Advent 1 - B 2011

Heavens Breaking Forth

Introduction

Christmas has broken out all around us. Santa is back in the malls, the carols are blaring and the preparation has begun in earnest.

What are you doing to prepare? Have your shopping all finished? Planned all the meals? Baked all the goodies? House all decorated?

Advent is the name we give to this season in the church. It is also the beginning of our yearly cycle of living along with Jesus. In four weeks we will remember the birthday and all of the Bethlehem part of the story. Then we will grow up with him, head towards Jerusalem and try to follow along like the disciples.

But we are still four weeks away from Jesus. We are still preparing for Christmas.

And I get that, I really do, I understand that it takes a lot of work to get ready for a celebration like this – but on another side of it all – what is it we are preparing for?

Jesus is born in Bethlehem. So what?

Children’s Story

Deck the Halls – Adapted from sermons4kids.com

In his book, "Oh, the Places You'll Go," Dr. Seuss talks about a place called "the waiting place." He describes it as a useless place where people are just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go

or a bus to come, or a plane to go

or the mail to come, or the rain to go

or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow

or waiting around for a Yes or No

or waiting for their hair to grow.

Everyone is just waiting.

I don't particularly like waiting, do you? I don't like it, but I don't know of any way to avoid it. We all have to spend some time in this "waiting place" that Dr. Seuss talks about, but I don't think it has to be a useless place. While we are waiting, life goes on, and we must make good use of our time. What can we do? Well, we could read a good book or call a friend on the cell phone. We could make a list of things we need to do today or, we could even study for our weekly spelling test. Well, maybe that's going a bit too far, but there are many things we can do besides just waiting.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent means "to come." Do you know what's coming? Of course, Christmas is coming. This is an exciting time, but it may also be a difficult time of waiting -- especially for children. Waiting for the day when you can open the gifts that you see under the tree. What can we do to make this time of waiting for Christmas more than just a useless time in the waiting place? Well, we can think about the true meaning of Christmas. We can think about Jesus and his love. We can think about giving instead of receiving. We can enjoy all of beautiful music and the decorations of the season. When we do those things, we will find joy in the waiting place.

We are waiting for Christmas, but we are also waiting for something else. We are waiting for Jesus' return. He told us that he would come again and he told us to watch and be ready for him. What should we do while we are waiting? We should worship and praise him, love and serve him, and share his love with others. When we are doing those things, we will be ready for his return, and we will find joy in the waiting place.

Strengthened till the End

The Psalms and Paul’s writings are always filled with affirmations that God is here, that God is good, that God is coming… These people were seriously sure that they were waiting, and that they would probably not have to wait that long, until something happened – God rescued them, or Jesus came back, or their enemies were defeated or they were justified in front of the naysayers…

Paul sure has a high opinion of the faithful… I only wish I was thinking about the things that he is on about – instead, I am thinking about what to buy everything for Christmas. I am thinking about how great the ads are on TV and what they make me wish I was getting for Christmas.

It makes me go back to my original question – what is it all about? What does Christmas mean?

The Little Apocalypses

Charles Dickens arguably brought Christmas back to life in the Western World. He was the biggest proponent of the season and its effect on people. We all know Scrooge and the Ghosts of Past Present and Future – but there are poems and other stories of the season that Dicken’s wrote as well.

In them, he was almost speaking of the future – of the way that Christmas can change someone… he was almost talking about the Kingdom of God, coming on earth…

At the same time, he was a realist – he knew a thing or two about human nature… and dear old Mr Scrooge would never have changed without a little bit of the old fear of God.

I like to think of passages like we have before us today as the “Stick” to Jesus “Carrot.”  He knew enough to try different teaching methods, and he knew enough to be able to say that sometimes we have to hit rock bottom if we are going to be able to change… so here it is – the bad news… the world can end in a second.

In fact, for many of us, it does. A stroke, a car accident, getting fired… And you have to be ready, you have to be prepared, you have to keep awake…

But if we are awake to it, Christmas, the spirit of it… will be all around.

Conflicts? What Conflicts?

I don’t get that there is something bad about the secular Christmas. I think if anything, we should be celebrating it. I mean, ok, don’t go borrowing money for gifts… but the idea of celebrating, of sharing presents, of feasting, of visiting, of decorating…

There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, each of those things, in their own way, are a reflection of God’s love.

And perhaps that is what we are preparing for… the inbreaking of God’s love into our otherwise grey worlds. 

