Looking Ahead to November 16, 2025

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The Scripture Readings this week are:

• James 2:12-17
• Luke 6:27-37

The Sermon title is Upside Down Power

Early Thoughts: Do you remember last January and Bishop Budde? She spoke truth to power. She lifted up a different understanding of how we could live together. She advocated for mercy and grace. Some thought it was inappropriate to bring 'politics' into a sermon (with the President and Vice-President sitting right there). Others thought it was the best time to speak the gospel hope for a renewed transformed world.

We all have power, to one extent or another. We all have power and authority in some sphere of life. Sometimes the sphere feels really small. Sometimes it is bigger than we imagine. The question for all of us -- those with great power and those with just a little bit -- is how do we use it.

There are those who say you use your power to get everything the way you want it. There are voices who will always say that those with the most power get what they want. And if we look at how the world works it appears that people with power have a tendency to use it to benefit themselves, their supporters, and their agenda. Governments pass legislation enshrining their policies in law. Influencers convince people to ignore decades of science or history (or sometimes just basic facts and logic) in favour of a particular idea or understanding. Those who resist or protest are seen as troublemakers or unrealistic dreamers.

Power can certainly be abused.

How are we called to use power as people of faith, as citizens of God's Reign?  What does power mean in a worldview where the last shall be first, the weak shall be strong, the least shall be the greatest?

I think there are a few key points. One is that we use power to lift up and build up not to keep down and put down. We use power to create community rather than to divide. Another is that we use power with grace and mercy at the forefront of our decision making. A third is that we use power in ways that stand with the vulnerable and weak against the strong and powerful. Finally (and possibly the most importantly)is that we use it for the betterment of others, not just our own agendas -- sometimes we use it in ways that appear to set us back in the interests of our neighbour.

Obviously there is some overlap in those points.  Life in faith ends to be a web of ideas.

Using power in the kingdom might look like going the extra mile. It might look like malicious compliance to point out the implicit injustice in a policy. Using power in God's Reign might look like caring for someone who can never reciprocate. Using power in a Christ-like way  might mean making a bold choice to put others first at cost to yourself. It might look like challenging those with more power to be more gracious, merciful, loving. It might mean being seen as divisive or 'too political'. Using power as a follower of Christ means doing things that help us see that God's Reign is breaking forth all over the place.

Using power as a person of faith most certainly does NOT mean violating people' rights. It does not mean using your platform to dehumanize people. It does not mean helping the winners win bigger while the losers fall farther behind. It does not mean retreating into some worldview where the Reign of God makes not impact on how the world actually works, of telling people "your reward will be great in the next life" while they suffer here and now.

Bishop Budde had power by virtue of the office to which she has been called. She had the chance to speak to those with a different sort and understanding of power. One showed faithful use of power, one has consistently shown a different use and understanding.  WHich way will we follow with our power?

To close this piece I share this screenshot I took sometime after Charlie Kirk was murdered. I think it too talks about power (and I encourage folk to search Benjamin Cremer on social media)...

MAy God help us to use power faithfully, lovingly, mercifully as we live into the "world God imagines" (as our hymn last Sunday put it)
--Gord

Looking Ahead to November 9, 2025

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Psalm 119:33-40
• Romans 12:17-21
• Matthew 5:38-48

The Sermon title is Upside Down Vengeance

Early Thoughts: This Sunday is two days before Remembrance Day. How do we get to "Never Again" in a world that seems hardwired to repeat history. How do we get to Peace in a world so prone to violence?

By turning things upside down. By living into Jesus' upside down logic and commandments.

Jesus challenges our understanding of how to react in the face of mistreatment (real or imagined I would say). Much of the time the natural reaction is to want to strike back or at least to complain. Jesus seems to tell us to go further along the path of being mis treated.

Jesus challenges our understanding of how we respond to our enemies. Common sense says that you love your friends but have different feelings about your enemies. Jesus tells us to love them and to pray for them. [To be fair he does not say how to pray for them so there may be room for malicious compliance on that count.] Jesus points out that any fool can love their friends but the true calling is to love your enemies also.

Then there is Paul. Writing to Rome, Paul points out that payback is not the way of Christ. Years ago Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said: "Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.". I have heard that for years without realizing how deeply rooted it is in Romans 12. Dr. King understood that to live into a new word meant changing our thinking. We move beyond payback and vengeance. We act lovingly instead. It is a hard calling. It is easier, and feels better, to at least dream of getting back at others. Though I do like the slightly twisted idea that by loving our enemies we "heap burning coals on their head". We overcome evil with good, maybe in part by shaming the other????

