Easter 4 C

Overlooking Dorcas

Introduction

Throughout the Season of Easter, we've been talking about the stories we tell and why they are important. So far, we've focused on the popular stories within our families and within our church family too. When you take the time to look, it's easy to see how they have shaped and influenced us.

But what about the stories we don't hear time and again? What about the stories and the characters in our past and in our world that go overlooked, ignored, neglected?

I have always found that we can learn even more by looking at who or what it is we overlook.

Have you ever, for example, spent an hour watching a spider spin a web? You should do it sometime – not only is it beautiful, but it will make you feel pretty humble about your own abilities… what a spider can do is pretty amazing.

Or have you ever been in a place where the person you least expected to have anything to say says something really, really wise and changes everything?

Today we are going to think about some of the simpler ways we can be disciples. The question we need to ask is whose voice we should listen to, and where do we see people who are listening.

Children’s Story

Jesus said they would know he was connected by God by the way we care for people… People can see God in the way we care for other people and the planet.

Listening to the Voice

So what does it mean to be someone who is important to God? That is actually at the heart of this confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees… who is the most important person in the church? Who should we look up to? And Jesus answers in a really different way – he says, “…my sheep hear my voice”

What? What is this supposed to mean? Well, how about this, the people we should be listening to are the people who listen to God.

Now, here is the trick, those people are not always the obvious ones. They might be the people who seem crazy, or they might be the people who are outcasts… or… as we are going to see… they might even be women. *gasp*

This might sound like an obvious statement… but it was not the way the world of the Pharisees worked… and to be honest, it is not really the way our world works. What they said was that you should listen to the priest, who should listen to the High Priest. That you should listen to the people who are put in charge… and we think that too don’t we, the people who have the education, or the money, or the political office… those are the people we should be listening to…

But what if we made it simpler… listen to the people who seem connected to God.

The Underdogs

What we have to understand it that Bible is actually filled with stories of underdogs, it is filled with characters who are on the outside, who seem not to be important, or who people often overlooked… but the thing is, when we read these stories we come to see a simple truth – that in God’s eyes everyone is important; and these people were really worth paying attention to.

So I want to introduce you to Dorcas… a woman, a widow, someone who is not really too important it seems, since she is almost included in the story as an afterthought….

After all, this is a story about Peter… a story about one of Jesus apostles, the big guy…. And the focus of the story, at least for Luke as he wrote it, was on the miracle, on the idea that Peter could do just as good as Jesus, and bring Dorcas back to life… It would seem at first glance that Dorcas is just a random bystander… a woman who died, conveniently, to give Peter someone to heal…

But think of this – this was 2000 years ago when women had almost no importance, in fact, they were often seen as property and treated just a little better than animals.

And even if Jesus was clearly counter-cultural, he clearly cared about women and he had female followers and friends… there is still the truth that most of the women he dealt with never even get a name…

The woman at the well, the syro-phonecian woman, the little girl who Jesus raised from the dead, the woman who was bleeding… we know the stories… but what are their names? No one knows….

So, the fact that Dorcas' name is recorded in scripture is, of itself, a big feat.

But what do we know about Dorcas? Well, some things we know for sure; other details we have to imagine. What we know for sure is that her name Dorcas is the Greek version of Tabitha, which means "gazelle". And we know that she was a disciple who lived in a place called Joppa. What we can assume is that she was a widow. It says in Acts that when she died, she was mourned by "all the widows... crying and showing Peter the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made when she was still with them."

So, she was either a widow or she joined the widows in their works of charity. She likely wasn't just any average woman. The Bible rarely describes the average woman. It basically talks about people with exceptional personalities. Someone once said, the only women mentioned in the Bible are saints or prostitutes... and I don't think they're too far off. There's nothing to indicate that Dorcas was the least bit sinful so we can assume that she leaned more toward the saintly side of the spectrum.

Another good indicator of her importance was that Peter travelled from another town to come to mourn this death. He would have only come to the deathbed of someone of significance.

Unfortunately, this is all we know about Dorcas.

