Good News -- Christmas Eve Meditation 2023

Appearing to the shepherds, and terrifying them in the process, the angel says “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy which shall be for all people”. Over 2000 years later the angel still proclaims good news for all people.

Sometimes it is hard to hear and see the goodness. So often it seems like the bad news threatens to drown out the good.

In her poem Into the Darkest Hour Madeleine L’Engle writes:

It was a time like this,
war & tumult of war,
a horror in the air.
Hungry yawned the abyss –
and yet there came the star
and the child most wonderfully there.

It was a time like this
of fear & lust for power,
license & greed and blight –
and yet the Prince of bliss
came into the darkest hour
in quiet & silent light.

And in a time like this
how celebrate his birth
when all things fall apart?
Ah! Wonderful it is:
with no room on the earth,
the stable is our heart.

L’Engle wrote those lines almost 30 years ago. But don’t they seem to fit the world today? This year churches across Bethlehem are being asked to cancel their Christmas celebrations in light of the continued Israeli offensive in Gaza. One of those churches took a pile of building rubble, broken bricks and dirt, and placed their nativity scene on and amidst the rubble. Then we have the ongoing war in Ukraine. And other places like Yemen that don’t get the same sort of news coverage. War & tumult of war.

Or we could look closer to home. Multiple mornings this week CTV news was sharing the story of homeless encampments in Edmonton that were going to be dismantled, along with questions of whether there were in fact shelter spaces available for all those individuals. Here in Grande Prairie The Salvation Army has said that 20% of the population was served by the Food Bank and Community Kitchen this year. There is an ongoing opiod crisis. What is that if not an abyss, yawning, threatening to swallow us up?

Or we could talk about so many other things. A marked increase in both anti-Semitic and Islamophobic violence in the last 2 months. The flurry of anti-2SLGBTQ+ protests and legislation across Canada and the US this past year. Politicians in multiple countries who seem to want to score political points for short term gain at the expense of people at the margins or the long-term well-being of us all. There is an ongoing climate crisis. So much bad news. How do we find Good News in a world that threatens not just to fall apart but to tear itself apart at the seams?

Christmas Good News always comes at what seems like the wrong time, but maybe it is exactly the right time. The angel’s proclamation always comes into a time of war and tumult and horror. The carols are always sung in a world where there are people lusting for power, and others living in fear. The abyss of disorder and violence is always yawning somewhere in the world.

We could always use some Good News. We could always use some starlight and angel song. We could always be reminded to stand and listen for the silence of the Prince of Peace breaking into the world.

We need to hear some Good News this Christmas. Where do we look to find it? Can we be quiet enough to hear it We won’t find it on the front page. It won’t be the top-rated link on Google. It likely won’t come with trumpet fanfares and marching bands. If we aren’t careful we might miss it.

Because the Good News comes to and from people who others might not even see. In our story it comes to a poor peasant girl in a backwater town. It comes to shepherds on a hill side. Later it is shared with fishermen on a seashore. It seems to end in death on a cross only to be revealed again to women weeping by a graveside. God shares the Good News in ways that most of us would usually miss.

We won’t find the Good News coming from any of our major political parties. It won’t come from Hamas or the Israeli Knesset. It won’t come with big flashy marketing campaigns. It will continue to come from the sidelines. The Good News is brought forward by groups like the Mothers of the Disappeared in Latin America a generation ago. It showed up when everyday Irish people pushed for an end to the Troubles. It shows up when people ‘adopt-a-family’ and support Helping Hands here in Grande Prairie. The Good News is made evident when people with little or no power or status quietly share the hope and promise that change is coming – and work in their own small way to make it happen.

Here is the Good News that echoes through the ages: God is creating a world where all live in abundance. God is creating the Peaceable Kingdom. God is bringing healing and liberation to a hurting, chained up world. Love and Joy, Hope and Peace will win in the end. God LOVES the world.

It is Good News for all creation: from the tiniest one-celled organism to the mighty blue whale, from the smallest flower to the mighty Redwood tree, from the newborn baby to the centenarian. It is Good News for the person sleeping in a tent along the Bear Creek and for the CEO of the most profitable corporation. It is Good News for the poorest nations of the world and for the economic powerhouses like the US or China.

Tonight we remember that the Good News is being announced again. Tonight we remember that the hopes and fears of all the years are met in a baby lying in a manger. Tonight we remember that Hope, Peace, Joy and Love will win in the end – and if it looks like they have lost then it is not yet the end. Tonight we remember that birth changes everything.

In the song When A Child is Born Johnny Mathis writes:

A ray of hope flickers in the sky
A tiny star lights up way up high
All across the land, dawns a brand new morn
This comes to pass when a child is born
...
It's all a dream, an illusion now
It must come true, sometime soon somehow
All across the land, dawns a brand new morn
This comes to pass when a child is born

This is the Good News that the angel Gabriel shared with Mary. This is the Good News that an angelic host shared with shepherds on a hillside. This is the Good News that we still share today. For unto US a child is born – and our lives will never be the same again.

Throughout the Advent season we have been lighting candles. The flicker of a candle flame reminds us that light shines in the darkness. The candle flame looks so fragile, indeed a well-directed puff of air can put it out, but at the same time a candle flame adds light and heat to a room. With their flickering light these candles have reminded us of the power of Hope for a world that is being renewed and reborn; the promise of Peace based in abundant justice within that renewed world; the Joy of knowing that God is with us as we and the world are being reshaped; and the Love that takes shape in Jesus, the Word-Made-Flesh, the Love that provides the guiding principle for this new world.

Tonight we lit our fifth candle, the candle of birth. Tonight we proclaim that with the birth of Jesus that new world is here among us: a ray of hope, a tiny star, possibly an illusion, maybe a dream? Not a dream, not an illusion, It is real. It may seem hidden. It may be out at the edges of our awareness but it is real. There is a lot of bad disheartening news out there. It is loud and flashy and bright. It can fill the center of our lives. But out at the edges, a different light is quietly, dimly flickering.

Hear again the Good News of this day. Jesus is born! God has once again broken into our lives! The world is being changed! Listen for the quiet voices sharing their hope. Watch for the nobodies running in with joy in their eyes. See the places where peace is breaking out. Feel the love that brings us together and leads us to work for a better world. This is Good News for the whole of the world that God loves.

It makes no sense. It may be hard to see We have to look in the right places, with open eyes to find the evidence. But it is there and it is real. Will we focus on the war and tumult? Will we stare into the abyss? OR will we embrace the Good News over at the edges?

In another poem, The Risk of Birth, Madeleine L’Engle says:

This is no time for a child to be born,
With the earth betrayed by war & hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out & the sun burns late.

That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honor & truth were trampled to scorn—
Yet here did the Savior make His home.

When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn—
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.

Indeed it is no time for a child to be born. It is certainly no time to expect hope, peace, joy and love to be born. But still it happens. It has been said that the birth of a baby is God’s way of saying that the world should continue. New life is a sign that there is still hope. There is still love. There is a place for joy. There is the possibility of peace.

God is still taking the risk of sharing Good News in unexpected ways and places. God is still in the business of transforming the world. God still loves the world, God has not given up on us. This is indeed Good News. We just might have to look in odd places to find it.

