Sunday, June 17, 2012

Pentecost 4 b


Symbols of Grace

Introduction

I find that there is meaning in most things. Perhaps it is because I am always writing sermons, or perhaps it is that I really like a good story. But I see a sunrise and wonder about it. I have noticed that most, but not all of my garden is growing and wonder why. I wonder if I would have been compelled to walk cross Niagara Falls if I was a tightrope walker, and I feel sad that they shot a bear cub in downtown Moncton just because he was lost.

Jesus knew all about the fact that we are a curious people. So did the authors of the stories about all our heroes in the Bible.

They told stories that we could relate to. They embellished the truth, or changed the location, or drew attention to the ordinary in new ways so that we might notice things differently.

This is what is meant by the word “symbolic” a symbol is something that means something else, it points us in a different direction. When we see it, we see more than what is really there, we see the meaning behind…

Today is all about symbols, from the celebration of communion right through the stories we are reading. For the most part I am just going to talk about what they meant to the people who wrote them. I hope as I do so that it helps you to see something new, something different, or some relation to your own life.

The Youngest Son

One of the things we often don’t recognize is that much of our story is about the difference between urban and rural. It is a city mouse versus country mouse world that is at stake… with the Empires of Rome and Assyria, and Babylon representing the cities… and Israel being the country.

Remember last week when I said that Israel wanted a King so it could be just like all those other big places…. Well… that is the basis of a story that goes on and on about what is the best way for us to live our lives.

Should we be close to the land? Close to each other? In relationship with God? Or should we be growing and growing? Getting rich? Moving all the time and trusting in a king?

We always seem to want the last one… but the thing we do not realize is that becoming a big city, making jobs be about money, and living that way separates us from each other. And from the very beginning God made us to be in relationship with each other.

So, we want a king… and we are told a story about the King that God chose: Who is this king? The youngest, smallest, earthiest son of a shepherd. It is not a politician, or a prince; but a person of the land.

This is not accidental. Again we are being told a story through symbolism. God choses not only the last and the least, but the one who is most connected to the land, to family, and to tradition. These are the people who will truly make a difference. These are the people who can lead but maintain a little humanity.

So even when God goes along with our bad ideas, there is a sense of grace, a sense of choosing the best possible way to remind us of who and how we are supposed to be.

The Parable

Jesus never did anything but spoke in riddles, used symbols, and taught by example. We call his way of preaching a parable.

Here is another way of saying what Jesus was trying to say without all the imagery:

“I know it does not seem like we accomplish much. But we are starting something that will lead to big changes.”

Kind of boring huh? Also, you just have to take his word for it. There is no reason to believe that little things lead to big changes, and we know from personal example that a lot of what we do seems to be wasted effort.

So he tells a story: You have all seen a garden, right? You have all seen a seed, right? Ever see a mustard seed, or a lettuce seed? They are so tiny you can lose it while you are looking right at it… but then you plant it, and something miraculous happens. You get a salad, or two, or three…. It keeps growing.

So perhaps, just perhaps, when we do nice things, it causes unexpected changes and growth.

We do not know when a smile to s stranger might completely change their world – stop them from committing suicide, etc.

This parable is the whole premise for the movie It’s a Wonderful Life…. Where old Bill Bailey thinks his life is worthless till he gets the chance to see how all the small things he did throughout it made a huge difference in the people around him.

Conclusion

There is a sense that God is in all things we do, that each and every thing connects us to the past, the present and the future.

The thing about faith is, we believe in meaning too. Things don’t just happen and we are done with them, we wrestle with them, we engage them, we try to see how this can be part of our story.

So this week may you continue to live with your eyes open, putting together the pieces of your life, and working to make a difference in how things play out.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Pentecost 2 - B 2012


For us or Against Us

Introduction

Have you ever heard the expression, “you cannot serve two masters”? It is a fairly practical bit of Biblical wisdom that boils down to another expression we all know, “you are either for us, or against us!”

I would like to be able to report that the world is not that black and white. There are always moments where we agree and disagree with each other and to say that we are truly for something, or truly against it is quite hard.

But at some point, you have to make a decision; you have to decide what it is that is most important to you.
Is making money more important than helping people? There are lots who would say yes, they usually run corporations. Is learning more important than working? Some people think so and get degree after degree.

I was listening to a sermon from a cowboy church in Saskatchewan on the radio, and the church has a brand, the “Diamond J” which is Jesus. The preacher asked the question, are you riding for the diamond J or are you riding for the circle S… for Jesus, or for ourselves….

Because this is where the rubber hits the road when it comes to faith, are you focussing on the good or the bad?

We want a King!

We want a king; everyone else has a king, buy us a king.

