Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Lent 2 - C


Promises

Introduction

What brings you comfort? What brings you hope?

I have to tell you, I have had a rough new year so far. I have been sick on and off for what seems like two months; things have not been easy with some of my past and present relationships; and Jacob had to be put down. Then there is the weather, and I am not really a winter sport kind of guy anymore…

When you sit back and look at the things that happen on a daily basis it is hard not to be overwhelmed. I don’t know about you, but I wake up in the morning with a list of things I could be accomplishing, knowing that I will probably not get to it all… then there is another list of things I wish I could do for fun, but don’t seem to have enough time.

I don’t mean to complain, not looking for sympathy really, just trying to establish some common ground. I bet my life is not as hectic as half of yours. I bet the things I need to worry about are far less important than the things that each of you has to worry about.

What I am getting at is a part of our Lenten journey, a part of our recognizing the world for what it is. The world is not easy. It is as simple as that.

Whether it is struggling to get ahead, or managing to keep all of the balls we are juggling in the air, each day presents challenges, it presents problems, and it throws unexpected curves at us.

So how do you handle that?

With the Kids

Rooted-ness

Counting Stars

Certain stories in the Old Testament are meant to be read for certain reasons. Take the story of Jonah and the Whale, the whole point of that book of the Bible is to tell us that sometimes God knows better than we do. Or how about Noah, a book about second chances….

Well, the story of Abraham is a story about being faithful. From start to finish Abraham struggles with doing the right thing even though he is pretty sure it is not going to work out right. And God continually tests Abraham with impossibilities. Why don’t you pack up and move to another country and start over? God asks, and Abraham follows.

But, here is the thing, this is getting old, and so is Abram.

“Look,” he says to God one night, “I’ve been doing this for a while now, I get it, you need help and I am there for you, but what about me? You promised I would have a family, and time to enjoy them, and, well, I am getting too old for that now…”

You can almost hear the resignation and sadness that the world has not worked out the way Abram wished…

“So come outside,” God replies, “take a breath… now look up… tell me what you see… “
The passage is about the stars. You cannot count them. And that is what your descendants will be like, so numerous you cannot count them. The whole sacrifice and burning fire is just about cementing the promise… it is like God and Abram become blood brothers… but the real point is the frustration and the response that God’s promises are good; really good.

“It will be worth it,” God whispers to Abram. And that is, frankly, what keeps me going for a lot of the time; the knowledge that no matter how bad things get, things will always get better. It is a promise I believe in.

Dealing with Foxes

My daughter has been bullied in school. She is going to see someone about it because the teachers and principle, as much as they have tried to help, cannot seem to get through to this kids parents, or the kid himself, that it is not ok to be mean to people.

Anyway, the counsellor who was talking to my daughter got her to draw pictures. I thought it was fascinating… what animal do you see yourself as? What animal would you see a bully as?

Jesus talks about Herod as a fox. Makes sense, he is cunning, sly, always out for himself, you cannot trust him…. The sly, trickster fox is a character we all know.

So when we feel overwhelmed like Abram it is easy to say we just have to have trust in a better tomorrow, but what about when we are dealing with the foxes of this world, what then?

Those curves that happen in our lives and make it difficult are not always random… sometimes there are people actively trying to make life worse… they might be a boss, someone you once knew, someone who is jealous of you, or even a random unemotional bureaucrat who is just following the rules, no matter how much those rules hurt.

At some level what my daughter has to do in grade two is what we have to do in adulthood, is what Jesus had to do in ancient Palestine – keep on keeping on. Be brave, do what we know is the right thing to do, follow God even when it is scary.

The lament we hear Jesus saying, speaking of Jerusalem and how God longs to protect it like a mother hen protects her chicks, is Jesus way of saying that he wishes things were different, that he wishes we accepted the help we need, that we should all know that God loves us and accept it…

But there will always be foxes, there will always be bullies, and the truth is, no matter how much we know God, like any good parent, wants to keep us from all harm, we have to do something too. We have to be the ones who face the day; and that sometimes means being here, as Jesus says, today, and tomorrow and the next day… even if it is not what we most want to do.

Lenten Roots

In both Jesus and Abram’s case there is something to fall back on. I guess that is important for us to remember. Neither of these characters was starting from scratch, they had known God all of their lives, they had been through a lot already, and they just needed reminding.

I think we are in the same boat. We have all had pretty long and interesting lives, there have been good times and bad, and we find ourselves in a church for a reason. We believe, on the whole, that good wins the day, that God’s promises are true, that things do work out.

