Exodus 1: 1-7

Reflection 1:

At our Annual Meting this year we used the “Exodus Story” as a lens through which we could view our story as a United Church.

Lest we forget, this dilemma of empty churches and a longing for a “better” past. Or “the good old days” are not unique to the United Church. Many of our mainline churches are going through the same kinds of dilemmas and transitions.

Yet, in any study of the present, history must first be studied so that we can know how it was that we came to be in this place.

The people of Israel were not always in Israel, and when they were told it was to be their land they were not even IN the land, goodness they were not even a PEOPLE, well technically there were 2 people - two senior citizens - well past the age of “starting a family” Abram and Sarai . To make a long story short Abraham and Sarah became the parents of Isaac and he and Rebecca became parents of Jacob and he and his wives and concubines became the parents of 12 sons; the most beloved of whom was Joseph.

Then to make a very long story shorter they had to go to Egypt because a terrible famine gripped the land. While it seemed the promise was far off, they were alive and they were multiplying very quickly. We are told there were a lot of them before long.

Well that is a little like the churches in Canada. Most of us came, or rather our ancestors came, like the children of Jacob, fleeing famine, or seeking religious freedom, or wanting land to till and harvest and if you think farming is hard these days, think about what it was like in the days of our ancestors. Think of farming in the days of one or two horsepower (literally) or two oxen power. Think of the days in this province before confederation of the absentee landlords who often lived in luxury in England and the farmers they brought here toiling on land for which they had to pay rent, land that should have been theirs - think of the churches built and the struggle to build schools and educate their children. Think of the many who went to the “Boston States” to seek not only their fortune but their bread and butter - when you knew a farm could only be so small before it would not support a family anymore -

As a young minister when I first listened to the stories of the good old days I got the idea that this was a time when the churches were full and had no problems. But that was not exactly true. Older ministers told me stories of having to worry constantly about getting paid on time or of having five or more services on a Sunday. Church minutes tell of financial struggles. Church minutes tell of financial struggles. Session minutes tell of people being removed from the roll for not attending church services.

Minutes also tell of the dedicated women who used their egg money to support Mission Personnel overseas, to put another coat of wallpaper on the manse livingroom, to buy choir gowns or items for the sanctuary and bit by bit their churches their churches were wired and kept up and some even had bathrooms added - and it was a vital part of the week to go to worship and sing and pray and meet your neighbours Often you weren’t lucky enough to have worship in the morning because even then the minister could not be in two places at once - but everyone liked the evening services, that was a good time for church! Sometimes you had an afternoon service instead. But then pavement made it easier to travel and that new-fangled thing called a television made it seem harder to get the family out on Sunday night Things were changing - of course things are always changing, but these changes did not seem to be for the better like the earlier changes -

Exodus 16: 1-3, 9-18, 35

Reflection 2:

God provided for the people of Israel while they were in the desert - manna, enough for only one day, in some stories the Friday manna lasted two days.

Yet, as the story goes the people were not always satisfied to have their needs met, they wanted more - they were tired of the same old, same old, day in and day out, week in and week out, year in and year out, for 40 years. I suppose I would get tired of anything I had to eat every meal, every day! Sometimes we are told there were quail, small birds that were so plentiful they could be plucked from the air.

In this journey through the wilderness the people had to learn to trust God and to rely on the sufficiency of God’s grace. They had enough, but we know that human beings are often not satisfied with “enough”.

We are experiencing hard times in our - churches. Many churches have gone to part-time ministry for a variety of reasons, and many clergy are discovering that there are fewer full time positions available and wonder how they will be able to balance a part time job with commitment to ministry which does not observe a schedule, and at the end of the week have any time left for themselves or their families.

We forget that the end was not known when the people of Israel crossed the sea into the unknown wilderness. We forget the Moses did not set foot in the promised land. We forget that even when they arrived in the land of milk and honey there was change and struggle and they had to learn day by day how to be faithful to God’s call in the midst of their precarious and uncertain lives.

We have the rest of the story given to us in the Old Testament, but they were living it- as we are living our own story. We forget that while the United Church just celebrated its 86th birthday, it’s not really that long - some of you are older than our denomination - who says that better things are not around the corner if we are willing to take the first step into the sea and cross to the other side.

What we know from the story of the Exodus is that God will go with us - God will provide for us - we will not always recognize that provision as something familiar - as the story goes when they first found the manna they didn’t know it was edible. When our ancestors came to this land the native peoples taught them many things about living in this new world.

What do we have to learn about the new world in which the church finds itself. What expectations do we have to leave behind? Just as the settlers moving west, in those old pioneer tv shows, mostly from the US, had to leave behind pump organs, pianos and china, to what do we have to say, “thank you for your part in our lives together but we have to move on without you “. Leaving behind the treasures of the past is not easy but it is essential if we are to move forward into the future.

Numbers 13: 1-3, 17-24

Reflection 3

Just as the people of Israel, camped out on the near side of the Jordan did - we wanted some more information before we jumped in with both feet. We had questions. We wanted to know what others who were a little further on on their journey had found out.

Our open space technology was actually 40 little groups formed around questions that came from the floor of the conference. One was on greening our churches, how to decrease our so-called “environmental footprint”. One group wondered about multi-point city pastoral charges. Bringing the youth back. Realistic downsizing. Hospital chaplaincy. Church without clergy. Is there a place for me in the ministry of our church anymore? 21st century evangelism. This names just a few of the questions that were designed to help us scout out the terrain of the new land into which we have been called to go. There was a great deal of sharing in the large group and a number of action reportws.

