Looking Ahead to April 28, 2024 -- 5th Sunday of Easter

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Galatians 5:22-23
• John 15:1-17

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The Sermon title is Fruit of the Vine

Early Thoughts: The first commandment God gives humanity in Scripture is "Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:28). What does it mean to be fruitful?

Or maybe the better question is 'what sort of fruit should we produce?' and then ponder how it compares to what we actually do produce.

Looking at the passages for this week I find myself calling to mind another piece of Scripture, Matthew 7:15-20, which reminds us that trees are known by the fruits they produce. Jesus calls us to see ourselves as branches growing from the True Vine (which is Jesus) rooted, I assume, in God. Paul calls us to strive to produce the fruit of the spirit (with all its multiple flavours) that stands in direct contrast to what Paul, in verse19-21, calls the works of the flesh.

What fruit are we producing?

If we live into our identity as followers of Christ, branches of the True Vine how will people know that to be true? As the folk song goes "They will know we are Christians by our....love". We are called to bear fruits of love (the first flavour Paul lists). Growing from the core of Christ, who has been called Love Incarnate, we bear that fruit first and foremost. John's Gospel even suggests that if we fail to remain connected to the vine, if we fail to bear good fruit the branch may be cut off/pruned/cleansed, it will no longer have the life in abundance that Jesus promises to bring.

We can only be fruitful if we remains connected to the core, drawing strength and nutrition from the vine and the root. We are the branches stretching out into the world, may we be healthy branches, full of good, sweet, fresh, life-giving fruit.

What do you grow?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to April 21, 2024 -- 4th Sunday of Easter

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• John 20:24-29
• Luke 24:36-49

The Sermon title is Touching, Seeing, Believing

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Early Thoughts: What would it take for you to believe? What would make the Resurrection real to you?

Our stories this week come from the first days of the post-Easter community (the Luke story is either the evening of Easter Day or possibly the day after [depending how fast the walkers to Emmaus got back to Jerusalem], the John passage is a bout a week after Easter Day). There are rumours and stories about this remarkable event. Some people have had direct encounters with the Risen Christ and some only have the stories to go by. Some people believe, some are still a little unsure what is going on.

So Jesus shows up and offers proof.

A number of modern folk struggle with the Easter story. One of the areas of struggle is "was it a real body?". Were the appearance stories people seeing the raised body that had been taken off of the cross or were they mystical visions? Certainly the history of Christian theology and mysticism shows that people continue to have visions of the Risen Christ well beyond the time period of Scripture and those are clearly visions, not a visitation by the body that came off the cross. I would argue that Paul's experience of the Risen Christ, the experience that led directly to his conversion, is in that category.

But what about those Easter stories in Matthew, Luke and John?  What were/are they?

The witness of those Gospel writers clearly attest that these appearance stories are not mystical visions but are physical visits by a flesh and blood body. And in the stories we read this week the narrative goes to great lengths to prove this physicality. The Risen Christ eats, can be touched, hears and speaks. This body still carries the wounds of his death (I think this is an important piece, though possibly a whole other sermon). And it is in these signs that belief comes for those early disciples.

What does it take for us to believe Resurrection is real?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to April 14, 2024 -- 3rd Sunday of Easter

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• 2 Corinthians 9:7, 10-15
• John 13:1-5, 34-35

The Sermon title is Gratitude

Early Thoughts: What fills you with gratitude? How does being grateful change who you are and how you act? 

I believe that the foundation of good stewardship discussions is gratitude. Gratitude shapes us into people who are more likely to share our gifts with the world around us. Gratitude shapes us into people who are more able to love our neighbours as we have been loved.

I think gratitude is important in two (at least) ways. First when we have grateful hearts we see the gifts as gifts, we see the abundance we have rather than seeing life in a scarcity mindset. This opens us to the possibility that we have something to share. Second when we tell others how grateful we are for the ways they have shared gifts with us and our community it provides an incentive for them to continue to share.. Gratitude can lead us to share and then it can lead us to share again.

So again I ask. What fills you with gratitude? For what are you most grateful in your life?

How do you live a life based on gratitude and abundance?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to April 7, 2024 -- 2nd Sunday of Easter

This being the first Sunday of the Month we will be celebrating Communion.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Acts 4:32-35
• 2 Corinthians 8:1-7

The Sermon title is: Sharing Sharing Sharing

Early Thoughts: It is one of the first life skills we learn. It is a key part of how we get along. Many years ago when Robert Fulghum shared his list of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten the first item on the list was "Share Everything". 

In both Guiding and Scouting the youngest groups are reminded of the importance of sharing at every meeting.  This week's sermon title is the Beaver motto (and has been for decades, I remember learning it when I was a Beaver). The Sparks promise is captured on the t-shirt pictured above -- which used to be the official uniform for Sparks when our girls started in the program.

Turns out it is a Biblical injunction too. Both in this week's reading from Acts 4 and earlier at the end of Acts 2 we are told that the early church survived by sharing what each had for the benefit of the whole community. [If you read the beginning of Acts 5 you will find a tale about a couple who tried to skirt this requirement of being a part of the community.]

