Proverbs 22: 1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Psalm 125
James 2: 1-10 (11-13) 14-17
Mark 7: 24-37

Surprising Teacher/ Surprising Student

At General Council 41 last month in Ottawa the Moderator of the United Church and the chairperson of the Aboriginal Ministries Council signed a revised Basis of Union, which is the Constitution of our Church, which recognized the place of native communities from the very beginnings of the United Church and the value of their spirituality. We also adopted a new crest with new background colours of yellow, red, white and black, which are important in native spirituality and the words, all my relations, in Mohawk. The Mohawk were the first nation to encounter the white settlers whose descendants became United Church. It was an historic moment. It was a moment which said that no longer are native peoples a “them” for whom “we” make decisions, as we did in 1925.

This journey to this moment has not been an easy road. In 1986 the General Council apologized to the native communities for steamrolling over their culture and spirituality. This official apology was “recognized”, but not accepted because we were told that it had to be lived up to and lived into to be sincere. We began to recognize that our culture had done great damage to native ways. Among many other things, we raised money for the healing fund. We entered sincerely into the Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission which is still going on. We had to listen, we had to open our hearts and we had to feel the “sorry” as well as to say it. We are on a journey with our native communities, as a church and as a country, and like many journeys, there is really no ending, just one more stopping place as we grow together in faith and trust. Even though our Maritime First Nations communities are largely Roman Catholic the United Church has taken a role of solidarity and promoting justice in terms of treaty rights and working and living together.

In today’s gospel reading Jesus has been busy teaching and healing and is trying to get away from the hordes of people who seem to need him and need him NOW. Jesus is probably exhausted. He probably just wants to go somewhere where no one knows his name. But he encounters a Gentile woman, who is described as being of Syrophoenician origin. She has come to Jesus seeking healing for her daughter, who is said to have a demon and is at home.

What he says to her implies that he is not going to waste his healing on a “dog.”

In a flash this feisty woman responds, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall on the floor!”

Jesus replies “for saying that you may go, the demon has left your daughter.

As it is written, many, or even most people find this is a disturbing story because of the negative light in which it casts Jesus. We don’t think of Jesus as someone who would insult the mother of a sick child, seemingly as a way of dismissing her request. We must remember though that Jesus was, after all, a Galilean Jewish man of his time. His disciples would not have thought it odd. Remember that they thought it odd that he would give the time of day to children!

The woman would would have heard all of those words before. Imagine the courage it took for her to go to Jesus and ask for healing. Yet, her faith in Jesus’ power is such that she believes with all of her being that “a mere crumb” of his power will do the job. In her reply, she turns the insult into a statement of strong faith. Her response is a lesson for Jesus, teaching him that true faith exists outside of Israel. The Syrophoenician woman taught Jesus that she and her daughter were worth his time and effort! WOW!

Whatever it has to say about “back then”, this story is in the Gospel because it is was believed to have a timeless lesson for the church. We know that in the early years becoming a follower of “the way” was not something done lightly, or just because your parents had done it. They went out of their way to live in charity and generosity. Their lack of concern for personal possessions or money in the bank was noted by contemporary historians.

A colleague reminded me last week that it was the early Christians who looked after those suffering from the plague in the early centuries - historians record that when someone developed the tell tale symptoms of the “black death”, their relatives would cast them into the streets for fear of contracting the disease themselves. The Christian community would take them in and care for them at great risk to their own lives.

One of the more popular books a few years back was, “All I Ever Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten”. Some of the examples in Fulghum’s book were: play fair, put it back when you are finished, clean up your own mess, share everything. All of these are good lessons, but the truth is though that very few of us could live life with only the knowledge gained in kindergarten. These days we are told that we will have to become life-long learners as the workplace is changing so fast!

Somehow though, we think we can live a good Christian life based on what we learned in Sunday School or Confirmation classes. Even if we continued to go to worship on a regular basis some of us held onto the notion that every new idea had to conform to what was already known. When the Sunday School faith falls apart some people leave the church instead of allowing life to help them strengthen their faith.

Sometimes it’s the ideas we learned as children that hold us back. Let me tell you a story! Olaf the Hittite, his wife and family of teenaged Hittite boys moves in next door to one of us. They bought the old farm next door. They worked hard on their farm but we know they wont be any good at it. You lock your doors now because you KNOW that ALL Hittites are useless, good for nothing people who would sooner steal you blind than help you. Most of your friends agree with you and warn you to now only lock your doors but also to lock up your teenaged daughters.

One day you arrive home to see your yard full of fire trucks and see that your house completely gutted. You find out that it was Olaf and his sons who rescued your family from the fire. Now you feel lucky to have Olaf next door and guilty that you dismissed him so readily. Now you all know, I made that story up. As far as I know there are no longer any Hittites left in the world. (Thanks to Ralph Milton for the idea that Hittites are the only safe people to pick on because they don’t exist anymore) You all also know that every so often someone comes along that changes your mind about someone or a group of someones. Some people cannot stand the thought of going to a foreign doctor, or a woman doctor, or having a gay couple live next door or having a lesbian teaching in their child’s school or or having a minister who is also Japanese lead the service at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day! I have disguised some of the specific details in those scenarios but I didn’t make those things up!

The truth of life and the life of faith is that the Holy Spirit is reaching out to us and teaching us day by day. The Holy Spirit is teaching us that all people are loved by God - not just the white, mother-tongue English, United Church, straight, fifth generation Prince Edward Islanders who vote the same way we do in EVERY election.

Really.

Yes, really.

Amen.

Proverbs 1: 20-33 Psalm 19
James 3: 1-12
Mark 8: 27-39

Jesus , You Are a Loser!