I like to think of life like a tree; I am always reaching for new things, I am always growing and spreading out, some branches don’t get too long, some eventually break off cause I am not focusing on them, but down below the surface I am rooted deeply in what I believe, and that is what holds me in place during the storms.

Jesus knew that the people of Jerusalem could trust God, he knew that because they had long roots, all the way back to Abram and before, of doing just that… and he could not understand why the people themselves did not know that…

Well, like us, they did… but we forget. The storms come and we worry, sometimes for good reason and sometimes for no reason. But like our heroes of the faith, if we could learn to take a step back and trust, learn to say that even when bad people, bad things, or time gets in our way; things will work out… it would be a lot easier for us.

Journeying Through

I remember a presentation in Grade 12. It stuck with me every day of my life since then, it was from Josten’s, the ring company back then, trying to get us to buy a class ring. I wanted the ring, would have bought it anyway…. But they had this whole glitzy slide show, pictures of all our sports teams, and fun days at school, and everything….

And then in big letters and a booming voice it said, “These are the best days of your life! You do not want to forget them!”

And instantly I turned to my friend, sitting beside me in the auditorium and asked, “it doesn’t get any better than this? Why not kill ourselves?”

Seriously… to say, these are the best days of your life is almost like giving up hope… we need hope!

I guess this is where I started. This is what gives me hope, the sense that I am connected to something larger than myself, the sense that God has always been there for people, past, present and future.

I am not sure I could get out of bed in the morning if I really thought that this was it, that life would not get any better… But I know it does, it always does. That is faith.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Lent 1


Fiddling Along the Way

Introduction

A long, long time ago, the city of Rome burned to the ground. Some say that the Emperor, Nero, played his fiddle while he watched it burn. Nero wanted a lot of the slums and older buildings destroyed because he had big plans – he built a coliseum, and a racetrack, and gardens and palaces – all to honour him. But since everyone knew Nero wanted Rome burnt down; he needed a scapegoat. In front of the Senate, Nero blamed the “Followers of this man Christos.” This is the first time anyone ever coined the term – “Christians.”

Up until the late 60s AD this new Jewish revival movement was simply called, “The Way” and those who belonged were “Followers of the Way.” I believe that we lost a lot when the name changed. Our focus moved from doing the things that Jesus taught to the person of Jesus himself. What mattered to the Romanized version of our faith was where Jesus stood on the Pantheon – was he a stronger God than Zeus, stronger than Romulus, stronger than Caesar?

This never mattered to Jesus. In fact, whenever people tried to heap divinity onto him he rejected it. When someone called him “good” he responded that no one was “good” except God. When Peter called him the Christ Jesus rebuked him. It was not about Jesus – it was about the way that God wanted us to live.

Life as it should be…

Lent is a time when we prepare…. Now, technically, we are preparing to celebrate Easter… but if we look at it another way, we are preparing ourselves for another year of being faithful, of following Jesus, of living how God wants us to live…

We need to keep this in mind as we approach Easter. It is far too easy to make Easter into a magical celebration of how Jesus, who was God, killed himself on a cross so that we would be saved… an idea that would have stunned Jesus – who was all about trying to get us to follow his teachings about God which leads to working out our own salvation. We need to see Easter for what it is – political opposition to the values of God – and how those values triumph because of the self-sacrifice of one man.

That is why we started with a history lesson, a brief one to be sure… but I really do think it is important for us to reclaim the idea that we are living “The Way” of Jesus… that is what makes us who we are. Lent is a reminder that we are called to follow more closely in the footsteps of Jesus and come to understand how deep and meaningful our own faith can be.

It is not simply about coming to church – it is not a decision made once and followed, more or less, for the rest of our lives – The Way is a calling, a struggle, a constant decision, and the whole point of our lives.

So far this year we have been focusing on the first phase, the Epiphany or, as it is sometimes called, the “A-Ha moment”. An Epiphany is a sudden and intense realization about God. You might remember that Peter had his first aha moment during a miraculous catch of fish; or that the disciples figured some things out about God and Jesus during the transfiguration on the mountainside. For each of us it is different. Some people have that type of moment when they get sick and have to reconsider what it is that is most important to them. Others find their priorities and focus changing after the birth of a child and all of a sudden faith makes more sense.

But this is only the beginning. This is where we recognize the path, but next, we have to make a conscious decision to step out on that path and see where it might lead. Let’s think of Lent like that, we have recognized God and now we are setting out to find out more about ourselves as followers of God.