The reality is that we cannot get out of our stuck place or go to a new place by doing everything the same way we have always done it.

The reality is, no matter what information we have gathered, we still must take that first step, we still must step into tomorrow without knowing what it will hold. The reality is that there are a large group of people committed to this United Church of Canada and its vision of the inclusion of all people at all ages and stages of their lives. The reality is that we are a people committed to the health of the planet, to supporting our elderly and our youth. We are committed to proclaiming the gospel. We are committed to caring for those who fall through the cracks of our society, to those who slip through the large tears in our social safety net. We are a people who proclaim that the youth are the now of the church as well as being its future - we are a church with members a few minutes old and with members who are over 100 years - and all the folks in-between.

We are a people who sing our faith into action.

We are a people of God on a journey of faith certain that God will be with us on the journey o faith even though the terrain may be frightening, even though there may be conflict and disappointment and uncertainty.

God is with us - we are not alone - thanks be to God.

Amen.

Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67
Psalm 45
Romans 7: 15-25a
Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30

Burdens and Yokes

It may have been the 12th century Cistercian monk, Bernard of Clairvaux who coined the phrase, (when translated from the French) “hell is full of good wishes and desires”, which has long ago morphed into, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions!”

The logic, thought and theology of the apostle Paul often seems convoluted and more than a little tedious by times. With his convoluted and complex writing style, he could certainly win any contest for “run on” sentences. This morning’s passage, about the good he wanted to do, but could not, is no exception. Instead, he confesses, he ends up doing the very thing he wanted to avoid. Even though he has focussed on the law with all of his strength, he ends up breaking the very law he sought to keep.

This passage operates on two levels - there is the common and everyday struggle of the individual to maintain a course of action which, though sometimes difficult, at lease seems possible. Then there are the more corporate or social instances; the realms of community, provincial, national and international which provide endless struggles for thoughtful people around the world. We know that sometimes even the most well intentioned actions and policies can cause disaster on a large scale.

We all know how it works in our personal lives. We make resolutions and we break resolutions, partly because breaking them is so enjoyable; partly because it is simply easier! We make impossible resolutions and, of course, we fail to keep them. We set impossible goals for ourselves and beat ourselves up when we fail to measure up or reach these goals.

Sometimes we make changes in our lives that are intended to be for the better, but the change brings with it all sorts of unwelcome or difficult consequences, at least in the short term. Students going off to university can’t wait to get away from home and all of the rules that come with living at home but they quickly find there are other rules, created by other and often less forgiving bosses than their parents. There are rules in residence. There are rules in rental accommodations. There are the rules of the various professors and so on and so on. No longer in a protective home environment the student is faced with two choices on any one occasion and has to live with the consequences of his or her actions.

Adults going back to school while raising a family must also make choices about what can be done and what cannot be done and its not always a choice between good and bad; its not usually that simple. The choice is often between what can be done and what is too much to take on.

As we go about our daily lives we make rules and resolutions for ourselves and we find ourselves breaking them!

What about that delicious marble cheesecake leftover from the dinner party - and its just sitting there in the fridge! We “know” that taking off the plastic wrap and having just once slice will not hurt but we also know that it will not stop there - but we do it anyway - and eat far more than we first planned to eat. I heard a story once of a woman who ate everything crumb that was leftover of a cake from a dinner party, knew that he husband would be disappointed, so she made another one and ate enough to make it look like the original cake. So much for good intentions - and hiding her co-called crime only made matters worse. We know that she was really only fooling herself and deep down she knew it too.

Raising children can be a mine-field of good intentions and less than positive outcomes as each child responds to the same rules and atmosphere in different ways. Some people find that “tough love” is the best way to deal with a headstrong or rebellious child but other people have said that at least some of the teens living on the streets of our large cities are there because their “tough love” parents kicked them out for breaking the family rules and they end up in far worse shape than their parents ever intended or imagined.

Yet, we can take this passage to a whole other level; to a social and corporate level.

The current climate crisis can be seen as a litany of good intentions gone wrong. Who could argue, on the surface, with all of the marks of progress that make our lives easier?

When my parents were first married and they lived in a community which had no electricity - they had no indoor plumbing - and the pavement did not reach as far as their house. By the time I was born that had begun to change and it changed quickly. Now we have everything everyone else does, more or less. (Except for the cost of getting off of this Island, we are pretty much the same as everyone else!) Who could argue that life is not easier - we don’t have to worry about roads being impassable because of axle-deep mud; the plows don’t really take that long to clear the roads after a storm, we don’t worry about cleaning oil lamps, or having to go out to an outhouse at 40 below, and that hot shower or bath every day is so nice. Farmers work has been lessened immensely with farm machinery both large and small to do most of the backbreaking labour.

Instead of small grocery stores offering a limited selection of food we all enjoy the seemingly endless choices offered by the large grocery stores which, thanks to centralized distribution networks can offer us pomegranates from goodness knows where, coffee ground to your specifications on the spot, fresh broccoli and lettuce in February and Mandarin Oranges that used to be a Christmas treat, every month of the year.

BUT there is a downside to this technologically complex life we all enjoy- it takes more money, it burns fossil fuels and has contributed to global warming and many people would like to turn it back but don’t think we can do what it takes to do so. How would we go about changing things without killing our consumption based economy.

A number of factors have contributed to the large number of farmers who are going out of business because they cannot compete in their own country with imported foods from goodness knows where.