Psalm 119 is a very long piece of poetry -- 176 verses -- that talks about the glories of following the Law. In Jewish tradition the Law is often seen not as burden but as gift. In the same way that boundaries can help children grow healthily or "good fences make good neighbours" (as Robert Frost tells us) the Law, a set of rules about how we live together, helps keep us healthy. In a world where we lift up the importance of self and self-determination we might lose sight of this principle but we need boundaries to be healthy as individuals and as a society. In these verses we see the psalmist asking God for guidance and wisdom so we might stay inside the boundaries.

We will never get to true peace by putting down others, even if "they did it first". At no point in human history has the path of vengeance and pay back led to lasting peace. As it has been said, "eye for eye and tooth for tooth only leaves everyone blind and toothless".

Instead we lift up the upside down logic of the Reign of God. The path to peace is to love your enemy, to act lovingly toward them. The path to peace is to let God lead us in new ways. The path to peace is to stay between the lines -- even when the lines seem to lead in a strange direction.

May we continue to let God turn our worlds upside down.
--Gord

For the Advent Newsletter

Dream a dream, a hopeful dream...

Dream a time, this Christmas time...
Dream a peace, our planet’s peace...
Dream a gift, the Christmas Gift
that changes everything we see...
(Words from Dream a Dream by Shirley Erena Murray, #158 in More Voices)

We are entering the time of preparation and waiting we call Advent. Four weeks of lighting candles and preparing our hearts for the birth of a baby who will change the world. As we get ourselves ready for Emmanuel, God-With-Us to be born what dreams fill your heart, soul and mind this year? What does Christmas need to bring for the magic of The Word becoming flesh to re-energize your world as we move into 2026?

Dreams are important, they help us envision a world renewed and re-vitalized. Dreams remind us that there is another possible reality. In our faith stories dreams are often a way that God communicates with God’s people (it happens 4 times just in the first 2 chapters of Matthew!). What dreams has God placed on your soul this year?

This year as we gather on the four Sundays of Advent I invite us to be open to the power of dreams. The theme I have chosen for the season is The Christmas Dream:____. Each Sunday we will finish the phrase with one of our Advent themes: Awakened Hope, Transformative Peace, Blosoming Joy, and Embodied Love. Sometime between now and then I will figure out how we might finish the phrase for Christmas Eve itself. When you think of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love what dreams stir in your heart?

The weeks leading into Christmas can get very busy and hectic, but let’s take time to pause and listen. Let us dream together. Let us share our dreams with each other. May we be open to how God is speaking to our hearts and minds as we prepare for God to change the world by becoming one of us, to walk around among us. In 4 weeks a baby will be born. We will sing carols and remember shepherds and angels. Hope, peace, joy and love will break into our lives again. Life can be a dream. Dream along with me.
--Gord

For the Next Newsletter

It is October 28, 2025. My heart is heavy. My outrage is bubbling. To be honest I don’t know how to write about Gentleness today.

Between the draconian and undemocratic ending to the Alberta teachers strike, the prospect of millions of US citizens losing access to financial support for food through SNAP, the real possibility that ethnic cleansing will continue in Palestine, news of a category 5 hurricane set to ravage Jamaica, and whatever other troubling things might pass under my eyes today my heart is heavy.

How do we respond to all the {expletive deleted} that comes flying at us these days? How do we remain gentle and meek in the face of injustice and unfairness and suffering? Some days I think the better question is “should we remain gentle and meek?”...

In the end I think we should. I think we are called to respond passionately but gently. I think we are called to find a different path. We follow the one who told his followers to love their enemies, to turn the other cheek, to put away their sword. Jesus reminds us that there is the way the world usually works and there is the way the Reign of God works – and we are called to strive for the second one.

Which does not mean it will always be easy.

Maybe part of the problem lies in what we often think it means to be gentle. Maybe it is only me (though I guess I am not alone) but to be gentle carries with it the idea of letting others walk all over you. It suggests remaining calm and not getting worked up, not calling people out, not engaging in conflict. Certainly it seems idealistic and naive to suggest that we respond to the violence of the world with gentleness and expect to make a difference. In all of this I think I am wrong.

To be gentle does not mean we can’t be passionate or forceful or just accept things as ‘that’s just the way it is’. To be gentle is about how we are passionate and forceful about what we believe to be right. To be gentle means following the path of a Mahatma Gandhi or Dr. Martin Luther King. To be gentle is to model a different way of changing the world rather than letting the world change us.

We know that the world is not what it could (or should?) be. There are things that will make us rage. There are things that will make us weep. There are things that call for us to stand in the breach and protect the vulnerable in our midst. Do all those things. Be passionate about what it means to love. Be forceful about how we should live. But also be gentle. Be loving. Don’t let the violence of the world lead you to counter with violence. May God help us to live lives filled with all the flavours of the fruit of the Spirit.
Gord

Looking Ahead to November 2, 2025

This is a first of the month Sunday so we will be celebrating Communion this week. If you are joining us via YouTube you are encouraged to have some bread and juice available so we can all eat and drink together.

