One of my favourite new hymns is “Let us Build A House”. It is a hymn of inclusion and, I believe an almost perfect vision statement for a community of faith in the 21st Century. “All are welcome in this place”. “ALL are WELCOME in THIS place”.

I remember singing another “newer” hymn, titled, “Come in, Come in and Sit Down” when I was living in north-eastern New Brunswick, and raising my eyebrows at the line, “nobody here has a name on a pew”. I did this because I was well aware of the pew, just a few rows from the front, that did have a name on it! On the end of that pew was firmly attached, a family crest in brass.

I can say though, that by the year 2,000 the plaque on that pew was largely ignored, anyone could and did sit there, depending on the day and what was happening! It was too near the front for people to fight over it!

In the safe in my office was the original list of “Pew Holders,” dated 1859, the year that the church was completed. You see, they raised their budget in Presbyterian Churches of the mid 19th century by renting pews. When the church was built, each pew had a door and a number. During my time there we reinstalled 2 sets of doors, for nostalgic purposes. There is a church in Fredericton NB which has never removed the doors; they’re all still there. That’s Wilmot United, I believe. After I left, the church I served ripped out all the pews and they now use moveable chairs which look much more comfortable!

I forget how much the cheaper seats in “my building” cost, but the box pews, the “elite seats”, were £5 a year. The last time I checked the trustees still have the right to rent pews! Maybe we can put that one the agenda of our next board meeting?

NOT!

I will add, that although their families had to pay to sit on the main floor, in 1859, choir members in that church sat for free!

In many of the churches I have served there is a name on every single pew, not to designate a specific “occupant,” but as a simple recognition of a pew’s donor. In some of those churches it really hinders flexibility and blocks change.

What we sing often sounds good and noble but sometimes it is hard to achieve when it comes to the specifics of our particular space and our particular community. Many established congregations have a disconnect between what is said (or sung) about belief and the statements made by our actions.

“All are welcome in this place”.

“ALL are WELCOME in THIS place”.

For a long time, most churches put some version of “all welcome” on their church sign. It seems like the right thing to do!

CODETTE ONLY I might have told you of the congregation on my first pastoral charge that put a well-used wooden sandwich board in the shape of a teepee on their front lawn, as a welcome to campers. This church was very close to the main gate of Fundy National Park! The sign announced “Camper’s Church” and assured the campers they were welcome to, “come as you are.” Unless you are camping in an RV you probably don’t pack your Sunday best with the tent pegs, the hatchet and the Coleman stove. It did work, although by the time I was their minister, the campers who came to the park, were less likely to attend church anyway!

One thing I noticed was that the campers could easily identify the locals and those with cottages; they were the ones in their Sunday best. Even in heat of summer I could not get the congregation to be more casual.

Im taking an online course this month on Spirituality in the writings of Lucy Maud Montgomery. In case you don’t know of her, LMM is the author of Anne of Green Gables and a number of other books, sequels to “Anne” and others independent of that story line. The red-haired Anne Shirley, Anne with an “e”, please, is a free thinker and is not afraid to question what preachers say or what might be taught in Sunday school. Marilla, who is Anne’s guardian, is very much the stern Presbyterian who does not allow herself to question God. She believes the right things because that is what she is supposed to. For example, one day, Anne claims to be in the depths of despair. Marilla tells her sternly that “to despair is to “turn one’s back on God”.

Anne, and the other LMM books, probably made more than one staunch Presbyterian think about their faith and what was appropriate and I hope it allowed them to explore their faith with freedom and humour. In the story we see Marilla changed and soften as she opens to new ways of living her faith.

Again, rural PEI was a different place in the late 1800s with “friction” between Presbyterians and Baptist and Methodists, not to mention Anglicans and Roman Catholics! Any sort of ecumenical movement was a long way off! That would take a World War, a move to western settlement in places like Saskatchewan and a new church called “the United Church of Canada”.

“All are welcome in this place”.