Anyone who has ever been around a toddler has had this discussion. It might be a lollipop or a bicycle. And it is no good saying, if all your friends were going to jump off a cliff, would you jump off a cliff. Cause there is always one of them who is stubborn enough to go jump off the cliff. I broke three fingers that way.

For those of you who parented the way they taught it in the 50’s… God’s answer is the equivalent of catching your child smoking and making him smoke a cigar…

You want a king? Fine, here is a king… now we will see what happens.

Ah… human nature.

At the core of this passage is a truth we often don’t want to accept. We do not usually know the best thing to do. Most of us stumble around, trust our intuition, and focus on the wrong things.

The historical point of this story from Samuel is that the people want to be a country. They want to be like other countries. They want to be recognized as “Israelites” and be proud about it. So they need a king, a leader, someone to look up to…

The moral point is a little trickier. The people want to do it themselves. They no longer want to be as connected to the divine way of doing things. They would rather be more like the people of the world.

I wager we all struggle with this choice. Do we do what we love or what brings in more money? Do we ignore the person getting teased so we don’t become the target or do we stand up for them? Do we buy cheap stuff cause we want it, or do we pay a fair price to help those who are making it?

Do we do it our way or God’s way?

Do Not Lose Heart!

I mean, it is not like God did not warn them… you want a king, your kids might end up joining the army and fighting in wars… you will end up paying taxes… you will create a middle class and your kids will move away in search of work to get rich…

We make this choice over and over throughout history. I mean, look at the disciples, at the earliest followers of Jesus, who got kicked out of the synagogue because they chose to follow Jesus’ interpretation of God’s world… it was all a choice.

Now, the thing is, as we go through life and make choices we also make mistakes.  There are going to be times when we succumb to peer pressure, or when we are going to choose the easy way out instead of the sometimes difficult “right” thing.

It would not have been much of bible if the story ended when the Israelites said, “Oh yeah, now we get it. 

Well then, we will do it the right way from now on.” And actually did. But human nature is not like that; we do the right thing for a while and then drift back into bad habits…

The disciples knew all about this. The followers of Jesus did the right thing, did the wrong thing, followed, fell away, repented and then denied. They could not even stay the course for the three years they were with Jesus. So they were realists.

And here is what those followers of Jesus write for the new members of the church:

“We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us into his presence… So we do not lose heart.”

There are days when that is the best we can hope for… the courage not to lose heart. We will have another chance, we will get another opportunity, and God is at work in us each and every day and we get better and better at this thing called life.

The House Divided

Ever been in a situation where someone has accused you of being “just like them”? It is an awkward thing…. It is like being called a hypocrite…. It happens to all of us at one point or another that we do something that others do not understand and they accuse us of being in bed with the enemy.

Ever find yourself complaining about some group of people, maybe who are gossiping, and then in that one moment of weakness you tell a story about someone and get caught gossiping yourself? What about always being careful to tell the truth and then that little white lie trips you up.

This is essentially what happened to Jesus, he has been going around healing and preaching, and actually building this really good reputation around Galilee… then one morning he goes to church. He talks to a possessed man. He yells at a possessed man. The demons leave…. And… well… who is this that talks to demons? Is it… a demon?

We don’t deal much with demon possession… but I could put it in other ways we might understand. Jesus goes into an alley way and while talking to, and helping, a drug addict, he heats the heroin on the spoon, or ties the band around his new found friends arm… and people ask, how do you know how to do that, are you a drug addict?

Or Jesus goes to an apartment where a lonely old alcoholic is spending their final days before drinking themselves to death and has a few drinks with them….

The crowd would frown on that sort of behaviour, no?

“Wait a second,” says Jesus, “you can’t change someone’s true nature! Things are not always black and white! Would you rather that person die alone? Is it more compassionate to ignore them or to keep them company?”

Jesus constantly told us that we live in the real world. He constantly brings us back to that choice we made generations ago to have a king, to be a people, to live within society, to turn our back on God.

His solutions were real life solutions. And in the midst of it all he was clear. You cannot serve two masters.
So the question is, “Are you doing the will of God.”

Conclusion

For the weeks since Easter this has been our focus – the way we live our lives…. trying to choose the ways of God instead of the ways of the world.

It is not like it is easy – but the truth is what we have at the centre of our lives will win out. Whether we have love or bitterness in our hearts makes a difference on the day to day to way we act out there in the big bad world.

To ride for the Diamond J might not always be easy, and there are those that will try very hard to get us to compromise. But in the end, those that do the will of God are Jesus brothers and sisters, and that is what we hope to be…

Thursday, June 7, 2012

PENTECOST


The Day the Winds Came

Introduction

I have a friend, a minister in Cape Breton. He recently posted an article on his blog about a church asking to die. They were tired, they were old, they figured they were done… and Nick asked, perhaps rightly, what is the church coming to if people no longer feel any passion towards their faith.