Also the first Sunday of the month is a day when we at St. Paul's intentionally remember our Local Outreach Fund with designated gifts to support our neighbours.

With the beginning of November we start to prepare for the end of the Liturgical Year when we mark the Reign of Christ Sunday (Nov 23 this year). A month from now we will be into Advent and starting to prepare for Christmas. AS we lead into the Reign of Christ this year I encourage us to think of how Christ tends to turn our expectations and assumptions about the world upside down.

The Scripture Reading this week is Luke 6:20-26

The Sermon title is Upside Down Blessings

Early Thoughts: What does it mean to be blessed? Is Jesus seriously saying that the poor, the hungry, those who weep, those who are hated/reviled/excluded/defamed are the blessed ones? 

Last week I came upon a video which included a clip of Jordan Peterson responding to the version of the Beatitudes that we find in Matthew, a parallel passage to what we have here in Luke. In Matthew is where we find the familiar "Blessed are the meek" and "Blessed are the peacemakers" and Dr. Peterson was responding (in the clip which was presumably from a longer piece) to the idea that the meek and humble are blessed. Surely, he said, Jesus meant something else by meek -- his suggestion was those who had great power and strength but chose not to use it were the truly meek. The clip was spliced with a Biblical scholar who said that Peterson was clearly trying to renegotiate with what the text actually said to make it more palatable. In short, to make it fit with Peterson's assumptions about how the world should work.

But Jesus challenges our assumptions on a regular basis. Jesus is the one who tells us that the last shall be first and the our calling is to be servant-leaders. Jesus proclaims a kingdom that upends the way the world works, a kingdom where power is assigned differently, a kingdom which gives preference to those on the margins instead of those at the center.

In our world of late-stage capitalism we would think that Jesus has it all wrong in this combination of blessings and woes. Surely it is the rich, the well-fed, the praised who are truly blessed. Right?

What if we are wrong about the signs of being blessed? What if we are called to see the world with our head on the ground and our feet in the air? 

WHat does it really mean to be blessed?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 19, 2025

The Scripture readings this week are:

• Psalm 133 Acts 2:42-47
• Hebrews 10:24-25
• Romans 12:15-18

The Sermon title is A Thankful Community

Early Thoughts: In the end we are a communal species. Certainly  we are a communal faith. Really human life, Christian life is about how we function in community.

I may not always have believed this. There may well have been a time when, speaking out of having been consistently hurt by a specific community, I thought that the Simon and Garfunkel song I Am a Rock sounded like a good motto. Or at least that is what I told myself at the time.  It felt safer to be alone behind walls.  (On reflection I am not sure I had myself totally convinced even then.)

I still understand the impulse. Bit in the end we are a communal species and Christianity is a communal faith.

Over and over again when you ask people why they go to church some part of the answer is "the community". Together we dance and celebrate. Together we weep and lament. Together we complain about how the world is and dream about what the world could be. It may be a cliche but together we are more than the sum of our individual parts.

Our Scripture readings this week talk about the blessings of community. They also talk about the importance of being in community. They talk about the importance of  supporting each other in community.

5 years ago we were pushed to re-think how we are as a community.  How could we continue to be a community when we didn't gather in one place? We learned how to be community not only in-person but on Zoom as well. 5 years later we are still a different type of community.  Some of us gather together in a room on Sunday morning, others join us online either in real time or later that day.  We have people who have joined us for Sunday worship from other towns, even other provinces. We are a community that expands well beyond the walls of our building or even the boundaries of the city. AS time goes by the community grows and reshapes, we find new things that re important about how we are community together. Still we see the importance of community.

This week, in the middle of Thanktober, I ask you all a couple of question. Why are you thankful for the communities of which you are a part? How do our various communities make a difference in the world (both local and global)? What difference does it make to be in community --both when it is easy and when it is hard, when it feels safe and when we feel really vulnerable?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 12, 2025 -- Thanksgiving Sunday

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Psalm 100
• Deuteronomy 26:1-11

The Sermon title is Thankful Remembering, Thankful Giving

Early Thoughts: DO you pause to remember? Do you pause to recall what God has done? What happens when you do that?

This passage from Deuteronomy describes a ritual of presenting a thank-offering. It describes it as one of the first things you do at harvest (I wonder if first fruits means every year or just the first harvest in this context?) You take a portion and offer it to God. As you do that you name those things that God has done for you and for the people and out of thankfulness you give to God as you celebrate the abundance of the land.

