Pentecost 13

Equipped

Introduction

What is the biggest problem you face in life? I would wager that no matter what is coming up on your horizon the biggest problem is you. That is right. My biggest problem is me, and your biggest problem is you.

I have at times felt too clumsy, too dumb, too ugly, too overweight, too lonely, too shy, too evil, too good, too loving, too cold, and the list goes on and on… you may also recognize that the list already has contradictions.

That is right… I can one day feel I am too smart for something and the next day feel too dumb.

Which should be a hint that most of these feelings are made up, they are the things that get in the way of me being authentic and proud and hopeful and creative and, well, what God intended me to be?

… Ever say anything like this when it comes to religion? I am not faithful enough, I don’t know the Bible enough, and I don’t go to church enough…. When it comes to following Jesus we sometimes get in the way of the simple and true fact that we all have what it takes.

Solomon

Do any of you remember King Solomon? In Bible lore he is sometimes credited with being the wisest person ever to live…. You may have heard it before but here is the most famous story of that wisdom:

One day two women came before the King. They carried with them a little baby, which was set down on the floor, at the foot of Solomon’s throne

“O my lord,” said one of the women, “five days ago I gave birth to a child. This woman and I live in the same house, and three days later she also gave birth, but that same night her child died, and at midnight she arose and, while I was sleeping, took my son away from me, and laid her dead child in its place. When I awoke in the morning I thought at first that my son was dead, until I realised that it was not my child.”

“No,” interrupted the second woman, “she lies, my lord, she lies! The living child is mine and the dead is hers!”

“No,” cried the first woman, wildly. “No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine.”

King Solomon raised his hand for silence.

“One of you says ‘my child lives and yours is dead ’, and the other says ‘your child is dead and my child lives’: there is a simple way to resolve the matter. Bring me a sword.”

A sword was brought, and the assembly waited to see how the King would proceed.

“Very well,” he said, “cut the child in two, and give half to one mother, and half to the other.”

The first woman turned pale.

“O my lord,” she said in a faltering voice. “Pray, give her the child. I beg you, do not kill it.”

But the other woman’s face remained hard.

“Let it be neither mine nor yours,” she said, “divide it as the King has ordained.”

Then Solomon arose, and pointed to the first woman.

“The child belongs to her,” he said. “Give her the child, and do not kill it. She is its mother.”

King Solomon was also the person who built the temple. David tried to start it, but he could not, Solomon built this majestic, huge, architecturally interesting Temple of the Ancient world in Jerusalem which people came from all over the world to see… the house of God.

So, wisest, richest, most powerful, internationally known….

Yet even he is not sure he has done the right thing – he does not know if God has noticed the Temple, or heard the prayers… and once more he stands before the alter and prays, basically saying that he is no one without God…. Even Solomon struggled with this stuff…

The Whole Armour

What are the slings and arrows of the evil one?

Do you know there are only a couple of places in the whole Bible where Satan is mentioned? Did you know that it is not what you think? 

God and his angels are having a discussion about whether or not human beings are good and loving and deserve what God has given them; Satan who is the chief opposition in the court of angels says, “I bet I can get a human to turn away from you…” and God says, go ahead, test it on my most faithful servant, Job….

That story is the only place where we get any mention, aside from warnings by later writers like Paul, of the so called ‘evil one and his slings and arrows’ - and you know what those slings and arrows turn out to be? Self-doubt.

In Matthew it tells us that the “tempter” came and talked to Jesus after the fasted for 40 days in the desert… Probably the same guy… and what does he do? He tries to convince Jesus that if he was strong enough he would use his superpowers… if he was wise enough he would get more followers and be rich and famous… if he was good enough nothing could hurt him….

In other words, he tries to whittle away the self confidence that Jesus had… a self confidence that Jesus tried to share with us, teach us, which tells us that God loves us and equips us with everything we need:

We have truth, righteousness, faith, the spirit…. All of these things which Paul called different parts of our armour when he wrote to the church in Ephesus… These are the things that God has already gifted us with and the things that can help us overcome our own fears and doubts.

Jesus

This teaching is difficult – who can accept it?

This is what some of Jesus followers asked when they heard his words. To be honest, I bet at different times a lot of different people said that when they heard it.

“Turn the other cheek” – hmmm… I have tried but I will never be able to do that.

“Love your neighbour” – well, it seems pretty impossible to love everyone.

Nelson Mandela in his inauguration speech quoted the writer Marianne Williamson when he said:

"...Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Commissioning

A week ago, the United Church elected a new Moderator, our spiritual leader for the next three years. As he finished his sermon during the final worship service he said this:

“In a couple of hours, a thousand of us will be scattered from this place to the corners of this continent, this country, and then around the world. We will go filled with the power beyond our understanding, with the God who can do so much more than you can ever imagine and ask, and you are equipped to love the world!”

It is true, we all are, so let’s get started. 

Pentecost 10 - B

Be, All That You Can Be!

Introduction

When I was growing up my dad was in the Navy. We lived in a number of bases, as a little boy it was a dream come true. Helicopters landed in my back yard at one time. I saw jeeps and tanks, and went on destroyers. It was great.

I grew up thinking I wanted to be in the military. Not only because of experience, but because it is a family tradition. There has never been a generation of Anningsons who have not. So I was, for a while, but what I really wanted to be was a US Marine. And I remember my 29^th birthday being a sad day indeed… I was now too old to become a Marine

Identity is a hard thing… who are we deep down inside, and what does that mean…. I am a man, a Maritimer, a father, a minister, a writer, an ex-soldier, and an Anningson. All of those things have played a role in making me the person I am today. As have thousands of other things.

