Monday, October 29, 2012

Pentecost 22 B


The Wound is Where the Light Enters

Introduction

Rumi, the mystical Muslim poet once wrote that, “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” 

John O Donohue, an Irish priest and poet says it this way, “The beauty that emerges from woundedness is a beauty infused with feeling; a beauty different from the beauty of landscape and the cold perfect form. This is a beauty that has suffered its way through the ache of desolation until the words or music emerged to equal the hunger and desperation at its heart. It must also be said that not all woundedness succeeds in finding its way through to beauty of form. Most woundedness remains hidden, lost inside forgotten silence. Indeed, in every life there is some wound that continues to weep secretly, even after years of attempted healing. Where woundedness can be refined into beauty a wonderful transfiguration takes place.”

We have a sense of that, do we not, that brokenness can lead to strength? That being pushed down one too many times can inspire us to rise up in power. That when we have a sense of loss, or a sense of pain, or have been hurt ; that becomes a place where God can enter into our lives and change things.

Another famous way to look at this was the rich man who came to Jesus and said, “What do I have to do to inherit eternal life? What should I do to be right with God?”

And Jesus asked him what he had done already; and in truth, lots… he went to church, he gave to charity, he followed the religious and political laws… but what else was there?

“Go, and sell all you have, and follow me,” Jesus says simply.

But he cannot. He cannot give up the things that make him strong, and powerful, and capable. And Jesus is saying that if we want to be closer to God than we already are, we need to let go of those things and become weak, become like children, become vulnerable and broken… it is then that we will make room for God.

With The Kids

House of Cards

Have you ever found it really hard to do something and been really frustrated?

There was once this blind man who was in a whole crowd of people, and he wanted to see Jesus… but the crowd would not move… and besides, he was blind… but he kept trying, kept calling out to Jesus, kept asking the people in the crowd to move…. Eventually Jesus heard him, and the crowd helped him, and Jesus healed him so he could see.

It is like the little engine that could… ever hear that story… When we are frustrated with something, when we feel like we can’t do something… we have to keep trying. People will help us, God will help us.

Things Can Only Get Better

Do you know how many songs, movies, and stories revolve around the idea that things can only get better? 

People find true love, people become rich because of their hard work, and relationships are restored. In some of them the prince comes swooping in and rescues the princess. In other’s people find out who they really are and live happily ever after….

Do you know why so many stories and songs are about this? Because it is, for the most part, a fantasy!
I am pretty sure that someone was unhappy with the way Job originally ended and tacked on the part about Job getting everything back, and getting back more than he started with…. Because that is how we wished the story ended… that is how we hope all of our stories end… we hope the bullies in high school get caught. 
We hope the person who cheats us out of something gets cheated themselves. We hope that we find the perfect guy or girl to make us happy for the rest of our lives. We hope all our hard work pays off…. You get the picture….

And I want you to know there is nothing wrong with that… I hope it all works out for everyone… I really do. But I also think that there are a lot of hiccups along the way for almost everyone. I think that there is pain, and heartache and loss… but the thing is… There has to be a balance, right, and the thing is, you are the one who decides which one influences your life…

Pain can break you. Pain can make you retreat into yourself and never try again… or pain can make you want to try harder. After all, things that are worth something are worth a little sacrifice, right?
I would have much rather the story of our friend Job ended with God coming and telling him, you don’t understand everything, and Job saying, “you know what, you are right.”

Cause that is the life we all lead. We do not get easy answers and fortunes are rarely restored… but that does not mean that the events of our lives do not teach us, do not leave us stronger, do not leave us in a better place to see the world for what it is… and to be more open to God’s grace in the midst of it.

Take Heart in the Struggle

William Sloane Coffin is one of this generation’s best, and most famous preachers. Amongst other things he has been chaplain at Harvard University, and head pastor at one of the largest churches in America, Riverside Baptist in New York.

Some time ago now Coffin’s 24 year old son died in a tragic car accident. He plunged off a bridge and into Boston Harbour during a storm.

One week later Coffin himself preached at Alex’s funeral. His sermon has become one of the most famous funeral sermons of all time. In the middle of it, talking about how most people who come to his house delivering food talk about it having to have been “the will of God” he says,

“God doesn't go around this world with his finger on triggers, his fist around knives, his hands on steering wheels. God is death set against all unnatural deaths…. The one thing that should never be said when someone dies is, “It is the will of God.” Never do we know enough to say that. My own consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex die; that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God’s heart was the first of all our hearts to break.”

