The Scripture Readings this week are:
- Zechariah 8:1-8
- Psalm 95:1-7
- Luke 7:24-35
The Sermon title is Celebrate Renewal!
Early Thoughts: What is being renewed in the world today? What is being restored? Does it make you want to celebrate?
In this Zechariah passage the prophet is sharing a word of hope. The hope is that restoration is possible, indeed that it will actually happen. The Psalm reminds us that God is in charge, that (as another Psalm puts it) "the Earth is the Lord's and the Fulness thereof" (Ps 24:1, KJV). The Luke passage challenges expectations about how God is at work in the world.
Sometimes when God is at work renewing and restoring things it is hard to recognize what is happening. Often, I suspect, that is because we are not seeing what we expect to see (or what we want to see) in that work of restoration and renewal.
What restoration and renewal do we need in the world as we approach 2 years of COVID-tide? What restoration and renewal do we need in a country that seems so deeply divided, as the recent events in Ottawa have revealed? Where do we see God at work restoring and renewing the world around us?
When the people returned from exile and looked for restoration and renewal they had a shock. It was not what it had been before. It was not as easy as it had been hoped.
Jesus points out that John the Baptist was different from the normal power brokers in that place and time. Jesus points out that while people complained about John's asceticism they now complain that Jesus is not ascetic enough. Both Jesus and John were part of God's work of renewal in the world.
In our faith story God invites us to be transformed. In that transformation we will find renewal. We may find some things built new, we may find some things to be restored, we may find that some things can not be totally restored but that the new build still has aspects of what once was. I believe that is how restoration and renewal are meant to work as we live in to the Reign of God. It is in touch and continuity with what has come before. It is also a new heaven and a new earth.
AS we come out of COVID-tide we seek to be renewed. We may seek to go 'back to normal'. I suggest that as people of faith we are called to look for what God is doing in the world. We are called to ask how the world has been changed and reflect on how those changes match our understanding of God's hope for the world.
God's been at work restoring and renewing the world for a LONG time now. God continues to be about that work. How will we celebrate the work God is doing in and around us?
--Gord
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