Both Christianity and Judaism (from whence Christianity sprung: Jesus, Peter, Paul and many others--all the earliest Christians were Jewish) place a high priority on the communal well-being. I am sure the same is true of many other faith traditions. Jewish law has in it restrictions aimed at ensuring the well-being of the whole community. More than once the Gospels tell of Jesus warning about the dangers of accumulating wealth (in human communities the accumulation of wealth often happens at the cost to other members of the community). We are called to share what we have for the benefit of all.

Some might call that Stewardship. Some might call it love in action. Some might call it ridiculous Marxist thought.

The faith community we call St. Paul's United Church only exists because people have shared. For over 100 years, starting when Alexander Forbes first began to create a Presbyterian church on this site, people have shared what they had with each other and with the larger community of Grande Prairie. For this faith community to continue to exist and move from surviving to thriving we need people to continue to share.

This week I ask you to prayerfully consider what you have to share. What can you put in the common pot? What do you have that can help the community bloom and grow? Yes that includes cash, the bills have to be paid. It also includes all sorts of other gifts. We pool our gifts of talent, time, treasure, prayer and love together and find that the sum is greater than the total of its parts (or at least that is the hope).

Sharing. It's a good thing to do. That is why we teach it to our kids so early in life. (And both when we are young and when we are older it can also be a challenge.)
--Gord

Looking Ahead to March 31, 2024 -- Easter Sunday

The Scripture Readings we will hear this Easter Day are:

• Isaiah 25:6-9
• Mark 16:1-8

The Sermon title is Fearful Joy

Early Thoughts: A great surprise! A wondrous terror! Run and hide! Share the news!

Or maybe we could sing:

Refrain:
This is the day that God has made!
Rejoice! Rejoice, and be exceeding glad!
This is the day that God has made!
Rejoice! Rejoice! Hallelujah!

Christ has conquered death at last,
left the tomb that held him fast!
Gone the sorrow, gone the night,
dawns the morning clear and bright!
(beginning of This is the Day that God Has Made, #175 in Voices United)

Thine is the glory, risen, conquering Son;
endless is the victory Thou o’er death hast won.
Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
kept the folded grave-clothes where Thy body lay.
(beginning of Thine is the Glory, #173 in Voices United)

On Easter Sunday we announce boldly that they powers of death and destruction do not have the last word. Life and love will win. Who could help but sing and dance and share the news where ever they go?

Well, according to Mark, the first witnesses to this surprising victory had a very different reaction. In what is commonly believed to be the earliest, original, ending to Mark's Gospel we read "So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.". 

To be honest, I get that. When your whole understanding of how the world works has been challenged, when you expect to weep at a graveside only to find an empty tomb and news of resurrection, when the world has been turned upside down terror and amazement seem natural. Maybe later you might tell someone else about it (which obviously Mary, Mary and Salome did) but first you might need some time to process what has happened.

Easter is a surprise. Easter is a shock. Easter is, to someone who is not really expecting it, terrifying. Easter disrupts life (with life itself ironically). This is not a comfortable experience. It may be wonderful news but that does not make it comfortable. In some ways this original ending of Mark's Gospel is my favorite Easter story. It captures that mixture of joy and disruption, wonder and fear so incredibly well.

For the Easter season our worship question about finding God is going to be "where did God surprise you?". AS we celebrate the Good News of an empty tomb this year I invite all of us to consider what times we feel that mix of fearful joy. Where is God surprising, elating, and terrifying you all at the same time?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to March 29, 2024 -- Good Friday

This year we will hear the story from Arrest to Burial as told in the Gospel of Mark 14:43-15:47

The Sermon title is Disaster???

Early Thoughts:  What do we think about as we sit at the base of the cross and remember this story? Can we read it, immerse ourselves in it, feel all the feelings, without remembering the rest of the story? Does remembering that this is not the end of the story rob the cross of its horror and power? (And is that necessarily a bad thing?)

The disciples, the people closes to Jesus had to live through this not knowing for sure what the end of the story truly was. For them it must have seemed very possible that this was the end. All their hopes were being destroyed. The promise of a new world was gone. The horror and terror must have been a palpable part of their experience.

For them, this was a disaster. Yes Jesus has repeatedly told them that the Son of Man would be executed and then would be rise three days later but I am pretty sure they did not believe it. After all why would they? As far as they knew dead meant dead. Some of them might have heard and even believed in the idea that the righteous would be raised at the last days, resurrection was a part of some Jewish schools of thought in the first century, but still was now the time? What they knew for sure was that Jesus was hauled away and his death was imminent. For all they knew the highly identifiable followers of Jesus could be next.

How might you react if you had been there?

To be honest I think that even though we know the rest of the story (so far, the story has not actually come to an end yet) we need to stop and pretend we don't for a moment. It is too easy to ignore the horror and terror of this day when we want to jump right to an empty tomb and the promise of new life. I am not saying that is bad. Hope is always a good thing. Remembering the promise of God that life and love will always defeat (in the long view) death and fear is always a good thing. But maybe if we don't pause to remember the realities of death and fear, despair and defeat we don't fully appreciate the power of the victory.

