Pentecost 11 - C

Money Where Your Mouth Is

Introduction

It was about a decade ago when I saw the most unnecessary product ever invented. Christmas was coming and all the television channels were abuzz with the latest must have kitchen gadget… the electric iced tea maker.

Now, think about this for a second. First off, that Nestea tropical iced tea instant powder is the best stuff on the planet. Secondly, growing up I always made iced tea by putting tea bags in a jar of water and putting it out in the sun to brew, lastly, boil water, add tea bags, and put it in the fridge.

If you need a machine to do this, you are really just looking for something to buy. You must already own everything in the world.

It begs the question, what is important to you? Where do you put your energy?
And to be honest, we all like to buy new things. Sometimes we only buy useful new things.

Sometimes we just want the newer thing. I, for example, do not own a modern flat screen television and I would really love one.

But then again, when I have to decide, should I take my kids on a trip or buy a television, the kids win.

So that is what I invite you to take some time this morning to think about – what it is that you think is the most important to you, and why.

First Reading
Colossians 3:1-11

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 

When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.

But now you must get rid of all such things--anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.

In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

Doing the Right Thing

We know that Paul wrote to the churches in order to give advice on righteous living. Whenever we read these passages we should always be thinking of them as a sermon on good living. Paul also believed the world would end soon, so he was always making it sound urgent… you better straighten up and fly right or else the world will end and you will find yourself on the wrong side… that is essentially his message.

But if we were a little calmer, if we took away the life and death urgency of Paul, that moral advice is still right.

We should not let our passion, or our greed, or our anger, make the decisions for us. We should be focusing on the good and trying to live the example Jesus came to show us.

It is quite the list…. Stop doing all things that are wrong, and stop thinking all things that are wrong. Stop focusing on the wrong things and start focusing on Christ.

If you manage this, you will be able to see everyone as equal, you will be able to focus in a way that allows you to see the good in everything… you will know Christ as being in your heart. Which is Paul’s way of saying you will be living the way God intended.

I think of this as just being good advice, sort of like parents advice. You know you shouldn’t make fun of that person… You know if you just try to be nice… things like that. I think of this advice as being like the beginning of values.

Somewhere along the line we have all had people who have given us this advice, whether it was a parent, a teacher, a preacher, a boss…. And it comes in all sorts of ways, treat people like you would want to be treated, focus on what makes you happy… any of those sorts of things.

At the back of our minds, we all know this… so this is where we start.

Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."

Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' Then he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'

But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'

So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

Seek Ye First

I read a book once by a guy names Steven Covey, it was about the habits of highly effective people. It was sort of a business guide, how to be the best at what you do… but one of the idea in the book really stuck with me…

When you are dealing with someone, talking to them, whatever, treat it like it is the last time you will ever see this person.

I don’t know, maybe I will get hit by a bus this afternoon and this will be my last sermon ever. Maybe you will all die in a freak tornado that wipes out just your houses and I will never talk to you again….

It is a morbid idea, but it works. If this was the last time you would ever see your spouse, your child, your friend, what would you say? Would you argue about who misplaced the keys if it was the last thing you ever did?

It is a simply a tool to focus.

I think Jesus was being a realist with this parable, and it hits home with me in just the same way; what if I am focusing on the wrong things? What if I spend all my time worrying about the finances and forget to enjoy the day and the world ends tomorrow?

What if I have a heart attack? I probably will someday. Will I have put off for tomorrow a lot of the things I should have done today?

When someone came and said, help me get my inheritance from my brother, they were essentially saying, this money matters more to me than my brother. So Jesus answered in the same way I began this sermon, what is important to you? What do you value the most?

Have you given that any thought as we have been going along?

If you were given a thousand dollars right now, and could do anything with it, what would you do? Not a million, not ten, but a thousand. Enough to be extravagant but not enough to have to worry about it…. What would you spend it on?

Right about now I want to be on vacation, since it is only two weeks away, so I might do a week long hotel stay somewhere with a pool and whirlpool. In this moment, that is what I feel like I need.

If you asked me at a different time it would be different… but I do know that I value friends, family, trips, and food a lot. I also like to care for people, and want everyone to find happiness. Those are the things I put time and energy into the most.

And if in the end I walk out of this building and get struck by lightning, I know I have lived my life well. I have tried to do the best I could with what I have, and I have not put too much focus on the wrong things.

Conclusion

This is a pretty universal story. You might remember the Ant and the Grasshopper… the grasshopper wasted away all his time focusing on the wrong things… in one book I read it was playing the guitar… while the ants made sure they had enough food for the winter…

That was one of Aesop’s Fables, written for the ancient Greek children so they could learn the same values Jesus was trying to get across, the same values Paul was trying to teach the new church.

