Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Looking Ahead to April 4, 2021 -- Easter Sunday

We are still holding worship in virtual space only for another couple of weeks at least (Council will re-evaluate at our meeting on April 19).  You can join us on our You Tube Channel.


This year, as Easter Sunday is also the first Sunday of the month, we will be celebrating Communion as part of the service. You are invited to have bread and juice (or something similar) available so we can eat and drink together.

The Scripture Readings for this Easter Sunday are:

  • Isaiah 25:6-9 
  • John 20:1-18

The Sermon title is Why Are You Weeping?

Early Thoughts: At first glance it seems like a ridiculous question. A woman is standing by a tomb and weeping -- why do think she is weeping!?! But just maybe it is in fact the question we really need to open our souls for the Good News of resurrection.

Maybe, in fact, Jesus is simply meeting Mary where she is at, opening the door for here to express her grief. Maybe until she does that she will not be able to see the reality of Resurrection -- even though it is standing right in front of her. [As a side note maybe this also explains the strange question Jesus asks of the travelers along the Emmaus Road in Luke 24:17] And maybe that is true for us as well. Maybe we can not see the transformation happening in front of us until we have been given the chance to name our grief and our trauma and our fear. New life means death. Resurrection means death first and life after. When we want to jump right to the new life, to new hope without naming the reality of death we might never fully live into the transformation.

So why are you weeping this Easter? What grief and trauma has the world brought you? Can you name that for yourself? Can you give room for others to name their griefs and traumas even as we look for the joy that comes with the dawn, with the rising of the Son?

Once Mary has named her grief and her fear Jesus, the Risen Christ, calls her by name. Only then does Mary see what has happened.  Only then can she recognize the New Life of Resurrection. In many of our Ester stories people have trouble recognizing the Risen Christ for who he is. But when they are made ready their eyes (and souls) are opened and transformation occurs. What will be our moment of being called by name? What will lead us to recognize the Resurrected One in our midst?

Maybe when we do that, when we recognize the Resurrected One, when we too have been transformed, we enter into the time of celebration described in this passage from Isaiah. The shroud will be torn. Death will be destroyed. The tears will be wiped from the faces. And the feast will begin.

But first we may need to weep, and name why we are weeping.
--Gord

Monday, March 29, 2021

Looking Ahead to April 2, 2021 -- Good Friday


Our Good Friday service this year will be live streamed on our You Tube channel at 7:00

The Scripture for this service will be the Passion Story as told in John 18:28-19:37

The Sermon title is So You Are a King?

Early Thoughts:  Good Friday is always a bit of a conundrum. Do we simply tell the story and let it be? Do we try to do some sort of annotated telling of the story and touch on all the parts? How do you preach the Passion narrative?

My approach has been to ask what jumps out of the story in any particular year and focus on that part of the story. Other parts of the story can be explored in other years.

The piece about John's account of the Passion that has always  caught my attention is the discussion between Jesus and Pilate. It has a note of philosophy about it as they discuss kingship and truth and authority. And that is how it raises up the different worldviews we see in the Passion narrative. 

Jesus is not a king as Pilate and the Jewish leadership use the word in this story. Despite what Jesus says, Pilate has authority (in his worldview) that allows him to pronounce life or death over Jesus of Nazareth. And, as Pilate notes, truth is a bit of a fuzzy idea at times -- or as Andrew Lloyd Webber has Pilate say:

What is truth?
Is truth unchanging law?
We both have truths
Are mine the same as yours? [Source]

At the same time....
Jesus is a king. Authority belongs to God. Truth is a real thing, something Jesus calls people to see, something God calls people to live by. How we see the world greatly impacts the way we live in the world.

What kind of king gets enthroned on a cross? What kind of coronation procession is accompanied by jeers and taunts? What kind of power or authority exists in the sight of a broken beaten man?

A few days ago one crowd cheered and celebrated as Jesus came into the city. Now another crowd calls for his death. Does that mean that people are fickle? Possibly, there may be some overlap between the two crowds. But I think it points to the clash that happens when "the way the world is" is challenged by "the way the world could be". Which viewpoint will we choose?

Is Jesus the king we have been looking for? Who has real authority? What truth guides our lives?
--Gord

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

In life, in Death, In Life Beyond Death... (Newsletter Piece)


We have come to the pinnacle of the Christian Year. This is the time when we tell again the story that lies at the center of what it means to be Christian. Easter, the story of the world’s powers doing their best to shut down the hope and the story of a God who still plays the trump card. It is a story of hope beyond hope, of life beyond death. It is a time to remember that somehow life still wins.