I did not grow up in the church. I started when I was around 15, and I went because my girlfriend at the time wanted me to. It was fun, but I was also critical. I used to meet with the minister after most of his sermons and argue.

I don’t know when it changed. I never considered being a minister when I was young. I never thought I would end up going to church every week. But somewhere along the way I became passionate about the ideas and teachings of Jesus.

I know it is different for some people. They grew up in the church and it has always been a part of their lives. At the same time, a lot of those people just come to church out of habit… or else they did at one point and somehow, things changed, and they became passionate about what they believe in.

After 12 years in University studying about religion and 16 years in the church preaching it; I can tell you, that passion, no matter how strongly you feel it, comes and goes.

Today I want to talk about another group of people who had a passion for Jesus’ message, and about how their passion came and went, and hopefully as we find ourselves in the middle of this story, we will feel our faith come alive once more.

With the Kids

Experiments with flames and not seeing… Either the super-heated paraffin candle trick, or the invisible ink trick…

Spirit Musings

So what is the Holy Spirit? In the story from Acts we are told that it is like a wind, or like tongues of fire; The Psalm suggests that it is the creative power God sends forth into the world to create. Then Romans makes it out to be some sort of comforting helper that empowers our prayers.

These stories all have one thing in common, some unseen force.

The Bible actually begins with this unseen force, as the spirit of God hovers above the formless void, waiting to create everything.

Last year I spent a week learning from a brilliant man named Michael Morwood, who wrote a controversial book called “God is Near.”

He made it seem really clear, this concept of Spirit, and in fact, he thought that the Spirit was the primary way we all know God. It is the power, the force, the energy that connects us all to one another, and connects us to something larger than ourselves.

Which doesn’t really help, does it.

Ok, you know when you are afraid to do something, say, call someone who is mad at you; and you say a little prayer and then all of a sudden you have the courage to do it. That little prayer is a way of putting you in touch with the spirit which then gives you strength.

When my first daughter was born she was born dead. All blue, no life signs whatsoever, the cord had been wrapped around her neck during delivery. She was revived and rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit.

Now, her mother had been in labour over 24 hours by this point. Add the waking up when the contractions started and rushing to the hospital and we had been awake forever. But there was no way I could fall asleep not knowing what was going on.

While I lay in a hospital room on an uncomfortable cot a voice came into my head, it said, “It will be all right.” And instantly I fell asleep.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it sounded an awful lot like me talking to myself. But I had no reason to trust my own judgement at this point. Still, that voice connected me to something larger than myself which gave me the ability to have hope.

For me, this is what the Spirit is… it is God. It is divine power. It makes us who we were born to be.

Coming After

So, in the final days before his death Jesus made a promise, that he would send the spirit.

That was Jesus whole point, after all, to get us to connect to God.

He used ideas like making it personal. Jesus called God “daddy” to try and get us to think of it as a relationship. He wanted us to realize that we are all connected at a deeper level than we can possibly imagine.

The Movie Star Wars was perhaps the greatest science fiction series ever made. It might be debatable now, but at the time the first movie came out in 79 it was something no one had ever seen before. A Space Opera with heroes and villains, princesses and robots. It was also a movie about destiny.

Young Luke Skywalker is growing up an orphan, raised by his uncle and aunt in a backwater farming community. He is no one, until he meets up with a mentor, an old hermit, who claims to have known Luke’s real father. Luke, it seems, has royal blood flowing in his veins. He was destined to be a mighty warrior, he just needs to get in touch with who he really is.

That requires him to get in touch with “the force.”

In case you have not realized it yet, Star Wars is one of the most religious non-religious movies ever made. Luke is the equivalent of Jesus, a saviour who is unaware of his true destiny until he becomes mature… then he needs to go into the desert, or away to the planet Dagobah, in order to get in touch with God, er, the Force…

When I was asked to define God in a seminary interview, I used the terms from Star Wars… they are the ones that make the most sense to me.

God is the force. God is the creative power behind the universe. God is something that exists in the energy that flows from me into the world and vice versa. God is Spirit.

Jesus says that this Spirit will come and empower us and guide us, it will help us to fund truth, it will lead us in the paths where we are to go.

So… all of what I have said so far is preamble… I have just been setting the stage. You see, the point is not that Spirit exists, it does. The point is not how we define the spirit, it is real despite our definitions. The point is - what is your destiny?

Conclusion

The thing is simply this. God is at work in you as surely as the air you breathe. But you have to open yourself up to the spirit in order for it to do any good.

Make this Pentecost an opportunity to embrace your potential and be what God created you to be.
Amen.

EASTER 7 B


Into the World as One


( Just a note to say this sermon is one of the ones where each church, and each time I did it, was substantially different. A lot of off the cuffness to it, and moving the stories and different stories... but this is the text I had in front of me)
 
Introduction

What is it that stops us from getting along with everyone?