We want to have our cake and eat it too, so we look for green energy solutions - solutions to help us keep up our lifestyle while making a smaller footprint on the planet. We like our stuff, and more than that we like to turn over and replace our stuff (or we find we have to because it just does not last) and that takes money and resources and we wonder if our solution will create even more problems. Except that we now know that doing nothing is no longer an option. What will be choose to do?

The United States defines itself as a nation of, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Canada, on the other hand, is a nation of, “peace, order and good government”. But when you look at the backlash in the US over something as simple, to us, as health care reform, and you look at the growing scandal over the police response to the protests last year outside the G-20 talks and we can see how good intentions taken too far can produce sinister results.

As a Canadian I cannot fathom how a Christian can oppose at least some kind of basic medicare. Likewise I cannot fathom how a police force in a democracy as advanced as ours can treat its own people in such a heinous fashion. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness AND peace, order and good government, are certainly laudable goals, but when we go to live them out, on the ground, where real, fallible people live, we as a society sometimes end up doing exactly the opposite of what we intended. Our individual needs and wants get in the way of our vision for the wider community and we assume that if it is good for us, it must be good for everyone else; and if if is b bad for us, it must be bad for society as a whole.

For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. It’s not as simple as that piece of leftover cake, or trying to quit smoking and just not being able to do it.

Paul knows that laws and rules will never be enough; we need a change of heart; we need what a colleague of mine used to call, “an attitude adjustment”.

A yoke is a device used to assist two or more oxen to pull together. We need to be yoked wit Christ; with the Spirit of self- giving love - we need to live as a people who know and live the grace of God - not as something which lets us off of the hook, but as something which enables us to live out more of the gospel than we ever thought possible alone.

We have this ministry - let us not be discouraged.

Amen!

Genesis 25: 19-34
Psalm
Romans 8: 1-11
Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23

Family Values You Say!

In 1984, or thereabouts, there was controversy relating to education in PEI. Of course, that is not really news! The topic of the day was “Family Life Education” or “sex ed” as most people assumed it was really about. A cartoon appeared in The Eastern Graphic. a local weekly newspaper A teacher was introducing her se-ed lesson and indicated she was going to teach from the Bible and that she would talk about Abraham and Hagar, David and Bathsheba, Solomon and his 700 wives and 300 concubines, and a few other couples whose lives were, let’s say, “rather colourful”. The cartoonist’s point was clear to me: While some people think they know what they mean when they talk about “biblical values”, biblical stories need to be interpreted carefully and cannot be taken out of context and simply read as a “go and do likewise” sort of tale.

Raising a family is never an easy job; raising a large family has its special challenges. Things get more complicated in any family when the father favours one son and the mother favours another. I suspect that it becomes especially difficult when - there is more than one mother, - and when the oldest is more than one person and - when the family is an important one-and when the patriarch of this family believes he and his descendants have a divinely ordained destiny.

Isaac’s family had to deal with all of these difficulties.

Some women have great experiences with pregnancy and some aren’t so lucky. Carrying twins can present special challenges. In the case of Rebekah, it seemed that the two babies were struggling against one another and caused her a great deal of stress. She was assured that the descendants of each would become great nations. Notice that she is not assured that they will learn how to get along with each other!

With the struggle between Esau and Jacob a whole nation was at stake; with Esau and Jacob a divine promise was at stake - though of course that promise may indeed have been much clearer in hindsight than when they were living it out day by day. Hindsight is always 20/20!

We all know about sibling rivalry. We have seen brothers and sisters fighting, we may have fought with our own brothers and sisters when we were young. (As adults we may still be in the midst of sibling rivalry.) One child might call her brother stupid and be ordered to apologize. She then says, “I’m sorry you are stupid!” It can involve broken toys, lost messages, ruined clothing, stolen personal possessions and so on!

I was watching one of my favourite shows on DVD the other night and the oldest daughter of the family was packing to go to university on the other side of the country. The youngest daughter was very sad but the middle daughter hid her feelings behind a wall of indifference and downright nastiness. A few wise words from their grandfather’s ghost helped the older daughter to see what was really going on and she was able to make the parting much easier on everyone.

With Esau and Jacob the rivalry rose to great heights - so much so that this passage tells how it changed the course of biblical history. If you think about it, if this event had not taken place everything could well have turned out differently. Esau would have been the one to carry the promise forward, instead of Jacob. But we know that this is the way it is in life; each decision we make precludes the making of another, different decision.

(With Esau and Jacob though, the deceit is not yet finished. Two chapters and some time later, it seems, Isaac, the father, is still of the opinion that the “special blessing”, reserved for the older son belongs to Easu, but Jacob tricks him out of it as well - and this time Rebekah helps him do it. The two events together effectively meant that Jacob would be the one to take the promise forward.

Was that always the plan of God - that Jacob was the “chosen one”? Or is it more complex than that? Remember what I said about hindsight being 20/20. Did God actually plan it this way?

Or is it that people of faith, ordinary human beings, when looking back over their lives, or the lives of their families, see that God was able to work in and through the ups and downs that come to ordinary and fallible humans in the course of their lives.

I believe that one of the things this story is trying to say that the ancestors who are revered by the people were far from perfect people; they made their share of mistakes, some of them REALLY BIG MISTAKES but they were still able to carry the promise forward.

The point is that God called. The point is that God blessed. The point is that people followed; imperfect and sometimes deeply flawed people received the grace they needed to go forward in faith.

Our God is active in the world, in often quite mysterious ways, seeking to move all of creation to wholeness of fullness of life. Long before he was the father to even one child Abraham was promised descendants to number more than the stars. This required all of Abraham’s children - not just the so-called “Children of Israel” - the Jewish nation.