Pentecost 22 -A 2011

A Brand New Day

Introduction

As Children of the day we are called to walk in the light, trusting God and supporting one another. There are moments when we feel like our lives are being destroyed, as if a thief came in the middle of the night and stole it away from us.

You have all been there – an unexpected death, a layoff from a job that you were not expecting, a sudden diagnosis of illness…

There are moments of despair, difficult devastating issues and circumstances arise that knock the wind out of us.

We all of a sudden realize we are living a dead end job, or we remember some half-forgotten moment of trauma from our childhood…

And the thing is, we can choose to respond in one of two ways, as children of the day or children of the night…

These are Paul’s words not mine, but in the end, it is about recognizing the light and hope and possibility, trusting that we will get strength from the divine.

Today we are going to hear some passages from the Bible that on the surface seem pretty harsh – but as we explore them deeper, you can see that the good news for us is about recognizing how God is already active in our lives.

Flashlight People (with kids)

Ever used a flashlight? Why? What do they help us to do?

-         Have you ever been lost? Ever been afraid in the dark?

-          Didn’t know what to do

-         A long, long time ago there was group of people who felt lost… and they were afraid and there was this big bully being mean to them... They went and talked to this wise woman, named Deborah.

-          She was a leader of all the people around – and she helped them to find their way.

-          She sent someone, like her Big Brother, who was he and strong, to talk some sense into the bully…

-          Sometimes in our lives there are people like Deborah – people who help us to see the right thing to do, or where we need to go… I like to call them Flashlight People… cause they are just like a flashlight, a light in the dark…

The Light of Day

Do you remember the story of the Chilean miners? I remember thinking when I heard how long it was going to take to dig down to them, that they would certainly be dead by the time they got there… how long was it… like 2 months trapped underground, trapped in the dark… If they had not died they would surely have gone insane… right? Imagine spending that time alone with just a few people, not able to move very far, never knowing just what was going to happen next… wondering if the rest of the mine was going to collapse and kill you.

But they made a choice. They chose to live. One of them jogged the narrow, darkened mine passages, one prayed, others thought of family to give them strength…. They could easily have chosen the other way, despair, darkness, death.

It may sound harsh, but Paul says to this bunch of Christians, in a brand new church, facing oppression from both sides, that they have that simple choice to make…

You don’t know what will happen next, none of us ever do, death waits like a thief in the night, there are going to be a lot of hurdles to overcome, but we should live in hope… we should always act in a way that brings strength not only to us, but to those around us.

Ever tried to actively make people happy around you? Smile at people you walk by, tell a joke really loud on a bus full of unhappy looking people? Compliment a person who is on their feet for their eighth hour behind the cash register… what happens? Everything changes… Not only for them, but for you…

Living in the light is not denying that life is hard, it is a choice. It is waking up and saying, a lot can happen in a day…

 Ostriches and other Cowards

I saw a movie last night, “In Time” it was a really interesting movie, sort of science fiction like, about a time in the future when everybody is given 25 years to live – and there is a clock on your arm, like a watch, ticking down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the end.

Life, in this world, becomes currency. You can trade minutes for a cup of coffee, hours for a night in a hotel, years for a brand new car.

What the movie pointed out is the huge divide between the rich and the poor. For us, not being able to pay our bills means a lot of stress and a lot of hardship – but for the people in this story, debt means death.

The rich in this world had hundreds, perhaps thousands of years on their arms. No one aged after 25 anyway, so you could technically live forever – unless you fell down a flight of stairs, or ate some bad chicken, or drowned… or died of any of what we might call “accidental” causes.

So no one drove, no one swam; no one took any risks of any type, for fear of losing their immortality.

In other words, fear kept them from living life.

Jesus parable is terribly harsh. It is not fair by any stretch of the imagination. We feel sorry for the slave who does what he thinks is the safe thing, and buries his money.

But what if Jesus is really talking about being afraid? What if he is saying that if we choose to live without taking those risks, stepping out, or living the day fully as God intends, we risk losing everything; what if we are therefore choosing to live in the darkness.

Fear closes the door tightly on God’s love, you can’t feel it, you can’t let it in, you can’t see what is possible; all hope disappears.

And fear is something we all deal with. It can be subtle, like the fear of saying the wrong thing that stops us from talking to people. Or it can be extreme, like the fear of disappointing parents that causes us to choose to be a doctor even though we hate everything about it.

