World Food Day C

World Food Day

Introduction

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

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

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

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

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

Children's Story

Give 1 kid no rice cracker.

Give 1 kid 3 rice crackers

Give 2 kids 2 rice crackers.

Give 4 kids 1 rice cracker.

(Repeat if there are more than 8 kids.)

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

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

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

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

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

Heading Through the Desert

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Gleanings

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

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

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

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

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

First they came for the communists,

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

Then they came for the socialists,

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

Then they came for the trade unionists,

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

Then they came for me,

and there was no one left to speak for me.

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

He said:

"The day that hunger is eradicated from the earth

there will be the greatest spiritual explosion

the world has ever known.

Humanity cannot imagine the joy"

Thanksgiving C

 Embodying Gratitude

This sermon was written by Rev. Ali Smith at Forest Hill United in Fredericton. My off the cuff sermon was based on these notes.

My Autumn Drive

Throughout the Season of Creation,

I have been sharing with you

how much I have been enjoying Autumn this year.

I know that every year Autumn rolls around

and the leaves change colour

and fall to the ground

in preparation for winter.

But this year,

it's beauty has really struck me.

This week,

I went for a drive on the winding highway

between Fredericton and the Miramichi,

as I often do -

through some of the most picturesque places

New Brunswick has to offer;

places like Nashwaak and Taymouth,

Boistown and Doaktown,

and finally Blackville and Renous.

Most of the leaves, at this point,

had changed colour.

So, my eyes were met with a beautiful palate

of browns, golds, oranges, and reds.

Pine needles, like confetti,

covered the road.

The air was clear

and the sunshine was warm

as if hanging on from summer

for just a little bit longer.

Every now and again,

I would come across a produce stand,

filled with crisp delicious-looking apples

and bright orange pumpkins

that looked like they came

straight out of a child's colouring book.

And most of the people I saw out of my window

were wearing cozy Fall sweaters.

At several points,

birds soared gracefully overhead

in the blue sky.

And as I got closer to my destination,

a family of deer jogged across the road

up ahead,

with their white tails

standing at attention up in the air.

Driving down that road,

I felt blessed to have this time,

to have this beautiful scenery

that was speaking to my soul.

For two full hours,

I breathed it all in

and indulged myself

in my surroundings,

in the feelings stirred inside of me,

as if I had spent the afternoon at the spa.

I felt a deep appreciation

for what was before me

and found myself saying aloud

to no one in particular,

"This is beautiful."

And it was beautiful.

And it made me feel good.

And though I don't recall saying any words of prayer,

I could feel gratitude for God and for nature

deep in my bones.

My awareness, my alertness, my enjoyment

was my prayer of thanksgiving.

Words weren't necessary,

as something more powerful was happening;

I was embodying gratitude.

A Simple Thanks

How can one possibly come up with the words to say to God

when one experiences holy moments like this?

How are we to pray to the One who gives us so much?

As I was preparing for Thanksgiving Sunday,

I was pondering how we can possibly say thank you

to this generous God that is a constant presence in our lives.

A quote from the 13th century German mystic kept coming to mind.

I think I might have shared it with you last year

in the Thanksgiving bulletin.

Meister Eckhart is credited with having said:

"If the only prayer

you ever say in your entire life

is thank you,

it will be enough."

When giving thanks,

the words don't really matter

but the feeling of gratitude is important.

God is not sitting around

waiting for us to offer appropriate praise.

God is concerned with how we live our lives.

God wants us to live lives of gratitude -

to be thankful in the ordinary moments of our day -

moments like when we drive in our cars down a country road.

God wants us to feel gratitude

with our bodies and our hearts and our minds.

That will change who we are.

Embodiment

We see this embodiment modelled for us in scripture.

At Story Time,

we talked about the leper

who felt such gratitude for the help that Jesus had provided

that he could not stop himself

from getting down on his hands and knees

in an act of thanksgiving.

It wasn't what the leper said that impressed Jesus

because all that the leper said was "thank you".