Where do we go from here?

So we set out, but where are we going? What are we doing next?

Our passage from the Older Testament can help us to recognize this: After the people had been in the Promised Land for a season, Moses gave them a ritual for remembering what God had done for them. In order to remember, “where we came from” and to look with hope at the journey ahead, we acknowledge God by bringing the first fruits – the best and first ten percent of everything we have earned, grown, or did, and offer them to God. It reflects the ancient understanding that the land and everything in it belongs to God – and invites us to be grounded in gratitude for what God has given. It is not a bad spiritual practice for us to get back into… do we give to God from the first fruits; or from what is left over? …

Perhaps that is a spiritual practice which could open us up to God more…. After all, The word Lent comes from the Old English word for the season of “spring.” So Lent can be thought of as a sort of “springtime of the Soul” It is the time when we begin to grow in our knowledge of who we are.

It all happened in Jesus life like this: As he neared thirty, Jesus heard that his cousin John had become a prophet. There was a movement out in the desert called the Essenes, and it seems like John went out and joined them for a while, but then came back to Jerusalem and began to preach from the river side.

Being curious about the whole thing Jesus decided to go down and listen – and something John said opened Jesus eyes, he decided to go into that river and get baptized right there and then. And when he did that, Jesus had an Epiphany. The disciples later described it like a voice, or a dove, come down from heaven… and it made Jesus believe two things – that he was so loved by God that he could do anything; and that God wanted him to teach others about this love.

Immediately after his eyes had been opened to this – Jesus knew that he could never return to his former life; and so he went off into the desert to find himself; That is the forty days and forty nights that we now find ourselves in the midst of.

So Lent is our forty days and forty nights in the desert. If we take this period of time and focus on ourselves, and look deeply at how we let our thoughts, fears, and struggles get in the way of our true relationship with God; we will face some temptations along the way.

Tempted in the Desert

Let’s take a look at the temptations laid before Jesus in the desert. “Satan” (which is Aramaic for the tempter) put before him these three: if you are hungry, change stones into bread. If you are the son of God, leap from a tower and rely on angels to rescue you. If you bow down before me, all the kingdoms of the world will be yours.

 Now at first it might seem like these are things we never need to worry about; this is clearly all about being “Jesus” and somehow being related to God. But look closer – these temptations represent some very real stumbling blocks to our following The Way. In a nutshell, Satan offers Jesus some very familiar things: magic, rescue, fame and power. These are the very same things that keep distracting me when I try to be faithful… I am tempted to believe that just around the corner lies something better; I am tempted to think that if I was rich and powerful I would be happy; I am tempted to believe that if I could just find the right words God would swoop down and save me from my problems; I am tempted to believe that if I was just more like that guy over there things would be okay…

That is what Satan wanted Jesus to admit; that the easier road is the better road.  These are the fantasies, the illusions, which call us from the path, that keep us from discovering our own rich reality, which is a gift from God.

What was asked of Jesus is what is asked of us – that we give up this illusion, its false promises, and “come to our senses,” trusting what Jesus taught about “The Way” set before us - which is almost never the easier way forward.

Conclusion

Lent is a season where we have to make time for our faith. God has invited us to use this season to journey inwards, to ponder those deeper questions about who we are and what life has set before us. My hope is that we all take the opportunity God is giving us. Amen.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Transfiguration


Let Your Light Shine

Introduction

Sunday Schools the world over have been singing a song since the 1920’s; this little light of mine; but have you ever stopped to think about the words.

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine
This little light of min, I'm gonna let it shine
Let it shine/Let it shine/Let it shine…

Now, what does that mean? What are we saying? What “light” do we have that we are singing about? What does it mean to shine?

This is Transformation Sunday. The time when we think about Jesus on the mountaintop and the way that he revealed God’s light to the world.

The idea of the light of God being revealed through people did not begin there though, it is as ancient as we are… Before Jesus, think about Moses; who went up on the mountain to talk to God about the ten commandments and came down with a glowing face… we are talking about people who are a lightning rod to the divine. Siddhartha Buddha for example became enlightened while meditating under a tree; or Mohammed who is said to have spoken to the angel Gabriel e on Mount Hira outside of Mecca and came away from that experience totally changed.

When someone is transfigured, it means, literally, that we become able to see the holy in that person, it means that they become on fire for God. It means seeing the light.

And it is not only in people that this can stop us in our tracks. Who has not stopped to look at a sunset, or the Northern Lights, or even the lights of fishing boats bobbing on the sea… Light has a power to make us feel awe and beauty. It brings out the best in the world around us…

So today we explore light.