It is simply this – focus on what is important. We all know what that would be, focus on love, on family, on health, on happiness, on helping others, on caring and sharing… focus on living the good life in a way that you enjoy the gifts God gives you…

And when you do this you will find that your life is easier, that you have more happiness than an electric iced tea maker will ever bring you, and that you feel fulfilled in all you do.

So think about it this week, and try to see what needs changing, or focus on what you are already doing, but be conscious about it…. That is part of faithful living too.

Pentecost 9 - C

You’re So Martha

Introduction

Where do you find God?

Not, actually, where, but how… hmmm… what am I trying to say…. You see, we all feel God’s presence in the world at different times, and perhaps I am trying to ask what you think that feels like, or how you find it…

There are many different ways to experience God. Some people find that being all alone and quiet help them to feel God’s presence while some people find God through helping others.  Some people find God in a church service and others while singing or listening to music.

But what are we talking about when we say “experience God” what does that feel like?

I think there are a lot of different answers to that as well. When my first daughter was born she was born with the cord wrapped around her neck, she was rushed away to neo-natal intensive care before I even really saw her. Then I spent hours wondering if she would live or die.

Late, late into the night I was lying on a cot in the hospital when it seemed a voice came to me in my head that said, “Everything will be ok” and I suddenly fell asleep.

To me, that moment was a feeling of God being present in my life. It is not the only way I have ever felt God and for each person it is different. But that certainly is one way… a feeling of peace, a feeling of hope, a feeling of being cared for that overwhelms you and makes you feel that everything is going to be all right.

Have you felt that? Have you felt God in other ways? How?

Genesis 18:1-10a

The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground.

He said, "My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on--since you have come to your servant." So they said, "Do as you have said."

And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, "Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes." Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

They said to him, "Where is your wife Sarah?" And he said, "There, in the tent." Then one said, "I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son."

Unawares

Have you ever heard the statement, “entertaining angels unawares”? It comes from the Bible, Hebrews chapter 13 to be exact, and it is in a section where they are writing to the followers of Jesus and giving advice – be nice to strangers, you never know when they might be angels…

One of the strangest and perhaps creepiest experiences I ever had in a church happened when I was just a student. I was working for the year in a big church in Ottawa, and one weekend we were having a youth sleepover. Now, the doors were all locked, the kids were all in the gym with the leaders, and we were having a snack.

Suddenly this homeless guy comes walking into the gym. No one knows who he is or how he got there. What we decided to do was to invite him to share our snack… Kool-Aid and cookies if I recall… and then we talked to him for a while and he went on his way.

Later when I talked to another leader we both thought of this saying, about how a homeless man appears behind locked doors, about angels in unexpected places, you know, all that sort of stuff.

We encounter God when we encounter people. We really do. Jesus suggested that we should care for the last and least, because when we do, we find God. Abraham cared for the strangers who walked out of the desert and was blessed with a child.

Perhaps you have also heard that old adage, it is better to give than to receive. I think we say that when we don’t get enough Christmas presents… but there is something to the idea… and it is this: the encounter with the divine, with the good feelings, with the love that is God happens when we care for other people. When we love, we feel love.

This is one of the strongest ways we feel God in our lives, by allowing God to work through us and therefore filling us with love.

Psalm 52 (VU p. 777)

Luke 10:38-42

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying.

But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me."

But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

Different Strokes

Jesus has an interesting relationship with these two women. They show up a few times, he is always over at their house. You might remember that he also brings their brother Lazarus back from the dead.

We also see this personality trait over and over in the two sisters. Mary is the one who listens and thinks, probably paints and plays music too. Martha is the one who works cleaning and cooking and organizing.

There are all different kinds of people, we all know that. For example there are extroverts and there are introverts. What that really means is that an extrovert will get energy from being around people and an introvert will get energy being alone.

Extroverts can walk right up to anyone and start a conversation. I envy them that. I am an introvert. People who are introverted tend to think about things deeply before talking, so it is harder to speak off the cuff.

But the point is, one way is not right, nor is one way wrong… they are just different.

This passage in Luke is the closest you will ever hear to Jesus getting upset with Martha. But even still, he does not say anything against her, or tell her she is doing the wrong thing. She is being Martha, and that is what she needs to do.

Do you feel more fulfilled reading a book or cooking a meal? Do you like to walk outdoors or go to a movie? These are all things that each of us find affects us in different ways. The idea of life is to recognize what brings you happiness, what fills your soul, and do it.

You see, we are not going to find the presence of God in things that drain the life right out of us. We all have to do those things from time to time. But they are not the places that bring us strength and a feeling of God restoring our souls.

Now, that is not to say that God is not present, that God does not give you strength to get through those things, but I am talking about the way God renews, restores, and refreshes us… we need to be doing things that bring us joy. And for each of us, those might be different.

A Poem

I read this poem and it is simple, sort of a prayer, but it talks about the parts of a day and how they are all different and yet, we find God in the midst of each.  It is by a United Church minister, Greta Vosper

A sky, streaked with the promise of day,
and I am called to anticipate all that might be.

