. At the moment, nobody like Luther seems to be on the horizon. Mind you, in Luther’s time, nobody, least of all Luther himself, expected he’d be the agent of change. So who will save the church from corruption and irrelevance? I’m not sure who might be the human agent, but certainly God is still on the job. What signs of hope do we see?
In the last few years, our own church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, has had to downsize. There are fewer national staff, synod offices have the same number of staff, and budgets are reduced, but programs are still made available to congregations, and national and synodical gatherings are high quality events. We do a lot more cooperative work with other churches, especially the Anglican Church of Canada, which has also reduced its program staff and budgets. There is a much effective work done on social justice, environmental and poverty issues by a coalition of churches in an organization called KAIROS. The internet has increased our ability to communicate with each other widely at low cost. We have good procedures in place, and lots of checks and balances so our church organizations function well. Church employees are treated fairly. We even had a decent pension plan until the crisis a couple of weeks ago! At the congregational level, here in Airdrie we are a smaller congregation than we were five years ago, but for the first time since I came here over six years ago, we are on target with our financial situation. Usually by the end of summer we have fallen behind and we don’t catch up until Christmas. But this year, things are going better. We can say that the present active members take seriously their responsibility to support the church. And what’s more, in the last three years, since November 2005, we have paid down $130,000 on our mortgage. That’s amazing, considering that we thought it was an impossible task. But in three years, we’ve paid down a third of the debt. All that while we’ve been keeping up with the operating budget as well. And this fall we completed a major renovation with interior paint and new carpets, with a lot of volunteer input from members. What does this say about hope for our church? Well, we need to survive in other areas besides finance, but our financial situation is an indicator of the health of the congregation. And the willingness of members to volunteer is another indicator of good health around here. As well, we contribute a lot of money and goods and volunteer time to people in need in our community and in the world. Lutheran Church of the Master is doing a lot of the things we are called by God to do. We’re not perfect but we’re moving in the right direction.
What does all this have to do with being free from sin? I think that our spiritual health is evident in our behaviour in the church community and in the community at large. We may be a small group but we’re making a difference to each other and to our neighbours by our efforts to live holy and committed lives. We know we are sinners but we know who can save us. And that freedom gives us the motivation and the energy to do the right things. Thanks be to God!
Monday, October 20, 2008
Never Thought Of It That Way
Matt 22: 15 - 22What a Gospel text! Perfect for the Chairman of the congregation on a Sunday when the Pastor is away at camp K with the confirmand kids. Jesus was holding up a coin like this one. It had the image of the Emperor on it, and Jesus was telling the people to give to the Emperor (that is the government) the taxes that belonged to him – but also, maybe, some honour and respect (as we are learning in the study sessions on Tuesday nights). BUT Jesus added “give to God the things that are God’s”. What part of this coin belongs to God? The obvious reply for any Jew or LCMer who has studied their O.T. is - Tithes!! 10 % of this thing. Right?
As Pres. of this congregation, now would be the perfect time to point out that many of you are not giving your tithe because we are away behind in meeting our financial obligations as the bulletin so clearly….doesn’t show.
I could say that we have about 55 givers who give about $10000 per month when you include extra mortgage donations etc. That means an average of $1820 per giving group –be that a single person or family- and if we assume most people figure tithes on gross income (we are Lutherans, after all), that means the average giver is earning about $18200 per year or $11.36 per hour. The good news is that if we all loose our jobs and end up working at fast food outlets, we could make this place stay afloat - if we tithed; so we don’t have to be too worried about the down turn in the economy.
I could say that, but I won’t. Because, I don’t believe that tithing is a requirement for salvation or even for right living. I don’t believe Jesus considered tithing a rule for Christians to follow. Now don’t get me wrong, I think there are some wonderful benefits when we decide to give significantly. When we make it purposeful and first fruits giving, (not what is left over at the end of the month) there are even more blessings. I believe there is truth in the statement that “our heart (and mind) is where our money is”. When we give significantly to meeting the needs of our fellow human beings, then our minds are not caught up in the turmoil of the stock market to near the same extent. Although I believe in generous giving, there are no examples in the N.T. where Christians are told to give a tithe. We are to give sacrificially, yes, and proportionally, and joyfully, and thankfully; but there is no fixed amount.