“ALL are WELCOME in THIS place” (END OF CODETTE ONLY)

Today’s passage from the book of Acts alludes to one of the most contentious issues in the early church which was the “mission to the Gentiles”. Just who is worthy to receive the Gospel?

600 or so years before Jesus, the people of Israel had been defeated in battle and sent into exile. After that their country was ruled by leaders who were not “their people”. Gradually they began to hope for a Messiah who would restore the throne of David and their nation would once again be recognized in its former greatness. When Jesus walked the roads of Galilee, the Roman army held the people under tight control. The people were not free and they knew it!

Jesus’ original followers proclaimed him as this Messiah. Despite the fact that he was clearly not going to be a military leader, and overthrow the Romans, the early Christians proclaimed that Jesus was the one they had been waiting for. Their generations old hope was being fulfilled.

It made sense that Gentiles, people who were not Jewish would have no reason to believe that Jesus was the Messiah if they did not believe in the coming of the Messiah in the first place! Some in the early church believed that these converts had to become Jewish and accept this hope before they became part of the Christian movement! The issue is most often spoken of in terms of the need for Gentile men to be circumcised!

Then there were the Samaritans - a group of people who were “sort of Jewish” but had enough differences in faith and practice that the popular Jewish opinion was to brand them as “unclean” and “heretics”.

The second thing we need to know when we look a the passage from Acts is to understand that Jewish people had some very strict dietary rules. They were not free to eat certain foods even if their neighbours claimed that they tasted great! Some basics are that animals had to have cloven feet and chew the cud; beef was ok, but pork was not. Fish has to have fins and scales. So you can eat cod but not Sturgeon. And NO SHELLFISH! It gets a little more complicated when you learn that you can’t heave meat and milk in the same meal. So, absolutely NO butter with your roast beef and mashed potatoes!

So in today’s passage Peter has a dream in which he is shown a whole host of unclean animals and he is told to get up and eat. Initially, he refuses, based on strict life-long religious observance. He is told, “don’t call unclean what God has called clean.” “Don’t call unclean what God has called clean”.

It is clear that this vision, this passage is not about food, it is about people! Given the context the net of animals is a metaphor for people - the different ethnic groups who should be candidates for inclusion in their community. Which was EVERYBODY.

“All are welcome in this place”.

“ALL are WELCOME in THIS place”.

Some churches have no problem welcoming new people; indeed they WANT new people. We need a Sunday School teacher, or two or three? We need someone to sing BASS in the choir, and a soprano for those descants would be wonderful. We need more than a few people to replace those envelopes that are no longer coming in. The list of our desired wants grows and grows.

BUT, do we really want new people or do we want the old ones resuscitated? Think about it! (Pause)

The first thing a true newcomer might do is to voice a new idea! A newcomer might want to see us do something we have never done before; might change something when what we want, in our heart of hearts, is for the newcomer to pick up where we left off where we became tired out.

I believe that we do not welcome people for what they can do for us, but so that we can walk together on the path of faith. We can get to know one another and find out whether we can go forward together.

Back when I was very involved in the Stewardship Committee in my Presbytery one of the people who worked in the General Council office came to guide and support our work. In his congregation, each annual meeting looks forward to the new year; the old year is behind them and not of much importance. As rural people we found that to be very foreign, but perhaps more rural and small town United Churches are facing this crossroad.

Perhaps, keeping our doors open should not be our goal, per se, but our goal should shift to “how we can be the church of Jesus today and tomorrow”.

I’m thinking of that vision of Peter’s. It is full of unclean animals. So a pig or a lobster, when welcomed to the dinner table is still a pig or a lobster. When a gentile comes to the fellowship, they can come to know the story of the people of Israel, but it is only their story by adoption - they have another story. They need to be allowed to live out of that different story.

One of the things the General Council is discussing this summer is the “space” our indigenous brothers and sisters are asking for to become their own faithful expression of Christianity and not a mirror of our Western European heritage. They want us to remove the “shackles,” and that is their word, shackles, so they can discern together what their communities of faith will look like and what their leadership needs are.

