Looking Ahead to June 30, 2024 -- 6th Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 8B

The Scripture Reading this week is Mark 5:21-43

The Sermon title is Restoration

Early Thoughts: Jesus was many things. He was a preacher, teacher and prophet. He was a rabble-rouser and troublemaker who upset the "way things are". The Gospels are also clear that he was a miracle worker, an exorcist, and a healer. The reading this week (and last week come to think of it) presents us with the Jesus of that third sentence.

The Jesus who stilled the storm on the sea and cleared the mind of the man possessed by Legion in last week's now gets drawn/invited/dragged into a couple of healing episodes. SOrt of a story within a story this week...

First Jesus is approached by Jairus, a man with a fair degree of social standing in the community but also a man who is distraught. His daughter is dying, surely Jesus can intervene. Jesus has been invited into a situation where healing is required and he accepts the invitation. We could jump to verse 35 and finish this story.

But there is an interruption. And sometimes great ministry happens when our plans get interrupted.

As Jesus makes his way through the crowd (by this point in Mark's Gospel Jesus is almost always surrounded by a crowd) a woman sees her chance. She has been suffering from a flow of blood for 12 years. Nothing has helped. But she just knows and trusts that if she makes even tangential contact with Jesus ("If i but touch his cloak") she will be healed. So she reaches out and makes her attempt. Healing follows, Jesus has been dragged into a second story even while the first has yet to be resolved.

I think the woman was hoping to remain anonymous, to get her healing and go about the rest of her day. But Jesus feels the power flow through him and stops to address what has happened. [Does Jesus feel violated that he was not asked first? Is he stopping to ensure there is proper care given?] Does this interruption mean that he will be to late to finish his errand before Jairus' daughter dies?

Apparently, because while the interruption is being resolved news comes that the girl has in fact expired. But Jesus sees no reason to stop now. The story is not yet over. More healing follows and joy replaces devastating sorrow.

Jesus the healer and miracle worker has arrived on the scene.

When we read the healing stories we can debate "what really happened". We can ask "could Jesus really change a person's health like that?". Our logical, rational, scientific mindset tends to go in that direction, usually with a degree of skepticism attached. Or we could follow the logic of Hamlet and admit that "there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy". We can not understand or explain everything, sometimes miraculous things happen. I think that opens us to a new discussion.

What does it mean to be healed? In the two healings this week the physical meaning is pretty clear. but is that all that happens in these stories? I think there is more, I think that in most, if not all, of the healing stories in the Gospels there is more than physical wellness at stake. When Jesus heals the broken body or disturbed mind, when Jesus casts out the disruptive demons, Jesus also restores things to the way they should be. Jesus restores people in their wholeness as members of the community.

The woman with a flow of blood for 12 whole years! would have been on the outskirts of society. Not only would there have been a hygiene issue and quite possibly a ritual purity issue but her ability to function would likely have been impacted. With healing the physical ailment doors open for the rest of her life. She can rejoin the community.

The family of Jairus has been torn asunder. Life has fallen apart. Jesus returns their daughter to them and restores their family. The community has been brought back into a right state. The first sign of this is that she should eat, she should return to doing what healthy people do.

Jesus brings healing. Sometimes by his choice and sometimes by the choices of others. Both Jairus and the unnamed woman seek Jesus out because they know/trust that he can make a difference, he can fix what is wrong.

Where do we need to seek out/ask for/demand/claim healing in our lives? What might that healing look like? In these stories healing means cure of the physical ailment, is that always true? Do we trust that the God we meet in Jesus can bring healing to our lives?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to June 23, 2024 -- 5th Sunday After Pentecost, Proper7B

 The Scripture Reading this week is Mark 4:35-5:15

The Sermon title is Storms Settled

Found this on Facebook

 Early Thoughts: What storms have you endured in life? What has helped you weather them? Did the relief come as soon as you hoped it would?

I suggest that storms come in many different forms. Some are wind and rain and hail (like the one that blew through town yesterday afternoon). Many are more metaphorical. I suspect that sometimes those storms feel more threatening, harder to survive. How does one batten down the hatches when the chaos is in your mind or soul?

This wee's reading from Mark shares a a pair of stories. One is a healing story, one is a miracle story. I would say they are both about Jesus as the one with authority to still storms. Whether in a boat on the sea or driving out a demon Jesus is bringing calm and equilibrium to the lives of people around him. Jesus is defeating those things that threaten the well-being of the people in his world.

And I think Jesus is still at it. I think that the God we meet in Jesus is still at work calming storms and bringing calm. [At other times the God we meet in Jesus is at work causing storms and bringing disruption -- sometimes we need both. But either way God is with us in the midst of the storm.] Now the calming may not come as soon as we want. There may be days when the quote in the picture above feels all too real. There may be days when the only way to the calm is to fight our way through the storm. There may even be days when we refuse to allow God to bring the calm because it does not look like what we think we want/need.

Still God is with us in the storms of life. God will, in God's time, lead us to a place of calm and equilibrium. The storm may change us. The calming of the storm may change us. It may amaze us. But that is our word of hope in the middle of the storm that threatens to swamp our boat -- we are not alone, calm will return.

So this week I invite all of us to remember the storms we have endured (or maybe are currently enduring) in life. How have we survived them? What impact have they had on our lives? Where might you have seen God in the midst of the storm?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to June 16, 2024 -- 4th Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 6B

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Ezekiel 17:22-24
• Mark 4:26-34

The Sermon title is The Growing Realm

Early Thoughts: Where do you see signs of growth? How do you know that the reign of God is growing in the world today?

