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.

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.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

When Geese Disagree

Introduction

So, today is the Sunday which falls on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It is a celebration held each year by the World Council of Churches. The council first met in Amsterdam in 1948. It was like the United Nations only from a Christian standpoint; in the wake of the two world wars it was felt maybe we should learn to work together more. So now it has some 349 churches, denominations and church fellowships in more than 110 countries and territories throughout the world, representing over 560 million Christians.

Now all that being said, if you look in your bulletin you will see that there are some 41,000 different branches of Christianity while only 349 belong to the World Council of churches; there are about 2 billion Christians in the world and the WCC represents some 560 million… What I am getting at is that ¼ of all Christians can reasonably work together on most things; while ¾ probably cannot.

So, when we talk about Unity, we are talking about it from a place of division… and I want us to think about that.

Each and every week we come to church and talk about the good things of the world, we talk about love and peace, and hope, and working together… and I really believe that those are the things God wants us to be focusing on… but in the midst of that we also have to be realistic. Most of us live in a world where we have a few close friends, where we know a few other people, and then there are a whole lot of people out there that we know nothing about, or don’t want to know, or whatever…

How do we get from where we are to a place where we are working together more? And should we?

Kids Story

Welcome – we are trying to see things differently during this time of Epiphany… and I want us to see the doors of this church differently… what do you notice about the doors? Why do we have doors? What would make them more welcoming?

A Prophet in His Hometown

I went to junior high school and high school while living in a place called Hampton, New Brunswick; you may have heard of it. Because my parents were divorced I moved in and out, living also in Calgary and Halifax during that time. I was always an outsider in Hampton, even though I was, sort of, from there. My Dad had moved there when I was in grade four and I had went to grade four and five there… in grade 8 when I returned I rekindled some old friends… sort of…

Anyway, I was both from there and an outsider… I got into a lot of trouble, and at the time it was a town of 1500 people and I spent the other weeks of my year in Halifax, the roughest toughest town in these here parts…

All this to say I really did relate to this Jesus story, and I get what Jesus is trying to say… the people that know us to be one way are often the people who find it very hard to see that we have changed. We also have a lot of pre-conceived notions about people, we make assumptions and we judge – based on looks, based on money, based on the way they talk… just about anything really. 

I wonder if the reason for so much division in the world is really that simple, that we see people as being different than us, and so we do not think of them as the same. Jesus for sure, was a carpenter from a small town, a Galilean, and when he came back to church to try and preach they thought of him as an outsider, as someone who had changed, and besides which, who did he think he was, talking to them that way…

Yeah, the story makes a lot of sense to me… not that it is right, but it does tell us a lot about human nature.

The Heart of the Matter

So if it is simple to find what divides us. And I know I am oversimplifying, but often it is that simple, and dumb… I wonder if it is as simple to figure out what we have in common? After all, even if we know that everyone on the planet thinks and acts differently than I do, there still must be something that connects us, right?

Paul thinks that something is love. Paul thinks if we understood love completely, and from a divine point of view, that we would see the way God sees.

And he has a point, there is nothing in this passage we could argue with, love should be patient, and kind, and calm, and open, and all the things that he says… we know that. And when you look at what he is talking about from the other side, we know that those are our bad qualities too… the impatience, the rudeness, the self-centeredness, the meanness…

But beyond that, when we get to look at it from a religious point of view – there are none of us, in any church, who are going to argue that love each other is not a central point for our faith. If you are Catholic, or Pentecostal, if you are traditional or liberal… love is at the centre of what we believe God and Jesus were on about all this time.

I do, truly, wish it was that simple… but perhaps it can be. Perhaps all we need is a little shift in our thinking and to put one simple principle into place… and then we can start to be different.

I talked about welcome in our children’s story today, because I think that the most practical way we love is through hospitality… how we treat people who come to our homes, how we make them feel welcome, what sort of effort we put into making other people feel comfortable. I really think that this is a practice of loving our neighbours the way that Jesus wanted us to.

Think about the story of the good Samaritan… here is exactly how and why the story is told – a man comes to Jesus and says, what is the most important religious principle; and Jesus says, love your neighbour. So the man says, but who is my neighbour… And Jesus picks the worst possible social outcast, a Samaritan – and tells a story in which the Samaritan goes out of his way to take care of a stranger…. That, in essence, is being religious… that is being Christian… that is the one thing that might reverse all of our turning away from each other.

