Looking Ahead to May 4, 2025 -- 3rd Sunday of Easter

 

This is the second of three weeks when we are hearing stories of the Risen Christ appearing to his disciples. This week we walk along the Emmaus road as told in Luke 24:13-31. As it is the first Sunday of the month we will also be gathering together at the table of faith.

The Sermon title Seeing Christ At Table

Source

Early Thoughts: From the beginning people have known that gathering at table is one of the places we meet Christ. Which makes sense when we remember that one of the accusations levelled at Jesus in the Gospels has to do with his habit of eating with sinners and tax-collectors.

In one of his books, (I think it was Resurrection: Myth or Reality) the late John Spong talks about a few of the things he believed about Easter. One was that it did not happen all at once, that it was a series of experiences not a single event that first morning. One was that it happened in Galilee (in ore than one Gospel the women at the tomb are told to go to Galilee "where they will see him"). Another was that experiencing resurrection involved the gathering at table.

Indeed we can tell the link between Easter/experiencing the Risen Christ and the table was strong by the fact that from the beginning one of the things followers of Jesus would do as the gathered together was share a meal.

So anyway, we have this story of the Emmaus Road. This is the first time the Risen Christ, the Resurrected Jesus, appears in Luke's Gospel. The story of Easter morning contains an empty tomb and a heavenly messenger but no Jesus. Later that day (as the text tells us) a stranger joins a couple along the road and they start to chat. The stranger proceeds to remind them what Jesus had taught and to give a Bible Study along the way, showing how the Hebrew Scriptures could be applied to what has happened that weekend. Then only when they stop for the night and gather at the table do the travelers realize who has been walking with them all day.

One of the things that jumps out is that the first step is reminding and remembering. This hearkens back to the empty tomb when the messenger reminded the women of Jesus' words and then they remembered. One of the ways we experience the Risen Christ is by being reminded and by remembering. And so we continue to remind each other, to help each other remember.

Another thing is that it is not words that really wake the travelers up. In is an action -- the breaking and giving of the bread. Within Christian circles this is a clear memory of another table in an upper room (so I think we can assume Cleopas and his companion had been at that table). But to me it also reminds me that humans are visual creatures, that actions and rituals can add to our words. That action opens their eyes and gives meaning to the words shared along the road. Sometimes I recognize that our Western culture has become very word-focused and maybe we need to lift up visuals, actions, and rituals as a way to bring meaning (but I am a real word guy so that is where I always go first).

Then there is the response of Jesus. In none of our post Easter appearance stories does Jesus condemn people for not understanding, for doubting, for taking time to come to believe. Jesus meets people where they are and leads them to a new place (much as Jesus did in his pre-crucifixion ministry). Unlike the Dark Lord of the Sith, Jesus does not appear disturbed by a lack of faith. 

If, as I suggested last week, one of our key roles as a faith community is to lead people to an encounter with the Risen Christ what can we learn from this story?

• WE have to remind and remember, we have to tell the story, to explain the meaning we find in it. We need to invite people to explore the story for themselves, to see what meaning they find in it as they remember
• WE need actions and rituals that help us remember. Gathering at table together has many levels of meaning. It reminds us that all are welcome at the table, it reminds us of Jesus who ate with tax-collectors and sinners, it pushes us to ask who might not feel welcome at our table. It is my belief that one of the signs of God's Reign breaking into the world is a great Banquet. Maybe it is  a communion table, or a picnic table, or a hospital food tray -- something special can happen when we remember and break bread together.
• WE need to meet people where they are in their doubts and questions and disbelief. We don't invite people into an experience of and relationship with the risen Christ by judging or condemning them. They may be at a different place than we are. Their journey may be taking a different path than ours. That is fine, meet each other where we are and go from there.

Easter is a time of stories. Easter is a time when people's worlds were changing. It came in a variety of ways. How do we see Easter in our lives? What meaning does it have to break bread as we remember the story?

May the 4th be with you!

--Gord

Looking Ahead to April 27, 2025 -- 2nd Sunday of Easter

 

For the next three Sundays we will be reflecting on stories of Jesus' post-Resurrections appearances. This week we look at the story of Thomas (often called Doubting Thomas) as told in John 20:19-29.

The Sermon title is I Want to See Jesus.

Reunion -- Thomas and Christ

Early Thoughts: Poor Thomas, forever saddled with the title of "Doubter" because of this story. Thomas who back in chapter 11 said "Let us go with him so that we may die with him", who is obviously committed to The Way of Jesus gets saddled with a title because he happens to be the last of the group to experience the Risen Christ.

After all, it is only in seeing evidence of Resurrection, be it the empty tomb or a divine messenger or the Risen Christ himself that anybody in the Gospel accounts believes what has happened. Thomas does not doubt any more than anyone else does. He just happened to be absent (maybe he went out to buy food? maybe he was the only one brave enough to leave the room where they were gathered?) on that day when Jesus shows up.

I would argue that Thomas makes a very clear, simple request. He wants to see Jesus. He wants to see for himself. So, I think, do we.

Now we won't likely have the same experience as Thomas. But we want to see Jesus. The way to believing in the power of Jesus' resurrection is to 'see' or experience it some how. I suggest that our primary job as a church  is to help people see Jesus. I am not sure we always do it well. 

How do we help people see Jesus, the Risen Christ, in the world, in their lives?
How could we do it better?

--Gord

Looking Ahead to April 20, 2025 -- Easter Sunday

This year we will hear some words of  hope and promise from Isaiah and the Easter morning story as told by Luke:

• Isaiah 65:17-25
• Luke 24:1-12

The Sermon title is Victory, Idle Tale, or Wishful Thinking?

Early Thoughts: The story is not over. I am sure that for many of Jesus' friends it felt like it was over on that cross on the hillside but the story is not over...

The new world had yet to be born, the kingdom that Jesus spent his ministry talking about had yet to be born. Would it ever happen now that Jesus was gone?  