The world around us knows a lot about fear and death. Despair is a common reaction to our news stories. Some days it seems like the disaster wins -- sometimes on a personal level, sometimes in our faith communities, sometimes on a global scale. We may need to sit with the disaster for a bit, even as we try to live into hope.

What are the disasters you need to sit with this year? Where does it look like the forces of empire and destruction are beating down the Kingdom of God? What makes you want to run away and hide so you are not the next one to get caught in the web of death?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to March 24, 2024 -- Palm Sunday

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Psalm 118:19-29 (read responsively to open the service)
• Mark 11:1-11
• Mark 11:27-33
• Mark 14:1-2

The Sermon title is Triumph!??

Image source

Early Thoughts: Hosanna, loud hosanna the happy children sang...  All glory laud and honour to thee Redeemer King... Ride on ride on in majesty...

Opening lines from 3 Palm Sunday hymns. Just typing them out conjures up images of people parading around the church waving palm branches. It brings out feelings of hope and joy. 

When I read the story of the entry into Jerusalem it carries with it that feeling of hope and possibility. The air seems to resound with the triumphant glory that the king has entered the city. It may well have been street theater. It might have been carefully staged to make a point. But there is a clear sense that the air rings with great news.

Unless you look beyond those verses of course.

The trouble seems to start immediately. People with power see Jesus' street theater as a threat. They start to wonder how they should react. (To be fair Jesus seems to be doing a fair bit to antagonize them as well.) By the beginning of chapter 14 the direction is clear. As Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice put it "this Jesus must die".

What type of triumphant story is this? When we sing those hymns and wave the branches what victory are we celebrating? The next few steps of the story seem far from victorious, in fact they lean more toward disastrous.

The Palm Sunday story is often called "the Triumphal Entry". But there is a big shadow looming over the parade. In fact  one of those hymns I quoted above includes the line "in lowly pomp ride on to die". 

Where do we go from here?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to March 17, 2024 -- 5th Sunday in Lent

 The Scripture Readings this week are: 

• Jeremiah 31:31-34
• John 12:20-26

The Sermon title is Life-Changing Promise

Early Thoughts: What difference does it make that to our lives to have the New Covenant written on our hearts and souls? 

Does it lead us to fall into the ground and die so that growth can happen?

Can people who watch how we live and act tell whether or not the words have soaked into the heart they were written on?

With this week's reading from Jeremiah we continue the theme set in the first two weeks of Lent of talking about covenants.  We started with the covenant of the rainbow, then we looked at the covenant made with Abraham. Because of our Annual Meeting Sunday we skipped over the covenant marked by the 10 commandments, and now we have Jeremiah and the promised new covenant. 

I read an article last month that suggested that each "new" covenant is in fact a divine act of covenant renewal -- arguably stretching back to the first covenant found at the beginning of Genesis. In the beginning God calls Creation good and has a vision for how the world could be. God makes promises and agreements with the first humans. Everything that follows from that point is God's attempt to keep these humans God has created in line with the vision. All these other covenants are times when God is trying again to bring God's beloved children back to the hope, to what they were created to be. In this process God has tried a variety of signs and forms. Now God has a new way.

Maybe the problem is that all the old signs and promises were external. Maybe the heart of humanity needs to be changed. Maybe if the law of love,  grace, mercy, and community is written on humanity's heart it will change how they live, how they interact with each other.

Christians have traditionally understood that this new covenant is enacted in the life, ministry, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. As we grow as followers of The Way, as we develop as disciples of Christ, the law that is written on our hearts becomes a part of our DNA, becomes the guiding/shaping/forming principle that moves us forward.   

I firmly believe that how we use our time, talent, and treasure, what we do with the life we have been given, shows what is truly written on our hearts. I also believe that allowing the law of love,  grace, mercy, and community to soak deep into our very being will change how we use our time, talent, and treasure. A deep reading of what God, through Christ, has written on our hearts and souls will lead us to be good stewards of the lives we have been given.

For all of the existence of the church there has been an understanding that when we give ourselves fully to the new covenant, when we choose to be wholehearted followers of The Way, it is a process of dying so that we may live. In order to live in a new way we have to let (or encourage or even cause?) old ways of thinking and living die. Indeed, one of the reasons that white is a traditional colour for baptismal garments is to mimic the funeral shroud, as in baptism we pass through death and into new life (language often used more for Believer's Baptism than infant baptism and for immersion rather than sprinkling). Jesus himself, in this week's reading from John (and other places in the Gospels) reminds us that sometimes the only way to live and grow is in fact to die.

What needs to die so that the word God has written on your heart can fully impact how you live your life? What needs to die so that we can be great stewards of the lives we have been given?

There is something written on our hearts and souls, something that would, if we let it, sink deep into the very fiber of our being, something that can guide and shape all of our lives. Will we let it? HOw will those words of promise change our lives?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to March 3, 2024 -- 3rd Sunday of Lent

 All are reminded that our Annual Congregational Meeting will take place following worship this Sunday. Lunch will be provided.

