Ruth 1: 1-18
Psalm 146
Hebrews 9: 11-14
Mark 12: 28-34

Life in the Midst of Death

How do you do that? Move away from everything and everyone familiar. Maritimers have had a long tradition of going “west” or to the “Boston States” because this region lacked adequate jobs and opportunities for all of its children. Many young British women in the early 1940's fell in love with Canadian soldiers and married them knowing that this meant a move to an unknown continent at the end of the war. Some of them went from the relatively modern cities of England with all of the amenities to rural farms with no electricity or running water; all to follow the men with whom they had fallen in love. Some lived happily ever after, while others were not so fortunate.

These days, through the wonders of high speed internet and digital technology, grandparents can be almost as close to their little ones living half way around the world as they would be next door - except they never get asked to babysit!

Until the advent of reliable roads and transportation, a move of even a few miles often meant that you rarely saw loved ones; and a move across a continent or an ocean sometimes meant that you never would again.

Most of us have a place we call “home”, whether we currently live there or not. When I was ordained we were allowed to choose, in descending order, the three top Conferences where we would like to live and work for at least the first three years of our ministry. It’s called “Transfer and Settlement” and is mandatory for all people being ordained in the United Church. It was a nerve wracking process where prospective ordinands sit by the phone for half the night trusting others to rely on God’s wisdom to send you to a place where you were most needed and most suited.

Someone once remarked, “Why would anyone want to live in Toronto. Its so far from everywhere!” I suppose that really depends on how you define, “everywhere”.

The book of Ruth is a story with many levels of meaning. It was probably written in a time when discrimination against foreigners was actively encouraged by all of the “powers that be”. It was widely believed that they had suffered misfortune as a nation because they had abandoned the pure worship of the God of Israel by worshipping other, false gods. Most often this worship had been introduced into their homes by their foreign wives. So the solution was obvious to the leadership: divorce those foreign wives!

By contrast to the prevailing wisdom of the day, the book of Ruth reminds the people of Israel that the great King David had an exemplary great- grandmother who was also a foreigner.

Ruth is a love story; of a woman for her mother-in-law and of Boaz and Ruth for each other.

vThe story begins with the family headed by Naomi’s husband, Elimelech and Mahlon and Chilion their two sons becoming refugees in a time of famine. Now we need only to know that the name “Bethlehem” literally means, “house of bread”, to see the irony in this situation. It was while this family lived in the “house of bread” that there was no bread, no food and they had to move.

Then, ironically, this land of life became a land of death and the older men and both his sons died leaving their wives without any means of support.

vWithout the support of their husbands the only option these three women had was to move back home. Logically the younger women would return to their mothers’ houses and Naomi would return to Israel. Orpah saw the logic in this and went; Ruth refused, and instead dedicated herself to her dead husband’s family and life and worship in a land she had never seen.

Now for the rest of the story. They did not arrive back to a life of ease though. Fortunately they had arrived during harvest time, and the famine was over. Just as potatoes left after the crew have left the field, are free for the taking, the grain left on the ground was fair game in that day and age. It was a system designed to give the poor something to eat. The field’s owner, and Elimelech’s relative, Boaz notices how hard Ruth works and tells his workers not to harass her and to make sure she has extra. When Naomi sees how much she brings home, Naomi hatches a plan to get Boaz to take his responsibility as a male relative seriously and make Ruth his wife. Naomi becomes “match-maker extraordinaire”.

To make a long story short, in the end Ruth and Boaz are married and the have a son, who has a son, who has a son whose name is David. So here we have it, a reminder that even the great King David had a foreigner as an ancestor.

Here is Ruth, whose only claim to be in Israel was her marriage to a man who died too young and her dedication to her mother-in-law. She was a woman who showed great courage and initiative and her life flew in the face of what was expected in that day and age. Ruth is not in the Bible to be a “role model” for women, but her story is told for a much wider purpose. It is a story that speaks to our fear of the unknown and a story that speaks of life in the midst of what seems like death.

There are probably more similarities with the world of Ruth than we would like to admit. Not all refugees are called such and not all leave because they are actually “starving”, but some do. Moab may be called Fort McMurray, or it may have other names, but its still there. Farming in our million acre farm is going through a profound crisis right now as farmers try to decide where the life is in this time.

To move to a new land could well be to discover that this new land also holds pain, tragedy and death. There are never easy solutions to great crises.

The question is: what do the people of God do when this is the situation? Do we embrace the new or act as if there is nothing good in change. Do we insist our own way and hold all foreigners and foreign ideas at bay and regard them as evil! Or do we move forward believing that life is in our future together, as Ruth did when she went to Naomi’s home, a place she had never been?