Each of the Gospels has something unique in how they tell the story of Easter morning. The piece that often jumps out at me when I read Luke's version is the line in verse 11 where we are told that people dismissed the story told by the women as an idle tale. An idle tale is not worth believing. An idle tale is maybe born out of wishful thinking. An idle tale doesn't change the world.

But what if the surprising good news is not merely an idle tale? What if reports of "Jesus is Risen" don't come from wishful thinking (in the throes of fresh grief it is not unheard of to believe that your loved one is still alive somehow) but of actual experience?  Maybe it is then the sign that the world is being changed, that the powers that thought they had one on Friday have actually been defeated?

The women we meet at the tomb in Luke's story don't actually see the Risen Christ, they just hear the good news from a pair of strangers. Peter goes to see the empty tomb but also does not see Christ himself. Those stories come later (and in fact over the next few weeks we will look at a variety of stories in Luke and John where people see and interact with the Risen Christ) but here we meet people who believe and understand with little actual evidence. No wonder the rest dismissed it as an idle tale. 2000 years later we continue to wonder what happened, or how it happened. Do we still see it as an idle tale?

In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth something new was happening, A Revolution had begun. The world was being transformed into the Reign of God, the Peaceable Kingdom envisioned in Isaiah 11 and again in Isaiah 65. With the Resurrection of Christ the victory was declared, death had been defeated.

Now I am not an idiot. It is impossible to say that the victory declared with the empty tomb was a final victory. The powers of death and sinfulness obviously still have yet to admit defeat. In fact sometimes it seems they are getting stronger. Sometimes it seems like wishful thinking to say that the Reign of God is here among us even as we wait for it to come to full flower. We, the people who follow the Resurrected One, have done a rather poor job of living into the new world, living into our calling as image bearers of God helping to birth the new world. But that does not erase the victory of Easter. 

It was not an idle tale that first Easter morning. It was not just wishful thinking. It is not now an idle tale or fable or fairy tale. It is not now wishful thinking. Resurrection has happened, the Living Christ is still with us (to the end of the age as he promises in Matthew's Gospel). The victory has been one, at least in part, and the eventual full victory is coming. Which is why we can sing (as we will on Sunday) "Thine is the glory, risen conquering Son, endless is the victory thou o'er death hast won".
--Gord

Looking Ahead to April 18, 2025 -- Good Friday

This year we will be hearing the Passion story as told in Luke 22:39-53, 66-23:56

The Sermon title is Sacrifice? Revolution? Bait?

Early Thoughts: What do we do with this story? What meaning is there to be found in this tale of betrayal, injustice, torture and death? Why do we tell it every year?

Good questions. And ones I have wrestled with for many years without finding a wholly satisfying set of answers.

Of course we tell it every year because it is a crucial part of the narrative. We tell it to remind ourselves that the path to a renewed world is not without obstacles. But where is the meaning? Why is the cross needed?

From a purely practical viewpoint it can be pointed out that Jesus dies on a cross because he was deemed a political threat to the so-called pax Romana. When one challenges empire empire tends to strike back. The Romans and their Judean puppet leaders corked together to end the threat. But surely there is more than that...

Shortly after that first Easter Christians started to search for answers to the why questions. They started to ask what the cross could possibly have accomplished. As N.T. Wright asks in his book The Day the Revolution Began, what was accomplished by six o'clock in the afternoon on that day of execution?

Wright's book suggests that Good Friday is the day the revolution not only began but was victorious. I tend to disagree on both those specific points because I think the revolution began with incarnation and the victory comes with resurrection (although the final victory has yet to really come). But I do agree that Good Friday marks a significant event in the process of the revolution.

From the earliest days Christians have understood (though only with eyes that had seen resurrection, nobody believed this as Jesus was nailed to the cross) that somehow Christ's death was tied in to the ending of the power of sin. Various understandings of how exactly that happens have been offered over the centuries. So there is that, a major step in the revolution, the remaking of the world, is to break the power of sin (I tend to agree with Wright that the basis of that power is idolatry in some form or another). 

Some point to Jesus' death as some sort of sacrificial sin offering, as stepping in to take the punishment (which is not how the sin offerings at the Temple were actually understood in Jewish law). Others point to it as a form of bait, where Jesus allows the powers to think they have one only for the trap to be sprung and the victory revealed with resurrection. Others see it a s sign of commitment, that Jesus' passion for God's Reign was so strong that he was willing to die for the cause. There are lots of possible  understandings of Good Friday, lots of attempts to determine what had been accomplished when Jesus says "it is finished".

In the end I suspect that there are strands of truth in many of those understandings. I don't think there is one single meaning for the story we tell this day. Maybe part of how we answer the question is shaped by what we need (or think we need) it to mean to help lead us into the new and abundant life promised by Jesus?

What does the cross mean to you? What does the cross say to us in the disrupted world of 2025 (war in Ukraine and Gaza, mass deportations with no due process in the US, a Canadian election getting grittier, a trade/tariff war)?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to April 17, 2025 -- Maundy Thursday

We will be gathering at 7:00 this Thursday for a brief (about half an hour) service to mark Maundy Thursday.  Communion will be celebrated.

The Scripture readings for this service are:

• John 13:1-9, 34-35
• Luke 22:24-27

The Reflection is titled Love and Serve

Early Thoughts: Maundy Thursday is a day when we remember the Last Supper, and so it is a day we traditionally gather at the table of faith. But the name "Maundy" has little to do with the table....

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There is another story traditionally read on Maundy Thursday. It is from John's Gospel and it tells of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, over the strenuous objections offered by Simon Peter. [There is a tradition in Rome where  the Pope washes the feet of inmates to remember this story, Pope Francis has made news over his reign by including Muslims and women in those events. I wonder if he will be able to take part in this tradition this year given his health challenges.]  A few verses later John recounts Jesus giving a "new" commandment to his disciples -- they are to love each other as they have been loved. This in fact is where the title Maundy comes from, it is related to the Latin mandatum which means commandment.