It comes in all shapes and sizes, like the fear that no one loves us that causes us to be a bully or the fear of being different that causes us to dress like everyone else.

Over and over Jesus said he came that we might have life, abundant life, hope filled life… do you think you can have that if you are crippled by fear?

It is a daily choice. Perhaps it is a daily struggle, but we are given the talents, the moments of our lives, and asked what are we going to do with them – so are you going to bury them and play it safe, or risk it abundantly and live in hope?

Conclusion

When was the last time you stopped to watch the sun rise?

I actually managed to do that the morning of the Pancake breakfast. It is a lot easier in the winter… but to see the pinks, then orange, blossom across the sky into light, into the pale blue dawn is kind of magical….

Sunrises are one of those experiences of nature that can move people to tears, we stand in awe as if God is standing in front of our very eyes.

But, it is not a very special event, it is not a once in a lifetime thing, we could watch it every single day of our lives…

So why do we find it so captivating and emotional? Perhaps it is because it is the beginning of a brand new day… a day filled with possibilities and hope, with new beginnings and new light.

Pentecost A 20 2011

Occupy Life

Introduction

All over the world there are “Occupy” movements starting up – they began in New York City with the Occupy Wall Street crowd – but pretty much everywhere there are people who are protesting, including downtown Moncton.

The interesting thing is that there are a lot of different things being protested, from the environment to the economy and everything in between. There are no real leaders; it is a grass root movement that is spontaneously erupting all over.

The one thing, however, that ties it all together is the idea that there is something wrong with the way the world is today – that 99% of the people in the world are in trouble, and that the 1% better start changing things or get out of the way.

It gives me hope. And on top of that, it sounds to me like a religious revolution – these are exactly the types of things that Jesus and the prophets before him tried to say.

We are not called upon to let the forces of power and market economies overcome us, we are called to occupy our lives and do something about it.

The River is Wide – Kids

-          What do you think the people were afraid of when it came to crossing the river?

-          What are you afraid of that keeps you from doing what you know is the right thing to do?

-          How do we find courage?

God’s Word at Work

When Paul wrote to the churches he was always thankful - today he says that he is thankful for God’s word being at work in the people of Thessalonica…

Of course, when we hear such a small passage of a long letter it is hard to know what exactly is going on, but we have heard a lot of Paul lately. We know some of what he said off by heart – so I think if I ask this question you will think of something:

What did Paul think happened when God’s word was at work in you? Think about it for a second – you don’t have to answer out loud, but what did Jesus, Paul, the Apostles expect of their followers?

You know, it was really always about how you live life. It was about challenging authorities that dehumanize people. It was about overcoming your fears so you would do the right thing, it was about caring for the widows and orphans, the most vulnerable people…

It is about living a life worthy of what we have been given. All of this is a gift and all of it is meant for everyone. So Paul encourages us…

Paul wants us to be humble, blameless, courageous, gracious, all those things that might echo God’s way of being that we have witnessed in Jesus.

In essence Paul is thankful that the people of Thessalonica were living their lives with integrity.

The question for us is, how do we do that?

Do Not Be Like the Pharisees

To be honest, Jesus was obsessed with this idea of living a life of integrity – he called it, living as if the Kingdom of God was already here – or in a prayer you might be familiar with, “thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven…”

For Jesus it was about living as God would live if God was walking around right here with us.

And he knew that sometimes, we get the point quicker if you talk about the negative – today Jesus starts with a “what not to do list…”

Unfortunately, he says, don’t be like the religious leaders… the Pharisees and Scribes, who instead of being good leaders who were trying to make God known in the world, they focused on their own wealth, their own prestige, their own power.

Don’t do things for show – do what is really important..

Ever watch the Keeping Up Appearances show? There is this rather ordinary woman… Hyacinthe Bucket – but whenever anyone addresses her as Mrs. Bucket she says, “no no no my dear, it is pronounced Bouquet…”

In essence this is what the Pharisees are like – they want to make themselves better than they really were…. And let me clear, they weren’t bad evil people; they were just like me and you…

Jesus was challenging the people to make radical changes in the way they were living –

Today is Reformation Sunday as well… a movement that was all about radical change.