The Sense of a Goose

In all of this what we are talking about is trying to be more like a goose.

Ok, that might seem like a little bit of a tangent, but consider this… In the Spring, when you see geese heading North for the Summer or South in the Fall, flying along in "V" formation, you might be interested in knowing what scientists have discovered about why they fly that way. It has been learned that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following.

By flying in "V” formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

How about this, whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front. When the lead goose gets tired, he rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point.

And do you know why the Geese are always honking, to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

Finally, when a goose gets sick, or is wounded by gunshot, and falls out, two geese fall out of formation and follow him down to help and protect him. They stay with him until he is either able to fly or until he is dead, and then they launch out on their own or with another formation until they catch up with their group.

Now, all of this is the way that a group of people, or birds, would act if they all had the same goal, if they all cared about each other, and if they all worked together… People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are helping each other as they go along. It also pays to take turns doing hard jobs, with people or with flying geese. Finally, we will stand by each other, encourage one another, protect one another and sometimes make new friends who seem to be going in our direction.

If we put this in religious terms I am pretty sure we are saying what Micah was saying… God is love, and so we are required to do justice, or loving works to help each other, we are required to love kindness, or to take care of one another and be nice to one another; and finally, to walk humbly… which in the end, means to think of the other person as being just as important as you.

Conclusion

It is not so much an epiphany this week as a pointing out things we already know, instinctively, deep down… but it is good to be reminded.

The person who is on welfare, the rich guy in another country, the Presbyterian down the road…we really do have more in common with them than we think.

And as much as we fight against it the way forward is clear, it is to love everyone.

So I am going to celebrate the week of prayer for Christian Unity by trying, at least as much as I can, to take these lessons to heart, to try not to focus on the things that divide but the things that unite. I hope you can too.

Baptism of Jesus - C

The Beloved

Introduction

Epiphanies come in many forms. Some of us have realizations about our personality. I remember the day I was dealing with something my daughter did wrong and I all of a sudden found myself saying the exact same thing my father would say. Here I was…. Growing up to be just like him… an Epiphany.

Other people realize that the person they should have been with all along was the girl next door. You get the idea; an Epiphany is a sudden, out of the blue realization about how the world really is and what needs to be done.

The type a lot of us can understand is a job epiphany. We wake up one morning and say, what am I doing? I never wanted to be a mortician; I wanted to be a lion tamer; and off we go to lion taming school; or some such thing.

Jesus was a tradesperson. He grew up in a family in which his father, and his father’s father were also people who worked with their hands. The word in Greek which got translated as carpenter could also be the word for stone cutter, tekton; but either way he built things and worked with his hands.

Then one day he realized that he was supposed to do something else, destined to do something else. Maybe he was listening to the monks over at Qumram, maybe he was hanging out at the back of the crowd listening to his cousin John; but he sensed, at the end of his 20’s; that his life was going to go in a different direction.

Called By Name

The prophet Isaiah seeks to comfort the people in rough times. It is like he looks out at a person who is struggling with the questions as to why life is like this, and he says: don’t be afraid, don’t worry, it will all be all right.

Why? Because you are God’s.

Formed, called by name, created as precious… this is what you are. And in knowing that you can face anything.

I think this is the beginning of any epiphany we have about our career or purpose. Whether you are thinking you might take up the ministry, like Jesus, or that whole lion tamer gig I was talking about – there comes a time when you think about who you are deep inside, what you were created to do, and how you feel about that.

Isaiah is right, there is a lot of strength that can come from the simple knowledge that we were created for something… that we were loved into life by God. That we were formed in a way that was intentional and that none of this is a mistake… not the way I look, not the way I think, not the way I feel.

When you know this and truly feel it do you start to think about what is motivating you, about whether you are living up to your full potential and it just makes you see the word differently. This is what Isaiah was on about, he was telling his friends, his fellow people that they needed to get back to basics, that they needed to remember who they were and that God was at the very heart of what they believed about the world, and if they did that, they could face anything.

So this is where we start our exploration of baptism, we start by knowing that there is a purpose in life, and that we are created for a purpose… life is never an accident, our life is never an accident… we were formed
for some reason, perhaps a reason we have not even begun to imagine…

Down by the River

There is an American Folk Spiritual I love, I am not going to sing it for you, but it is a simple tune with a haunting melody – the words go like this:

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the starry crown?
Good Lord show me the way!

