World Food Day C

World Food Day

Introduction

I find it intriguing that world food day follows thanksgiving. I do not know about you, but in my family thanksgiving is the equivalent of a feast. It is all about celebrating the best the land has to offer. So we are talking Turkey and pumpkin pie, or for this year duck and wild rice stuffing...Very delicious.

But at the same time that we are celebrating the richness of our bounty, we know that there are others who have nothing. From the people on the edges of the deserts of Africa right through to the 400 people who use the food bank in Miramichi, having enough is a constant problem.

Do you remember those ads from a couple of years ago that showed a person in the kitchen opening a can of soup, and when they opened it the roof came off their house. Then you saw the words, food or shelter. 1 million Canadians cannot afford both. Habitat for Humanity sponsored it and the point of the ad was to say that for many the choice is that serious, food or shelter, what is it going to be.

World Food Day was established in 1945 on the tale end of World War Two. The United Nations members took a look at the world around them, a world athat was honestly used to a lot of growth and prosperity ... And realized that with two "world" wars in 20 years, with the greatest depression the world has ever known in between, things were not really that rosy. We needed to take food security seriously, we needed to make sure everyone had enough.

Of course, this idea is ancient... In fact it forms one of the core moral teachings of the Jewish and Christian faith.

Children's Story

Give 1 kid no rice cracker.

Give 1 kid 3 rice crackers

Give 2 kids 2 rice crackers.

Give 4 kids 1 rice cracker.

(Repeat if there are more than 8 kids.)

We live in a world where one in eight people face go hungry every day - can't find enough food to eat.

Even though there's lots and lots of food in the world.

Jesus found himself in situations like that - where some people had food and others didn't.

Put all the food in one basket and passed it around.

Everyone was fed and there was even more food than they needed.

Heading Through the Desert

Everything I said with the kids, the whole bread and fishes feeding the five thousand is all well and good... But the thing is, there are times when it is easy to be so comfortable with that - like when it is lunch and you know you can to home and eat more later, it is fairly easy to share our five fish... But have you ever been hungry? 

The grumbling in the desert is a far far more realistic picture of what it is like when you cannot find enough food. I remember a fishing trip like that, where the friend I was sharing a canoe with insisted we should live off the land for a week, we would fry our catch and pick berries... I think to be honest that we only brought cornmeal and salt and pepper... On the second day when we had caught no fish I was ready to kill him, the trip ended early.

Well, here are the Israelites, thousands of people  who left safety, security and home behind to follow Moses into the desert, the DESERT. Now, I have never personally tried to live off the land in the desert, but I can guess that the people were getting pretty hungry, and pretty grumpy. You can understand their point...

This is one of those stories that shows God is with us. There are number of things like this that happen, the soldiers are outnumbered, the crops dry up, there is nothing to drink, the people are hungry... And God provides.

Don't worry. God is with us. That is the very basic message behind this reading, and why it was kept alive as a story for thousands of years... Now, I don't want to say that there is anything wrong with that sentiment... I jut want us to think a little about the difference between God providing, and expecting God to do the work.

Certainly one of the things God is saying to the people, of Israel is this... "If you would just stop complaining and look around... There is food on the ground and birds in the air, now to out and get them..."

How about our responsibility in the midst of all of this?

Jesus and the crowd get to the shore and there seems to be no food, so they ask around, and everyone, knowing that they might be there a while, claims to have nothing. But then when they look a little further, they find some fish and bread and the sharing begins.

So to go back to my opening point about Thanksgiving and people starving... Perhaps it says more about our unwillingness to share than about whether or not God provides?

The Gleanings

There are a lot of really interesting passages in the Bible about taking care of each other. Most of us could come up with a couple like when the disciples ask Jesus "when did we see you cold and hungry, Lord" and he tells them that any time they help anyone they help him.

But did you know there are very specific laws and rules about helping people and food? For example, according to biblical law a field can only be harvested once. When you go through and cut the grain the first time, then you just walk away... You leave the rest, the leftovers, for the foreigners widows and orphans to go get without cost. You also don't harvest right to the edge of the field, leave the stuff growing there so that anyone who is old and crippled does not have to walk far to get food.

The entire way that crops were grown, used in church, and shared had to do with the idea that God did not want you to be greedy, and that you should do all you could to make it easy for others to help themselves and still have dignity.

I think we have sort of lost this along the way. I don't really know where and when, there are theories.... But it all happened long before any of us. Life became more about making your way in the world, it became  about your family. About your friends, and ultimately about you... Strangers and outcasts became just that, and we stopped talking to them, stopped caring as much, stopped seeing it as a matter of faith.

There was a minister in Germany in World War Two... He was eventually put into a concentration camp himself because of his complaints, the chief among them was that no one would stand up for the poor and outcast... He wrote a poem that became famous which said this:

First they came for the communists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for me,

and there was no one left to speak for me.

We can be thankful for the food we eat and the life we live, but if we are not also aware of the unfairness of this world, we are not being faithful. We cannot change everything and we cannot help everyone... But we cannot just throw in the towel either.

Conclusion

God has provided. There is more than enough food for everyone in the world. It has to do with whether we are willing to share,  to work together, to be the type of people Jesus knew we could be.

The answer to hunger is so simple we learned it when we were little kids. Share. It may sound simple... But it is the only way we will ever bring true change.

I want to end my sermon today with words from a Spanish poet named Federico Garcia Lorca

who lived in the early twentieth century. As you hear these, may you feel real hope for what is possible.

He said:

"The day that hunger is eradicated from the earth

there will be the greatest spiritual explosion

the world has ever known.