I remember when I was just a wee minister… starting out in Quebec at 24 years old. No one in my family had ever died… and the first funeral I had was a girl my own age… she died of brain cancer. I did a really good funeral, everyone was moved by it. And we went on. I did not know what the parents were really feeling at all, I had never been there.

The next year my best friend in Seminary died of a heart attack. More friends, a few grandparents, some failed relationships, and I started to be able to “feel” what other people were feeling. I could empathize, and I could begin to better understand sentiments like William Sloane Coffin’s I could see how God would feel heartbroken at the loss of a single person….

I think this is the beauty that poets talked about… the way that light comes through pain…

Which by the way, is also part of what made Jesus so incredible… he felt what other’s felt; he empathized with those around him to such a degree that they trusted him, they followed him, and they needed him.

“Take heart,” the crowd says to the blind man, “the Master is calling you…”

We all want to hear that, do we not? We all want to be understood, to be loved into life, to be healed….

Conclusion

It is our humanness… the fact that our lives are imperfect…  our pain… that makes us the people we are.
It might not be the best news you have heard all week. But how about thinking of it this way… it is that brokenness that allows us to love the way we do. It is our empathy that allows us to be the most like God. 

When we accept those broken parts of us as who we are, we become stronger than we ever imagined.

Not only that, but when we realize we are not perfect, that is when God can come into our hearts and give us strength. And that, my friends, is very good news.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Pentecost 21 B


God in a Box

Introduction

What do you imagine God looks like? Ok, that might be too hard, what do you imagine God is like?

There have been thousands of years of the smartest people in the world trying to answer that question; we have gone from the most powerful male father guy up on top of the mountain right through to Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud telling us that people imagine God to make themselves feel better.

Some folks say God is love because that is what Jesus taught. Some Hindus say God is the creative and destructive power of the Universe. Some Native Americans say God is a trickster who most often takes the form of a Raven.

The thing is, everyone could be right, but everyone is most definitely wrong.

We put God in a box, and tie it up with a fancy ribbon and think we have it all figured out. That is the real tragedy… when we think we have anyone “all figured out” then we are not really capable of seeing them for who they really are… we have blinded ourselves to everything except our own pre-conceptions…

Think of the way white people in the Southern US assumed black people were incapable of learning, or thinking even… Think about how men figured women were incapable of figuring out politics enough to be given the right to vote… or how about the way we all think men have no feelings, and don’t want to talk about them…

In each and every case it is our conception, our beliefs about the other person which limits them.
Don’t you think we might do that with God too?

Voices in the Whirlwind

There was a time when God was understood in a rather simple way. You did what God wanted, God made you rich and happy. You turned against God; you were punished; simple as that. No one thought very much further than that – so when a very, very rich and powerful person, named Job, lost everything – money, wives, houses, his kids and even his health, the reason was simple – Job had made God angry.

“What did you do?” everyone asked… and Job always answered, “Nothing!” and so there he was, alone and sitting in the dust of the road, clearly a liar and a bad person… or else why had his life turned out this way?

You know there are times when we all think like this, right? Even though there was this book written some 4,000 years ago which tells us differently, we say, and think, “God is looking out for you?” or “God would be angry at you for that…”

“Who are you, that you think you can know the reasons behind what I do?!”

That, ultimately, is the answer to Job; no matter what you think is going on, there is no way for you to know everything, so why are you so sure you have it figured out?

This is a pretty important bit of ancient wisdom, no matter who we are, we cannot know the mind of God.

By itself, this is not much help to us… to simply say, you don’t understand everything in the universe does not make me want to accept everything either… I still think poor people should be taken care of, I still don’t understand why nice people die horribly in car accidents, and I still don’t get why jerks become wealthy…

I guess I am simply not as accepting of the way life is as I could be…  Or is this me trying to limit God again?

Of High Priests and Prophets

Jesus came to broaden our perspective. That is the core of his message. 2,000 years or so later we tend to forget this because we can no longer remember what it was like before Jesus…. Before Jesus the conception of God was limited to a nation – to a people. God was the God of the Israelites who would help them in battle and preserve their farmlands.

Jesus helped us to see God as more than that – and he did it by taking on as much as possible, the nature of God… so that when we saw Jesus, we saw God.

This is what the writer of the letter to the Hebrews is trying to get across, that once the high priest “spoke” for God; in much the same way that, say, the Pope speaks for the Catholic Church… but now Jesus speaks for God, and as we come on board, as we join Jesus, and learn from him, we too become the people that speak, and act on behalf of God.