The Scripture Readings this week are taken from a suggestion in Discipleship Is Stewardship a United Church Stewardship Resource.  They are:

• 2 Corinthians 9:1-15
• Luke 19:1-10

The Sermon title is Life Changing Thankfulness

Early Thoughts: What happens at that dinner?

There are a variety of opinions on what is happening in the story of Zacchaeus. Some ponder if he was the short one or if Jesus was so short the crowd covered him up. Some ponder why Zacchaeus was so determined to see this Jesus. And then there is the end of the story.

Is Zacchaeus professing "I am not so bad, I already do these things"? Or is he so transformed by the encounter with Jesus that he is starting a whole new way of being? I have read both interpretations but I lean to the latter,

 I think we are seeing a moment of transformation, the sort of transformation that comes from having an encounter with the Living God. And as I re-read the story I think that part of that transformation is driven by gratitude.

As a tax collector Zacchaeus would be seen as an outcast by the rest of society. He was in league with those who exploited the population. There is every chance that he is rich because he is good at gaming the system and his wealth is not exactly morally acquired. By going to Zacchaeus' house for a meal (inviting himself if we want to be blunt about it) Jesus is naming Zacchaeus as a member of God's community,  as a son of Abraham. I think that this being welcomed back into community opens up his heart. His response is based on gratitude for what Jesus, the Word-Made-Flesh, is proclaiming about him.

How do we respond to an encounter with the Living God? Are we filled with gratitude? Are we driven to change our lives? DO we respond with generosity? Is that what makes us a cheerful giver, giving as we have made up our mind, not regretfully or under compulsion?

--Gord

Looking Ahead to February 25, 2024 -- Lent 2B

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Genesis 17:1-27
• Mark 8:34-37

The Sermon title is Promises with a Price

Early Thoughts: What price might you be willing to pay? What might seem too much to ask?

Abram/Abraham is once again reminded of the promise and God makes a covenant. This sign of this covenant is that Abraham and all the males of his household (meaning Ishmael [born of the slave woman Hagar] and slaves and servants since the promised son [Isaac] has yet to arrive). The male who is not circumcised will not be a party to the covenant, will not be a member of the household. The male who is not circumcised will not be a part of God's Chosen People.

The promise comes with a price.

Then we have Jesus. Peter and company have been invited into a new way of being, they have been invited into the company of the Kingdom. Jesus is sharing the promise of a renewed world. Peter has just professed that Jesus is the Messiah, the Chosen One of God. In response Jesus  predicts his death and rebukes Peter for questioning that. Now Jesus tells his friends that to follow Jesus means being willing to give up their lives.

The promise comes with a price.

What price are you willing to pay to be a part of the promise?

WE are invited to be a part of God's beloved community. We are invited to be heirs to the promises of abundant life and hope and love. But there may be a cost associated with that invitation. One of the hymns in More Voices (one we sang earlier this year) talks about different invitations to follow Jesus and includes the line "lives will never be the same again". That could be a promise, it could be a threat, it certainly suggests there is a price to be paid.

Following The Way of Jesus means to follow a different path than the rest of the world. IT might not cost our lives in terms of hanging on a cross but it will come at a cost. IT pushes us to "deny our very selves", to have a different set of priorities.

What price are you willing to pay to be a part of the promise?

--Gord

Looking Ahead to February 18, 2024 -- Lent 1B

This Sunday we begin the season of Lent and our journey toward cross and tomb.

The Scripture reading this week is Genesis 8:20-9:17 (we will also be using Psalm 25 as our Prayer for Grace)

The Sermon title is Promises Made

Early Thoughts: We are people bound together by promises and covenants. We are people bound to God by promises and covenants.

There is a lot that can be said about rainbows, both from a scientific and a metaphorical/symbolic point of view. This article is just one example, there are lots of others. Humans have used rainbows as a way to talk about many different things within different cultural settings. In recent North American history two that stand out are Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition and the Pride flag.

However in the Scriptures shared between Judaism and Christianity the rainbow is first and foremost a sign of God's promise. After the flood God repents over the destruction and promises to never do that again. The rainbow serves to remind humanity, and God, of that promise.

This covenant, one of many we find in Scripture, is mainly God making promises to humanity. There are few things being asked of humanity in return. Humans are again, as they were in the Creation story a few chapters earlier, given permission to eat of the flora and fauna of the world -- in fact here there are no limitations, Jewish kosher laws will come later. All that is called for from humans in this passage is to be careful about the spilling of blood. (I wonder how blood sausage/black pudding fits with this limitation?)

What does it tell us to be reminded that God has pledged never to cause such mass destruction again (I have always noted God says nothing about preventing humans from causing mass destruction)? What does it say about God that God, knowing that humanity will continue to miss the mark, is in it for the long haul?

More importantly, how could or should we respond to this promise? Will we say that we can do whatever we want or will we be humbled? 

Next time you see the bow in the clouds will you think of God's promise to not destroy the earth? Will you be reminded of the God who is in it for the long haul?
--Gord

Annual Report

I have to confess something. I really dislike writing this report every year. I often wonder what to say, what needs to be said. Do we look behind at the year that was or the year that is just starting? This year is even more confounding. Given the discussions of our present and future what needs to be said?

