Luke 14: 1, 7-14 I have a question for you. If an Air France jet crashes exactly on the international border between Quebec City and the State of Maine, where do they bury the survivors?” Or a better one, “if a rooster is perched on the ridgepole of a roof which runs east to west and there is a strong wind blowing from the north, what side will the egg run down? I could go on, but both of these questions are either jokes or tricks because they do not bury “survivors” and roosters DO NOT lay eggs. No doubt, you’ve seard them before! According to the Gospels there were a group of Pharisees (by no means, all of them) who were intent on picking holes in everything Jesus said or did. It is clear that Jesus enjoyed table fellowship with all sorts of people including Pharisees as well as those they would class as sinners; people who not belong to the “children of Israel.” We should be careful when we attempt to interpret this passage in the 21st Century. The ongoing violence in Israel and the occupied territories can colour our perceptions if we let it. Neither Muslim or Christian communities existed at the time Jesus was preaching - so placing modern labels on the situation can be very misleading. Some of the Pharisees present are watching him, to trip him up and to be able to say, “gotcha” when he made a mistake. When I was a student at AST we were well aware that the professors and our supervisors were evaluating us all the time. But in the ensuring 35 or s years the evaluation still happens, its not just professors and supervisors, anymore. Jesus had also been observing them. Not only were there no “sinners” in their circles of friends but some, at least, tended to attempt to associate with those of highest status. Some folks who go to lectures love to sit at the same table as the presenter at the meal following. Some preface all of their questions with a list of things they know before they ask their question. If we were to see Anne Murray, or someone we were sure were William, Kate and George at Foodland, would we attempt to “accidentally” encounter them in the soup aisle? You see, Jesus saw, in their attention only to the “important people” as a sign that they too had flaws and growing edges. As a community of faith we need to ask ourselves, “are we as welcoming as we claim? Do we truly believe that the Good News is for everyone! Let us ask ourselves this question each time we gather and may we be readdy for the answer! Amen Beth Johnston

Deuteronomy 30: 15-20
Collingwood, Springhill
Psalm 1
Luke 14: 25-33

“Once More, With Feeling!

Many transitions are hard. This week I have seen dozens of “first day of school” posts on Facebook. These children are transitioning from childhood to Kindergarten or Grade Primary (its actual name depends on your province) They are moving up a grade. They are leaving summer behind and “ready or not” trading their carefree life of summer for paying attention to their teacher and learning new routines. I talked with a retired teacher on Friday about the difficult concepts that all children must learn - such as fractions, and guzzintas! You’ll have to figure that word out on your own out, but I can practically guarantee that everyone knows by Jr High!

Greetings! (Collingwood United Church family) (Greetings St Andrew’s Wesley United Church family). This Sunday marks the transition from Cottage Season to life at home. Some of you aren’t back yet, or you have just come to get a glimpse of the new minister! If you aren’t here you may get a report from someone else. I hope it will be favourable!

Most United Churches use what is called a lectionary to guide its worship life. Our church year begins in late November or early December and proceeds through Christmas and Epiphany, Lent and Pentecost and every 52 weeks Advent comes again and things go round once more. The cycle hits the highlights of the life of the Hebrew people, the life of Jesus and the teachings of the early church. I’ve followed that course for over 35 years. Over those years some passages have guided my sermon every cycle while some have never been a subject for my sermon.

However, most people, even clergy, don’t live 24/7 according to the lectionary. If you have children in your life the year starts in early September, takes a few short breaks here and there and ends mid June. If the young people in your life are in sports you go from tryouts to playoffs to whatever happens between seasons or different sports. The greeting card cycle includes Thanksgiving, Mother’s day and Father’s Day, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, Easter, and Halloween as well as birthdays, anniversaries and expressions of sympathy. There are shopping seasons. Stores begin to display back to school items almost as soon as the final bell rings in June. This overlaps with Halloween. Are those stacks and stacks of boxes of chips for Halloween or for children’s lunches; or both? What about the months long lead-up to Christmas. How many shopping days are there until Christmas? In case you want to know - 109 days; counting Sundays. There are seasons for groups like Scouts and Girl Guides and other young people’s groups. There is the school season which is governed by things like “March break” and “Christmas Vacation.” Then there is the flu vaccine season and we can add to this COVID booster season!