We don’t celebrate it much in our church, but it is an important part of our faith heritage…

Disconnect

So there is a disconnect between who we realyl are and how we are living our lives

Because of this disconnect that happens naturally, every now and again we need to have our own reformation (and so does society) we need to occupy our lives and live them more authentically. We need to take control of the thigns that have got us so off kilter and we need to find a space where we can reflect on where we find ourselves and where we are going and see if this matches up to who we really need to be…

It is like nailing our own list of problems to the door and saying, we need to go back to basics.

We miss out on pivotal and wonderful moments of life because we are busy worrying about the wrong things

What if the Israelties were worried about getting their clothes wet? What if they never risked the first step? The Pharisees missed out on experiencing Jesus who was right in front of them because they were too busy upholding an image and trying to live a good life.

Pentecost A 19 2011

Face to Face

Introduction

 Have you ever thought about what it would be like to meet God?

There was a song I really liked last year by the band, the Fray; it was called “You Found Me”. There have been a lot of songs lately where God has crept into the secular music on the radio – but this one was really intriguing, here is how it starts:

I found God

On the corner of First and Amistad

Where the west

Was all but won

All alone

Smoking his last cigarette

I said, "Where you been?"

He said, "Ask anything".

Where were you

When everything was falling apart?

All my days

Were spent by the telephone

That never rang

And all I needed was a call

That never came

To the corner of First and Amistad

Now, the Fray are not a Christian band, they do not even seem all that religious as people by a standard definition. But this song is really deep, about how lost and alone we feel and how we all have questions we would ask God.

A Prophet like Moses

The Bible records that there has never arisen another prophet the likes of Moses – why? Because Moses spoke to God face to face; Moses actually knew God.

There are a couple of times when Moses goes up a mountain to have a chat with God and comes down all glowing and translucent; which is pretty much what is said about Jesus when he goes up the mountain and talks to God.

Moses was 120 years old – but his sight was not dim, he had all his faculties, nothing about him was aging… he simply had finished what he was set out to do by God, and so he died. It might have happened when he was 20 or 220 – it would not have mattered.

It didn’t matter because he was so in tune with God that his life was merely a reflection of God’s plans for us.

With the Kids – Keeping in Tune

The tin whistle played incorrectly causes cats to run in fear and dogs to howl in pain…

What is the difference between being in tune and out of tune?

What does it mean to be in tune with God?

Second Hand Paul

Paul once referred to himself in a very Shakespearean way as a man born out of time, a man born too late for the place he was supposed to be. He said this because more than anything else Paul felt he was born to be an apostle of Jesus.

Along the road to Damascus one day he had a vision of Jesus – he “saw” Jesus. And perhaps this did not make up for spending three years out doing ministry with him, but it changed Paul forever. In a sense, he felt he had seen God face to face.

Now, vision is another word for dream… we really don’t know what Paul saw – whether it was a conversation with Jesus, or God pointing a finger at him and like the Ghost of Marley in A Christmas Carol – but it changed Paul forever.

Before that time Paul was an arrogant religious official who persecuted people he did not agree with. After that time he wrote things like we read today – things about how much he cared for people, things that seemed genuinely humble… he really was a changed man.

The thing is this – he did not see God face to face. At least, not ion the way we are told Moses did. Paul had a different experience of God, one very like you or I do. He saw God in a dream.

I have had moments where I thought God was speaking to me; sometimes inside of me, sometimes in a dream, sometimes through circumstances or the people who are speaking to me.

I also read the stories of the faith, I go to church services, I sing hymns, I hang out with people who are religious and want to talk about their faith…

And through it all I find that I don`t actually have to meet God face to face or converse on a mountain to ‘hear’ God.

There are just moments where God shows through the ordinary things – moments that make me aware of how I should live and how much I am loved. Moments that change everything much as Paul was changed that morning on the way to Damascus.

So what is it all about?

I know we hear it a number of times – but it bears repeating. There is a simple answer as to what God would say to us if speaking face to face… In fact, Jesus summarized it:

Love God, Love neighbour, Love self.

Back in Moses day God tried a more complex set of rules – we heard them a little while ago – the Ten Commandments – which in fact were followed up by over 1000 sub clauses.

It’s a little like being a parent. When you start out you think if you regulate everything – if you create a rule for everything – you will keep them safe. Then later on you come to realize that the best you can do is hope you instilled in them the right values so that when they make their own choices, they do it in tune.

Well –here is a more mature statement from God – following all the rules will keep you safe – but so will concentrating on the basics… and at its most basic level life is about loving God enough to treat the world the way God would – it is about loving your neighbour enough to always be looking out for them and placing their needs high on a list of priorities, and it is about loving yourself in such a way that you would always try to be in tune with God’s way of living.