Our readings this week speak about growth and the God who gives that growth. (As I typed that sentence a line from 1 Corinthians 3 came to mind "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth".) In Ezekiel we read about the God who promises new life and regrowth from a twig of the old. Under God's care that tiny twig will become a grand tree, providing shelter to many. What twig is God transplanting in the world, in our lives today?

In Mark we have a pair of parables. "The kingdom of God is like....". It is like seeds spread by a sower who then leaves it for something mysterious to happen and grain suitable for food is the result. It is like a tiny seed that grows into an large plant (according to Wikipedia it is probable that the plant mentioned here grows up to 270cm (9 feet) tall) that can provide shelter. From something small something plentiful and large develops. That is what the kingdom of God is like. What small seeds have been planted recently? Where have you seen something get much bigger than it was when it started?

The mustard seed imagery reminded me of something else, a different plant. Wild Mustard is a weed, an invasive plant, and so it is a problem for some, even if others find it useful for some purposes (one of the links in that list also told me that it is the ancestor of some common vegetables). Maybe the kingdom of God sometimes grows in places we don't expect or where it is not wanted. Maybe there are times we see the growing kingdom of God as a problem to be removed not a benefit to be celebrated.

We do not grow the kingdom of God. God is doing that. We might delay or slow its growth. We might fight against it but it will grow anyway. We are called to sow seeds. We are called to grow in love and faithfulness as God feeds and waters our souls. We are challenged to allow that growth means change. As the kingdom of God grows in the world and in our lives we will be changed. That may be why we sometimes try to control or delay the growth that God is causing. Change is uncomfortable.

Even if it might be uncomfortable at times, God is causing growth in the world. Small twigs are becoming grand trees. Small seeds are growing even if we don't know why or how. Those seeds might grow into what we recognize as a tree, or as a food-grain. They might look like an unwelcome weed. But they are growing. God is at work. The kingdom is developing in our midst.

How will we respond?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to June 9, 2024 -- Affirmiversary, Church Union Sunday

 

A year ago St. Paul's had our celebration to mark our decision to become an Affirming Ministry. This Sunday we will mark that anniversary during our worship time. 

A photo of the Inaugural Service

99 years ago next Monday there was a worship service in a hockey arena in Toronto (the Mutual Street Arena) which marked the official beginning of a new Canadian Denomination -- the United Church of Canada. We will also mark that with a reflection on how we are called to be the church as the UCCan prepares to mark a century of existence in 2025. (Nationally there are plans to make it a year-long celebration starting this weekend)

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• 1 Corinthians 12:4-13
• John 17:1-25

The Sermon title is Called to Be Church: Deep, Bold, Daring

Early Thoughts: How do we deepen our spirituality? How are we bold in our discipleship? How are we daring in crying out for/acting for/being transformed for justice?

In 2021 the General Council adopted the following Call and Vision statements that would guide the work of the National church over the next three year (2022-2025) period:

Vision

Call

While these are really more binding on the work of the General Council, all parts of the church, including local communities of faith, are encouraged to hold them in thought and prayer as we consider how God is calling us to be the church in our own contexts.

Our Scripture readings this week might help us in this consideration (at least that was my hope when I chose them). From Paul's first letter to the Corinthians we have a reminder of the importance and gift of diversity and remembering that while diverse we are also tied together in Christ. How does that unity in diversity help us be Deep, Bold, and Daring?

John chapter 17 (this week's reading is the whole chapter) is a prayer from Jesus to close the Farewell Discourse. Right after this prayer we launch into the story of arrest, betrayal, trial and execution. The UCCan motto Ut Omnes Unum Sint (That All May Be One) is taken from verse 21 and speaks in part to the hope of our founders that we would be a united and uniting church. While this is written as a prayer Jesus is offering to God, it is also a public pronouncement being made by Jesus. He is praying this in front of his closest disciples and obviously they are meant to hear and pay attention to it. I think that it is in part Jesus sharing words of hope for who they will be, in part some words of encouragement to keep them faithful when the road gets hard, and in part a reminder of who and whose they are. There is a bit of a sense of commissioning in these words to my ears. How does this prayer Jesus offers for his followers help us grow deeper in our relationship with the Divine, be bold as followers of The Way, be daring in our quest of justice in the world?

If I am honest I think that often in the UCCan we have done better at the daring justice and bold disciple ship part of the call than the deep spirituality. At least as far as our public face goes. A few decades ago the UCCan was known in some circles as "the NDP at prayer" -- and while some folk wore that badge proudly it was not, I think, intended as a compliment (nor was it as universally accurate as some might have thought). We have sometimes been seen as a faith community more interested in non-spiritual things than talking about how God is part of the world, a group that is more of a 'social club' or political movement than a church.

If I am equally honest I don't think that is and accurate picture of who we are. One of realities of faith life is that those three aspects of our call interweave and feed each other. Maybe it is that we sometimes find it easier to talk about the daring justice than our spirituality. Maybe our bold actions make better headlines than our prayers. But each feeds the other.

Our way forward as a a denomination, as a local community of faith, as individual followers of Jesus, is to go further. We need to take the time to deepen our relationship with God. We need to listen for where GOd is calling us to be so that we can step into those spaces. We need to have the courage to speak boldly about the vision for the world God shares with us, to follow a different path with different priorities than others in the world. We need to challenge voices and systems and actions that bring injustice and suffering to our neighbours (near and far) even if it might cost us something.

We are called to be the church, to continue the work of building unity in diversity, to share the Good News that God's Kingdom is growing in our midst. It may not always be easy, but still we try to be faithful.
--Gord

For our Young at Heart Conversation this week...