The seasons all overlap and affect one another. There are the seasons for regular TV shows. Our favourite shows go from season premiere to season finale in a predictable fashion, unless, of course they are pre-empted by hockey or baseball, OR footbnall or curling!

We never know when the crisp fall air will remind us that we have a real home, away from the beach sand and nightly campfires. In the era of global warming, it is still quite warm, and may well be for awhile but living at the cottage may not be as enticing without the nightly campfire, which, may become a relic of summers past. In church we are usually trying to meander our way through these various calendars with each one demaning greater priority.

Some life transitions are more traumatic or difficult than others. Over 40 years ago, this week, the entire first year class was called to gather in Mount Allison’s Marjorie Young Bell Convocation Hall for an assembly. I think it was our only one while I was there, unlike the more frequent gatherings in my High School. We were told something like this, “in four years (or three for some of you) half of you will be back here to graduate; it’s largely up to you if you make it into that group.

Years before, my mom’s brother, gathered for a similar assembly, as he prepared to begin an engineering program was told, “Say hello to the young man on one side of you and then to the young man on your other side (and in the late 40s, they were ALL men) and now say good-bye to one of them! For those who were the brightest and best of their former schools, it was sobering!

Medical school graduates are also told something similar as they begin residency. “This will be too hard for many of you; you will not survive and be forced to chose an easier specialty.

I suspect that the course of study for many professions have similar “welcome to the program” lectures or warnings. I remember the student who was suspended for a year because her specialty had become partying; she had little time for studying. I don’t know if she ever returned to complete her degree. I don’t remember the so-called “Christmas grads” at all, the term we used for those who did not return after the first Christmas break!

Long before the season of Annual Meetings (o, yeah, I forgot about that one) we are looking for replacements for those who have served their terms or who want a change or who have passed away!

When we ask a church member to volunteer for a position - for example, as a trustee or a board member SOME CHURCHES try to trick unsuspecting candidates by saying, “oh, there is nothing to it, only one meeting a month” even when all the people already involved with the boards know that the job gets you on another committee which also has one meeting a month. While I would not recruit someone new by saying, “you will find this so hard and time consuming that it will take over your life and your family will become strangers! In the world of church governance we need to walk the fine line between what must be done and having the best people in those positions.

Maybe Jesus was looking for the “shock value” or maybe he was simply looking at commitment to his way of life as “more than a lark, a part-time fancy” as more than jumping on a bandwagon but as something that should be of greatest importance. In the passage from the book of Deuteronomy, the rag-tag group of those whose parents had fled Egypt in the middle of the night and are raising their families in the wilderness are given a choice, or rather an ultimatum. Choose now where your allegiance lies! Follow the ways of life that God showed to you and to your ancestors in the wilderness. Or you are done for!

You can find a fascinating amount of stuff on the internet. For example, you can find the records of almost every Canadian who served in WWI including my grandfather, Dr John McCrae the man who wrote “In Flanders Fields” and the man widely considered the greataest flying ace of WW1, Lieutenant William Avery Bishop. Each and every one of these recruits was required to attest that they knew the nature of their commitment. More than 66,000 did not return and countless of the ones who did return brought the physical and psychological scars with them.

So we have in today’s passages, several warnings. This life of following Jesus, this faithfulness to the God of their ancestors, this God of freedom, demands your “soul, your life, your all” as Isaac Watts penned in in 1707, in the concluding words of, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”.

While I have mentioned briefly involvement within the Community of Faith, or congregation, it would be a mistake to limit Christian commitment to that. It is so much more. One of the questions I have often asked the congregations I serve, “where is the church of Jesus Christ on Tuesday.” Where is the community of faith when we are not in this building or doing something obviously connected to following in the way of Jesus? How is faithfulness shown in our everyday lives? Along with his flamboyant clothing for which he was known, Champion, golfer Payne Stewart often wore a WWJD bracelet - the initials meaning, “What Would Jesus Do” as a testament to his faith. Sadly, Stewart died in a plane crash in 1999. Despite the popularity of the WWJD bracelets which I have worn, I think the better bracelet should ask WWJHMD - meaning, “What Would Jesus Have Me Do?” I suspect that Jesus actions in some situations would give us clear advice, but most of our lives are lived in situations of which the man called Jesus of Nazareth would have no experience whatsoever. What would Jesus post on Facebook? Would Jesus buy lottery tickets? Ourt lives are lived in he gray areas, the choices, not between right and wrong, but between a number of options and we feel we are on the horns of a dilemma.

