Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Grant Us Wisdom

 Long haul or short term gain? Who benefits and who loses?

These are two of the key questions I try to hold in my heart and head when we go into an election campaign. And this fall we are in two election campaigns at once! Certainly there are different questions to be asked in a federal election than in a municipal election but those two at the start of this column hold true for both. And unfortunately I am not sure the answers are always clear. Which is why I pray for wisdom to discern the best way forward.

In the Biblical book of 1 Kings Solomon succeeds his father David as king of Israel. In a dream Solomon is asked what gift he would ask God to give him. Solomon chooses to ask for “an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil”. God promises to grant this gift, and in tradition Solomon is counted as a paragon of wisdom ever since then. In our world, where we help select those representatives who make decisions on our behalf we still need that gift of wisdom and discernment, even as we hope that the people we elect have that gift as well.

As we enter this election season I think we need to stop and listen. Not to the candidates (that is a later step). We need to stop and listen to the world around us. Where is there groaning and wailing in the world? Who and what is crying out for relief, for change, for comfort and healing? I firmly believe that when we listen for these things we open a window where God’s voice can speak to us. God has long spoken to God’s people calling for a new world, calling for a better world, calling for relief for those parts of God’s world which are struggling. We need the wisdom to sort out the various noises in our world to help us discern the best way forward.

What do I hear when I pause to listen? What might help guide me in this election cycle? I hear groanings of the earth itself in regards to climate change. What is the wisest way to deal with that reality? I hear the cries of the people at the bottom of our economic and social pyramids. What wisdom might help us create a world where all have what they need to meet basic needs, where poverty is left behind? I hear the moans of people tired of dealing with an ongoing pandemic. What is the path through to the end of the pandemic? What path do we follow to restart and rebuild afterward? I hear God whispering to me that some things have come to an end, that some things (maybe things I love, maybe things that make my life easier) have to be dropped so new things can be started.

The path of wisdom might be found in political platforms. Or it might not be. There is no political platform on the face of the earth that matches the Kingdom of God. As we listen, and reflect, and pray, and discern we may make different choices. On September 20th, and on October 18th, people of sincere faith will vote for different parties, different visions, different individuals. There is wisdom and foolishness on all sides of our politics. Anyone who tells you different is playing fast and loose with their definitions. Still our task is to look beyond the rhetoric, beyond the promises and look for the wisdom and the vision and the hope.

I asked two questions as I started this column. I want to push myself to consider them as I seek wisdom through these next weeks. When I listen for the voice of wisdom calling in the streets I am forced to admit that we are too good at thinking of short term benefits and not a long term plan. I am equally sure that we have become really good at asking “how do I benefit” and not “what is best for all of us”. I am sure God calls us to look at the long term, to look at how we can lift everyone up. The whispers I hear in my soul tell me that God wants us to think beyond the next election cycle, or beyond our own lifetimes, or beyond our individual bank accounts.

The world is in a difficult place. To move forward we have to listen to the needs of the world and discern a path forward that takes those needs seriously. I close with one of my prayers, taken from a hymn by HenryFosdick: “Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the living of these days”

Monday, August 30, 2021

Looking Forward to September 5, 2021 -- 15th Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 18B

 This being the first Sunday of September we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Communion. If you are joining us online via YouTube you are invited to have bread and juice/wine ready so we can all eat and drink together.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

  • James 2:1-9, 14-17
  • Mark 7:24-30

The Sermon title is ALL Our Neighbours

Early Thoughts: In one of the best known stories from the Gospel of Luke Jesus is asked what is most important. He replies that loving God and loving your neighbour are the most important things to do. The lawyer, wanting to justify himself we are told, then asks "who is my neighbour?", which prompts Jesus to tell the parable of the good Samaritan.

All these years later I think we still ask the same question -- and we still hope to get an answer that makes us more comfortable than what Jesus seems to suggest. Then again, it appears even Jesus needed to have his definitions stretched.

When do we show favoritism? When are we partial to those we deem more acceptable or worthy of our attention? Are we always aware of it? Are there times when our definition of Neighbour is more limited than we would like to admit?

