Looking Forward to March 5, 2023 -- 2nd Sunday in Lent

As this is the first Sunday of March we will be celebrating communion this week. Also our Annual Congregational Meeting will follow the service.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Genesis 12:1-9
• Psalm 121

The Sermon title is Get Up and Go!

Source

Early Thoughts:  What would you do? Imagine you are minding your own business and your spouse comes home and says "God says we have to leave everything behind and go to some unknown future". How would you react?

We are not told how Sarai (later known as Sarah) reacted when Abram (later Abraham) came in and told her what God had told him to do. We are simply told that they packed everything up and left, taking one relative (and the whole household, which seems to have included servants/slaves), striking out to who knows where.

Imagine that. You are old and childless, in a society where the 'social safety net' consisted of family caring for family. [Maybe that is why they take Lot along?] And yet you strike out on a journey that will take you away from that safety net, going on the basis of a promise of land (sliding over the slight problem that the promised land was already occupied) and a great nation to follow. For all you know you will never see or even hear from your family again. Would you do it?

Of course countless people have done it for centuries. Before things like the telegraph, or telephone or the internet people struck out for new frontiers and rarely or never went home again. "Go west young man" was advice that came with a lot of loss and risk. It is an act of faith and courage to simply get up and go.

As I reflect on what I just wrote I am reminded of our Gospel stories. Jesus also invited people to get up and go, leaving behind everything they had known. And some did it. I suggest that in some ways Jesus continues to issue that invitation for us to get up and go. Maybe not in geography but certainly in terms of being counter-cultural. As Ken Canedo writes in the third verse of his song Fish With Me (#113 in More Voices):

If you want to follow me, deny your very self.
Take up your cross and walk the walk with me.
This might seem a hardship, and impossibility, but nothing is impossible with God.
Oh, Come and follow me. Oh, leave behind your nets I call you,
Oh, come and fish with me, and your life will never be the same again.

Source

How can we do this? If you read past chapter 12 in Genesis you will quickly find that Abraham and Sarah had a rough path ahead of them. The journey to God's promises being fulfilled was not a Sunday walk in the park. It had multiple hiccups and roadblocks along the way. There must have been times when they wondered if packing up and going was the best choice after all.

Through out the story of Scripture there have been times when people felt besieged as they tried to follow God's path. Some of them lost hope for a period of time. But some wrote songs about where they found hope. Bring on one of my favourite Psalms, #121.

When we leave behind what was once secure and safe we need some assurance. What do we see when we look to the hills around us? When we feel like we are out in the wilderness of life where do we find help? 

In a word..... God. The psalmist reminds us that God will not abandon us, that God will not slumber or sleep.

We are invited to 'get up and go". We are challenged to leave behind the familiar and secure in search of a new world somewhere they call the promised land (yes I know it is really a love song the Seekers sang but in a way it works here too). But we do not go alone. Abraham and Sarah were never alone. Jesus's followers were -- and are -- never alone. God invites us to go, but God goes with us.

And that is a very good thing.
--Gord

February Newsletter

Today we are all called to be Disciples of the Lord,
To help to set the captives free, Make plow-share out of sword,
To feed the hungry, quench their thirst, Make love and peace our fast,
To serve the poor and homeless first, Our ease and comfort last.
(Today We All Are Called To Be Disciples, by H Kenn Carmichael ©1985
#507 in Voices United verse 1)

Bold Discipleship. We are called to be bold as disciples of Christ. Great. But how do we do that? What does it mean anyway?

Years ago I was taught that when one wants to know what something means a dictionary might help. So I went to dictionary.com and looked up discipleship. This is what I found:

discipleship [ dih-sahy-puhl-ship ] noun
the condition or situation of being a disciple, a follower, or a student of some philosophy,

Ok, so discipleship means being a disciple. Seems pretty straightforward. But what is a disciple? Back to dictionary.com...

disciple [ dih-sahy-puhl ] noun
a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower:

Now we are getting there. To be a disciple is to be a student and follower of a teacher or leader. And discipleship means being a disciple. So as the hymn tells us, all those who call themselves Christian are meant to be students and followers of Christ. We are meant to learn from the stories and teaching of Jesus. We are meant to follow the path he laid out. We are meant to live like him, or at least how we wants us to live.

That seems in line with everything I have ever been taught. Jesus calls us to share in the work of proclaiming the Reign of God. Jesus challenges us to live by a different set of priorities. Jesus requires us to use love of God, neighbour, and self as the guiding principle that shapes everything else we do. To be a disciple is to be continually learning (sometimes through trial and error) how to be Christ-like. It means being disciplined in our choices.