The heat of the day heavy upon me,
and I am challenged to acknowledge
the responsibilities I hold.

The shade of the afternoon, like grace, soothes me,
and I am offered a reflection of my own rich gifts.

The cool of the evening
set in the midst of a candlelit heaven,
and I am awed by the fulfillment of another day.

We open ourselves as those who seek the holy 

You see, we know all about how there are different times and different situations. I think that we can even recognize that we feel closer to God, that we see the holy, in some moments more easily than in others. I guess I think we need to think about those things and try to be open to those feelings.

Conclusion

You may have recognized that my sermon was actually about two things, where we find God, and what we find.

And even within that I contradicted myself. Truth is we find God everywhere… in moments when we are in pain, or afraid, but also in moments of happiness or love.

But what I want you to consider for today, and think about as you leave here, is that we need to find moments where God gives us energy, moments that make us happy, moments that bring strength. If we do not have those, then the hard times that surely come upon us all will be harder.

So what makes your heart happy? Is it fishing, painting, music, reading, cooking, cleaning, building, sleeping?

Do those things… don’t ignore them and say you have to much work to do. We need the fun things too.

Because the answer to my “what does God feel like” question is that God feels good. God is the feeling of love and hope and peace and security and happiness that brings a spring to our step. And we need those feelings.

Once upon a time Sunday was a day simply for the things that made us happy, for resting and family, and food, I invite you to try this week to focus on the things that restore your soul. It will make it a better week no matter what you face.

Pentecost 8 - C

The Good Samaritan Revisited

Opening

I have always figured Christians fall into one of two camps. I know there are hundreds of variations, but I think all of those, whether liberal or conservative, whether catholic or protestant, all fall into these two things: Either you think what you do matters most, or you think what matters most is what you think.

Confess your faith in Jesus Christ as your saviour and you will get into heaven, goes the saying in one school of thought.

Follow in Christ’s way and live by his example and you will get into heaven, goes the other.

I am firmly in the last camp, just so you know. I think actions speak much louder than words. In fact, I think people who say they are not Christian and do good things are being just as faithful as I am.

In the old time biblical way of speaking of things they called actions the fruits… the fruits of your labour…. The things that grew because of what you did…

I started today with Paul’s letter to the Church in Colossae because I think this is a good place for us to start thinking about what it means to follow Jesus – Paul speaks of it as the Gospel Bearing fruit.

And by that he means that the teachings are starting to have an effect.

Has anyone ever gone on a diet? I hate it because the first thing that happens is that you get irritable, then you start to crave every single thing you should not eat, and all the while you are looking in the mirror and seeing no change.

But there comes this moment, where the extra walking, or the lack of cheesecake really does kick in and you feel good about yourself. There comes a moment where the work starts to seem like it is making a difference and you get more energy….

You see, there is a feeling in Paul’s words that we all know… we all know this sense that things start to turn around, they start to pay off, and we get it.

Paul describes it as being made strong and joyful … when things come together and we know we are on the right track.

Whether we are talking about diets, about work, about faith, or about life… those are the moments to treasure.

Readings

Psalm 82 (VU p. 799)

Luke 10:25-37
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.'

Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Of Samaritans and Cutpurses

What would shock and embarrass you into action? What would you have to see happening in order to step in? I have to say there are a lot of things that I wish I did that I didn’t do. The other day I saw a father yelling at their kids in a mall, like screaming at them… and I wanted to go tell him to cool it, relax, think about what he was doing… but I just walked away feeling awkward.

On the other hand, there was a guy whose car would not start the other day and I went and boosted him since I had jumper cables. Just a stranger in a parking lot, but he told me that he had been there quite a while and no one else had stopped to help.

There is a lot going on in the Good Samaritan story, but cut right to the core and it is about loving the neighbour… which is never an easy thing.

See, the first two characters are religious; it is not just the average person passing by, but really religious people… and Jesus is trying to point out to his listeners, by embarrassing them admittedly, that the religious people are often too self-righteous to help. He is not wrong about this… there are those that think people get into their own messes because they are not faithful and will not help them, there are others who say, with all the best intentions, I will pray for you, but still just walk on by.

The last person is the unexpected person… the Samaritan, the outsider, the one you would think would not help. Like have a black person help a white person in the South in the 1960’s or having a gay person help a red neck with a flat tire…

The people saw this; they knew that Samaritans were a bunch of liars, cheats, and losers…. But… if a Samaritan did the right thing when the holy people wouldn’t… what does that mean?

Anger Management

So I am assuming you have heard a sermon once or twice about the Good Samaritan. I am also assuming that someone, somewhere, has told you to love your neighbour, and even that your neighbour might not be who you expect… so good, remember that… but I want to talk to you about righteous anger.