For those entering grade 12 a decision must be made about next year. Actually that was probably made when the student registered for grade 11, Last time I checked the courses I took in High School would have left me ineligible for a Bachelor of Arts at Mount A - I had too many science courses. I have not looked lately. If you want to get into certain programs you need certain courses. If you are in university you face similar choices. Party or study is a common student dilemma. I remember sitting in class one morning during winter carnival and the substitute professor, who was also the university President, looked at the half filled classroom and then out the window at an almost deserted campus and you hear him muttering, “where are all the students who should be making their way to class?”

Choices about marriage and children and grand-parenting and how those choices are lived out should be informed by faith. Choices about what to do in retirement are also supposed to be in the realm of faith response.

How do we follow Jesus in our life in the here and now? How are our choices informed by the decision to follow Jesus in a life of discipleship. The decision is, of course ours, but we must make it each and every day.

Let us choose life, a choice for which we are promised life in great abundance.

Amen.

Jeremiah 4: 11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14
Luke 15: 1-10

Many years ago I took a course at Mount A, called, “the making and meaning of the Bible.” Many students who had been to Sunday school thought it would be what we called “a bird course;” an easy credit. Now, it wasn’t the hardest first year course, for sure, but it was much more than Sunday school. Even those of us who were truly interested had to pay attention and work! We also had to be in our seats at 8:30 am! In due time we came to the book of the prophet Jeremiah. When the professor introduced the book, one smart-alec piped up, “I thought he was a bullfrog.” Dr Charles Scobie, dour Scotsman and Presbyterian minister, did not look amused in the least! The things one remembers from university, eh!

Jeremiah is a very serious prophet who spoke God’s truth in a very difficult time. I had to tell that story, but today I am going mostly with the “lost and found” theme!

As you all know, in July I moved over 4,000kms. Some things were in my car while most were in the care of Allied Van Lines. By now, I am mostly settled but I still have to sort my many books, AND I still have an evolving list of “things lost or misplaced”. At any time I may be looking for two (or is it three) items I have misplaced. By the time I have found them, I have already added something else to the list and I suspect that will go on for awhile. I needed to be rescued by someone in Saskatchewan because I could not find the copy of a file I made for myself, but a backup was on the minister’s computer in my old office. Thank goodness they were easy to find. A few days later I had to rescue them because they could not find a file I had left for them! In that case I recreated it from memory! I hope all my scarves and gloves are where I expect them to be - when I need them. I do know where my robe and stoles are; they will come out for the covenanting service.

Losing stuff is a common human experience; except that much of what I am looking for did not wander away on its own. Certainly, the coin in Jesus’ parable did not get up and walk away but the sheep probably did! Perhaps it was scared by a wild animal but it still had a part in its own disappearance.

Jesus asks the crowd, “Who among you would leave 99 sheep alone to go out and look for one lost?” The assumption seems to be that everyone would! Actually, I think the real answer would be “NONE”. Risk the lives of 99 to find one; not a chance!

I did some reading on this issue last week. One real shepherd wrote in an article I read that yes he WOULD go and look for the lost one, but that he would also take the other 99 with him. Sheep, being herd animals, might entice the lost one to rejoin the herd! And it would be safer to take them with him.

This was no ordinary shepherd; few people would have had that many sheep. Perhaps he worked for a number of farmers and was paid per head! While herds of 99 sheep were not unheard of, a shepherd who owned 100 sheep would have been better off than most.

In the case with the women and the coins I have been told that such coins would be like a savings account and probably represented all that she had. They were not something she would use to buy groceries and lamp oil! The loss of 10% or her nest egg would have been significant. I recall misplacing a cheque soon after I arrived here - I was stressed, very stressed until I found it in a pile of opened letters and other papers.

