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.