Putting it Together

But here is the thing… that is enough… even this little bit goes a long way in helping us to understand the role of women in the early Church; there were women who were out there, meeting together, helping each other… in fact, when you look at Paul’s writing you find that women often had house churches in their homes…

Dorcas was one of those women who made a real difference by living our Jesus’ legacy. She was spreading Jesus idea of love. She was caring for others. She was bringing God to life for those around her; and she was doing it in a way that was spreading the message of Christianity.

Not only that, but she was important to the church. Peter heard of her death and left, came to her funeral, resurrected her. She was important enough for him to change his plans.

Paul mentions women like this in his letters to the various churches, like Lydia, who ran a church.

See, right from the beginning there was a strong message that anyone, literally anyone who was listening to God’s voice and living in God’s way was important.

Conclusion

As people of God, we are called to love and cherish everyone - like a shepherd tends for each and every sheep - like a gardener looks after each and every plant. 

We are called to listen carefully so that we can hear every story - even the ones that are whispered or incomplete. All of our stories are important.

You might have to listen extra carefully to hear some of these stories - the stories of those losing their jobs right now, the stories of those suffering from mental illness, the stories of refugees and prisoners and those unjustly wronged, the stories of the earth. But listen to the whispered voices...because they are speaking to us.

What is Dorcas saying to you today?  

Easter 3 C

Encounters Along the Road

Introduction

Once, a long, long time ago, there was a man named Saul… He was a holy man, a wise man, a Pharisee and he believed in his church. And what made him angrier than anything was people who were trying to ruin his church, trying to change things, trying to go behind the Pharisee’s backs…

In other words,… he hated Christians.

And Saul’s word held a lot of sway. He was a Roman Citizen, he was a teacher in the church, he was famous for doing the right thing… if Saul did not like Christians there must have been a good reason. Perhaps everyone should turn on them….

We all know people who have more influence on us than others. For me Rick Mercer, the Rick Mercer television show guy… what he says matters to me…

And there are writers I trust, Ministers whose opinions carry more weight for me, friends and family who seem to make a little more sense than the majority…. So I get it. Saul was an influential person; and he mattered.

Think of him as the church’s worst enemy.

See, this is what always fascinated me about Christianity… misfits and troublemakers… murderers and liars… these are the heroes. It makes it seem a lot more relevant to me. If all of the stories we told were about perfect people who God used to convince other people to be perfect… it would have nothing to do with me…

Cooking Fish

(KIDS)… campfire and goldfish… re-tell the story… God’s dinner conversation… you can do anything…

(ADULTS) God works through conversion. It can be a simple story or a complex one… but it is a story in which something happens which changes our minds.

In High School I was a problem kid. I could tell you lots of stories but suffice it to say that I was unhappy. I was unhappy for years… and I did not see much point in this life… one night I was walking home from a party and I saw my backyard… it was all trees and it was the middle of the night and off in the distance was a streetlight creating these odd glowing patterns in the trees… and I thought it was beautiful. Like… amazing…. In that moment I realized that even when things are going wrong, even when life is terrible, there can be beauty. It was the beginning of my conversion….

After the execution of Jesus, after the appearance in the upper room, after the crowds have died down the disciples got out of town… in fact, not knowing what else to do they made their way back to Galilee and back to the nets… fishing was simple, it was what they knew how to do, their careers as religious disciples seemed at an end… so you have to make a living… right.

But God had bigger plans for them.

So we get this scene on the seashore where Jesus cooks them breakfast, reminds them of a few things, forgives them for a few things, and calls them to task. You have bigger fish to fry, is essentially what he is trying to say here….

Falling From Horses

Back to Saul though, remember, the bad boy of the Bible…

Saul was on his way to Damascus in order to arrest some more of these upstart Christians when his life was changed forever…. We are told he had a revelation that knocked him off his feet. Something happened to him that turned his world upside down... and in a good way... It says that in an instant, his life was transformed.