It may be as if we are moving to a place we have never been. It may be as if we are called to embrace things we have never had to consider before. The startling thing at this point on our journey may well be is that the hand of God is in this guiding us to see life where it may be found and new opportunity where we thought there was none.

Given the fact that we are in the midst of what can seem like a roller coaster of constant changes, small and larger, what is the response of the people of faith In the story of Ruth, we find a family who was able to cope with the changes that came upon them and still live in faithfulness and love. Their strength came from the God who accompanied them on the way; not the God that they thought was with them in the past but had abandoned them in the present. They discovered that God’s presence, even in undesirable situations and that life would come to them if they continued to act in faithfulness and love.

This is all we can do and be: God’s faithful people, and the rest we leave to God’s time and wisdom.

Amen.

Ruth 3: 1-5, 4: 13-17
Psalm 127
Hebrews 9: 24-28
Mark 12: 38-44

I watched a tv show the other day and in it a group of law enforcement officers was organizing a “sting” operation to trap an unscrupulous building contractor who was doing unnecessary work on houses and then when the owners, usually widows on fixed incomes, could not pay the exorbitant bill, assuming ownership of those same houses. Of course, the signed contracts full of confusing legalese gave him full authority to do this. Apparently most of his business was legitimate; he would only prey on those he thought he could get away with defrauding. In those cases, of course most of the work done was not necessary at all. In miracle of the television crime drama, of course, it was all solved within the hour - with the help of hidden microphones and cameras.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it were that easy? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of those victims of fake prize scams would be relieved to find out that the perpetrators of the scams were caught.

I read a facebook posting the other day from a cousin of mine and it seems that she won a gift card from an internet business and almost dismissed it as a scam; it was a real gift card, worth $200.

I receive about five emails a day from the supposed widows or children of deposed foreign officials, now deceased. The family members have found religion and want me to help them take their dead relative’s five or ten million, or more, dollars out of the country. For my trouble I will receive a generous share. All I have to do is to send my banking information so they can transfer the money to me! It’s amazing that people actually fall for these scams, but that amount of money has a kind of lure to it.

However, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. If it sounds fishy, it probably is.

Today we are looking at a passage from Mark’s gospel dealing with two seemingly separate issues: conceited priests and the gifts of the rich and of a poor widow. While they seem unrelated, I don’t think they are.

Mark’s 11th and 12th chapters put Jesus on a roller coaster ride to the cross. He enters Jerusalem on a donkey, overturns the tables of the moneychangers, skips town and then returns and makes these two observations. Some would call them scathing comments. Some scholars have written that Jesus was crucified primarily because he called into question all of these ways in which the elites in society managed to earn a very good living off of the backs of the very poor. He rocked the boat too much. But he wasn’t there to just rock the boat, for the sake of rocking the boat; he called the people to faithful living and true worship of God. If that meant rocking to boat, so be it.

First off, in this passage, he criticizes the scribes for their long robes and their behaviour. Now I wear a robe in church; but I am glad I don’t have to wear out and about. It’s too long; it would get in the way if I had to do all that much. I don’t like climbing stairs (even the steps of the chancel here) while wearing it and if I had to weed my perennials it would be a real nuisance . Besides, I don’t think the red mud would wash out of it!

Think about it. The long robes meant that they could not work; for their living they depended on the taxes they received from the temple system. We are told they lived quite well and enjoyed many advantages such as social privilege and the best seats in the house. Apparently they were also in a position to impose themselves on grieving widows as their property managers (after all what would a woman know about agriculture and finance) and they had to be properly compensated for this kindness. They received a cut of all of the sacrificial animals purchased at the temple (at very inflated prices) and the list went on and on.

Jesus warns the disciples against this kind of behaviour and abuse of privilege; he continually tells them that discipleship is about service and not about gaining privilege.

Then he observed the rich coming in and putting large sums of money into the collection boxes. I have seen various artists conceptions of these boxes and as near as I can figure they were made of metal and had a top like a trumpet. Obviously the coins would make lots of noise as they went in. Not that long ago some charity or other had a kind of “wishing well” donation bin. You dripped in a loonie and watched it go around and around as it went down into the bin. It was kind of fun; so much that it made you want to put in another coin! Maybe even a twoonie or two. It was for a good cause after all.

Perhaps the rich liked the noise their gift made, perhaps they tried to make more noise than their friends. They had lots of money to spare, what’s a few more coins? The story seems to indicate they dropped in much more than our equivalent of a few twonies!