In fact I think this is the most important thing to remember as we head into Holy Weekend. The commandment to love each other given in the context of Jesus modelling how to serve each other. In Kingdom/Gospel logic the world is routinely turned upside down. The last shall be first, the least shall be greatest, the poor lifted up and the rich sent away empty. To love each other as Jesus loves his disciples is to serve each other, to be willing to be servant and friend instead of master.

This is what our passage from Luke reminds us (a passage that appears immediately after Luke recounts the words of institution, where Jesus tells us to break bread, share cup and remember him) of this call to love through service. 

AS I look at the world today in the midst of tariff/trade wars, and a Canadian election and all the news about Trump-ordered deportations I say we need a big reminder. We need to remind ourselves, our neighbours, our leaders that the highest calling to to love and serve. Jesus proclaimed the coming of God's Reign. One of the markers of that Reign is servanthood and love. What better way to prepare for the world-changing event of Easter than to remind ourselves how we are called to be in the world?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to April 13, 2025 -- Palm Sunday

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• John 11:16, 45-53
• Luke 19:28-40

The Sermon title is Jesus Turns Up the Heat

Early Thoughts:  What was he thinking? Why would he take such a risk? Did he know what they were thinking/planning/scheming?

As Luke has structured his Gospel, back in chapter 9, just after foretelling his own betrayal and death, Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem. From that point on we are headed toward that city. Along the way (in chapter 13) Jesus has been warned that there are those who want him dead. Just one chapter ago, in chapter 18 Jesus reminds his disciples and friends that his death is coming, that it will happen when they get to Jerusalem.

Now, as Passover looms, we find Jesus on the last stage of that journey to Jerusalem. And he has no plan to just slip into the city unnoticed. It seems he has made arrangements for a piece of street theatre. He has arranged (or someone has arranged) for a colt to be available. I suspect there are people planted in the crowd to start building a pathway with their cloaks (no palm branches in Luke's telling of the story) and begin the cheering/proclamation that accompanies his journey -- and then it takes on a life of its own.

It seems pretty intentional. Jesus knows the risks and seems to go ahead and amplify them. Is he trying to challenge those in power to act?

I think so.

I think Jesus is intentionally turning up the heat to confront not just the Roman Empire and its puppets in Judea but the powers of evil that stand in the way of God's Reign, I think Jesus is forcing the issue. And I think he is doing it with full knowledge of what the extra heat and pressure will lead to.

It is far more than cheerfully waving palm branches and singing bouncy songs. It is a reminder of what Jesus is all about. This is not just a party along the roadside.

Jesus knows what the stakes are. The people along the roadside don't understand (or have chosen not to hear) what he has said the stakes are. The leadership knows what the stakes are, and I think they are a little bit afraid.  Afraid of the people and afraid of the Romans, caught between the two, they tell Jesus to quiet his followers. As Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber put it: "Tell the rabble to be quiet, we anticipate a riot". The stakes are high and Jesus is upping the ante.

Will we have the courage of Thomas, willing to risk death with Jesus for the sake of God's Kingdom?  Can we live into the true implications of naming Jesus as the one who comes in the name of the Lord? Can we shout for the world that is about to be changed? Can we join in the revolution?

Or will we be quiet and force the earth (or at least the stones) itself to shout on our behalf? Is the increased heat too hot for us?

Hosanna! SAve us! From the powers of the world and maybe even from ourselves.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to April 2, 2025 -- Lent 5C

(Communion Table at Riverview United in Atikokan)

This is the first Sunday of April so we will be gathering at the table of faith and celebrating Communion.

Also at the beginning of each month we remind folk of our Local Outreach Fund, which we use to support our neighbours here in Grande Prairie.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 43:1-2, 16-19
• Lamentations 3:22-26 
• Revelation 21:1-5

The Sermon title is What New Thing?

Early Thoughts: Many years ago I learned a Sondheim song from Merrily We Roll Along. The opening lines are:

Something is stirring Shifting ground

It's just begun

Edges are blurring All around

And yesterday is done

Those words came to my mind this morning as I re-read the Isaiah 43, particularly verses 18 and 19. As God does a new thing in our midst, as God reforms, renews, and re-creates the world the ground is indeed being shifted, what was clear becomes blurry, the old passes away.

That simultaneously fills some of us with hope and with anxiety. We look forward to the renewal and re-creation, the new heaven and the new earth. We also admit that change and transformation is unsettling and uncomfortable -- even brings a fear with it.

How do we lean into the hope and promise? What calms our uneasy, anxious, even fearful hearts as the new thing God is doing comes to be?

The beginning of Isaiah 43 and the verses from Lamentations 3 that we are reading this week help us with the anxiety, discomfort, and fear. The same God that is doing a new thig, renewing and re-creating the world around us promises to be there, promises that we need not be overwhelmed, reminds us that we are God's beloved. God meets us in our anxiety. God sees our fearful, uneasy hearts. God knows that change is unsettling. And God promises to walk us through the flood, to accompany us into the new thing, to help us move from the old that is passing away into the new that is being born, as this song (# 90 in More Voices) reminds us

We are deep in the season of Lent. The journey to Jerusalem is almost over. Soon there will be triumph and conflict, tragedy and surprise, death and life. The revolution that began at Christmas will come to a head. Where will the victory lie? Will the old ways that often lead away from life and abundance win or will a new way emerge, a new way of existing, a new way of being who God formed us to be? 

Easter tells us the answer. Resurrection tells us the answer. The victory is in life. The victory is in shattering the powers that hold back abundant life and blessing for all. The victory brings a new heaven and a new earth, for the old ones have passed away.