He didn't make any great speech of praise.

What impressed Jesus

was the deep gratitude that the leper obviously felt.

The gratitude that he embodied

and thus shone right through him.

Jesus could see that he was thankful

and had great faith.

This morning,

we hear another wonderful story of gratitude embodiment

as we hear a thanksgiving story of the Israelites.

These ancient people had journeyed for generations.

Sometimes the journey was rewarding,

other times tedious,

and sometimes it was downright painful.

But with every step they took through the wilderness,

they felt a connection to God

and walked on with thanksgiving.

Even when they grumbled

or were ready to give up,

they continued to give thanks for God's promise

to bring them to a land all their own.

And then when they got to that land,

they gave thanks each and every year

in a great act of thanksgiving

that went well beyond words.

Each year,

they worked the land with their hands,

digging deep in the rich soil,

caring for crops until they were ripe.

When the time was right,

they gathered the first produce of the harvest

and put it in a basket.

They then carried this basket of first-fruits

to the altar -

a special place set aside for worshipping God

Then, with the same hands that tilled the land,

they put their offering on this altar.

Then they would physically bow to God

and say some words

to remember the many blessings

that God has bestowed upon them.

Once everyone had offered their first-fruits in this way,

the people got together and had a feast -

an ancient potluck, you might say.

And everyone was invited to feast -

neighbours and strangers alike.

This is another journey of sorts,

shorter perhaps,

but not unlike the journey

of their people

into the promised land.

And it is a journey filled with thanksgiving.

The words aren't what's important in this act.

It's the feeling of thanksgiving

that fill the people deep down to the bone;

a gratitude so deep that their bodies can't help but respond.

This became the ritual of the Israelites

and our thanksgiving ritual is not so different, is it?

We too gather the fruits of the Fall

but, instead of an altar,

we put them on our decorated dinner tables.

Then we gather around with those we care about

and share a delicious meal

that has been lovingly grown and prepared for us.

And while this is a great ritual

that most of us look forward to,

we must remember that

the Israelites weren't just doing a single act of thanksgiving on this one day;

they lived thanks with their entire lives.

And we are called to do the same.

Practices

So, how can we live thanksgiving with our entire being?

Today, when you look at your plate of food,

whether it is elaborate or simple,

take a moment to recognize the colours and the aromas

before you dig in.

In simply admiring what is before you,

you are giving thanks in a deep way.

Each week when you come to church,

take time to look around this circle,

perhaps when we sing a hymn,

and really take in the faces that you see.

See what you can see in those that share your space.

This is a great act of thanksgiving.

When you exercise this week,

whether it's a high intensity workout

or a simple stroll around your neighbourhood,

pay attention to what your body is doing.

Feel the way your muscles move,

the way you use energy,

the sweat the forms on your brow.

In doing so,

you are giving thanks for this beautiful body

you have been given.

When you spend time with your pet,

allow yourself to really feel connected to her.

As you touch her fur with your fingers

or feel her rub against your leg,

fill yourself with gratitude for this presence.

Conclusion

Live out of a place of deep gratitude.

Live your life as a response

to being given all that you will ever need for free.

Live knowing that God is always with you.

Live thanksgiving.

This week, a wonderful Canadian writer

won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Her words are a blessing to us.

So, I end my sermon

with words from Alice Munro.

They are from her story "Gravel":

            "The thing is to be happy," he said.

            "No matter what. Just try that.

            You can. It gets easier and easier.

            It's nothing to do with circumstances.

            You wouldn't believe how good it is.

            Accept everything and tragedy disappears.

            Or tragedy lightens, anyway,

            and you're just there,

            going along easy with the world."

Thanks be to God!

World Wide Communion C

Where is Your Mustard Seed?

Introduction

Do  any of you remember the Wendy's commercial from the 80's with the little old lady asking in a great big voice, "Where's the Beef?"

The idea was that other restaurants may offer lots of stuff, from bacon and applewood cheddar through to sesame seed buns... but the real question is... where's the beef?