What about the bold part? How are we going to be bold in sharing the work of Jesus? How can we be bold in living by different priorities? How do we boldly love self, neighbour, and God?

First off, we don’t try to do it by ourselves. We live bold discipleship in community. We do it together. We hold each other accountable, share each other’s successes, and lift each other up. Like anything else in life, bold discipleship is easiest, when we are part of a group of like-minded individuals.

Secondly, it means we are willing to take risks. Sometimes we forget that following the path that Jesus followed, loving the world as he did, proclaiming an alternative kingdom like he did, means taking risks. When we proclaim God’s wide, unbounded, open-armed love we stand in the face of others who want to limit that love to the same people they love. When we remind ourselves and anyone who hears us that sometimes this world fails to be a place of justice and abundance for all we risk annoying those who have benefited from the injustice and inequity that has brought us to this point. This is where the boldness comes in. Taking risks in the service of a vision for the world, knowing that others may strike out against that vision, is being bold.

Thirdly, and finally for now, we can only engage in bold discipleship when we centre ourselves in God. As I write this part of my mind is also preparing the February 26 sermon on temptation. The way Jesus resists temptation, the way Jesus resists the easy way out when he is in the desert and when he is in the Garden of Gethsemane is to centre himself in God. He keeps his “eye on the prize”. Repeatedly in our Gospel stories Jesus goes off to pray. This helps him maintain his relationship with and centredness in God. If we are to be bold like Jesus, we too must keep our centre. As a community we must help each other keep that centre.

May we in service to our God Act out the living word,
And walk the road the saints have trod Till all have seen and heard.
As stewards of the earth may we Give thanks in one accord
To God who calls us all to be Disciples of the Lord.
(Today We All Are Called To Be Disciples, verse 4)

We are invited, encouraged, challenged, and called to join a parade that goes back centuries, the raggedy band of disciples who, for 2000 years or so have boldly shared God’s vision for the world. May God give us the boldness and the wisdom to share the vision, the hope, and the possibility of God’s Reign of love with the world we meet here in 2023.

Be bold! Let love shine for all the world to see! Go make a difference in the world!
Gord

Looking Forward to February 26, 2023 -- 1st Sunday in Lent

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
• Matthew 4:1-11

The Sermon title is ...not into temptation...

Early Thoughts: This week we begin the season of Lent. Lent is the 40 days (not counting Sundays) leading us to Easter. Traditionally it is a time of somber reflection, sometimes (or often) with a good dash of penitence and confession for flavour.

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Many years we begin Lent with the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert. In the end, I think, this is a story of self-discovery. Jesus is tempted with three possibilities (feed the hungry, be a worker of miracles, political power) of how he could live out his calling. He turns all of them down, not because they are unworthy (indeed one could argue that the story of Jesus and the church has him doing all three things) but because to choose one puts something other than God in first priority.

Is that really what temptation is about in the end? Is temptation about getting our priorities wrong?

Paired with Jesus and the tempter in the wilderness this week we have Adam and Eve and the tempter in the primordial garden. Here the temptation is "you will be like God". Temptation here comes from the idea that something great is being kept from us and if we just do what we were told was wrong we will benefit greatly.

In both these stories I think we are mis-served by seeing the tempter as evil incarnate. In most of Scripture the Satan is not seen this way, that seems to be a later development only hinted at in Scripture. One online friend of mine likes to see the tempter in both these stories more like the Trickster figure we find in other mythologies. The Tempter is testing, perhaps even on God's behalf, Jesus and Adam & Eve not trying to lead them into evil. Jesus passes the test with flying colours. Adam & Eve, not so much.

Source

To be human is to encounter temptations. We are tempted to put the wrong things as our top priority. We are tempted by FOMO (fear of missing out). We are tempted by promises of how wonderful things will be "if you only...". Maybe this is why we regularly pray that God will "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil".

What is your biggest temptation? How do we resist? When do we give in?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to February 19, 2023 -- Transfiguration Sunday

 The Scripture Reading this week is Matthew 17:1-9

The Sermon title is Glory Revealed

Early Thoughts: Every year, on the Sunday before Lent begins, the lectionary invites us to ponder the story of the Transfiguration. This year we have the story as Matthew tells it, but both Mark (9:2-10) and Luke (9:28-36) also recount the event. All 3 versions are really quite similar.

Jesus takes the inner circle of the inner circle away to a private place. [Note that there are other times Peter James and John are taken out of the larger group, the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prays before his arrest is another example.] While they are up on the mountain they have a mystical, mysterious experience. Jesus is revealed in a different way.