When we look around our community perhaps we need to ask, “who is not here”? Whose needs are going unmet? Whom have we rejected because they are different? If we revive Matthew 25 and it looks exactly like it did before the pandemic, is that what we should be doing? Can we do Christian education in a different way? What will women’s group look like when everyone is tired and unable to do what used to be done?

There are, I realize, more questions than answers. Questions are good. Let us ask them sincerely so we can live into the answers needed for this community of faith in this part of Saskatchewan in this generation.

“All are welcome in this place”.

“ALL are WELCOME in THIS place”.

Amen.

Acts 16: 9-15
Psalm 67
John 14: 23-29

Glimpses of Things to Come!

A couple of my favourite shows, which are now on TV only in re-runs, involve people who can communicate with ghosts. It’s a useful skill, I suppose, if you are trying to solve a crime or need to find out where your dead husband put the stash of cash or the winning lottery ticket for the mega moolah grand prize! Otherwise, you need to find someone who has this skill. Now, PLEASE, don’t worry about my sanity, it’s “light tv,” and I like the stories of the families attached to these main characters!

According to one of these shows, there is a kind of “code of honour” among ghosts. They are able to see into the future but will not tell the living what will happen as their lives unfold.

Life can be scary and life transitions can be even scarier. If you have spent your whole life in a career and you are no longer able to do that work, or you simply retire, you may wonder what meaning and purpose can be in a life without that “job”. You may worry if you will lose your friends who are still working; or if you will have nothing to talk about with them when the next policy changes come down and they say to you, “things have changed so much, you have no idea what it is like now”.

I suppose it is at the root of the “empty nest” syndrome. You aren’t needed as a “parent” and the house is, oh so quiet now, and you remember that just a few years ago you wished for a few moments of PEACE AND QUIET and a night where you didn’t have to negotiate who got the car, and when.

Widows and widowers ask similar questions when they contemplate life without their spouse, especially when they have been married at least as long as they have been adults - and perhaps more.

It seems that Jesus’ disciples were facing a similar dilemma. They had not know known Jesus all that long but life had changed COMPLETELY since he had been their teacher, shepherd and Lord. He was crucified by the authorities and then was raised from death by God’s power. After Easter they had him back and they cherished every appearance, every assurance of his continuing life among them! Then he left them for good. They felt so alone and so afraid.

They had lots of reasons to be fearful. Eventually, they were told they were unwelcome in the synagogues and the same authorities who put Jesus to death began to persecute them. The scriptures and Christian tradition tells us that many leaders were imprisoned and executed for their allegiance to this preacher from Nazareth.

This promised “advocate,” this “holy spirit,” spoken of by Jesus, would be vital in their personal lives, and their community life. This Spirit would give them strength in many stressful situations in their personal lives and in their lives as a church community. While they were not able to tell what the future would being they were assured that they would not be alone in that uncertain time ahead.

Eventually the church would speak of God in what is called, “Trinitarian language - Father, Son and Holy Spirit” to use the traditional forms. Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, is also a common, more-modern, way to refer to the trinity. When I was a student, I had a supervisor who said that in the hippie days of his youth it was, “Laddio, Daddio, and Spook”. Whatever language is comfortable for us, we need to remember that all of our language, no matter how thought filled, can only skim the surface when trying to describe God. I might touch on this more on Trinity Sunday.

Over the ensuing centuries, great debates were held and creeds were formulated as church leaders tried to understand the mystery of God. They needed to be able to understand it in order to teach it - so that new converts believed the right things.

Finally, in 1054 the churches in the east split from the churches in the west. The leaders of each “part” of the church excommunicated one another and, as they say, “that was that”. We are a protestant denomination and that split in the church came about in the 1500s in Western Europe. Basically, after this second split, there were Orthodox Churches, the Roman Catholic Church, and various Protestant churches.