Luckily there is one thing that is constant, one thing that needs to be said every year. Thank you.

This congregation would not function, would not even exist without the generous contributions of so many people. Because so many of you have given time and money we have a ministry in Grande Prairie. Elsewhere in this booklet people have made lists of some of the jobs that have been done to make our community work in 2023. Thank you to all of you. Your time is valuable and you all have other places where you could spend it.

The same goes for money. We all have a long list of things that our money could be spent on. This year you have been wonderfully generous. Envelope revenue (which includes Sunday envelopes, PAR and E-transfers) were up just over 8.6% over 2022. And it shows. In 2022 we had a deficit of over $31 000. This year we had a deficit of under $2 400, which is less than 1% of total expenses. I call that pretty close to a balanced budget for 2023. This is something to celebrate! In fact, we took in more money in 2023 than we did in 2020, the year we got roughly $23 000 in COVID related government grants.

On top of that we were able to share about $14 000 with the wider community through our Local Outreach Fund. I have said it before and I will say it again. St. Paul’s is a wonderfully generous community and Grande Prairie is a better place for it. Thank you for making that statement so true.

I am sure many of us have highlights from the past year, things that stand out. The Affirming celebration is one of those for me. That and the discussions I have had with people who have made it clear how important it was to them that we took on that journey. St. Paul’s holds a special space in the Grande Prairie faith community. In the same way I look back on the Advent season and the effusive thanks we got from our partner agencies for the gifts we share with them through our Christmas campaign. Again I say that Grande Prairie is a better, stronger place because St. Paul’s has made a difference – because your gifts of time, treasure and love have made a difference. Thank you.

Now I move to harder things. I noted above that we essentially balanced the budget in 2023 and that is a wonderful thing. However it is the exception. From 2019 to 2022 (the only years I have easy access to as I sit at my desk) we ran deficits ranging from $9300 to $31 000. I include 2020 in that because without the $23 000 in government grants we would have had a 5 figure deficit that year instead of a surplus. That can’t continue. We need more money, more people, more energy. So what is the path ahead?

There are lots of reasons to give into the crisis and look for quick fixes to the budget problem. I encourage us not to do that. Crisis thinking often leads us into poorer solutions that can cause unplanned for negative results. The book I am currently reading talks about getting out of the crisis of decline and into the crisis of God’s action (I am waiting to see exactly what they mean by that). What is God doing in our midst that we can join in with? What is God up to in Grande Prairie, at St. Paul’s in particular, that this faith community can take part in? What is the ministry of St. Paul’s at this point in its history?

Many years ago Pete Townshend wrote these words:

Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?

I know I have been harping on this sort of question for many years. But unless we know who we are we will never fully know what our purpose and ministry is. Not who we were and what our ministry was, which is often where those conversations end up going, but who we are and what our ministry is now.

The way forward will lie in admitting that we are not who we once were. The way forward will be to celebrate the gifts that we have to offer, that we are currently offering, and build from there. The way forward will involve hard decisions. Each option will have positive and negative repercussions. The way forward will not be a “flip the switch and all will be well” thing (what in life ever is). But here is the Good News.

We are not alone. We are a community of faith, called together by the Source of Life. God has walked with people on this site overlooking Bear Creek since Alexander Forbes first planted a stake saying “Presbyterian Church”. God has led us here and God will lead us forward. The road to this point has not always been comfortable or smooth. The road ahead will have some bumps, maybe even some motion sickness. But let’s open our eyes, ears, and souls to sense where God is calling us forward. Let us live not in the crisis of decline, which is depressing and scary, but rather in the crisis of God’s action, which may be exhilarating and scary. Together we will find the way to live out our Mission Statement:

Through Faith, we walk on the path Jesus set for us.
The people of St. Paul’s Belong...Believe...Love...Listen...Lead

What will 2024 bring? What will these pages talk about in a year’s time? We can only wait and see.

Yours in Christ,
Gord Waldie

Looking Ahead to February 11, 2024 -- Transfiguration Sunday

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• 2 Kings 2:1-12
• 2 Corinthians 4:1-7

The Sermon title is What Do You See?

Sunday's stole?

Early Thoughts: Of all the courses taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry I think I would most want to take Transfiguration. Transfiguration changes what we see. Or maybe it changes how we see?

Commonly on Transfiguration Sunday we read about Jesus on the mountain top with Peter, James, and John. This story pushes the disciples, and through them us, to see Jesus in a new, different way. There is a lot to talk about there. But it is not the only place in Scripture that we can be pushed to see things differently.

What/how we see is largely shaped by where we stand -- physically, mentally, philosophically, emotionally. Elisha has to be in the right physical mental and emotional place to see what God reveals as Elijah is taken up in the whirlwind. But because God is with him he can see through his grief and loss. He sees the event differently than the other prophets who stop on the other side of the river.

If we are to see clearly what God is doing in the world we need to see differently. We need to cast aside the veil that the world places over our sight. Or maybe more appropriately we need to let God pull aside the veil that we might be clinging to. Sometimes we are the ones that get in the way of seeing clearly.

