Looking Ahead to October 31, 2021 -- Reformation Sunday, 23rd After Pentecost, Proper 26B

 Following worship this Sunday we will be having our Congregational Update. Folks attending in person are asked to remain for this, those joining us on YouTube will be invited to watch for us to go live again shortly after the worship closes (we will end the worship stream right after the Postlude and then start a new stream as the Update begins).

As this Sunday is also All Hallow's Eve, we invite  people to attend worship --in person or online-- in costume.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Deuteronomy 6:1-9
• Mark 12:28-34

The Sermon title is What is Our Why?

Early Thoughts: Earlier this year I took an online course looking at what it means to be a hybrid (online and in person) community of faith. In the first session we talked a lot about the importance of knowing our why.Why are we doing what we are doing? I find that in the church we are good at discussing the "what will we do and the "how will we do it" but not always as careful about discussing the "why are we doing this?".

In organizational theory it is suggested that every organization has a base "Why", a base reason for their existence. To be true to that why everything the organization does needs to tie back to the reason for the organization to exist. This is equally true for the church. We have  a base reason to exist, we have a foundation that undergirds (in theory at least) everything that we do. If you are building a structure, to improve stability every part of the structure needs to be connected in some way to the foundation. Same thing for an organization. We are stronger and more stable if everything we do is connected to our foundational reason for existence.

Generally in organizations this foundation is referred to as our mission and vision statements. It is worthwhile asking of all our activities (the ones we have been doing 'forever' and the new ones that get proposed) how they interact with our mission and vision.

Another aspect of being clear about who you are and why you exist is that of stewardship. People support organizations that are clear about why they exist and are visibly true to that vision and mission, whose activities make a difference in the world.

So what is our why as a congregation of the United Church of Canada in Grande Prairie in 2021?

I believe we find hints and guides to our why in a variety of places. The Scripture passages we are reading this week speak to the foundation of what it means to follow The Way of Christ. Love God with your whole heart. Love your neighbour as you love yourself. Put these two things first and foremost and let them guide everything else you do. That is foundational. That is the footing, the rock, the cornerstone.

Another place I look is in the documents of our tradition. Within the United Church tradition (in A New Creed) we find this paragraph that helps gives us our raison d'etre:

We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.

So that is another layer, some more detail to our why, some more description of what we are all about. This is what we have stated God is calling us to do and be.

Providentially (and honestly I had no idea this was going to happen as a planned this sermon topic a month ago) at a meeting on October 23rd the Annual Recall meeting of the 43rd General Council approved new vision and mission statements for the denomination as a whole. Here is what they have to say:

Vision

Mission

 

 These are not necessarily binding on us a congregation but we are encouraged to hold them in view as we discern how exactly God is calling us to be the church in these days.

 

 What do these words conjure up for you? I am still processing that question for myself.

How might it shape our understanding of being a church to use words like these as lenses as we determine what we will and won't do?

As a congregation we have our own mission and vision statements. The mission statement is in a photo up above. I encourage all of us to keep our "Why" in sight. I encourage us to constantly consider if/how a proposed activity fits in with that Why. And if an activity does not seem to fit what do we do then?

If St. Paul's chooses to become an Affirming Congregation within the United Church of Canada we will need to create new Mission and Vision statements that explicitly name our commitment to inclusion. That process will help us discern our Why. It will help us discover what we set as our foundation.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 24, 2021 -- 22nd Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 25B

The Scripture Reading this week is Mark 10:46-52

The Sermon title is The Squeaky Wheel

Early Thoughts: Does it always get the grease? Would Bartimaeus have been healed had he sat quietly by the road (as it appears some people wanted him to do)?

And what about the people who cry out for help but do not get healed?

The healing stories of Jesus bring out so many questions.

It is undeniable that the Gospels reflect that Jesus was a healer. All four Gospels attest to a lived experience of a man  who healed people of various infirmities, of one who revealed God's power to bring health and wholeness to life (and that in abundance). These stories are a challenge for our scientifically minded world. They seem to fly in the face of what we know about medicine. What do we do with them?

I am going to suggest that we simply accept them for what they are. I suggest we don't get into deep debates about 'what really happened'. I suggest that those debates deflect us from the witness to God present in their beloved world, present in the lives of God's beloved children, offered by the story

So what do we do with Bartimaeus? One of the pieces I take from this story is that Bartimaeus would NOT have been healed had he simply sat quietly by the side of the road. He had to make a scene, had to make his presence and need known for the miracle to happen. The fact that he is willing to do this makes people uncomfortable. The text tells us that some people told him to be quiet. Bartimaeus will not be silenced. He claims his place, speaks his need, and gets noticed. How can Jesus meet a need that Jesus does not know exists?

Sometimes the squeaky wheel does indeed get the grease.

I suggest that we still do not know how best to handle asking for help. Some of us are uncomfortable doing the asking (and then some within that group complain that nobody offers them help). Some of us are uncomfortable with people naming their broken-ness or their need, we sometimes would be like the people in our story who tell Bartimaeus to be quiet. But how can we help people when we don't know they want help?

We need to make room for squeaky wheels in our lives. Sometimes we also need to listen carefully to pick out the reason for the squeakiness. Sometimes we ourselves may need to be the ones doing the squeaking -- either on our own behalf or to magnify the squeakiness of one of our neighbours.