I suspect there are times when we show partiality, when we play favorites, when we limit our understanding of "who is my neighbour". I also suspect much of that we do unconsciously, that it is just a part of how we have been socialized and taught.

Which brings me to this wonderful story of Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman. She asks for help, not for her but for her daughter. Jesus says she is not the sort of person he was called to help. He likens it to giving the food meant for the children to the dogs (a little insulting and offensive there my friend). But she does not relent. She changes Jesus' mind and he offers healing to her daughter.

This can be a challenging story. Are we really ready to see a Jesus who shows such obvious favoritism based not on need but on ethnicity? (For the record in Matthew's telling of this story the ethnic favoritism is even more explicit -- Matthew 15:21-28)

Or more positively... are we prepared to see that Jesus, the Word-Made-Flesh, God wearing a human form, is so fully human that he carries the prejudices and biases he learned as a child and the ability to grow beyond them?

WE are called to love, to act lovingly (treat love as a verb, not as a feeling when thinking about the Great Commandment), our neighbour. ALL our neighbours. The ones like us, the ones we like, the ones we think worthy AND the ones who are different, the ones of whom we disapprove, the ones we would rather went somewhere else. The good news is that we can be challenged on our definitions and understandings and grow beyond them.

James reminds us that our faith, our words, our statements of love need to issue in action. Let us all re-learn how to love our neighbours without favoritism or partiality. Let our faith remain lively and active.
--Gord

Monday, August 23, 2021

Looking Ahead to August 29, 2021 --14th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 17B

 The Scripture Readings for this week are:

  • Psalm 15
  • James 1:17-27
  • Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

The Sermon title is Integrity

Early Thoughts: A long standing argument/excuse for not going to church is that the people who go there are hypocrites. A long standing condemnation of politicians (particularly during election campaigns) is that you can not believe anything they say or promise.

And if we are honest those become long standing because they carry a fair bit of truth to them.

The psalmist speaks of a vision of what makes people blameless before God. James encourages us to make our actions match our words. Jesus reminds us that it is what is in our heart that is most important, that what is in our heart flows out of us. In the end I think there is a call to integrity here. There is a call to be true to who we are created to be -- even if it may be inconvenient or uncomfortable at times.

Our words matter.  Our words matter deeply. Our actions matter deeply too. All too often our words and our actions do not match up. We talk a good line but shy away when the rubber starts to hit the road. We have grand dreams but find it hard to translate those dreams into reality. Or maybe we have an inclination toward one thing but we have deeply ingrained beliefs and habits that lead us in a different direction. In all cases the end result calls our integrity into question.

God calls us to a life of integrity. God calls us to grow into people who not only hear the word but have it shape our actions. God calls us to pay attention to both our words and our actions. May God help us live into that call.
--Gord

Monday, August 16, 2021

Death Throes or Birth Pangs? (A Piece for the Newspaper)

Stop for a moment and listen carefully. Do you hear the groans of the world? Do you hear it crying out in pain? Look around. Can you see places where ‘normal’ is no being called no longer useful? Can you see places where the fabric of our lives appears to be torn to shreds? What do we make of the groans, the cries of pain, the challenges to what is normal, this shredding of the comfortable? Are they death throes or birth pangs?

This summer I read a wonderful little book called Virus as a Summons to Faith by Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann. Published last year, the book is collection of 7 reflections on passages of Scripture in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The last two reflections are about change and God’s new thing. Both Jewish and Christian Scripture reminds us that God is in the process (constantly I think) of doing a new thing. The God who created the world is constantly at work creating and re-creating the world. Sometimes that fact brings hope and joy. Sometimes it brings fear and pain. Every time something new is born something old dies, at least a little bit. As Revelation proclaims “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away”. When God does a new thing there are great gains, there may also be great losses.

