2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Psalm 138
Mark 3: 20-35

Family Unity

There’s a lot going on today in our church family! We talked a bit with the children about our family birthday, or birthdays and how, in the last month, that’s three birthdays! It’s hard to cram this past year into one sermon, let alone the past 90! Of course, just like our amalgamation here, the vision, discussions, negotiations, debates and, yes, fights, began many years before 1925. We like to forget those matters and. prefer not to bring them to light.

Family conflict is usually very uncomfortable but I don’t know any family that does not have at least some conflict! From the time a couple starts dating there may be conflict between the two parties or with prospective in-laws, and then with children and the cycle goes on and around and around. Church disagreements are never pretty some people believe churches should never fight.

Did you ever notice the line in “The Church’s One Foundation” as you sang it,

“Though with a scornful wonder the world sees us oppressed,
	by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed,
	yet saints their watch are keeping; their cry goes up, 'How long?'
	But soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.”
	

Churches, like families, like to keep disagreements “in-house”; it does not look good to those “outside” when Christians who are supposed to love one another, are at each other’s throats over the colour of a carpet, or even an really serious issue.

In 1925 denominational identity was, very important but it is becoming less so. As we know more and more people are crossing denominational lines to worship in “other churches” for various reasons. For example, some members of Juniper Grove left the United Church to worship in their own community - with the Baptists! !

Comedian Emo Phillips is an ‘off the wall” and irreverent comic whose work I came across a few years ago and I think this piece says something about the kind of divisions that stand in the way of our ability to proclaim the gospel. Apparently, it has been voted the top religious joke of all time! I will remind you that it is meant to be a joke!

“I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said "Stop! don't do it!"”

"Why shouldn't I?" he said.

I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!"

He said, "Like what?"

I said, "Well...are you religious or atheist?"

He said, "Religious."

I said, "Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?"

He said, "Christian."

I said, "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?"

He said, "Protestant."

I said, "Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"

He said, "Baptist!"

I said,"Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?"

He said, "Baptist Church of God!"

I said, "Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?"

He said,"Reformed Baptist Church of God!"

I said, "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?"

He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915!"

I said, "Die, heretic scum", and then I pushed him off the bridge. (Pause)

If you could see this chart I have in my hand you would get a better picture of the religious landscape prior to 1925. Did you know that the Presbyterian church that entered union in 1925 was, in and of itself a product of at least 8 previous unions. Some of he denominational names on the chart sound a little like the ones in the joke To be fair some of these “different” Presbyterian churches existed in only one part of Canada or British North America and not all parts, but it does show how fractured Presbyterianism had become to say nothing of Methodist or congregational churches.

In the sparsely settled prairies, especially, it was almost a “no-brainer” for Protestants to work together rather than seek to found and maintain a church of each kind at every rural crossroads or small town street-corner and people had to decide which differences were or were not worth keeping people from worshipping together.

I think it is human nature to gather with people of like mind and to be wary of people who are different but there comes a point when we have to decide that we can do far more together than separated.

A great deal has happened in Canada and in the United Church since 1925. Most of us do not live in settlements far from neighbours. Now the people who come to church generally do so because they want to, they feel called to, they are expressing faith or seeking something to give meaning to their lives.

We are in a new era of amalgamations and yes, church closures as we decide “who is our church family” and how and where we will set up base to live and work together.

Just as in the time of Jesus the ones we value as “family” may change and not end up being the ones we used to call “family”. Sometimes the decisions of faith call us to make choices with which some decide they cannot live and they decide to leave. Over the last 90 years the United Church has made choices about its common life together, on more than one occasion, that meant the departure of some, but we must keep in mind that none of these decisions are taken lightly and that those who voted for the change firmly believed that they were following the leading of the Spirit. The United Church, at its beginning though, and for the most part, throughout its 90 years has managed to maintain the unity in diversity which was part of its central vision.