Somehow and in different ways these biblical stories speak to us so that we can see in them God’s word for us, in our complex lives in 2011. We are called to trust that these stories still hold a word for us. It’s not always clear; its not always a direct message. Sometimes we have to really struggle with what a passage means for us.

Just as Isaac and Rebekah were not perfect people, we don’t have to be perfect either to participate in the promise. (Now we don’t have to go out and be deliberately nasty either!) We are called to spread the word. As Christians, our call is to embody God’s love as we have experienced it in and through Jesus of Nazareth, to do our part, and to leave the rest to God..

In our lives and in our culture there are the “in” people; the ones who seem to move things along. They are the ones who get the prized invitations to the Royal Tour, they are the ones whose names are in the paper, (for all the good reasons), they are the ones after whom buildings will be named and whose community respects and honours them.

Then there are the more ordinary sorts of folks who seem to have their act together, who get the kids to school fed with a lunch in their backpack and fall into bed dog tired wondering how they will do it all again tomorrow, but they do make it.

Then there are the ones who don’t seem to care. The ones who have a little too much traffic coming and going from their house late at night; the ones you would never ask to watch your house and feed and walk your dog and water your plants when you go away. Their names are in the paper, but not for any of those “good reasons”!

There is a saying, “It takes all kinds to make a world!” There are all kinds in God’s world, and perhaps we make a mistake when we try and place ourselves and others in one of the slots I have just outlined. Perhaps those who know us would place us in a different category! The life of faith is about grace and community and mutual support, not about “in” and “out” groups and categories.

Some churches sponsor a “learn to cook” program for moms who want to learn how to make less expensive and more nutritious meals for their children. Many churches host AA meetings, provide after school programs for kids and the list goes on. Many churches collect food for the food bank and mittens and hats for the local elementary school, because any child can lose hers!

We do need to look around us at the need and discern what our ministry is. We can ask ourselves, “How can we support some of our neighbours to be more fully the people God intends them to be?”

I signed onto a new website yesterday - there is a committee developing new guidelines for the United Church and social media - that’s Facebook and Twitter, for ex.

Churches have a sense of what is appropriate and what is not appropriate for outreach and for maintaining contact and doing pastoral care within a local congregation. We make use of face-to-face visits, phone calls and cards, to name common ways. Social media has the potential to change that drastically. What are the guidelines? What are the no-no’s? What are the must-do’s? How can we learn from the experience of those who are a little further along on this path so that we can benefit from their mistakes and successes?

Like it or not we are in a new age of expectations, communications, values and expectations. It is in this world, and no other that we are called to minister and be God’s people. It is in this world that we are called to embrace the promise, despite our flaws, perhaps because of our flaws, and go forward in faith.

I see Jacob, Esau and the rest. Let us follow them as we respond to the promise.

Amen.

Genesis 28: 10-19a
Psalm 139
Romans 8: 12-25
Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43

Bethel - The House of God - The Place of Encounter

You may have heard me tell this story before, but I’ll tell it again. A man is going for a hike in unfamiliar terrain and he falls over the edge of a cliff. As he falls downward, over rocks and roots jutting out of the hillside, he manages more by luck than skill to grasp such a root. As he breathlessly hangs there, between the path and certain death he cries out, “is there anyone up there?”

A loud booming voice thunders, “Yes, there is!”

The man gasps, “Are you God?”

“Yes, I am!” thunders the voice.

“Well if you are God you can see my predicament. Please help me!”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes, I trust you.”

“Do you REALLY trust me?”

“Yes, Yes, I really trust you. Plllllease help me”, the man gasps.

“OK”, says God softly, “Let go of the branch!”

There was a long pause and after looking down once again the man gasped, “Is there anyone ELSE up there?”

(Pause)

You may be familiar with the saying, “Be careful what you pray for - you just might get it!” Poor Jacob fell into that trap - I call him “poor Jacob” though it’s hard to have much sympathy for him. He always wanted the birthright as the eldest son - but like Agent Maxwell Smart <1960's TV Show, Get Smart , he “missed it by that much” by being born the second of twins. He cooked up a little stew and with a little manipulation of his brother he managed to get the birthright. Then, he wanted the older son’s blessing and with a little help from mom he got that too. So here he is - a dying father, a really, really angry older brother with a big axe to grind - he’s off to find a suitable wife but we really know he essentially on the run for his life - he has no place to lay his head - no place but this pillow sized rock!

Where is God? Where does God “live”. In the W.O. Mitchell book, “Who Has Seen the Wind”, a young boy goes to the local church in search of the divine. After all, everyone knows that the church is where you go to encounter God!

Considering the recent events in his life I cannot imagine that Jacob was anticipating a deep sleep - all the while keeping one ear and one eye open for bandits or for mercenaries hired by his brother to execute revenge.

What he receives is a powerful revelation of God and of course it is a ladder to heaven and, in Jacob’s time the earth was flat, the sky was like a dome over a pie and heaven was “up there” beyond that dome - that would have been the only language he could have understood - the only images that would have made sense to him BUT we should not take that as literal proof that God is “up there somewhere”. This story is written with the very limited scientific understanding of the time. In terms of the Jacob story and the early history of the Hebrew people it still speaks volumes - it is still very true!

When the vision was over and Jacob awakes, refreshed, in awe and breathless, he concludes It is interesting to read Jacob’s conclusion, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.”

Too often we are storming through life, trying to stay ahead of whatever is chasing us - the collection agency, an addiction, our hectic schedule, our age, our past, a family conflict, our own anxiety, our “to do TADAY” list, and we forget to stop, to rest, to smell the roses or see the sunset that is right there waiting for us - we forget that God is in this place - NO not just this “church place” but “any” place. Maybe we could say that God does not need to “live” anywhere because God simply “is”.