O sisters let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
O sisters let's go down
Down in the river to pray

Now, in the way I picture everything like a story, this is what they were singing while heading down to the banks of the Jordan to be baptized those many long years ago. And I think it happened like this; people heard there was this crazy preacher… they went out to watch… they got captivated… they started to warm to the message… they came back the next day, then the next…. They started humming along… they had an epiphany, they made a decision, and they waded out into the water…

And they went back to their lives…

Well, most did. Jesus had quite a different experience. He heard the voice of God calling to him, welcoming him, reminding him, challenging him…

Perhaps he was more open to it. Perhaps he was more suited to it.  Certainly, as he preached throughout his life he told his followers over and over that they could hear that same voice, take up that same calling, and feel that close to God.

But for now, right now, he was the only one that came to know God’s love so strongly that he was ready to give his all… in fact, he was so in tune and close to the divine that he called God father, and felt God call him son.

I think that part of what happened to Jesus has to do with what Isaiah had been talking about, about the purpose of life, and discovering it. Imagine if one day you knew, just knew, why God had put you here… and the ideas of what you could accomplish just came pouring into your mind… For Jesus he finally saw his destiny, and knew he needed to set out in a new direction.

It was a powerful moment and it changed his whole life. It changed him. This was his epiphany moment.

The Beloved

So there is the very real sense of purpose that we are talking about embracing… but there is something deeper happening here as well, there is a sense of belonging, of love, of acceptance of the person. Jesus knew he had a destiny; but what he felt was loved.

He felt that God had accepted his crazy dreams and ideas, that it was ok not to be just like Joseph, that no matter what was coming God was on his side.

When we put these two things together, a sense of purpose and a sense of love, we have created the most powerful force in the universe.

Jesus spent the rest of his albeit short life trying to get this same thought across to us – you are God’s beloved. You are just as much created by this sense of love and acceptance and Jesus was. You are just as capable of living out a great destiny as Jesus was.

I wonder why we feel it is so hard to accept this? Perhaps it was that I was clumsy when I was a kid, or that I had friends make fun of me for the way I looked, or that I actually look at the celebrities on the screen or magazine covers and know I am not like them… but there is always this nagging sense that I am not enough… not smart enough, not skinny enough, not compassionate enough… a whole slew of things…

Anyone else ever feel that, or is it just me?

So here is the thing. Because of that sometimes I think I have nothing to offer and don’t bother. You can take that in whatever way you want… I sometimes do not paint because I am not a master artist. I have not yet learned to play the guitar because every time I pick it up I know I am not as good as other people… and sometimes I am too shy to start a conversation.

Just think how much a pervasive sense of love could change this. To know that we were totally accepted, totally loved, totally liked… unconditionally.

What an incredible difference that would make if we could just feel it, just know it… we would throw down our nets and follow…. Oh wait… that is the point of these stories isn’t it.

Jesus heard God’s voice at the moment of baptism and left everything to share God’s love. James and John heard God’s voice in Jesus acceptance and left everything to share God’s love. Paul heard God’s voice while on his way to Damascus through a vision and left everything to share God’s love….

See a pattern? These epiphanies of love, these a-ha moments, do have the power to change everything. And the reason they can change everything is that love is such a powerful counter to whatever we feel is going wrong with the world… Love, and knowing you are loved, strengthens you from the very core of your being.

Living Your Baptism

I think in the end, this is what baptism is all about – it is about accepting our true nature, accepting our giftedness, accepting the love that God is offering.

And when we know those things deep in our hearts we are so strengthened to love others that we help them find this very truth about themselves as well.

Jesus discovered in the moment of his baptism that God’s love had empowered him to do great things. We might not remember our own baptisms, but as we think about what they meant, about what it means to renew our faith, hopefully we will come to know that very same love and be strengthened by it.

Epiphany

just a quick note to say that this is mostly a sermon written by Rev. Ali Smith. I used it as a starting point for my sermon which was a little off the cuff... 

Contemporary Reading:      “The Journey of Melchyor”

Evening chants had just begun when Baba called to me.

Near to him I advanced, seated close to his knee.

“Melchyor,” he whispered, “we'll leave this very night.

No need to wait for any more word, as we have seen the Light.”

The camels, all twenty, swaggered as they rose,

our congeries in bags concealed from any foes,

with Bab's gift of brand new gold...