I believe Jesus’ answer in the gospel lesson, was intended to take us away from rules and towards principles. The Jews wanted to know if they had done enough, and were constantly making up rules so they would have a measuring stick against which to compare themselves. By the time Jesus was born, they had turned the 10 principles of living into 660 rules. Jesus tried very hard to get them to see beyond the rules to the intent of the rules, and then not to allow the rules to get in the way of them following those principles of living.
When the Jews moved into the Promised land, 1 tribe was given the job of looking after the temple and everything associated with that. They had no land and no way to generate income for a living. They were to be dependent on the other 11 tribes that were given land on which to make a living. The 11 each gave 1/10 to the Levites who in turn gave a tenth to the temple so everyone ended up with about the same amount. True the Levites technically had 99% left rather than 90%, but they had to feed the widows and orphans who had no relatives to look after them. In my opinion, the tithes were a taxation system - an obligation to be paid to maintain a type of government organization system that allowed them to flourish in their new land.
In addition to tithes, however, they also made offerings. The offerings were always freewill and had no limits of 10%, like tithes did.
I believe that giving freely to the work of God’s kingdom is a principle expressed throughout the Bible and is applicable to us today. It is on that basis that I wish to tell you a story about a mouse and a chip Monk. This is the sermon that my son Tim wrote for the congregation he pastors in Millet.
First a couple of things you should know about Tim. He likes variety so he preaches using a lot of different types of sermons. This happened to be a week when he chose to illustrate a principle to live by through a story. Secondly, there are quite a few kids around St. Peter’s in Millet, when they are not at sports, or dance or the library. Thirdly, he thinks what happens at worship should be chewed upon during the drive home, over lunch and even over coffee on Tuesday. And that chewing not only includes the hymn content, and prayers, but also the sermon. He tries hard to provide fodder for parents to talk to their children, as well as to other adults about what takes place at worship.
“This can’t be happening!” thought Martin as he tried to calm his beating mouse heart down to a resting count of 500 beats per minute, but what he was seeing was dizzying to his senses. He could not believe the crime that was occurring before his little eyes and helpless little hands. Should he stay where he was, safely hiding behind a stack of photo copy paper? Or should he risk martyrdom by springing a surprise attack with the slight chance of sabotaging such a two-faced operation? Martin really didn’t know what to do. Like usual, he had gotten himself way in over his head but it was too late to just walk away now. He was a church mouse after all, and he had a duty to live and act with the conviction that comes with being tied to a church.
Martin and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Freedom, are mice. Proud mice. Christian mice. Reforming mice - always open to life’s changes. It was life’s changes that had brought them back inside the walls of the church. Their home had been destroyed over the summer and so they returned to the one place where they knew they could go - St. Petro’s church. Upon their return it was only a few days work of gathering yarn, craft supplies and a mixture of other cozy materials from the quilters cupboard till the Freedom’s had built themselves a pretty nice little nest in the back corner of the furnace room to call home. With a secure place to sleep most of their time was then spent doing what church mice do; scrounging for food, exploring new cracks and tunnels, and trying to make sense of all the stuff that church humans do.
For Martin, the best part of any week was Sunday morning worship. Martin believed in God and enjoyed the opportunity to express in worship his thankfulness for being able to live in God’s very house. Now Martin would be the first to admit that the idea of the church being God’s house was confusing. Martin had lived in the church for a couple of months; he knew its dimensions and was pretty sure that there was no way that God’s house was big enough for God. Martin had heard enough sermons by the Pastor to know that there was nothing in the world that was bigger than God but he had also heard that the church was indeed God’s house. And so Martin wracked his brain trying to answer the question - “Why would God have a house that God didn’t fit into?”
Well, to make a long story shorter, it was Martin’s attempt to answer this question that had gotten him into the sticky situation in which he now found himself - huddling behind a stack of paper in the photocopy room. You see, Martin was a curious sort and once he started thinking about God owning a house he began to keep his eyes peeled for other stuff that might belong to God.
One day while martin was sitting in church, tucked up and out of view beside a beam on the candle shelves, the offering caught his attention. He had never paid much attention to the offering because as a mouse he didn’t have any money to give - but even as a mouse he knew that money was important to humans. Though he didn’t know exactly what made the stuff so valuable. From experience Martin knew that money couldn’t be eaten, there were softer things to sleep on and it couldn’t keep you warm in winter - Martin figured humans probably gave it to God because only God would know what to do with such useless stuff. Useless as it may be it was apparent how important money was to the humans by they way they made such a big deal about giving to God...or as Martin discovered - pretending to give it to God.