Jacob found his gate to heaven at a place he named Bethel; ( a word that means literally “house of God”, but we can find the gate to heaven, for want of a better term, where we are.

It happened about four years ago in a busy Washington Metro station. People were hurrying to make their connections so they would get to work or school on time. It was a cold, January morning. A man with a violin stood in the midst of the hubbub and played Bach for about 45 minutes. During this time about 2,000 people passed by. A few people stopped briefly to listen and some tossed some money into his open violin case. Children were the ones who most often stopped but in all cases they were hurried along by their mothers. After 45 minutes the violinist had collected $32; after an hour, he stopped. No one clapped. The violinist was the famous Joshua Bell. He had been playing some of the most intricate pieces in the world on a violin worth over 3 million dollars. Two days before he had sold-out a theatre in Boston where the tickets were an average of $100 each. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C Metro Station, was organized by a newspaper, The Washington Post, as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

This experiment raised questions about beauty in the everyday context. Do we perceive beauty in the mad rush of our day to day lives? If we do perceive beauty do we stop to take the time to appreciate it? This story came to me from Heidi McGinnis, on the e-talk email list How many things of beauty are we missing because we do not expect to see them or because we are too busy. How many things are begging us, “I can teach you about God, but you are too busy, or too preoccupied to take the time”.

A couple went to a foreign country as Mission Personnel. They were told to take all their pictures of things the people at home would find interesting, beautiful, gorgeous or simply different, in the first few months because after that they would become used to them and not think them unusual or of special note.

I love to go walking with my camera; as I look at things through my camera lens, I am forced to consider the deeper beauty in life the deeper beauty that is a source of joy. The manse in Dundas has the absolute best sunsets on PEI. Looking west from the study or living room window I say goodbye to the day as the sky turns a million shades of red and orange. On some days though I am too busy to notice, too busy to take the time to stop and look.

There is a hymn about Jacob’s ladder but it does give a different perspective on the story! We know it; “we are climbing Jacob’s ladder, we are climbing Jacob’s ladder.....” Jacob does not climb his ladder, the angels are the ones who are going up and coming down! At least that’s the story in the Bible. But its not unusual for hymn writers to take liberties with biblical stories - for the sake of rhyme, metre, or a good chorus. The hymn, “Jacob’s Ladder”, came out of the African American Spiritual tradition where they saw a parallel between the release of the people of Israel from bondage (many, many generations after Jacob) and their hope from release from the bondage of slavery. I wonder what those folks who sang the Spirituals at night when they were dead tired from picking cotton all day would say if we told them that one day a black man would be president of their country! I wonder what they would have said! Perhaps they would break into the chorus, “every rung goes higher, higher “ and we would be reminded that we still have work to do, that there are still places in our lives and in the world that need to be set free by God’s power.

I have been reading a book by the retired Archbishop of Capetown, the Most Rev Desmond Tutu - it is a collection of his speeches over the years and in it he speaks of the hope and freedom that God desires for all people. The title is quite provocative, “God is not a Christian!” To the people of Israel and Palestine he would say, “God is not on either side - God takes the side of freedom and justice - always.

Back to Jacob. I think that one of the things we can learn from this set of stories is that Jacob was chosen to be the “father” of the nation in spite of his human nfailings, certainly not because of them. God did not pick him because he swindled his brother, he was chosen in spite of his many failings - and Esau was chosen for other things. This is something that even some biblical writers need to be reminded of - God is the God of all the nations and desires for them life, peace and blessing. The stories of Ruth and Jonah are cases in point.

However, we are getting a little off topic. Some have noticed in the story that the angels are “ascending and descending” - in other words they are going “UP” to heaven before coming “DOWN” from heaven. Ancient Jewish writers would speculate that this is a subtle reminder that God, and angels, were with Jacob all the time. This is a reminder to us that God is with us, all the time, whether we realize it or not. Does my ignoring the sunset outside my home make it any less spectacular? Does my ignoring the miracles around me make them any less special?

No it does not, but when I do, my life is poorer for it and less than it could be. When I do my footsteps are heavier and my burdens lighter. Surely God is with us, in this place and in all places and we knew it not!

Amen!

Genesis 29: 15-28
Psalm 105
Romans 8: 26-39
Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52

No Title

When I was young, as far as I knew, there were 3 kinds of mustard; two were “good”, and one was definitely not. The first two kinds were the eating kind. One was powdered and came in cans and my mother used it for pickles - she never bought the kind many people put on hot dogs and kept in the fridge! Sometimes that kind had medicinal uses such as a mustard plaster.

The other kind, was very undesirable; it grew in the grainfields and had to be pulled - by hand. I think my dad stated to spray for it before I was all that old but pulling mustard was a common and commonly disliked farm chore on PEI farms. I guess someone, somewhere grows mustard for eating, but not here on PEI!

Today’s passage looks a little like a dog’s breakfast; today’s passage contains a variety of “parables” that are loosely unified around the theme of “the kingdom of heaven” but at first glance they seem like they are just thrown together.

The literal meaning of the word, parable, is “to throw alongside”. Parables show us something about God’s rule by engaging the imagination and challenging conventional perspectives. Usually containing an unexpected twist, parables show the grace, demands and the surprising and counter-cultural nature of the ways of God. We sometimes forget how shocking some of them were to Jesus’ listeners because they are so familiar to us.