In the world of business the risk of going after a lost item might be balanced with the cost of recovering it. Destroying old stock is sometimes preferable to putting it on sale even though that would lessen the loss, in the short term.

I am told that manufacturers have staff who balance factors such as “the number of people who might be hurt by a design flaw” versus “the cost to correct it.” Apparently, if the lawsuit payout is less than the cost of a redesign - the problem will not likely be fixed - unless a recall is mandated by a higher authority.

How many coal mine disasters, here and other parts of Nova Scotia and wordl-wide were a result of the company being unwilling to spend money on increased safety, especially if it resulted in what they saw as “reduced efficiency!”

But this parable is not about missing stuff, lost animals or hard-nosed business decisions but are Jesus response to some arrogant Pharisees who thought Jesus should not be associating with the people they saw as less than worthy, as “riffraff”. It seems clear from the gospels that Jesus was able to relate to people of wealth and means and also to the very poor. He was able to discuss theology with the very learned but also to relate the love of God to the common folks who were not able to follow all the rules that the well off were! There were strict hand washing rules, to give one example, but many were out in the fields with sheep after all and could not follow the hand-washing rituals.

This parable should cause us to take a look at ourselves and our community. When we think of our congregation or our outreach, do we ever fall into the trap of seeing the world in terms of “us and them;” do we look at things in such a way that we avoid outreach to, or interaction with, the “them?” When it comes to the United Church, we are the only game in town, and Collingwood has the same minister! You could try Oxford; I don’t know much about them or their minister! I have heard stories from cities about racialized people being told they would be more comfortable elsewhere.

In some towns there are more than one church of our denomination and each congregation tends to develop its own identity. One church might have a very “high brow choir” accompanied by a massive pipe organ; another church has a few singers and a band; another church operates the soup kitchen in town. The variations can go on.

The issue for Jesus was the attitude of the righteous. The so-called sinners would be constantly reminded that they were lesser people because they could not follow the rules set up generations before - rules which probably had a sensible and perfectly understandable rationale, but sometimes they has lost the rationale and had a hard and fast attraction to the letter of the law and had lost its spirit. In many cases a hard and fast observation to the rules was impossible for the average person to follow. I don’t think Jesus went around telling the so- called “sinners” and the tax collectors that they were miserable people with no hope of salvation. By contrast, Jesus wanted them to know God’s love and that they could be agents of this love. He wanted them to know that there was a place for them in God’s realm. What was important to him was that they had hope and knew acceptance and grace. The elites often closed themselves off to it because they didn’t think they needed it to begin with!

When life is hopeless and you have an experience of love and acceptance that experience often results in joy. I suspect that joy, either the word or the theme is a very common word in the gospels. “Joy to the World” is sung at Chrisatmas, “Joyful Joyful” was once the most popular hymn in the United Church. “For the Beauty of the Earth” allows us to sing of the joy which is grounded in the beauty of creation.

The Order of Canada is a civilian honour given to those Canadians who exemplify its motto, “desiderantes meliorem patriam” which translated from the Latin says,"they desire a better country", which is apparently based on a phrase taken from the book of Hebrews. Companion is the highest level of this honour. Terrance Stanley Fox was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada a few weeks after his run ended just east of Thunder Bay.” As we know, he was never able to finish. Yet, millions of Canadians and people in more than 60 countries around the world run or walk every year in his memory and to continue his run, raising millions upon millions in the belief that someday “the hurting will stop.”

Many folks in Collingwood are taking part in the annual run today and everywhere many of those participating are the children of people not even born when Terry was running. When I think of the Marathon of Hope, the song that a aired nightly on television “Run Terry Run” starts playing in my head. I think back to how we tuned in daily to the evening news for an update on his progress - he united us as no one else ever has. I think of the sadness we all experienced as we watched his funeral; we mourned as if he was a family member, which he was - the great family of Canadians, the great family of humanity.

I think of the Prussian artist, an immigrant and war vet, from a previous pastoral charge, whose admiration of Terry Fox inspired him to donate both a painting and a sculpture of Fox to the local elementary school.