'Twas for the great One as foretold.

From the home mountains of Kailash we trekked the Indus plain;

to Balthazar, at Bela, my master had explained--

a scholar so extraordinaire, who knew the dawning light,

though his gift of myrrh foretold a doom,

'twill last for just one night.

From dusk to dawn we walked and rode.

At sun-up we slept then studied our code.

Days changed the weeks to so many moons;

our caravan became known with its gilded festoons.

“Haste, haste to Karbala!” my master cried,

“From King Gaspar we mus not divide.

He brings food, and silks, and frankincense.

His arrival would dash our suspense.”

From dusty, hot sands we plodded on,

until the cooling Euphrates we won.

“Six hundred miles 'til journey's end,”

said Gaspar.  “Look, see where heaven will bend...”

To Bethlehem, in Bethlehem our goal was safe and sound.

While men and beasts stretched on the ground,

too weak we carried Baba in a stall.

Balthazar, Gaspar, and I entered entralled.

Baba, our master, wiped his tears.

He tried to calm our excited cheers.

The child approached and hugged him tight,

and master whispered, “We've seen the Light.”

“We have seen the Light!”

The Wise Men

They followed a star - a single, shiny burst of light out there somewhere in the universe; one piece of cosmic energy among millions. And trusting in that simple light, the Magi went on this enormous journey. 

They didn't quite know what they would find at the end. Something about a child born to be King of the Jews? They trusted that the light would get them there. They let it guide them. And when they got to Bethlehem, they found a poor, powerless child. 

Not quite what they expected. But just like with the star that took them so far, in this small child, they found more light. Light that would guide their way; that would guide their lives. 

By simply witnessing the light, the light became a part of them. They carried it with them where they went.

They became light-bearers. 

The journey that they thought would end when they made it to the newborn king had really only just begun when they looked into his eyes. They were forever changed and went home another way. 

Trusting the Light

Can you find yourself in this story? Have you ever been like the Magi? Do you let the light guide you? Can you even find the light in the first place?

We live in a pretty structured society. I'll admit to being one of those people who carries their calendar with them at all times, depending on it to get through the week. In our now-2013 world, things are scheduled and planned and expected to happen a certain way.

So, picture this: Someone comes to you and says, “I heard a rumour that an important child might have been born... maybe...probably. Drop what you're doing!  Put your life on hold! Go out there and find this person. 

I can't really tell you how to get there but I'm sure you'll figure it out.” What would you do? 

Would you think of a million reasons why not to follow some rumour and shifty advice? Or would you round up the camels and start riding out into the wilderness, looking up the sky, hoping for a sign from the heavens

to point you in the right direction?

Or...to update the situation for our time... would you turn on the GPS and start driving and hope some road signs would direct you where you need to go?

It's hard to muster up that kind of trust, I think. It's hard to believe that God will guide us. It's hard to go forward without a real plan.  After all, we are molded to trust no one and to be ever skeptical. But it hasn't always been that way . . .

Celtic Pilgrims

I think it's true that people used to listen to God more. I don't mean that God appeared before them with clear-cut commandments either.  “Thou shall...”  “Thou shall not...”  No. God spoke through instincts

or through the wisdom of other people or in a plethora of other ways. But people trusted and listened.

Historically, there has been a sense that the winds of God can guide us without us being so afraid or guarded.

I think we've lost the trust that people like the Magi had. We fear risk and the unknown. In this way, we limit what God can do. We continue to live in darkness when we could be walking in the light.

Celtic pilgrims used to get into tiny boats that had no rudders. They would push out to sea and sail forth,

trusting that God would guide them. They believed that amid the waves, there was a guiding force that lured them toward wholeness and holiness. They called the place they ended up their “place of resurrection” -

a place where they would be changed. Perhaps this place was their Bethlehem. 

This is our hope too – that as we journey on our own uncharted waters, we will be guided and end up in holy places that change us forever; that we too will find ourselves in Bethlehem; that we will see the light of God shining just for us.

Being Changed By the Light

No matter how open we are to the experience, though, we do catch glimpses of God in our lives – whether through the birth of Jesus at Christmas time or out in nature or in interactions with other people. And when we see God, we are forever changed. 

Like the magi, once we see the light, from then on we carry it with us wherever we go. But what shall we do with it now that we have found it?