I want to suggest to you that this is a very religious question. Here is why I think that is true, our lives, our faith, can have any number of outward trappings, we can go to church, we can buy the right things we can look the part and that will be enough; but in the end the question is, where is what matters?

In a hamburger, that is the beef,and in life, that is more like our core values... where is our faith?

Let me turn this around for a minute and look at it from the other side as well. How many of you out there have ever thought to yourself that you are not good enough? That you don't have enough skills for something?

Oh, I'm not good enough of a cook to bake pies for the supper, I am not a good enough reader to read in church, I am not pretty enough to have my photo taken...

I bet most of us think things like that all the time - and what we are saying is that we do not have enough of something to do any good.

Let me suggest to you, right from the start, what the conclusion of my sermon is going to be at the end of this service... yes you do!

You do have enough, you are good enough, and you know what... a little goes a long way.

With the Kids

Do you ever get cranky? Do you ever get angry for no reason? I have some kids who are just like that. They will all of a sudden get so mean, and argue with me, and cry, and scream and fight...

Ali and I call it the Hulk... do you know who the Hulk is? He is a normal guy who when he is angry ends up turning into a green monster....

And you know what stops the hulk, or at least stops Emily and Rachael and Peter from turning into the hulk? A snack.

Such a little thing... a few grapes, a cheese string, a granola bar... and it changes everything. Have you ever had that work for you?

Sometimes the little things we do make a big difference. We have to remember that.

NEXT WEEK - I would like you to bring in something that is very important to you. Something that you would like to say thanks to God for having in your life... it can be the thing itself, or a picture, or whatever you want...

Increasing Faith

There were these followers of Jesus, let's call them the apostles. And they wanted to be good followers. They wanted to be religious leaders. They wanted to follow in the master's footsteps.

You see this in one story where Jesus sends them out on their own to the villages and towns and asks them to heal the sick and preach the word; they are eager, they are excited, they are filled with faith... and in a little while they all come back with their tails between their legs.

Seems they did not believe in themselves enough to actually heal anyone...

Or how about the story of Peter, who is sleeping in the fishing boat one night when he sees Jesus walking along the waves toward them. He asks to be able to do that too, and Jesus tells him to step out of the boat, to trust... and he does! and it works! But... only for a minute till he realizes he is standing on water and starts to sink.

These are both stories where Jesus tells the disciples they have everything they need already, where he says to them that even a little faith would be enough to move mountains... but they don't hear that very well... they doubt it is true.

So they come to Jesus once more with a simple solution... give us more faith!

But Jesus, after looking at them for a second says.. "You don't need more faith, you need to believe in what you already have."

Even a little faith is enough... even if you have faith the size of a mustard seed... that is Jesus' favourite example... it was probably the smallest thing he can ever think of... if you have that much faith you can do amazing things.

And it is more than just saying small things matter, he is saying that we ALREADY have everything we need, that each of us are gifted, are special, are smart... and all we have to do is have the little tiny bit of belief be enough...

Contemporary Reading:     

"And the Table will be Wide"  by Jan Richardson from The Painted Prayer Book

And the table will be wide.

And the welcome will be wide.

And the arms will open wide

to gather us in.

And our hearts will open wide

to receive.

And we will come

as children who trust there is enough.

And we will come unhindered and free.

And our aching

will be met with bread.

And our sorrow

will be met with wine.

And we will open our hands

to the feast without shame.

And we will turn

toward each other without fear.

And we will give up

our appetite for despair.

And we will taste

and know of delight.

And we will become bread

for a hungering world.

And we will become drink

for those who thirst.

And the blessed

will become the blessing.

And everywhere will be the feast.

Worldwide Communion

Today is Worldwide Communion. The idea behind this celebration is that when we all get together, when we all celebrate communion at the same time, we are breaking down walls that divide, we are uniting literally, millions of churches in the same act.

It sounds like a big deal; and it is. Sort of. We all do it in our own ways, in our own buildings, in our own towns... we cannot even do it with the catholics down the road though, and they cannot do it with us.