The old might fight back. The old WILL fight back. We see it all the time, those who benefit from the old ways, the old things, the old understandings want to stop the new thing from winning. But God tells us where the victory will be eventually. Spoiler alert: it is not the old ways. We are told to not even remember or consider them.

The world is shifting. Sometimes it feels like the ground is shifting beneath us. It is hard to see clearly what is happening. But still we live in HOPE, still we trust in the PROMISE. God is doing what God often does -- a New Thing. God is renewing, reforming, re-creating the world around us. And God promises to be with us, to support us as we live into a new world. In Christ God makes everything new (#115 in More Voices).

That is Good News.

--Gord

Looking Ahead to March 30, 2025 -- 4th Sunday in Lent

The Scripture Reading this week is Luke 15:11-32

The Sermon title is Get Found!

Early Thoughts: When have you been lost? When have you had to look for something or someone that was lost? When, perhaps, have you lost your sense of self?

Many of us know this story as "the Prodigal Son". Certainly that is how I learned it and how I have referred to it many times over the years. I am not convinced that is the best way to title it. In fact I think this is the story of the lost son, or even better the story of the lost sons. It is not a story about a wild rebellious child who squanders their inheritance (the term prodigal seems to want to cast a moral judgement on the younger son), or at least not only about that. Given that the two stories we find in Luke 15:1-10 have similar beginnings but are clearly about a lost sheep and a lost coin it seems that this is a story about losing and finding -- not rebellion and riotous living (though that is part of being lost as we may find).

More importantly, all three stories are about being found and the celebration that comes with being found.

So who is lost? Who gets found? Who does the finding? And what does this parable tell us about the Reign of God?

Source

To begin, let us look at the beginning of the story: "There was a man who had two sons...". The earlier stories in the chapter now prompt us to wonder what is going to happen to the sons. What is the man going to lose? How will he search for that which is lost? After all that is exactly what happens with the sheep and the coin and we are starting to see a pattern. This is a story about a family unit (or at least part of it -- has mom died? are there sisters?)

So there are these sons. One, the elder, is portrayed as dutiful and the other, we are told, seems a bit restless, wanting to get out and make a life for himself. The restless younger son asks his father for "the share of the wealth that will belong to me" and heads out to make a life. It does not go well. At first life is grand but restless youth does not always make for careful planning and things start to go south. The vagaries of life lead to poverty and bare subsistence. The son is lost. Lost to the father and maybe lost to himself.

Then we are told that he comes to his senses (the King James says "came to himself") and realizes that he would be better off as a slave/servant in his father's house than he is right now. There at least he would have enough to eat. He resolves to go and plead for mercy. The finding, it seems has begun. He has begun to find himself again. It is not clear he likes what he has found.

The son returns home but does not get the reception he expects. Dad [long ago I read a suggestion that dad has been anxiously looking down the road every day since the son left, hoping against hope that he would see a familiar shape on the horizon, I like that image] looks out and sees his son, his beloved child, returning. Dad runs out with no worries about decorum and embraces his child. Before the confession and the pleading can even begin dad is kissing him and, I think, weeping with joy. The wayward son makes his confession but dad seems to ignore it. There are more important things to worry about! It is time for a party! The lost has been found, has come home. Wonderful!

The story could end there and make perfect sense. Indeed when I think back to hearing it as a child I am sure it ended there. But Jesus continues. After all, there is another son.

Enter the eldest, dutiful, faithful son. Is he excited to find out that there is a party because his younger brother has returned? Nope. He is resentful. He feels that dad is being unfair. Where is his party? I suggest the eldest son is now lost.

Dad remains dad. Dad challenges the eldest son to see things differently. Dad tries to help the elder son find his way back to the family. We are not told if this is successful, if the resentment is indeed overcome.

Poor dad, in this story he has, to a degree, lost both his sons and it is not sure if he has got both of them back.

So what does this tell us about the Reign of God? Traditionally it tells us that God is the one who keeps searching, who is overjoyed when the lost becomes found, when the wayward comes home. What else might it say?

Maybe it reminds us that we can never be so lost that we will not be welcomed back in, that we have the chance to come to ourselves and find who we really are.

Maybe it reminds us to not be resentful when grace is offered to others, and maybe to recognize that we could be gracious as well.

Maybe it reminds us to find ourselves, to reflect, to come to our senses so.

What else does this well-known story say to you?

--Gord

Looking Ahead to March 23, 2025 -- Lent 3C

The Scripture Readings this week are: 

• Isaiah 55:1-9
• Luke 13:6-9

The Sermon title is Eat! Grow! Be Fruitful!

Early Thoughts: What would help you grow? Are those things readily available? What would life look like if what we needed to grow and be fruitful was indeed readily and freely available?

This week gives us an interesting combination of Scripture readings. In Luke we have the short little story about a tree that has thus far been unproductive and so the owner wants to get rid of it. Why let it waste space and resources? But the caretaker, the gardener, calls for grace, realizing that with proper care things can change. I wonder where we might see ourselves in that story. When have we been the tree, the gardener, the owner?

Paired with that we have Isaiah 55, where the listener is invited into God's abundant life. An abundance where we can get basics at no price. An abundance where we are questioned as to why we spend our energy/resources for things that do not actually satisfy us. An abundance based on reveling in the presence and promise of God. Is that the world in which we live today?

It is my belief and understanding that in the Reign of God we are all invited to eat and drink deeply of those things that feed and satisfy our bodies and souls. It is my belief that God wants all of us to grow strong so that we would be fruitful (I also believe that there are many ways we can be fruitful, many ways we can bear good fruit). It is my belief that God wants us to care for each other to allow and encourage growth --- and God does not want us to fall into the trap of seeing something as a lost cause, a waste of resources, good only to be cut down and discarded.

How do we live as if those things are true?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to March 16, 2025 -- 2nd Sunday in Lent

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Genesis 15:1-6
• Psalm 27

The Sermon title is Future? Trust? Hope?