Now in truth, that transformation was probably no more “instant" than was the conversion of the disciples at 

their fish fry breakfast… Sure, this was a moment where everything changed… a moment that changed his mind… but remember who this was… This was Saul, who had studied literature and the law and, when he was still young, he went to Jerusalem to study in the great Rabbinical schools. He was a religious man through and through…

He already spent all his waking hours thinking about how to serve God, about what the right and wrong things to do were… he had been guided by religious convictions his whole life… it was just that, in this moment, he realized that he had got some things wrong.

Now no doubt, even when Saul was a nasty guy, causing much suffering and pain, God was at work in him. So, I'm sure that what he did and what he witnessed contributed to him becoming a better person. But it is true that on that Road to Damascus, Saul finally made a commitment to turning his life around.

Last week when we talked about Peter we talked about someone who was unsure of himself, and found inner strength. But Paul is totally different. Here we encounter someone who is confident, sure of himself, and powerful; and yet realizes that there are things he does not know, there are ways of seeing the world he has not considered, that God is always at work in new ways…

And so he takes on a new role of being the hands and feet of Jesus in the world, and he adopts new name to go with it…. Paul…

What he does as the apostle Paul is a story for another day though…

Of Promises

So we have two stories of call, two stories of conversion in our text today. The disciples on the seashore find out there is more work to be done. Paul on his way to Damascus discovers that he has been doing things wrong and there is more to be done…

You know, once upon a time, to say a Creed like we just did was to swear allegiance. It was a statement of faith which declared for the world to know that you intended to stand with God, with Jesus, no matter what happened.

Think of it, when we read it in church, as a reminder… A reminder of who and what we are… we are followers of Jesus and that means something.

We all have conversion moments, we all have aha moments when we realize things are a little more complicated than perhaps we first assumed, or that there is more work to be done, or that we are happier with the outcome than we thought we would be.

I wonder if we need to take more time to do less… if we need to go fishing, or walk along a road on the way somewhere just taking the time to think… is that something that is missing in most of our lives? Is that where we would hear the voice of God more clearly? Just wondering…

But I have had those moments. I went from wanting to be a soldier to wanting to be a minister in what seemed like the blink of an eye… it wasn’t really. And, even though you might not think so, the motivations for each were the same… I wanted to help people and make a difference. I wanted people to be happier than I was at the time…. I just thought I had it figured out… I would go and fight for a better world… when all of a sudden it seemed to change… but it really hadn’t I had been going to youth group, and talking to ministers, and taking religious studies in school… and… in the twinkling of an eye….

Conclusion

So what is at the edges of your vision? What is gnawing at you?

How about we spend this week thinking about Paul, about what he has to say to us. Can you relate to Paul in any way?  Did you ever realize that you have been really really wrong about something?  Have you ever changed your course completely?  Have you ever had an experience that shook you to your very core? 

Perhaps you've had a Road to Damascus experience or maybe you have slowly grown and changed over the course of your life.

The characters in our Christian story don't always act as fine upstanding citizens. I'm sure that each of us that have had members of our own families that haven't always done the right things. But, in all of that, in each and every person, we can hear God speaking.

What is it that you hear Paul saying to you today? 

Easter 2 - C

Peter and the Boys

Story Telling

My great, great, great grandfather was a ships surgeon in the British Navy who jumped overboard on his way to the battle of Quebec City, swam to shore in the Gaspe, and started farming in the woods.

My great great great great great great grandfather was a Viking who went across the northern seas to the Isle of Britain and liked it so much he stayed.

I am not convinced either of those stories are the gods honest truth. But when I was growing up, they were the characters that helped define who I was… they formed an identity that said, this was who it was to be an Anningson.

Who are those characters for you?

What are the stories you would tell to your kids around a campfire… about great uncle Billy the pirate, or old old grandma Sarah who was capable of forecasting weather…

There are characters in our faith story as well… you have probably heard some of their names, like Noah or Moses, King David or John the Baptist…

For the next little while I want to tell you some campfire tales about the Apostles… about the people who started the early church… who met together in basements, who prayed together when it was illegal, who shared with each other even when no one understood it…

The church of today is not the church of yesterday. This should go without saying but it is definitely true… when it all started out there were no buildings, there were no ministers, there were no committees…. There were a few people who were on fire with the message… evangelists…. And they believed beyond a doubt that they had to get the word out.