As the offering was being taken at this particular service something twigged in Martin’s mind and a brilliant idea dawned on him. If the people were giving the money to God, God must come to God’s house and get the money. If Martin was to see if God could fit into God’s house all he would have to do is wait for God to come and pick up the offering. It would answer so many questions for him that Martin set his mind to stick around for as long as it took. Much like precocious human children try and bait Santa Clause with cookies and milk on Christmas eve, but in this case Martin did not set the bait - the congregation did and the bait was cash. But before the people had even cleared out from the sanctuary Martin’s plan was foiled by two nice looking adults who went up to the altar and took God’s money away.
“Help!” shouted Martin, but nobody could hear his little mouse voice over the boisterous visiting in the pews. Worse yet, the people didn’t seem to care that God’s money had been taken away. Some of the congregation members even saw the people do it - one waved, another smiled, the Pastor was so bold as to thank the thieves saying, “Thanks for taking care of the offering.”
“Taking care. I bet they’re ‘taking care’ of the offering, alright.” said Martin, and he set out in hot pursuit of the thieves, the offering, and what belonged to God.
Well that’s how Martin ended up in the photocopy room. It was in this room the thieves counted the stash. Two eyes peered out from behind the stack of paper and down upon the desk where the goods where scattered. As if they were opening their own birthday cards the thieves ripped open the envelopes that had been given to God and carefully recorded the numbers on a piece of paper.
“Seventy five dollars from envelope #62...two hundred from #88...one fifty for the camp, fifty for the ladies group...five hundred for the Haiti...” and the thieves went on and on. Martin was flabbergasted at the nerve of the entire congregation. Pieces of paper and cash were stacked around the entire desk and not a single bit of went to God. In fact, in the time that the thieves shuffled papers in the room Martin only heard God mentioned once and that was in the end when the thieves found a couple of pennies on the floor that made some numbers match up. The whole thing just didn’t make sense to Martin one bit. Oh, how he wished he could read better so he could see what the little pieces of paper where about but he couldn’t read - he was only mouse. But he was a smart mouse and he could follow letters and numbers.
Glancing down at one point he saw a piece of paper that had two letters on it. It said, TD. Martin could also see the number $300. T. D. What was T. D.? Another paper said, R. B. C. Another read, B.M.O. Martin couldn’t read but he knew enough to know when something wasn’t a word. They must be codes, he thought. T. D. - Totally Dishonest. R.B.C - Really Bad Christians, B. M. O. - Bogus Money Offering.
“Well that’s all for today.” Said one thief as she stood up from her seat. “I guess I’ll just run the offering into Wetaskiwin when I go and see my mother this afternoon.”
“Despicable!” thought Martin. “That thief is going to hug her mother with the same hands that stole money from God.”
As the people exited the room they flipped the lights off and closed the door. The last thing that Martin heard from the thieves as they made their way for the stairs was one of them saying something to the other about taking the cash to CIBC. Another code, figured Martin. Probably means, Churches In Big Conspiracy.
Martin sat in the darkness of the photocopier room for the better part of an hour - which to a mouse is equivalent to two weeks of human time. In that hour Martin pondered the darkness of the human creature. He mourned the two-faced nature of the people he worshiped with. He wondered if he could go on living in such a greedy church. He even began to fear what God would do upon realizing people were stealing from God’s house. Growing tired of thinking about such depressing matters Martin climbed down the shelves and headed outside for a walk to see his buddy Stewart. Stewart was a chip monk who seemed so wise when it came to dealing with stuff. Stewart was always finding stuff, saving stuff, using stuff, sharing stuff, planting stuff. Stewart was generous with stuff and yet was never out of stuff. If anyone could help Martin with this problem it would be the thrifty monk, Stewart.
Ten minutes later Martin was lurking in the grass below the chip monk’s tree. “Hey, friend” said Stewart, spotting Martin in the lawn. “Get up here in the tree before old Hawk-eye sets his talons on you.” “Sure thing, Stewart.” said the mouse as he scurried up the tree.