The angel still proclaims Good News which shall be for all people. For unto us is born this day a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. Glory to God in the highest! And on Earth peace, goodwill among all. Amen.

Looking Forward to December 24, 2023 (evening) -- Christmas Eve

The Call to Worship will be based in this passage from Isaiah.

The Scripture Reading will be Luke 2:1-20

The Meditation title is Good News

Early Thoughts: We could really use some Good News this year.

There is an adage in journalism "if it bleeds it leads". That tends to mean we hear a lot of bad news on a daily basis. But there is always Good News out there. We just have to look and listen carefully.

It strikes me that the good news stories often seem to come in from the sidelines, from the edges of the picture. They don't often seem to be front and center. That may be in part due to the adage I mentioned above. It may also say something about how God works.

In our Scripture stories it often seems that God is using marginal people to share God's Good News with the world.  We have Moses, a man wanted for murder and running for his life, who ends up being the liberator of his people. We have David, the youngest son, out with the sheep, thought to be unimportant, who is anointed as the next king. Multiple prophets were not from the center of society -- and even those who were often found themselves pushed to the side when their message was not welcomed. 

Then there is our Christmas story. We have Mary, a poor unmarried peasant girl who is chosen to bear a son. We have shepherds out on a hillside who are the first to hear this wondrous news. 

God seems to work at the margins, working inward to change the center.

So let us look out to the edges of our world and see what flickers of good news are out there.  In the midst of all the bad news that fills our news media, what Good News is out there? Where is God breaking into the world today?
--Gord

Looking Forward to December 24, 2023 (morning) -- 4th Sunday of Advent, year B

This week we light the last candle of  our wreath, the candle of Love.

The Scripture Reading this week is John 1:1-18

The Sermon title is Word-Made-Flesh, Love Enfleshed

Early Thoughts: In the beginning there was the Word....

I am often struck by good openings. I often wish I could create good openings. Some of the ones that stick in my mind are "Call me Ishmael" (which sticks even though I have never read the book), or "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" (what is this thing called a hobbit? why does it live in a hole?) or "Space. The final frontier...", or those opening notes  of Beethoven's 5th. These are opening that stick with you, that draw you in.  I count the opening of John's Gospel as one of those good openings.

It may not look like it but this is John's Christmas story. I know there is no bright shining star, there are no angelic messengers, no shepherds, no Magi, not even a baby but still it is a Christmas story.  It is John's statement about who Jesus is and where Jesus came from. For John Jesus is the Word that was with (and part of) God from the beginning. Jesus is that Word which was essential for creation: "All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being" and indeed for life itself put into flesh: "And the Word became flesh and lived among us".

Still there is a part of me that always wonders, what was that word? If a word is a piece of language what was it? In one of her songs Linnea Good suggests that the word was laughter, a word the song suggest echoes through the faith story. I can see some logic in that suggestion. And maybe laughter is indeed a part of that original word. But I have another candidate, one I prefer.

Any guesses what it might be? It has 4 letters....

In chapter 4 of the Epistle of 1 John (probably not written by the same person who wrote the Gospel but almost certainly written by someone from the same theological/church community) we read: "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.".  For God is Love. Johannine theology constantly reminds us of the importance of love as we follow The Way of Jesus. WE love because God loves us, "for God so loved the world". People will know we are followers of Jesus because of our love. Not our words or our good deeds, not by the prayers we share or the hymns we sing, not by the way we dress -- by our LOVE.

Is it too much to suggest that the primeval, creative word that was with God and was God in the beginning is in fact LOVE?

The priestly hymn to creation found in Genesis 1 tells us that God speaks creation into existence. Despite the old lie many of us were told as children [Sticks and stones can break my bones but...] words have real power. They can create or they can destroy, build up or tear down.

In the beginning was the Word...
How might it change our view if we read that opening paragraph saying something like this:

In the beginning was Love and Love was with God and Love was God...All things came into being through Love and without Love not one thing came into being What has come into being in Love was life and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

John is clear that Jesus, who Matthew calls Emmanuel -- God-With-Us, is the Word-Made-Flesh. John the Gospel writer and John the Epistle writer are both clear that love is a key part of God's identity, that love is a key part of the Jesus story, that God loves the world. Jesus comes to show that love.

It is a Christmas story. It is about love coming to wear skin and walk among us. It is about love abiding (John's Gospel likes the word 'abide'). In Jesus the primeval creative Word becomes visible. And I think that Word is LOVE.
--Gord

Looking Forward to December 17, 2023 -- Advent 3B

This Sunday we will light the candle of Joy.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19
• Luke 1:26-55

The Sermon title is Expectant Joy

Early Thoughts: Where do you find joy in this Christmas season? Where do you find joy all year long so you can follow Paul's instruction to rejoice always? Can you give thanks in all circumstances?

Could Mary give thanks after the visit from Gabriel? Was she rejoicing? Or did it maybe take a moment or two for her to get to the joy?

I have always wondered if Luke missed a bit in his description of that discussion. Did Mary really meekly accept the news or did she argue a bit?  I sort of want to ask her, as Roger Whittaker asked, "How did it feel?" Certainly later in the story we find that Mary is a bit of a prophet, one who sees the truth of what is coming (which, as many people point out each year, makes the song Mary Did You Know sound a bit out of touch with a reading of Luke 1). I think that is where her joy comes from, the vision of what God is doing through her and her son.

The joy of Christmas is not about parties and carols and gifts. It is not about gathering with family and friends. The joy of Christmas is found in the message of angels -- and I would point out that often when angels show up they have to tell the listener to not be afraid. The joy of Christmas comes in the expectant waiting for a baby who will turn the world upside down. The joy of Christmas comes in the promise that God is active in the world -- even if that might be a bit terrifying.

And really, maybe that is the joy we should carry with us always as we follow Paul's injunction to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing, and even to give thanks in all things.  

Theologically speaking I don't think Joy is not about being happy. Joy comes from a deep place of trust and hope and confidence. I do think joy is expressed in many different ways. I do think there are times when the fear and anxiety overpower the feeling of joy. But I think that joy is always lurking in the background, even when it feels like an unwelcome guest.

We are expecting a great thing to happen. We are expecting a baby (as wonderful and terrifying as that may be). We are trusting that God is active and will be active in the world to change it, to cast the mighty from their thrones and send the rich away empty. 

Sounds like a reason for joy to me.
--Gord

Looking Forward to December 10, 2023 -- 2nd Sunday of Advent, Year B

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 40:1-11
• Isaiah 61:1-11

The Sermon title is Rebirth!

Early Thoughts: How do we celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace when his birthplace is a spot of violence and injustice? Where do we see the possibility of Peace in a world that is so heavily broken? Is the God of Peace and Justice active in the world? Is God sleeping, distracted, inattentive? What is the promise?

Most of those questions are not unique to 2023. Most of them, or variations on them, could have been asked in many Advent seasons over the centuries. But still we ask them, still we look for peace, still we trust (or try to trust) in the promise.