Early Thoughts: Someone has made you a promise. But then a lot of time has passed and there is no sign that the promise will come true. What do you do?

If you are Abraham you ask the person who first made the promise what is happening (and you start to make a back-up plan).

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When we first meet Abraham (Abram) in Genesis 12 he is childless (in the late verses of Chapter 11 we are told that his wife Sarah (Sarai) is barren) and yet he is told that God will make of him a great nation, and that in him all the families of the earth will be blessed. Now to be the source of a great nation one sort of needs progeny, preferably male progeny but here we are several stories later and still no progeny. It appear Abraham may be getting a little anxious for he and Sarah are no longer young. He calls out to God who reaffirms the promise, adding to it the promise that Abraham's descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Thins seems to comfort Abraham (for now). Still the wait for progeny will take many years and include another attempt by Abraham and Sarah to create a back-up plan (the birth of Ishmael with the slave Hagar). Delayed gratification is the lot of Abraham and Sarah but the story relates that they still remain faithful to the promise, they trust in the God who first made the promise, they still live in hope for the promised child -- though they also doubt at times.

WE are all people waiting on a promise. As followers of Christ we live in the promise that the old world has been defeated and the new world, the reign of God "on earth as it is in heaven" both has replaced it and is going to become fully evident in the fullness of time.  I don't know about you but there are days when it looks like that promise is a LOOOONG way from being fulfilled. It is easy to doubt that it will happen. It is easy to lose hope -- particularly when it seems that many powerful forces (the ones who supposedly were defeated in the cross and empty tomb) are actively fighting against the growth of the Kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven".

What do we do? How do we respond as people of the promise? When we feel that we/people we love/things we hold dear are under attack, when the promise itself is being attacked what do we do?

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I think Psalm 27 might be a good place to start. In this song David (who is traditionally listed as its writer) both sings about his trust and and confidence in God and calls out to God for help and comfort. As people of faith our trust and hope lie in God. As people of faith that is where we turn for consolation and strength in times of trouble.

It is tempting to think that we have to step in. And it may well be that God is calling us to step in, somehow. What we have to be wary of is to start to think that we know the way to make the promise come true, to make back-up plans and stop trusting in the promise-maker. When Abraham and Sarah made back-up plans (either as in this week's passage or in the Hagar/Ishmael story line) God reminded them that the promise was the promise and it would come out as promised. Our plans may or may not match God's plans for the fulfillment of the promise.

We live as inheritors of a promise. In some ways it is still the promise made to Abraham, that all nations would be blessed through his family, because Christianity is one of the Abrahamic faiths. WE are part of the family of Abraham. To that promise is added, or maybe refined through, the promise of Jesus that the Kingdom of God has come near. We live in the promise of the Reign of God that is both here among us and yet to grow to full bloom. We live in the promise that in the cross and the empty tomb the powers of evil and injustice have been defeated and a new world has emerged victorious.

At the same time the powers of evil and injustice still seem pretty lively for having been defeated. Some days we seem to be moving away from the promised victory of the new heaven and the new earth, the Peaceable Kingdom envisioned by Isaiah, the time when "thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" feels like a reality rather than merely words in a prayer. It would be easy to lose hope while we wait for the promise to be fulfilled. Delayed gratification is a great theory (and a necessity for us to learn) but sometimes it really doesn't feel good.

So remember this, while we wait patiently (or less patiently), God is still at work. God is still on the side of the promise. God remains faithful, even when God's people doubt or lose hope. There is a promise and it will be fulfilled.

Hopefully soon. Some of us are tired of waiting. Some of us are worried what damage the powers of evil and injustice might do in their death throes.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to March 2, 2025 -- Transfiguration Sunday

As this is the first Sunday of the month we will be celebrating Communion. Also as we do on the 1st Sunday of each month we encourage people to support our Local Outreach Fund.

Following worship this Sunday all are invited to remain for our Annual Congregational Meeting.

The Scripture Readings for this week are: 

• Exodus 34:29-35 
• 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

The Sermon title is See Through the Veil

Early Thoughts: "Now we are seeing a dim reflection, as in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face" (1 Corinthians 13:12a, Jerusalem Bible)

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What if 'then' could be NOW? What if we could see clearly and fully, not just a dim reflection? What if the veil were removed and we saw God present in our midst? WHat if we were fully aware that the Shekinah , the divine presence of God was among us?

This Sunday is the last Sunday of the Season of Epiphany, next week we begin the Lenten journey to the cross. One of the traditional themes of the Season of Epiphany is recognizing that God is in our midst. Certainly that is one of the themes for this Sunday.

I invite you to think back to the Sunday right after Christmas (December 29). On that day we heard the story from Luke where Simeon and Anna both run into Mary, Joseph and their new baby in the temple. Both Simeon and Anna recognize who this baby is, and that morning I asked in the reflection "how did they know?". The next week was Epiphany Sunday when we remember the story of visitors from the East who have come to honour the newborn king -- they too knew something, they too recognized that God was present.

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Now this week we come to Transfiguration Sunday, a day when the Gospel story (which will be told during Children's Time) tells of an experience Peter, James and John have with Jesus on the top of a mountain. They have a vision of Jesus with the full glory of God shining through him. God is revealed in sight and sound in this man they have been following around, this teacher who inspired them to leave their old lives behind.

How might we becomes aware of where God is hiding in plain sight in our world? Do we really want to?

This week's reading from Exodus, which Paul references in his letter to the Corinthians that we are also reading, talks about how the people of Israel responded to seeing the glory of God reflected in the face of Moses. They were afraid so Moses had to veil his face, to mute the glory of God shining in him. Paul, after a slight diversion into what seems like a bit of an anti-Semitic argument about Jews  remaining unable to comprehend what God is doing, encourages us to remove the veil, to allow each other to see God reflected in each other as we are being transformed in to who God calls and creates us to be.