“What brings you to my part of the church yard, Martin?” asked the hospitable chip monk.
“I got a dilemma I figured you could help me with” explained Martin. “I was at church today and I caught some humans stealing God’s money. During the service the people have this time when they all pretend to give stuff to God, but then after the service they just go and take it right back. Some of God’s money they give to people and a bunch of it they put in this place called C-I-B-C. I’m not sure if I even want to know what they do with it there but it sure doesn’t sound like a place that God would be found in.” By this time Martin was pretty much worked up again. His little mouse heart beating at a thousand beats a minute. The excitement of the day had clearly taken its toll on his nerves.
Stewart laughed and looked gently into the eyes of the fretting mouse. “Martin, my friend, if you are going to be spending any time with people you are going to have realize one very important fact.”
“What’s that?” inquired Martin.
“They are crazy. I mean nuts. Human beings are cookoo. You know what I mean.”
Martin’s confused face showed he didn’t.
“Look little mousy,” said Stewart, “Let me explain. People are just like you and me - they rely on God’s stuff to survive. We need air, they need air. We need the sun, they need the sun. We need food, they need food. Got it?”
“Okay” said Martin, playing along.
“But in other ways people are not like you and me” went on Stewart. “You and I live in places we don’t own. We know we are trespassers. Humans - they think they own their homes because God let’s them keep them. You and me, we eat food that we scrounge and steal - we know food doesn’t belong to us. Humans - they think they own the food because God lets them eat it. You and me - we don’t have any use for money cause you can’t eat it, or sleep in it or anything else. Humans - they love the stuff because they can keep it and make it grow and think that it is there own. Humans are wacky that way”.
Martin sat silent for a while, relating Stewarts teachings to what he had noticed about humans.
“Hmm.” Thought Martin, “So if they love to keep stuff for themselves why to they even pretend to give an offering to God?”
Stewart gathered his words, “You see Martin, that’s the even crazier thing. When humans give an offering they are not actually giving the money to God - cause God already owns it in the first place! And if the money didn’t already belong to God, what would God do with money anyways. You know the stuff is pretty near useless! The church offering is really for humans to remember that they are just like squirrels and mice - they don’t own a stinkin’ thing.”
“What?” said Martin.
Trying another angle Stewart went on, “Look, let me put it this way: God owns everything so God needs nothing. God loves people, and mice and chip monks so God let’s us use God’s stuff. Everything we use is God’s. There is only one problem.”
“What’s that?” asked Martin, trying to catch on.
“The problem is that humans get in the way of God’s plan to share stuff with everyone by hoarding what doesn’t belong to them. The end result is that some creatures, even people, don’t receive what God wants to give them.”
“Really?” Thought Martin, “That must drive God to rage! God gives us everything and then people misuse it to the harm of others.”
“It happens,” agreed the chip monk. “That’s why the church people give an offering. Even though they know that God doesn’t need the money they give the offering to remind themselves that stuff doesn’t belong to them. Then they take the offering to places like CIBC where they can share it with others just as God would do. They especially help people who have had God’s stuff taken from them.”
“I see,” said Martin, catching on to the concept. “So the offering is not for God, because God already owns everything, but the offering is a way for people to share God’s stuff with those who need it.”
“Exactly!” affirmed Stewart. “And the most contented people in the world are the ones who most freely share God’s stuff with others.”
“Ah, ha!” proclaimed Martin, as if he’d just solved yet another mystery. “All this talk about sharing explains why God’s house is so small. The house is not for God at all but for the small creatures God wants to share with. Creatures like humans and church mice.”
“Indeed, little mouse.”
“Gee,” said Martin, “thinking about God’s generosity makes me want to go and share more of God’s stuff.”
“Perfect,” rejoiced Stewart. “That’s the heart of my message.”
Impressed with the powerful repercussions of his friends wisdom, Martin encouraged, “You know, you should really write a book. I can see the title now - Life changing lessons in the home of Stewart the Chip Monk”
Stewart laughed. “I’ll work on that, Martin. But I think we’ll need a shorter title. How about - Lessons in Stewart-Chip.”
“Stewart-chip. What’s Stewart-chip?”
“Martin, my friend. You’ll have to read my book.”
And the two spent the rest of that Sunday afternoon swapping stories of the church yard and other good things God had given them to share.