The Rev Dr. Donald MacLeod, born and raised in Cape Breton, a Pine Hill graduate, and an internationally renowned preaching professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, held a summer course one year and taught his preaching students that a catchy title for a sermon was essential to filling pews on Sunday. He was, most likely teaching students who would work in city churches where the sermon tile would be posted on the church sign, mid week. People could walk or drive by and decide if they wanted to go and hear that sermon.

He told them that a “Mrs O’Leary” was going to be getting on the bus and taking the route that went by all the famous churches in the city and that on Sunday morning she would get off the bus at the church with the most intriguing sermon title on the sign.

Of course, the students had to preach their sermon in class and before they began their sermon they had to announce the title that would have gone on such a church sign.

The most memorable title one particular summer was, “There’s a bomb on your bus!” From a sermon by the Rev John Sumwalt, Our Lord's United Methodist Church, New Berlin, WI USA You could do that in the years before there were so many worries about terrorists! I wouldn’t recommend it anymore!

Sometimes a sermon title has nothing to do with the sermon, but in today’s case, I hope the reason for my title will become obvious. (pause)

What is the word on the street these days? What are people saying where you drink your morning coffee? What’s the water cooler chatter at work?

Do you remember Newhart, the sitcom set in an inn, in a small town in Vermont? Dick Lauden’s real job was as an author of “how to books” and the inn was really a hobby! The show involved the conversations he and his wife had with many of the oddest locals one is ever likely to meet. One day George Utley, the handyman says to his boss, “you know, Dick, the word on the street is .....: “ He kept on, ”The word on the street is ......” and finally becoming exasperated with this Dick says, “George, just where is this street you keep talking about?”

Most days, I would rather get a root canal than answer a pollster’s questions. They always phone at inconvenient times but I think I dislike polls so much because I can’t fit my answers into their five choices - you know the ones: very unsatisfied, somewhat unsatisfied, satisfied, more than just satisfied or very satisfied - AND because I really want to dictate a paragraph, or two. I want to mull my answers over because if its important enough to pay these people thousands of dollars to ask me questions, I want to give the clients their money’s worth. I also think that I like having complicated opinions. v When approached with the latest poll results, the then Prime Minister, the Rt Hon John Diefenbaker is reported to have said, “... dogs know best what to do with polls”. (Pause)

In today’s gospel it initially appears as if Jesus is taking a poll, with regard to what the word on the street is. What are people saying about me? What do you hear?

Then comes the second, and more important question, “who do YOU say that I am?” Jesus is saying to his disciples, “You have to decide”, “what do YOU think?”

This is indeed an intriguing passage in that it does not end with Peter’s affirmation that Jesus is the Messiah! It does not end there because that faith statement is only step 1 of a much longer journey.

First, lets go back and take a second look at the whole passage. What are we supposed to make of the odd answers that the disciples had heard on the street? No matter how charismatic the leader is who comes forward to lead a political party, or social movement, we KNOW that it is NOT one of our long dead heroes come back to life. Not even Justin Trudeau is his father’s reincarnation. We know this.

In Jesus’ day, it was the same, but perhaps with a few exceptions! A returning prophet was not actually out of the question, especially not Elijah or Moses whose deaths were shrouded in mystery. According to the stories, Elijah did not really die, he was carried off by a whirlwind accompanied by a flaming chariot and Moses was buried by God after he was allowed to see the land of promise!

Sooooooooooooo, since they might not really be really, truly dead, there was a chance that they could come back!

The messiah was a mythic figure whose appearance was supposed to usher in a new age of freedom and prosperity; he would be a new David who would lead Israel to greatness once again. The people had expected this figure for so long many had given up on him. For those who still believed though, this figure would come, gather his armies and take the land of Israel back from the hated conquerors, who oppressed the people. Some day soon, they hoped! Soon, please God, soon!

Now it seems as if the disciples, or at last Peter, has figured out that Jesus, their teacher, is this Messiah. Far from getting a gold star on his progress chart at the front of the class, though, the teacher tells them all to be quiet.

This is most puzzling. Why weren’t they being told to shout it from the rooftops, from the mountaintops, and from the street-corners. Why didn’t Jesus get them to put it on their facebook page or tweet it to every single one of their tweeps!

Why not indeed. Read on, ..... Jesus asserts that the messiah must suffer! Suffer! No, no way. The messiah will make the evil people suffer; that’s how its supposed to work! Bad people will pay for their sins and the good will be vindicated. The good will be rewarded! That’s how its supposed to be. That’s how it must be!

What Jesus says next would turn their their world and their expectations both upside down and inside out. Being a follower of Jesus, as he interpreted the role of the messiah, was not a way to win friends and influence people; it was a way to make a difference. It was a way that would bring suffering, not because suffering was good, not because suffering, in and of itself would do anything, but because that is what happens when people of faith, or even “people of goodwill”, speak truth to power.

Jesus is saying that it’s not about “What’s in it for us”. Followers of Jesus were not called to usher in some earthly utopia with force and violence in which Jesus’ followers were the heroes and the beneficiaries. Neither is it about “pie in the shy by and by”. It’s not about being so heavenly minded we are no earthly good.

Jesus mission, as his ministry seemed to indicate, was about engaging the forces of the world in such a way that they were not defeated by force but transformed through the love of God as shown in Jesus of Nazareth.

One of the authors I read quite often is Marcus Borg, a New Testament scholar. He writes of Jesus encountering the “domination system” of his day and this encounter being the primary reason he was killed. Jesus’ teachings upset the apple cart. His goal was not about getting a reward in heaven; or at least not using this to allow powerful people to oppress weaker people - to their own advantage.

Jesus talked to the “rich young ruler” and told him that giving away all of his possessions was the key to his salvation for him. The man went away sad because he was very attached to his many possessions.