You want to see how fast religion can divide into different ideas,try to get married, or baptize a child, or take communion, in another church...

So the idea that we are all united, all working together, all in this for the good of humanity, all following God and celebrating together is, for the most part, wishful thinking.

But here is the thing.... it is a mustard seed.

What if we start to see it that way. What if we started to focus on what brings us together rather than on what divides us?

The reason we celebrate communion is to remind us that we are following in the footsteps of this rag tag group of apostles who did not believe in themselves either... We are remembering that they ate together, drank together, and took strength for the journey from that... after this last meal together they DID go out and preach, and heal, and teach, and changed the world...

So in that spirit, we are going to eat this meal together, believing that it makes a difference.

Where is Your Mustard Seed?

So having eaten together and shared in this fellowship, after having sung and prayed and listened and thought together... I invite you to go out from here in the spirit of knowing that we have enough, that each of us is enough, that we can take Jesus little faith, the size of a mustard seed, and make the world, or at least our world, a better place.

It is enough, you are enough. Believe.

Creation 3 C

Walk Lightly upon Me!

INTRODUCTION

There are these ancient words of wisdom, rumour has it that it comes from the Natives who were here long before us and who understood their connection to the world at a lot deeper level than we do… they said that we are not living on the land, we are borrowing it from our grandchildren.

I’ve always felt that that was an incredibly wise way to look at it… of course, that is not the way most of us do. If I was to discover oil in my backyard I would probably sell it and move to Beverly Hills… My land would make me rich.

Well, maybe I am a better person than that, but you see what I mean, we have, throughout history, mostly used the land for our own benefit, often ignoring the damage we are doing because of it.

Now we are talking about shale gas extraction without having any real idea what that will do to the water, the soil, anything…

I think that all of this comes from some very old beliefs. It comes from what we think our relationship to the land is, and what we think God wants of us.

Remember, if you look at the King James Bible Genesis as God telling Adam and Eve to go out and subdue the land, to take it over, to bend it to their will… and that is pretty much what we have gone for…

But are we forgetting about another way of seeing things… what if it was less about ownership, and more about that old concept of “stewardship”

ABRAHAM

Our friend Abraham has always been known as the most faithful of all the Biblical heroes… you might remember he is the one that always believed God’s promises, that always did what God asked him…

The idea was that Abraham and Sarah wanted children… and as they got older and older they saw their dreams dying…

But if you remember, God told them not to worry, that they would be taken care of, that their descendants would be as numerous as the stars in heaven…

So, trusting, or perhaps even just hoping, they set out to follow God. And eventually, God led them to the land of Canaan… a land that later would be called the land of milk and honey… and told Abraham, that all of this was his… all of this would be for him, for his children, for his children’s children.

And he prospered. He became rich and powerful and fathered millions, maybe trillions. But here is the thing. Abraham knew that he had started with nothing, he knew that what he had was a gift… and he saw it that way. He saw it as something that God had given to him; and so, I imagine he approached things quite differently.

What would you do with the day if you got up and thought it was a gift? What would you do with the garden in your back yard if you truly believed that God had blessed you with fertile land? How would you look at the trees out the window if you thought God had painted them just for you?

WALK LIGHTLY ON THE EARTH

Have you ever been to a park or campground that had a sign that said “Take nothing but pictures… Leave nothing but footprints.”

I think that is the same sort of attitude I am talking about… I am talking about how as stewards, as caretakers, we are meant to walk lightly on the earth… another good native saying. It is not “ours” but we are a part of it, and as such we are supposed to love it, take care of it, enjoy it, use it, preserve it, and see it as a gift.

Here is another image for you to think of… when Moses went up the mountain and turned aside to see the burning bush, he heard a voice in his head that said, “take off your shoes, for this is holy ground.”