Sometimes jokes give us a similar “shock” and change our expectations. Have you heard about the folks who were killed in a plane crash and arrived at the pearly gates as a group. St Peter was showing them around and they walked by a door that had a large sign on it, “QUIET PLEASE”. One of them inquired about the closed door and St Peter replied, “Oh, that’s just the folks from Prince Edward Island - we keep it quiet because they like to think they are the only ones here!” or did you hear the one about the man who made a deal with God that he could take his money with him if he could put it in just one suitcase. He converted his wealth to gold and he had the suitcase of gold in his hand as he arrived at the pearly gates. He was welcomed with open arms and instructed where to leave his suitcase full of paving stones!

We chuckle at each of these but then we are led to think of the ways in which we fall into the same traps. We might see that one trait or characteristic or group membership might give us an “eternal leg up” as it were - or something which might buy us some kind of special status with God!

The second one pokes fun at the common picture of heaven (looking a little like the way to the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz! It also pokes fun at the idea that wealth has any eternal significance!

Jesus was dealing with a culture in which a religious elite proclaimed a way of life which was far from what Jesus saw as God’s way. Many people, including Jesus it would seem, regarded at least some of these folks as hypocrites (though I am certain that some were sincere and faithful).

Jesus was trying to present a different picture of the ways of God. It was not about who you knew. It was not about the ways you kept the law and avoided breaking the law. In his parables he proclaims the ways of God as grace, as surprise, as good news. God’s realm was not reserved for those who had the time and the means to keep all of the little rules and regulations that had developed over time. God’s realm was for everyone who was willing to receive God’s loving acceptance. God’s realm was not received by some as if it were an inheritance based on “exclusive human family relationships” but it was rather an inheritance based simply on being children of God. It was a membership in an inclusive family of love.

Today’s parables are all over the map, as we sometimes say and seem to have little to do with one another, as I said before.

Mustard seed, yeast, a treasure for which one would sell everything, a net and the scribe bringing out the old and the new.

It seems to me that one of the most obvious things about the parables is that of an abundance which exceeds expecations! Elsewhere in the gospels we are told that mustard is a large plant that comes from a very small seed. Look at the size of a maple seed and the size of a maple tree, or even an oak and an acorn which is a much bigger seed but the contrast is still there.

Look at how much flour you can leaven with a little bit of yeast - and look at what the bread is like without the yeast or without leaving enough time for the yeast to do its work!

I was watching one of those crime dramas on tv one night and there was a sheriff’s auction for storage locker contents for which the renters had defaulted on rental payments - and according to the agreement the owner of the lockers had the right to sell the contents. Now in this one episode there were several bidders but eventually one backed out and the successful bidders began to examine their “loot”. The buyers ended up receiving far more than they bargained for and had to call the police. Their hope, of course, was to find stuff that was worth far more than they paid. They were looking for the modern equivalent of the “treasure in a field”. We are led to ask what we would sacrifice everything we had to acquire? Once we had this thing, would it have been worth it?

Many people who do volunteer work comment that they feel that they receive far more than they give when they spend time with children or the elderly, (for example) or on a specical project. Long ago a friend of mine was telling me how much she received as a volunteer tutor for adults who had never learned how to read.

What is of ultimate value to us? And is this where we spend the most of our time and effort . If our family is of the most importance - then does how we spend our time reflect how precious that family is. If we see caring for and sharing with others as important but then never do any of it - are we really just paying lip service to a nice idea!

The ways of God are not just nice ideas. They are powerful - like yeast in a batch of bread - the bread is fundamentally changed. It is like something that starts as a small seed but its growth is out of all proportion to our expectations. It is about showing all people God’s love and not worrying about the results - not worrying about wasting our efforts on those we deem unworthy - God will determine who is worthy.

Sometimes, oftentimes perhaps, we want our religion to confirm what we believe; we want to be told that we don’t have to change, that we are ok, that we have passed the “test”.

Jesus parables come along and leave us more than a little unsettled. Just what is God really looking for? Lets not worry too much about who is “in” and who is “out” - let us embrace the good news of God’s love and live the gospel which had changed us - and let us trust the power of God will change others in unexpected ways.

Amen.

Exodus 1:8-2:10
Psalm 124
Romans 12: 1-8
Matthew 16: 13-20

Proclaiming Who Jesus Is!

“Who do people say that I am?”

Matthew’s gospel tells us that this was Jesus’ question to his disciples, but it soon became clear to the disciples that this was not really an “opinion poll”, or a survey; it was just a “warm up” to the next question; the truly important question. The next question proved that Jesus was asking each listener to make up his or her own mind. “Who do YOU say that I am?” Matthew tells us that Simon is the one who gives the right answer and he is given the name Peter, which in Greek is the word for “rock”. The double meaning is certainly no coincidence; Jesus declares that Simon Rocky is the foundation of the church. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that it is his declaration that is the foundation of the church. You can’t build a church on the shifting sands of public opinion; a church is to be built on the declaration of who this Jesus is and who he represents!

Before we had creeds in the church, outlining “correct” Christian beliefs: the Apostles Creed or Nicene Creed which many of us memorized in confirmation classes; the church had to rely on brief statements or declarations. One of them would have been “Jesus is Lord”; another, “Christ is Risen!”, and quite possibly another was “Jesus is the messiah, the son of the Living God”.

It would seem to me that if the church is built on this declaration, then we, as the church have the responsibility of declaring this faith, not only in word, but also in action.

“Who do people say that we are?”, is, in many ways, the question for today. For that I will be focussing on the passage from Romans. I focus on Romans because it speaks of the kind of life that gets to the heart of the matter and it compliments the passage from Matthew’s gospel quite well.