Tax collectors earned a great deal of money collecting taxes for Rome because they could charge as much of a “collection fee” as they wanted as long as Rome got what they wanted, and many became VERY wealthy. After his encounter with Jesus Zacchaeus vowed to give half his money to the poor and repay what he had defrauded a number of times over. The religious leaders, whose temple taxes were the source of their great wealth, were against Jesus teachings because if the people had caught onto it, their own cash cow would have ended as well.

Jesus knew that following in the way he was preaching would get the followers in trouble and would cause suffering - his own death and the death of many of his followers were just a natural consequence of speaking truth to power. The powerful often try to get rid of those who are getting under their skin, or trying to ruin the good thing they have going.

While this might seem to be too social - too practical - and not spiritual enough, it is clear that the early church adopted communal practices as a part of their way of following God. They had a vision for creation which did not involve one person succeeding because of someone else’s diminishment.

Written some years after Jesus’ death, this story also reflects what Mark’s church actually experienced as a result of following Jesus> The early church knew that they could not stop preaching the good news even if it was this preaching that landed them in hot water in the first place.

We must realize that it’s not God who makes us suffer for doing the right thing; its what happens when we decide that the mission of Jesus is about freedom for the captives ; not the freedom to make others captive.

There are some streams of Christianity that teach that the rich and powerful are that way because they have been rewarded by God and the poor are being punished or they teach that the poor simply have to accept their lot in life and wait for heaven to give them their reward!

Jesus would challenge this thinking. He would assert that he came so that all people might have abundant life - not just some and not just a life filled with material wealth. .

In the way of Bay Street Jesus WAS a loser but he was marching to the beat of a different drummer; he was using a different measuring stick.

We have the choice of which criteria we want to use as we live out lives. Are we out for #1 or are we followers of Jesus.

Who do you say that Jesus is?

Esther 7: 1-6, 9-10; 9: 20-22
Psalm 124
James 5: 13-20
Mark 9: 38-50

Hard Choices

In many churches the reader says, as I did this morning, “The Gospel of Christ” after reading the gospel. On sone days though, the reader must really feel like turning the statement into a question, “This, is the Gospel of Christ!” You might wonder if some copy editor back in the day was asleep at the switch and let this one get through the quality control process. Since the days of printing presses there have been editions of the Bible made famous by their typographical errors. However, that cannot account for really odd stories, random and disjointed sayings and seemingly unrelated stories whose connection is not obvious but obviously together as one event in the passage. What IS meant by today’s seemingly disjointed jumble? Can we find some kind of unifying theme?

As I thought about them, I thought of looking at them in relation to the community of faith. “Who can be a part of our community?” “What do we do when things detract from the health of the body?” “Is flavour for one fire to another?”

We know that many professions have specialized training and exams in order to be allowed to work in them. You can’t hang out a shingle as a doctor of medicine unless you are one. The same is true for nurses, dentist, lawyers, accountants, mechanics, carpenters and plumbers among many others. Now, I suppose I would rather hire a self-taught carpenter with good references than a self-taught dentist or surgeon, but, generally speaking, the rules are generally there for good reasons.

In the church there are similar rules. You have to have a certain amount and kind of training to be a United Church minister - officially speaking that is. There is much ministry though that can be done without having a recognized or “official” status, even though most can be better at what they do with some training. There are many things that are done that are not even part of a recognized volunteer committee or group. Some folks who don’t even go to church services do a better job of outreach than those of us who go every week. Just because it is not official does not make it bad.

What is the criteria: is it truly in the name and Spirit of Jesus? Is this a caring action designed to promote healing and to share love and care? Keeping in mind there were no associations of disciples to certify disciples, back in that time, we are told that the disciples were put out that these strangers were healing in the name of Jesus and that it was actually working. Maybe the disciples just had their noses out of joint.

Jesus, on the other hand, looked at it differently. Anyone who could use the name of Jesus for good and powerful purposes was seen as a friend and not a foe and should not be stopped. They were not simply generous humanitarians, they were people who followed Jesus and while they weren’t in “the club”, they weren’t the enemy.

As for leading people astray that was another matter altogether. I don’t think the millstones in Jesus day were as large as the ones that ground grain in the mills that once dotted our Island countryside, which might weigh 1500kgs, these ancient ones might weigh less than a hundred kilos, but they would drown a person just the same.

The image of cutting off an appendage because it has become a cause of stumbling, is stark and uncompromising. “I kind of like my hand, but if it causes someone to stumble, I am better off without it; cut it off!!!!” Harsh! Painful! Crazy!

As far as this part of the passage goes, I think we are safe in assuming that we can take a metaphorical approach! The church community is often described as a body - so cutting off a hand because it causes sin or the stumbling of a “little one” makes more sense. We are not talking about self mutilation, but about ensuring that all parts of the body, and all aspects of community life contribute to the health of the overall body.

For the past number of years, the United Church, among other denominations has been struggling with the legacy of residential schools. Native children were forced to attend residential schools and the mind-set that undergirded them and the things which happened there did untold damage to them and to their children and to their children’s children.

In these schools children not allowed to speak their language, or in some cases have contact with their siblings or with children of the opposite sex. . They were told their culture was primitive and that they were not to practice their spirituality any longer or they would be beaten. They spent long periods of time away from their families and communities.

To make matters worse some were sexually abused by those who were supposed to love them as Christ loved. They were not welcomed in white culture and society and were not allowed to be native because they were forcibly deprived of their way of life, their foods and their spiritual practices. Not allowed to be native nor white it is no wonder that their communities descended into alcoholism and violence.

It is one of the starkest examples I can think of where followers of Jesus have placed stumbling blocks in the way of “little ones” and we, as a church need to repent of both our well intentioned destruction of their culture - which was often tied to our economic control of their lands - and of the abuses to which we did not sanction but turned a blind eye.