Humanity cannot imagine the joy"

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.

Advent 2- B 2011

Of Prophets and Kings

Introduction

What are you waiting for?

I sort of asked that question last week as well, but the thing is, Christmas has context… It doesn’t just happen, there is a reason. 

The thing about being a Christian is that you are supposed to be an “as if” type of person.

Let me explain. As Christians we are called upon to live as if God’s promises were true, as if the world were what God meant it to be, as if the goodness of God was more powerful than the evil we see around us.

Or think of it this way - We live in a time of war and terrorism, but we are called to live as if peace were more important. We live in a time of instant communication and gratification but are called to live as if peace and tranquility were of a higher value. We live in a time of natural disaster but are called to live as if there was security. We live in a time of poverty and chaos but are called to live as if people have more value than things.

So when we say, Christmas is coming… we are making a powerful theological statement. We are saying, something changed, something will change again, and we recognize and celebrate it.

Comfort O Comfort

Imagine for a second that you live in the time of the prophet Isaiah – Isaiah was the counselor to the king, during a time when two different nations wanted to drive the Israelites off of their land, the Syrians were at war with them, and the Assyrian Empire was waiting in the wings to take what was left. It was a time of darkness, despair and utter hopelessness, a time when people wondered why God had abandoned them, and this is what Isaiah called to his beloved people in the temple:

“Comfort, O comfort my people… Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength… lift it up, do not fear… Here is your God! See, the lord comes… he will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom…”

White Gift (children’s time)

White Gift Sunday dates back to 1904 in Ohio. The wife of a Methodist minister and her two daughters came up with the idea of giving gifts wrapped in white paper at Christmas time to people in need.

Gifts are wrapped in white so that they will be anonymous. People who can only give a little will not be embarrassed.

There is a Chinese tradition where all the people gave their king a gift wrapped in plain white paper so that every gift would look the same. Each person gave the king what they we re able, and the king welcomed them all.

The White Gift shares in the spirit of Christ and the God of love at Christmas. We give gifts of love to people in need. These gifts are often nonperishable food items which are distributed to people in the community.

White Gift Sunday celebrates the stew a rdship of Go d’s love and giving at the time of year when we remember the coming of the King of Kings.

Prayer of Dedication of White Gifts

Holy God, you are the giver of all gifts. We come before you today with these white gifts given in our Lord’s spirit of love. May they be offerings of love, symbols of our faith in you and signs of the work of Christ’s church. Bless us as we dedicate these gifts in the service of others. AMEN

The Struggle

This is the second Sunday of Advent, and I have to say, the world does not seem very “Christmassy” maybe it is the lack of snow, maybe it is that the radio stations are not playing any Christmas music yet, I don’t know; what do you think, does it seem as Christmassy as other years? Does it feel like it is three weeks away?

The Psalmists and Paul try their best to remind us that even in the times that life seems hard, Christmas is on the Horizon. They do not say it quite like that – but listen again:

“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God… A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”

“Surely his salvation is at hand… Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky. The LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.”

So believe in tomorrow, have hope, keep the faith, something is about to happen… we forget that urgency, but that is what people have always felt, that the world is changing out from under them… And it truly is, we live in those changing times…

Repent

And the context of Christmas is the very real world we all live in; a world that, as we all know, can make us lose sight of all these Advent words, Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.

Jump ahead 500 years and we come across another prophet, this one closer to the original Christmas; Jesus’ cousin, John; who we sometimes call the Baptist. This wild and crazy prophet shows up outside of Jerusalem wearing a camel skin cloak and eating locusts with honey. He is so out of place that he draws a crowd – and then he begins to preach:

“Repent. The Kingdom of God is at hand.”

Now what we sometimes miss in this story is that John is pretty much recreating Isaiah for his generation. The people are still stuck in a war torn country – this time it is the Herodians and the Romans who have divided the spoils, and they are still wondering where God is.

The writer of Mark saw this – he even quotes Isaiah when he describes what John is doing – preparing a way for the Lord in the wilderness, making level every mountain and hill and raising up every valley and smoothing every rough places.

Now what else did Isaiah say? “Here is your God, see, the Lord comes!” Both Isaiah and John start with where we find ourselves and offer us a message filled with grace – a message about God’s presence with us – and how that can change everything.

There are people out there that think Christianity and other religions are “quaint” that they are from another time and another way of seeing the world… I think the messages, and the problems faced, are timeless…

Why does this world suffer from more depression, more suicide, and more pain than we ever have?  Could it be that the same sort of injustice, the same sort of poverty, the same sort of misery that was there in Isaiah’s time, or John’s time, is still there with us now?

We all struggle with meaning, and we all wonder if things will ever get better…

So here is the good news – here is the Gospel – as told by the Archangel Gabriel to a lonely young girl afraid for her life: “you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son… he will be great, and of his kingdom there will be no end…” And you remember what Isaiah said the kingdom of God would be like? The Lamb and the lion, the baby and the snake, will all live in harmony with one another.

Conclusion

See, God still has a message for us in these dark times. Peace, I leave you with – not as the world understands peace, but as God does – wholeness, love, wonder, joy, and safety – peace. This is the grace of God and the love of God which Jesus came to show us.

So as we wait remember that our calling is to be the ‘as if’ sort of person that the world needs. The birth of Jesus in the dark of midwinter was a reminder that nothing bad ever gets the final say…

I heard a great quote this week and I want to finish my sermon with it…

A Candle is a message to the darkness – saying, “I beg to differ!”

Christmas is coming.