Chapter 40 marks a turning point in the book of Isaiah. Scholars will tell us that chapters 1-39 are the work of one man, with chapter 40 we move into the life and work of another person -- either also named Isaiah or a disciple of the original. The earlier chapters are more about warning the people that bad times are coming. With chapter 40 we move toward the promise of return from exile and rebirth of the nation. [This is of course a generalization --- the early chapters of Isaiah also have promises and visions of a new world, they also include the promise that God is active to renew the world.] This new section of the book begins with explicit words of comfort for a broken people.

To people in exile God offers words of reassurance. God tells them that the penalty has been paid and that the road home is being prepared. What words of comfort and reassurance do we need to hear today? What highway is being laid through the wilderness of the world leading to the promised land, the promised time of peace? If the herald were to mount up to the city walls or the high mountain (Maybe the top of the Kleskun hills??) to announce Good News what would we hear today in 2023?

We would hear the old promise of the God who comes into the world. We would hear of the God who is reshaping and reforming God's people. We would hear about the God who continues to gather God's people into their arms. We would be reminded of the God who is in control -- despite the evidence to the contrary God is somehow in control.

Later in the book we come across chapter 61, possibly the work of a third person in the school of Isaiah. Here we are reminded of the vision of what the Reign of God, the Reign of the Prince of Peace, will be like. We are reminded that the reign of peace only comes with social justice. Indeed, that which we sometimes call peace is not true peace because so often it comes at the expense of full inclusive justice for all. For true peace to reign we need true justice to be a reality.

We need the world to be reborn.

Advent is a time of getting ready for a world to be reborn. Advent is a time of reminding ourselves of the God who offers both correction and comfort. Advent is a time when we plan for the birth of a baby who will transform the world. Advent is a time to remind ourselves of the promise -- and peace is a part of that promise.

It can be hard to look at the world, to read the news, to listen to the radio and believe that peace is anything other than a pipe dream. But rebirth and renewal is possible. God is still at work. Peace and Justice are the long term plan. It will happen.

Thanks be to God.
--Gord

Looking Forward to December 3, 2020 -- 1st Sunday of Advent, Year B

In addition to being the 1st Sunday of Advent, which makes it the 1st Sunday of a new church year, this is the beginning of a new month, which means we will be celebrating the sacrament of Communion.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 64:1-12
• Mark 13:24-30

The Sermon title is New World In the Morning

Early Thoughts: A new year is beginning! New possibilities lie ahead! God is at work, doing a new thing,transforming the world!

The most familiar Advent themes are probably Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.  But underlying and amidst those are also themes of birth and newness. At the smae time we celebrate those things in the midst of a world that so often seems to work against Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. How do we proclaim the promise in a broken world?

Well Christians have been proclaiming the promise in a broken world for almost 2000 years by now -- so we should know how to do that.

The reading for the 1st Sunday of Advent always feel a little bit out of step with the world around us. AS the world is ramping up for Christmas we show up in church 4 weeks before Christmas and hear words that don't sound very joyful or hopeful. Do we really want God to "tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence—as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence!"? Where are the jingling bells and the bright lights and the sweet happy songs?

Advent is about preparing for a baby. Advent is also about preparing for the world to be changed. This is the Sunday when we will light the candle of Hope. Our hope is in fact that God will tear open the heavens. Our hope is that God will reshape and remold us (and indeed the whole world) as a potter would work the clay. Our hope is in the promise that the Reign of God, the Reign of Christ will break into our reality and a new world will be born. We share the hope shared by John of Patmos, the writer of Revelation, who saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old one had passed away (Revelation 21:1).

The world is not what we would hope it could be. Between inflation and interest hike, a looming (or already breaking) climate crisis, homelessness, opiod crisis, gang crime, racism, war zones around the world and so many other things hope might seem like a fool's bet. I think we are sometimes called to be fools.

Hope is rugged and ready for the fight. Hope is what leads up to look at the world as it is and keep looking for what it could be. Roger Whittaker once sang about a new world in the morning. He then reminded us that the morning is today. Dawn is breaking, a new world is being born, God is tearing open the heavens and breaking into the world. Advent is here!

And in that reality I do indeed find hope -- most days at least.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to November 26, 2023 -- Reign of Christ Sunday

 The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
• Matthew 25:31-40

The Sermon title is Care for the Sheep

Early Thoughts: At the end of the Gospel of John Jesus has a shore lunch with Peter. In that scene Jesus repeatedly tells Peter to look after the sheep. Maybe that is a big part of how we are called to be in the world...to emulate the Good Shepherd.

So how do we do that?

The Ezekiel passage for this week describes how God is like a Good Shepherd. It talks about all the things that the shepherd needs to do to take care of the sheep (which in this instance is referring to the people of Israel). Speaking through the prophet, God promises to ensure they are fed, that their wounds are cared for, that the lost are found, that the weak are strengthened and those who have too much are held to justice. Then there is the promise of the shepherd from the line of David....who might that be??????

In chapter 10 of John's Gospel Jesus explicitly refers to himself as the Good Shepherd. While the Gospel does not explicitly refer to these words from Ezekiel I have little doubt that at least some of Jesus' hearers would catch the reference. Jesus is the one who will do what God promised to people in exile long ago.

And then after Easter Jesus tells Peter to carry the work on. Which could easily be read that we are all to do our part in caring for the sheep (even as we are also called to remember that we are sheep, following the Good Shepherd ourselves).

So how do we do that?

Enter one of my favourite passages of Scripture, almost certainly my favourite section of Matthew's Gospel. Here, at the end of the eschatological discourse, Jesus make explicit what we are to do. Feed the hungry. Visit the sick and imprisoned. Clothe the naked. Welcome the stranger. And whenever we do that for anyone -- nothing about if they are a part of our community or not, nothing about if they deserve it or not, nothing about all the various ways we have to decide whether someone is worthy of our help, anyone -- it is as if we are doing it for Jesus. 

That is how we care for the sheep...by caring for them. Seems like such a simple equation doesn't it? That is how we respond to the care given by the shepherd.... by passing it on.

What would it look like if that was indeed the marker of Christian community? Jesus said that all people would know we are his disciples by our love. Love, as I have said before, is a verb. People will know we are Jesus' disciples not by the hymns we sing or the theology we spout. They will know by how we live out our love for neighbours, friends, family and enemies. Care for the sheep, any of the sheep. It is how we live into the Reign of God
--Gord

Looking Ahead to November 19, 2023 -- Proper 28A, 25th Sunday after Pentecost

The Scripture Reading this week is Matthew 25:14-30

The Sermon title is Take a Risk

Early Thoughts: What did he do wrong? By all appearances the third servant was the most prudent of the three. He had a logical rationale for what he did. And yet he is clearly punished for his choice (to be fair, Matthew seems to have a liking for harsh punishments as he passes on Jesus' parables). What's up with that?

Then again, maybe he was already the least competent or least trusted of the three. After all we are told that each is given according to their ability and he is given the least (though even one talent was a very substantial amount of money -- if the master had 8 talents to divide among these servants he was a fabulously wealthy man). Still, maybe that makes the servant's response even more predictable. Why punish someone for being who you know them to be?

This is one of the parables that I find particularly difficult. Many people read a parable and if there is a Master/Lord/King in it they want that to be an allegory for God/Jesus. But the Master in this parable is not like the God I meet in Scripture. This Master is a bit capricious, is described as being unjust, and is more like the villain in the story than anything else. What do we do with this story?