Then there comes one quiet widow and somehow Jesus knows that her gift is two small copper coins. Not much noise there at all. Apparently it would take at least four of them to equal a penny. Then Jesus surprised the disciples by saying that she had given more than the rest. Why? She had given all of her living while the rich had given out of their great abundance. That comment is the key here.

We need to be exercise care with this story and tell all of it. Some people think this is a passage in praise of even the smallest gifts. It’s not!

A colleague of mine was sitting at his desk one day when a very wealthy former member of the congregation stopped by. He had heard about their new building and had come to make a donation to the building fund. He handed the minister a $20 bill. The minister thanked him, but then the man said, beaming “I know it’s not much, but Jesus praised even the widow’s mite”.

v When we misuse this passage to brand our stingy gifts as exemplary and extraordinary, we misuse it. Now if a homeless, street person had come in with the same $20.00 it would have approached the realm of “fair comparison”, but not from a man of great wealth.

So the caution in this passage is not to abuse privilege and seek social status. The caution is not to look so much at the size of our gifts but at the size of our abundance. Are we really as generous as we think?

I am old enough to remember when most churches published the list of families and how much they gave to the church every year. A colleague of mine was being interviewed for a job at a new church and she told them that if she were to become their minister that this practice has to stop; unless their income was published in the next column! She got the job but they opted for not publishing the donations. As I have said before I have mixed feelings about public recognition of large donations to charities. Hospitals and universities to name a few, often have walls of honour or donor walls on which the donors of large donations are honoured. Part of my reasoning is that at least some of those small donations that normal families make cost them more than the hundreds of thousands made by the well-off.

But, I would also like to consider another way of interpreting this passage; a kind of “we could ALSO look at it this way”.

These two passages were put together by Mark for a reason. The scribes who abuse privilege and devour (such a powerful image) widow’s houses – - is put together with the gift of a poor widow.

The system seemed to tolerate the ways in which widows were made penniless by the unscrupulous tactics of those who were supposed to look out for them.

Yet here is this poor widow giving all she had to a temple system that should have been helping her so that she had only a fraction of what she needed to sustain life. She was not giving of her excess, but probably her children’s supper.

It seems to some that Jesus was passing a strong and no-nonsense social commentary on the kind of world where the wealthy flaunt their wealth and where the poor are bilked out of what little they do have.

The teachings of Jesus are not meant to apply only to “religion” per se, but to all of life and to all of our lives. Since we live so much of our lives in the public and political sphere, how we organize our society says as much about our faith as do the content of our prayers and the singing of hymns.

As a people of faith we are called to foster a society in which all people are cared for and the most vulnerable are not exploited as a means of obtaining wealth for the privileged. We are called, as is said elsewhere, to love God with all that we have and are to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. Who is our neighbour? But, like the man who came to see Jesus and asked him that question we need to go and be a neighbour; we need to go and give with our whole heart. End of story. Amen.

1 Samuel 1: 4-20
1 Samuel 2: 1-10
Hebrews 10: 11-25
Mark 13: 1-8

Many years ago I used to love watching Emergency, a show about paramedics from Station 51 in Los Angeles, California and the hospital personnel who supervised their work. (Apparently the doctor who was the medical advisor for that show returned to Nova Scotia about 12 years ago to design their new ambulance system) At any rate, one day a seemingly drunken man came into the hospital’s emergency room and was about to be arrested and taken to the drunk tank, until that is, one of the doctors recognized a serious complication of diabetes and the man was hospitalized and his life saved.

Perhaps Eli would like to have called 911 for the assistance of the EMS on this intoxicated dishevelled woman talking to herself on his doorstep, but they weren’t around at that time. It was on the steps of the temple! It was unseemly! It was bad for business! It disturbed the contemplation of an older man! His rebuke was strong.

She was able to convince him that she was merely a woman who was deeply in prayer, prayer from the depths of her heart. When he was convinced of her true situation he sent her away with his blessing on her prayer; notice though, that she never tells him exactly what was the content of her prayer.

In the introduction to the story we are told that Hannah did not have an easy life. Her husband had 2 wives, (which was perfectly legal at that time). We are led to believe that he had married the second because Hannah had been unable to have children. It was a given in that time and place that a man had to have children to protect his good name and his family’s property. Unfortunately for Hannah his other wife did have children and used to taunt Hannah about her childless state. She was probably jealous of Hannah because the one who had not given her husband any children, was still his favourite though he does not understand the depth of her despair; he has children!

This is a “they lived happily ever after” kind of story with the problem of childlessness being resolved and Hannah giving birth to a son they named Samuel. Hannah is now a happy woman.

But this is a “lived happily ever after” story with a difference.