Light is very important Christian symbol. The whole season of Epiphany that we enter into today dances around the theme of light. In fact, the whole Christian year draws upon the theme too. That's why we begin each service by lighting a candle – to remind us that Jesus or the Light of God is present with us always. 

Each week, at the end of our worship time, we share the light. It's an important reminder that we carry the light with us and that we can share it with those we encounter in a week. It's not just a symbolic gesture. 

We really are called to share that light that Isaiah reminded us had come. “Arise and shine, for your light has come,” says the prophet.

Our job is to live in the light... to shine... to show God to people in the things we say and do. When we do this, we make God accessible to other people the way that Jesus did. God goes from being this mysterious concept somewhere out there to being something people can put a face on. 

For the Magi, the face of God was this little child who would grow up to be a man who would do great things and show people how to live. For us, we might picture that face too – as Jesus' example can still very much guide our lives.  But the face of God might also be a kind action. It might be a nonjudgmental presence. 

It might be a helping hand. 

By engaging in these activities, we share the light with people. We let God shine through us. We help people to know God in ways that are real and powerful. We live God.

Conclusion

Being Christian means seeing the light. We've seen the light! So, let's get excited about that. Let's be changed by that. Let's be light-bearers and light-bringers and light-shiners for the world.

In the words of Jan L. Richardson in “Blessing of the Magi”:

There is no reversing
this road.
The path that bore you here
goes in one direction only,
every step drawing you
down a way
by which you will not
return.

You thought arrival
was everything,
that your entire journey
ended with kneeling
in the place
you had spent all
to find.

When you laid down
your gift,
release came with such ease,
your treasure tumbling
from your hands
in awe and
benediction.

Now the knowledge
of your leaving
comes like a stone laid
over your heart,
the familiar path closed
and not even the solace
of a star
to guide your way.

You will set out in fear

you will set out in dream

but you will set out

by that other road
that lies in shadow
and in dark.

We cannot show you
the route that will
take you home;
that way is yours
and will be found
in the walking.

But we tell you
you will wonder
at how the light you thought
you had left behind
goes with you,
spilling from
your empty hands,
shimmering beneath
your homeward feet,
illuminating the road
with every step
you take.

Christ the King - B

From Kingdom to…

Introduction

Today is the last Sunday in the Christian calendar. It is the Sunday where we wrap up the old, conclude all of our thoughts, and prepare to move on once more into the season of Christmas. So what do you say to sum up Christianity?

Over the years we have said it slightly differently – but to think of this Sunday historically one has to think of that time when the disciples were arguing about money, and Jesus asked whose head was on the coin… 

“Caesar’s,” they answered, “well then,” said Jesus, “Caesar is the king and give him the money.”

As the disciples thought about this more and more they decided that Jesus should be their king, not Caesar. And maybe it is a political rebellion fermenting, or maybe it is a metaphor and Jesus is king of our hearts, but so was born ‘Christ the King’ Sunday.

Of course, the argument against this comes from Jesus himself, who said such things as “My Kingdom is not of this earth,” and “the Kingdom of God is among you.”

He was the guy who argued that the way the rulers of this world work is often contrary to the way of goodness, of love, of God.

The reason Jesus was killed was political, he was branded a traitor and crucified for political dissidence, the Romans thought he was a troublemaker…. So what was this Kingdom Jesus was talking about, and what does it mean for us today?

That is what we are going to be exploring throughout this service.

Politics of Faith

There have been three phases of this movement Jesus started; and each one changed its followers, and the church. I want to give you a really brief history lesson and then perhaps we can see a little more clearly how we got from Jesus preaching about love to the state of the world today.

First, Jesus came to reform the Jewish church. That was his mission; that was the scope of his influence. It took Paul to see that there was a chance to spread the message a little further – and so Christianity started out as an illegal, underground, missionary movement. For the first 300 years, if you were a Christian and caught, you were executed. This is when most of what we think of as the New Testament was written, during a time of fear, a time of persecution.

In 312 AD Constantine took on his co-emperors in a battle called Milvian Bridge. He decided to paint a Christian symbol on his soldier’s shields, maybe get the help of this new God… and he won, becoming the sole emperor of Rome. Overnight Christianity went from an underground movement to the official church of the government.