Or rather, about when is it NOT okay to just be religious? You see, Jesus was talking to a bunch of church goers, he was talking to Session Members and trustees and they were asking him, what are we supposed to be doing as a church… surely you don’t mean we are supposed to love everyone…. There are a lot of people who do not deserve love…

And Jesus got angry. We don’t talk about that much, but he did. And the point of this story is to put the holier than though Pharisees and Sadducees down. He is not really trying to convert them, that would be a bonus, but he IS trying to insult them.

I wonder if we are too polite? I wonder if we ignore things we should not ignore? I wonder what it would be like if you challenged people for stupid questions and dumb answers. What if someone said something and you told them that answer wasn’t good enough… how would they react.

I do not think when Jesus said we should be a good neighbour that the point was to be a pushover. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Jesus stood up for what he believed and did not suffer fools gladly. I think we have gotten into a lot of trouble in society by being too polite, too nice, too accepting… Now, don’t get me wrong, I think love is the centre of everything, and I think we need to love everyone the way God does, I would NEVER tell you to be judgemental about anyone or anything.

But at the same time, stick up for what you believe in, hold people accountable for their actions, keep pointing out when people are making mistakes…  That is all part of being faithful to the way of Jesus too.

Conclusion

Love, when it is done right, is all about honesty and openness, about transparency and accountability. So when  Jesus is saying, Love your neighbour he is saying a whole lot more than, be nice to them. He is saying that we should challenge them to be better people, we should be there when they fall into the ditch, we should accept them for who they are, we should share who we really are…

Being a real neighbour is not easy…. But it is part of the struggle of being a real Christian.

Pentecost 6 - C

Moving On

Introduction

I chose the theme song from the Littlest Hobo for our opening quote today in the bulletin because I think it expresses something similar to our Bible readings today – a sense that there is more to the world, more happening, than meets the eye… and also a sense that we are all on a journey, all seeking something.

So where do you find yourself this weekend? What is on your mind? Are you feeling like you would like to settle down more, have less to do, be able to sit on the couch and do nothing; or are you feeling like you wish you could have a vacation, wish you could go away somewhere, wish something, anything would happen?

Human beings are funny things, we are, for the most part not content. We are restless in that we are always thinking about something else. But this is part of human nature, part of who we are deep down in our souls.

Augustine, a famous bishop from the early years of the church once said, my soul is restless until it finds it rest in God.

And I really think that might be true. We are made for change, we are made for growth, we are made restless…

Of course, the world is continually changing around us. As much as we sometimes want to stop the spinning wheel and get off things are different today than they were yesterday and tomorrow they will be different again.

Is that human nature? Is that the way we were intended to live? Why are we on a journey and where are we going… all will be revealed… well…  maybe not, but perhaps we can explore that little today.

Heading on Up to Heaven

So first up, change happens. It is inevitable. And as you are all well aware, there are different ways to react to the way the world changes around us.

I want you to realize that there is a lot going on in the story of Elijah and Elisha, but at the very simplest level, Elijah is going to die, and Elisha knows it.

You see, what is happening here is that everything is changing, and everyone knows it. Elijah keeps saying, stay here, you have done enough. Elisha keeps going each and every time. Elijah asks what he wants, and he says to follow in your footsteps, to inherit the family business, and Elijah responds that if it were up to him, he would…

Now, we can talk about prophets, about miracles, about followers… but what is really happening here is that things change. And sometimes, we are ready for the journey, and sometimes we want things to stay the same.

Remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane prayed to God that if there were any other way besides the crucifixion, he would like to know about it now… we don’t always want change.

But still, it happens. So here is where I get back to human nature. We can do one of two things, we can deny change, stick our heads in the sand, wish for things to be different – or we can accept it and answer the question, so what now? What do I need to get through this?

I like to think that each and every thing that happens to me is an opportunity, a challenge, a moment where I get to choose to re-invent myself and find new ways to cope and new ways to get through things. I know I am sometimes actually sad and depressed when things change, but on my good days I see that there is opportunity.

So change happens, and it still seems like how we react is the main thing that matters.

A Hole in the Ground

My kids had a book I read them when they were little. It was a simple little book about a stray cat looking for a place to sleep. It always made me think of this Bible passage. That cat finds that hanging upside down like a bat is too hard, or that living in a burrowed hole in the ground like a fox is too dirty… so where is the place for it?

Perhaps this goes back to my original point about how we are restless. And the truth is most of the time we are restless AND heading somewhere. We have goals, or tasks to accomplish, and we are heading out there to do them… but the thing is that life gets in the way… it can feel like no one understands or appreciates, it can feel like we are all alone…

If you think of this Bible reading about Jesus as a video, what would you think the expression of Jesus’ face might be? I think he would be somewhere between two things – certain and lonely.

