Looking Ahead to September 6, 2020

 This week we are officially resuming in-person worship.  In part to mark that event, and because it is the first Sunday of the month, we will be celebrating Communion during worship.

The Scripture Reading this week is 2 Samuel 6

The Sermon title is Dance! Celebrate! Wait?

Early Thoughts: Where are we in the story? Are we at the end when the Ark of the Covenant has finally been brought into David's capital city? Are we at the beginning when the Ark is still hidden away? Are we in the middle, where the Ark is coming "home" but has to take a break part way, so the celebration is not yet complete? [Or maybe we are years later after it has been lost and we are traveling with Indiana Jones to save it from the Nazi's??? 😎]

The Ark of the Covenant has a storied history in Scripture and in myth/legend.  Here is the Wikipedia entry on it. Suffice to say that during the wars with the Philistines the Ark had been captured and then got moved around to a few different dwelling places. Now that David has captured Jerusalem/Zion and is making it into his capital city he decides it is time that the Ark be brought into the city. It would be a sign that God was with David, and by extension the nation of Israel.

This is a cause for celebration. God has granted David and Israel victory over the Philistines. In the future Jerusalem/Zion would be known as they place where God dwelt because the Ark was there.  David's son, Solomon, would build a grand temple and the Ark would have a place of honour at the core of the Temple.

But things don't quite go to plan. The Ark is about to fall so one of the attendants touches it to steady it and is struck dead. David is afraid and cancels the parade for three months. Then the journey is concluded with much dancing and sacrifice and celebration. David himself, it is said, dances so enthusiastically (and so scantily clad) that he exposes himself to the crowd.

This week marks a time of return for us. Back in March we had our regular church service on March 15th and then everything changed. Our chances to gather together have been limited for almost 6 months now. But now we are resuming in-person worship. A time to celebrate! A time to dance!

And yet it is still not the same. There will still be some people who will not feel comfortable/safe in group gatherings and so will continue to join us virtually. Our worship will look and feel different with distancing measures and masks in place. It is still a time of waiting and adapting.

I think the closest approximation is that we are in the middle of the story.  Celebrating and returning but not quite all the way home.  But still it is a time for celebrating.  Maybe even dancing a little  -- although that ma happen more in our hearts and souls than actually moving our feet. I guess you could dance your way up to receive communion?

--Gord

Looking Ahead to August 30, 2020

 The Scripture Reading this week is Romans 12:1-21.

The Sermon title is Transformed!

Early Thoughts: The opening verses of Romans 12 have become favourite words of mine. In many ways they remind me what the life of faith is all about.

We are invited/encouraged/exhorted to let God transform us "by the renewing of our minds". It is my belief that if we allow that renewal and transformation to happen then the behaviours described in the rest of this passage will follow quite naturally.

The challenge of course is if we will let it happen. Will we indeed offer ourselves as a living sacrifice? Will we give up control long enough for God to go to work within and on us? Will we quiet our hearts and minds long enough to hear God's voice? Will we let go of our own agenda long enough to discern what God's will is?

The last 5 months have been a time of disruption. Our normal schedules have been heavily challenged. As I reflect on this disruption I find myself wondering if it will push us to re-evaluate how we set our priorities. I wonder how we might make different decisions (as individuals, as communities, as nations) based on what we have learned about ourselves (as individuals, as communities, as nations) as a result of COVID-tide.

Maybe that is where God has been in all of this. I would never say the God sent a pandemic into our lives. But maybe God is using the pandemic to push us in new ways? Maybe this is the chance for us to stop and let God into our priorities in a new way? I have often thought that God is a bit of an opportunist, jumping in when an opening is created. Is that happening this year?

God calls us to be renewed and transformed. God calls the world to be renewed and transformed. That is what the growing of the Kingdom of God is all about. When/as that happens those behaviours Paul lists will come so much more naturally (with a bit of practice).

--Gord

LISTEN! -- A Newsletter Piece.

 

The second last word in our list is ‘Listen’. What might that have to say for our life of faith? On the surface it seems to suggest we will pause and listen for God’s voice as we make decisions and choices in life. Which sounds great. I sometimes wonder how good a job we do (both as individuals and as a community) of doing that.

As I reflected on this word at this time I was brought back to prayer. Many times it seems that prayer is about us talking but prayer also needs to be sitting in silence and listening for God’s voice. That is hard. Our culture does not tend to do silence well. Many times we might crave silence, but it is hard to find. And even then we might find something to fill the void. Maybe that is part of why this hymn is so often used to start worship services:

Come find the quiet centre in the crowded life we lead,
find the room for hope to enter, find the frame where we are freed:
clear the chaos and the clutter, clear our eyes that we can see
all the things that really matter, be at peace and simply be.

Silence is a friend who claims us, cools the heat and slows the pace,
God it is who speaks and names us, knows our being face to face,
making space within our thinking, lifting shades to show the sun,
raising courage when we’re shrinking, finding scope for faith begun.
(verses 1&2 of Come and Find the Quiet Centre, written by Shirley Erena Murray 1989)

If we are going to listen we need to make space. We need to quiet our hearts. We need to shut off the blare from social media and the news. We need to stop our own inner voices, our worries and our anxieties, even our hopes and dreams. We need to move beyond our own thoughts so that God has a chance to speak in our ears and move in our hearts. By the way, that is a whole lot easier to say than it is to do.

One thing that helps me create the silence is some form of centering prayer. Centering prayer is a form of meditation. It allows/helps/pushes us to let go of our thoughts and simply be in the presence of the Divine. It takes practise, and to be honest I need to do it far more often for my own mental health. but it helps me refocus, helps me clarify priorities, helps me sleep (I am one of those people whose anxieties and worries surface most when I am trying to go to sleep).