This section of Matthew's Gospel has a focus on the End Times, on what we might call the Second Coming, what theologians might call the eschaton. It pushes us to ask if we are ready for the time when, as the next part of chapter 25 puts it, "the Son of Man comes in his glory". It pushes us to ask if we will measure up when we are called to account for how we have lived our lives, how we have used the gifts that have been entrusted to us.

I think that one way to read this particular story is to highlight the importance of taking risks. Not being profligate but taking reasonable, thought out risks. Sometimes playing it safe is the wrong answer. The third slave plays it safe and is not rewarded for it.  [Though I wonder, given how the master is described, what might have happened had one of the three lost money in the exchange. If one slave is punished for staying even, what punishment would have followed a loss?] 

I am not sure the church is always great at taking risks, even well-thought out, well measured risks. I find that often the church, like many other organizations, is better at sticking to the tried and true. This may be especially true when we try to determine how best to take care of the gifts which have been entrusted to us by others. We don't want to appear to be acting imprudently, even wasting those resources. That might be a problem. When we don't risk, when we need a guarantee of success before taking on a new project, when we want to avoid wasting resources or offending some group, it makes it harder to grow as people of faith. It makes it harder to find new ways of being the Body of Christ in a changing world. It makes it harder to be agents of transformation (or to be transformed ourselves) as we live into the Reign of God.

What do we, as individuals or as communities, do with the resources entrusted to our care? Do we play it too safe or are we too risky? It is a question of balance after all. Too much risk (however we define that) is not being a good steward. Too much safety (which is not always defined in the same way by all people) is also not being a good steward.

What risks do we need to take so that growth can happen?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to November 12, 2023 -- Proper 27A, 24th Sunday After PEntecost

 The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
• Amos 5:21-24

The Sermon title is Make Your Choice

Early Thoughts: Life is a series of choices. Who we will serve, how we show who we serve is almost never a 'one and done' choice. Rather it is something we have to do over and over again as new circumstances arise.

The people have crossed the Jordan. They have (for the most part) accomplished the conquest of the Promised Land. The land has been parceled out amongst 11 tribes and specific cities given to the Levites. Now, just before his death Joshua, the one who has led the people since the death of Moses, gathers them all together. He reminds them what God has done for this people, going as far back as Abraham. Then he challenges them. Choose!

It seems that Joshua knows that the people might forget. He knows that they might be led astray. They might start to worship in old ways, before they met the God who led them out of slavery. They might be enticed to worship in the same way as the people whose land they have now conquered/stolen. So they have to choose. Who will they serve? Will they have the strength, patience, and perseverance to live in to that choice?

The people wholeheartedly make a choice for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who brought them out of slavery and led them to the Promised Land. As one reads through the rest of Hebrew Scripture it becomes obvious that this wholehearted choice made in Joshua 24 is tested over and over again -- and not everybody passes the test.

Which brings us to the role of the Prophets. In our minds we often think of the prophets of Hebrew Scripture as people who foretell the future. While this is partially true I find it more accurate to say that the prophets are (most often) people called to tell the truth about the present and then comment how that truth will shape the future. And then the people who hear the words of the prophets have to make a choice. Will they change to live more in line with God's Way or will they continue as they have been going?

3000+ years after Joshua (it is commonly thought that David's reign was around 1000 BCE and Joshua was some years -- maybe a few hundred, certainly several decades --  before that) we still have to answer his challenge. Who will we serve? We still have to respond to the call of Amos to remember what is truly important.

This week we pause to remember those who died in battlefields across the world. We do that as the world continues to experience the reality of warfare in places like Ukraine and Israel/Palestine/Lebanon. As those who gather in the name of the Prince of Peace our choice has to include the question of how we advocate and work for true lasting peace (which flows from justice) both around the globe and in our own neighbourhoods. We live in a nation where politics is an increasingly divisive game (on both sides) so how does our choice to serve God and live in God's Way change our approach to the political world?

Life is a series of choices. Following The Way of Jesus is a series of little choices, and some big ones, as we deal with life as it actually is rather than as it could be (or as we would like it to be).

How will you choose?
--Gord

How Will We Choose? -- Newsletter piece

As we look ahead into the future how will we choose what path to take? How will we know what is the most faithful option?

As the congregation of St. Paul’s heads into a month where difficult questions will be asked and choices will have to be made I am pondering how we can make the best decision. In my mind making the best decision has to start with one big question. Why are we here?

I don’t mean “how did we get in to this situation”, though that is indeed an important piece to talk about. Everything has a history after all. But I think that is secondary to reminding ourselves of our mission, of what we are all about.

Each of our four statements of faith in United Church history say something about what the church is, what it is called to be. In A New Creed (1968, revised in 1980 and 1995) we remind ourselves:

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.

In A Song of Faith (2006) we read:

We sing of a church
seeking to continue the story of Jesus
by embodying Christ’s presence in the world.
We are called together by Christ
as a community of broken but hopeful believers,
loving what he loved,
living what he taught,
striving to be faithful servants of God
in our time and place.
...
We sing of God’s good news lived out,
a church with purpose:
faith nurtured and hearts comforted,
gifts shared for the good of all,
resistance to the forces that exploit and marginalize,
fierce love in the face of violence,
human dignity defended,
members of a community held and inspired by God,
corrected and comforted,
instrument of the loving Spirit of Christ,
creation’s mending.
We sing of God’s mission.

More recently the General Council Executive approved statements of Call and Vision, the themes of which have been explored in our congregational newsletters over the past year.

Then there are our local statements of Mission and Vision:

Vision Statement: (Approved in 2022)
Celebrating the gifts of the Spirit, we are a loving and supportive congregation in service to the Church, the Community, and the World through faith. We affirm: all are encouraged, inclusive of age, race, gender, gender expressions, sexual orientation, economic circumstance, ability or background, to share fully in the life and work of St. Paul’s United church, and where the spiritual journey of each person is nurtured and supported.

Mission Statement: (Approved in 2019)
Through Faith, we walk on the path Jesus set for us.
The people of St. Paul’s Belong… Believe… Love Listen… Lead.

When we read those words do they help us as we discern how St. Paul’s will respond to our current struggles with financial and human resources? How do we live out our mission in a different way so that the congregation can thrive as a faithful community sharing God’s love and hope in Grande Prairie?

In my experience when we make decision to re-organize how we are as a church we often forget to raise the question of mission to the forefront. Most often decisions to re-structure or make changes are driven by pragmatic concerns (usually money) and the decision gets made to meet those concerns with less time taken to ask how the new way of being will help live out our mission. Personally I think this is at least partially true with our recent national structural change. I find that when we make decisions this way we end up floundering for a while because we are not clear on how to live out our mission in a new way. So the primary question to consider needs to be how the new way intersects with and impacts our mission, our “Why”.

Once we have talked about the missional question we can approach the pragmatics. Mission and vision do not get rid of reality, they don’t take away the struggle about having resource, but they may help us choose how to prioritize resources when reality tells us we can not do everything we used to. We still have to be pragmatic, even when it leads to hard choices and loss.