In that moment was the recognition that there was some sacred connection, something holy about the actual dirt beneath his feet, and he needed to be connected, to honour it, to embrace it…

I have always found our Matthew reading today to be one of the most powerful readings in the bible. I know not everyone sees it as the cornerstone of their living and faith… but for me, it is the best advice Jesus ever gave….

I am always worrying, and I am rarely trusting that things will work out right. I try to plan, I try to manipulate, I try to ensure that things work out… And in the midst of that, I am certainly not seeing life, or the world around me as a gift…

But what if I relaxed? What if I asked myself, what is it like to be a flower, what is it like to just trust that the world will have sunshine and rain, good times and bad?

The thing about the rest of creation, from the mosquito to the Blue Whale, is that they pretty much just live… they don’t try to manipulate the world around them, they do not use more than they need, they do not worry… they trust… and what they find is that they have enough.

Here is another interesting thing about the Abraham story… when the burden on the land became too much… he just said to Lot, take what you want, you choose first, I’ll be ok. That attitude was certainly part of what led to him having everything he needed…

POSSIBILITIES

David Suzuki had this program in the spring. He suggested that Canadians really need to get back to nature, and so we should try, no matter how difficult, to spend half an hour outside every day for ten weeks.

I don’t know if any of you did this, but it was quite amazing how it made me feel. I love being outside anyway, but there are certainly days when I do not take the time to enjoy it… by saying I “had” to be outside, I looked around more, I took more walks, I sat on my deck and enjoyed the breeze….

The scientific studies showed that if you spent a half an hour outside you would have lower blood pressure, you would have less stress, you would sleep better… it is almost a miracle cure….

But I think there is something deeper going on than just standing outside. If you are intentionally spending that time out of doors, you are starting to get back to the feelings Abraham had, you are getting closer to living the way Jesus was suggesting, you are seeing the world, and consequently, life, as a gift.

And when you do that, when you start to see it as a place of beauty and wonder, as a place that supports not just your, but countless life, when you start to understand that we are part of something bigger, you treat it differently.

In that moment, you start to walk lighter and you start to see why we should be preserving things for our grandchildren.

So what would it take? How can we really get back to feeling like Abraham and trusting God, how can we follow Jesus advice and let go of the worries? How can we be at peace in the world and see it all as a gift from God?

Maybe it begins by just experiencing… by being able to see it a little differently, by being captivated in the beauty, by just enjoying.

CONCLUSION

We know there is wisdom in the world out there, we know that there is beauty. But do we know that there is responsibility? I guess that is where we come down to after four weeks of listening for the voice of creation.

We are responsible to see it as gift, we are responsible to understand the world around us as fragile, we are responsible as stewards to take care of it all for God.

One of the first short stories I read in High School English was Ray Bradbury’s The Sound of Thunder it gave me an appreciation for the power and elegance of not only language, but of science fiction, which tries to warn us of how the world could be…

To over simplify the story, someone goes back in time and steps on a butterfly… when they get back to their time, everything has changed. One small act… one huge result.

Scientists have said pretty much the same thing… that a butterfly flapping their wings in china can change the weather in the Miramichi… we are all connected, we are all in a relationship, creation is one huge web of life where we find ourselves having the power of life and death.

So how are you going to see it?

Creation 2 C

THIN PLACES

Introduction

There is something sacredly special about mountains … In biblical times, mountains were seen as places where we could be closer to God; it was even seen, in a way, as God’s home. Think about other religions and the same is true, The Greeks believed the Gods lived on Mount Olympus, for example….

There are more than 200 references in the Bible to mountains and hills…. And those references help us to see that there is something about a mountain that brings rest, escape, wisdom, and learning….

Today, mountains are still experienced as exceptional places, worthy of pilgrimages. And even if we are not talking about literally climbing mountains, we believe in mountain top experiences… those times that just seem special, and wonderful, and full of life. We might even have religious mountain top experiences… those moments when you know, in your heart, that God is there…

Have you ever had one? Have you ever just felt that God was speaking to you through the very place you were standing? Have you ever had that moment when the world just seems to come together and you know, just know in your heart that everything will be all right?