Now, believe it or not, this lasted forever, let’s say until the late 1960’s. Church was the civic branch of the government. We ran universities and hospitals, we gave money to the poor and organized the food banks; you went to church simply because you were a good citizen… and everyone went…

Most people thought this was the Kingdom Jesus had talked about – we sent missionaries to the far corners of the world and there were Christians everywhere. Governments consulted with the pope, with the ministers, with Billy Graham even before making decisions. Everything was getting bigger and better all the time.

But… as we all know… something was flawed in this… wars continued to erupt, disease continued to ravage the land, poverty just kept getting worse, and people were not really all that loving; especially to the outcasts that Jesus always said should be the focus of our love….

It took the hippies of the 60’s to point out the chink in the armour; but as soon as they drew attention to how the old institutions, like the church, did not actually live up to their claims – everything began to unravel.

The Kingdom of God is like…

Jesus used a lot of images to try and tell us what this peaceable kingdom he was proclaiming was all about – it was like a mustard seed which grows into a huge plant, it was like a vineyard where everyone was treated equally, it was like a banquet to which everyone was invited.

I think of it this way – heaven on earth.

And what Jesus was trying to get across is that heaven is the state of being where we are all loved and valued the way the God would love and value us… His first sermon quoted a prophesy from Isaiah in which the captives are set free, the poor are fed, the debts repaid… That is his idea of the Kingdom of God.

He had no better word – Kingdom made sense… God is the King. A lot of people argue now that the political language, the idea of a king, of a kingdom – none of it makes sense when we are talking about the world Jesus sought to create. Some people change it to the reign of God.  I have even recently heard it called the “Kin-Dom” and place where we are all kin.

I think that is all semantics. I wish I myself had a better word to suggest to you, maybe some of you could think up a poetic way to describe it… But what is it that we are talking about, really?

Well, Jesus went and called together people from all walks of life. He told them that they should look out for each other, that they should even go further than that and find the most vulnerable people in society and help them. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, bathe the sick.

He was not just talking once or twice; he was saying this should be our way of life, our attitude, to put love first. Jesus in fact treated women more like equals than anyone else, talking to them about their lives and their faith, he sat down and ate with the outcasts of society who no one else would talk to, and he stayed at anyone’s house who would ask him in.

He understood that compassion and dignity, that love and equality, would make the world the type of place it was supposed to be… and that is what he tried to get across to his followers.

“The Kingdom of God is among you…” he would say; it is not the future, it is not life after death, it is right here, right now… the question is, can you see it?

Putting it all Together

So I still think it comes back to that moment with the coin; all of what it means to be a Christian summed up in one sentence… whose face is on the coin.

In other words, who is at the centre of what you do – is it money, politics, ambition, greed, the things of this world; or is it love, compassion, patience and hope, the things of God.

I think the Kingdom is as simple and as easy as that – we are called to put love first, to put God first in our lives; and if we can, when we can manage to do that, the world will change.

We begin another year next Sunday in the church. We begin by thinking about how simple things, like a birth in a manger, can make huge differences. It is something to think about.

Pentecost 23 B

Sacrificial Love

Introduction

“Greater love has no man than this; that he lay down his life for his friends”

That is a quote from the Gospel of John – to put it in a bit of a context for you, Jesus is talking about being the vine and the branches. He is talking about following God’s commandments. He is explaining to the disciples that they are his friends… and he is talking about sacrificial love.

For Jesus, love is a very simple concept – you are willing to do anything to help the other person. You are willing to risk yourself for the other person.

Last week was All Souls… the day after Halloween is officially the day we remember the dead and their contribution to our lives. Next week is Remembrance Day… the day when we officially remember the men and women who have put their lives on the line for freedom because of their sense of love.

It is a concept that is at the heart and soul of what we believe as Christians – we believe that risking out of love, that helping others with everything we have and do; is the centre of what Jesus taught us. To love, and to love extravagantly, is our mission.

Setting Out in Love

We live in a world where we can understand the lives of Naomi and Ruth. Where people are forced to move in order to find jobs and where economic security is hard to come by… and in this opening passage we are told in a nutshell the life story of Naomi – she fell in love, she followed her husband back to the land of his people. They lived happily, their sons got married… but then, tragedy, her husband and sons die and Ruth has no relatives anywhere near by – so she decides to head home.

In the midst of this her concern is for the well-being of her son’s wives… she begs them to go back to their own homes and find new husbands. It is her love for them that begs them to turn back… and it is Ruth’s great love for Naomi, for her mother in law of all people, which makes her stay.