One of those believers was Peter…

Peter would eventually be known as the head of the church. He would become the first pope, in a sense, and the biggest church in the land would be St Peter’s Basilica. He was at the centre of the group of disciples who began the church… but it was not always that way…

Peter, whose real name was Simon, was a fisherman in Bethsaida… actually an owner of a family fishing business… where most of the fishermen in his region were poor and probably owned nothing but a net, he owned boats, and along with his brother Andrew were among the first disciples called by Jesus.

Along the way Jesus keeps testing Peter, and he kept failing… terribly actually, from the whole refusing to see who Jesus really was, right through to the denial of Jesus in the courtyard on the night of the crucifixion, 

Peter made mistakes… but Jesus saw something in him. So much so that he nicknamed him the Rock… the Rock upon which the future would be built… upon which the church would be built… that is Peter.

With the Kids

The disciples fear…. Our own fear… God showing up when we are afraid…

The First Days

Let’s take a step back from Peter as the head of the church to those first days after Jesus hung from a cross. Almost every story we hear from that first week is a story based on fear….

So here he is, with the disciples, locked in a room afraid…. Peter knows he has denied being a disciple; he is probably embarrassed and worried and does not know what to do next….

He certainly does not seem very Rock like at this very moment. And to be fair, he has good reason. There is a lot to worry about and things are not going the way anyone could have planned.

But the thing is, that is part of his story, right… he was a guy who made mistakes and he was a guy who 

somehow found a way through.

Here he is the week after Easter starting from a place of hopelessness and fear… a place where Peter cannot imagine what the future will hold or what the world outside the walls of his locked room will look like.

Have you ever been there yourself? Ever been afraid of the future? In a very real sense that is where Peter is now….

The Acts of the Apostles

For the season of Easter I am going to be telling campfire stories about the heroes of our faith. I guess you can guess that today is about Peter… throughout this season we read from the book of Acts, a book of history about the Apostles and the early church.

People often say that Acts is the second part of the Gospel of Luke, it continues the story of what Jesus was trying to do, but it focuses on the time after his death and on those who took over for him…. So beginning from the day Jesus is taken up into heaven, through the story of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples, what we read are the stories of people who stood up and made a difference.

So flash forward a few months in the life of Peter, those fearful moments in Jerusalem are over, he has left the locked room and begun to teach and preach… but… now Peter is once more confined, but this time he has been arrested and is on trial...

Brought before the high priest and the whole council; he is asked point blank… did we not tell you never to talk about Jesus again! Didn’t we tell you not to preach this stuff to the people?

And Peter boldly stands up and says, God has commanded we do this… it is the truth… how could we not speak up!

Well, this really doesn’t seem like the guy who was afraid to admit he was a follower of Jesus, does it?

Something has changed him, something has restored him, and something has given him the power to do more than he imagined he could…

I wonder if we sometimes forget about how fast things were happening, about what the followers of Jesus had to go through and what they had to wrap their minds around… I mean, from meeting Jesus to losing him, to starting the church is just a little more than three months.

They head to Jerusalem sure Jesus is going to change everything, watch him die, run away, then start the church up in a matter of months. I guess when I think about that I really do think that perhaps Peter deserved his nickname, he was pretty resilient.

Relating

There is no doubt that we can all relate to Peter…  There are times when we feel fear and doubt and confusion; it is in those moments that we find ourselves in a locked room, blinded by walls on every side.

There are times when we feel confident and free, able to speak our truth about our thoughts and beliefs; able to hope and dream and see the big picture.

And still yet, there are times when we feel persecuted, having to explain ourselves and work extra hard to be who we want to be.

Conclusion

The point I am trying to make is not where you should find yourself or what you should be doing, the point is that through Peter’s story we see God. We can ehard God speaking through the stories of the lives of the faithful who have gone before us – stories rich with faith and response to God’s love.

It is up to each of us to find our own purpose in these epic stories. But we must always remember that the people of our past still have so much left to say… and that what they say is very relevant to us today…

So I hope you are left thinking about what it is that Peter is saying to you. How does his character and his story relate to yours? For just like the earliest flowers of the faith, you are a Christian too, filled with the same spirit of possibility.  