It’s really sad, I think, that the Spirit, the Advocate, promised by Jesus as a unifying and strengthening force became a reason for division, even if the differences were small and understood only by theologians who had little else to do! If the first millennium was marked by a unified church and the second was marked by two great separations, perhaps the third will be marked by a reunification. We can hope, can’t we.

I went to an ecumenical theological school; unique in Canada in that while some subjects were taught separately, many were taught with the whole student body in one classroom. My favourite Old Testament professor was a Roman Catholic sister and my favourite prof for New Testament was a United Church minister. We were taught liturgy by both a Roman Catholic layperson and United Church ministers. In that time many churches, not just our school, were going through what might have been called a “period of ecumenical convergence” - we weren’t becoming “more Roman Catholic” - it was more of a growing together, rather than one church doing all the changing.

I believe that this growing together is a work of the Spirit spoken of by Jesus in today’s passage. It was the Spirit who spoke to the apostles and early evangelists who sailed around the various parts of the Mediterranean to spread the good news of Jesus. It was the Spirit who called them to go to places they would never have otherwise - such as today’s riverbank-place-of-prayer where a woman seemed to have a leadership role. This Lydia, most likely a wealthy entrepreneur, heard the Good News and believed. Apparently purple cloth was very expensive and she is assumed to have done well. There aren’t many women mentioned in the annals of the early church; especially women of wealth and power. We should not forget her. We are told that after this her home became a base for later journeys. No doubt people believed because of her example.

Nailing this Spirit down, understanding this Spirit, is a tricky business. Sometimes you just have to describe the work of the Spirit. When tragedies happen, individual support, and the support of the Spirit led community is of vital importance. People have testified as to how important it was, even when it would have been impossible to fully analyze and describe it scientifically.

While A. A. Milne is not usually considered a religious writer, there are passages in his “Winnie the Pooh” stories which are filled with profound spiritual truths. I find the following passage very moving. Pooh and Piglet are sitting together, on a log.

 "Today was a Difficult Day," said Pooh.
There was a pause.
"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Piglet.
"No," said Pooh after a bit. "No, I don't think I do."
"That's okay," said Piglet, and he came and sat beside his friend.
"What are you doing?" asked Pooh.
"Nothing, really," said Piglet. "Only, I know what Difficult Days are like. I quite often don't feel like talking about it on my Difficult Days either.
"But goodness," continued Piglet, "Difficult Days are so much easier when you know you've got someone there for you. And I'll always be here for you, Pooh."
And as Pooh sat there, working through in his head his Difficult Day, while the solid, reliable Piglet sat next to him quietly, swinging his little legs...he thought that his best friend had never been more right." 

I recall another story about newly retired man who died suddenly in his early 60s. The family who lived next door had a child in kindergarten. Suddenly the mom of the little girl realized she was not in the yard where she was expected to be at about the same time as she saw her coming from next door. She was very relieved but worried that she had bothered the older neighbour in a time of grief.

“Why did you go over to see Gramma Sue”, which was what her children had called the neighbour?

“Well - you told me that Poppy Bob had died so I went to see her”

“What could you say to her. The grownups don’t know what to say.”

“Oh, I just gave her a hug and sat on her knee and cried with her. We both will miss Poppy Bob”.

Really, what better thing could someone of any age do in such a situation?

The early church faced many difficult days - with the support of the community of faith and the presence of the Spirit they were able to work through them. Down through history people of faith have relied on the work and movementof the Spirit, Passages such as the one we heard today speak of love as one of the fruits of the Spirit (keeping mind that love is more than a feeling). When communities come together in love, and act out that love in practical ways, great things can be accomplished. I think we make far too much about out “personal relationship” with God or Jesus - any relationship has to result in actions that put feelings into words.

As we continue our Easter journey, let us remember that the Spirit has come to us and come among us to transform our lives, thought and action, and through this top transform our lives, the community and the world.

Amen.

Acts 16: 16-34
Psalm 97
John 17: 20-26

What Must I DO to be Saved?