Lack of money and people are often the impetus for amalgamations but we must find a common vision if we are to truly thrive. As we continue to pray, work and worship together as Avon United I believe that we will become stronger and find a mission for ourselves in this place that enables us to be the hands and feet of Christ. The people who study these things tell us that we have to have a vision for our coming together, OTHER than survival.

So as we turn a page in our calendar, from 90th year to the 91st, from 1st year to the 2nd let us seek to be the body of Christ not just within these walls but in the communities from which we come and which we are called to serve.

Amen.

2 Corinthians 6: 1-13
Psalm
Mark 4: 35-41

"The Storms of Life"

Today's reading is a familiar one. I recall it from very early childhood and of seeing pictures from my Sunday school lessons of a powerful Jesus standing in the bow of a small boat, his long hair and his perfectly white robe blowing in the wind, stretching out his hand and you could just tell that the storm would be over any second. If you had illustrated children’s Bibles, maybe you have similar memories of these stories?

In Mark’s gospel this is one of those stories that is told as a way of showing both the identity and the power of Jesus. It is a way of showing that in some way Jesus has, or has access to, the same power that brought order out of chaos in the first place. “Who is this man?”

On one level this story is presented as an “event” from the life of Jesus. They were in a boat and only the power of Jesus saved them from capsizing and presumably drowning. We might see it as an impossible tale and doubt that it ever happened. We might very well see it as irrelevant for our lives today. Where was this power when small boats, or large ships or oil rigs were swamped and sunk in storms at sea and many lives were lost?

When we remove this story from the realm of history and allow it to be seen as a faith proclamation and its recorded event as a metaphor, it speaks of a power that can transform our very lives.

What does it have to say to those who struggle to stay afloat on a stormy sea and never seem to experience the calm?

There are a lot of things we can say about these passages but one thing I can say is that they are not designed to beat up those who have not been able to experience the calming presence proclaimed in this story. Some people and communities may use them as “weapons” but that is not what the biblical stories are meant to be. These stories are show us how we can be in the midst of troubles. By providing us with story, parable, or obvious metaphor great truths are proclaimed.

I think it's a good think that my call to ministry came AFTER I had started to conquer my fear of public speaking. I would probably have chosen something where I could work all by myself in a library or something because, at one point in my life, I was scared to death of speaking in public. I don't know about the rest of the Maritimes but in PEI the United Church Men used to sponsor a public speaking contest for young people in grades 4 and above. A few years before I was old enough to participate they changed it from being "boys only" to all young people but boys and girls had separate category. It didn't bother us girls that they gave us our own category, it just meant the men's group had to buy more trophies! I must say that this particular, local, men's group was very committed to young people growing up and mastering the skills needed for a good and productive adult life; they saw public speaking as one of those skills! I seem to recall that they kept the contest going after the presbytery levels were discontinued!

I remember my first speech! I can remember where I was. I can remember what I wore. I can remember being terrified! I can remember it seeming to take an hour for that three minute speech but I doubt it did. I can remember not winning too. I CANNOT remember what my topic was. For some reason I kept at it and finally, one year, I got to the County finals and I encountered a girl whose skills in public speaking far outstripped mine. She was good. She was very good and she won again and again!

Of course public speaking is not a life and death matter. Has anyone ever died of stage fright? I looked it up on my computer and could not find any reports but I did find plenty of advice on how to overcome this fear. One of the major ways is to actually begin to speak in public and do that thing which is most fearsome. I will tell you that one bit of advice I received was to imagine the audience, or congregation, sitting there in their underwear! I guess you are not supposed to be as frightened of a group of people wearing only underwear, but there you have it!

If you look through the gospels you notice that the disciples were not the fastest learners. Even after a number of healings, and displays of “divine like” power, Jesus was still having to ask them, "have you no faith". Spending all of their time with him as they did you would think that a thing or two would rub off on them, but no, they remained quite normal human beings - almost afraid of their own shadow. I think we're meant to see ourselves in the disciples. Despite Jesus' frustration with them he did not abandon them but he continued to care for them, to lead them, to teach them and to guide them toward a fuller faithfulness.