We need to listen to their stories and their hurt and allow the salt of the gospel to both be a healing and a cleansing agent in our journey forward together. What amazes me is not the damage that has been done but that people survived and they survived as followers of Jesus - somewhere, somehow enough of that survived - somewhere, somehow they received the strength to speak the truth in love and ask, and demand, that things change and their pain be heard and healed.

But what about us today - here in Kings United. We are on a journey of faith - as we have been since our ancestors gathered together sometimes in the 1800's. Our demons, those forces which keep us from health, wholeness and journeying forward need to be looked at and exorcised.

Determining what it is that we need to do - what we need to change and what we need to keep is not an activity which is new to the people of God. We have been doing it for generations. The epistles were written to churches in conflict over change and differences of opinion. In one of my previous congregations, sometime in the 1800's the Session decided that the church would begin to use an organ for music and some people left because they saw the lowly pump organ as an instrument of the devil. They were not unique in this controversy.

I think if we look at what advice Jesus gave the disciples about those renegade healers we will have sound advice for our time and place.

If we are focussed on the healing and health of the community and the removal of those things that keep us from wholeness of persons, physically and spiritually, we will have a good yardstick by which we can evaluate our ministry. If it does not contribute to wholeness and health, we are encouraged to change it to something that does. “We have always done it this way” and “we have never done it that way” are nothing but excuses not to change. Maybe we need to try something out and see if we can do more for the gospel by doing it this new way. We need to remember, for example, that all of our old familiar hymns were once NEW hymns and when we study it we may find out how new the old ways actually are.

Are we flavouring life as salt adds flavour to food; are we willing to be salted and purified so that we can go forward healed and whole?

Amen!

Joel 2: 21-27
Psalm 126
1 Timothy 2: 1-7
Matthew 6: 25-33

First Things First!

There is that old joke out there about the farmer who saw his friend, another farmer, buying a lottery ticket and asked him, “What WOULD you do with ten million dollars?” His friend paused a bit before he replied, “Don’t really know; guess I’d just keep farming until it was gone!”

Farming is not as easy road - but in both the best and the worst of times it often defines those who do it. Many people In farming now need an off farm job to pay the bills and feed and clothe their children but they still call themselves farmers, they still grow something or raise their animals.

A couple of years ago I spent some time out in the barn talking to my then 20 year old nephew who, like many young people on farms, had bought some chicks and was raising them for his winter spending money. As he was showing them to me I asked him what he liked about raising his chickens and he replied that he liked watching them grow and change.

Growing up on a farm gives children a unique opportunity to observe the cycle of life, season after season, and to see good years, and not so good ones, come and go and to know that these ups and downs are all part of life. They understand, in a way that other children cannot how human life depends upon the natural world.

I don’t know about you, but when someone tells me not to worry, especially if I am not worrying already, I worry. In today’s passage from the gospel of Matthew we hear Jesus telling the people assembled on that day not to worry about their lives - followed immediately by his command to “look at the birds and flowers”; things which last for only a season or so. His reasoning: “if God looks after them, don’t you think you will be cared for as well? Are you not more valuable than they are?”, he asks rhetorically! Well, we think we are, at any rate.

I know my cat worries about her food when I am gone longer than she expects and starts to ration it. Most mammals take concrete actions to protect their young. Do the same mother animals worry about living long enough to raise their young? Do they know all their adult lives that one day they will die. We know is that human beings think about these things. We know that human beings worry about these things. We know that human beings are right to spend time planning for the cycles of planting and harvest and storage and planning for bad years. Yet we also know that for some people planning for a rainy day prevents them from enjoying the sunshine.

As I was reading this passage in preparation for this sermon the phrase that jumped out at me was the line: Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? It seems to me that the advertising industry would want you to think otherwise. Perhaps these days Jesus would say that life is more than food, clothing and the newest technology.

When I began in ministry 25 years ago the great dividing line between young boys was the owning of a Nintendo. If a boy of a certain age had no Nintendo at home, he had no hope of having the other kids come and visit . In that time you couldn’t “save” a game and many a fight broke out because it was time to do something else and the child had just reached a new level and could not possibly leave the game “right then”.

Adults think kids are too absorbed in things like this, but, if we have the right technology, we grownups are now able to pause live TV so that a bathroom break or a family crisis will not make us miss a single minute of the big game or the best part of this week’s episode of our favourite show!

I was watching a fundraising infomercial for “SickKids” Hospital in Toronto yesterday. A number of stories of seriously ill children were told and we were all invited to give so that the miracles could continue. Of course, we have the IWK telethon for our regional children’s hospital. For some of the families on the television there were no miracles though. One particular couple realized that theirs would be a child who was always living with cancer and they had to change their hopes and dreams and to be grateful for each day as it came - that they could not hope not as most people can, for a healthy, growing and active child. These families certainly know that life was more than the right clothes, eating at the right restaurants and having the newest cell phone. Sometimes though, it takes a crisis to make us realize that!

What is life about? Harry Chapin’s, “Cats in the Cradle” is a melancholy song about being too busy till its too late. A son grows up to be “just like” his dad and having no time for others is just one of his learned traits.

At thanksgiving in a wealthy country in a province brimming with agricultural resources its easy to focus on being thankful for an abundance of things - for food and clothing and the like. Yet, many people struggle very hard to make ends meet; some of you here struggle very hard to make ends meet and sometimes you have to chose the bills you will not pay this month. You may be asking, “What is true thanksgiving?”

I wonder sometimes if Thanksgiving has fallen victim to the consumerism that threatens to take over Christmas and Easter. Has Thanksgiving become like this: you must eat mountains of food and you must be thankful!?