This is one of the Old Testament stories I have known since I was a young child. However, I am not sure I it is all that great a story to tell a child. Of course the rest of the story is what made it more than a little sad for me. Hannah wanted a child so much that she made a vow that this child would be dedicated to God. Apparently, this vow meant that she would have to take him to live with an old priest at the temple. Of course transportation was not easy in those days and she saw him once a year when she brought him a nice new coat. That never made sense to me: his mom wanted him so much that she gave him away! The Bible story leaflets I had given to me were always of a smiling Hannah, a smiling Samuel and a pretty new coat but I wondered if he missed his mom and she missed her son the other 364 or so days of the year.

As always though with the biblical text, the story of one person, or one family is about so much more; it is usually a story about the nation and its relationship with their God. This story is certainly no different.

There are several reasons for any story to be in the biblical record. Very few are there for the simple purpose of telling the story of that person or event.

One of the purposes would be to explain why things are the way they are and to fill in the gapes between known and very important events. For example - How did the people of Israel get to be in Egypt so that Moses could lead them out to freedom? So the story of Joseph tells us this.

How did these desert nomads get to have a king after capturing Jericho and Jerusalem? Why weren’t they like all the other nations and have a king from the very beginning? Where does that famous prophet Samuel fit in? This story shows that even before his birth Samuel was special. This story shows us that Samuel was special from the very beginning. His parents had fertility problems and would never have had a child without a miracle. God must have had something in mind for him. The story will go on to tell how this Samuel was “special” from the very beginning and throughout his lifetime.

The other and very important reason these stories are given to us is that they show the utter reliance of the people on the grace and power of God. Without God Hannah and Elkanah would never have had Samuel and without this birth the nation would never had his prophetic leadership. Without this leadership the development of the kingship might have happened very differently. I guess you could say that the main point of these stories is to reinforce the teaching that this nation of Israel was not self made. The entire biblical story is really much more about God that it is about the people.

There are always timeless spiritual lessons that come from reflecting on these, or any, biblical stories. As long ago as they happened these stories can inspire our own and guide us as individuals and as a community of faith.

We speak of the miraculous events in the Bible and the birth of Samuel being one of them, but it is also clear that the events surrounding his birth were ordinary. His parents had no luck when they tried to have a child on their own, but after their trip to the temple all of this seemed to change and in the natural course of events Hannah gave birth to a boy they called Samuel.

Many times the people of Israel reached a crisis point because they tried to do things on their own. The leadership provided by Samuel was intended to be entirely God-driven. Samuel’s very birth proves this.

How often have individuals and communities of faith tried to go their own way, on their own, without seeking God’s wisdom, guidance and strength. It seems that a child was part of the plan, but not until they were prepared to recognize that this child’s birth had ramifications for the entire nation. As individuals and as communities of fatih, our actions affect not only ourselves, but cast ripples out which go who knows where.

In the midst of any decision or any crisis we are reminded to place ourselves and our need before God and place our future in God’s hands. It may or may not turn out like we wanted. The chances are that there will be some differences, but along the way, we will see how those differences have made all the difference.

If we seek the will of God with all of our hearts we will begin to find solutions to our deepest longings. The presence of God who has promised to never leave us will be our most certain reward.

Amen.

2 Samuel 23: 1-7
Psalm 132
Revelation 1: 4b-8
John 18: 44-37

Are We There Yet?

When contestant # 43212 walked onto the stage of the Britain’s Got Talent auditions in April of this year, the three judges could barely hide their disdain for this plain, plump, 47 year old from Blackburn, a small village in Scotland, who stated that she wanted to become a famous singer. But by the time she had finished the first line of her chosen selection, “I Dreamed a Dream”, from the stage play Les Miserables, Susan Boyle had the judges in total awe and long before the end, the entire house on its feet. Though she did not end up winning the contest, and her life has been a bit of a roller coaster ever since, she has achieved her stated goal of becoming a professional singer. Her album “I Dreamed A Dream” has apparently broken all pre-sale records on Amazon. (since it wont be released until tomorrow, you can go home and add to those statistics if you like!)

Now, a large part of what has made Susan Boyle into an overnight sensation, would not have been possible even five years ago; it is the fact that her performance was uploaded to U-tube and circled the globe almost instantly. As far as I know, it is the most viewed performance on U-tube and the count is now somewhere below 79 million. I have watched it a number of times, mostly to see, and see again, the reactions of the three judges.

She now has what she wanted, a career as a professional singer, but only time can tell whether or not it is what she expected.

