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