I think that when we tie thanksgiving to things and tie it to one day we have missed the point entirely! Considering that the majority of the people in Jesus’ day, at least most of the people to whom he was speaking, lived from hand to mouth, could dream of no such thing as “savings”, how do we make sense of the commands not to worry?

For Jesus, worry showed a lack of trust in God. I recall a parable of Jesus in which he told the story of a man who hoarded all he could, even built bigger barns in which to store all his excess food, declared he had no reason now to worry and then died in his sleep! His mistake was that he saw himself as self made and responsible for himself, only himself.

I know of two families growing up in the great depression. They were both farming families so they had their own meat and eggs and milk but very little cash. They were both equally poor but one still managed to share what little they had with those who had less - they managed from time to time to take a bag of flour to a neighbour who needed it - or something else the family did not grow, or could not buy. The other seemed too poor to share, they barely had enough for themselves. The children grew up with completely different attitudes toward stuff and even when both were in a position to have money to spare - one saw life from a lens of generosity which enabled them to share with a thankful and generous heart while the other saw life through a lens of scarcity that made giving grudging and stingy.

I find it interesting that there is nothing quite like sharing, even when we don’t think we have enough, to put things in perspective. Thanksgiving is not about stuff. Thanksgiving is not an abundance of food, or even enough food, it is about cultivating an attitude of gratitude. Thanksgiving is about realizing our dependance upon God and upon others. Let us be clear here, an attitude of abundance is not what causes us to waste things, an attitude of abundance allows us to share what we have with those who need it instead of the attitude of scarcity which says, “There’s not enough so I need to save as much as I can for myself and my own family.”

There truly may not be “lots more where that came from”, but we are blessed by God’s grace to be a blessing to others. The life of blessing is an attitude which frees us from the burden of it all being on our shoulders and it frees us to live a life of thankfulness and praise.

Amen.

Job 23; 1-9, 16-17
Psalm 22
Hebrews 4: 12-16
Mark 10: 17-31

When Your Hump Gets Stuck in the Eye!

For my internet friends I just want to say that I got the title from someone else but cant remember where I read it. I have used it myself at least twice before when preaching on this text but I am sure I am not that creative!”

Kevin O’Leary is one of the “dragons” on the tv show, “Dragon’s Den”. That is the show where people with a new and innovative product such as “solid honey drops” or a new and innovative design for baby diapers go to pitch their products in order to gain investment dollars to either get their product to the market stage or to expand an already established market. In exchange they give a percentage of their company to the new investor. The dragons compete with one another for the best pitches by offering the most money for the smallest amount of control. On one episode, Mr. O’Leary, said something like, “I don’t really care what the product is or does, my only goal is to make M O N E Y”. Of course the entrepreneur facing the dragons wants to make money too but it is the product that has excited them for some reason in addition to the hope that they can make it a part of their livelihood.

The gospel story is familiar; most of us have known it since childhood. A man comes to Jesus asking what else he needs to do to inherit eternal life; he already keeps the commandments. Jesus tells him that he needs to get rid of all his stuff and follow him.

Sell all that you have.

Give the money to the poor.

Come follow me.

We are told that the young man went away sad because he had great possessions. Notice that we are not told if he actually followed through or not. I think we have assumed that he did not, but if we think about it, he could have - went and did albeit reluctantly what Jesus said, then followed.

A well known service club held their annual meeting. Part of the meeting was devoted to the promotion of their organization to eliminate polio. Each member was given a donation envelope bearing the words, "Money is the root of all good".

"Money is the root of all GOOD"! (Pause)

"MONEY is the root of all GOOD"!(Pause)

In that instance money was good, as long as the polio foundation had it and was not still in the donor’s bank accounts.

If asked for the quote from the Bible on “money and evil” most church folks would say that it is: “money is the root of all evil” when the actual quote is: “the love of money is the root of all evil,” and comes from Paul’s letter to Timothy.

After the rich young man goes away sad to contemplate his options, Jesus tells his listeners that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. How big is a camel really? The hump of the average full grown camel would rise to a height of about 7 feet before it was saddled and loaded for work. That’s a big animal!

I love watching reruns of “All in the Family”, and one of my favourite scenes has to be the one where Archie and Michael, neither of whom are small men, are trying to go through a doorway at the same time and they become stuck, and have to struggle to free themselves. Since this was usually videotaped before a live audience I wonder how much practice was needed to get it “just right” for the audience.

Many attempts have been made the explain away the ludicrous picture we get in our minds of a fully loaded camel, trying to pass through the eye of a needle. There is the one explanation that “the eye of the needle” was a small gate in the walled city of Jerusalem and a camel could not get through except by crawling through on its knees - which a camel can do, but not loaded down with stuff.

OR, it is supposed that an early copyist got the word wrong - since the Greek words for rope and camel are spelled almost the same, it is supposed that Jesus meant that it was easier to thread a needle with rope than for a rich person to get into the kingdom of heaven. At least the illustration makes more sense.

When we get right down to it though we probably should just accept that Jesus was probably using a hyperbole, a figure of speech we all learned about in high school English class. A hyperbole employs obvious exaggeration to make a point. Actually, the text implies that it was a common saying! “You have heard it said....”

Someone might say that they would not take this or that job “even if they were paid a million bucks!” , or “not for all the tea in China”. We know what it means but if we take it literally it becomes kind of silly

What would you do for $1 Million? Have you ever heard the story about George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright. He met a beautiful woman at a party and asked her if she would sleep with him for a £ million. She answered that she probably would. He then asked her if she would for £5, ti which she replied indignantly, “What kind of woman do you think I am?”

Shaw then responded, “We have already established that ma’am. I’m just negotiating the price!”

Most of us like money; the only problem most of us have with it is that we would like to have more of it.