Here he is, heading off to do what he knows must be done; but it feels no one wants to come along, no one wants to support him… and that is rough.

You see, as much as we want change and are restless; as much as, like Elisha, we are trying to make the best of things and move forward… there is always this one little stumbling block, the fact that most people are also comfortable with how things are.

I know this sounds like a contradiction, and it is. But it also seems to be true, we would like to change things, but we also want things to remain the same…. And that really makes living life hard.

And it makes it hard for people who decide to go ahead and change things. They get misunderstood, they get to feeling lonely, they have to change things and work on that journey from here to there and take scary first steps… and we fight against them.

Ever tried to change anything and discovered people did not really want you to change? You probably have. And it is hard.

But change is inevitable. Life is constantly changing, and so are we. I wonder what would happen if we stopped fighting against it.

Conclusion

Okay, you may have realized this entire sermon has been circling around a theme without naming one, without making any conclusions, without drawing on any facts even – everything I have said has been pretty abstract without any specific details… change happens, sometimes we are prepared, sometimes we fight against it.

People will tell you that a sermon should have some Good News, which is what Jesus was always all about, helping people to find the good news in their lives….

I guess in my own meandering way the sermon was trying to show what life is really like… you don’t know what is going to happen or where you are going.

When I started, way back at the introduction I asked you to think about your own life… about what is happening in it…

Here is mine – I am feeling old lately. I am slowing down and the way I have lived is making my body prematurely old. My kids are growing up and I am missing huge chunks of it. That thing that happens where time speeds up as you age has so overtaken me that it feels like I cannot remember anything happening between Christmas and now…

So what are the things that are making you feel that things change too fast? Someone could die, work could change, people will come in and out of your lives, your grandkids could grow up without you noticing…. And some of you may be feeling old too….

But here is the thing. We were made for this. That is the good news. We are people who are restlessly driven into the future, who change, who adapt… and we find new meaning, and hope.

We were created to embrace life in all of its fullness, no matter where we find ourselves in it. So look around, find out where you really are, and live…

God will be with you in the details.

Communion Sunday

A small caveat. I have not felt like a sermon I have ever preached worked worse than this. I changed it in each church and I still never got the feeling that I connected to the people or evoked the thought or feelings I had hoped for. Perhaps I was not able to put into words what I was feeling...

Church

Introduction

I am taking things a little differently today. I am going to invite you to participate in a church service about church. In other words, I want to talk about what we do here every Sunday. Not in the abstract, but in the concrete reality sense of saying, what are we doing now, and why…

Church services have been happening for thousands of years. People have gathered together for a number of reasons… one of the first was probably food. Gather together around the campfire and pray for the mastodon or buffalo to be plentiful… then after we started planting crops I am sure people prayed for rain, or sun, or to keep the frost off…

The point is, religion began when people banded together for a common goal. They all decided they wanted one thing… rain in a drought, or sunshine in a storm. And they prayed and prayed and hoped for things to get better.

There was always a beginning. And the beginning was always an invitation… think of lighting the candle, or the opening prayers, or a song we sing as an invitation not only for us to enter into the experience, but for God to be present with us.

You see, the things that we do are ancient, in a way… we do them differently, but they are the same, we are still using the opening moments of church to set the stage… we are still using word and song and prayer to get us in the right mood, and to help us to see the holy, to see God, in our midst.

Communion

At the heart of what we are doing is communion. Not the meal which we will be sharing later, I will get to that, but the idea behind the word… communion.

Have you ever heard someone say, they are going to commune with nature? I used to say that when I smoked and had to go outside… grin. But seriously, I think lots of people say this… and what do they mean?

They mean that they are becoming one with… that they are emotionally connecting to… nature.

The actually dictionary definition is to share ones most intimate thoughts or feelings. So what we are talking here is that we connect with in some way… and behind our church service is this thought that we are connecting with God, and with each other….

Perhaps that is why I love the passage from John, the one in which Jesus is talking about vines and branches… It points out the connection we all have. It is as if we are all part of one another. This is true whether we are talking about our family, our church family, everyone out there in the big bad world, or God…

At the same time, it is more than that. What Jesus actually says is that all of this communion, all of this being the branches, takes effort. We have to choose to remain connected. We have to work at it and we have to “actually” be connected.

So there are essentially three things: First, recognize that we are all connected. Secondly, we need to work at this relationship. Lastly, what we need to do is to, as Jesus puts it, “we must bear fruit.” It is not just about being connected in name, it is about being in tune with each other, about working together, about being on the same page…

When we come to church, we are saying that we believe this… that we are all connected…

Eucharistic Yearnings

So, the sacrament of communion goes right back to Jesus… or perhaps further back. Like I said, people have been getting together for religious services as long as we have been around. There used to be feasts and meals and celebrations long before Jesus. In fact, Jesus and the disciples were getting together for a religious feast and church service in the first place, the Jewish Festival of Passover.