How much more important is it, then, that we try to keep ourselves from limiting God because of our lack of imagination? How much more important is it that we open ourselves up to possibility, to the unexpected, to the unknown and mysterious nature of God?

But Here is the Thing… the Real Thing…

So, what is it that keeps us from seeing the world for what it is? What is it that narrows our view…

It is us… pure and simple… When I was growing up I moved and travelled a lot. I never once suspected that I spoke in any way other than the way that everyone in the world speaks… One day when I was about 14 I was camping with my family outside of Winnipeg. We were at a water park for the day, going down the slides, splashing in the pool, and keeping an eye out for pretty girls. When you come from a family with 5 boys… girls are a preoccupation.  

There was this really cute couple of girls who kept looking at us, one was blond and one had raven black hair… the thing is, my brothers and I were whispering to each other about how funny they sounded. There was this way they said “a” and they talked slowly, sort of like a song… we thought it was really funny.

They came over and said hi, because Girls are far more mature than guys, and we started talking to them, when all of a sudden one of them said, “You all talk funny!” and they both laughed and walked away….

It scarred me for life… or at least, it made me think… I could not see myself the way others see me. I had no idea people in the Maritimes had accents. I thought the whole world talked that way.

That is the thing. The way we see things, the way we are, blinds us and we do not even know it… take this 

Bible story in which the disciples are asking Jesus for something that they want, that makes total sense in the way they see the world… and Jesus even says yes to them! But the truth of the matter is that what Jesus says yes to is so far away from how the two favoured disciples see the world unfolding that they cannot even imagine it.

I wonder how often we are guilty of the same thing? How often do we miss the larger picture, or fail to follow God’s will for our lives because of the simple fact that our vision is too focused on who we already are, how we already believe things will work out?

Do we keep God in a box, limited by the four walls of what we believe in, and what would it be like if we set God free?

Conclusion

Did you ever see the movie Bruce Almighty? If you only watch two movies about God, you should pick Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty. Because not only are they interesting, they are really, really funny as well.

So, the first one, Bruce Almighty is about this guy who is fed up with things not going his way. God comes along and says, ok, you think you can do better, you be God this week, and gives Bruce all of the powers of God.

Instantly things start going wrong. Bruce wants a romantic evening, for example; and brings the moon just a little closer so it will shine down on his evening candlelit meal… but moving the moon causes the tides to change, which causes flooding in China, which causes deaths…

The movie keeps going on and on with examples like this which make it quite clear that there are no easy answers… that it is never black and white…. That even if you had all powers and could move mountains, you still might have to spend a lifetime agonizing over whether or not it was a good idea to do it.

I know that there are times in life when we really do all want answers… when a loved one dies, or when we get sick for no reason, or even when it rains the whole week of our vacation…. But the thing is, there are no answers for most of life.

Whether it is that the ways of God are too mysterious, or whether it is that we are too petty and limited in our imaginations, one of the quickest ways to wisdom is to admit we simply cannot, and will never know everything.

But you know what? If I had my daughters all figured out, they could never surprise me and make me smile. 

If I had my girlfriend all figured out, she would never be the mysterious person who makes me smile when she does the unexpected.

Life is meant to be open, the possibilities endless, and God is at the centre of that unknown mystery… if we can just open ourselves up and let go, it could be so much more…

Monday, October 1, 2012

Creation 4 B


Back to the Forest

Introduction
For the last few weeks we have been taking another look at creation. The idea being that we have spent our time re-focussing on the world around us and how we fit in. So we started by saying we need to look around and be amazed at this world we live in. Next we looked at how God was at work in that physical reality, creating a heaven on earth. Then we turned to the spiritual aspect and looked at how creation is also about feelings and emotions and all of the invisible things of life….

In the United Church Creed we start with one simple line: “We Are Not Alone” and then follow it up by saying we live in God’s world. We do not live here alone, we live with God in our midst, and we live with thousands of creatures, and hundreds of thousands of insects, and all species of plant fish, bird and animal. In fact, this world is teeming with life of which we are but a small part.

Although it always struck me as a sad thing to put in a children’s song, the line “God sees the little sparrow fall” reminds us not only that God loves us no matter who or how small we are, but that God loves everything.

And I don’t know about you, but that seems to me to be wonderfully re-assuring.