In 2001 the World Trade Organization passed the “Doha Declaration” granting poorer countries the right to low cost medications for illnesses such as HIV and cancer. For example the last figures I have read indicate that HIV drugs in the west can cost over $10,000 a year while in India they can be manufactured and provided for about $150. Western countries and the pharmaceutical giants are trying to stand in the way of such low cost drug programs.

Why? Because of the money. The drug companies want to protect their patents, and thus, their profits. To be fair to the drug companies, because of the resistance of viruses, they constantly need to develop new drugs to keep ahead and this research costs money, lots and lots of money. Then they advertise in order to get the patient to ask their doctor for the newest and most expensive drugs, even when, in most cases, an older and cheaper drug may be just as good, or better.

Did you know that Bayer held an exclusive patent on ASA, which they call Aspirin, from the late 1890's until 1917 - and for the past 95 years they have charged more for Bayer Aspirin than others charge for the same drug and it has been in the market for over 100 years.

We all know about the widening gap between the rich and the poor. The Occupy Wall Street movement began when a bunch of people who classified themselves as the 99% wanted to stand up and have the well off 1% notice them and, we would assume, change the economic system that made them so wealthy at the expense of the majority.

As middle class church goers we sometimes think we should not be talking about money but about so-called moral issues. We need to be reminded that Jesus talked a lot about money and economics. In fact, I would say, that what we do with out money is one of the biggest moral issues we face today.

How important is the stuff in our lives? A number of years ago I went on a Christmas House Tour. You know the kind of thing where you pay to visit a number of houses beautifully decorated. Not all the houses were big and grand but many were. One of them was particularly grand with porcelain dolls and teddy bears everywhere. All of the items on the walls and in the cabinets was designed to ‘go’ or ‘match’ in some way. A friend knew the teenage boy who lived in the house and knew he felt very restricted in “Mom’s house”. It was certainly not the kind of place he and his buddies could go and feel at home - after all, they might break something!

I remember an episode of the Brady Bunch. Early in their time as a blended family it was discovered that one of the girls was allergic to the Brady dog, who had been with the boys for some time. The adults decoded that the dog had to find a new home and the boys were protesting all the way. The adults knew that the health of the girl was more important than the dog but it was a hard lesson to learn. You may also remember that in the end all they had to do was change the dog’s flea powder.

As we watch this young man walking away with his head down we wonder if her did do that one thing that kept him from truly experience the abundant life offered by Jesus.

I think we can extrapolate this to many of the changes people sometimes need to make to get their lives back to where they belong. What thing or activity would you give up for the health of your child or the health of a primary relationship? What is most important? Think of the struggle that a person might have before they attend their first AA meeting. Give up alcohol! Give up alcohol and you will find a full and abundant life. How many times does the alcoholic go away sad because the sacrifice seems to great or unnecessary?

Think of the struggle a parent has before they broach the topic of possible drug use with a teenage child. Or the struggle to be honest over issues which can arise in a marriage and admit that counselling will be essential to finding a healthy relationship once again. Or the realization that one needs to go to the police about a crime with which you have gotten away but has caused another to suffer.

I think that if we make this passage just about money and just about stuff, it loses some of its power. For this young man it was his possessions which had gotten in the way of making that final step of commitment; for others it could well be something else

Is there something keeping you from full and abundant life. What is it that ties you down, or ties you up? Deal with it. Give it up. You don’t have to do it alone either.

In so doing you will discover that you are not far from the Kingdom of God.

Amen.

Job 38: 1-7, (34-41)
Psalm 104
Hebrews 5: 1-10
Mark 10: 35-45

True Greatness

If you made it to the Olympic Games and you knew that you could help SOMEONE ELSE win, but also knew that this help meant that you would finish way out of the medals, would you do it for that person? Would you do it for Canada? Colin Jenkins did it for Simon Whitfield and a silver medal for Canada at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

What if you were given $20 by a stranger and told that by 5:00 PM you had to either to give it away or buy something for yourself, would you be happier if you kept it for yourself, or if you used it to give something to someone else.

Are parents happier than those without children? Studies have shown that most parents are not actually “happier” while their children are at home, but also indicate that most do consider the often considerable sacrifices involved in parenting to be worth it.

As I was driving from one place to another on Friday afternoon, I was listening to a program on the CBC on sacrifice. This was on the CBC program, “And the Winner Is” and it was a broadcast of an episode of DNTO - Definitely Not The Opera - which has wona “Gabriel Award”. Yes, DNTO is usually broadcast on Saturday! and I was listening on Friday.

The incidents I listed were among a number of others on a program titled, “Sacrifice, What Do you Gain By Giving Something Up?” The CBC program indicated that humans are hard-wired for sacrifice We regularly make choices which involve some kind of sacrifice.

Reflecting on it I think there are two kinds of sacrifice - sacrifice for the other and the kind of sacrifice that involves short term pain for long-term gain.

A single mom who gives up a child because someone else can give him a better life or a single parent in an impoverished country comes here as a nanny for other people’s children and leaves her child in the care of grandparents because it is the only way she can see for her children to get an education might be examples of the former kind. The sacrifices students make while getting an education for a well=paying profession might be an example of the latter kind. People go through the long nights of studying and the living on student budgets because of the payoff of the career they want and the bigger salary.

What is it that brings true satisfaction in life?

There was once a child who was sent to Sunday school one morning with some money for the Sunday school offering. When she arrived home she was eating a popsicle. Her mom asked her where she got the money and she said that she had only given half of her money to the teacher and she saved the other half so that she could buy a treat for the way home. Her mother said, “You know that it says in the Bible that the Lord loves a cheerful giver.”

She replied, “Yes mom, I know that! I decided that I would be more cheerful if I gave only half the money to the teacher and bought this popsicle with the other half!”