This is what our faith hinges on …

I have been very inspired lately by the “Occupy” movement. It seems to me in a grass roots sort of way that they are taking the more mature approach of not focusing on one demand – but of saying, life isn’t being lived the way it should be… we don’t have a society where the very basic principles Jesus talked about are honoured… so how do we get there….

Conclusion

That is for us to figure out… there are no easy answers as to how to live a mature faith – but the thing is, we have been given all we need to go out there and do it on our own.

We don’t need to see God face to face in order to get our lives lined up with God. We don’t need Jesus speaking to us at the foot of the bed in order to know what is right and good…

We just need to remember what we already know, and live it beyond these walls…

Pentecost 16 (A) 2011

Responsibility

Introduction

Anyone remember the song, “He’s got the whole world, in his hands… he’s got the whole wide world, In his hands…”?

Usually we think of that song as referring to God, I don’t know, it was written that way or something; but I want to suggest that it is really about us… we have the whole world in our hands, that is the responsibility we have been given, and more than that, the whole world is holy, it is sacred, and it is a pretty awesome responsibility…

It is also a responsibility we share… WE have the whole world in our hands…. It is not up to me, or you, but us… this is one thing we all have in common, we all need to make the world a place of love and peace and hope… and we all need to work together…

But how? I want to suggest that it is by recognizing our need to cultivate our spiritual side, and then by recognizing that we all have responsibility that has been placed on us by God.

The Ten Commandments (with Kids)

Object: A coloring book

Do you remember when you first started to learn how to color? If you were like most children, you probably coloured all over the page without staying in the lines. I imagine that some of your pictures looked a lot like this one (show picture coloured without staying in the lines). And your choice of colors probably wasn't very good either. You might have coloured the cow purple! I've never seen a purple cow, have you?

As you got older, your pictures probably looked more like this one (show a picture coloured in the lines). You began to stay in the lines and your color choices were much better too. There aren't any purple cows in this picture. This picture is much prettier than the other one, isn't it?

These pictures remind me of the way some people live their lives. God gave us the Ten Commandments to tell us the things that we should and should not do. Some people don't pay any attention to these guidelines that God has drawn for them. They just do whatever they want to do. Often their choices are not very good. They are like the child who doesn't stay inside the lines on the coloring page. They think their life is beautiful, but when God looks at it, He sees that it is just a big mess.

There are other people who read the Bible and follow God's rules. They try to stay within the guidelines that God has set. Oh, they may still get outside the lines at times, but most of the time they make pretty good choices. When God looks at their life, He is pleased.

Do you want your life to be like this one (show the messy picture) or do you want it to look like this one? (Show the pretty picture) Let's pray and ask God to help us.

Dear Lord, help us to remember that you set boundaries for us. Help us to stay within those boundaries so that our lives will be pleasing to you. Amen.

Towards the Goal

What is your spiritual resume? Have you been, to quote a Christmas tradition, Naughty or Nice?

Paul writes that he has every reason to believe that he is better than all the rest in terms of doing what God wants. His resume is filled with sacrifice, and commitment, and passion… he has singlehandedly created the church of which we all, 2,000 years later, are still a part…

But really, it counts for nothing. Really, the question is, what are you going to do next.

Perhaps more to the point, Paul seems to be saying that we should never be content, that we always need to hunger for more, to do more, to be more…

Of course, Paul only makes that point because he knows he does not have to go it alone.

I did a funeral yesterday and one of the son and laws read a gospel passage and commented on it. When I heard what he was going to talk about I had not idea what he would say – for a funeral he chose to tell the story of Jesus going to the well and meeting a Samaritan woman and confronting her about her five husbands and current boyfriend… then he goes on to offer her the living water…

I was totally unsure how he could make this into a funeral reading – but he went on to talk about the amazing love and constant invitation of God. Here was this woman, a Samaritan, and outsider, someone who was either unlucky in love or not easily satisfied… and Jesus was treating her as an equal and offering her God’s presence in her life like he would anyone else…

You see, Paul had a lot to boast about, but he knew that it really meant nothing, that we are all equal in God’s eyes, and that because of that, we all, each and every one of us, have a part to play…

The Vineyard of Violence

This is the third week in a row that the Gospel passage is about a vineyard… perhaps there is something important about this…