The very early church was, in reality, a Jewish sect that was eventually driven out of the synagogue and then viciously persecuted. Despite this persecution, which lies underneath much of what is remembered and recorded by the New Testament writers, Christian communities were thriving. Despite the persecutions people were joining the church and were willing to risk death for the life in Christ that was offered within the community of faith.

In the time of the emperor Constantine Christianity became, for all intents and purposes, the official religion of the state. Eventually the two were seen as inseparable! Indeed, for about 19 centuries the “west” (Europe and the colonized Americas) has been regarded by many as “Christian” - being a citizen of a western country and being Christian were almost the same thing.

I recall a picture in a book on the history of the United Church which showed The Rt. Hon. John Diefenbaker, the then Prime Minister, waiting to take part in the opening ceremonies of General Council of the United Church. At that time it seemed like the natural thing to do for a “National” church. I doubt that a similar thing would happen today! In that time the government paid more attention to what the church said, but these days we have to speak much louder! These days we tend to be much more critical of the government and its policies, no matter who is in power.

For at least a generation theologians have been speaking of the end of Christendom - not the end of Christianity but the end of the assumption that faith and the status quo go together. No longer can we assume being a good citizen and being a good Christian are the same thing.

I do not lament this. I think it gives us more scope to discern what and who our God is calling us to be. It gives us more integrity when we go to government and say, “We in the United Church of Canada, say this: ...”

Paul told the early Christian communities not to be conformed to the world but to be transformed by the renewal of their minds through the Spirit. Of course, not all Churches or even all Christians agree what is the will of God, but I believe that this is part of the wonderful diversity that is the body of Christ!

This does not mean, of course, that all views and practices are acceptable. I have been reading a book by the former Archbishop of Capetown, the Most Rev Desmond Tutu and I recall my studies in the 1980's when we studied the statements of various church councils that declared that apartheid, the system of racial segregation that came into law in South Africa in 1954 and the theological justification of it, a heresy - in other words, contrary to Christian beliefs. There were indeed some churches that saw nothing wrong with such a policy. 1994 saw apartheid dismantled, non-white citizens able to vote for the first time in their lives, and though the country has a long way to go, it is freed from the scourge of entrenched and sanctioned racism and segregation.

Canada has certainly not been immune to racism and our legacy of racism continues to impact the lives of people today. Part of the process of ending apartheidin South Africa and making the transition to a healthy multi-racial country was the “Truth and Reconciliation” Commission.

Our government in seeking to redress the wrongs perpetrated by our system of native residential schools is modelling our own process after the one in South Africa. The residential schools were an insidious alliance of church and government in which the goal was to take the Indian out of the child and the churches and finally the government have had to come to terms with the truth that we must seek to make it right. To do anything else would not show any remorse and would not help in the healing of any wounds.

In not being “conformed to the world” sometimes it takes great courage to go against what is demanded by the state. The midwives in the story from Exodus give us a wonderful example of this. They refuse to kill the boy children and try to cover their tracks by telling the Pharaoh that the Hebrew women are much stronger in childbirth than Egyptian women he knows! The courage of these two women represents the courage of all ordinary people who refuse to obey extraordinarily evil laws. They are like the countless folks who hid Jews from the Nazis during WW II.

Paul talks in his letter about making our bodies a “living sacrifice”. It is an interesting term, for to the culture of his day sacrifices were, by definition, dead. The Jewish practice of Sacrifice has been taken over by Paul and changed to the notion of living sacrifice. No longer did an innocent animal have its life taken but the notion was changed into the positive living of one’s own faith, living for others, with the emphasis being on “living”. Sacrifice became about life and no longer about death and innocent suffering. Most of us are not called to give UP our lives; we are all called to give OF our lives so that the abundant life promised by Jesus can ben enjoyed by others.

As Christians we will sometimes have to “go against the flow”, we will have to “stand up and be counted” as the world seems to be going in directions which we feel are not in line with our faith.

We know that discerning the will of God in this, or indeed in any other matter, is no simple or easy task. As we seek to determine what God’s call is we are cautioned to apply sober judgement to our own ideas while seeing the diversity of the human body as a metaphor for the diversity God welcomes in the church.

This discernment is best carried out in community - using all of the gifts the community has to offer. As a community we can work together to show that we are doing what we can to create a world where no one is left our and the strong do not roll over the weak on the way to success.

We can work together to model simpler living. We can work on things which will improve the lives of those who are on the edge. We can take part in projects designed to reduce our use of our earth’s limited resources.

As people of faith we need to connect our actions with our faith. God’s will is for the health of the while body; God’s love is for all of creation.

We have been called. Let us listen. Let us struggle and discern. Let us act!

Amen!

Exodus 3: 1-15
Psalm 105
Romans 12: 9-21
Matthew 16: 21-28

Mission Statement!

From faith-filled to despairing, and from the sublime to the ridiculous - the last words of many famous folks have been recorded. I suspect this was done because it is expected that these last utterances will say something about how that person lived and what they want to say to those they leave behind.

You can find most anything on the internet; that is where I found the following and many, many other “last words”:

Oscar Wilde, the writer, said “either that wallpaper goes, or I do!”

John Barrymore, actor, retorted, “Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.”

Humphrey Bogart is reported to have said in regret, “I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.”

Some have claimed that , preacher, Henry Ward Beecher said, “Now, comes the mystery!”