I once took a course taught us a lot about ourselves by having us do some of the tasks of ministry. When we were sitting around in our group for discussion someone might say, "You said you were going to speak to that person but you didn't. Why not? We might say that "I did not do that because I was afraid", but then we would be asked, "What is the worst thing that could have happened?" Quite often the worst thing that could have happened was not really all that bad!

We live in a world that tends to respond to violence with violence and to fear of change and of the unknown, with violence.

As you are all aware there has been another mass shooting in the United States. A young white man gunned down 9 black people in South Carolina, while attending a Bible study, supposedly in the hope of starting a race war. In the wake of police aggression toward black citizens elsewhere and in a State where the symbols of segregation are flown proudly at the South Carolina Statehouse it seemed to some that a race war might not be unimaginable but both white and black leaders have been quick to speak against this man’s action and to call for calm in the face of such hatred and violence. We in Canada do not have that issue but we do have our own problems that NEED to be addressed.

For the past number of years our county has been participating in a process called the “Truth and Reconciliation” Commission. A number of recommendations have been made. Instead of letting it gather dust we must live it out. Instead of doing nothing out of fear of what will happen to us, first nation and descendants of immigrants must begin to write a new and completely different chapter in the history of our nation. Perhaps this story from the life of Jesus of Nazareth has something to say about the fear that paralyzes us. ’We can say that we who follow Jesus must work toward a more just relationship with the first peoples of this land and we will n ot fear. Why are we so afraid to really get to the bottom of the far too many “missing and murdered aboriginal women”. It seems to me that it has to be more than family violence. What are we afraid of in asking the question?

As I have said, whenever the gospels tell us that Jesus is crossing a lake he is crossing a boundary from the known into the unknown, or from land seen as friendly to a place seen as hostile. I think that when we cross boundaries we experience the most fear and it’s quite normal, but that should not keep us from doing the faithful and just things.

Time and time again Jesus shows by his action that he trusted that God would be with him.

What would our lives look like without the tension between people of different ideas, especially between first nations and the rest of us? Wouldn’t it be a much better place to live for everyone?

So no matter what the storm is; no matter how rough the sea gets the Good News is that we are not alone. Knowing this can help us to press on and to trust that the storm will not overwhelm us and that we will not be abandoned. God is with us. Thanks be to God for this Good News

Amen.

2 Corinthians 8: 7-15
Psalm 130
Mark 5: 21-43

In Receiving and In Giving

When I arrived back from study leave in Truro there was an envelope from the General Council Office sitting on my desk. It contained a booklet about a new program for a congregational giving campaign! We will receive the detailed campaign in the fall. The churches who do annual campaigns usually conduct them in the fall so budgets can be set and plans can be made for the following year. It is about as exciting to some as watching paint dry and looked forward to by others with about as much anticipation as they might a root canal or one of those hospital tests for which you have to drink some kind of awful tasting stuff that makes your insides light up like a Christmas tree when viewed on an X-ray! .

By now some of you are becoming very uncomfortable. Indeed, I once heard someone say that in the United Church it is more acceptable to talk about sex from the pulpit than it is to talk about money!

For good or for ill, today is not the day I will take the easy way out; I’ll leave the “sex talk” for another day! .

We are a people who place a high value on privacy when it comes to money. These days, in the church people’s donations are considered private and confidential. Yet, many public institutions have donor walls! You can get your name on the wall for a certain amount of money given over a certain period of time. The more you give the closer you get to the top. They will invite you to a banquet the year your name is put on the wall and the people who give the most get the places closer to the front.

More than one church or church related organization utilizes similar incentives.