Most people agree that the vineyard is a stand in for the place we are asked to be, the work we are asked to do, it might even mean the whole world… and we are told stories about the rightful wages of workers in the vineyard, about God’s intention for the vineyard, and finally about how we can go off track in the vineyard…

You see, sometimes we forget that we are doing all this for the greater good. Sometimes our lives get so focused on our own needs that we would do anything to “get ahead” in the world. Sometimes we forget what our responsibilities are…

We don’t realize it anymore, but Jesus is actually quoting scripture back to the religious leaders… he is weaving together Isaiah five where God plants a vineyard and expects grapes but discovers that they have all gone wild, with Psalm 118 which talks about the people rejecting the stone but God making it the cornerstone.

It is not the pleasantest of passages, but it is a good reminder, a wakeup call to the fact that we all fall short of what is expected of us – and because of that, we might even overlook the most important things in our world.

Conclusion

The table of God is open to everyone. Sure, we are supposed to colour between the lines… but like my youngest daughter, we often get tired of that and just colour any old way we want… But this community, and the unity of God’s people, gives us courage to try again – to try and live with the responsibilities of being the agents of God in the world.

And once more, we are sent out to make a difference…

Pentecost 14 2011

Life in the Kingdom 

Introduction 
 A lot of what Jesus talked about was how life should be. He called it ‘The Kingdom’ and he was forever saying what the Kingdom was like, and talking about how to find it, and most importantly, saying it was already here.

The Kingdom of God is like… Well… we could probably fill in the blanks – what sort of world do you think God would want us to be living in, what would it look like? What would we do? How would we treat people?

Everyone in the world really wants a good answer to that question – we try really hard to create our own little piece of heaven on earth, whether it is at a cottage, or our own backyard, or with family… We spend our whole lives searching for happiness. And one of our main problems is that we simply do not know what happiness would look like.

With the Kids – Daily Bread 

So you might remember that last week, in our Old Testament reading, The Israelites crossed the red sea and followed Moses out of Egypt and into the wilderness. Well, when our reading picks up today, they’ve been traveling for quite some time. Have any of you ever been on a really long trip or a really tough hike? How do you feel after you’ve been traveling and traveling and traveling? Bored, Tired, thirsty, and hungry. Well guess what? They felt that way too. In fact they were so tired and hungry that they got mad at Moses and asked him if he’d just brought them all out there to die.

Some of them even wanted to go back to Egypt where they had been slaves, but God heard them, and God sent them some food. Does anyone remember what it was called? Manna. That’s right, the next morning, when the Israelites woke up, they found this fine flaky bread on the ground and they were told to pick up what they needed in order to have food for the whole day. Does anyone know what the manna was like? (Have examples of different breads on hand) Was it like filo dough? Or wonder bread? Or crackers?

Well actually, no one knows. Even the Israelites, who got to look right at it and touch it and taste it, had never seen anything like it. “Manna” actually means, “What is it?” But whatever it was turned out to be good, and filling and the people liked it. Now who do you think got the most manna? The people who got up first? The people who gathered more than others? Moses, because he was in charge?

Actually God told everyone to gather the same amount, and that amount turned out to be exactly what each person needed for each day. If you went and gathered more than that amount, the manna went bad, really bad. It became full of worms and started to stink really badly, so badly that everyone else knew you’d taken more than you should have. Why do you think God made the manna that way? Do you remember the Lord’s prayer?

What do we say in the middle about bread? “Give us this day our daily bread.”

God wants us to trust in him to provide enough for us each day. We don’t have to hoard what we have or be afraid to share because God will always make sure there is enough. God wants everyone to have food to eat and he’s made sure that we have enough here on the earth. The trick, is that we have to be willing to only take what we need so that everyone will have enough. So remember that the next time you have a little more than others, and be ready to share so that everyone can enjoy the good food that God has given us. 

Standing Firm in Rejoicing 

 I don’t know how many of you say grace at home before your meals. I try to remember but I do not always do it myself. I also see other people doing it in restaurants, even in McDonald’s and I think t myself, that I should be doing that too. It is a simple thing, but it changes a lot. What if we remembered to say thank you?

What if, unlike the Israelites in the desert, we did constantly give thanks for what we had around us? I think our attitude towards things would be quite different. The Psalm we read together is a hymn of thanksgiving, it was written to express the joy people felt when they found out that God would really provide for them.