In the Lord of the Rings, as Frodo and his friends are being chased to the Fords of Bruinen Frodo sees a figure that shines brightly. Later Gandalf tells him that this was the elf Glorfindel and that as Glorfindel had lived in the Blessed Realm there was a hidden power in him and Frodo saw him as he was on the other side. I have often thought that Frodo was better able to see this side of Glorfindel as a result of Frodo's own wounded-ness, he was starting to fade at the time.  

In the Transfiguration story, do Peter James and John indeed see Jesus as he is "on the other side"? Are they getting a glimpse of the glory that is contained in the mortal frame of Jesus of Nazareth? Are they seeing the hidden power that can help to fight back the evil in the world?

Some scholars think that the Transfiguration story shows some signs of being influenced by the Easter story, that the Resurrected Jesus is being read back into earlier parts of the story. I think that is possible, I also think it is possible (or maybe even probable) that the disciples could not truly comprehend what had happened until they Easter had come and transformed their understanding of who Jesus was. Is that maybe why Jesus tells them not to tell anybody what had happened?

To be transfigured is to be changed. Those who have read the Harry Potter series (or even just watched the movies) will know that all students at Hogwarts take Transfiguration. In that class they learn how to change items into something else, such as a rat into a teacup. Jesus is changed on the mountain top, or at least the understanding Peter James and John have of Jesus is changed on the mountain top. They are left awe-struck and more than a little gobsmacked -- why does Peter want to set up tents?. They don't know quite how to respond appropriately. Radical change in how we see things will do that to you.

The glory of Jesus gets revealed in this week's story.  The disciples get a glimpse of what is happening but they don't really get it. In a few weeks we will tell the story of a cross and an empty tomb and the glory of Jesus being revealed yet again. Do the disciples get what is happening then? Do we get what is happening when the glory of God is revealed in our midst and we are left awe-struck?
--Gord

Minister's Annual Report

Friends, may the Grace and Peace of Jesus Christ be with you all:

Here we are, Annual Report time again. We pause to look back at the year that was and start to wonder what the next year will bring.

Life continues to be interesting as we sort out what things will look like on the far side of the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many churches are finding that regular Sunday attendance is not back to what it was 3 years ago. Many of us are thinking that this attendance pattern may in fact be with us to stay. That may push us to adapt how we see ourselves functioning as a church community, to alter our assumptions about what we will look like.

In our Bible Study discussion this week we were talking about growth. I asked a question about what growth might look like. Does it always mean things like bums in seats or dollars in the bank, stuff that is easily countable? Or are there other ways that growth is evident in our communities? In the middle of that discussion one of the participants said that she saw lots of exciting things happening in our shared life as a community of faith. Growth and change are happening here. The other submissions to this Annual Report talk about what we have done and are continuing to do.

For my part I want to do what I do every year in this writing. That is to say thank you. This community only exists and functions because so many of you give so much. Thank you for people who serve on Ministry Teams and Council. Thank you to those who help organize and run fundraisers. Thank you to Scripture Readers and Greeters and Coffee Makers who add life and variety to our Sunday mornings. Thank you to all who give money to our general fund, to our Local Outreach Fund, to Mission & Service. Over and over again I am struck by the generosity that exists within this community of faith. Thank you all so much.

Life in the Goo, what’s a body to do?
Sometimes you don’t know if you ever get through.
But God has promised to be there for you,
so every now and then you live your life in the Goo.
(Refrain from Life in the Goo by Jill Kirsten Warner ©1999)

This piece by my colleague Jill was sparked by hearing about the transition from caterpillar to butterfly and the ‘gooieness’ of a cocoon. A new butterfly has to fight out of the goo before it can take wing and fly away. Jill thought it was a good image for life in the 21^st Century church that spends so much time dealing with change and transition.

We have our own ‘gooieness’ at various times and in various ways, but there is one event this past year that I need to talk about. It raises a gooey part of our current reality. Last Spring the Pastoral Relations Commission and the Community of Faith Support Committee of Northern Spirit Regional Council asked every congregation in NSRC to complete an assessment tool looking at both financial and labour viability (though it mainly looked at financial information). When we pulled all the numbers together into one document it made clear what I expected we would find.

To put it bluntly, the numbers show that as a congregation we are not currently viable in the medium or long term. Given the last set of numbers I have seen for 2022 (end of November) I expect that the deficit for 2022 will end up being substantial, as in above $30 000. We have some time to come up with a plan but we have to start actively building that plan now. We must find a new way to be the church or we will cease to exist as a congregation. To that end, at our January meeting Council agreed to form a “Futures Committee” to look at options.

