February Newsletter

 Called to Be the Church....

This year our newsletters will encourage us to reflect on lines from the United Church Creed (also called the New Creed). I can’t remember which line Sharon asked for reflections on this month so I made my own choice.

Asking what it means to be called to be the church leads in many directions. The one I am thinking about today is tied to this last verse from the Marty Haugen hymn (#1 in More Voices) “Let Us Build a House”:

Let us build a house where all are named, their songs and visions heard
and loved and treasured, taught and claimed as words within the Word.
Built of tears and cries and laughter, prayers of faith and songs of grace,
let this house proclaim from floor to rafter.
All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

What implications might it have to put those words into action? As it happens I have reflected on this question many times over the years. Here is a column I wrote for the paper in Atikokan on that theme:

Who is Welcome?

The brightly lettered sign on the door said “All welcome, come as you are”.
Pete looked at his his wheelchair and asked “even me?” and then he continued down the street. How would he get up the stairs?

Next came Sue and Cathy. They looked at the sign, and the beautiful stained glass windows and for a moment thought about going in. But then they remembered the last time they had been, and the clear message that folks like them were “bad”. They knew they weren't welcome as a couple.

Next down the block was a young family. “Let's go see!” shouted the youngest. But the kids tended to be noisy, they had trouble sitting still. Not wanting to cause trouble the parents quickly walked away, dragging the kids with them.

Finally came Fred and Alice. They thought it would be nice to have a warm place to sit and maybe a cup of coffee. But they looked at their shabby clothes and their unwashed faces and knew that their presence seemed to make others uncomfortable. So they went down the street to try and find a meal.

Meanwhile, oblivious to the people passing by and wishing they could come in, the congregation sat looking around the half-empty sanctuary and asked themselves: “Why aren't there more people here? We are such a friendly group?”

The Gospel message is clear. The love and grace of God are offered to all of God's people. But even then we see the struggle to understand what that means. Even Jesus has to be taught about God's amazing welcome. It takes a foreign woman challenging his prejudices to show Jesus that, as an old hymn says, “the love of God is broader than the measures of the mind” (see Mark 7:24-30).

And still the world struggles. Every church I have attended has described themselves as warm and friendly. Every church wants to believe that all are welcome in their midst. But the reality people experience is far different. The story told earlier plays itself out over and over across this country. But God is still calling us to a new way.

God is calling the global community to be a place where all are welcome. All. Regardless of age, or physical/emotional/mental ability, or gender, or race, or social background, or economic status, or marital status, or sexual orientation, or any of the multitude of other ways we have of dividing people; despite all of that you are welcome in the Family of God.

This is the challenge for the world, to live out God's amazingly broad and open welcome. We will sometimes fall short. Sometimes we fall short intentionally, sometimes we don't even know it. If we are going to do better we need to be challenged. Otherwise we are as oblivious as the congregation in the story. What barricades do we put up that keep others out of our clubs, our businesses, our communities? How do we go about breaking them down?

Elsewhere in this newsletter are some words from our Affirming Task Group. They too are asking questions about who feels welcome in this place, about what it means to say that all are welcome to belong to this congregation. As Marty Haugen says in the opening of that same hymn: “Let us build a house where love can dwell and all can safely live”. We are called to be the church, the Body of Christ, the community of love. Welcoming is part of living out that call.

Looking Forward to January 31, 2021 -- 4th Sunday After Epiphany, Year B

 The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Jeremiah 1:1-10
• Isaiah 6:1-8

The Sermon title is I'm Not Worthy! 

Early Thoughts: Are you worthy? When God comes along and says "I have a job for you" do you think you are worthy?  Why did you answer the way you did? What might make you change your answer?

Isaiah and Jeremiah both thought they were not worthy, that they were the wrong choice. Isaiah because he was not pure enough to stand in the presence of God, Jeremiah because he was too young. In Luke's version of the calling of the four fishermen Peter's first response is "Go away...for I am a sinful man" (Luke 5:8). When Moses has his chat with the burning bush he is sure God made the wrong choice because Moses could not speak well (maybe he stuttered?). Scripture is full of people who feel unworthy of the trust God has placed in them. Looking back several centuries later what do we say about their worthiness?