Christian faith is not, ultimately about us and what we can accomplish it is about God and what God’s love and acceptance can accomplish in and through us.

Centuries ago, St Augustine wrote, “Without God, we cannot; without us, God will not." God’s very nature is love and when we know we are loved we can change the world.

Amen.

Jeremiah 4: 11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14
Luke 15: 1-10

Where Angels Fear to Tread

Long before the very popular “Downton Abbey” there was a series called “Upstairs-Downstairs” and instead of the Crawleys, Mr Carson and staff in a country estate there were the Bellamys, their loyal butler, Hudson and staff in a large London townhouse. Mr Bellamy, the son of a parson, is an MP and his wife, is the daughter of an Earl. Aired in the ‘70s, before I was in high school, the time setting was very similar to Downton Abbey. Beginning with the sinking of the Titanic, we are invited into the very different lives, of a social class that was all but disappearing.

I recall one episode in which Hudson felt it necessary to go to Mr Bellamy’s club; I believe he had to convey an urgent telegram or a message from the Lady of the house. (She certainly could not go) When all was said and done, Bellamy’s response was, “THAT is why gentlemen have clubs, to get away from the servants AND their wives.”

Contrast this with the TV show “Cheers”, a place open to all; a place “where everyone knows your name.” Dr Fraser Crane was as welcome as Norm the accountant, turned house painter, and Cliff Claven, the witty mailman who wore the uniform of the United States Postal Service. The staff were as much a part of the “gang” as the patrons! Of course, it was a comedy, unlike the historical dramas I just mentioned.

If he were alive today, Jesus of Nazareth would be just as likely to be found around the bar at Cheers, as he would be dining with the Crawleys or the Bellamys! Jesus critics would not likely be caught dead at a place like Cheers! One of the criticisms directed at Jesus at the beginning of today’s passage was that “he welcomes sinners and eats with them.” It’s not the only Gospel passage in which such a criticism is voiced; but Luke’s gospel is the only one where this parable is found.

Last week’s passage was about lost sheep and lost coins and I spoke about the calling to seek out and bring back the lost.

But what if WE are the lost sheep - what if we ARE the lost coin - and Jesus is looking for us. More importantly, for today, would we be more offended if we were told that we are the complaining scribes and pharisees or if we were asked to identify with the dishonest steward? We can indeed be any of the four options! LOST SHEEP! LOST COIN! DISHONEST STEWARD! Or COMPLAINING PHARISEE!

Every so often we come upon a biblical passage, and wonder why the lectionary has us hear it every third year. Then again, why is it even IN the Bible. When we conclude such a reading can we honestly proclaim the words, “this is the Gospel of Christ;” or should I have said a bit earlier, “THIS is the Gospel of Christ??” The passage just seems “counter-intuitive”, “wrong,” and is a “real head scratcher”. Surely, Jesus can not be commending dishonesty and incompetence.

A high school classmate who had become an attorney was taken before the law society for missing trust funds. A colleague who was also an attorney and knew the both os us said to me, “all he is guilty of, is being a bad bookkeeper!” The money was all there, SOMEWHERE! Maybe he had someone else do his books, after that.

There is a list, or various lists, somewhere on the internet of biblical misprints. Every professionally published book is carefully edited, to catch typos, misspellings, dangling modifiers and, for example, the important distinction between fewer and less! I would assume that a new translation or edition of the Bible, would be scrutinized even more closely - especially with its poetry and like of compound - complex sentences. Yet, even in Bibles, mistakes do creep in. A number of years ago, when the NRSV (which I read from earlier) was first published I was reading a grand passage in Bible study, a passage that I knew well; a passage that assured the people of God’s faithfulness and gave them hope in the midst of a time of despair. I had to read the text again and again because the way it was printed, just did not sound right. The passage from Joel read this way:

“....    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your old men will dream reams,
    your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” 

Did you catch that; “DREAM REAMS.” Of course it should be “DREAM DREAMS.” I wrote to the Bible’s publisher and asked if it was a new and creative translation or a printing error. Since this was all just before e-mail, I received a response on paper, which I kept inside the Bible for years. The responder indicated that it was indeed an error which would be corrected in a future printing! What a difference a “d” makes! Incidentally, that letter is currently on my “missing things list”: but finding one piece of paper, folded, is not a high priority, at the moment.