Can we take the risk to allow God shine through us?  If, as Genesis 1 tells us is true, we are all created in the image of God what keeps that image from  being what people see in us? How do we remove the veil(s) that life has pushed on us? How do we see through the veil(s) that other people wear?

I suggest that when Jesus takes Peter, James and John up the mountain Jesus himself is not changed --- the other three get a chance to see more clearly what has been in front of them all along. What have we been missing all along? Where has God been hiding in plain sight?  Is this why Jesus says (in Matthew 13)" Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear"?

I think one of the gifts God gives us is the ability to see the world as it is. Sometimes this is unsettling because we don't see what we wish the world was. Sometimes it can also be uplifting when we see God revealed in our midst. In practice I think we see without the veil in glimpses and flashes, but maybe with openness and faith we can see more. 

How do we see beyond the veil? Are we willing to take the risk of removing the veils we put up to protect ourselves?
--Gord

Minister's Annual Report

 Oh a song must rise for the spirit to descend. Oh a song must rise once again.

Singing out God's praises and glory, the faithful voices blend,
Oh a song must rise for the spirit to descend.
(Refrain from Oh a Song Must Rise,#142 More Voices, Written by Paul Svenson)

It always amazes me how the song we lift up changes over the years. 2 years ago as I sat down to write my Annual Report submission we had just had 3 consecutive years of 5 figure deficits – each bigger than the last – and I had to make plain the fact that the congregation was on an unsustainable path. This spurred a lot of discussion and not a small amount of angst. By the end of 2023 we felt forced to make drastic decisions and even last year at this when there was much better news to share there was still a sense of “what do we need to do to ensure our survival as a congregation” in the air.

This year, unless things have changed greatly from the first draft I saw, our financial statements will show a 5 figure surplus. Between 2022 and 2024 expenses have gone up but still the bottom line has turned around by something like $40 000. Where we were lifting up a song of anxiety we can now lift up a song of praise and thanksgiving. I find myself thinking of line in the old Chumbawumba song Tubtumping: “I get knocked down...but I get up again”.

There are a few factors that have led to this turn around (a really successful 2024 Garage Sale, the addition of Card’s as a renter to name two) but the biggest reason is YOU. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the people who gather together, of the people who make this a welcoming place for others to gather a difference has been made. Not only have our Envelope Givings (which include PAR and e-transfers) gone up but the demographics of the congregation are starting to change. When I look out on a Sunday morning I see a different crowd then I saw 5 years ago. Growth gets measured in a variety of ways, and I believe St. Paul’s is growing as a congregation.

So a big THANK YOU to all of you who have made this happen. Thanks for the many many volunteer hours you have put in. Thanks for holding the congregation in thought and prayer. Thanks for showing up even on those -30 degree Sunday mornings. Thanks for your dedication to this community, this family of faith.

From every house of worship, in every faith and tongue,

a song must rise once again.
From the villages and cities a new song must be sung,
a song must rise for the spirit to descend.
(Oh a Song Must Rise, verse 3)

In 2025 the United Church of Canada turns 100 (and this congregation turns 114). Nationally we are definitely not the same church we were in 1925 (or in 1950, or 1975 or 2000...). Locally we are not the same church we were when we gathered at the Elks hall to celebrate our own centennial in 2011. What kind of church will we be in the future? What song will we lift up? As the Spirit descends where might it lead us?

The road ahead has its challenges. Locally and nationally the United Church is not the powerhouse it once was. We definitely need to be open to new ways of living int to God’s call to be the church. Personally I think that includes some more intentional engagement with the digital world even as we continue to maintain traditional physical “real world” connections. We will likely need to find new ways of funding ministry, new partnerships. In 1940 the committee that created the Statement of Faith reminded us of the need for each generation to find its own way of declaring what it believes. I think that each generation also needs to find the best way to be the church, the gathered family of God in a fashion that meets the needs and styles of the world in which it lives.

In the end we don’t know where exactly the Spirit will lead (or drag) us. The future is always in flux. But I firmly believe the Grande Prairie in particular, and Canada in general, needs the unique expression of faith we call the United Church of Canada. I continue to find truth in the confidence shared by a former Conference Executive Secretary almost 20 years ago. He shared his belief that the United Church was the best tool for sharing the Good News of God in Canada today. We are not what we once were, we are not what we once dreamed we could become. We are smaller (though not yet leaner, that is still a work in progress). But we are not gone. I close this with some words of hope from the Rankin Family:

... as sure as the sunrise
As sure as the sea
As sure as the wind in the trees
We rise again in the faces
Of our children
We rise again in the voices of our song...
And then we rise again

May we continue to lift up our songs. May we continue to let the Spirit lead us. May we continue to rise up as God’s people, sharing God’s words of hope, of love, of promise as we live into a transformed world where God’s Reign is indeed known on earth as it is in heaven.
Gord

Looking Ahead to February 23, 2025 -- 7th Sunday After Epiphany

The Scripture Reading this week is Luke 6:27-38

The Sermon title is Go Beyond.

Early Thoughts: When would you go the extra mile? What prompts you to do that little bit extra? Why would you do more than was asked or required?

There is a lot in these few verses from the Sermon on the Plain (or the Level Place) and all of it it pretty darn challenging. Over and over again Jesus challenges us to go beyond what we might consider normal expectations:

• love our enemies
• turn the other cheek
• give your shirt in addition to your coat
• lend without expecting it back
• don't judge others

The most logical piece in the whole passage seems to be the Golden Rule -- "Do to others as you would have them do to you." (which has equivalents in many other traditions) but even then I suspect most of us do that out of self-interest where Jesus would have us do it more because it honours the other person first.

Why does Jesus push us to go beyond what seems sensible? I think because we are called to live into a renewed earth and heaven. We are called to live as transformed people, living by the values of God's Reign instead of the values of a 'fallen' humanity (I do wrestle with the image of humanity as fallen but I have to admit it does seem to describe us in many ways). In those values extravagant love seems to be the guiding principle.