Over the year I have encountered a variety of meditation and relaxation exercises. Some of them have been prayer-based and some have not been. But I thought in this month when we are reflecting on “Listen” I would share one of my favourite centering prayer activities. Before each line take a deep cleansing breath. Then repeat the line and pause for whatever feels comfortable. You may find that the pauses get longer with each line, or with each time you do the exercise. The words come from Psalm 46:10:

[Deep Breath] Be still and know that I am God [Pause]

[Deep Breath] Be still and know that I am[Pause]

[Deep Breath] Be still and know [Pause]

[Deep Breath] Be still[Pause]

[Deep Breath] Be [Pause]

Let’s all take time to stop and BE and listen.
Gord

Looking Ahead to August 23, 2020 -- Jesus and the Canaanite Woman

 The Scripture Reading this week is Matthew 15:11, 17-28

The Sermon title is CLM

Early Thoughts: One day I was describing this passage to one of my daughters. I said that next Sunday we were reading the story where Jesus calls a woman a dog. Guess the reaction I got.

This passage is a challenging one when it comes to our picture of Jesus. Whether we admit it or not we sort of want Jesus to always be the paragon of virtue and loving interaction. A Jesus who has so much to learn does not fit that image.  And in this story Jesus is clearly challenged and made to rethink his reaction.

And yet, in some ways, it is one of my favoured Gospel stories.

For centuries Christianity has proclaimed that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, even if nobody has ever really hit on a totally satisfactory way of explaining how that is possible. How many times do we ask what it means to be fully human?

For me, being fully human means that you have blindspots and unconscious attitudes, it means you are formed by your context, it means you have edges where you need to learn and grow. For people who want or need Jesus to be perfectly human and totally without sin or error this is a difficult place to be. But if Jesus is fully human Jesus has to be able to learn/change/grow.

In our mind's eye we might imagine Jesus' first response to the Canaanite woman would be along the lines of "certainly I can heal your daughter". Instead Jesus gives an answer that is steeped in ethnic parochialism -- once ignoring her was no longer an option. To her credit the woman is persistent (which we already know since ignoring her did not work). She challenges Jesus narrow vision of how God might be at work in him. And Jesus models that we can change our attitude when we know that the challenger is right.

The verses at the beginning of this week's reading remind us where evil and defilement really come from. They come from the heart. But hearts can be changed. And when hearts are changed the Kingdom comes one step closer to full reality.

Where do our hearts need to be changed? What attitudes and beliefs have we unconsciously picked up from our contexts that need to be challenged? How can our vision of God's action in the world be broadened?

--Gord

Looking Ahead to August 16, 2020

 This week's Scripture Readings are (it is worth noting that all of 1 Corinthians 8:1-11:1 is seen as a unit on this topic, you might want to read more than the portions for this Sunday):

• 1 Corinthians 8
• 1 Corinthians 10:23-31

 The Sermon title is What About Masks?

Early Thoughts: Last week I read this blog post and realized that this was a sermon that needed to be preached.  I think Paul lays out an ethical principle here that extends far beyond the issue he is dealing with in Corinth, one that has application in a wide range of human interactions.

The 2 letters we have to the Corinthians in Scripture are part (it appears) of a larger body of correspondence between Paul and the church he founded in the city. Certainly there were letters from members of the community to Paul and possibly as many as four letters from Paul to the Corinthians. Reading the letters, particularly First Corinthians, reveals that the community in Corinth is not a unified  group. In fact they seem to be split and fighting on a number of issues, some of which are theological, some of which appear to be class-based. Among the issues of dispute is a question about meat.

For much of human history, meat was a luxury item. Hunting always had a hit or miss aspect to it so meat could be rare. And even once we humans started raising animals for slaughter meat was still a luxury item because of the cost involved. Adding to the controversy is the fact that much of the meat in Corinth (a very cosmopolitan seaport in the Roman Empire) may have been from animals that had been offered as a sacrifice in one of the many temples in town. Can a Christian eat meat (or any other food) that had been part of a sacrifice? That is the question.

Some in Corinth say that it is not an issue because they know full well that those bits of stone and metal that the animal was sacrificed to are not gods, or idols -- they are just bits of stone or metal. Others are less sure. Are they participating in idol worship by eating the meat? Are they risking their salvation? It appears that the Christian community in Corinth has asked Paul for guidance.

To be honest, I have long avoided this passage. I have avoided it because I find Paul's answer lacking in clarity. He seems to say that there is no reason not to eat the meat, and then in the next breath say there is a big reason not to eat the meat. He seems to have missed the "just say yes or no" aspect to giving advice.

But reading it now I realize what I missed in the past. I missed the ethical principle that Paul lays out.

Paul is telling the Corinthians (and, through them over the years, us) about one way we make love real and actual in our lives. It is a clear way to live out the commandment of Jesus "love one another". When it comes to the question of meat the question is not actually (or not only) the meat itself. It is "how does my behaviour impact my neighbour?". If my choices might negatively impact my neighbour (in the case of meat and idols by leading them astray) then I have the duty to make a different choice.

As people of faith we are both free and not free. Our freedom is bounded by the commandment to live love for our neighbour.

So this 2000 year old question about meat does in fact touch on our current debate about wearing masks. And on older debates about restricting smoking. And on a host of other questions about how we live together in community. How do we live out love for our neighbour? How does our commitment and responsibility to the collective interact with the North American idol of individual freedom and "rights"?

To be part of the Christian family means we have different priorities.  Paul challenges us to think of our neighbours. So did Jesus. So did the prophets of ancient Israel. So, in the end, does God.

--Gord