But Since that night, things changed, and as Christians we have made this special meal, called communion, or the Eucharist, the central part of our worship together. The reason we do it is as a re-enactment of that Last Supper in the Upper Room.

We know that Paul, while in the church in Corinth, was celebrating this meal just a few years after Jesus died.

We also know that one of the reasons the early Christians got in trouble was because people thought they were cannibals… that they were actually eating the body and blood of Jesus.

But we are not doing that… so what are we doing? Well, first and foremost we are sharing a meal. By doing that we are doing something we usually only do with family and friends. Secondly we are remembering and re-enacting the last night of Jesus’ life.

That is important because we know that when everything was going wrong, Jesus did something nice for his friends, he prepared a meal, he invited them, he served them… but more importantly, he gave them a way to remember. Each time you eat this bread or drink from this cup… remember me.

And we can understand that… Here is my grandmother’s recipe for macaroni and cheese. Boil macaroni in a pot, drain it, add a can of tomatoes and grate some cheese into it. Add some salt if you like… It is not like this is high cuisine or even a very memorable dish… but I love it, and every time I eat it I think of her.

Jesus was pretty smart in setting up something simple, eat some bread and drink a bit of wine and remember me… because thousands of years later we still do.

Conclusion

So I guess what I am trying to say is that church is about relationship. It is about how we come to be with each other, recognize each other, and become united just as the vines are united to the branch.

Sure, it takes work, and there are responsibilities, and it does not always seem like we are connected in ways we could be… but….

When we come here, when we commit to this, we are working on it… and when we are honestly doing that, we are on the path.

Pentecost 2 - C

Come Together… Right Now…

Introduction

It almost seems too simple to say this… but together we are stronger than we are apart.

Last weekend I was in Sackville for the Annual General Meeting of Maritime Conference. For those that don’t know, the United Church is separated into regions, and ours goes from Bermuda to the Gaspe. So it is Bermuda, Nova Scotia (Cape Breton… they get angry if you think saying NS includes them), Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and the Gaspe region of Quebec.

It is geographically huge… but at the same time, we tend to forget our own size. When you come to church in Whitney and these 20 people are your fellow United Church folks, you forget that we are the largest protestant denomination in the country.

But in a Hockey Rink in Sackville, with some 700 people, the view seems quite different.

Margaret McCain, yes, one of those McCain’s, gave a speech about why she donated money to the United Church. Essentially it was this: Although she goes to another church, she thinks the United Church has done so much for the world, for Canada… we led the way in terms of Women’s rights… Mount Allison was the first university to grant a degree to a woman and we were the first denomination to ordain women… It was a United Church member who went on t politics and created welfare and medicare, we have fought for including and treating as equal everyone, no matter their race, or sex, or ideals…

We, together, have made a difference.

Acts 2:42-47

 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

With Kids

 Working Together…. Lego… what can we build, how do we work together more… why?

Socialist Jesus

So when the followers sat around for a while and thought about what Jesus was saying… here is what they came up with… we should work together!

Let’s pool all of our resources, let’s all work together, and live together, and create a new way to be in the world but not part of the world.

If we did that right, there would be no poor people, no one would have to worry about food or housing, everyone would get enough….

It didn’t last too long, partly because Christianity spread too fast… it was located in Jerusalem for a year or two tops, then it spread to all the Roman Sea Ports, and then inland. Hard to all live together when you are talking thousand mile differences…

But the idea stuck… monasteries and convents were the main places of learning and prayer, they were the social agencies and food banks of the middle ages… and followed this same principle that we should all work together and be together and support one another…

The same is true of congregations. We are meant to be a community where we come together, work together, help each other, are there for each other.

It still does not work as well as it should. I have often thought we could figure out a way to do it better. But it is hard. There are a lot of things each of us are involved in… there are a lot of directions pulling us to head out of here…

But in the end, the sentiment is still the same, together we are stronger than when we are on our own.

Hebrews 10:23-25                   A Call to Community

Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Provoking One Another

There was a story on the CBC this week about an American Spelunker… that is a cave explorer… who went to the Ukraine to explore some cool caves… he just thought they would be fun… but when he got down in them he discovered something he did not expect… shoes…clothes… lots of other things that suggested someone, sometime, had lived in these caves known as Priest’s grotto.

So he started asking questions, and doing the research… what he discovered was amazing. In the 1940’s in the Ukraine, Nazi soldiers had begun to round up the Jews for concentration camps. In fact, in a few weeks they had taken half the town.

One mother sent her son into the forest to find a place to hide, he found a cave. So eventually 38 people ended up spending 344 days in this cave, the lived for over 2 years underground. The cave it huge, the 10^th largest in the world, and could be accessed only by a sinkhole the size of a fireplace chimney.