That error was not so egregious as the instance of the “ten commandments” which omitted a crucial, “not.” It would not be so bad if the verse was not one of the ten commandments. The verse read, “thou shall commit adultery.” Somehow, the reader knows that this is a mistake!

It would be hard to claim that this entire parable is in the bible, in error! Yet it is one of those which causes us to sit up, scratch our heads and say, “wait a minute; this cannot be right.” We might ask if Luke half asleep when he wrote this down? We are left to ask, “what does Jesus mean by this very strange passage?” What is Jesus actually commending?

It’s a good thing that the story has a part two; a sort of “think about this in spiritual terms” kind of thing. Which makes it clear that being faithful to the gospel is the ultimate goal and that while faithfulness in terms of money management is a good thing, management of the Good News is the real goal.

I know of a few people who had to have help getting out of debt. They spent too much, and when they had to take a pay cut they did not have as much for payments, or they developed “champagne tastes” but were on a “beer budget”, or they had unexpected expenses and before they knew it, they could not even make minimum payments! Finally, they found the help of someone who could arrange a debt repayment plan which would eventually get them out of debt. I know that in such a plan payments are consolidated but I am not sure if the creditors have to settle for less money.

In the Gospel story a wealthy man has a manager who probably takes care of loans and lines of credit for tenants and neighbours; the buying and selling of animals and crops and the procurement of supplies. The manager probably earned his income by some kind of commission. However, the wealthy man became aware of some kind of mismanagement on the part of his manager and tells him to get the books in order and leave his employ.

Upon receiving his “pink slip” he has a dialogue in his head, “I cant do hard physical labour and I wont sit at the side of the road and beg, it would be too embarrassing.” Seems to me that his thought process was a little like that of the Prodigal Son. He devised a win-win plan, hoping his master would be kind. He cut the debts of those who owed his master money and, I suppose, made his master look good but also attained a large group of people who “owed him a big one!” These days the servant would be escorted out of the building, immediately, have his keys taken away and his passwords revoked so that he would not be able to change files in the way that he did! So in setting things in order he goes to the people who owned the master money and had them sign a note for a reduced amount - so that they owed much less AND so that he would have friends when he had nowhere else to go.

Perhaps it was his own commission that was waived, but perhaps not. The passage does not tell us.

Perhaps the “big boss” chuckled before he commended his shrewdness! Notice that he did not commend the mismanagement which got him in trouble in the first place. He was not reinstated; that ship had sailed! Jesus then goes on to imply that using money to make friends is the kind of action that is good spiritual practice.

I believe that this is one of those parables which argues from the “lesser to the greater.” If we put as much effort into our spiritual lives as we do our material lives, the world would be a better place. Sharing our wealth is a gospel action.

We have all sorts of buildings in this province and country with someone’s name on the outside. Perhaps the building was named after someone to honour them, but it is just as likely that their enormous gift gave them “naming rights”. Since Cumberland County gets news from Charlottetown, and not Halifax, we may remember when a grocery giant wanted naming rights for an large donation for an arena renovation - when the arena had a perfectly good name, honouring another philanthropic donor. I read that the money for the original IWK came from Mr Killam’s estate, Not that long ago the Sobey family gave abunch of money for naming rights to the main theatre in Charlottetown. The previous name, Homburg Theatre, was controversial because the company that gave the money went bankrupt - only to be purchased by another of the family’s companies in a deal that was shrouded in mystery and secrecy.

We are led to ask, What are our talents and our wealth for? To further line our pockets, or to help people in the terms we would recognize from the biblical text - giving food to the poor, clothing the naked and visiting those in prison.

Maybe its not that bad an idea for a wealthy person of business to build a hospital wing - honestly, I’d rather they paid for staff - because the best buildings need trained staff - and the people of this province, and others, need both.

Lots of wealthy people have smart accountants to state their finances in such a way that they owe no tax at all, and take their money to an off-shore tax haven.