Still it goes against the grain. The instructions here seem to make us very vulnerable -- though the more I think about it the more I wonder if a willingness to be vulnerable is a big part of the transformation Jesus invites us into. Certainly they raise up a totally different set of values and priorities.

Throughout the Gospels Jesus offers us a challenge. Jesus consistently challenges us to be transformed, even (or perhaps especially) when it is uncomfortable. The world is changed when people choose to change the world. Going beyond the bare minimum, living out a different understanding of what is possible, being vulnerable for a higher purpose is a much more loving way to do that than using violence to force others to follow our path. A cynic might see Jesus calling us to be a doormat in these verse. But I think something more revolutionary is in the offing.

What will help us go beyond expectations and live into the new heaven and the new earth?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to February 16, 2025 -- 6th Sunday After Epiphany

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Psalm 1
• Luke 6:17-26

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The Sermon title is Blessed or Cursed?

Early Thoughts: Looking at the Luke passage, where do you find yourself? Which category describes you better -- the ones told the are blessed or the ones who are told to expect woes?

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Or looking at the Psalm...
Are you in the happy folk who meditate on and delight in the Law or are you in the second stanza? Are you a tree planted by the water, growing strong in the word of God or chaff to be blown away?

I think I know where we all want to be....

Living into God has called and formed us to be pushes us to ask those sorts of questions. It pushes us to be honest with ourselves even when it is uncomfortable.

Many of us in the United Church, most of us in Canada in general are not usually among the poor, the hungry, the hated and excluded -- the people promised blessings. In the big picture we are among the rich and comfortable. Often in our culture we end up taking advice from 'the wicked', from those who lead us into the primary sin of idolatry -- putting something other than God in the place of highest importance.

Does that mean we should be dreading the times of woe?

Nor necessarily. It does mean we need to take an honest look at where we fit in the ecosystem. Certainly where it comes to the categories in the Psalm we can make a choice. We can choose what we put in the place of highest importance. As for Luke's categories of blessing and woes, well we can choose how to use our wealth and privilege. In the end, I think those choices are the path that leads us away from woes and toward blessings.

Together let us lead each other to the path of blessing. Together let us plant ourselves in the streams of wisdom so we can grow strong and fruitful. Let us be ready to be different from the world around us, even pushed out to the margins, as long as we are being faithful to the God who made us in their image.

At the same time, maybe we should be ready for the possibility that there will be woes along the way...
--Gord

Looking Ahead to February 9, 2025 -- 5th Sunday After Epiphany

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Jeremiah 1:4-10 
• Isaiah 6:1-8 
• Luke 5:1-11

The Sermon title is Not ME!!!

Early Thoughts: Annual Meeting season can be dangerous. It is the time of year when Nominating Committees are out and about and recruiting. How will you r4espond when asked to take on a task?

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This week we have a set of call stories, where the Divine nominator taps someone and says "I want you". ANd in all three stories the person feels unworthy.

Jeremiah claims to be too young. Isaiah declares himself a man of unclean lips. Peter declares himself unworthy of even being in Jesus' presence even before the invitation is issued. In all three stories the invitee is told that they are indeed the right one for the task, so don't be afraid. God empowers the one God has called.

There is almost always a reason to try and avoid saying yes to an opportunity. We are too busy. We don't know what we are doing. We might mess it up. We don't have the skills/knowledge/ability. What might make us move from "you got the wrong person" to "Yes, I would be happy to do that"?

I think there are several answers to that question. Sometimes organization try to guilt people into "doing their part". That might work, though it is, in the end a very unhelpful approach. Much more helpful and empowering is to share why you think that person is suited for that particular task. Sometimes, maybe even often, we need help to see where our strengths might lie. Many people would not think of putting themselves forward until someone else says "you would be good at...". The other key part in recruiting, especially recruiting those who are unsure, is to remind them that they are not alone, they have support to complete the task.

GOd, it seems, is really good at recruitment and convincing the reluctant. Over and over again in Scripture God taps someone on the shoulder and they are reluctant to respond. Moses insisted he could not talk well enough. Jonah got on a boat headed the exact opposite direction. But over and over again God convinces the person to agree to the task.

When have you been invited to take on a new role and were sure they had the wrong person? What changed your mind? When and how have you coached someone else to move from "no way" to "I'll give it a try"?

I firmly believe that we live in a time when something will be asked of all of us. (Actually this is always true, I just think that given the political and economic climate right now this is a bit more urgent.) God needs more voices sharing a different view of the world, a different understanding of what is truly important, a different vision for how we work together. God needs loud voices reminding us that we are ALL God's beloved children, made in God's image, worthy of life and respect and love.

What might GOd have in mind for you? What risks might God invite you to take so that the Good News of hope and love, renewal and re-creation, can continue to spread around Grande Prairie, Alberta, the whole world that God loves so very much? How will each of us respond?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to February 2, 2025 -- Epiphany 4C

This being the first Sunday of the month we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Communion during worship. Those joining us via YouTube are invited to have brad and juice available so we can all eat and drink together.

The Scripture Reading this week is Luke 4:21-30

The Sermon title is How Dare You?!?

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Early Thoughts: Local Boy Makes Good! That is how this story actually starts but then it takes a pretty drastic turn as the crowd moves to toss Jesus off a cliff...

One might honestly ask why. Yes crowds can be fickle, but still what did he do to upset them so much?

In essence Jesus annoys them by reminding them that it is not all about them, not all about their people. Jesus tells them that God cares for people outside the camp.

It seems to me that people still find that message hard to hear and accept. Maybe it is even harder or worse to hear that challenge from someone we were sure was 'one of us'.