As I look at the world I see and hear so many signs and sounds that the world is groaning, calling out for liberation from the chains of our normal. The very earth is groaning with the reality of climate change. Our Indigenous neighbours and siblings are crying out for truth-telling, recognition, and reconciliation. The pandemic of the last 18 months has exposed flaws in our economic models, flaws in what we assume to be the most ‘profitable’ way to live together. As a person of faith I believe that God is speaking in, and listening to, these groans and cries. I believe that God is doing what God has always done – working to bring liberation and justice to the world. I wonder what things will look like when God is finished? I wonder what it will be like to live through it?

Woody Allen is reported to have said “I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens.”. A variation on the same idea is to not be afraid of death, but not wanting to go through the process of dying. Often I think the same holds true for any great change in our lives. We may have great hope and vision for the end result. But there is a part of us that does not want to go through the hard work of transition. It would be much nicer if there was just some big switch we could turn and get tot he end result without the pain and struggle. Alas, that is not how life works. Even when it is God leading the charge for change it is a slow process with struggle and loss and pain involved. Remember, the people of Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years before they crossed into the Promised Land.

As a species, as a culture, we can be very good at turning a deaf ear to the groans. We can deny there is any problem. We can build walls to defend the normal and the comfortable. We might do this on a personal level. We might do it on a communal level. We might in fact do both of those. But the groans don’t go away. Eventually we have to listen to them, as God is already listening. Eventually we have to embrace the possibility of loss for the promise of a greater gain.

Both the prophet Isaiah and the apostle Paul used the image of a woman in labour to talk about the work God is doing to re-create and renew the world. Childbirth is accomplished with a lot of discomfort, to say the least. Sometimes (often?) the pains of childbirth are described as the worst pain the person has ever endured. Bringing forth new life is not easy, sometimes it is downright difficult and dangerous. But the pain is endured because of the promise of new life that lies beyond. Heck, many mothers even choose to go through it more than once!

How will we respond to the groaning of the world? Will we risk, or even embrace, the possibility that some things we have held dear will die so that something new will be born? Will we dare to feel both the death throes and the birth pangs as God brings re-creation and renewal to the world?

Looking Ahead to August 22, 2021 -- 13th Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 16B

 The Scripture Reading for this week is Ephesians 6:10-20

The Sermon title is Suit Up!

Image Source

Early Thoughts:
How we dress makes a difference. It can change how we carry ourselves, how we interact with the world, maybe even how we see ourselves.

How might we change if we saw ourselves as wearing the Full Armor of God?

It is an interesting metaphor Paul uses here. In Paul's day, and for much of the first couple of centuries of the Christian church, being a part of the military was seen as incompatible with being part of the Christian community. And yet Paul uses a very military-based image in these verses.

Armor can be seen both as offensive or as defensive. One can suit up to get ready to go out and attack. Or one can suit up to have some protection from the slings and arrows of everyday life. Which is Paul suggesting here?

I think it is a bit of both. Paul is encouraging folk to be on the offensive, to speak words of hope and faith into a world that so often works against faith and hope, that so often stands in opposition to Gospel values. We still need that encouragement. We are called not just to be people of faith but to act out of that faith to bring change to the world. And the world still often stands in direct opposition to Gospel values. The Armor of God, empowers us to share the words of faith, hope, truth, and wisdom.

At the same time the Armor is defensive. It reminds us who we are and who we are called to be. It reminds us that we are not alone. It reminds us that we are loved and cared for. So when the world strikes back, when the world fights back against the vision of the Reign of God that we share, we have some protection from those slings and arrows.

Admittedly there are days when it feels like pretty porous protection. A lot of those arrows and barbs seem to slip through. I would argue that the armor has to remain pretty porous so that we remain empathetic and caring rather than get hardened to the realities of the world around us. I suggest that sometimes we need to get wounded if we are to model the Reign of Love in a world ruled be the violence of the sword. Maybe we need a follow up about the medical supplies of God to deal with the wounds incurred once we take up the armor of God?

As I said above, what we wear helps to shape how we are and who we are in the world. Often we are not even conscious of that effect. If we saw ourselves wearing the Armor of God, marked with things like truth and faith and peace and righteousness (as in being right with God, otherwise being "righteous" has a bit of a shadow to it) might that empower us to go out and be who GOd has called, formed, created us to be?
--Gord