So what do we do with this story?  We have not just entered the Promised Land. Many of us do not have fields to harvest and bring in the first fruits. Few of us have a story of how our recent ancestors were delivered from an oppressive empire (at least not as specifically as the Exodus story). The story can't be talking about how we are to act -- can it?

It is my contention that we read these ancient stories because even if our context and lives are very different from the culture that passed them on to us they do have something to teach us about how we are called to live.

In this case the story has much to tell us.  There are three parts to the ritual that is described: offering, remembering/recalling/retelling, and celebrating.

How do we incorporate all three into our lives?

It is my firm belief that the act of remembering with thankfulness how we have benefited for the gifts we have been given changes our hearts and minds. When we intentionally pause to name those gifts, to retell the story, to celebrate the abundance we are more open to do the offering. A thankful heart is most often a generous heart.

AS we move into Thanksgiving weekend this year I encourage us all to remember. As we remember I encourage us to tell stories, talk about the gifts we have received. Then celebrate them. Be glad for the gifts, even sing  if you are so minded. Then open yourself to the next step -- sharing, making an offering. I want us to ask ourselves what 'first fruits' we might have to lay down before God, not just on Thanksgiving or in some sort of ritual but on a day-to-day basis. As I said above, we will be more open to identifying what we can share if our hearts are filled with a sense of abundance and a feeling of thankfulness.

When we forget to remember, when we don't tell ourselves the stories of gifts received we can more easily fall prey to the ongoing claxon telling us there is not enough. We miss the abundance. Worry or jealousy take the place of gratitude. In that place there is little celebrating, little impulse to be generous.

THe choice, in the end, is ours. What will we choose to remember? What will we choose to see? Will we be generous and thankful?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 5, 2025 --Worldwide Communion Sunday

As this is the first Sunday of the month it is our monthly day to highlight our Local Outreach Fund, the designated gifts which allow us to support our neighbours here in Grande Prairie.

Also as it is the first Sunday of the month we will be celebrating the sacrament of Communion this week.

Oh and it is the beginning of Thanktober, so our Tree of Thanks will be up and ready for folk to hang some leaves.

For Worldwide Communion Sunday this year we will be reading John 6:5-14, 35, 48-51 which is from the "Bread of Life Discourse".

The Sermon title is Daily Bread, Daily Thanks.

Early Thoughts: It is one of the most basic of foods. Ground grain, water, a little salt, usually some sort of leavening agent.... bread.

Bread has long been a staple food.  It is energy dense. When made with whole grains it provides a variety of nutrients. It is fairly easy to make.  Here is a list of links about bread as a staple food. Many communities would have had large bread ovens either for communal use or the earliest commercial bakeries.  Bread is a big deal!

In the sixth chapter of John's Gospel we hear a lot about bread. First we have the feeding of thousands with five loaves and two fish --staples that turn a hungry crowd into a giant picnic, with leftovers to boot. Then Jesus spends almost 40 verses talking about the bread of heaven. Twice in this discourse Jesus describes himself as the Bread of Life, and then also the living bread that comes from heaven.

Jesus, in this passage, links himself with a daily staple, a basic part of life. Jesus is part of maintaining life, and that in abundance.

Sometimes I think we might take bread for granted. It is a danger for those of us who seldom have to worry about it being there. At most when we think about bread it is more "what kind of bread do I prefer?" (white, whole wheat, sourdough, naan...). But what does it mean when we pray "Give us this day our daily bread"? What does it mean to stop and give thanks for that daily bread?

AS we enter into October, the month when we will celebrate Thanksgiving, I invite us all to reflect on this common staple food.  Why are we thankful for bread? I also invite us to consider what it means to give thanks daily, to look for things that make us thankful on a daily basis. How might that feed our souls?

AS we gather at the table of faith I invite us to consider what it means to hold up a loaf and say "the body of Christ, broken for you. What does it mean to consider Jesus as the bread of life, broken and shared? How are we fed at the table, how are we fed by Jesus' presence in our lives?

--Gord

Looking Ahead to September 28, 2025 -- Truth and Reconciliation Sunday

AS this is the Sunday before Orange Shirt Day (September 30th) we encourage everyone to wear an Orange Shirt to worship.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Psalm 24:1-2
• Jeremiah 32:6-15

The Sermon title is This Land is...Whose?

Early Thoughts: Who owns the land? Who benefits from the land? Who is denied benefits from the land?

 This  passage from Jeremiah comes just before Jerusalem is about to fall. As an act of faith and trust in the future Jeremiah is told to buy  a piece of land.  Realistically the timing makes no sense -- why buy land just before everything gets destroyed, what use is a title deed when the whole land is now in the hands of an invader? But the land is bought to remind the people that in the end the land will be theirs again. Some might see it as a claim that when push comes to shove the land will always belong to the people of Israel/Judah.