This man, even though it was to give him a better future, used it to make his master look generous and to curry favour with his clients. There was certainly some benefit spread around by his actions. It’s still a head scratcher, but perhaps that is what Jesus was commending?

You all know the expression, “where angels fear to tread.” Sometimes speaking the truth is a dangerous thing. In Springhill and industrial Cape Breton, for example, in the heyday of mining, just about everyone -17- knew that the system was wrong, but whon could say anything?

Historically, Springhill is a mining town. The Company Store is a feature of many, if not all, such towns. Often the miners would owe almost their entire pay-cheque to the store and the pay all be needed to pay that bill. The company store could charge whatever it wanted for the flour, sugar, eggs and coffee. They could not “shop around” for a better deal. The folk singers who sing of the mines also sing of the down-sides of such a retail method. Most people had no transportation and the company held all the cards.

Some of the more famous leaders had a part in helping to fight for better working conditions and wages and dismantle this system which served the company first, last and only. .

Lots of folks pay great attention to their savings and spend a great deal of time Making sure they have thr growth they want. But what about spiritual practices, what about faith expression, what about generosity. What about putting at least as much energy into living their faith. I’m not going to turn this into an ad for estate planning for the benefit of the church - but it certainly can be done, and very legally.

It comes down to this: do we give God and our faith the leftovers or is our faith the honoured guest when the meal begins.

Amen!

Jeremiah 32: 1-3a, 6-15
Psalm 91
Luke 16: 19-31

Soaring in Faith

If I did not know better I might think the gospel story was written in the last couple of decades. In 2000 a global movement arose which tried to advocate for the eliminate the burdensome debt of many countries in the developing world, debts they would never be able to repay. In many, if not all, cases these debts were incurred by their corrupt former dictators or governments. Another global movement, known as the Occupy Movement grew up about 15 ago to protest the control that multi-national companies had over the world economy and, by extension, the lives and well being of 99% of the people on the planet. Inspired by the movement known as “the Arab Spring” and various protests againsst austerity measures of conservative governments this movement tried to raise awareness of just how much money and power are held buy the few elites at the top of the economic food chain and to draw attention to the growing gap between the rich and the poor. I’m not sure when it started to be truly noticeable, but for some time now the gap between rich and poor has morphed into a great chasm.

First of all, just who are the richest people in the world? 10 people have a combined wealth of 1.9 trillion dollars and their wealth is increasing by the month. They are, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and 8 others and they are ALL men. Bill Gates is no longer in the top ten, but I’m not crying! My latest Microsoft software is now paid for by a yearly subscription and not a one time purchase! Wealth can also be held in real-estate. In terms of land, the British monarchy tops the list for number of acres owned and its value.

Today’s gospel passage is a parable which speaks of a rich man and a poor man. Jesus’ listeners could easily form a mental picture. If they were not the sick beggar at the gates of a palace themselves, they had seen such people many times. I remember one of the first times I went to Toronto for a meeting and was walking from the hotel to the subway, fairly early in the morning and saw many people sleeping on ventilation grates and in the doorways of still- closed shops. Somedays they were covered by a plastic sheet which was really only of minimal help in keeping them dry. Most of the restaurants had signs informing people that the washrooms were reserved for paying customers. One afternoon I saw a man who was drawing a beautiful mural on the concrete plaza outside a business complex. A sign on a cardboard box indicated he was seeking donations so he could pay first and last month’s rent, to get off the street, get his daughter out of foster care and into an apartment. Even at that time rent in Toronto was very expensive. In the last few years, housing costs are soaring, putting home ownership, and even rent, on even a modest bungalow out of reach of young couples. A very discouraging and hopeless situation faces many people.

In 2009 the 40th General Council met in Kelowna BC and the theme for our reflection was the passage from Jeremiah in which he buys a piece of land. One thing we must remember when we read this passage: they are under siege and he buys the land as a sign of his message that there will be a future for their small nation state, despite what might happen in the immediate future. The property deed is sealed in a clay jar and buried. A smart and savvy person would convert any wealth to gold or some other asset that would still have value no matter if the lost the war or not, but Jeremiah bought land, the most precarious of assets.Would YOU buy property in Gaza at this time?