We are all familiar with hospital telethons - the hospital in Charlottetown does one as does the IWK. You know how it works. Over a period of many hours various community groups entertain the public in tv land interspersed with various groups and businesses presenting enormous cheques made from bristol board - a law firm, for example, has collected money on “casual Friday” for the previous year and is donating, $2,997.67 from this effort. Meanwhile you are encouraged to call in and give. If you do your name will scroll across the bottom of the screen. If you aren’t paying immediately by credit card you will receive a reminder in the mail with instructions on how to pay. Then, after the donation is sent in you receive a receipt and a thank you letter.

The folks at the hospital in Charlottetown were happy to report to me that between 95-98% of pledged money actually arrives! The IWK reports a rate of around 90%. Apparently industry standards are as low as 60% for phone based fundraising!

There are many stories that could be told about the people and families who have been helped by these hospitals. Many people have wondered: “What is the story behind the campaign Paul is talking about in today’s letter to the Corinthian church?” Why were they so destitute? There are theories but few facts. All we know is that they were in desperate straits and had no one else to help but the followers of Jesus in other places.

This is not the fist time the Corinthian church has heard of the financial problems with the Jerusalem Christians.

We also need to know that there were serious tensions between Paul and the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. An objective outsider would easily understand if Paul wanted nothing to do with that community. However Paul was committed to helping them in a significant way because he saw them as part of the one body and he saw it as part and parcel of following Jesus.

He speaks of “a fair balance” to the Corinthians. There is no point in giving so much that you yourself don’t have enough to live on, Paul would agree, but there is something wrong when you had much more than you need and someone else has NOTHING!

We have all hear the phrase, “charity begins at home.” Many of us are willing to give beyond the point of hurting for family, particularly, grandchildren but what about complete strangers? What about people who have been in conflict with us in the past?

In the recent past the Corinthians had called into the “Jerusalem Church Telethon” and had made a pledge to help out the impoverished Christians of Jerusalem. This is Paul’s follow up letter! He writes trusting in their desire to follow through.

Paul uses the example of the manna in that fed the people during their wilderness years. There was no point in hoarding because it spoiled so each person gathered or received only what was needed.

All ministers know that it’s often easier to raise money for something we can put a plaque on, than it is to raise money for an outreach program.

After today, you wont have a leg to stand on if you claim the early church never talked about money, giving and generosity!

Retirement specialists tell us that in general we have to save more than we have been accustomed to saving in order to have the standard of living we expect in our golden years. Credit Cards have never been easier to obtain and every time you turn around you are told you need the latest and the best of whatever it is - patio furniture, cars, cell phones, big screen televisions, and larger and larger houses! How can you possibly live in a house with only three bathrooms!

What I am saying is that North Americans are encouraged at every turn to transform our wants into needs. Our profit based economy has driven many jobs off shore and impoverished a large number of people who fall through the ever widening cracks.

For every need there is a charity! There are the disease of the month campaigns. You know what I mean: one month it’s diabetes, and then its kidney disease, and then cancer, and finally heart trouble, and I have probably missed a few needs in the cycle of the ‘charitable ask”.

As people of faith we need to take a serious look at our culture in the light of the gospel call, at our own personal finances and at the needs and opportunities for outreach we see around us and make our own decisions about how we will spend the resources placed in our care.

The great reformer and church leader John Wesley said something like this:

earn all you can,

save all you can,

give all you can.

My father used to love to tell the story from many years ago when a cousin of mine was given the task of distributing candy at a family gathering. She happily and importantly doled it out, “one for you, and one for you, and one for you”. UNTIL she came to the last few people and she realized that there was too many people and not enough candy and that, if she continued, there would not be one for HER! I hope that she was rescued by an adult who decided that they had no room for candy after my grandmother’s good cooking, but I don’t know for sure.

We have been raised in a culture which instills in us the fear that there will not be “one for me”. We have been raised in the culture of look after yourself first.