Moses goes up to Mount Sinai and is given the ten commandments, Jesus was on the mountaintop to pray when he chose the disciples, the prophet Ezekiel talks about God as the good shepherd who takes his sheep to graze in the best grass which happens to be on the mountaintop…

So today we continue to think about the world around us; where last week we talked about the songs that creation sings, this week we are talking about the wisdom it offers – and where that might be found.

Celtic Thin Places

The ancient Celts of Scotland and Ireland already had a nature loving religion long before Christianity came to their shores… what was interesting about that is that this was the one place where the faith did not take over, it was just adapted… So when Christianity came to the Celts, it was Christianity that changed… It became more mystical, more rooted in the practical, more about experiencing God in nature…

Now, for the Celts mountains were the place where heaven and earth come closer; that was because they literally believed that Heaven was up there somewhere in the sky… If you went up on a mountain you could, perhaps, reach out your hand and touch heaven…

They called this a “thin place” a place where the wall between heaven and earth is really, really thin… and you know in your heart you are standing right next to God.

But they did not think that mountains were the only place that was thin, that was holy – there was the seashore, and the glade deep in the woods, the bottom of a waterfall and the face of a cliff… anywhere that brought the feeling that God was there, that God was good… Thin places are the places that inspire us, that make us want to take a picture or paint….

Eric Weiner - NY Times Travel Writer says this:

I’m drawn to places that beguile and inspire, sedate and stir, places where, for a few blissful moments I loosen my death grip on life, and can breathe again. It turns out these destinations have a name: thin places.

They are locales where the distance between heaven and earth collapses and we’re able to catch glimpses of the divine, or the transcendent or, as I like to think of it, the Infinite Whatever.

Travel to thin places does not necessarily lead to anything as grandiose as a “spiritual breakthrough,” whatever that means, but it does disorient. It confuses. We lose our bearings, and find new ones. Or not. Either way, we are jolted out of old ways of seeing the world, and therein lies the transformative magic of travel.

It’s not clear who first uttered the term “thin places,” but they almost certainly spoke with an Irish brogue. The ancient pagan Celts, and later, Christians, used the term to describe mesmerizing places like the wind-swept isle of Iona (now part of Scotland) or the rocky peaks of Croagh Patrick. Heaven and earth, the Celtic saying goes, are only three feet apart, but in thin places that distance is even shorter.

Thin places are often sacred ones —St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul — but they need not be, at least not conventionally so. A park or even a city square can be a thin place. So can an airport. 

Mircea Eliade, the religious scholar, would understand what I experienced in that Tokyo bar. Writing in his classic work “The Sacred and the Profane,” he observed that “some parts of space are qualitatively different from others.” An Apache proverb takes that idea a step further: “Wisdom sits in places.”

You don’t plan a trip to a thin place; you stumble upon one. But there are steps you can take to increase the odds of an encounter with thinness. For starters, have no expectations. Nothing gets in the way of a genuine experience more than expectations, which explains why so many “spiritual journeys” disappoint. And don’t count on guidebooks — or even friends — to pinpoint your thin places. To some extent, thinness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Or, to put it another way: One person’s thin place is another’s thick one.

Contemporary Reading:  "The Signs that God is With Us"

From:  Dorothy McRae-McMahon 's Echoes of Our Journey. Liturgies of the People (1993)

In desert and bushland, mountain and water,
we see the signs that God is with us.

In grass that grows through cities of concrete and brick,
we see the signs that God is with us.

In the faces of people whom God so loves,
we see the signs that God is with us.

In our brokenness,
there is the hope of wholeness.

In our emptiness,
there is the hope of fullness.

In our deaths,
lies the hope of resurrection life.

This is the Word in Christ to us.
The flame of the Holy Spirit
lives in this place
and travels with us. 