We often talk about this scene in the Nazareth synagogue as the launch point of Jesus' public ministry in Luke's Gospel. And in a way, as Luke writes his story, it is, this is the first detailed description that Luke gives us of Jesus' teaching and preaching but at the same time it is not. In verse 14-5 we are told that Jesus returned to Galilee and "began to teach in their synagogues", in verse   we read "When he came to Nazareth..." and in this week reading, verse 23, we have a reference to the things he did in Capernaum. Obviously Jesus has been at work in public ministry before this day in his hometown synagogue. Maybe he had a soft launch and this is the grand opening?

At any rate, by now news has started to spread about this Jesus from Nazareth and what he can do. There is a sense in this reading that the people were excited to see the local boy come home after making a name for himself out in the world. Surely if he did great things in Capernaum he would do great things here...right?  Maybe not. He seems to refuse to do them, though maybe he could not. Maybe the people there wanted to see him perform great deeds of power but the curse of familiarity made it hard for that to happen. Note that when he first finishes his proclamation the people say "Is this not Joseph's son?", sometimes people have trouble seeing you as more than the person they once knew--no matter how much they want to do so.

Indeed when both Matthew and Mark talk about Jesus being rejected by his homies (though they set it later in his ministry) they say that Jesus was unable to perform many miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief. In all three accounts Jesus uses a line about prophets not being honored in their hometown. It is hard to go home sometimes.

In Luke however, Jesus goes an extra step. It almost as if he is either trying to irritate these people where he grew up, to ensure his rejection or maybe he knows where they need to be pushed. At any rate he reminds them of two stories from their faith history. Both Elijah and Elisha are special prophets in the faith story. They not only spoke truth to power but they also were miracle workers in their own right (the later prophets would speak God's Word to the people but not perform miracles). Jesus reminds his childhood friends and companions that Elijah and Elisha carried the power of God to outsiders, sometimes instead of healing or aiding the people of Israel who were close at hand. In response the people essentially run him out of town on a rail.

Here is what ChatGPT came up with

Many times we dearly want to think we are special, that we should get special treatment for some reason or another. When we are reminded that we are not as special as we think we are it can be hard to hear. I think this is part of what happens in Nazareth. It is not just that they are too familiar with Jesus (they watched him grow up after all) to accept him in a new role -- thought that may well be part of it. It is also that he dared to talk about the God whose mercy is wider than the lines humans draw between the 'in' and 'out' groups, the division of who is worthy of help and who is not.

I think we need that reminder at times as well. I think of the storm of controversy last week following the prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington when Bishop Budde asked leaders to be merciful to those who many push to the outside edges of society. I think of the many disparaging, even hateful, comments made about the people who live in the tent cities of Grande Prairie or Edmonton. I think of our tendency to ensure our people get their 'fair share' first and then decide how to divide what is left over.

Maybe we in the church need to be more daring. Maybe we need to be more vocal about challenging our leaders and ourselves to see the unended width and breadth of God's mercy. Maybe we need to take the chance of saying the unpopular things that nevertheless are the truth of the Gospel.

I just hope there is no cliff handy when we do it.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to January 26, 2025 -- 3rd Sunday After Epiphany

The Scripture Reading this week is 1 Corinthians 12:29-14:5.

The Sermon title is The Greatest Gift

Found on FB a while ago

Early Thoughts: Over the weekend a 50 year-old (though I thought it was 40-45 years old) song jumped into my head. The chorus says:

Oh oh, get that buzz

Love is the drug

I’m thinking of

Oh oh, can’t you see?

Love is the drug for me

The song has nothing to do with what Paul is talking about -- it is someone seeking physical encounters under the guise of love -- but the idea of seeing love as a drug, an addictive substance, and needing your next hit does I think speak to the importance of what Paul calls the "greatest of these".

This week we continue in Paul's discussion of gifts given through the Spirit. Last week in Bible study a couple of people looked at the end of chapter 12 and asked about what it meant to strive for the greater gifts. What is this more excellent way Paul speaks of? Time to answer that question.

Standing in the same line as Torah, Jewish Wisdom, and Jesus Paul affirms that the greatest gift is love. No matter how good you are at anything else, no matter what other gifts you might have, without love you are nothing. I suspect there may have been some people over the centuries who have found that a little humbling or off-putting. It means it doesn't matter how popular your, how rich you are, how many accolades you have received, what office(s) you have been elected to, how much power you have, how much you have sacrificed -- without love none of it matters. After all, all those other things will end someday. 

It seems we all need that reminder some days. In a world that has become so deeply divided and acrimonious, a world where 'what's in it for me' seems to be how we are told to make decisions, a world where we can often ask (as many have in the past) What about the love or Where is the love we need to be reminded about the greatest gift.

Paul challenges us to open ourselves to love. Paul challenges us to grow and mature in love. Paul challenges us to live in love, to act in love so that we can embrace who God has formed us to be, so that we can help the community grow in unity, in hope, in faith, and in love.

I am writing this piece on January 20th. As I type I believe that President Trump is giving his inauguration address (I am intentionally not listening). On both sides of the 49th parallel politics is taking an ugly turn. There are many voices demonizing 'others' as the cause of all our problems and sometimes it seems leaders are more interested in tribalism and picking fights than finding solutions where all benefit. Love is, I believe, an antidote to these tendencies. Love, not in a sappy sentimental romanticized version but in a scrappy, standing up for what is right, speaking truth to the world version is what we need in the world today.

Also found on FB

Today is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the US (And many people have commented that Trump being installed in office on the same day as Dr. King is honoured seems a big disconnect). Dr. King never called his followers to hate the other side. Dr. King was, after all, first a preacher who knew the Scripture story deeply. He knew that love was the prime virtue for life.

Paul challenges the Corinthians, and us, to seek a more excellent way. That more excellent way is the way of love. As John's Gospel reminds us, Jesus calls/commands us to love each other as we have been loved. Jesus tells us that this is how people will know that we are his followers -- that we have love for our neighbour.

The Greatest Gift. Love. It makes a difference in the world.
--Gord