Prepared by G. Wray
Sunday, October 12, 2008
TRANSFORMED BY GRATITUDE
Text: Luke 17:11-19Have you heard about the politics of entitlement? That’s a pretty common attitude these days: it means that people expect to get what they want, and if they don’t, they feel justified in making a fuss to make sure that they get what they want, or at least to make somebody else suffer for not giving them what they want. We used to call it selfishness or temper tantrum or immature behaviour. But not any more. Now we call it political pressure, or lobbying or making our needs known. It’s what many of us do and we don’t see anything wrong with it.
Well, there are these ten lepers who approach Jesus while he is travelling through the countryside. Lepers are some of the most unfortunate people in that society: they are not only afflicted with a disfiguring disease but they are also condemned to isolation from their families and alienation from the community. In short, they are ill and they are outcasts. But when they know Jesus is coming, these lepers dare to hope that he can help them. He has a reputation throughout the region…not only does he have the power to heal disease, but he has compassion on those whom no one else will even tolerate.
What do they ask for? They ask for mercy. Why mercy? Because they have no claim on anyone - they are supposed to distance themselves from everyone except other lepers. So when they ask for anything, they have to ask in terms of special compassion or mercy. The connotation of mercy is “compassion that forbears punishing even when justice demands it”. These lepers are asking for something they have no right to expect, and they know it. Everyone knows it - everyone in their society, that is. Everyone except Jesus.
It appears that Jesus sends them away as the law demands. He says, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” In that time, sickness was considered mostly a spiritual problem involving evil spirits, usually as a punishment for wrongdoing, and the priest was the one to pronounce upon the situation. Also, the Jewish Law designated the priest as the one to diagnose the condition of leprosy. So we can imagine that the lepers turn away sadly, as they do from everyone else, disappointed and rejected yet again. But as they walk away, they realize their leprosy is healed. Imagine their surprise and delight…they can hardly dare to hope that this is actually true!
What would you expect them to do? Turn right around and fall at Jesus’ feet, right? But no…only one of them does this. We can think of reasons why this might be so. Perhaps he is the leader of the group. Perhaps the others are too afraid of the crowd. Perhaps their leprosy has disfigured their faces to the point where they can no longer speak…Who knows? But the Gospel says that the one who returns to thank Jesus is a Samaritan - a foreigner, a member of a neighbouring country whose people are enemies of Jesus’ people. So why is he the only one to thank Jesus? Perhaps because he is the one who least expects any help from this Galilean Jew. He is the one with no sense of entitlement, no right to expect anything. So he’s the most grateful. Maybe it’s that simple.
The first sermon I preached to the inner city congregation in Edmonton - a collection of street people and local residents living in poverty - was on Thanksgiving Sunday, 1993. I laboured long over that sermon. I asked myself, “How can I stand in front of a group of poor, unfortunate, suffering people and tell them they should be thankful? Thankful for what? That they have nothing or almost nothing…that the current government is cutting back on welfare payments and social workers and health care?” I worked on the sermon for three weeks. I’d been working in the inner-city community for a couple of months by that time and I knew some of the people. And I already knew that these are some of the most grateful people I’d ever met. Not to romanticize poverty…hunger and homelessness and financial need are bad things…and not all poor people are sweet and grateful. But enough of them are that it became fairly easy to talk to them about gratitude. Because even after two months, I had already begun to see how a lot of them appreciated even small things: a loonie, a cigarette, a pair of socks, a ride to the Food Bank, a can of pop, a cup of coffee. But I talked about it in terms of how I had learned to appreciate small acts of kindness. To this day, I have never experienced a community like that one, where on a regular basis, people offered appreciation and blessings. It was humbling to learn that a fortunate person like me had something to offer such unfortunate people, and even more humbling to learn that they could offer gifts and blessings to me, and frequently did. I have boxes of gifts I received from them…most of them were bought second-hand, many of them are inexpensive, but all of them were given out of love and appreciation. The cards and letters are even more precious because they contain earnest good wishes and blessings, given by people who are considered to have nothing to give. The truth is that they have a great deal to give, and they give it freely.