Have you ever stopped and tried to figure that out? I think perhaps it has to do with this imagined idea that we are all different. When I look out at the crowd I see a whole bunch of people who have nothing in common with me, different ages and backgrounds, different sexes and hair colours… We are as different as I can imagine.

You don’t know anyone who has anything in common with you, do you?

I remember when I was in high school we made fun of the people who were on welfare. Can’t remember how or why it came up… but they were certainly the people who were not like us at all. When you are younger you just don’t get the whole “there but for the grace of God go I” argument.

But over the years I have seen that in almost every situation, I might have done it the same way, or made the same mistakes, or ended up in the same place. I have found homeless folks who Knew more about theology than I did, and I have found ancient people who have the same sense of humour that I do…

In fact, the more I have looked around, the more I have noticed that there is not that much different about anyone…

And yet… we still have a hard time working together.

Tuning the Forks

(from Gathering Magazine)

Listen to the sounds of an orchestra tuning; then try getting voices “tuned,” i.e., have a pianist or other musician play a note (or use a tuning fork) and see if, one by one, people can join in to become one voice, one note. It takes effort; it doesn’t happen by accident; it requires listening—to the instrument/tuning fork and to one another. As Christians, God is the one who gives us the “note.” Jesus prayed we would all be able to “tune in” to it.

The Testimony

The Psalmist suggests that our delight should be in the law of the Lord and that we should meditate on it day and night. The prophet Jeremiah put it another way once; he said that the Law of God should be written on our hearts.

Have you ever watched Raphael Nadal play tennis? I used to watch a lot of tennis and although he is one of the best players in the world, Rapha often loses games, and you can usually tell if he is going to lose in the second set… because he starts slipping.

You can almost see that he has lost confidence, that he is all of a sudden unsure of himself… His mastery of the game, then, depends on his ability to master his thoughts.

This is the difference between knowing something in your head, and knowing it in your heart.
So let’s re-write what the disciple who wrote the epistle of John was trying to say:

The world is going to tell you a lot of things about who you are, and what you can do. But what is in your heart, what God put there, is stronger. If you believe in the way of Jesus Christ, you will be in touch with your heart, in touch with God, you will be stronger, you will have real life…

Ah, yes… true… but…

We hold on to those differences, we hold on to those pains, we hold on to the idea that we have to make it through on our own, and our individualism, our desire to be our own person, makes all of this very, very hard.

What’s Yours is Mine and What’s Mine is….

Jesus prays to God, Jesus says he has taught us the way. Jesus says he has put the love into our hearts…

And, well, it will be up to us…

Do any of you remember the story of the transfiguration? A little out of season, but basically Jesus goes up to the top of a mountaintop and while he is there two other figures appear, Moses and Elijah. The three of them have a little chat about how things are going to work out, and Jesus comes down the mountain glowing.

The point is made that Jesus is not going it alone. Moses paved the way with the law, Elijah brought 
the people together and gave them spirituality through the prophets, and Jesus puts them on the path of love.

It is the combination of these things that made what Jesus did possible.

Not only that, but the first thing he does after coming out of the wilderness is to call the apostles; not just get one disciple, but get a group of people he can trust, rely on, share with and teach.

There is never a sense that it is up to one person, one individual to change the world….

Listen again to the middle of Jesus prayer to God:

“And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”
So, knowing he is dying, knowing he is leaving his followers behind, he prays to God that we can work together.

My father spent many years living in Indiana, where there is a sizeable Amish population. The Amish are people who work the land, live in their houses, drive horse and buggy, and basically shy away from most of what we think makes life “easy” because they think it makes us lazy and tears families apart. I don’t think they are too far off the mark there…

In the Amish world when someone gets married and goes off to start a new family, you build them a barn.  Now, what that means is that the entire community gathers around sunrise, the women start cooking and making coffee and the men start felling trees. By lunch break the whole huge barn is framed, by sundown it is finished.

I built a deck once; took me a month.

Just one of a thousand examples I could think of to point out the difference between working together, and working on our own.

Which has basically been the theme of all of Easter; there was the whole I am the vine, you are the branches analogy, there was talk of being one family, and you even found hints of this in the whole shepherd and sheep analogy.

God wants us to work together, to have a sense of unity, to know love completely and to use that love in community. When we do that, as Jesus says, we will have his joy made complete in us…. Which is a fancy way of saying we will be fulfilled, we will know life’s purpose, we will be happy.

Conclusion

I really like the Psalm:

“Happy are those whose… delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.”

I am not saying it is the only thing we are ever supposed to do… but how about looking at it this way, in everything we do, we should be conscious to try and do it the way God would want us to do it… if we do, then we will never fail.