Pentecost A 20 2011

Occupy Life

Introduction

All over the world there are “Occupy” movements starting up – they began in New York City with the Occupy Wall Street crowd – but pretty much everywhere there are people who are protesting, including downtown Moncton.

The interesting thing is that there are a lot of different things being protested, from the environment to the economy and everything in between. There are no real leaders; it is a grass root movement that is spontaneously erupting all over.

The one thing, however, that ties it all together is the idea that there is something wrong with the way the world is today – that 99% of the people in the world are in trouble, and that the 1% better start changing things or get out of the way.

It gives me hope. And on top of that, it sounds to me like a religious revolution – these are exactly the types of things that Jesus and the prophets before him tried to say.

We are not called upon to let the forces of power and market economies overcome us, we are called to occupy our lives and do something about it.

The River is Wide – Kids

-          What do you think the people were afraid of when it came to crossing the river?

-          What are you afraid of that keeps you from doing what you know is the right thing to do?

-          How do we find courage?

God’s Word at Work

When Paul wrote to the churches he was always thankful - today he says that he is thankful for God’s word being at work in the people of Thessalonica…

Of course, when we hear such a small passage of a long letter it is hard to know what exactly is going on, but we have heard a lot of Paul lately. We know some of what he said off by heart – so I think if I ask this question you will think of something:

What did Paul think happened when God’s word was at work in you? Think about it for a second – you don’t have to answer out loud, but what did Jesus, Paul, the Apostles expect of their followers?

You know, it was really always about how you live life. It was about challenging authorities that dehumanize people. It was about overcoming your fears so you would do the right thing, it was about caring for the widows and orphans, the most vulnerable people…

It is about living a life worthy of what we have been given. All of this is a gift and all of it is meant for everyone. So Paul encourages us…

Paul wants us to be humble, blameless, courageous, gracious, all those things that might echo God’s way of being that we have witnessed in Jesus.

In essence Paul is thankful that the people of Thessalonica were living their lives with integrity.

The question for us is, how do we do that?

Do Not Be Like the Pharisees

To be honest, Jesus was obsessed with this idea of living a life of integrity – he called it, living as if the Kingdom of God was already here – or in a prayer you might be familiar with, “thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven…”

For Jesus it was about living as God would live if God was walking around right here with us.

And he knew that sometimes, we get the point quicker if you talk about the negative – today Jesus starts with a “what not to do list…”

Unfortunately, he says, don’t be like the religious leaders… the Pharisees and Scribes, who instead of being good leaders who were trying to make God known in the world, they focused on their own wealth, their own prestige, their own power.

Don’t do things for show – do what is really important..

Ever watch the Keeping Up Appearances show? There is this rather ordinary woman… Hyacinthe Bucket – but whenever anyone addresses her as Mrs. Bucket she says, “no no no my dear, it is pronounced Bouquet…”

In essence this is what the Pharisees are like – they want to make themselves better than they really were…. And let me clear, they weren’t bad evil people; they were just like me and you…

Jesus was challenging the people to make radical changes in the way they were living –

Today is Reformation Sunday as well… a movement that was all about radical change.

We don’t celebrate it much in our church, but it is an important part of our faith heritage…

Disconnect

So there is a disconnect between who we realyl are and how we are living our lives

Because of this disconnect that happens naturally, every now and again we need to have our own reformation (and so does society) we need to occupy our lives and live them more authentically. We need to take control of the thigns that have got us so off kilter and we need to find a space where we can reflect on where we find ourselves and where we are going and see if this matches up to who we really need to be…

It is like nailing our own list of problems to the door and saying, we need to go back to basics.

We miss out on pivotal and wonderful moments of life because we are busy worrying about the wrong things

What if the Israelties were worried about getting their clothes wet? What if they never risked the first step? The Pharisees missed out on experiencing Jesus who was right in front of them because they were too busy upholding an image and trying to live a good life.