Several centuries later we can see that this claim of perpetual ownership can lead to a very difficult reality....

For most of human history land has been the basis of wealth and well-being. Only when we have control over the land can we have control over the economy, control over the people, control over our lives. The people who control the land can control how it is used, who gets to live where, and (especially in the last century in Alberta) who profits from the resources that lie under the surface.

But there is another claim in Scripture. Even in the same tradition that talks about a Promised Land and a Chosen People there is another perspective.  There is a perspective that says the earth is God's. If the earth (and all that is in it) is God's then maybe we should change how we talk about ownership and rights to use and rights to make decisions. Maybe.

This Sunday is 2 days before Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. There are lots of thins we could talk about when it comes to seeking truth about our history. There are lots of things that might go into finding reconciliation. (Personally I think we have much to learn from the Jewish teaching on repentance as laid out in this book by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg as we do that work.) The question of the land, and the treaties that were made to help us share (or help colonizers steal depending on one's point of view) the land is a big one.

Each week in worship we have a Land/Treaty Acknowledgement, Such things are becoming increasingly common (or perhaps even an expectation) at many/most public events in Canada by now. Which is a bit surprising because it really wasn't that long ago that they were a "do we really need to do that?" thing in many minds. Why do we do that?  How does it help us along the road to truth and reconciliation, to building right-relations? Or does it even do that, is it more performative, a meaningless gesture when not backed up by action?

Whose land is this anyway? Does it belong to us, to our ancestors, to our descendants (7 generations on perhaps?) or does it properly belong to God/Creator/Great Spirit?

I have sat with people who are deeply troubled by issues of land and treaty. Sometimes they have been troubled because of a feeling that the colonial negotiators negotiated in bad faith, that it really was a land grab. Sometimes they are troubled because they feel that the Indigenous folk are asking too much or are given too much (one I can remember clearly was about the issue of mineral rights).

I, like many of you reading, have read many stories about land claims and treaty discussions. Sometimes about lands they were not actually released through treaties. Sometimes about reservation lands that were later found to be valuable and so acquired (not always fairly) from the First Nation that had them. Sometimes about who gets to profit/benefit from the minerals (thinking most recently of mining in Northern Ontario) the land holds. Sometimes about pipelines crossing those lands. So many stories, so much heated discussion. Some of them are big stories like the Oka crisis almost 35 years ago or the long saga of the Lubicon Cree here in Alberta. Some of them hardly make the news.

Whose land is this anyway? Who has the 'best' claim on it and its riches?.  Jeremiah makes us think it can be bought and that gives the best claim. Some stories of the treaty making process name that the Indigenous negotiator knew the land was not theirs to give away. Psalm 24 says that whatever rules or agreements we might make in the end all of it belongs to God. Whose is it? Who gets to control it?

As we live seeking reconciliation, as we seek a renewal of the relationships between those who were here, those who came after and those who will come in the future we need to look hard at how we share the land. Control of the land is power and wealth. I am not at all convinced the current model is working. What might be a new one?
--Gord

Looking Forward to September 21, 2025 -- Creation 3

The Scripture Reading this week is Psalm 104:10-28

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The Sermon title is God's Great Web

Early Thoughts: Touch one strand and another vibrates. Tear open one section and the whole structure is weakened. 

This is not only true about the spider web, it is true of a much bigger web, a web of which we are all a part. In the masterful weaving of God's creation we are all attached, all interconnected, What we do impacts every thing else. We forget these links at our own peril.

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As I was typing that paragraph I reminded myself of something called the Butterfly effect. In Chaos theory the Butterfly effect reminds us that seemingly minor things can have massive impacts. The most well known formulation is to suggest that a butterfly flapping its wings in one area can spawn a tornado hundreds or thousands of miles away. That might seem a little outlandish but the fact remains that given the interconnectedness of life, the universe, and everything, we can not be sure what ripples our actions might have. If we take seriously our call to live with respect in creation then we have to think about all the impacts our choices might have.

It is possible to read the Creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2 and decide that creation is there to serve humanity. Form much of human history we appear to have lived with that impression, that human needs/wants are of first importance and the impacts on the world are secondary. Some cultures are more guilty of this than others, with industrialized Western European and North American arguably being the worst of the lot. I am not sure that is a good reading of the Creation accounts, particularly Genesis 1 where humanity is created last and everything created before us is called good in and of its own accord. Then a passage like Psalm 104 comes up and reminds us that is really is not about us.

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These verses from Psalm 104 remind me that God is out there caring for all of creation, the entire web. We humans are, in the grand sweep of billions of years, a tiny point on that web. We have punched above our weight so to speak. We have made an impact that has helped to reshape the earth, the climate, the creation itself. We may have forgotten that it may not actually be all about us.