Biblical Thin Places

The earliest people could recognize these sacred places.  Often they were on mountain tops… but you hear of others in the ancient writings… the Garden of Eden where we had a direct connection with God, the Temple for the Israelites as it was considered to be God's house, the desert, where Jesus first went to pray and Moses escaped the Egyptians, the rivers and the seashores…

We all have our thin places, I told you one of mine was the seashore… another is the midnight blue light of a starry night. Or walking alone in the forest… there is something about water, and trees, and light, that just makes me feel differently…..

Creation gives us these places...these opportunities...to connect with God and with the whole world. You can search for thin places but eventually they will find you. Someone once called them “Ports in the storms of life.”

They are the places that make us open up and think differently, they are natures ways of speaking for God and giving wisdom…. They almost force us to ask questions about what is important in life and why…. And they help us to hunger for something more… to believe in goodness and beauty… and, well, God…

So which places are especially thin for you? Where can you go to feel God?

It doesn't have to be a calm and relaxing place.  It could be in the middle of the city.  It could be noisy and confusing.

You don't have to travel to far off places to find thin places, to discover the holy.  But you do need to be aware of where you are.  You do need to be focused and awake to that which surrounds you.  Recognize the sacred where you are.

We find wisdom in these places.  Wisdom that helps us to go on with our lives.  Wisdom that helps us to live better lives.

Conclusion

I want to read you a quote to finish today, it is from a writer named Jim Burklo in his book Time with God:

Walking in the early morning on the Lizard Head trail under the red cliffs of Sedona, Arizona, last Sunday, I repeated the mantra I often use while taking hikes: “Am I here? Am I here? Am I here?”

Was I really present, really awake, to the crunch of dirt under my feet, the calls of small birds flitting among the junipers, the glow of sun on walls of bright stone?

Or was I adrift in thoughts of yesterdays and tomorrows? The question brought into the present my thoughts of the past and future. The movement of my body, the changing scenery, the slow rise of the sun in the sky, the rising and ebbing drone of cicadas, reminded me that now is not a fixed point, but rather is attentive consciousness of a constant flow.

In other words… listen to what nature says, be open to experiencing the holy all around you… This week, be present, be open, be aware, and let the thin places find you.

  

Creation One

What Is Creation Saying to Us?

Opening Quote:

God creates the universe and with it the possibility of being and relating.

God tends the universe, mending the broken and reconciling the estranged.

God enlivens the universe, guiding all things toward harmony with their Source.

Grateful for God’s loving action, we cannot keep from singing. (A Song of Faith)

Introduction of Theme

I have trouble falling asleep. I always have. My mind races a lot and I think of far too many things. One of the things that has really helped me is sound. Ali thinks it is crazy, but I play these background sounds of waves, campfire burning, crickets calling in the night, wolves howling the background…. And the combined music of these natural nighttime sounds shuts my mind down…

The sounds of nature are beautiful. I don’t know if you have ever sat on the seashore and listened to waves crashing, or been in a meadow when the grasshoppers are chirping, or listened to the leaves blowing through the poplars… but these sounds are relaxing, they just feel right, and beautiful….

For me it is a moment of harmony, it is the closest I feel to actually hearing God speak… All of these things that make up the world we live in are part of the dance, part of the song, part of the celebration that is life around us.

And today, as we return to the normal schedules of school and work, as we see the nights getting colder and the seasons begin to change, as we sample the jams and jellies, the beans and tomatoes from our gardens… today we are taking a moment out of all of that to listen to the whispers of God that are found all around us.

Exploring the Theme

What is your favourite sound?  Is it the birds singing in the morning as the sun comes up?

Is it the sound of a baby's laughter as they find amusement in life's simple things?

Is it raindrops on your window pane as you are snuggled up warm inside?

I thought about that a lot this week, and I have decided that my all time favourite has to be

the sound of the waves crashing against the shore.  When I find myself near the ocean,

I often sit for a very long time with my eyes closed just listening. I really find that it calms my soul.

Part of that is that the sound of water on rock reminds me home, of where I come from.

Part of it is the certainty that each wave that comes to shore will leave its mark with a sharp sound.