There is one more criteria trap I think the church, at any levels, falls into in making changes. I am a big believer in the law of unintended consequences. Partly because human communities are often better at short-term thinking than long-term planning and partly because we may only see the obvious results, we find ourselves surprised when things have different results than we expect. Some people say that every solution causes new problems, which may be a corollary of this law. While we can never predict every possible consequence of a change, there are times we miss highly predictable consequences that may lead in a totally opposite direction than we intend. We need to take time to ask some “what if” questions. We need to look at things from a long-term perspective. [And wouldn’t it be nice if our governments took time to do both those things as well?]

This month this congregation will be asked some difficult questions and asked to choose a way forward so that the congregation can thrive (which is different from merely surviving). As you listen to options and give thought to what they mean I hope you will consider who we are called to be and how best we can do that. I hope we can make decisions based on mission and hope rather than on panic. I hoe we will find a way to continue sharing our unique voice within Grande Prairie. I hope we can do our best to avoid unintended consequences and that any new problems created by the solution are problems that help us grow stronger as we live out our part in God’s mission.
Gord.

Looking Ahead to November 5, 2023 -- Celebrating All Saints' Day

 As this is the first Sunday of the month we will be celebrating Communion. If you are joining us via YouTube you are invited to have bread and juice (or equivalents) ready so we can all eat and drink together.

 The Scripture Reading for this week is Hebrews 11:8-16, 32-12:2.

The Sermon title is Who Is In Your Cloud?

Early Thoughts: Who has fed your faith? Who has helped you develop as a person of faith?

The writer of Hebrews (and we don't know who that was) reminds us in these verses that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. All of Chapter 11 is a recounting of the great heroes of faith from Hebrew Scriptures. [I was tempted to read the whole chapter this week but that seemed a little long.] We are not the first to wrestle with how God is active in the world, not the first to explore how God would have us live, not the first to struggle to be who God calls/created us to be. If the ancient writer could write those words in the 1st Century CE how much truer are they almost 2000 years later.

Often people use the language of the "cloud of witnesses", along with language like the "communion of saints" to describe those who have gone before us, people who are now counted among the dearly departed. Certainly this is true. The cloud, the communion, includes those names like Luther, Wesley,  Calvin and Aquinas. It includes those who laid the foundation upon which later generations have built. But I don't think that is the whole picture. When I think of the cloud of witnesses I think that some are dead (some long dead) and some are living. Some of the people in our clouds, some of the people who have helped us understand what it means to live and love as followers of Christ, as beloved children of God are still alive. They still teach us. Some of them are older than us, some are younger. 

In the end, each of us has our own cloud. That cloud intersects with a larger cloud held by our communities. And that cloud intersects with a larger cloud held by the wider community, which then intersects with a still large global cloud. A large part of me thinks of these various clouds as subsets, with each cloud nestled within the next one up. Another part of me wonders if maybe a venn diagram is more appropriate, because there are members of some of those clouds that are specific to that individual or community or even denomination. (And who doesn't like a math-based example as part of their reflection on Scripture).

So who is in our cloud as a congregation? Who are those people living and dead, past and present, who have shaped how the faith community called St. Paul's United Church (Grande Prairie) lives out its faith?

Who is in your cloud as an individual? Who are the people from your past and your present, living and dead, who have shaped you and your faith? Some of them are possibly family members. Some of them were named as teachers and mentors, others took on those roles less formally. Some of them may have been within a church community, some of them may have intersected your life from somewhere else.

While we each make our own decisions about various aspects of our lives, we never do so in a vacuum. We have all been shaped (positively or negatively) by the examples, teachings, and actions of others. We continue to be shaped by the examples, teachings, and actions of others. The cloud of witnesses is an active part of life. And that, I think, is a good thing -- most of the time at least.

As you arrive on Sunday you will have a chance to add names to our cloud of witnesses board {see picture above}. The board may stay up in the sanctuary for most of November so names can be added. Also, during the sermon there will likely be a time when folk are invited to share some names and/or stories of why they count someone as a part of their cloud.

Let us celebrate all those who have shaped, and are shaping, who we are as followers of Christ. God speaks to us in a variety of voices, God appears in our lives wearing a variety of faces. THat is how our cloud is formed.

And of course, we may never know who counts us as a part of their cloud... ti goes both ways after all.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 29, 2023 -- Proper 25A, 22nd Sunday After Pentecost

 The Scripture Readings for this week are:

• 1 John 3:18-24
• Matthew 22:34-40

The Sermon title is The Magic Penny?

Early Thoughts: We are not commanded to feel a certain way toward our neighbour. We are commanded to act a certain way toward our neighbour. (And then there is the hope that acting in love will in fact shape how we feel about them.)

Maybe that is what the song means when it says that love is something when we give it away? Maybe love that is not shared, love that is kept, love that is held tight is not really love?

Our passages this week remind us of the importance of love in Christian life and ethics. 1 John makes it really clear that this love is a verb, not an emotion or a word. We should love in word and in deed. We have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. We have to give love away, share it in the community, act lovingly toward our neighbour.

I suggest that the only way we act lovingly toward God is in fact to act lovingly toward the world God loves. So to actively love God we also have to actively love our neighbour.

Can we give love freely and abundantly? In a world system where we are often, if not usually, taught that everything is limited, that we can run out of anything can we trust that love is just the opposite? Love, when we give it away, when we act in love, becomes self multiplying. It becomes more abundant when we share it around and less available when we are tempted to be stingy with it.

Isn't that wonderful?!?!

So far I have suggested that love is a verb, something shown in action not in word or feeling (though I do suggest that some of our words are actions in and of themselves), and that love is something that grows more plentiful when shared freely. What do we do with that? 

I think that is, in fact, a stewardship question. If, as I have said before, love is everything we do after we say "I believe", if stewardship is what we do with the gifts God has given us, then how we share love, how we act lovingly toward the world God loves, is at the heart of stewardship.

This week I invite us all to consider what concrete ways we can show our love for God and neighbour. I encourage us to remember that, even though it may feel like it at times, love is not a finite resource. Love flows abundantly from God who, according to another part of 1 John, is love. Love flows abundantly through Jesus, Love Incarnate. Love flows abundantly in the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. Love is something that when we give it away, when we share it freely and prodigiously, we end up having more.

Isn't that wonderful????!!!???
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 22, 2023 -- Proper 24A, 21st Sunday After Pentecost

 The Scripture readings this week are:

• Psalm 96:1-13 (read responsively from Voices United p.816)
• Matthew 22:15-22

The Sermon title is What Belong to God?

Early Thoughts: In some ways it seems like an easy way out of a tough situation -- something Jesus is pretty good at doing -- turn the challenge back on the challengers. But in turn Jesus may offer us a bigger challenge.

First a bit of a side bar:
20 years ago I was taking my introductory worship and preaching class. I wrote my first sermon for that class using this Gospel reading. As I recall, I tried to work a bit of political reflection into the sermon as we were in the middle of a federal election at the time. I said something about in a democracy where we all have a voice in government formation maybe we were all Caesar to some degree. Looking back, it was more than a bit of a stretch.  I wonder if I still have a printout of that sermon in my files somewhere....