While not really his “last words”, The Hon. Jack Layton wrote a “Last Letter” to Canadians, in case his cancer treatments were not successful. This letter, ends with these words, “My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”

It seems that these words have struck a cord with Canadians and perhaps they will indeed compel us as Canadians to become more loving, hopeful and optimistic. In today’s passage from the epistle to the Romans we have a “shopping list” of all of many of the good behaviours and attitudes to which a Christian should aspire.

Throughout the four gospels we have an extensive collection of Jesus’ last words. I’m not talking about the so-called last words on the cross, but rather the teachings, in those parts of the gospels where Jesus is trying to prepare the disciples for his departure. They are words which call upon those listening and other later followers (including you ane me) to pick up where he left off and to live as he lived.

The writer of the Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus spoke these words to his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

This command of Jesus is often quoted and referred to, but I would contend that it is often misunderstood. For example, someone comes down with a chronic illness or a disability develops and then they say, “I guess this is the cross I must bear!” The popular assumption is that cross bearing refers to something over which they have no choice so they need to bear it with fortitude and strength.

NO, that is not what the passage is speaking of. These unfortunate situations can be categorized in other ways, and no one would say that having to live with such a “burden” (if I can call it that) is a good thing, but this passage is not about these kinds of things, about which we can do nothing.

This passage is about choices. In some ways, ALL of today’s passages are about choices. We are called to choose to pick up a cross; we are called to chose the way of the cross; we are called to chose the way of Jesus; we are called to answer the call to faithfulness.

In Jesus day the cross was a symbol of death, specifically a symbol of execution by the state. For Jesus’ followers to live the kind of life he was talking about was to risk death, persecution, misunderstanding, social ostracism and to go against what many would consider the “status quo”. But, we must remember that before it was the way Jesus died; it was the way Jesus lived.

In the movie, “The Help”, Skeeter Phalen, a young white woman who had just graduated from university and wanted to be a writer, and two African-American women Abeline Clark and Minny Jackson, took on the age old segregationist traditions of the deep south of the USA in the 1960's and sought to write a compassionate and realistic expose from the point of view of the women who worked in white households, raised white children and were treated as third class non-citizens and non-persons. They were able to enlist the stories of a number of other women and it became a publishing sensation. Skeeter shared the royalties with all of the women who had helped to make this book a reality.

Skeeter’s book rocked the boat, she took great risks but her book was part of the tide that was sweeping across the nation; a tide that would eventually change their nation forever. It challenged the rich white southerners who didn’t want their world challenged, let alone changed. They don’t get it that gaining status from putting someone else down is simply wrong! They don’t get it and they don’t want to get it, they can’t get it!

Of course this one book did not win the war against segregation in the South; it may not even have won one battle, but it was one step on the long road to justice for the African-American population. Each act of faith and courage put one more chink in the armour which the segregationists had protected themselves for generations.

Skeeter took up her cross and brought out the truth of what so many people were living and brought true justice that much closer.

You could hardly get any better detailed explanation of how to take up that cross, how to live the Christian life, than the passage from Romans that Arthur read earlier in the service.

As I was watching the State Funeral for the Hon Jack Layton yesterday I thought of the closing sentences of his letter could have been a commentary on this passage.

He told his friend and minister, “How I live my life is my act of worship”.

While I would not want to discourage church attendance - I believe corporate worship is vital part of Christian life- I would also say that our whole lives must be lived in the light of our faith - our lives at work and at play - our lives in the world of our work and our leisure must be lived in a way that does not contradict what we claim to believe. Believe me when I say that actions always speak louder than words.

There are so many examples that I could cite of those whose faith was lived out in actions - but we don’t have to be a Mother Teresa, or a Jean Vanier, to be someone whose faith is lived out daily. How does one live out one’s faith?

Clearly it is not easy - crosses are heavy - they hurt the shoulders - the crowd sometimes would ridicule the one carrying the cross, and about to be executed on it - as the death row inmate walked to the death chamber to the statement “dead man walking” - but there are guidelines - and these guidelines can be lived out at home or at work, in how we organize our finances, and our time and what we teach about the meaning of life to the next generation.

There are many community organizations that would not survive if there were not people who spend much time and effort and kept them going for no pay whatsoever.

I think of foster-parents who open their homes and their hearts to children in need and sometimes these children’s needs are such that it is a real struggle to care for them in the ways they need. There are the special foster parents who foster babies until the adoption process is completed and then they have to say goodbye to a child they have come to love, knowing that it is in his or her best interests to move on to an adoptive family.

I think of those who donate to the food bank on a regular basis because they believe that hunger should not exist in Kings county but they cant hire everyone who has no work so they buy Kraft Dinner and crackers and canned soup.

I think of those who sign petitions to change an injustice or to support something which lives out our community’s way of being loving and just and trying to make sure that no one is left behind or left without the basic necessities of life and dignity.

I think of those who pause to thinA few years ago WWJD bracelets became popular, mostly among young people. I have no problem with the bracelets except that I think that because Jesus never faced some of our complex choices we should understand it to mean, “What would Jesus have us do?”

My parents had the habit of putting their offering envelope in the offering plate and setting a loonie or twonie on top of it. One day I asked my father why he didn’t put the coin IN the envelope - it would add up at the end of the year and he said something along the lines of , “Well I figure that once in a while you should just do stuff - without expecting to get credit for it”!

In our desire to show God’s love, which is in the process of changing our lives, we need to keep our focus sharp and our resolve strong. We need to make decisions about life, not just fall into a certain kind of action because it is easier, or cheaper, or more popular. The question is, :What is more loving and more just? What would be a better sigh of my faith?” Make sure your love is real and not put on. Live your life in the light of that love.

Amen!