AS a part of the web, and remembering that when one strand vibrates everything else feels is we may want to ask what vibrations we are creating. Remembering that the stone falling into a lake can, if the ripples are big enough, flood the far shore we might stop to ask what is at risk way over there. Remembering that if part of the web is damaged or destroyed the strength of the whole thing is impacted we might remember we have a duty to help keep the web strong and resilient.

I think it is what we mean when we say that we are called to live with respect in creation...
--Gord

Looking Forward to September 14, 2025 -- Creation 2

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Genesis 2:4-6, 10-14
• Ezekiel 47:1-12
• Revelation 22:1-2

The Sermon title is Water of Creation, Water of Life

Where the River Goes

Early Thoughts: Where there is water there is life.

Many of the world's cities are established near bodies of fresh water, even coastal cities are often along a river heading out to the sea. If you were establishing a settlement out in a dry area one of the first tasks would be to dig a well or some other reliable source of water. All land animals need to have access to water if they are to survive. And then the bodies of water themselves are teeming with life, from micro-organisms to complex animals and plants. 

Where there is water there is life.

Our faith story knows this to be true. The beginning of creation (according to Genesis 2) is the rising of a stream that would water the ground. In our other creation story (Genesis 1) water is present from the beginning and land is created from it -- interestingly many North American Indigenous stories of creation also have water at the beginning with land coming out of it, often on the back of a giant turtle.

Where there is water there is life.

All three of our passages this week remind us of this basic fact. All three talk about the river of life. So do our hymns for this Sunday. As we consider how humanity is going to share this earth with the rest of God's creation we must give consideration to water.

How do we take water for granted? How do we give it honour? How do we care for the river(s) of life?

Some predict that access to water is going to be (or is already becoming) a key issue in international relations. Remember Donald Trump ranting about the big tap that Canada could turn and send water down to the US instead of 'wastefully' letting it flow into the Pacific?  (Just to be clear there is no such tap and watersheds are complex things). As we move forward into a changing climate, where precipitation patterns are already changing, how do we support the river of life -- or at least get out of the way so it can thrive?

Life, we have long been told, first came out of the water. Both faith and science say this is so. Clean fresh water is mandatory for most plants and animals to exist (some actually live better in brackish water).As part of God's Creation, as people who claim to be called to "live with respect in Creation " (as A New Creed has said for 30 year), what is our duty to the water of life?
--Gord

Looking Forward to September 7, 2025 -- Creation 1

AS this is the first Sunday of a new month we will be celebrating Communion this week. It is also a day when we encourage people to consider making a dedicated donation to our Local Outreach Fund.

For the first 3 Sundays of September this year we will be marking Creation Time, a season where we reflect on the world around us and our place in it.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Jeremiah 18:1-6 
• Psalm 139:13-16 
•  Genesis 2:7-9

The Sermon title is Made of Clay, Shaped by God

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Early Thoughts: Lumps of mud, is that what we are? According to Genesis yes, that is what we are. We are formed from the dust of the ground. Now many people will point out that the only reason life is possible on Earth is because of particles, elements, 'stuff' that fell to the surface from the outer reaches of a forming universe that dust from which we were formed is in fact stardust but the fact remains we are, according to our faith story, bits of mud and dust with the breath of life blown into us.

At the same time the story tells us that we are shaped by God. Psalm 139 echoes this claim, this statement of faith. We are formed from the earth but formed with intention. We are linked to the rest of creation and linked to the one who forms us 

ANd also the one who continually re-forms and re-shapes us.

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The Jeremiah passage is about the nation. There is no doubt about that. In its literary setting, in its words it is talking about the nation being re-shaped and re-formed because it is not what the maker wanted it to be. However I think it works for individuals as well.

I think that we are (possibly) malleable lumps of clay, ready to be re-worked. The God who first formed and shaped us is constantly working on us (I remember t-shirts that used to read "Be Patient with Me---God Ain't Finished With Me Yet") to bring us more into harmony with God's vision for who we and the world in which we live could be.

In this Season of Creation I think there is great value in reminding ourselves that we are formed from the same stuff as the rest of Creation. It helps keep us humble and it reminds us that we are inextricably linked to the world around us. We forget that link at our own peril.

In this Season of Creation, and the rest of the year too, there is great value in remembering that we are formed by the Potter (in God's image as the other Creation story tells us). This brings a sacred aspect to our very existence. It calls us to live into that sacredness.

Living in a world the humanity has not always served well, a creation where humanity has often been a poor steward of what was placed in our care it is good to remember that the Potter continues to reshape the vessel. This can be a great source of hope.