In the mid 1700s the French lost a war and in far away Acadia, the victorious English rounded up and deported as many Acadians as they could find. They lost a war in which they had not even participated. There is a story from PEI about a church bell which was removed from the church, and buried, to avoid it falling into the hands of the English and possibly destroyed. There it lay, forgotten, until a farmer’s plow blade struck it over 100 years later. The mother-tongue French language school in the area is is named for this bell: “École-la-Belle Cloche (school of the beautiful bell).

In Kelowna BC, a meeting of the United Church’s General Council began with a local potter sitting on the platform, and he threw and shaped a pot on a wheel and his partially finished creation was left for our reflection for the rest of the meeting. For one of the communion services, each of us received a pottery communion cup - but it was not formed on a wheel but cut from flat clay and folded by hand into a small cup, as you can see here and stamped with a small “GC40" on the bottom. I can’t imagine how tedious it would have been to make hundreds of these, but someone did and they were given to each commissioner.

These days a valuable document such as a property deed, would be put in a safety deposit box at the bank, and we might keep a copy on our phone. I’m told that some people seal their documents in a plastic bag and bury them under the french fries, pork loin, and lasagna dinners in the freezer! If you do that, just make sure it’s the pork roast you are thawing for supper and not the deed to your cottage!

After the American Revolution the so–called “Loyalists” were expelled and their cash assets and real property confiscated. As you know, many of them migrated to what would become Canada to begin a new life.

Back to the parable, I found it interesting to note the this parable of Jesus, now about 2,000 years old story, is the only one in which the person has a name. In the context of the story he had an identity, an existence and was important to someone. Even if our name is not Lazarus, how does this “old, old story, become ours, in 2025? In the midst of our own fatigue and discouragement, we need to hear the promise that we wll be given the wings of eagles?

I don’t know about students these days, but when I was in university and theological school, we had the best posters! A friend had one that said something like this, “How can I soar with the eagles when I live with a bunch of turkeys.”

Of course the eagle passage is designed to help us soar above the flightless birds which surround us. The passage is designed to assure us that there is more to life than can be seen at the moment; that God’s power working through us will do more than we could ever imagine! The passage was inspired at a time when hope was needed. The passage was written at a time when peoople could look at the giant eagles that soared high above them and imagine the freedom and the power.

When we move our focus to the parable we are faced with an all too familiar social story. The poor living at the doorstep of the rich.

In the west we often suffer from the NIMBY syndrome, “not in my back yard.” The area nearby many cities and towns benefits from being close to jobs but far enough away to enjoy lower housing prices. In such a community a young couple, one of whom had grown up in the area, applied for a building permit to put a second hand trailer on their land. The permit was opposed by neighbours who had much grander homes. They were worried that the trailer would be an eyesore and ruin their property values. The young couple did receive their permit but all of the money that would have gone into improvements went to their lawyer and it was a number of years before they could fix it up and make it nicer looking. I remember being in residence in Halifax and one of the Dal students who lived in our building was remarking at all the nice stuff she found in the garbage at the gateway of the estate-type subdivisions next door. I told her that I was pretty sure it was intended to be garbage and the bags were not set out there for “Salvation Army” to pick up. As their children grew in age the family simply threw away the things of their childhood, rather than pass them on to someone else. Perhaps the student was from a family of more modest means.

What strikes me is the the rich man does not really notice Lazarus until they have both died. Now that he sees the error of his ways it is too late.

Of course the gospel writer wants to get a little dig in against the children of Abraham who ignored the teachings of their own prophets and of the teacher from Nazareth. It is clear the prophets preached the same kind of care of the poor as Jesus did. We need to remember that!

Television and movies are filled with stories of those who have been disowned by their parents and disinherited or even thrown on the street because of conflicts in values and lifestyle. While it can be incredibly difficult to live with some teenagers, throwing them out through so-called “tough love” oft4en does nothing but lead to a life of drug addiction and chronic homelessness.

Where do we see comfort in these stories? Where do we see challenge? As Jesus would have said, “those with ears to hear, let them hear!”

Amen.