I really love how it is such a loud and powerful sound. It reminds me just how strong nature is.

It is also the type of sound that drowns out all other noise and lets me be alone with my thoughts.

Now, your favourite sound may be different, and I suspect it is. But I bet if you think about why you like that sound, you will find God there too. And, the neat thing is that, all of these sounds are a part of the song  that creation sings out into the world. Creation's song is a beautiful song that stirs the soul.

A Contemporary Reading

Muriel Strode – Creation Songs

I know the thrill of the grasses when the rain pours over them.

I know the trembling of the leaves when the winds sweep through them.

I know what the white clover felt as it held a drop of dew pressed close in its beauteousness.

I know the quivering of the fragrant petals at the touch of the pollen-legged bees.

I know what the stream said to the dipping willows, and what the moon said to the sweet lavender.

I know what the stars said when they came stealthily down and crept fondly into the tops of the trees.

Exploring the Theme

So, just what is Creation's song? Let me start at the beginning...

Since the beginning of time, creation has sung out in amazing ways. In the beginning, there was a deep dark nothingness. That is until... the Spirit of God swept over the void. Until the Spirit of God began the creative process that brought light, love and life to the world. And as the processes of science began to unfold, incredible creatures were birthed into being. And as each new creature appeared, it added a new note to the song of Creation.

Plants, animals, rocks, trees, water... all sang out and made their presence known. In quiet whispers, like the sound of tall grass swishing in the wind... in loud shouts,  like the sound of a flock of seagulls in a parking lot... all the creatures played the notes of this beautiful song.

Over the course of time, humans came to be... and we added our unique voice to the mix. Much of this is recorded in the Bible, where the people of Israel sang songs of joy when they were happy and dirges of sorrow when they were sad.

Moses sang out to God with hopefulness in his voice while Miriam played her tambourine with pure joy and thanksgiving for what God had done. The Psalmist spoke words of poetry to the Lord, sometimes happy, sometimes sad. Jesus sang songs to pass the time with his friends and he wept, offering a different kind of tune, when he faced the reality of death. Angels sang out in visions and ordinary folk sang out in worship.

So it is that we came to join the song that we still hear all around us every day. Every time we hear the loud clap of thunder in a lightning storm, we know that our all-powerful, all-knowing God is present with us. When we sit by a quiet stream and listen to the murmur of the water, we know that the nurturing God of love is beside us. In the cry of the lone wolf, in the moan of the whale song, God is there.

It's through Creation's song that we hear the very voice of God. We only ever get to hear bits and pieces of the song, a verse there, a refrain here, but what we have access to is magnificent.

Can you imagine if we heard the full song together? I'm sure that its beautiful harmonies would dazzle our ears.

Concluding our Theme

And here we are - you and me. We have our own notes to sing; our own part to play in this grand symphony.

Paul in the letter to the Ephesians tell us to let the Spirit fill us up until we can't help but want to sing, until we make melody to God with all of our hearts, until all we want to do is make our gratitude known to the world for all we have and who we are.

The prophet Isaiah tells us to Sing for joy!  Break forth into singing! Or, as it says in the Message Translation of the Bible, "Heavens, raise the roof! Earth, wake the dead! Mountains, send up cheers!" God is here for us.

These biblical writers aren't just encouraging us to hum a little humble tune to ourselves. The language they use implies a certain confidence in our singing out proudly about God's love for us.

Sometimes we literally sing. Our lips move and hymns of praise come out or we we whistle a happy tune. But the "singing out" can also be done in the way we live our lives, in how we show God to others through who we are and what we do.

Nevertheless, I think when we become those people, who feel so moved by God's presence

in the universe and in our lives that we cannot stop from singing, then our world becomes a very different place.

So, sing out, play your instruments, make a joyful noise today! Do not be afraid to praise God and to really feel that presence in your entire body.

During the season of Creation, this is the song that we celebrate. This is the song that we sing.

Let all things now living, lift their voices in thankful praise.