In the end we have to see differently. We have to see past the whirlwind or the clay jars.. We only do that when God helps us.

Maybe then the tea cup will turn into a rat. Or the professor into a cat. Or the water into rum.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to February 4, 2024 --5th Sunday After Epiphany Year B

This being the first Sunday of February, we will be celebrating the sacrament of Communion.

The Scripture Readings for this week are:

• Isaiah 40:28-31
• Mark 1: 21-45

The Sermon title is The Healer, the Renewer

Early Thoughts: Where do you need to be healed? What part of your life cries out for renewal?

The Gospel accounts are clear. The ministry of Jesus included a ministry of healing. Jesus healed people. Jesus cast out demons.

This is sometimes a challenge for those of us whose rationality tends to discount the supernatural. And demon possession/exorcisms?

However the Gospels are clear. Even if the (sometimes overly) rational 21st century Christian finds the concept unbelievable Jesus healed, Jesus cast out demons.

Moreover, I would suggest that the ongoing work of the Risen Christ in the world continues to include healing. The presence of God in our lives brings healing and renewal. God's activity in the world continues to silence demons and take away their power.

I also suggest that there may be times that there is a difference between having our selves healed/renewed and having a physical condition cured.

So back to the questions I started with. Where in your life do you need healing and renewal? I might even ponder what demons (because in one way or another many of us have demons) need to be silenced and robbed of their power. Are we able to name those things? Are we able to ask for healing? Are we able to receive it?

And more to the point...HOW?

The how has to do with our willingness to ask and seek, but also our ability to see and recognize. Sometimes healing and renewal might look different than we want them to. Or sometimes we are so focused on how we understand the world to work that we can't see what is staring us in the face.

When I read those few verses from Isaiah I see another clue to the how. "They who wait for the Lord...". We might have to wait and allow God to work. We might have to wait an allow God to reveal what God is doing so that we can participate in the healing and renewal that is already happening around us.

That might be true both for us as individuals and for us as communities (including congregations). This weekend I started to read a book that a colleague had recommended: When Church Stops Working.
One of the things that has been suggested in the opening chapters is that the path forward is not about new or more programs but starts with waiting. Renewing the church begins with waiting. I look forward to seeing where they go with that line of thought.

Assuming that we, as individuals and communities, are in need of healing and renewal and assuming that God's activity in the world includes bringing healing and renewal, are we ready to look and see where that healing is occurring? Are we ready to pause and wait, to stop doing something, so that the healing can happen?

What might happen if we opened ourselves to the possibility of healing, of renewal, of demons being silenced? How might our lives be different?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to January 28, 2024 -- 4th Sunday After Epiphany, Year B

The Scripture Readings this week are: 

• 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
• 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

The Sermon title is To Do or Not To Do

Early Thoughts: If all things are permitted why not do them? And what criteria do we use to decide what to do and what not to do.

I see three possible answers in these passages from 1 Corinthians:

1. Self-control. We may be permitted to do something but we should not be dominated by it. We need to set limits
2. Does doing the thing bring glory to God? We should choose to do things that are in line with our identity as beloved children of God. Our choices should show that God is active in our lives.
3. Care for our neighbour. Do the choices we make lead others into confusion? We are called to build a community, not to indulge our own desires.

 It appears that among the many issues being faced by the Corinthian church was a failure to understand those three points.

I wonder if we are that much different today? Culturally we have moved through a few cycles in recent generations. In the 2020's we may not be quite as deep in the "if it feels good do it" mindset of previous decades but we are still living in a culture that is coloured to some degree by that ideal. I think it goes along with a "me first" mindset (something else that has marked the last 50 or 60 years).

At the same time we are not as puritanical as some earlier generations, and I believe we never will be. The pendulum might swing between permissiveness and restriction but each time it swings the center of the movement pushes over slightly to the permissive side. Whether that is a good thing or not is a matter for debate.

So how, in the 21st century, do we decide "to do or not to do"? How do we decide what limits to place on ourselves -- particularly when we are talking about placing stronger limits than the wider culture?

I encourage us to return to the three points I named above. It turns out Paul might have know what he was talking about (even if his discussion of eating meat in chapter 8 seems to say both yes and no).

What things are you allowed to do but choose not to? When do you say "well I could but it would be better if I didn't"? Are there times you choose care for your neighbour to override your desire to do something?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to January 21, 2024 -- 3rd Sunday After Epiphany, Year B

This week during the Time for the Young at Heart we will talk a bit about Christian Unity

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• 1 Samuel 3:1-10 
• Jonah 3:1-5 
• Mark 1:14-20

The Sermon title is Open Ears

Early Thoughts: There is a song, #272 in Voices United, which says: 

Open your ears, O faithful people, open your ears and hear God's word.
Open your hearts, O royal priesthood, God now speaks to you.
God has spoken to the people, Hallelujah!
And those words are words of wisdom, Hallelujah!

They who have ears to hear this message, they who have ears, then let them hear.
They who would learn the way of wisdom, let them hear Gods word.
God has spoken to the people, Hallelujah!
And those words are words of wisdom, Hallelujah!