There is a food bank campaign going on at the moment; I believe that different communities are competing for bragging rights over the most food collected for the food bank. I was shopping for groceries the other day and before I entered the store I saw a bin where I could deposit my bags of “refundables: so that the food back could get the .05 cents each instead of me taking them to redeem them myself. I didn’t know it was there so I did not bother going back to the car and collecting up the four or five bottles and cans living on the floor of my car. Inside the store there was a woman sitting at a table also trying to raise money for the food bank. I could buy a bag of food items for $5 or a bigger bag for $10 or I could buy a ticket for a 50/50. I looked at the bags of food and felt I did not need any of the items so I gave a donation. I told her that I did not want it to go into the 50/50 pot and she promised it wouldn’t. I often wonder about those kinds of draws. I have to ask myself why we need to play to people’s hope to get something for themselves even as we are raising money for a charitable cause, such as the food bank of a community benefit! A benefit is a community musical concert put on so that the money raised will go to a person in need, ie, a person with a medical meed or someone whose house has burned down and the community wants to help! There is usually a donation box, door prized, and often raffles on donated goods and a 50/50! Why cant we just give? Does this slight hope of a big return entice us to give more? Hockey teams and various youth organizations seem to rely on the 50/50 for a large part of the fundraising. Why can’t we just give; why do we have to get something out of it, other than the work of the charity or team or youth organization itself.

What’s in it for me?

James and John, mentioned in today’s gospel were sons of Zebedee. We don’t know much about him, except that he was a fisherman and that his sons left him alone to follow Jesus. Fishing was probably like most other things in that time; you made a living but had little else to show for it.

When they changed species to fish for people, I wonder if James and John set their sights on bigger rewards. What was all of this sacrifice going to get them? We are told that they approached Jesus privately and asked him for positions of honour. For whatever reason, they seem to have regarded themselves as above the rest, and deserved more in terms of rewards. The request to sit Jesus’ right and left side in glory was seen as a request for great privilege. When the rest found out, they were not happy. As we look at Jesus reaction it is as if he might as well have said to them, “Haven’t you been listening; haven’t you been paying attention. This isn’t about getting a bigger piece of pie, because it just isn’t about the things this world sees as important. Don’t you get it. It’s about servant-hood. It’s not about what you can get out of it, it’s about what you give; it’s about not counting the cost.

I think at this point Jesus knew that he would not survive the opposition of those whose vested interests he was questioning, but he had hoped that his mission would live on and grow. For that to happen his disciples had understand his upside-down message. They had to have “gotten it”. It must have seemed at that moment that the 12 were just like everyone else; they wanted the best for themselves! All of his sermons asked people to turn their expectations upside down and inside out - and here these two were, and here the twelve were. as if they had heard and understood nothing.

Following Jesus is not about power. Following Jesus is not about getting to be first in line for the best seats in the house. Following Jesus does not get you a seat at the head table at the heavenly banquet. Following Jesus is about servant-hood. Some churches teach that the faithful will be rewarded for their faithfulness with worldly wealth, but I don’t think that is what the gospel really teaches. Faithfulness has its own rewards but these rewards are not about wealth and power and honour.

I don’t think God wants people to be poor, but I am not sure if God wants anyone to be rich when there are people who are starving and there are those who can do something about it. I don’t think God wants some people to be rich because many are so poor they don’t have the necessities of life. World wealth distribution is a complex subject but we can’t solve the problems without examining our own lives and our own society and asking the tough questions. Is our wealth here creating poverty elsewhere?

John F Kennedy, who has been called the best President Canada never had, once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you but rather what you can do for your country”; it is one of his most famous quotes.

Let us take some license with this and change it to “community of faith”. “Ask not what your community of faith can do for you but rather what you can do for your community of faith.” Let’s change it to “the way of Jesus”. “Ask not what Jesus can do for you but rather what you can do for the way of Jesus.”

What’s in it for us? or What can we give?

There are some people who go through life as if the world owes them something, and others live as if they have been blessed and are paying back for what has been received.

Do we come to church or become involved in church because of what it gives us, OR because of what we can give to it, or what we can give to others because of it?

Why do we come here each week? Is it because of what we hope to get out of it or is it because we find something here that enables us to serve the gospel in the next 6 days -

The poor clueless and somewhat selfish sons of Zebedee get a wake up call today. They realized they were operating with old world values in the new world of the gospel. As always though there was and is a tomorrow. Tradition tells us that they did live lives of giving and that while John lived to a ripe old age and died of natural causes, James, his brother was the first of the original 11 to be martyred for his faith.

So let us look at our lives and our motives and begin to ask the question “how we can serve?” more often than we ask the question, “how can we receive more than we have already received?”

We may indeed find truth in the paradox of Jesus’ upside down world.

Amen.

Job 42: 1-6, 10-17
Psalm 34
Hebrews 7: 23-28
Mark 10: 46-52

Open Our Eyes!

You flick on your tv on the screen is a couple in a car driving on a country road while having a heated conversation - the one driving is spending a lot of time looking at the passenger during the conversation. Or you see a parent who is paying more attention to the child strapped into a car seat in the back, or perhaps not so safely strapped in - sometimes even threats will not keep a child in his or her booster seat! I don’t know about you, but as I am watching the tv show I wonder, “‘will they have an accident?”

We know from our own experience that driving requires most or all of our attention. That is why there are laws about using cell phones and GPS units while driving. Years before the days of cell phones, I knew a minister who was pulled over by the police because he was driving erratically. The officer, who knew him, walked up to the window and said, “Reverend, Please, STOP trying to read your mail while driving!”

We also know that you can look at something and still not see or appear to be looking but not really paying attention and not really registering what you should be seeing. Have you ever arrived at work and realize that you do not remember part of the drive? Sometimes I am amazed there aren’t more accidents than there are.