One day a woman at the church brought in some food on Sunday morning for the food bank and I knew that she was a food bank client but she also knew the importance of giving and of sharing what she had with others. I could contrast this with a few people with more money, as far as I could tell, who would refused to give even a can of soup, because “some people” received help that didn’t need it! Or there were some who maintained that because they grew up poor and didn’t have enough to eat, that today’s poor children should have to do the same!

I’m hoping that Avon United could take on two challenges in the next few months. I’ve picked two foods commonly given out at the local food bank.

Could you accept the Peanut Butter Challenge which is to donate 60 Jars of peanut butter to our local food bank? That is roughly the amount of peanut butter given out at the Hantsport Food bank in one month.

As an added excitement I am proposing the Amazingly Tall Kraft Dinner Tower. I wonder how many boxes of Kraft Dinner can we stack before the tower falls over? Just to note that when its tall enough to see over the edge of the pew, I’ll put it on the floor because so we can stack more boxes before Harold has to help! (Harold is about 6'8") When it falls over we will pick it up and take it to the food bank.

Keep in mind that generous people are encouraged to be savvy shoppers buying things on sale to get the best value for our money. when on sale. I thought first that we could line the aisles with peanut butter but that might cause a tripping hazard so a mountain at the front might be better.

Who said we couldn’t have a little fun with our giving? Who knows, it might be so much fun that we could focus on Ketchup or Coffee in the fall.

Remember that charity is not just about the disparity between our resources and another’s need but also on what Christ has done for us (and for everyone!) We have so much says Paul, in Christ, who was rich but became poor for our sakes

We are given grace both in in receiving and in giving. May the Spirit open our hearts so that we are able to be people of both.

Amen.

2 Corinthians 12: 2-10
Psalm 48
Mark 6: 1-13

Nothing to See Here!

At the time of my ordination, back in 1988, the last place I wanted to be to start my ministry was PEI, where I had been born and raised. In fact most of us, especially those of us in our 20's, were deliberately settled at some distance from where we grew up. The transfer and settlement process was very nerve wracking as it left at least the next three years of our lives in the hands of a committee, and presumably, the Holy Spirit. For the twenty-somethings in my class who happened to come from clergy families, the rule of thumb seemed to be “the better known the parent the further from home you should be” when you begin ministry. One wanted to be as far as possible from the areas where “dear old dad” was known.

Part of it is about finding your own voice. Getting your feet wet as a minister is easier when you are a stranger and people have no prior knowledge of you. Considering that there were about 28 ministry positions on PEI back then and I had at least some family connections in at least half of them, I was glad that this policy existed. I did not want to be continually identified as :”Mark’s little girl” Twenty years later, when I was finally back in PEI and one afternoon I walked into a hospital room, for a visit with a patient from Charlottetown who was convalescing from hip or knee surgery in the small community hospital there. When I introduced myself, the patient’s husband, a man in his 80s immediately said, “Oh, you must be Frank’s sister!”

I wonder if all professionals have similar issues: being concerned that people cannot make the shift - from the ‘kid next door’ to doctor, or lawyer or teacher, all newly educated and ready to take their place in the land of competent professional adults.

Perhaps the young teacher is afraid that the students’ parents know all the stories of a wild and misspent youth but perhaps the fear is somewhat misplaced? You might be able to fool the doctor from away about your un-healthy lifestyle or how hard you had been trying to get more exercise over the years but when the doctor grew up with your own kids, and spent as much time in your house as they did in their own, its harder to make that shift; its harder to hide from your own truth and some people would rather not deal with that!

My first sermon in my home church was probably about a very safe topic and I likely thanked them for all of the support they gave me in my six years of university and I was given a few gifts and we had a lovely time. Since that time, I attend worship when I am on vacations and lead in worship on occasion and that is about that! Except for the seven years I was on PEI I was off to my own church, a very safe province away. Sure, people had their opinions about what was going on in the church and sure people talked about it on the phone, or at the hairdresser’s, but it did not involve my relatives! I could speak my own truth without having to worry about my family taking sides or having opinions about how things were going.