Ok, seriously, how long could you stay in one cave, in the dark? I think any one of us alone for that long would go insane, not to mention it is only 10 degrees in there…

But together, working together, taking turns, caring for each other, telling jokes and stories, those people hid, and lived, for 10 years.

It makes it seem to me, that when we help each other we can do superhuman things; that when we work together we create things and do things that we would never have believed that we can do.

We could all tell stories like this… perhaps some of them less life threatening… but stories of people bringing food after we lose a loved one, or stories of someone helping you to fix a deck, or move… or gong fishing with you when you are sad. Being together changes everything. Working together changes everything.

The author of Hebrews, writing to the early church, says we should meet together and provoke each other to love, and good deeds. We should encourage one another and push one another and help one another. That is what church is all about.

Mark 3:31-34                          The Spiritual Family of Jesus

Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!

Why are we here?

 Every so often I find someone who comes up to me and says that they do not need church, that they find God while walking in the woods, or standing on the seashore… and I say, of course you do, but… that is just God. You don’t go to church to find God, you go to church to find yourself.

I also notice that there are quite a few people who do not go to Presbytery, or to Conference, and I wonder the same thing… why do we go to church? You see, in these passages  we are told the answer… we go to church because it is there that we meet people who are like us, who believe like us, who work on the same things as us, who are our spiritual sisters and brothers… and we go to lift them up, and to be lifted up by them.

No matter how many walks in the woods I take, it is not going to challenge me to be a better person. Going to church is. Meeting someone who has a great idea for something and wants to do it is going to challenge me to do something more…

I guess in simple terms, we are here in church for each other.

Jesus was not really a mean person. Later on he arranges for one of the disciples to take care of his mother after Jesus is executed. But he is saying something important… he is saying to the people gathered around him that they are as much his family, as much a part of him, as his own mother and brothers and sisters….

And he is there for them, and they are there for him. That… is the reason we go to church.

Conclusion

So there are two things I want you to remember from today – one is that the United Church is not dead, nor is it going anywhere. We are still the second largest denomination, we are a huge group of committed people, and we are trying to make a difference in Canada and the World so that everyone gets to live the way God intended.

Secondly, being here is important… I don’t mean you have to com every week, I don’t mean you need to do it when you are sick, or anything else. Heck, there are lots of weeks I want to go do something else… but being part of this community, being connected to other believers and worshiping together… that makes a difference… and you need to be a part of it in order to be a better person.

Put those two things together and I believe anything is possible. That old where two are three are gathered God is there adage means a lot to me… I think that when we set our minds to it and work together, we can change the world…

And I think that is what God is calling us to do.

Pentecost C

Pentecost

“Pentecost is something more than a so-called past event.
It is the story of God’s continuing presentness experienced again and again...
...the amazing story of people coming to awareness through reflection on the life of Jesus that the same Spirit that moved in him moved in them.”

Michael Morwood, Praying a New Story

PRESENTATION OF THEME

I have always enjoyed a good party. Perhaps it is the maritimer in me; cause trust me, outside of Quebec, the rest of this country is far less likely to randomly break into a kitchen party. But there is something about the feeling of having friends and family, of a meal together, of music playing and people laughing… it really seems to make everything feel better.

The Jewish faith actually had this down to a science thousands of years before most of us did. For them, every religious observance was accompanied by a feast, by a gathering, by music and prayers…sometimes lasting for days.

The festival of Shavuot, some 7 weeks after Passover, was the Jewish festival celebrating the time when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on top of Mount Sinai. It was a time when you headed to the temple for the weekend and prayed and ate and celebrated.

And people from all over the world would flock to Jerusalem. Religious or not, everyone was going to be there, so why not go… traders and merchants, soldiers and tax collectors, The faithful from other countries and the curious… everyone would head to the city for the weekend.

One year, it happened that the disciples were there too… shortly after Jesus death… and that was the weekend everything changed.

MAKING SENSE OF THE BABEL

If we are to truly understand Pentecost we have to see it as a time when things got put back, when things got fixed… and that is why we start with the tower of Babel… here is where they got broken. It is not a real story, but it is a true story… and here is the truth behind it… People reach too far… we want too much, we try too hard… and when we do, we get broken.

Think of it as being for our own good. If we build the tower too tall, we are going to fall and get hurt… it is as simple as that.

There is a Greek Myth about Icarus… who wanted to escape his world and so he made wings out of feathers and wax… but once he was flying he wanted to go higher and higher, eventually getting too close to the sun… when the wax melted, his wings fell apart, and he fell to his death.

Same story – sometimes we go too far, and it ends up with us getting hurt… so, as the tale is told, God protected us by making it so that we could not work together anymore…

And it was pretty effective too… instead of being united, we all spoke different languages, we all lived in different places, we all looked different, and we really did not trust each other…

Now we would not be able to build that tower to the sun anymore….