It is not always easy to do – right? We all have things happening in our lives that cause us pain, or wonder, or disheartenment…. But…. But… when you look back over your life; on the other side of the painful events, you can usually agree that there was still much to be thankful for.

For all his faults, Paul really believed in what he did as a Christian, he was sick a lot of the time, arrested, persecuted… his life was pretty uncertain. And he wrote to the churches he had founded and offered advice.

Today, to the Church in Philippi, a Roman sea port, he says this: “Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit…”

Think of it this way – life doesn’t always look like what we wish it would… jobs end, relationships end, sickness sets in, friends move away… but Jesus kept saying, even in the face of massive suffering and hardship, that the Kingdom of God is already all around you – just open your eyes and look.

The Vineyard 

So here is Jesus again telling his followers “The Kingdom is like” and then weaving a parable – but let me ask you this, you have just heard this story… so what is the kingdom like? What is Jesus point? Could it be that the kingdom is like a place where everyone gets a chance to work? Is the kingdom a place where everyone gets the same pay? Is it as simple as that?

This story is totally connected to the story of the manna – you see that right. This is a story in which we are talking about whether something is fair or not, whether some people deserve more or not…

When God provided Manna for the Israelites, the story tells us, they could gather what they could eat. If they tried to take more, it would simply rot; if they decided not to trust and packed away some for tomorrow, again, worms and mildew.

So what about it, The Kingdom of God is like a place where everyone gets exactly what they need, and no one has too much.

Senator McCarthy is probably rolling in his grave, especially because to anyone who has ever read the Bible, it is pretty clear Jesus was a communist. Ok, not a communist, but a socialist. He certainly would have got into trouble preaching these things in Washington during the 50’s. But that is just it. God’s plan for everyone is abundant life. God wants happiness. And having too much of anything, just like having too little of anything, leads to unhappiness.

So what if, whenever possible, we tried to provide for everyone equally? What if we made more choices that were asking how life could be a little fairer for everyone involved? Would that be the Kingdom breaking through?

Happiness 

Do any of you remember the Bobby McFarin song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy!” it was kind of simplistic – but it was one of those songs that got stuck in your head…

Here are some of the lyrics:
 In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
 Don't worry, be happy......

Ain't got no place to lay your head
Somebody came and took your bed
Don't worry, be happy

The land lord say your rent is late
He may have to litigate
 Don't worry, be happy

Ain't got no cash, ain't got no style
Ain't got not girl to make you smile
But don't worry be happy

I know, if only it was that simple… but to some extent it is. The Kingdom of God is like a place where we can let go of our worries and know everything will be all right. I think we can do that because look around, there are all kinds of people here who care about you, who pray for you, and would help you in a heartbeat.

Life is rough, but God’s grace surrounds us… thank God.

Creation Time Begins 

Introduction 

Do you know what book of the Bible has the most questions in it?

The book of Job.

The reason that it has the most questions is that it is the only book of the Bible that is solely about the human equation, about tragedy, about what it all means…

In case you don’t remember, there is this guy named Job and he is the most faithful and most richly rewarded person out there. And Satan, who is God’s “devil’s advocate”, decides to prove a point. He tells God that Job is only good because God has given him everything, family, riches, friends, purpose… and if God took it all away… Job would lose faith.

What comes next is hundreds of pages of questions: why is this happening? What did you do to deserve this? IS God fair? How can I get it back? What is wrong with me? 6000 years later… when things go wrong… we are still asking the same questions.

So it is fall, school is starting up, church is starting up, the warm weather is making its annual pilgrimage to the south… Time to start being serious again – time to figure some things out… time to, well, time to remember that even when things do go wrong in this crazy world, there is still a God , a reason, a point.

Parting the Sea 

I know that not many of us are into local United States politics… When I lived in Quebec, which I did before and after 9/11, New York state was one of our border states. We talked about stuff from there, and, well, my parents were living in the states so perhaps I felt more attuned… but I remember Rudi Guiliani before 9/11. Anyone else?

The people of New York sort of hated the guy. He was a Democrat who changed allegiances and ran as a Republican in order to win the election as Mayor of New York in 1994. Before that he was a US Attorney General prosecuting Mob Bosses. The best thing anyone could say about the guy was that he was tough on crime. But even then, he was accused of “arranging” high profile arrests to further his political goals – later having to let the criminals go because he really didn’t have the evidence to begin with.

Then a couple of Jetliners flew into the World Trade Centre.