A few weeks ago, in Nipawin, we heard a representative from the P2P program speak of the transforming value of relationships between people on the “outside” and people who are incarcerated. What may have surprised some is the transformation that also occurs in those visiting not just those who are “locked up”!

Back in my university days I participated in a program, run by the Anglican Rector in the small town where I attended university. It involved attending a weekly worship service and time of fellowship at the Westmorland Farm Annex, which was a “prison farm” operated by Corrections Canada and adjacent to the Dorchester Penitentiary, otherwise known as “behind the wall”. A few years ago, some people who thought they knew best decided that prison farms were a thing of the past. I don’t know what the Westmorland Institution’s prisoners do now for rehabilitation and training but I think the institution is still there!

I suppose some of the men were at our program to get “brownie points” toward a hoped for early release, but others were certainly transformed by the power of the Spirit and the relationships formed in that worshipping community! When released, some of them worked with programs which help former inmates make a transition to a crime free life.

As I began to work on this sermon, reflecting on the passage from the book of Acts, I thought of the “freak shows” of the 19th century circuses. For a certain amount of money you could see the two headed girl, or the 8 foot tall man, or the bearded lady, or the Elephant Man, the lobster boy or the famous Anna Swan, “the giantess of Nova Scotia”. I once lived not far from where she was raised. Sometimes it was the parents who “sold” their children to the circus at a very young age. I can’t imagine the lives some of them must have had to live!

These days we know much more about the medical conditions for which these folks were exploited. Then again, we don’t have to go to a circus anymore to see such things! These days we just tune into “reality tv” - where I am not sure who is being exploited and not sure what is real and what is scripted or twisted. Clever editing can change a story completely!

Last week in our story from the book of Acts, we left Galilee and journeyed across the Mediterranean as we went with Paul to a riverside place of prayer where converts were made and one of them invited Paul to make her home, his “base of operations”. Today’s passage occurs over a few days during which they are frequently accosted by a woman who was said to have a “Spirit of divination.” She was probably suffering from what we now class as a “mental illness”.

Notice that the text says that she had been following them around and proclaiming their identity as “slaves of the most high God”. The text tells us that Paul was annoyed, so FINALLY, after a number of encounters, he healed her!

That seems like an odd reason to heal someone, and it’s certainly not very noble. Perhaps he did not want the people to learn of his mission from the lips of someone who was, clearly, “not normal.” Who would expect truth to come from someone like her. And she does not appear to have asked, either!

We are told that this action ends up landing them in jail. Her owners’ revenue stream was now gone, after all. They go to the magistrates and claim that these men, who are Jewish, are disrupting things and causing havoc for the good and upstanding Roman citizens. I guess the “Roman Way” was that no one should stand in the way of someone making a living by utilizing the special skills of their slave, especially these foreigners The apostles end up being flogged and thrown in jail.

In days gone by, a sentence of “20 lashes” (or other such number) often preceded jail time. In the TV series “Outlander”, one of the main characters, Jamie Fraser, has numerous and deep scars on his back which were a result of repeated flogging by the British; punishment for his involvement in the Jacobite resistance which took place before the disastrous Battle of Culloden.

These days, when people are incarcerated, it is supposed to be “as punishment” and not “for punishment” although people from visible minorities, especially First Nations and Black inmates often testify to incidents of negligence and brutality at all phases of their encounters with the “System”. The death of George Floyd is possibly the most recent, high-profile, case of a suspect who did not make it as far as the magistrate! Canada is not immune from such heavy handed law enforcement! Many of us will remember the case of Robert Dziekański from 2007 who died at the hands of police in while trying to clear customs in the Vancouver airport. A non-English speaker, he became agitated and eventually was tazered to death by several police officers.

Sometimes, the horrors we hear of in the news seem too extreme to be believed. At first, the allies did not believe that Hitler was rounding up Jews and sending them to what amounted to extermination camps.