Genesis 2:4b-25

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’

Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones  and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.’ Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

With the Kids:
Animals - which ones don't you like? But what purpose do they serve? Spiders eat insects, snakes eat rats...

Tilling the Land 
I like to think of the fact that we have two creation stories this way: The first one was written by someone who was a science Geek – all that water and land creating and evolution and everything… the second one was written by a farmer.

Here we see our true connection to the land, we are a part of it, and every single thing in it is related to us in some way. The Lord God planted a Garden, it was filled with plants and animals and flowers and it was our home.

Now, the thing somehow we have come to forget is that it was also their home.

It was a connection we were supposed to maintain – but somewhere along the line humans got isolated, we started to build walls around cities, then we paved everything, then we started making machines to do most of the work for us… and now… well, very few of us are connected to the plants and animals around us in any real way.

Have you ever gone for a walk in the woods, or down by the river, and found yourself all alone with nothing but birdsong and sunlight? Was there ever a time that that did not seem magical, seem sort of soul restoring?
I don’t know about you, but when I do that I feel connected to everything in a way I cannot explain… it is like all of a sudden feeling that I am entering their world – the birds and trees, the animals and flowers… and knowing that somehow I belong.

I can also tell you, from owning a dog, that this idea of being equals, and companions, and helping each other and being there for each other is just as possible with animals as it is with humans.
We are all connected…

Romans 12:3-7                                              

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching;

One Body
Ever have that feeling that it is all up to you? That no matter what, no one is going to help you and you are all alone in the world? I am talking about being at work, being at home, having a mid-life crisis, dealing with your family members… it happens everywhere.

The thing is, it’s just not true… It is what they like to call a “First World Problem” which is to say, it is not a real problem, but because of how we live our lives, we think it is a problem… like saying “OMG my electric toothbrush is broken, how am I going to brush my teeth?”

So – true story – you are never in this alone.

Sure, the people around you in that instant might have abandoned you to the task at hand… you might even be physically alone in the woods… but there is never a time in your life where there is no one who would help you, no one who cares… And I am not even talking about God… Think about it… no matter what you are going through there is someone in this church right now who is willing to help you out.  I completely believe that to be true. In fact, I know it to be true… I have never had to go very far to find someone who would be there for me no matter what has happened… and I have had a lot of bad things happen.

We are all connected. We all love each other. Heck, we even love and care about strangers. And that is not the end of it… we are just as connected to the world around us and to everything in it… and the truth is, no matter what we need, what we yearn for, or what we do… there is something, or someone out there with the gifts to help us.

That is what I hear when I read anything Paul writes about the one body but many members… and how we have all been given different gifts, different abilities….

Since I already mentioned my dog Jacob I might as well stay on the theme of our closest companions… We all know that dogs can become eyes for the blind and ears for the deaf. We also know that police dogs help sniff out bombs and drugs. But if you Google dog rescues human and search the internet you will come across thousands of stories about dogs dragging babies from fires, taking bullets from attackers, rescuing people caught in avalanches or earthquakes…  the list goes on and on…

My help cometh from the Lord says the 121st Psalm… but the truth is that help, from God, comes from everywhere.

Mark 4:30-32

He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’

God’s Gentle Care
All of what we have talked about has been a little one sided… how it all works out for us, how God put the world here for our amazement; how animals help us… it is a little arrogant to think we are the centre of the whole universe…

I like the hidden stuff in the Bible that shows God’s concern for each and every thing… like this passage which suggests that God takes a little seed and grows it into a home for nesting birds.

Then it says that life is meant to be like that… that God does that for us too.

Ever hear the expression “let go and let God”? I imagine there is not a single Moose out there, or Salmon, or Deer or Porcupine that has a problem with that… and yet, we often do… we do not trust in the general goodness of the world. We do not allow that there are forces in this universe that are looking out for our interests, wishing the best for us, caring for us even when we do not recognize them.

I like to believe that the animals know this… and that is why they live the way they do, one day at a time, in relative peace and harmony…

Back to the Forest

The reason that the Genesis story of Adam and Eve takes up so much of our imagination is that it was a vision of perfection. When Sigmund Freud and the psychology guys started to think about what goes on behind our thinking, they put it this way, we all long to get back to the garden…

We long to get back to a place where everything was good, where peace and harmony were the norm, and where we were all connected to each other and to our animal friends.

Truth is we are not that far away – we are never alone and we are loved and cared for by God. It is up to us to recognize that God’s great love for the whole of creation is also a love of us…