Well, on this Thanksgiving Sunday in October 2008, the month of the big financial nosedive - maybe even the market crash, certainly very bad news - it’s not just Wall Street investment bankers who are in financial trouble (and as we are aware, being bailed out by the government), it’s people like us, who know we are not likely to be bailed out by the government. The Lutheran bishops in the US said in a pastoral letter this week: “This crisis is causing fear and loss in our country as thousands of families face unemployment, foreclosure, and uncertainty about savings and pensions.” And Jim Wallis, a leading Christian social activist in the US, says that this major threat is uniting the American people to the point where “even the dirty politics of the final stages of the [election] campaign seem not to be working. Every other issue than the economy is perceived as a distraction.”
But not to focus on scare-tactics. We don’t need encouragement to worry more about what is happening. We should focus instead on constructive discussion, on helpful answers to the most appropriate and important questions. What should people of faith be thinking, saying and doing? Where is God in all this? What does our Christian teaching tell us about money and possessions, wealth and power, credit and responsible financial choices, economic values vs. family values, lifestyle and stewardship, generosity and justice, and both personal and social responsibility? How do we listen to people, be present to them, comfort them, and perhaps help them to re-examine their assumptions, values and practices? How could this time of great anxiety also be a time of prayerful self-evaluation, redirection and even new relationships with others in our congregations and communities?
For ourselves personally, how are we responding to the possibility of leaner financial times? Can we avoid panic? Instead of madly shopping to distract ourselves, can we thoughtfully plan to cut back on luxuries? Can we revise our expectations for the foreseeable future and live more frugally until we see how this situation plays out? Can we consider family members and neighbours who might need encouragement and help? Can we depend on God to bring us through this situation as God has brought us through other difficult situations? Can we avoid blame and resentment and anger?
And here in Canada, it’s Thanksgiving weekend. We have the chance to work on this a little sooner than the Americans, both because the effects of the crisis have affected Canada less severely so far, and because our Thanksgiving comes earlier than theirs. Is it possible that having less will help us appreciate more what we do have? Is it possible that having less will help us sympathize more with our less fortunate neighbours? Is it possible that having less will help us focus more on the things of God and less on the things of earth? Don’t worry. Hear the words of Jesus, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” The Greek word for “made you well” is one that means “saved”. We believe that Jesus Christ saves us - that is, he offers us salvation in every sense of that word: not only spiritual but also physical (as he offered the lepers), social, mental, financial and every other way. Here’s our chance to find out how God’s promises work out in real life. So we can risk being thankful. Start with small things and dare to work up to the bigger things. Take a lesson from the Samaritan leper and the street people. Gratitude transforms those who have the grace to say thank you.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
REDEMPTION AND RELEVANCE
Text: Matthew 21:23-32The parable in this reading is the first of three parables of judgment in this section of Matthew’s Gospel. And Jesus is prompted to tell this parable by the conversation - which is really more like an argument - that he has with the priests and elders. Jesus is not officially a rabbi – that is, he has not been designated by the Jewish authorities as a certified religious teacher. In our church we would call it “ordination”. Ordination doesn’t guarantee knowledge and insight and skill – but it does certify that the candidate has been trained and examined and found acceptable in those areas – and it does confer the authority of the church to speak on matters of doctrine. It’s a heavy responsibility, because we are all human and subject to error, and woe to the one who fails in that area! So we can understand that the chief priests and elders are concerned about this man Jesus who presents himself as a rabbi with authority. The really troubling thing for the religious authorities is that Jesus does speak with authority, but not with any authority they recognize. What do you do about someone who clearly has some kind of personal, individual authority, but who has not been given the official stamp of approval? I would think you wait around for awhile and watch and listen, because it could be an outsider who truly does have a form of authority – just not the usual kind. And this could be something quite unusual, something remarkable that hasn’t been seen before. Do we want to be so rigid, so afraid of anything new and different, that we risk missing something really important?
Well, the chief priests and the elders want to be that rigid and afraid. So when Jesus asks them a direct question, they fumble and mumble and finally say, “We don’t know.” And Jesus dismisses them as irrelevant.