There are, I suspect a number of reasons we think we are unworthy. But in the end it is not our call. The scandal of grace is that God declares all of us worthy. The God in whose image we are created sees us differently (both the positive and the negative) than we see ourselves. So when God comes calling what should we say?

I do note that God does not simply dismiss or ignore the objections Jeremiah and Isaiah raise. God takes transformative action to move them past those objections. [Interestingly in both cases it involves touching of the lips, a very intimate act.] How might God move us past our objections, our feelings of being unworthy?

Here, today, in 2021, in the middle of a pandemic God is reaching into the hearts of God's people and asking them to take on some task or another. God is asking us to share words of hope and challenge with the world around us. I will note that God does not promise either Jeremiah or Isaiah that the words God has for them to share will be popular or even that people will listen -- if anything the opposite is true. We can not assume people will like what God reveals to us about the world. Still we are challenged to proclaim.

What does God want us to say to the world in the face of COVID-19? In the face of economic inequality? In the face of the building climate crisis? What part of our lives make us specially suited to the task that God has asked us to do?

Our culture is good at telling us that we are not worthy, that we should not get 'uppity', that we should stick to our assigned lanes. God tends to tell us the opposite. God tells us we are worthy. God raises us up. God pushes us into another lane (or erases the lanes altogether?). God calls us to serve the causes of God's Reign. How will we respond? How is God making us ready to respond?
--Gord

Looking Forward to January 24, 2021 -- 3rd Sunday After Epiphany

 The Scripture Reading for this week is Mark 1:14-28

The Sermon title is The Adventure Begins...

Early Thoughts: Would you do it? What would make you jump up and join a new adventure without knowing where the path would lead?

I suspect that this is one of the stories of faith that is harmed by familiarity. It is a story that we hear every year. Those of us who grew up going to Sunday School likely heard it throughout our childhood. And we hear it as a nice story about people by the sea many centuries ago. Do we stop and ask about what it might mean for us today?

I am sitting and typing this on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I was just looking on Twitter and found the hashtag #RadicalKing. Dr. King has, in white Christian circles, largely been domesticated. We share the uplifting energizing quotes that are safer. We try to forget that Dr. King was denounced from many a pulpit. We try to forget that he was advocating for a whole-hearted changing of the ways within the United States. He challenged poverty and racism and militarism. He lived out of a vision of how the God revealed in Jesus Christ desired people to live together. He joined the adventure. I am sure there were days when he thought it might have been easier to remain a simple preacher in a neighbourhood church. But he joined on the adventure.

Right after the four fishers leave their nets and follow the adventure begins.  No period of training, no 'cooling off' period when they could reverse their decision, no gradual easing in to a new life, BANG things start to happen. Teaching happens, healing happens, confrontation with evil happens. Did the four know what they had gotten into? Did they wonder if this was a good choice?

We are invited to join in an adventure. Jesus meets us where we are, in the midst of our lives, and offers on opportunity to be part of the remaking of the world. It is not a choice to be made lightly. It is a choice that could change (probably should change) who we are and how we live forever. It may lead us to challenge various assumptions and attitudes and activities that the culture around us takes for granted. It may lead us to stand in the face of the storm and yell into the wind. It may lead us to name things as evil or wrong.

Following Christ on this adventure is about our whole lives. It can change how we interact with our neighbours, with our environment, with our economy. I can see lots of reasons why the rational choice would be to say "No thanks" and go back to mending our nets (or whatever the equivalent might be for us). Will we have the courage, the holy foolishness, the strange wisdom to jump in with both feet?
--Gord

Looking Forward to January 17, 2021 -- 2nd After Epiphany

The Scripture Reading for this week is 1 Samuel 3:1-20

The Sermon title is Who's There?

Early Thoughts: A voice calls in the night. And at first nobody, it seems, knows whose voice it is.

Eli is a leader in Israel. He has been entrusted with the care of the child Samuel, the miracle baby born to Hannah. Eli was a priest. Eli's sons were priests (though they have already strayed from the faithful past and are causing trouble in the land). But we are told that "the word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread". Has Eli lost touch, lost contact with the God he serves? Is that why it takes him so long to discern whose voice it is the Samuel is hearing?