Jesus did not have it so easy.

Of course he was not the local kid gone off to university and now coming home all educated, and a newly minted rabbi, he was just the local carpenter, looking into a second career. His was a very class conscious society and regular folks did not become religious leaders!

The content of this sermon is not recorded but perhaps he did not stick to safe subjects such as the Nazareth equivalent of aspirations to “peace, order and good government”, it was a sermon that turned the world on its head. If I were preaching in the USA, I would probably use the phrase, ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. Perhaps he dared to take their scripture and their age old, FUTURE, hopes and said that they were NOW being fulfilled.

For whatever reason, their amazement turns to disdain and they begin to when he claims that NOW is the time for the fulfilment of the age old promises that had kept the people going for many, many generations!.

Notice that they go from saying how proud they all are to, “how dare he! He’s only Mary’s boy”. Did you notice that? Mary’s son! Some commentators have said this because Joseph had died by that time, It may have been true, but I think that it was a deliberate slur - an insult. They all knew that not enough time had passed between the marriage and Jesus’ birth and they stated what everyone had been thinking: “maybe Joseph is not his father!” We’re certainly not going to listen to HIM.

It is interesting that the greater scandal is not the grand promises of God that are supposed to happen at some time in the future but that these promises are being fulfilled right here and right now. They are fulfilled both in Jesus’ words and in his actions of healing and forgiveness.

We have the grand stories of the past, which include the passages we are reading today and we have the passages that seem to be about the future, but what about right now? What about these lazy, hazy days of summer? What about the fifth of July, 2015? What about the 6th and the 7th and the day after that?

I remember hearing the moderator at the time, the Rt. Rev Stan MacKay speaking about the term “Holy Land”, used in reference to the “places where Jesus and the disciples lived and worked”. MacKay, challenged us with the Cree understanding that this land was holy. Canada is the Holy Land? Nova Scotia is the Holy Land. This is the Holy Land, on which we can celebrate the presence of God and participate in God’s plan to bless creation. We joke about this place, or that place being “God’s country”, and we usually mean that its “better” than some other place, but think about it for a moment! Just why is that far away land more special than the place in which we live and raise our families? It makes no sense?

Do we really believe that “this is the day God has made”? Do we believe this day is God’s gift and at least a partial fulfilment of God’s promise? Perhaps the more scandalous part is the idea that we have an invaluable part in fulfilling God’s will in the world.

This is not a new idea; over 1500 years ago, St Augustine is reported to have said, “Without God we cannot; without us, God will not”.

So why are we waiting for something to happen in the future? Why are waiting for something to happen somewhere else? Why are we waiting for someone to come and rescue us.

So Jesus has the audacity to claim to be the one to inaugurate the hopes of the people and asks them to participate in it.

A few weeks ago I attended a lecture series and the lecturer asked us to take another look at the term “Kingdom of God.” Of course when any phrase is translated from one culture and language to another, something is lost. He said that the Aramaic words usually translated as “Kingdom of God” should be rendered “companionship of empowerment”. Part of what Jesus was trying to teach was the paradox of “power in weakness, not in violence”! He spoke of “power with and not power over”. For Jesus, God was not some distant supernatural being, sending thunder, plague and famine as punishment, but a ‘father’ who took delight in his children.

What if we looked at the world as if God was in charge - not the country with the most nuclear weapons, the biggest army; the best credit rating with the international bond raters or the most well known leader? What if the country was viewed by how it treated its weakest members not by how wealthy or powerful. What if we saw salvation, not as avoiding the fires of hell, but as being saved from all of the things that sap true life and separate us from God?

This is the day God has created. In it we can live and praise and serve and know the fulfilment of God’s age old promises! Today is the day to experience God’s blessings - let us give thanks and rejoice.

Amen!