What does it mean to you to be told that you are made of clay? What does it mean to be told you are shaped by God? How do those things change who you see yourself as a part of God's Creation?
--Gord

FAll Newsletter

 What do these things have in common???

• You are in a hurry, running late for an important meeting and somebody is driving really slow in front of you. You run out of patience and want to lean on the horn.

• Your favourite football player announces he is engaged to some singer (or maybe favourite singer engaged to some football player?) and in your excitement you want to scream and dance.

• Scrolling through Facebook one day you see a post from someone in your extended family that seems pretty racist. Do you bother to engage and offer a different point of view?

• With a deep sigh you read the news and discover that yet another government announcement has come out with an idea that you find so aggravating you want to throw your phone against the wall.

• A close friend gives you wonderful news but then says “don’t tell anybody else”. You are so happy for them you can barely keep it in.

• Your young child is insisting “me do!” but it is taking forever and the mess keeps growing...

The common thread? All are opportunities to practice the virtue of self-control. I am sure that given a chance you could think of a multitude of other examples when that opportunity has passed your way.

I am also sure that, like me, you can admit that your record of embracing the chance for self-control is mixed at best.

Paul lists self-control as one of the flavours of the Fruit of the Spirit. In some ways I think this is one of the most challenging, and judging from some of Paul’s letters (looking at you Corinth) I suspect Paul found that many people had issues with self-control as well. In fact when I think of Paul’s lament in Romans 7:19 “For I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I do” I suspect Paul found himself struggling with self-control from time to time.

Why is self-control an important part of living out our faith? I mean I can see why it is important for keeping us employed, or married, or out of jail but where does faith tie in? In a world where, more and more, we are encouraged to “just be yourself” why not just do that?

I think it is an act of love, the predominant flavour of the Fruit of the Spirit. Practising self-control is about pausing and asking ourselves if our automatic reaction is the most helpful, the most encouraging, the most appropriate, the most loving. We may end up doing that thing anyway, self-control does not automatically mean self-denial, but at least we have stopped to reflect on our actions and made a conscious choice. We may even find that we are moved to a more constructive action than our initial knee-jerk response.

I encourage all of us to think before we act. I encourage all of us to ask if what we are about to do or say will help accomplish the building of a loving community or will it just tick people off. Will we make a difference or just blow off steam (and if the latter will it hurt someone else in the process)? Is this event so important that we have to respond? What might the Jesus we meet in the Gospels encourage us to do in this circumstance?

In everything we do, in every situation we face, we are called to act lovingly, to love our neighbour, enemy, family member and friend. Over and over in life we are challenged to keep what is truly important in view and not be distracted by the shiny or the loud. Self-control helps us to do just that. We won’t always get it right, but we are encouraged, challenged, called to keep trying.

But I have to admit that sometimes those knee-jerk reactions (however unhelpful or immature they may be) do feel really good – in the moment. Sometimes what feels good is not what is right. May God help us all to know which is which.
--Gord

Looking Forward to August 31, 2025 -- Labour Day Weekend

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Deuteronomy 5:12-1
•  Matthew 20:1-15

The Sermon title is Labour Justice

Early Thoughts: What does justice in the working world look like? How can we raise it up as a real way of being? Does the witness of our faith have a role in discussions about labour and justice and compensation?

FOund on Facebook

The readings this week address two facets of this multi-faceted issue. One reminds us that everyone needs time to rest, that nobody should be required to be "on" all the time. The other raises the question of what is a fair way to pay people.

Let's start with Deuteronomy. There are in fact two versions of what we like to call the 10 Commandments (the Hebrew text does not actually call them that, it is a matter of tradition). One in Exodus and another in Deuteronomy. In Exodus the commandment to keep Sabbath is based on the hymn of Creation in Genesis 1 and we are to rest on the 7th day because God also rested on the 7th day. Here in Deuteronomy we are told that we are to rest to remind ourselves that we are not slaves. In both cases the commandment is clear -- not just select people are to take a day of rest, everybody (even foreigners and slaves) is entitled to a day of rest.

It has been said that this commandment is the one people often seem proud of violating. Certainly there are some people who seem to want to brag (even if they phrase it as complaint) about how long it has been since they took a day off, or how they never use their vacation time. However I think that such complaints/bragging misses the point. It is not healthy to work all the time. It is not a sign of how important we are or how strong we are. It is a sing of an imbalance in our world.

More to the point from a justice perspective though are those people who are not able to take a day off. The ones who have to work multiple jobs just to break even and so they juggle shifts and end up with one every day -- and then there is finding time to do the rest of the labour that goes into maintaining a life (laundry, eating, childcare...). This justice question is specifically raised when we remember that one of the reasons Scripture tells us to take a day of rest (by which it means a day of rest, not just a day when you don't have to go to work so you can spend the whole day doing household labour) is that the people are no longer slaves like their forebears were. Labour justice, according to Scripture, mandates that people have a chance to rest.