Easter C

Sunrise

Introduction

Have you ever had one of those nights? You cannot sleep and the worry and fear keeps gnawing at you... maybe someone you love is travelling all night, perhaps you are waiting for word of a new job, or a medical result... Or maybe something horrible has happened and you cannot let it go.

So you toss and you turn and you stare at the ceiling. And eventually, somewhere close to when it doesn’t matter anymore whether you sleep or not; blackness engulfs you.

Now, here is the real question... have you ever woken up from one of those nights to discover that everything is all right? That the person made it, the test is negative, you got the job or your kids are safe...

That is Easter Morning.

This is the festival of new life, this is the celebration of hope, this is Spring and flowers, and sunshine, and stones rolled away and every good thing we can think of rolled into one service.

And it started with a story of a man who said that love was more powerful than death. Almost no one believed him... his closest friends and followers gave up on him during his arrest, trial, and execution... they all had that long dark night of the soul when they were sure their dreams were gone, when they were sure their friend was dead, when they were sure they were next.

But then came morning; and the reality that life had so much more to offer and that feeling was so powerful that the followers of Jesus have been sharing it ever since.

The Politics

Crucifixion is meant to put down rebellions. Pure and simple, effective too; you find the leaders of the movement, and you hang them up in the sunshine on the road into the city. I tell you this, the next person is going to think twice before suggesting we go against Caesar.

Of course, the thing is, Jesus kept trying to tell them... it was not Caesar he had any problem with, it was the way people were living. And the story he told went back to childhood tales around the fire, of a God who created a man and a woman and put them in a garden with the animals and said, “take care of each other.”

And Jesus wondered, whatever happened to that? Whatever happened to the days when you knew your neighbours name, when you trusted the mechanic and the teacher and the police officer and the banker? 

Whatever happened to neighbourhood BBQ’s and letting your kids play outside all day on their own... what has happened to life?

And the people in charge pointed out that life is better now than it has ever been; although no one quite believed them; and they got rid of this guy who dared to speak for God, who dared to say that life should be different.

But the thing is, the message seemed true to the people. It echoed what they had always been taught in church, they believed the words of the prophet Isaiah who said that God was going to make the world better, peaceful, loving, hope filled. And Jesus was just pointing out that these were the promises of God.

4,000 year old promises for us... that the lion will lay down with the lamb. And sure, there are days when I am discouraged, there are times when I think it will never happen... and then I see some random news story about a stranger who does something loving.

Last week I watched a newscast from the states about a kid who threw the basketball to a member of the wrong team, on purpose... seems there was a boy with Down ’s syndrome playing this one game, he usually takes care of the equipment and the coach let him play the final game. Well, all through the game he had tried to get a basket and missed. There were three seconds left and the opposing team had the ball on the sidelines... So the boy who had the ball takes a look around, and throws it right to the guy, right in front of the net, on the other team, who has waited his whole life to take this one shot... and he makes it.

You cannot tell me that that is not a story of Easter.

Sunrise in the Garden

The story of the wee hours in the garden where Jesus was buried is a very passionate one. You can imagine the pain, the wonder, the fear... I mean, think about it... if someone you knew were dead, and you discovered the body was missing, and then that maybe they were not dead after all... how fast could your feelings keep up?

But in this one passage in John we see everything laid bare: disbelief, wonder, fear, pain, hope, loss... and we see how hard it is for us to accept the wonder that is all around us.

Mary argues that Jesus has to be dead. She argues against the miracle... And I don’t think she really wants Jesus to be dead, I just think it is next to impossible for her to accept anything else.

We know how things work... we know how the world is... and we expect the worst.

That is where Easter gets in the way.

I want you to see how powerful resurrection is, and that is why I started by asking if you have ever felt those nights of fear and mornings of relief... because this is a biggy. This is the thing that happened to those who loved Jesus – they lost everything, in one weekend, in one night....

And somehow, inexplicably, they found it all the next morning.