This week we have three very different stories about people who make a choice to hear. One is a story of someone who takes a while to recognize what is happening. One may well be the most effective call to repentance one finds in Scripture. The third is the familiar story of fishermen leaving their nets behind to follow this Jesus fellow.

There is an interesting line at the beginning of the Samuel story: "The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread". I always wonder if God had gone silent for a time or if the people just were not listening carefully enough. Maybe it is a variation on the old conundrum "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around does it make a sound?". If God is speaking but nobody has open ears to listen/is tuned in to the right frequency (to use a radio image) is God really speaking? Of course the tree in the forest DOES make a sound, even if nobody is there to hear it, but how useful is an unheard sound?

That story of young Samuel resonates with me. Do we recognize when God might be calling out to us, whispering in our ears? Are we ready to say "Speak, for your servant is listening"? Who will be our Eli, eventually helping us to recognize what is happening?

Or there is the story from Jonah. Having finally arrived in Nineveh, where he never wanted to go in the first place, Jonah shares the message that God has given him. He warns the people to change their ways or the city will be destroyed. To his surprise (and possibly to his dismay) the people of Nineveh listen. They hear the message clearly and respond. [It appears Jonah was all excited that he might get to watch them be destroyed and is very disappointed that this does not come to pass. Sometimes we get listened to when we don't really want to.] For some reason the people of Nineveh had ears that were open and ready to hear.

Then there is our third story this week, one many of us have heard before. Jesus shows up along the shore of the sea of Galilee and calls four fishermen to join him. Immediately they get up, leave their nets behind, and follow him. What made them so open to hear the call? Or what was it about the call-er (Jesus) that made the message so compelling that they responded so immediately? What might make us respond that quickly to an invitation?

Several years ago the United Church of Christ in the US reminded us that God is still speaking. Judging from the ads I saw that used that phrase, in large part this was a call to "not put a period where God has put a comma", to remember that the world and our understanding of who God calls us to be is not fixed and unchanging. God is calling us to new understandings. But I also think it is a reminder that we need to stop, unplug our ears, tune in to a different frequency, and listen for God. 

Doing that might change life completely...
--Gord

A First Taste of Fruit... (Newsletter Submission)

He would call it love, even call it falling into Love, with the woundedness of all creation.
The word love, however, is bandied about with such incautious disregard for its power, so prodigally scattered on the sidewalk. People love ginger molasses cookies, their cat, and their mothers – hardly the same things. The word love, to Billy’s mind, is so diminished by excessive use, that it is not worth bending down to pick it up from where it has been dropped.
(from The Undertaking ofBilly Buffone by David Giuliano)

At the end of the 5^th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatians we find a verse that talks about the so-called fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Sounds like a bunch of different things right? However the verse talks about the “fruit” of the Spirit. It is singular. One fruit that is all those things, where all those virtues are to be found. I think of the list as the various flavours that one finds in the singular fruit. Maybe one bite has a strong burst of love while the next has the overwhelming taste of joy, and the there is a hint of gentleness (and so on).

Maybe that is a good description of life in the Spirit. On different days we manifest (hopefully) different virtues to a greater extent than others.

This newsletter we start at the beginning of the listed virtues (after all the song reminds us that the beginning is a very good place to start). And the beginning taste is love. I wonder if Paul thought that love should be the predominant taste, with all the others being afternotes?

AS it happens, the day after Sharon told me what the theme for this issue was I read the above quote in the novel I bought to read over Christmas (but did not actually start until January). It struck me as containing a great deal of wisdom. After all ‘Billy’ is right. Love gets used in such a wide variety of ways and not all of them are the same. Does overuse lead it to lose its power and meaning?

Maybe?

There is certainly a difference between loving a particular cookie and they way we love another person – or at least I hope there is. And if we use the word and pretend that it means the same thing i all those uses then we do lose some of its power and meaning. However I think that even if we don’t always say it outright we know that we are using the same word in a different way. Several decades ago C.S. Lewis wrote The Four Loves, which I hope to read some day, to remind us that there are different things meant by the word Love.

When Paul talks about love as the first flavour of the fruit of the Spirit he is not talking about loving cookies. He is not talking about philio, brotherly/sisterly (siblingry?) love. He is not talking about romantic love He is not talking about erotic love. Paul knows that when we are filled with the Spirit we are moved to agape love, to love each other as God loves us, to love deep to the core. In specific instances that may include aspects of philio or eros or romance but it goes deeper.

The love that flavours life when we are filled with the Spirit is that love that, as Paul says elsewhere, “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7). This is love that pushes as to see each other as being made in God’s image. It moves us to work to create a world where all are allowed to flourish. It leads us to consider not just our own needs but the needs of our neighbours. It is the core of what it means to live in The Way of Jesus Christ, to live as a citizen of God’s Reign.

I think that is why it leads the list of virtues we call the fruit of the Spirit. I think that is why it is the predominant flavour we get when we take a bite of God’s promise. Certainly it is why Paul says to the Corinthians “The greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

So take a big bite of the fruit of the Spirit. Let the multiple flavours fill your up. Savour the love which provides the foundation for life.