EXPLORING THE THEME

Now this is where the story gets interesting…. Where the broken gets put back together again… the point of the story of Pentecost is that it reverses the tower of Babel; our differences, our languages, our faults… none of that will stop us if we believe in Jesus.

The disciples, you might remember, are all from small town Galillee, and they are mostly fishermen. There was not much education between them, certainly they were not city kids on the streets of Montreal who might speak three or four languages… they spoke Aramaic… not even the Jews in the Temple spoke Aramaic… the city folk spoke Hebrew…

And yet, as they spoke and preached and prayed during that first Pentecost they did it in Aramaic, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Ethiopian, Coptic… every language known to civilization.

The point of this story is not some miraculous speaking of tongues, the point is about overcoming differences. Here were these people with a message that they thought could change the world… but not that many people had heard the message yet… until this one day, during a festival, when people from all over the world were gathered in one place… and they got it.

This is why we call this the Birthday of the Church. It really did not start with Jesus, or with Paul, or with Peter… not the church… the message started and spread through them… but it took this moment, this perfect moment when everyone was in the right place at the right time, to start the church.

People left Jerusalem after the weekend and returned home, and they talked about this, and they spoke of Jesus, and other people got curious, and things spread from there to everywhere… 

You can think of a thousand reasons that this might not work, that people might not stop to listen, that others would not be curious, that the message was boring anyway… but that was not the case. They had something to say, and they said it with passion, with tongues of fire, and it was worth listening to, worth sharing….

CONTEMPORARY READING

"Wind, wind. A reflection on the Spirit"
By William Loader   (Adapted)

Wind, wind,
you come from nothingness and go to nothingness,
and when you are still,
there is nothing we see, nothing we hear,
and you surround us in our not seeing and not knowing.

Wild, wild wind,
you whip the seas, whirling great water spouts and fountains,
crashing the foamed edges of the shore,
sweeping the unsuspecting fisherman from the slippery rocks,
terrifying force, uncontrollable, beyond our power.

Wind, wind, wondrous wind,
hovering at the birth of creation,
whisking secretly among the wonders of new life,
bearing the seed, lifting high the heads of mighty trees,
swirling among the grasses, celebrating life.

Wind, wind, gentle wind,
wind of our breathing, our life, our hope,
renewing, refreshing,
sighing in our stress,
moaning in our pain,
still in our dying.

O wind, wind,
you breathed upon the clay and there was life,
you danced down to the forehead of a Galilean
and there was hope,
you shook the foundations of community
and there was Pentecost.

EXPLORING THE THEME

Did you know that there is only one word in Hebrew for Spirit, breath, and wind, “Ruach”? They are interchangeable… which I always find interesting because they are pretty much used in the same way in the Old Testament… the spirit of the Lord hovered upon the waters, the breath of God was upon him, God spoke in a mighty rush of wind… all sentences from the Bible we would understand to be almost the same….

Anyone who has ever watched the wind blow on a beach knows that it is powerful and creative. The wind is what makes boats sail and airplanes fly… it is, literally, the wind at our back…

Which is what the spirit of God is too; the spirit is that which blows through you and gives you strength, or courage, or hope, or love… it is the feeling that pushes you to better places, better ways of being…

It is what unites us all and weaves us together…

I wonder what changed at Pentecost. I wonder why a thousand years of division suddenly got reversed. 

Maybe when we tried to build the tower of Babel we were not ready to work together, but when we heard and understood the message of Jesus we were?

Cause that is a powerful claim for those early Christians to make… where once we were all divided, now we are all together… where once we could not work together, now we understand that we are all the same…

But that is what they are saying, that once God had to separate us, but now through Jesus we are restored…. That is what Paul says when he writes that we are all part of the same body, that there is neither Jew nor Greek. It really was not only their hope, but their passionate belief that now God was with them and nothing could stop them!

And this time it was not arrogance because this time they were not trying to build a tower, or fly to the sun, or do anything to prove they were the coolest, or the best… this time they were trying to help everyone to be loved just like they were.

It surprised even them when it happened. Like all grace filled moments, they come out of nowhere… but looking back we can say that this is where it all began… this is when people took it seriously and went out into the world hoping that they could make a difference themselves.

Instead of spirit, let’s call it something else… inspiration…. This was the moment where inspiration came into their lives and it led them out into the world full of passion and purpose…

CONCLUSION OF THEME

I think what we see around us is 90% what we feel. Think about it, your mood changes how things look, feel, taste, are….

So what, you may ask… well… I want you to see Pentecost the same way. I want you to see that it was attitude that caused people to have hardship, and it was attitude that got them all back together again…

We, as a church, moved from the tower of Babel to the celebration of Pentecost…

And it is a lesson we can all understand, all see as being true, and all take to heart. God’s love has the power to overcome our differences and set us free. Working together for the good of others is an idea that can challenge and inspire us, and the spirit is with us as we go.