What if the promises of God are true? What if some of what we have said for thousands of years really does make sense? What if there is something more powerful than the darkness we too often feel? Mary, Peter, the disciples, the followers, they all came to know, completely and totally, that this was true.

They saw Jesus love come back to life in a way that cannot die.

And for them, that was the story of Easter.

Conclusion

If you ask me, the one thing we are meant to take from Jesus is the idea that anything is possible.

Add to that the truth that love conquers all and I think we have all the tools we need to make it into any future, to face any pain, and to come to love one another the way that God intended.

For me Easter is so much more than the story of Jesus returning from the grave, it is the story of the complicated way we live, stuck between all that goes wrong, and the potential for so much goodness. And when I hear this story I am able to say that there is something else... that God does come through... that new life is all around us...

This is what God invites us to celebrate.

 

Palm Sunday - C

Of Parades and Palms

A Parade

With the kids…

How many of you have ever seen a parade? What was it like? Has anyone ever been in a parade? What was that like?

The idea of a parade is that it is exciting, it is a celebration, and we are all supposed to be caught up in it, and have fun…

Why do you think they had a parade for Jesus? What do you think they wanted to say about Jesus?

Without the Kids…

One of my favourite places to watch a parade is Disney World. There is something about being there that just sucks you in, you feel like you are in a magical place, and all these magical things come to life. I remember being just as excited to watch Santa Clause parades when I was a kid, whether on television from New York, or in whatever city I lived in.

Parades create emotion… Parades create feelings… there is music, there is laughter, there are floats with magical presentations, there are smiles and waves and balloons…

That is where we start, with our own thoughts and remembrances about parades, with all that they have meant for you over the years, and with how they make you feel….

Because today is about a celebration. The Passover is about to being. The whole world makes its way to Jerusalem.

The Imperial March

Passover was the most important festival of the Jewish year. It was a time when everyone made a pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem. So I want you to picture the dusty streets leading up the hill to the city. It is a spring day in 30 AD and the sun is shining… Now, picture this, there are two processions winding their way up on opposite sides of the city, two parades.

One was a peasant procession, and one was an Imperial procession. The one we enacted today was the entry of Jesus. He rode a donkey from the Mount of Olives… he was a poor person from Nazareth and those who came out to watch him ride were the normal, poor, people of the city. Jesus had come 100 miles from Galilee in the North, and word had spread ahead of him, word of what he proclaimed, the Kingdom of God, which most heard as a message of freedom.

Over on the West side of the city Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of all of Judea was entering the city with fresh troops, right off the boat. There were cavalry on horseback and infantry with their spears and bucklers rattling as they marched. Sunlight shone off metal armour and penants proclaimed this the army of Caesar. These soldiers had come to reinforce the Garrison in Jerusalem, to keep the peace during Passover. 

And as they marched they displayed not only the idea of Empire, but the theology of the Romans as well. 

According to this way of thinking, The Caesar was not only the emperor, but the son of God as well. And as the drums beat and swords crashed, these soldiers carried shields and banners emblazoned with their version of God.

You can imagine as a people who have been beaten into submission, who have seen foreign soldiers every day, that you watch this procession a little nervously, a little awed, but a lot resentful.

So back to the other end of the city, and our friend Jesus’ parade. This is a carefully crafted counter demonstration. Jesus planned it all in advance. He sends his disciples ahead of him in two directions as he approaches Jerusalem, some to get the donkey, some to go into town and gather the people who are sympathetic to the cause.

They line the streets and throw blankets and cloaks and palm branches onto the street and shout “hosanna! 

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” It makes the Roman parade seem a non-event.

The symbolism is from the prophet Zechariah, who wrote that the king would come to Jerusalem humbly, riding on a colt, and the foal of a donkey… Zechariah goes on to say the king would cut off the chariot, and the war horse and the battle bow. In other words, Jesus is the prophesied king, who has come to bring peace.

This is the carefully crafted message as Jesus heads to the temple for Passover.

It is the beginning of the confrontation that fills Jesus final week…

The Same Mindset

I have been doing this for a while, as have you… Palm Sunday… Easter… Christmas… Church… and when I started out as a minister I pretty much went by the book. That is what most people do in whatever job they find themselves in. But the thing is, over the years, I have found that we are moving further and further away from just doing things because we have always done them.