The second thing I ever saw on the news was Guiliani, and then over and over he was always there – he mirrored the emotions most people felt, shock, sadness, anger, and resolution… He brought the people together and told them to believe in themselves in the middle of tragedy – he cried with them, celebrated with them – he led them. The day before 9/11 his approval rating was 36% … within a couple of weeks, it was 79%... He became Time Magazine’s person of the year, and Queen Elizabeth even went on to knight him because of his actions in the face of the tragedy. Oprah Winfrey called him, “America’s Mayor.”

You see, we are never sure what we are capable of until the moment comes – and we are called upon.

Moses, who was unsure of himself, who stuttered, who ran away from most fights, finds himself camped on the side of the red sea when dust appears on the Horizon – turns out it is chariots… lots of chariots… And he turns to his people instantly and says, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again…” I imagine he is as frightened as they are, God has not revealed any great plan, they are trapped, but Moses rallies the people anyway… he leads. And the waters part, and they cross over, and they believe that if you trust, maybe you don’t need to know all of the answers right away – maybe there is a power in the universe that looks out for our best interests…

 But more importantly, we see people like Moses, like Guiliani, willing to be authentic and willing to stand up in courage and encourage. What we see is that sometimes answering the questions is not nearly as important as living authentically and having courage.

Living and Dying 

Stuck in the middle of Paul’s argument for vegetarianism is this line: “for whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s”

 It is a really interesting argument he is making, but it takes some work to get it… so in a nutshell here it is – there is a lot to worry about in the world. And if we let it, it will eat us up… But we spend so much time worrying about who is right and wrong, we spend time judging others for the way they do things… and we spend FAR too much time thinking that how we do things is the right way.

There really is only one way, God’s way – and when you stop to think about it, NONE of us are doing it that way. So why the animosity? Why the anger? Why the heartache? Why all the questioning?

Really, it is because of ego – we cannot just let go and let God – we cannot just trust! This is all part of God’s wondrous world… and whether we eat vegetables or meat, whether we say God or Allah when we talk to the divine, whether we live or die, we do it “in” God.

Think of this as yet another answer to the whole “why” question… let it go… all things work together for the glory of God. The divine energy of the cosmos surrounds us all at every moment. There really is no why, or right way, there is just trying to do it as best as we can.

The Old Seventy Times Seven 

What is the first reaction you have when the world hurts you? When something goes wrong? For most of us it is anger. We almost cannot help it.

 Remember the first days after 9/11? The universal reaction of Americans was that they should bomb the Islamic world into the stone ages.

There was no introspection, no wondering why anyone would hate Americans, nothing but anger fuelled by fear.

To be fair, they started asking, or some people started asking the deeper questions later… questions like whether American arrogance had not led to ill feelings in international relations.

But when the bad things happen we want to lash out, we need to blame people, it is only natural. But the Bible, and our faith tradition, tells us to take a step back… Here is the question asked by our parable today – how should you act, knowing you are already forgiven by God?

There is a reason the church always asked people to consider their own sinful nature… it is not in vogue to say it anymore, because we are all supposed to be good and honest and loving people… but we are not. We are all sinful. Which is to say, we all do the wrong thing sometimes because of our ego, and we all make mistakes, and we all find it hard to forgive, and we all expect easy answers, and we all struggle to love people who make us so darn angry….

“Why is the world like this? Why did this happen?” always, if we were really honest, has some element of, because we are not better people.

But God loves us. We are forgiven for all those things. God accepts us. We are loved despite ourselves.

When you know that, isn’t it a little petty to keep your own list of wrongs? After all, if I can be forgiven for what I have done to hurt people, maybe I should be a little easier on the people I know.

Wrapping It All Up

So here is the thing. There are days when I worry that what I believe, what I do, is kinda foolish. There are days when I wonder if the human race is not just spiralling into oblivion. There are days when being different seems like so much work that I think I should just subscribe to then me first get rich attitude of everyone around me.

But they are fleeting moments. And along comes an opportunity like the fall to start over, to try in my own life to get it right this time, to listen to some of the things that God has been trying to say and let that make a difference.

A decade ago I was involved in all that went down around 9/11. I did the largest funeral I hope I ever have to do. I sat through some of the most painful moments of grief I have ever seen. And it almost broke me. I walked away from everything for a while.

Those moments where I am shaken to my core happen far too often – and I imagine they happen for all of us. But God is there. God loves you. And knowing that, perhaps we don’t really need to know any more.