Children’s Time

Stained Glass – Seeing the beauty means seeing the light inside…

Down the Mountain

So, if God came down the mountain right now and stood in front of you, glowing, I would wager that none of us would have a problem believing it.

It would be easy to see that this was someone different, powerful, holy… and we would probably listen to what they had to say.  Just like the folks did to Moses, or to Jesus…

But the thing is, those moments are rare, or non-existent in our lives. Even those perfect sunsets and candlelight dinners and northern lights are rare. The things that make us stop and focus on the beauty of the world are rare… in our day to day lives, it is harder to see God; it is difficult to see the light when it isn’t so obvious. We have to look for it.

The thing of it is, transfiguration is not something that happened once, a long time ago, it is something that has happened over and over to those who become closer to God.

In our gospel story we have Jesus taking his closest friends up the mountain with him while he prays. And there are a lot of things that could be said about the imagery here; about the people he seems to talk to, about the reaction of the disciples… but instead I want you to see it, with your mind’s eye, for what it is.

All of a sudden Jesus lights up. Whether he glows with real flames, or the sun shines through the clouds and falls on him, or what does not matter. What matters is that in this instant he becomes transfigured, he becomes alive with the light of God.  He becomes, if it is possible, even closer to God and even more Holy.

And even those who see this, even after they have looked closely and opened themselves up to this… even then, the disciples do not see it for what it is.

What matters most is that in being transfigured Jesus becomes capable of something he might not have been before; he becomes capable of coming down the mountain.

Walking in the Darkness

Hide it under a bushel, no, I’m gonna let it shine.
Hide it under a bushel, no, I’m gonna let it shine.
Hide it under a bushel, no… I’m gonna let it shine,
let it shine, let it shine, let it shine….

You realize that is the disciple’s reaction, right? Wow, you are the son of God, this is great, let’s stay up here… I don’t know, there could be a hundred reasons for this reaction, they had everything they ever dreamed of and wanted to stay, they were afraid of what people would do when they saw the glowing Jesus, they just sensed, rightly, that this was not going to work out well….

So they want to hide the light, keep the light, maybe even pretend they never saw it.

Again, this is not a once long ago story. This is a story that plays out every day in almost every place… everyone has those moments where they see the light… but what good is it if we don't recognize it?  What good is it if we don't see that God is shining through?  What good is it if we don't embrace these moments?
Perhaps the reason that we don’t always recognize the light of God in our midst is because transfiguration can only be seen in action.

When I began I pointed out places where we see light and it overwhelms us. And light is easy to see… the lights of a city, a candle, the stars, a campfire…. But what about the light in people… is that as easy to see?

Well, I think if I asked you for a list of famous people who have been light to others you could make a fairly good list. Think about Martin Luther King Jr. from last week, or Ghandi, Mother Theresa, even Pierre Trudeau seems to have made a difference to people.

Even if I asked you to name the types of people – a teacher or a firefighter… perhaps the stranger who stops to help someone stranded on the side of the road…

All of these people are the types of people who bring light to others.  The weird thing, is that we do not regularly talk about them as bringing God to others. In essence, we hide goodness… ask someone why they went into a burning building to save a cat, and they will say, I did not do anything special, I am no one special, anyone would do it.

But doesn’t that take away from the fact that there are people out there modelling God all the time? There are people out there BEING God all the time. And most of them have no idea they are doing it.

We do not need to hide these things under a bushel, we need to be celebrating the people who do the right things, those that do the good things, those that love unconditionally… these should be our heros. And we can find them around us every single day.

Bring it on Home Jesus

This is the transformation we witness. This is the transformation for today. This is how God is seen these days.

And a funny thing will happen when you start to recognize this. When you start to see the light in the world...when you really see it...you will start to change the way you live your life; the light will change who you are.

This week we are having an annual meeting. Let's see if we can see where the light is shining in our church, in our community. Let’s see where there are opportunities for us to reflect God’s love into the world.

We are also about to go into the season of Lent...a darker season.  Amidst the stories of fear and struggle and challenge and suffering, it will be hard for us to see the light. But I want you to remember the images that you saw here today.  Know that the world is overflowing with light.

Some days it might be a blinding light that you can't deny as if Jesus is aglow on top of a mountain. Other days it might be a little flicker that you have to search deep for. But you will find it.  And when you do, use it.  Let it shine for all the world to see.  Amen.