We come again to the last Sunday of the church year; often referred to as: “The Reign of Christ” Sunday. It is a day on which we reflect on what it means for Christ to reign, in our lives and in the world. Since we began our Advent journey 52 weeks ago, we have been moving toward this place. Since Advent 2008 we have been through a great deal. As they say, “It’s been quite a year!”

I’m not really talking about 2009; I am talking about year B! Year B is a way of referring to the middle year of the three year cycle of lectionary readings. In year B most of our readings come from the Gospel of Mark. Next week we start Year C and most of our Gospel readings will come from the gospel of Luke.

This cycle of the church year is like a permanent family road trip; one by one we whine to the driver, “are we there yet?” What did we have in mind when we believed the proclamation that the messiah was coming - way back in Advent of 2008? Did we anticipate all that happened? What did we mean when we, like Mary, agreed to let the Son of God grow within us? When we left the manger and told the world that the Lord had come, what DID we really mean? When we listened to Jesus as he taught us and when we saw him healing and casting out demons, what did we think?

What did we think when the disciples fled? Were we at their heels or were here are the foot of the cross to see how he was faithful to the end. No matter where we were though, we learned something that changed our lives, if we let it.

What did we do when he rose and showed his power over life and many other people truly believed? What happened to our own faith as we proclaimed “Christ is Risen”. What were we doing as our grand road-trip continues and we heard and lived the stories read over the summer and early fall. Did we whine and complain that we were bored or did we stare out the window and marvel at how different the landscape looked since we saw it on the last road-trip. In response to things going on in our lives, was our faith easily shaken, or has it stayed with us? Has our faith changed and grown, or has it changed us in the last year?

How are we different for having been a part of this listening, responding community of faith this past year? How have we been able to listen and follow the voice of the One whose kingdom does not operate by the standards and values of this world?

Essentially that is the challenge offered by Jesus’ response to Pilate, in the late night courtroom scene I read a few moments ago. Dragged through the courts, on trumped up charges, in the middle of the night, Jesus knew he wasn’t going to get out of this one. He stood his ground and proclaimed his good news to the end. Are we listening?

What did we expect when we signed on as Christians? How do our responses affect our beliefs. Too many people believe that faith is about believing things: like the things in the creed (you pick the creed). Too many people think that being “saved” is about going to heaven when you die. But the abundant life promised to the Christian is also about life, and life is about living in trust. but I think that faith is about living in trust. The Christian life is about living faithfully, not living in such a way that our primary goal is to avoid breaking rules. If we have managed to follow the ten commandments to the finest detail that is all well and good, but what have we done to live out the love of God. On this last Sunday of the year we are asked the question, “Is anyone else’s life better because we have believed”. The Christian life is about another world, another way of being, in this life - and showing this way to others.

What if we were on a road trip and at the end of the day we realize we are in the wrong place. We took a wrong turn, or did not turn when we should have. What do we do? We get up in the morning and retrace out steps so that we can get on track. What do we do when something we see or know does not meet our expectations. A few weeks ago I mentioned the song, “Sometimes I wish my eyes hadn’t been opened” and talked about those things we can’t ignore once we see them. We deal with what has happened and we get back to the journey.

This Sunday is also knows as Children’s Sunday and this year the United Church has asked that we pay special attention to the special needs of “children in care”. We used to call these children, “Foster Kids”. I have known a number of foster children and foster parents during the years of my ministry. Some of their stories would break your heart. Most of them and their special needs are largely ignored by the rest of us.

Why do children end up in foster care? I read a statistic on the internet that indicated that as many as 70,000 children in Canada are in foster care because of parental abuse or neglect. Children come into care with experiences and needs we can hardly imagine and with which the system can hardly cope. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can and does haunt a child for his or her entire life. Witnessing a lifetime of severe abuse or being abused, sexually, emotionally or physically, can affect the child’s profoundly. Foster parenting is not just about warm beds, good meals and clean clothes.

Another child goes missing, and by the lessons of experience, the police always consider the parents suspects unless they can rule it out. Far too often a parent has murdered the child or children. Children become pawns in messy divorces and in unhealthy relationships. We all remember Karissa Boudreau, the girl from Nova Scotia, murdered by her mother.

What about child poverty? Did you know that Canada has the second highest rate of child poverty in the developed world? Is this something we can live with? What do we need to do as individuals and as a country to truly support all children, and especially , “children in crisis”?

On this great car trip of the Christian life we have arrived at the end and discover that it is also the beginning. No, We aren’t there yet. A tank of gas, a cup of coffee or a good meal and a rest break and we are back on the road. For now though we sit with the map and our coffee wondering what road we will take, next year.

Christ is King of our lives. How will that change our route next year?

Amen.