We need to start thinking deeper about things, asking deeper questions; and we need to start reworking our faith stories into our real day to day lives so that they make an impact, a difference.

Which for the last month has been one of my obsessions; what do these high holy days, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, mean to us? What is the “Good News” for our lives? What was Jesus trying to get across?

And the more I thought about it Jesus was trying to get something across. He was working hard on it. He had been circling Jerusalem for months, waiting for the perfect time, for Passover. He waited until Pilate was coming into the city to make a scene. He gets everyone on board and has a parade. Then the second thing he does is march right up to the Temple and kick out the money changers; so he is trying to stir things up, he is trying to get people angry, he is forcing everyone’s hand… why?

Perhaps it was about choosing sides. Perhaps it was about showing an alternative. Perhaps it was about giving us a way to recognize the right side?

This is a parade in favour of love, in favour of helping each other, in favour of honesty and compassion… all those values which we need to make it through.

And the point was to create a reaction. To get us to see that there is something else going on here. To make us think differently about what we see in the world around us.

Then there is Pilate, and the High Priest, and the tax collectors, and the soldiers; and all of those who have some reason to like things just the way they are. There are always those who want to keep things the same, who are either gaining something from the status quo or too afraid to rock the boat.

And we all know that those can be some pretty powerful enemies to make. Of course, we also know where this is leading, and what is going to happen to Jesus in a few days. But the question is, knowing what we know, are we willing to join the parade?

Conclusion

So, the problem is, we all know where this ends up. Palm Sunday is the first day of a week which ends with an arrest and execution…  It is all well and good to point out to you that there is difference between the way the world works and the way God works.

Jesus spent years trying to show the people, trying to make them trust God instead of Caesar… but there are always those who see it the other way. There are always those who are more powerful.

But as we enter this week I want you to realize that what was happening was politics pure and simple… it was about two ways of seeing the world; two ways of living life…. And Jesus was inviting us to choose.

Lent 3 - C

Pruning in the Garden

Gossip

“Hey.  Did you see what that Stephen Harper has done this time? Look at him trying to take away people's hard-earned money with all these EI changes. And all those problems with the Senate... I'm sure he's involved in that too somehow… And global warming... when is he going to stop killing the Earth?!   

Somebody really has to stop him!

And what about Obama? Now don't get me started on him! People still are walking around without healthcare down there in that country. I bet most of things he promised aren't even going to happen. And look what he has done to the poor budget!  Yikes! 

What we need is a revolution to get rid of all of these leaders.

And what's with that Pontius Pilate character? Did you hear about that war he tried to start? A bunch of people were killed. And I wouldn't be surprised if he was behind that tower that collapsed over there in Siloam. What a horrible man! Something must be done.” . . .

It's easy to come up with a laundry list of someone else's offenses and to get enraged.

A group of people came to Jesus with a list of their leader's offenses. They were sure that this would make Jesus angry and that he would jump at the chance to lead a revolt against Pilate and the Roman Empire.

They were really, really wrong.

Instead of doing what they expected, once again, Jesus did the unexpected. He turned everything around. He told the people in front of him to forget about Pilate and to look at their own lives instead. He told them to think not about how someone else should change but about what they had to change. He told them to repent of their own shortcomings.

Kids Story

Tug of War – Needing Help – Where do we get out strength?

Repent

Repent.  What a scary little word!

For a long time, repentance was understood as confessing to someone else or to God every little thing you'd ever done wrong.  The purpose of this exercise was to unload your burdens so you could feel less guilty. Somewhere along the way, repentance became about making a highly judgemental God happy. 

It became about seeing ourselves as “sinners” who needed to be punished for our crimes; and it took on a real negative connotation; which is unfortunate because the act of repentance is actually wonderfully cleansing.

What if we were to put that word aside for now and use the word “change” instead? Because that's really what repentance is – it's about changing ourselves. Change is about doing what we need to do in order to be healthy and whole. It's about intentionally making alterations to our lives so that we can have good relationships and contribute positively to the communities we belong to.