None of this hides the fact that sometimes the squeaky wheel does not get the grease, or gets  grease that is not helpful. Some people who sit by our roadsides and cry out for help are unheard, or ignored, or simply cast aside. Some people seek healing and do not find a cure for their ailment. 

But if we never ask, we may never find out what the results of asking would be. If we don't give people a chance to ask, to name their need, we never know what the possibilities are.

Where do you hear squeaks in your life? In your circles? In your world? How will you respond?
--Gord

Looking Forward to October 17, 2021 -- 21st Sunday After Pentecost Proper 24B

 This Sunday is also World Food Day. We will be discussing that during the Time for the Young at Heart.

The Scripture Reading this week is Mark 10:35-45

The Sermon title is Power Play

Early Thoughts Over the last few months we have heard a lot of discussion about power and authority, compliance and resistance. And as is often the case I am not sure we understand what power and authority are really about.

Vaccine mandates (or lack there of), mask requirements, limitations on social activities. Do we abide by them? Do we advocate for them to be put into place and enforced? Do we protest them and refuse to comply? What is the appropriate response to power as followers of Christ?

First we need to ask where power and authority come from. And we need to ask if it is justified. We need to consider the end goals -- are they to have power over and exert control or are they to build up a safe community for all members?

Power in the Kingdom of God is different. It is not based on power over or special status. It is based on servanthood.  That is what James and John, and the rest of the crowd, get wrong. James and John think they can ask for special status, status that puts them in the places of importance, status that will give them some form of authority. To be fair, the rest of the disciples have the same understanding of that status -- why else would they be indignant that James and John had the gall to ask. But Jesus gently chastises them as he points out that power and authority in the Kingdom of God, that land of Shalom, the world of Harmony are very different.

To this day I think we get power and authority wrong. We still tend grant it based on things other than servanthood and the building up of a safe community. Sometimes we give someone power because they say they will make things better for people like us, or because they promise to control the troublemakers, or because their biases are the same as ours, or because they promise us freedom. Christ still calls us to see power in terms of serving and loving. Christ still calls us to recognize that the las will be first, and the first last, and that to lead is to serve.

Will we be like James and John? Will we seek special status?

Will we refuse to comply or balk at rules set out to build a safe community because they are inconvenient or they seem to rob us of some sort of freedom? DO our needs and beliefs trump the needs of our neighbours?

OR will we seek power that comes from putting others first, power based on servanthood, power that does not seek to control the other?
--Gord

AS a side note, did you know that they motto of the Prince of Wales, Ich Dien, means I serve?

Looking Ahead to October 10, 2021 -- Thanksgiving Sunday

 The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Psalm 126
• Matthew 6:19-34

The Sermon title is What, Me Worry?

Early Thoughts: I am a worrier. I have been a worrier for as long as I can remember. I can always find something to worry about in any situation. I might call it my superpower except...well it doesn't seem like much of a power.

So what do I do with a Jesus who tells me not to worry?

Certainly I have been blessed enough that my worries have never been about where my next meal will come from, or next month's rent, or having nothing to wear. But still I am a worrier. I can always see the worst possible outcome (even if I know that said outcome is not very likely) and worry about it. While I can often make myself see the positive possibilities I naturally find the catastrophic possibilities.

So what do I do with a Jesus who tells me not to worry?

This is a bit of an odd choice for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate the gifts we have been given. Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate that harvest has been safely gathered in (and with a mix of rain and snow in the forecast for this week I do hope many of the fields have been taken in by now). Why would we talk about worries? The Psalm reading makes much more sense for Thanksgiving than a passage with warnings about storing up treasures, and watching where our heart lies, and worrying too much. [As a side note, on this week when we read the psalm which includes verse 6 about coming home joyfully carrying the sheaves we are indeed going to sing Bringing in the Sheaves]

Then again, what keeps us from being thankful? One thing is when we are feeling threatened, that we don't have enough, that we are not safe, that we have to store us extra "just in case". Worry keeps us from being thankful. Worry can keep us from seeing what we have to be thankful for. (Side note, I wonder if this is why I have such trouble when I try to post one note of gratitude every day in October -- apart from my remembering to do it that is.)

SO what do we do with our worry?

Is this a matter of trust? Our United Church Creed has the line "We Trust in God" at almost the exact center of the poem. I wrote about that last week. If we are able to trust, to life in trust does that take away some of our worry? Jesus seems to suggest that it does in these verses from Matthew's Gospel.

Is this a matter of redefining "enough"? Do we need to see what we have with eyes that see abundance and not listen to the voice yelling about scarcity? I think that is a big thing. It is one reason why probably my favourite song from the movie White Christmas is "Count Your Blessings". I have been pondering how verse 22 of the Matthew passage might tie in to the rest of the passage for a Thanksgiving sermon. Maybe this is how. What we see shapes what we believe (and vice versa). What we see shapes how we act. We need to see the world differently if we want to cut down on our worrying.

Is it a matter of changing where we look? I have a hunch that for myself a good way to cut back on my worry is to stop following media (especially social media) too closely. Taking a pause to walk the labyrinth, or wander through Muskoseepi, or simply to pray or meditate, might be a real antidote to increasing worry and anxiety. They are things that change the focus, that push me into a different mindset. Maybe that is part of the equation?

There is a lot to worry about in this life. Over 18 months into a pandemic many of us have found our worry and anxiety steadily increasing for a long time now. But still Jesus encourages us not to worry. I really think that less worry and anxiety in life is the healthier choice.

If only I could know how exactly to get there...
--Gord