But Jesus takes the opportunity to tell a story. It’s a very pointed story. The people who hear it can’t miss the meaning of it. The plot is quite simple: A man with two sons asks one of them to go and work in the vineyard. The son refuses, but later he changes his mind and goes to work. The man asks the second son and he agrees to go, but he doesn’t go. Jesus asks, “Which of the two did the will of his father?” The listeners say, “the first”. And then Jesus speaks his shocking paradox: “…the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” This is Jesus’ usual radical leap of logic and the listeners are amazed. On what basis does he make this statement? On the basis of belief…on the basis of faith. When the tax collectors and prostitutes (or in other words, any ignorant and unclean sinners) believe the command to repent and believe in the kingdom, they are entirely acceptable to God and are welcomed into the kingdom. And on the same basis, when the chief priests and elders (or in other words, any conventional religious persons) refuse to repent and believe in the kingdom, they are excluded from the kingdom.
But what do we make of the two sons – the one who refuses to work and later does, and the one who agrees to work and fails to do so? In other words, is it better to be a jerk earlier than later? Well, apparently yes, it is. Because that’s repentance. To do the right thing after saying the wrong thing is better than to do the wrong thing after saying the right thing. It’s better to act right than to talk right. And what a temptation it is for all of us to talk the talk rather than walk the walk! Somehow we convince ourselves that it’s all right to look good in the eyes of others because they believe what we say about ourselves. For awhile, maybe we can even fool ourselves…but not for long. And after we’ve had some life-experience, we do begin to believe that it’s a great blessing to behave with integrity – that is, to try to be what we believe we should be. We come to a point where it’s not enough to have a good reputation in the eyes of others; it’s much more important to know that we are doing our best. I’m not talking about perfection; I’m talking about doing the best we know how to do, being honest about who we are and what we do, including our failures.
But it’s not so very simple as that. Because to do right, and especially to do right at all times and in all circumstances, is not a human characteristic. We are programmed to make mistakes, do wrong, and get into trouble. That’s the trouble with the chief priests and the elders: they believe in their own righteousness. They are like the second son in the parable: they agree to do right, but fail to do it. Therefore, all of us, chief priests, elders, tax collectors and everybody in between, need redemption. That’s a big word meaning we need someone to rescue us. But to be rescued we need to know we’re in trouble. That’s the advantage the tax collectors and prostitutes have over the chief priests and elders: the ignorant and unclean sinners know they’re in trouble.
I have to say I haven’t known any tax collectors but I’ve known a lot of prostitutes. For some years in the 1990s I worked for a ministry in Edmonton’s inner city, and they were people I saw every day. I’d say they were often ignorant, in the sense that they made a lot of bad choices. And they were certainly unclean, if you interpret that to mean in poor health because of their lifestyle. Most of them had Hepatitis B or C, many of them were HIV-positive, some of them had AIDS. They were addicted to alcohol and drugs and many of them had mental health problems. Many had problems from early childhood with abandonment, neglect and abuse. They lived degrading, brutal and dangerous lives. They disobeyed the law quite frequently. Most of them had been in jail. Would you believe me if I told you they were nice people? That they were courageous and kind, that they had a code of behaviour toward their peers which required them to be brave and faithful and steadfast? And they had developed a very strong sense of survival which meant they could detect hypocrisy and dishonesty at 100 yards. So those of us who were “straight”, as they called us, learned to keep quiet and watch and listen, because chances were that we’d say something stupid or dishonest and get called on it immediately, and dismissed as irrelevant.
I used to spend Thursday evenings at a place called Kindred House, a resource centre and safe house for women working as street prostitutes. One week, a friend from our church wanted to come with me. Phyllis showed up with a couple of new colouring books and a big box of crayons. I thought, “Oh, Phyllis, how will this go over? These are tough women!” But you know…those tough women grabbed those colouring books and those crayons and sat down and coloured pictures like little kids. They compared colouring styles and they put their names on the pages and hung them up on the fridge. It made you want to weep for the experiences they had missed as children, and for the simple joy they found in that childish activity. I developed a new respect for my friend Phyllis for the wisdom she had. To this day, I always take the opportunity to colour with my granddaughter, as a symbol of the innocence and childish pleasure that every child should have.
Those women had their strengths, but I’m not promoting the street lifestyle. I’m just saying that those who know they are sinners know they need to be rescued. And those who know they are sinners recognize true goodness when they see it. When you put repentant sinners and true goodness together, there is Jesus the Saviour. That’s what he’s about. We need to be sure we know that and be in that place of repentance and true goodness, so we aren’t dismissing ourselves as irrelevant.
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