We don't change to please God; we change for ourselves.... so that we can be happy.

And the good news is that God helps us to do this.

At the end of the day, we don't need to feel bad about making mistakes or having flaws. Instead, we need to understand that we are meant to be human, we are meant to live,… even with all the flaws and the problems. 

As someone once said, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

Our job is to be always experiencing things, always taking risks, always experiencing life fully.

At the same time, we are supposed to be learning from those experiences, and striving to be better… and in order to do that we need to be intentional about changing.

Living with Intention

Throughout this season of Lent, I have been talking about getting deeper into who we are, and why we do things. We have been trying to see that Lent is a time to take a good hard look at ourselves and focus on what we need to be doing to live life right…. We have talked about choosing to live in God’s way; then we talked about choosing to live with hope…

Now I am taking a little bit harsher stand and saying that there are things that need to go – there are things that need to change in order to actually walk the path we have chosen. 

I am not saying I know what those things are for you… I know what some of them are for me; I am impatient, I get angry pretty easily, I am shy and find it hard to be the first person to talk… all of those things are little things that get in the way of me living with intention – there are certainly bigger things as well.

So I am inviting you to take the first step towards letting go of some of the things that get in your way… and that first step is to simply admit it… there are things you need to change… And then, and only then, can we work on step two…. Which is to actually start changing….

The Fig Tree

Scripture gives us a beautiful image to help us with this – the image of a fig tree.

There was this fig tree in the middle of a vineyard. It had become diseased and no longer would bear fruit. 

The landowner wanted to cut it down...to get rid of it. He thought of it as an eyesore with no value.

But just as the axe was about to hit the trunk of the tree, the gardener said, “Hold it! Give me a chance to heal this tree. Let me help it to grow again and you will see how beautiful it really is.”

The gardener knew that if he cared for the tree and paid careful attention to the problem areas... if he could dig at the roots and properly fertilize it... that it would come back to life. He knew that if he made some changes to the tree's environment and to the tree itself, that it would flourish once again.

We are the gardeners of our own lives. If we are intentional about identifying what we need to prune from our lives, we can bear fruit time and time again.

Of course, we don't do it alone.

God is the catalyst in our process of change. God gives us the tools we need for the pruning. God gives us guidance and gifts and wisdom and strength – all we need to grow.

Tree Meditation

Last week I talked a bit about the idea of us being a tree firmly rooted in our past, in our traditions, and in God. This week I want to take that the one step further that Jesus did and invite you to see that if you really want to grow and flourish, you need to work on pruning…

Are there parts that need to be cut away so others can grow stronger? Are there things you need to do differently so that life can be better?

We all know this is true… this metaphor. We have all seen plants that need to be pruned. And we can all admit that our lives could use a little too.

That is what I want you to take away from this today… the idea that we are in control of our lives, and we are always given another year to see what fruit we can bring into being – but we need to be intentional – we can’t just let it all grow wild and expect that something good is going to happen!

So I want to close with a little meditation exercise… I want you to close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine yourself as a tree in the desert – withered and wasting away?

Maybe you have bark that is hurting.

Maybe you have branches that need to be pruned.

Maybe you have leaves that need to be shaken off.

I want you to think about the spots on your tree that need to be transformed. Think about what you would like to see changed.

Now, can you reach down within yourself and find God's presence?

Maybe its way down in your roots. Maybe it flows through your trunk. But it is there. Grab on to that presence...to that Spirit. Use its strength to send your roots right down through the parched earth.

Send your roots out seeking the living water. Persist. Look for the love that is yours for the asking. And God will pour the waters for your soul into the dryness of the ground.

Feel God's love flooding through you... nourishing you... pushing up through moist earth.

Feel yourself changing, from dry and withered to vibrant and full. Feel your colour returning and notice how rooted you are in God's love. You are solid yet yielding – a fruitful tree in the wind.

Living with Intention means looking closely at yourself and at all you do. This week, remember the tree that is your life. Work at nurturing it and changing it into the tree you want it to be. And then we'll gather again next week, as a beautiful, thriving forest.

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.