Back to this week.
A trap is being set. Is there a clear answer that will not annoy or even enrage someone? If Jesus says it is not lawful to pay the tax the Romans might have a few choice words to share. If Jesus seems to endorse Roman rule by affirming that it is lawful to pay the tax he risks alienating his Jewish audience who are not generally fans of their Roman overlords and often found the tax burden a heavy load.

Jesus sees the trap and finds away to avoid springing it. If the coin one uses (has to use) to pay the tax has Caesar's likeness on it then it must ultimately belong to Caesar, so gift it back to him, give him back his head. (Does that mean the $5 bill in my wallet belongs to a long dead Canadian politician?)  That takes care of the question he was asked (and possibly puts those who asked him in a bit of a quandary since that Roman coin has on it a graven image which is prohibited under Jewish Law) without actually making a comment on the legality or morality of the taxation system itself. And then there is that last phrase "and to God those things that are God's". Now we have a discussion.

Well we could have a discussion except the story ends there with the questioners leaving in amazement. So it is up to us to continue the discussion. 

If we hear Jesus challenge us to give to God what belongs to God I think we have to follow that up with a few more questions. What exactly belongs to God (as opposed to Caesar [or our modern equivalent] or to us or to our neighbour...)? How do we make that determination? How do we give it to God most effectively? How might that change the way we live?

Scripture presents a strong case that it all belongs to God, everything. As James Manley says, drawing from Psalm 24, in his song Take Off Your Shoes: "Well the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof from the waters beneath to the heavens above. So take, take, take off your shoes you're standing on my holy ground". Does that mean nothing belongs to us, to Caesar, to our neighbour? That would simplify things a bit, but has its own difficulties in how we understand the way that the world works. It makes for an interesting economical and political situation if no one, not even the state really owns anything.

I admit, trying to determine what belongs to God is a conundrum. On one hand we have this Scriptural witness. On the other we have a political-economic system based on private ownership of most things with public/governmental ownership of others. I struggle sometimes trying to parse out the question of ownership in a real practical way.

So  in the absence of a clear answer within the political-economic realm, let's stay with the Scriptural answer for now. As a statement of faith it makes sense to me to say that everything we have comes from God as a gift. After all, I grew up singing words from this hymn in Sunday School every week (or I think I did, memory is sometimes less accurate than we like to believe). If everything is a gift from God, if everything belongs to God but we have been given care and stewardship of it for a period of time, how do we give to God what is God's?

That is the $1 000 000 question isn't it? I have said in the past that my preferred definition of stewardship is "everything you do after you say I believe". We give back to God by how we choose to use the gifts that have been entrusted to us. We give to God what is God's when we choose to use those gifts in ways that build up community, that lift up those at the bottom of the heap, that support those on the margins, that help all to have life in abundance. Some of that is done through our personal choices. Some of it is done through collective action, through public policy. Some of it is done through the government and some through non-governmental places -- like the church for example.

Giving to God what is God's will, in the end, require us to re-think our approach in a world that has often tried to teach "what's mine is mine". It challenges us to sacrifice at times. It pushes us to consider questions like the difference between needs vs wants. It asks us to place God's vision and hop for the world above every other vision and hope for the world and then, as good stewards, use the gifts from God in ways that contribute to making that vision and hope real and tangible.

But of course Caesar is always going to want their cut too.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 15, 2023 -- 20th Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 23A

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Psalm 106 (we are actually using Jim Taylor’s paraphrase, p.134 of Everyday Psalms)
• Exodus 32:1-14

The Sermon title is What Is Your Golden Calf?

Early Thoughts: What idols might intrude into your life? What things might seem more important than others?

The problem of idols, of putting something before the God who led them out of Egypt, is a central piece in the history of the Israelites (as we read about it in Hebrew Scripture at least). In fact both the first and second of the 10 Commandments address that very question. And yet, here almost right after they have fled Egypt into freedom we have a story where the people as a whole make an idol and worship it.

Moses, the one who defied Pharaoh and has led them thus far, is missing. He went up the mountain and there has been a lot of noise and flashing but Moses has not yet come down. Will he come down? If he doesn't come down what will we do next? 

The people have an understanding of what religion and worship *could* look like. They saw statues and idols when they were in Egypt. They may well have taken part in Egyptian-style worship. Moses has been leading them with the promises of a different kind of god. A god you can not see.  How do you know that this God is with us? So they seek to return to what they know, what is comfortable.

And Aaron, apparently, is all too willing to agree.

God's anger is awoken and the destruction of the people is at hand. Moses intercedes on behalf of the people, reminding God of the promise God made. God's destructive intent is averted. The people will be reminded of the promise and challenged to live into it. The incident leaves a mark (if you read the rest of chapter 32 you will see some of that in action) but the story continues.

But I think the possibility of idols remains a problem. There is always the chance that when we don't understand, or when we are anxious, or when we are unsure of the path forward, we will go back to the comfortable and familiar. We may not melt our jewelry and build a statue but we still make an idol or idols in our own way.

Which brings me back to the title question. What are your golden calfs? Sometimes following God's Way through an uncertain world can be confusing. Sometimes, almost always out of sincere desire to do what seems logical and comforting, we might lift up an idea or a system or even a 'thing' as the most important without realizing that we are supplanting God. And sometimes, in our hearts at least, we know that we have made an idol of a thing or an idea or an understanding of how the world works but we do it anyway because it is comfortable and familiar. When following God's Way leads us into unfamiliar or uncomfortable places we might want to escape, and our idols can give us a way out.

The first step is almost always awareness. We have to be made aware when we have created an idol or two. The next steps include listening, confessing, changing, and trusting (I am not always sure which order those take). 

At some point in our lives we will create an idol. As individuals and as communities we will face our own Golden Calf moment(s). Will we recognize them when they happen? Will we let others point them out to us? Will we be ready and willing to confess, repent, and live into the promise of the uncertainty that God's Way might bring?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 8, 2023 -- Thanksgiving Sunday

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Deuteronomy 8:7-18 
• 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

The Sermon title is Why Are You Thankful?

Early Thoughts: Gratitude is like a muscle. It gets stronger with exercise. I suspect, in fact I firmly believe, that Gratitude also feeds Generosity.

There is a myth in North American culture (perhaps more prevalent in the US, but also in Canada), the myth of the "self-made man" (and in the myth it is almost always referred to in male terms). When we challenge that myth we may get push back. I remember in the 2012 US Election when President Obama pushed back at the idea that anyone got where they were without support from the community (because the community built roads and systems and infrastructure) by saying "You didn't build that". Some people found that a horrible thing to say, some of us saw it as a very accurate statement. In this passage Moses, knowing that people have poor memories or see history in different ways at times, pushes people to remember that they got where they were because God was with them.

This reading from Deuteronomy reminds us that one of the first steps in gratitude, in being thankful, is to remember. We are thankful when we remember that we are the recipients of gifts. We are thankful (or are more likely to be thankful) when we remember that we did not get what we have all by ourselves.

So what gifts have changed your life? Why do you give thanks this year? Look beyond the obvious, easy answers. I encourage all of us to look at various parts of our lives and find the more hidden gifts, the more hidden reasons we are thankful.