Since WWII, the world has become aware of many such attempts by one group to rid their country of another group, mostly because of differences in political outlook, culture, language and religion. Sadly, our own country, in relation to First Nations people, is also guilty. Our “death camps” were called “Residential Schools” and other programs to move the people from traditional lands that we wanted for other things to places where no one could make a living. Designed to “kill the Indian in the child” these schools and systems all too often killed the child!

So we have Paul and Silas singing hymns into the night, an earthquake occurring, the prison doors opening wide, and them refusing to leave, because of the consequences to the jailer. Amazingly, they managed to convince the other inmates to stay as well. The jailer, no doubt feared his own beating or execution and was about to fall on his sword, literally. After all, he was in charge of keeping them locked up; an escape would be his fault. As it was, though, the prisoners were all still there and who could blame them for an earthquake!!!! The jailer’s amazed response was, “what can I do to be saved”. I hear it as, “how can I get what you have?” “How can I live like you do, singing even while in chains?” He saw something in them that he wanted to be a part of! These two men from Galilee were not your average prisoner! Clearly their evangelism was in the whole way they were acting, while in chains.

I used to visit in a large Maritime hospital. I usually wore my collar because it just made getting into places normal visitors weren’t allowed, much easier. I got on the elevator and a man in a suit and tie was already there. When the door closed he looked at me and asked “are you saved?” Remember, I was wearing a clerical collar and a hospital ID badge for clergy.

That question makes me uncomfortable because it usually hear it as, “I know how to be saved and you obviously don’t.”

And what does “saved” mean? Does it mean “not burning in hell for ever” or does it have something to do with the kind of faithful living, the kind of unity with God’s Spirit, that allows one to risk punishment, or a high cost, for doing the right thing and being able to praise God, even in the midst of the trying circumstances” that result?

“Being saved” has a lot of meanings, and maybe a different one for each person. It would seem to me that in the context of the gospel passage, salvation has something to do with oneness with God and Jesus. In the gospel passage we overhear a prayer of Jesus who is praying for oneness and unity of a kind that will be its own evangelism. He is speaking of the kind of oneness and unity that will sustain the flock with a certainty of the never-ending and strengthening presence.

I spoke last week of the various schisms that have divided the church into 3 major divisions; Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant. The term, “Protestant”, is, of course, now an umbrella for thousands of various denominations, which have subtle, or major, distinctions between them.

Apparently the following joke has been declared “the best religious joke of all time”. It was written by a comic Philip Soltenac, who goes by the stage name of Emo Phillips. Please, keep in mind Philips is an American and may be referring to American denominations, OR he may have made them up!!

	“Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I ran over and said, "Don't do it!" 
	He said, "Nobody loves me." 
	I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"
	He said, "Yes." 
	I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" 
	He said, "A Christian." 
	I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" 
	He said, "Protestant." 
	I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" 
	He said, "Baptist." 
	I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" 
	He said, "Northern Baptist." 
	I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"
	He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." 
	I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" 
	He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." 
	I said, "Me, too!"  Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" 
	He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." 
	I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.” 

How is our life it’s own evangelism? Perhaps the more important question is, “how does our life contradict our evangelism?” Does our adherence to the nitty gritty of denominationalism, or specific issues, make our evangelism seem hollow?

It’s not about requirements, or special formulas, it’s about results lived out in our lives. If salvation results in this oneness with Christ then the life of the “saved” person, has to look like “Christ like living”. If salvation results in the kind of life that Paul and Silas can live, praising God in adversity, does that not have its own attraction? The message of this passage seems to be that the freedom given by the Spirit does not necessarily have much to do with whether or not we ae physically free. If we are able to help someone else shed the shackles of oppression, or navigate the pathways of illness then we have succeeded in living out the gospel. If we have made choices that were costly for us, then we have proclaimed the Gospel. If we have given up asking the question, “What’s in it for me” then we are proclaiming the Gospel.

I once heard an interesting statement, “Preach the gospel always. If necessary, use words”. So, let us sing, in word or deed, of sight to the blind and prisoners set free and may our song result in an authentic life of praise and a proclamation that changes lives.

Amen.