The thing is, all of those things come with expectations: There is a standard of behaviour for Anningson’s that I have to live up to in order to make them proud. There are expectations in being a father, and perhaps even more in being a minister.

You know what I am talking about: friends, families, work, they all expect something and we are trying to live up to something.

Today, I want to talk about what we expect at church. What does it mean that we are Christians.

Letting the Big Guy down; King David

When you are the king, you can do anything, right? I am sure we would all feel that way for a little while. Win 16 million dollars and you are going to take advantage of it for a little while. Get your ten minutes of fame and you are going to want the best table in the restaurant… it is just human nature.

David takes this too far a couple of times while he was the king of Israel – this story is about him killing a soldier because he has a crush on his wife…. A little over the top; a little evil to kill someone in order to become husband number two… but like most things in the Bible it is a blown up example to make a point

David decides to put his needs above the needs of others. He decided to forget about who he was deep down inside, and he needed a reminder.

God sent the prophet Nathan to remind him. He did it by telling a story. Which is the way the Bible does it with us… there once was this king who thought he was above the rules… but….

Perhaps we all need reminders every now and again… cautionary tales about getting too big for our britches… maybe we need to be taken down a notch once in a while. The thing is, what Nathan is really trying to do is remind David of who he really is – remember who you are, a shepherd’s son, the smallest brother, given strength by God to face Goliath, chosen by God because of what’s inside you to become king… do not get distracted by the world but stay true to who you are…

He fails miserably a few times at this, so do we all... but in the end, he remembers and choses the right path.

So What Is The Right Way to Live?

I keep saying this, but it is always worth remembering… every time we have an epistle reading… a reading from any book of the New Testament except Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, it is a letter. More specifically it is a letter written to a specific church, a specific congregation, in a specific town. Today, it is the apostle 

Paul writing to the church in Ephesus… and he is writing to explain to them what they should be like as a church that follows Jesus:

“…lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called”

Let’s look at that for a second. We are all called, we are all given opportunities and experience for a reason… it doesn’t matter whether you are a mechanic, cut wood, or a housekeeper. It is what you are called to be; at least for right now.

The thing is, in any profession, in any walk of life, in any day – we can lead a life worthy of who we were meant to be, or we can just do it for the money, to the fun, or even out of spite.

Which is going to make you a better person? Which is going to make you happier?

For Paul this means “humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity” which sounds pretty good. We should always be trying to be humble, we should be trying to be gentle and patient with one another, and we should try to work together helping each other out.

Sounds easy enough… right. It is too bad that it is not always that easy. Sometimes we make choices that hurt other people. Sometimes we fall prey to our egos or to our lack of self-esteem and we do dumb things, or fight for no reason…

Paul says we do it to build each other up, to make the world a better place, to make it possible for each person to be fulfilled. Sounds like a pretty good reason to me.

So remember who you are and live out of your Christian values, as Jesus taught them. That is the lesson from the first readings. They are realistic lessons, we are talking about a King who actually murdered someone for his own goals, and a church who often gets off track trying to be a better church than others.

And even if you are like that – even if you are far away from who you were meant to be… there is always a chance to turn around, to repent, and to learn.

Running after Signs

What do you want from church?

What do you want from Jesus?

When the crowd chases after Jesus he seems a little annoyed with them… “I gave you a free lunch; you are chasing me down for a free supper too?” he asks; which seems a little unfair, and they push him and the crowd answers, “what are we supposed to do?”

“Well, do you believe in me?” asks Jesus.

And this is the crux of the question – are we going to believe in what Jesus has to say, or are we going to have to test everything out ourselves.

Having two little kids reminds me that I was always the one who tested my parents. When they told me that I would burn myself on the cigarette lighter in the car, I still had to do it first just to see. And it has gone on through my whole life – I want to test things out before I believe in them.

Sure, there are some rules and regulations passed down that I just have to take on faith. But for the most part, I want to experience life for myself and then make decisions.

“Are you just in this for the miracles?” Jesus essentially asks. “Do you just want to see some magic tricks? Or are you going to listen.”

And it is a good question. Because honestly, being a Christian has almost never made my life easier. I make less money than if I had no morals. I have hardly any friends because people are afraid to hang out with someone who they think has a holier than thou attitude. I often have to put my needs aside for the needs of others. I give money to people even when it means I cannot afford what I want…. There are not a lot of perks to following Jesus.

So why do we do it?

Jesus answers with a wacky metaphor that means very little to us – God gives manna from heaven, I am the bread of life. With me you will never be hungry or thirsty…

Which really means that we won’t be hungry for more; which really means that we will be fulfilled.

Chase after the things that others tell you will make you happy, and you might get them, but you still will have something missing. Believe in God, do what God destined you to do, and that hole will be filled with purpose.

Some days it will be a purpose that drives you to do things you do not want to do. Sometimes it will be the hardest thing you can ever imagine to respond in love, or to offer hospitality, or to be gracious…. But when that day is over, there will be a smile on your face.

A Calm Sea Does Not Produce a Skilled Sailor.

I tried this week to find a story, or an illustration to back up what I was trying to say – I couldn’t get anything that was quite right…

The real point is that we were all created with a purpose and a destiny. We all have great potential inside of us. And we often do not realize it and do not even try to live up to who we are called to be.

But it is not that hard – we need to follow the example of Jesus. We need to look to the heroes of the faith and learn from their lives and mistakes, and we need to believe… believe in God’s love and God’s purpose….

When we do that we will live from another place, a deeper place, and we will be happy.