We could stop this passage at the halfway point. We could stop reading at verse 11 where Samuel, now aware of whose voice he hears in the night, says "Speak, for your servant is listening". That is a great story. There is a great sermon in there, a chance to reflect on if the word of God is really rare or if there is just too much noise for us to hear/recognize the voice, or if we simply choose not too hear. There is a great sermon on pausing to listen and pushing ourselves to respond as Samuel does.   We could do that.

But then we miss half the story.

Having opened himself to listen to the word of God Samuel hears some hard words. His first task as a servant of God is to tell Eli (his teacher, mentor, caregiver) some hard truths, to essentially tell Eli that he has been fired, that he has lost favour with God. No wonder when Samuel gets up the next day he is afraid to tell Eli about the experience. (As I read the passage I get the sense that Samuel is trying to avoid the older man until Eli calls him directly).

Sometimes choosing to open our hearts and souls and ears to listen for God's word leads us into difficult territory. That may well be the sermon we need to hear, the sermon we need to share with each other. It is not enough to say "here I am". We need to be ready to follow through as well, even when the word we are called to share is more than sweetness and light. God does call us to remind each other that we are loved and that we are lovable. God also calls us to be accountable for our actions, God also calls us to hold our neighbours and or culture accountable for their actions (and attitudes and beliefs and priorities).

What hard words does God have for us to hear and share these days?

Samuel will grow into a great leader, a man close to God, a man who will anoint two kings of Israel. It starts because he is willing to speak into the darkness saying "Speak, for your servant is listening" and then is willing to share the words he heard. It starts because his mentor is willing to urge the student to do what is right. Sometimes we are Samuel, sometimes we are Eli. Are we willing to listen?
--Gord

Looking Forward to January 10, 2021 -- Baptism of Christ Sunday

Currently we have suspended in-person worship. Instead we invite you to join us for our live streamed worship on YouTube 

The Scripture Readings this Sunday are:

• Acts 19:1-7
• Mark 1:4-11

The Sermon title is By Water and the Spirit

Early Thoughts: John came to the Jordan and baptized. John's baptism is described as "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" and it appears that John is wildly popular. But John knows that someone else is coming...

In this passage from Acts we see some of the growth in understanding within the Early Christian Community. Some (it is plausible that the earlier teacher in this case was Apollos)  have been teaching a different version of the faith than Paul and others have been. Apollos, it seems, may have known much about Jesus but his understanding of Baptism was limited to John's baptism for repentance, a Baptism of water but not of the Spirit.

Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins is a good thing. The idea of repenting, of changing direction to go a new way is crucial to being a follower of Christ. The reminder of being forgiven (one old image is that the act of Baptism washes away those sins) is crucial to our ability to change direction. But, our faith story suggests, it is not enough. The water is an important symbol. The being washed over by and filled with the Holy Spirit is what transforms us.

That is what God invites us to in our baptism. We are named as God's beloved children. We are called and invited to join in the quest for the Reign of God. We are commissioned and empowered to be agents of God's Reign. Water by itself can't do all those things.

A large part of why we Protestants consider Baptism to be a sacrament is because Jesus was baptized and because the Risen Christ (at the end of Matthew's Gospel) command us to go out and Baptize. But for me Baptism is sacramental because something special and mysterious happens. Officiating at Baptisms is one of my favorite tasks in ministry. Something happens that makes me feel God's presence in a different way as I hold that child and put the water on the head and say the words. As I bless the child with words like "the power of the Holy Spirit work within you, that being born of water and the Spirit, you may be a faithful witness of Jesus Christ" there is a holy space created. Baptism matters.

We are called to be a baptized and baptizing church. We are called to share the water and the Spirit for the growing of God's Reign. Baptism in water and the Spirit is not [just] about repentance for the forgiveness of sins, it is about being transformed. The power of Baptism is in that transformation, a transformation that grows and develops throughout our life of faith.

God calls/invites/challenges us to be transformed by the washing over of the Holy Spirit. Will we accept?
--Gord