It is an unexpected moment of love.

I would argue that this is not an exceptional moment in time. I have seen similar things happen a lot. I have seen people stay with strangers by the side of the road at car accidents. I have seen others open their houses to people who are passing by just because they are in need.

I am pretty sure that love really is at the centre of who we are and how we are. The thing is, we do not make a big enough deal about it. We do not celebrate those moments where people reach out and make a difference. We find it hard to accept thanks when we do nice things for other people.

So what do we have to do to put love more at the centre of our lives? How do we recognize that acts of love are happening all the time around us?

I mean, we know some of them – we honour some of them on Remembrance Day – but I want it to be more of an everyday realization; and how do we do that?

Of Sacrifice and Love

Throughout history there have been different ways that we think we get God’s attention. And I mean hundreds of ways… from casting lots to sacrificing animals… prayers and dances, chanting and magic… But the thing is – in almost each and every one of these things there are two things that never change: We need something. We believe God can make a difference.

One of the reasons that Jesus went down in history, was that he internalized this – it became his life ambition: People need something – I can make a difference.

If you believe that, he once told the disciples, you can move mountains!

Do you believe it? Do you believe you can make a difference? It seems to me that as the years go by we get further and further away from belief and get more and more discouraged.

If you think about World War One, or World War Two… I think most of the people volunteered and went believing, completely, that they could make a difference! They wanted to do something to change the outcome of the war. They wanted to make sure their loved ones were safe. They put their love into action; maybe in a dangerous and terrible way - but–that was generally the motivation – to make a difference for those they loved.

This is all circling around what I am calling Sacrificial Love. It is the type of love I think Jesus came to teach us about – the type of love that is willing to put your life on the line.

And although we don’t talk about it, and actually do not get many opportunities to practice it; I am willing to bet that we are all capable of it.

We do hear stories: from Fire fighters rushing into burning buildings to the average person diving into the pool when a toddler slips and falls in. There are people every day who take big risks to make a difference.

This is what Jesus came to teach us. As a “priest” as a religious leader, this was his goal. And I am thinking that he actually did a really good job.

And the Greatest of These is….

What is the most important thing you can do….

Simple question; simple answer: Love… love God, love neighbour, love yourself.

My girlfriend Ali’s grandmother’s house was recently demolished. Annie had lived there in Cape Breton her entire life, a lot of that time spent with four brothers. When they were moving the mementoes out they found a slew of letters written by those brothers, Alexander, Clarence, Peter and Angus… Ali, Clarie, Petey and Angy to those who loved them. Those four brothers had spent all of World War Two as part of the Cape Breton Highlanders. One of them even lied about his age to enlist.

But what was incredible, was that whether they were in Italy, France, Germany or the Netherlands… and if you look it up, the Cape Breton Highlanders have been involved in all of the worst battles in every world war; they wrote home to Annie every week.

They took the time to write, to say who they had heard from and who they had not, and to ask for cigarettes… Apparently nothing beat a Canadian smoke.

It may seem like a little thing, to write home… but at the same time; it shows a level of compassion and caring for each other that echoes Jesus greatest commandment.

Now, a lot of people have had issue with what Jesus said – a lot of people feel that love is a hard thing to find in your heart for some people.

But I really think he was onto something. And I also think that we forget how simple that love can be. It is just about putting other people first and remembering to take the time.

If we love God, we are already living from a place of moral conviction that makes it easier to do the right thing – we are following a way of life that has been laid out over thousands of years to put love and compassion first.

If we love ourselves we are not getting hung up on all the things that make it hard to reach out for others… there is none of this – feeling too scared, or too full of ourselves… we do things from a place of understanding and a place of strength.

And if we love others… it does not mean that we have to accept everything about them, it simply means we have to see them as having value, as being important in their own right.

All My Heart

But it is more than that isn’t it… Jesus said we had to love with all our heart, all of our understanding, all of our strength….

We are not talking about a half-hearted effort here. We are not talking about “trying” to be like Jesus, or trying to love like God. We are talking about commitment. We are talking about throwing everything you have into the arena of loving. We are talking about being willing to risk.

As we go into a week in which we are called upon to remember the sacrifices of others. May this calling echo in our ears and may God’s spirit grant us the courage to follow in those very heavy footsteps. Amen.