Oh and it is still okay to love cookies. It just might be something a bit different.
--Gord

 

Looking Ahead to January 14, 2024 -- 2nd Sunday After Epiphany, Year B

 The Scripture Reading this week is John 1:19-51

The Sermon title is Curiosity – a Virtue

Early Thoughts: What makes you curious? is It a good thing to be curious? Is it a dangerous thing? Is it a healthy thing? Is it maybe good, dangerous and healthy all at the same time?

Then again they say that curiosity killed the cat....

I suggest that without curiosity this week's story from John's Gospel would never have moved forward. This is John's account of the calling of the first disciples  but if a number of people, starting with the Baptizer, had not piqued the curiosity of others in the story they may not have been there to be called.

In his ministry John the Baptizer has laid the foundation. He has talked about the one who is yet to come, the one who is greater than the Baptizer, the Chosen One. Then he sees Jesus walking along and says "there he is". This gets two people curious and they go investigate further. Then Andrew shares the news with his brother and gets Simon curious so he too goes to check it out.

In our final scene this week we find Phillip and Nathanael. Nathanael's curiosity has a tinge of skepticism in it. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?". But he too is won over. The story moves forward because of a combination of curiosity and (possibly more important) people who invite others to come [or go] and explore.

In this story, and in the ongoing story of inviting people to follow The Way of Christ, curiosity is certainly a virtue. It leads us to new places. It opens us to new possibilities , new understandings, and and new experiences. It takes us to a healthier place. 

But there is possible danger in all that goodness. There is something unsettling in being led to new places, understandings, and experiences. There is a risk in following a path that diverges from the tried and true. There is peril in not following the crowd at times.

So what makes you curious? How do we make others curious about this path we call The Way? And then what do we do with that curiosity?  

I suspect that there is sometimes a desire to push our curiosity aside, to stick with the way we know. Familiar often brings comfort. But we need to indulge ourselves. We need to let ourselves explore those places that curiosity leads us even if, or maybe especially if, it sometimes makes us uncomfortable.

We also need to invite others to join us along the path. We need to be ready to spark a desire to go further. We need to be open to hearing and exploring, maybe even answering, questions about who this Jesus is and where does he want to take us.

God is always at work in the world. God is always up to something. When we allow ourselves to be curious, to check out the new thing that is happening transformation can occur. It might be unsettling. It might seem dangerous. It might even have killed the cat. But in the life of faith curiosity is indeed a virtue.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to January 7, 2024 -- Baptism of Christ Sunday

 Welcome to a new year, and of course a new month. As this is the first Sunday of January we will be gathering to break bread together as we celebrate Communion.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Acts 19:1-7 
• Mark 1:4-11

The Sermon title is Washed With Spirit

Early Thoughts:  Every year we begin January with a remembrance that Jesus was baptized. In part this serves to remind us that we are a baptized and baptizing community. Remembering the act of baptism also serves to reminds us that we are God's Beloved children. As people who have been baptized into Christian faith we have all been washed by water and the Spirit.

Our story from Acts this week intrigues me. For a long time I assumed (always a dangerous thing to do) that baptism was always the same within the Christian community. Certainly it has been the rite of initiation into the community from a very early time. But this week's reading from Acts shows that even then there were differing understandings of how Christian baptism might be done. It seems that in the early days there were still people (in the Christian community) out there baptizing in the same way that John the Baptist baptized. So Paul shares a different teaching, one that has become a norm for Christian baptism and brings the Spirit into the act of baptism.

Do we baptize into John's baptism or into Jesus' baptism? 

Jesus, as far as we can tell from reading the Gospel accounts, never performed baptisms himself. However he was baptized [even though Matthew's Gospel seem to suggest there was some scandal about this in the early church -- why would Jesus need  to get a baptism of repentance? why would John baptize the one who is greater than John?] and so we are baptized because Jesus was himself baptized.

But our understanding of baptism is different from John's. Especially when baptizing infants/young children we don't really emphasize the "repentance to wash away your sins" aspect. At least I don't. We talk more about initiation, membership in the family of God. We might highlight the idea of that the Holy Spirit is a part of this action, that we invite the Holy Spirit into the life of this person (and by extension re-invite the Holy Spirit into the life of all those members of the baptized and baptizing community). We might not talk about washing clean of sin. We might not talk about dying and rising to new life -- though in practice I think we talk about the new life without the somewhat disturbing talk of dying first. So what do we mean when we talk about being wash with/in/by the Spirit?

I think it is in fact about new/renewed/transformed life. I think it is about being reminded that we are part of the circle of God's Beloved children. I think it is a symbolic action that marks us as a different person, set apart, called to a new way of being. I think it is what empowers us to keep on following The Way of Christ in a world where often we are encouraged to follow a very different path.

THere is a story that Martin Luther, a man who had deep concerns about his sinfulness and worthiness before God, when he felt especially unworthy would simply remind himself that he was baptized. My reading of this story is that he remembered the promises of baptism. He remembered the transformational work of the Holy Spirit. And that made a great difference.

What does it mean to you to remember that you are baptized, born of water and the Spirit?
--Gord