There is a mystery at the heart of Christian faith. There is an unanswerable question. How, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, can we proclaim that life wins? After all, everything we see tells us that death is the final step in our lives. But faith tells us there is something more. Faith tells us of the God who shatters the power of death – as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”. Faith tells us of the God who prepares a place for us. Faith promises us that there is life, and death, and life beyond death.

Followers of Jesus have been trying to understand what life beyond death might mean since the first reports of a stone being rolled away and an empty tomb. Almost 2000 years later we continue to ponder what it means. We continue to try to trust in the reality of that promise. We continue to ask ‘but what will it be like?” and have discussions about whether our hearing will return or what our bodies will look like,

When I ponder questions like these my mind is almost always drawn to 1 Corinthians 15. There is so much in that chapter of Paul trying to process and explain the Resurrection of Christ and what it means for us. Some year I might take the whole 7 weeks of the Easter Season and preach through that chapter. As I re-read it today I was drawn particularly to some verses near the end:

51Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

For Paul, the resurrection of Christ was the first fruits, it pointed to a more general resurrection that was to come. The resurrection of Christ showed that God had more power than death. It showed that God was in the business of life.

Our hope is in the promise that life wins. Somehow, even if it does not seem to make sense, life will always win in the end. If it looks like the end and life has not yet won then it must not be the end.

Consider our Core Christian story. On Friday and Saturday it sure looks like the great Messianic experiment has come crashing to a tragic end. Jesus is dead and buried. The powers of death have won. But again – if it looks like the end and life has not yet won then it must not be the end. Sunday morning comes and we hear the words “why do you look for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5). The story continues with the promise of life. It is the promise of life, the reality of life, the encounter with life that opens the grave and rolls the stone away, that gives us the hope and strength to keep calm and carry on.

There has been a lot of grief this past year of pandemic. There have been lots of deaths – some small, some large. At various points in the year it has seemed easy to lose hope, to give up, to believe that death was winning. But we are called to be people of hope. We are children of God who is “God not of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 20:38). Life still wins. Life finds a way to fight back. There is sure to be grief and struggle along the way, just as there has been thus far but beyond the grief and the pain and the struggle and the deaths (big and small) there is life.

God is with us in life, and in death and in life beyond death. Yes there is life beyond death. That is our promise. We don’t know a lot more than that, maybe we know nothing more than that. But we are people of life. Easter reminds us of that every single year.

Life wins. In the end life will win. Thanks be to God!

Blessed Easter friends,
Gord

Monday, March 22, 2021

Looking Ahead to March 28, 2021 -- Palm Sunday


This week is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. We have once again reached the pinnacle of the church year.

The Scripture Reading for this week is John 12:12-19.

The Sermon title is Clouded Triumph.

Early Thoughts: It s a moment of great joy.  Jesus enters the City with great acclaim.  But at the same time, in the background, there is a scheme hatching. Despite what I remember being taught as a child, Palm Sunday is not only a day of great joy.  It starts a week with one crowd cheering, a week that will later have another crowd jeering.

As John built his Gospel Jesus enters Jerusalem right after the raising of Lazarus. In John's Gospel the raising of Lazarus is the thing that puts the plot to get rid of Jesus into high gear. Keep that in mind as you read verses 17-19. I see fear and jealousy there. I see people who are running out of options as they want to maintain the status quo. Jesus consistently threatens the status quo.

In the next few verses Jesus will talk about a seed that has to die to bear much fruit. Jesus will talk again about hating life to gain life and loving life to lose it.  Jesus not only upsets the status quo, sometimes he upsets basic common sense!

The next week in the life of faith takes us from excitement to confusion, to fear and despair, and then -- when all seems lost -- to hope beyond all hope. This Sunday we may wave the branches high and shout and celebrate. But even as we do that forces are moving and gathering. A cloud is poised to cover the sun.  But clouds are transitory, the Son remains.

--Gord

Monday, March 15, 2021

Looking Ahead to March 21, 2021 -- Lent 5B

 The Scripture Readings this week are: 

  • Jeremiah 31:33-34
  • John 12:20-26


The Sermon title is Heartscript for New Life

 Early Thoughts: In just a few weeks many of us will be planting seeds and seedlings in the hope of abundant flowers and produce. In fact, I hear that already seeds and garden supplies are selling fast as more people turn back to gardening -- possibly as a result of the pandemic changing our life patterns. Seems like a good week to talk about seeds...