Former slave trader, John Newton, by then a priest in the Church of England, wrote the hymn, Amazing Grace, as a sermon illustration for New Year’s day in 1773. The tune to which we sing it 99.9% of the time was not written until many years later. Did you notice that it appears in Voices United Unit4ed Church of Canada hymn book in 8 languages! I have heard it sung in Cree and a few of the other languages in the book in addiction to French and, of course, English!

One of the metaphors employed by this hymn to talk about grace and forgiveness is that of blindness. Newton wrote that he “ was blind but now I see.”

As far as I know Newton did not suffer any form of physical blindness until much later in life, but it seems that he interpreted his previous life, for the purposes of this hymn, as a state of blindness. Newton was “converted” during a severe storm at sea but it was not a once and for all, complete kind of conversion. He immediately gave up gambling, profanity and drinking. During a bout of fever while on another voyage he made a confession of his full belief in Christ and asked God to take control of his destiny. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton#Spiritual_conversion As it is for most people, the journey of faith for Newton was gradual and he did not become fully cured of his “blindness” for some time.

Of course, it is common for us to use “sight” as a metaphor for understanding and insight. If I am explaining my position on a difficult issue someone may say to me, “I see how you would feel that way”. If a math teacher is explaining the finer points of some concept in geometry or trigonometry she may say to her student, “Do you see?” When I was taking a course at AST titled “Ministry With Women” I learned a song that had come from the women’s movement, “Sometimes I wish my eyes had never been opened.” by Carol Etzler Eagleheart Once I know that some women live horrible lives at the hands of violent and abusive fathers and husbands, I cannot go back, I cant “un-see”. Once we knew about the lives of the children in the Residential Schools, we as a church, had to say, “we see and we are prepared to do something about this!”

Sometimes our problem is that we really don’t want to see. We don’t want to be changed because we like things the way they are!

When looking at a biblical story, its place within the broader context can be as important as the details within the story.

Last week we read about James and John going to Jesus and asking for positions of honour and privilege. As far as we know their physical vision was 20/20 but we discover that they had no insight into the concepts of servant leadership or of Jesus’ upside-down kingdom. Jesus had to be very direct when he told them that life in his kingdom was one of service and not of privilege and honour.

Today we meet bar-Timaeus - a man with no name of his own; (the name given: bar-Timaeus literally means “the son of Timaeus). What we know about barTimaeus is this: he was blind and a beggar, probably because there was no work he could do to support himself. We find out that he sits by the side of the road, wrapped in his blanket like cloak and depends upon the charity of others. You can imagine the people tiring of his calling out, day after day, “mites for the blind, mites for the blind”. Many he made people annoyed with his persistence, or maybe his mere presence made them down right uncomfortable.

I once knew a deaf man who knew more about what was going on in the community than most hearing people. Even though he could not see, Bartimaeus knew somehow that it was Jesus who was coming and that Jesus had the power to give him sight.

Do you get the irony here! This blind man, this man on the fringes of the community, is the one who has a great deal of insight into who Jesus is. He appears to have more insight than some of Jesus disciples who are in the inner circle. He has to be forceful to overcome the crowd who would have shut him out if they had their way. He leaps to his feet and throws off his cloak, probably his only possession, when Jesus asks for him and asked him, “What do you want me to do for you bar-Timaeus?”

Remember that Jesus asked James and John what they wanted and they requested positions of honour; by contrast, when he was asked, bar- Timaeus asked for sight.

The irony is obvious: the Good News about Jesus is surprising and shocking, even. It is about the unexpected person being a recipient of grace and healing. It’s NOT about the things or people the world sees as important.

Every so often we encounter a child with a particularly keen insight into a particular subject and we marvel at his or her insight and wisdom. Such an encounter is a “kingdom moment”.

We would have to be totally out of touch and never listen to any news not to know there is an election going on in the United States. Both Obama and Romney and their supporters will spend around $900 Million dollars each before all is said and done.

Now for a great Canadian opportunity! The job of leader of the Federal Liberal Party is up for grabs - if you have $75,000 for the entry fee. You are only allowed to spend $950,000 as long as you don’t go in debt over $75,000 - or those are the rules as I understand them! I will tell you that if I had $75,000 I would not spend it by going into federal politics!!!!!

There are a number of current political issues regarding schools and roads and who gets new ones and who does not and we all get very involved in the issues - or at least we have an opinion on most of them. Most MP’s and MLA’s spend their days fielding requests and concerns from constituents about being left out, or not getting enough, wanting a better deal, and the widespread view is that a Member’s job is to get as much for the riding they represent as they can.

We all know there are people who are worse off than we are. As Canadians we also believe our Government has a duty to respond to crises in other countries and provide relief for things such as flood, earthquake or famine. As Christians who live in a democracy, we believe it is our duty to contribute out of our own resources as well as encourage our government do so on our behalf.

As Christians we can’t really separate our public and private lives; our political, our family and our social lives all fall under the umbrella of our faith. Do we vote for the party who will do the most for us, or do we vote for the party who will effect the most good for the largest number of people.

We are approaching the time of the church year where the nominating committee will be calling to find people to serve on boards and committees. I can promise very little honour and prestige - as Session members or Stewards or as trustees - but there are genuine opportunities to serve and to help our church to become more healthy and vital and a more faithful witness in these communities.

We may be like Bartimaeus, calling out to Jesus for mercy, calling out for some attention. Yet when we are asked what we want, what do we answer. Are we looking for honour or glory for ourselves like James and John. Are we looking for sight so that we can be better followers of Jesus? What kind of world do we envision when we think of the will of God for this world.

May God open our eyes so that we can see.

Amen.