There are practices of life that have a transformative effect. Gratitude/Thanksgiving is such a thing. The more we recognize that we have to be thankful for, the more we share our words of gratitude and thanksgiving the more we are changed. When we recognize that we have been gifted, we are more likely to share those gifts with the world around us. We are more likely to do that sharing cheerfully and freely rather than as a task that we 'ought' to do. And then that sharing has the potential to be transformative in the world, which leads to more sharing, which lead to more transformation... and so on.

It is Thanksgiving weekend. Of course we are called to be thankful all year round, however this is the weekend when we are perhaps a little bit more intentional about it. Let us take time to reflect on the gifts we have received. Let us take time to reflect on how our gratitude gets shown in the way we live our lives. Let us, knowing the we have been given gifts, pledge to pass that giftedness on to the world around us. Let us all be both Grateful and Generous.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 1, 2023 -- Worldwide Communion Sunday

 

For many years now the 1st Sunday of October has been called Worldwide Communion Sunday. The spirit of the designation is that on that Sunday Christians all over the world will celebrate communion on the same day as a sign of unity. Practically speaking it appears that it may be more of a North American thing, with maybe some European buy in. Also it really speaks more to those traditions (such as Presbyterianism) that do not already gather at the table of faith every week (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran for example).

At any rate, many United Churches, including St. Paul's, have made a concerted effort to mark Worldwide Communion Sunday over the years. Which mean that this Sunday we will gather together at the table of faith to eat and drink together. If you are joining us online you are invited, or even encouraged, to have bread and juice available so we can all eat and drink together across the electrons and miles.

The Scripture Reading this week is 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

The Sermon title is Table Fellowship

Early Thoughts: There is something special about eating together. It can be a great way to create and build community. Discussion over food has a slightly different feel to it somehow.

When done well that is.

Paul has heard that the people in Corinth have got the idea of table fellowship all wrong. The old class distinctions are showing up at the table of faith. Privilege is leading some to eat really well while others get the crumbs. And he is a little bit annoyed about it!

From the beginning of the Jesus movement eating together has been a key feature of the community. Indeed Jesus was routinely criticized for eating and drinking with the 'wrong sorts of people'. Table fellowship in the early church appears to have included that piece we now call Communion/Eucharist/Lord's Supper but also a whole meal where the community gathered, likely in the evening after the day's work was done, to eat at the same table. And this is where the Corinthians have gotten it wrong.

All evidence suggests that the Corinthian church had a mixture of free folk and slaves, wealthy folk and those who served them. From what Paul says it seems that the wealthy, those who have a more leisure-filled life, show up early and start the feast. Then those who have to work longer show up and the best food and wine are already gone. Paul has been trying to bring the Corinthians into a vision of the Kingdom, where there is no longer slave or free, Jew or Greek, man or woman (to borrow from his letter to the Galatians). In the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed and Paul shares there is no place for some to feast and others get crumbs. Table fellowship in the church needs to mean that all are welcome to eat and all have an equal share in what is served.

In part this is why I see it as so important that we have what is called an open table. In some traditions only members of that denomination, or even of that congregation, can be served when communion comes around. Indeed within United Church history this has been the case. When I was growing up the expectation was that only confirmed members would take communion (though I don't think there were gatekeepers standing there with lists), with some people having memories of the Elder coming to visit before the quarterly communion service and leaving a communion card or token showing that one was in fact a ember in good standing. But our understanding of communion has changed over time and by the time I was a young adult the common language of United Church invitations tot he table reminded us that the table belongs to God, not to the church. Because it is God's table and God is the host all who seek to live in God's way are welcome to eat and drink at it. The gatekeeper is the person making the choice, not some church official. Paul exhorts the Corinthians about those who partake in an unworthy fashion (it is my understanding that this is part of why Roman Catholics are supposed to go to Confession before being served at Mass) but the determination is left up to the people themselves.

There is something special about gathering with friends at the table of faith. It might be an intricately carved high altar in a medieval cathedral, or a rickety table in a mud hut, or a flat rock along the riverside, or even a folded down tailgate. The flat surface itself is less important than the fact that people of faith gather together, share prayers, remember Christ, and eat together as beloved children of God.

Shall we gather at the table?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to September 17, 2023 -- 16th Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 19A

The Scripture Reading this week is Matthew 18:21-35

The Sermon title is Forgiven as We Forgive Others???

Early Thoughts: Do you sometimes wrestle with forgiveness? I know I do. Can everything actually be forgiven? And looking at the phrase from the Lord's Prayer, do we really want to be forgiven only so well as we forgive others?

This week's passage would be confounding enough with just the first few verses. I am with Peter, forgiving someone 7 times seems extravagant enough but 77 times?!?!? (or even more challenging 70 TIME 7 -- 490). That just seems unrealistic. How might one do that?

Then I listened to a podcast this morning which called to memory things like the shooting at an Amish school where the community response was to offer forgiveness. At the time many people simply could not understand how the community could be so quick to forgive the shooter. The podcast pointed out that if your whole life you have lived out forgiveness, if it is a part of who you are, then forgiveness may become the natural response. Maybe Jesus is encouraging us to make forgiveness so much a part of our being as renewed, transformed people (a new creation Paul might say) that it becomes our first response rather than recrimination or vengefulness.

Sure that sounds like a laudable goal. I am still not sure it feels realistic.

I struggle with forgiveness. Or maybe it is more accurate to say I struggle with the letting go that is often part of the healing power of forgiveness (which I think is why we have the expression "forgive and forget", so we are encouraged not to hold on to the hurt). I don't think I hold grudges (well not all the time, or at least not intentionally). But I do remember damages done. I do replay events and discussions well after it is healthy to do so. Forgiveness is hard sometimes.

Then, to further complicate our discussion of forgiveness we have this troubling parable. A story where one is forgiven much and then proceeds to deny forgiveness to others  (with the result of losing the forgiveness first offered). It is certainly a story about hypocrisy, and many of us can wear the label hypocrite at times, but it is also a challenge to us a a community that regularly prays "and forgive us our trespasses (or sins or debts) as we forgive those who have trespassed against (or sinned against or are indebted to) us". Do we really want to claim that we are so good at forgiving others that we want the same treatment? Or are we sometimes like the servant in Jesus' story -- grateful to be forgiven but not as free to give it out?

Forgiveness can be a transformative thing. Forgiveness can bring freedom both to the forgiven and the forgiver. It can transform not only the people involved in a particular situation but can, I believe, cause ripples that help others see the world differently. It may not always mean that our relationships are the same as they once were. It may be that even with forgiveness and letting go the relationship is gone (or maybe the situation is such that there was nor relationship to begin with) but that does not take away the importance, and transformative power, of forgiveness.

If we can not forgive then we may be lead to the world of holding grudges, of wishing "they'll get theirs!", of wanting payback. This is a path that is common in the world today.  In the end, it is a path that is toxic to ourselves, to our neighbours (friends, family, enemies) and to the world around us.

As beloved children of God we are people who are forgiven. We are called to be people who forgive others. Even when that seems impossible ( think of the idea of the Unforgiveable Curses in Harry Potter -- total control over another, causing excruciating pain, murder) we are challenged to forgive. Not once, not twice, not even seven times but 77 (or 490). NO one said it would be easy. Can we try to allow forgiveness to transform us?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to September 10, 2023 -- 15th Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 18A

The Scripture Reading this week is: Romans 12:1-2, 13:8-14

The Sermon title is Renewed to Love

Early Thoughts: How do we know if our minds are being renewed and our lives transformed? Are we aware when we are in fact being conformed to the world around us?