The church of Christ in every age, beset by change but Spirit led,
must claim and test its heritage and keep on rising from the dead.
(Verse 1 of The Church of Christ in Every Age
by Fred Pratt Green, ©1969 #601 in Voices United,)

Personally my dream for the future of St. Paul’s is that we partner with a social agency or possibly another faith community. My dream also involves working with a partner to acquire the building to the north of the church and redeveloping the whole parcel of land from 100^th ave to 101^st Ave (when I dream really big I add the Golden Age Centre property into the mix as well). There may be other hopes and dreams and visions for the future out there. I don’t know where we will land. I do know that if we don’t start planning for a changed future and making that change happen we will run out of time and money within a few years (there are various opinions in the congregation about how many years that is).

We might be in a bit of a gooey spot right now. But I believe we are still called to be the church. We still make a difference in Grande Prairie. Now is the time for us to sort out what a changed future will look like so we can “keep on rising from the dead”. After all, as Christians we are a resurrection people.

So as we head on into a new year, as we continue to explore who and how God has called us to be in this place and time I close with yet another song:

Let us build a house where all love can dwell and all can safely live,
a place where saints and children tell how hearts learn to forgive.
Built of hopes and dreams and vision...
Let us build a house where all are named, their songs and visions heard
and loved and treasured, taught and claimed as words within the Word.
Built of tears and cries and laughter, prayers of faith and songs of grace...
All are welcome in this place.
(Verses 1, 5 of Let Us Build a House by Marty Haugen
©1994, #1 in More Voices)

Together, and with God’s guidance, we can build a community of faith for a new era.

Peace be with you all,
Gord

Looking Ahead to February 12, 2023

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Deuteronomy 30:15-20
• 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

The Sermon title is What Helps You Grow?

Early Thoughts: Who has helped you grow? What choices have influenced your growth over the years?

This week's passage from Deuteronomy is one of my favourite pieces of Scripture. It reminds us that our choices matter. It reminds us that while God has offered us a way to live, a set of rules or guidelines to follow, we still have the ability to make choices. It reminds us that we have to make good choices if we are to have abundant life for ourselves and our community.

I would suggest that God wants us to grow as individuals and as communities (I think this is part of the logic behind much of the Law in Torah, that these are ways we can grow to be the people God wants us to be). As we grow we make, and learn from, our choices. Consequences are often a really good teaching tool.

Then we have our fifth (and for now final) passage from 1 Corinthians. Paul jumps back to a more explicit discussion of the things that seem to be dividing the Christian community if Corinth. And still one of those issues is that some people think one teacher is better than another. Paul wants the Corinthians, and us, to see that they are all part of a larger picture.

How many teachers have you had in your life? Some were formally called teachers or mentors. Some were people who were a part of your life and happened to teach you something, either intentionally or by happenstance. Many of us probably have teachers/mentors in our lives that we call favourite, and teachers/mentors who we disliked. But if we are honest, we have to admit that we are who we are (for better or worse) because of all of them.

Paul says that he planted the seed, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. And the important one is the one who gives the growth. 

So how has God helped you to grow? How has God helped us as a community to grow? Many people have planted seeds. Many people have watered and weeded and tended. But has God given growth?

How have we embraced the growth God has offered? How have our choices led to more opportunities for growth? How have we resisted the growth that God has offered? When have we chosen not to grow?

A couple of other things occur to me as I write this:

1. Growth means change. An acorn does not look like an Oak. I remember a Continuing Education Event I attended a few years ago. The presenter, whose family had grown through fostering and adoption, said that they were always clear that each time a new member joined the family they were a different family. They were not the same as they had been before. To grow is to change. I suspect this is why we sometime resist growth both as individuals and as communities.
2. While we all have our list of those who have fed/watered/tended/taught us, it is also true that we have all been the ones to teach/tend/tend/water/feed others. Seeds have been planted in our lives and souls, we have planted seeds in others. Some may be fruitful, some may have been weeds. How do we help (or maybe hinder) each other to embrace the growth God is causing within them?
   

Tris week I invite us all to think about growth. In some ways it is a mysterious thing, as the children's song asks: "Do you or I or anyone know how oats peas beans and barley grow?". In some ways it is a scary thing, we don't always know (and we can't always control) what we, our communities, our children will grow into. But in the end the promise of growth is a sign of hope, a sign the God is with us.

So how is God causing growth in and around you here in 2023?
--Gord