What is our hope for the future? What allows us to take risks (that may well terrify us) as we live into the future?

Maybe the love that is written on our hearts, woven into the very fabric of our beings? Maybe the promise that transformation awaits beyond the risk, even if there is pain and loss in the process?

The words of Scripture echo through the centuries. Once they were spoken to specific people in a specific circumstance. We are not those people, we are not in that circumstance, but they continue to speak to us here and now in our context. We are not the people of Jerusalem about to be hauled off in captivity. But the words of hope that Jeremiah shares about the future still ring true for us. We have not yet reached that point where the law and promise and love of God are so much a part of our being that they no longer need to be taught. But our hope is for that day. We are not standing with the crowds listening to Jesus give what will turn out to be his last public discourse before the crucifixion (the Farewell Discourse that happens later in the Gospel is given only to the inner circle). But we know that fear of change and death, we still need to hear that promise of abundant life that lies beyond the change.


God is still at work in our midst. God is still writing the law of love on our hearts and reminding us that we are loved and forgiven. God is still inviting us to follow the sacrificial way of Christ. God is still promising transformation that leads to abundant life. God is still working for the benefit of the whole world, not just an in-crowd. 

As we move in the direction of transformed lives, what needs to die so that new life can spring from the ground?
--Gord

(Pictures are quilted panels made by a member of Riverview United Church in Atikokan)

Monday, March 8, 2021

Looking Ahead to March 14, 2021 -- Lent 4B, PIE Day

 This week we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Communion. We will also be marking PIE Day

What is PIE Day? You may ask....
For a long time March 14 has been known as Pi day, after the Greek letter π that also stands for an irrational number which begins 3.14. If you remember your high school math you might remember that π is used to calculate the circumference and area of a circle. It was a bit of a math joke (and who does not like math jokes). In the church a more recent usage has been to use the fact that Pi is a homophone of Pie and use the day as a part of how we live as Affirming Ministries. In this usage PIE becomes an acronym that stands for Public Intentional Explicit. It is a day for us to make public and explicit our intention that LGBTQ+ folk are full members of our community, a day for us to ask ourselves what we mean by that and how we live it out, and a day where we challenge ourselves to improve on that in the future.

The Scripture Readings for this week are:

  • Matthew 5:14-16
  • John 3:14-21

The Sermon title is π PIE Love, π PIE Light

We will also hear a message from Shylo Rosborough on the difference between Welcoming vs. Affirming

Early Thoughts: We are called to be irrational at times. Following Christ, living as citizens of the Kingdom of God is sometimes an invitation to behave in ways that tradition and culture name as irrational. (Or maybe tradition and culture are the irrational ones??)

SO far I have a couple of strands...

The light set up high, the city on a hill, speaks strongly to the idea of PIE. As followers of Christ we are called to be forthright about who we are. We are called to share our understanding of God's vision for the world boldly and openly. I think we often fail at this. When our vision differs from the norm, where we feel to share it boldly might make us a target of some kind, it is often easier to be quiet about it, to assume if people really want to know where we stand they will come and ask us.What light are we keeping hidden? If we are truly intending to make LGBTQ+ folk full members of our community (not just welcomed but full active members) how will anyone know if we don't proclaim that intention openly? Sometimes we might set the wick poorly and our light will falter. Sometimes the construction work being done to build the city will look a little rough until it is finished. But we are still called to be there, open and forthright about our understanding of God's vision for the world.

And then there is John. This passage contains one of the best known verses in all Scripture: "For God so loved the world...". This verse always reminds us that God loves the world, not part of the world, the whole world. Sometimes we humans forget the whole world part. Sometimes we think God loves the parts of the world we love more than the parts of the world we dislike. But God loves the world, and God calls us to love the world as we have already been loved. This is our challenge. In the very next verse Jesus proclaims that the Son does not come to condemn the world. For centuries Christians have been really good in condemning others in the name of the Son. Maybe in our adoration of John 3:16 we have forgotten to read 3:17? Maybe the path to following Jesus involves a whole lot less condemnation and judging and a whole lot more love? Let us pour that into our lamp, let us use love as we build the city.

--Gord