There are times I find Paul a challenging writer to read. There are times when I think he (or sometimes the people later writing in his name) is way off base. There are time I wonder if he himself knows what his position is (the passage in 1 Corinthians 8 about eating meat comes to mind). Then there are times when I find he hits the nail squarely and clearly on the head. This week's reading (and indeed the rest of Romans 12 which we are not reading this week) are in this last category.

The letter to the Romans is a little unique among Paul's letters. Most of the letters are Paul writing back to communities where he has been before to encourage them/remind them how to follow Christ/exhort them to do better, but as Paul writes to the Roman Christians he has yet to be in Rome. He plans to get there, or hopes to get there and this letter is his way of introducing himself to the community in preparation for his arrival.

Paul himself (according to his words and the descriptions of Paul's life we find in Acts) has experienced transformation and a renewed mind. He knows full well that to follow The Way of Jesus, the Christ, means allowing God to renew and transform you. We need to be opened to new ways of understanding the world so that we can discern how God is calling us to live. In fact Romans 12:2 is one of my favoured verses in all of Scripture.

To my mind, the biggest sign of renewed minds and transformed lives in Christ is love. After all Jesus tells us that we are to love our neighbours and enemies, either as we love ourselves or as God first loved us. The law of life in Christ is the law of love. Everything else flows from that.

We live in a world where the law of love does not always seem to be the primary guiding principle. We live in a world where there is strong encouragement to follow the way of the world, to conform to its values and assumptions and ways of living. This is not new, it has always been so. When we choose to follow Jesus we need to open ourselves to a different way of being. Sometimes conforming to the world around us leads us in the wrong direction.

Are we ready to allow our minds to be renewed and our lives transformed? Are we ready to listen, watch , and discern who God would have us be in the world?
--Gord

September Newsletter

 Communities of inspirational worship....What does that look like? Sound like? Smell like? Feel like? I think truly inspirational worship touches many different senses, not just our ears.

It may in fact be a hard question to get one’s head around, so I have a different way of asking (it is always good to have a few different ways to ask about the same thing). If you could describe your ‘perfect’ worship experience what would it look/sound/feel/smell like? And is the answer to that question always the same or does it vary over time?

Full disclosure, I am not sure that my ‘perfect’ worship experience would necessarily look exactly like our standard United Church worship experiences. In fact I remember a discussion amongst a group of clergy many years (close to 20 now) ago where the question was asked “If you weren’t in leadership would you attend your worship service/church?”. At most there was a conditional maybe from some of us. All these years later I still ponder how best to answer that question.

To be honest a large part of me thinks that this edition’s theme is one where I need to do more listening and less talking. I may know what I find inspirational, but what does the rest of the community think? Then there is the very real fact that what Bill finds deeply moving Sally absolutely detests and what Carol comes to church to find is the last thing Frank is looking for. Sometimes as a worship leader and planner you know that you are having to juggle a lot of different styles and wants and needs.

At the same time this question is very timely for me. As my vacation drew to a close I found myself pondering if it is time to shake up our standard order of worship and, if so, how. DO we need more silence? Less silence? More interaction? More visual (I admit as a word person the visual rarely comes into my head as something to consider)? If worship is meant to inspire and strengthen us to live as followers of God’s Way then what is the best way to do that?

For me inspiration in worship can come from the music. It can come from the sermon (or maybe not). It can come from being in a safe place where I can allow my mind to drift and float and wander. It can come from the fact that there is a community of friends gathered together. It can come from prayers. AT eh same time, on some days any of those things can make the experience less inspirational. For me it often depends on the day and what stat I am in that day.

None of which helps me truly understand how best to build a community of inspirational worship....

In the end I think we keep trying things and hope that in the long-term balance people get what they need for spiritual sustenance. I don’t think any one worship experience will meet everyone’s needs. But I hope that over a period of weeks that does happen. There is a place for the tried and true, the traditional and comfortable. There is also a place for the different and new and even uncomfortable.

I announced last Sunday that I am adding a time for folk to answer “where have you seen God this week?” into the service, at least for a season. Will this add or detract from how we are inspired in worship? Time will tell. Are there other things that you would like to change about how worship sounds/feels/looks/smells? What do you think would inspire you?
Gord.

Looking Ahead to September 3, 2023

This being the first Sunday of September we will be celebrating the sacrament of the Lord's Table. If you are joining us virtually you are invited to have food and drink available so that we can all break bread together.

The Scripture Reading this week is Exodus 3:1-15.

The Sermon title is Who Am I? Who Are You?

Early Thoughts: How would you respond if you were Moses? Would you jump at the chance to serve? Or would you be a little dubious (once you got past the part about talking to a burning bush that is)?

I have known the story of Moses and the burning bush for decades. As part of the Exodus saga, it was one of those "keynote" stories we were taught as children. But still every time I read it I see something a little different.

I have long recognized that Moses is a little reluctant to take on the task. But this year as I read the story it jumped out at me that in his reluctance Moses asks two distinct questions. 

First is "who am I that I should take on this task?". Why me? I can't be the right person, I am not qualified. Why would anyone listen to me? I suspect that many of us sympathize with Moses in this moment. How many of us have been asked to do something we were sure we are not suited for?

In this case the answer is a bit of a sidestep. God never says why Moses is the right person (actually in the course of Scripture God rarely tells someone who is reluctant to take answer God's call why they are they right person). What God does is tell Moses that he will not be doing this task alone. God will be doing it with/through Moses. Is that what makes Moses the right person?

Next in Moses' bag of reluctance is "well who are you anyway?". Great you will be with me but who are you? When the people ask on what authority I am setting the Hebrews free what do I say?

In Jewish tradition the Divine name is not uttered. But the rough translation of the Name is the past present and future tenses of the verb 'to be' all at the same time. Of course that makes no grammatical sense. But then God is beyond our ability to define and name. Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg has suggested that this strange grammar means the God is pure being (I wonder if that can be linked to Paul Tillich's expression that God is the Ground of All Being???). Rabbi Ruttenberg also points out that if one were to attempt to pronounce the Tetragammaton (often placed in our alphabet at YHWH) you would in fact be making the sound of breath.

The one who fills us with the breath of life, the one who is existence itself is calling Moses to take on the task of liberation. No wonder Moses is first told that he is on sacred ground.

I am not sure Moses gets great answers to either of his questions. However he is moved to take on the task. Despite his fear (after all he fled Egypt as a wanted murderer), despite his feeling of inadequacy, Moses heads back to Egypt to tell Pharaoh "let my people go". [Anyone else hear Charlton Heston's voice as they read those words  or it that just me?]

What has the burning bush (probably a metaphorical one for most of us) asked you to do? Have you wondered who you are to take on the task? Have you wanted to know who t was that was asking you? What might have convinced you?

Being curious may lead one to sacred ground. Sacred ground might be a place where we are challenged. Being in God's presence can be comforting, challenging, terrifying, and awe-inspiring all at the same time.
--Gord