Then we have the parable of the day labourers in the vineyard. To be a day labourer is to be in a very tenuous position. If you don't get work that day how will you eat? That was true in 1st Century Palestine. It is true in 21st Century Canada.

The landowner in this parable has always fascinated me. Why does he keep going out to get more workers rather than hiring more in the morning? And more importantly why does he pay everybody, the ones hired at daybreak and the ones hired just before closing, the same?

What he pays them is the going rate for a day labourer, the amount needed to live that day. This landowner is ensuring that everybody he came into contact with that day got was they needed for basic necessities. Today some would accuse him of being Marxist or communist. Or they might call him an idealistic fool. 

When Jesus tells parables he is teaching a little bit about what the Kingdom/Reign of God is like. In this case Jesus is suggesting that in the Kingdom/Reign of God everybody gets what they need, everybody's basic needs are met. At first glance it seems totally unjust. Surely justice means that the longer/harder you work the more you make. Everybody knows that right? Those people who worked all day were not treated fairly...

Maybe it depends what we mean by justice and fairness. Jesus tends to turn some of our common sense and traditional understandings on their head.

This weekend we in North America mark Labour Day, a day when traditionally we are encouraged to remember the way the Labour Union movement has changed how our economic system works. Of course in Alberta we are also marking Alberta Day since Alberta and Saskatchewan officially became provinces on September 1, 1905. As with many many other things the church has a divided history when it comes to labour unions and the changes they have called for in society. It has not always been clear where the church does (or could or should) stand.

My reading of Scripture and my grounding in the Christian tradition lead me to insist that we in the church need to take a stand on those things that increase justice in the world. That means we have to at least talk about questions around  Labour Justice. We need to talk about how we ensure everybody gets basic needs met (personally I am in favor of the idea of a Guaranteed Annual Income). As it happens this will also help us ensure that everybody has the opportunity for a day of rest each week (along with some vacation time for a longer rest and revitalization). It means we need to speak out when some parts of the workforce appear to be taken advantage of. It means we need to talk about how we define justice and fairness.

HOw do you think we as the church can speak up for a must just and fair world?
--Gord

Looking Forward to August 24, 2025 -- 11th Sunday After Pentecost

The Scripture Reading for this week is Luke 13:10-17

The Sermon title is Stand Up Straight!!

Image Source

Early Thoughts: What bends you over? What bends your neighbour over? What keeps all of God's children from being able to stand up straight and tall in freedom and health?

I don't think this is (only) a story about someone's posture....

I mean if you read it in one way it is certainly about posture, about maybe a spinal issue, about a physical malady. But the story itself opens up different possibilities.

When we meet the woman we are told she has "a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight". That sounds like more than a simple, if chronic, physical ailment. It sounds like something weighing her down. I have never had good posture (despite my father constantly telling me to stand up straight while I was growing up). Over the years I have often wondered why that is, what kept me from standing up straight to the point that my body was trained into a different shape -- was it laziness, weak muscles, or was there something else at play. This woman has something that is weighing her down, bending her over.

Then later, when Jesus confronts the people who are indignant that he has healed her (done work) on the Sabbath he puts it this way: "ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage". Obviously Jesus sees this as more than a highly troubling physical ailment. Jesus, who has come to bring freedom and liberation from bondage and oppression, sees a woman who has been bound and chooses to set her free. This is not just a story about a physical healing

So what binds you up? What bends you over? What weighs you down physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually? (Remembering that a holistic approach to health would mean that being weighed down in one area impacts all the others). From what do you need Jesus to set you free?

Jesus, the Risen and Living Christ, continues to bring healing, liberation, and freedom to God's beloved people. Sometimes we may not even realize how badly bent over (literally or metaphorically, how strongly we have been bound until we are set free and allowed to stand up straight. Sometimes it is only after being set free that we can name what had been binding us. Sometime we get so used to being bound up and bent over that we think it is simply normal (I wonder if the woman in our story had some of that, I wonder how she saw the world differently before and after meeting Jesus that Sabbath day). Can we let Jesus set us free? Can we take the chance to stand up straight?

That is all wonderful and life-giving. It is great to remember that Jesus offers us freedom and healing. But I think there is a next step we need to take. As a part of the freedom and healing we find in Jesus we are told/encouraged/challenged to worry about the well-being of our neighbours. The Reign/Kingdom of God that Jesus announces is one where all people have what they need for life, abundant life. So when it comes to this story it is not enough to worry about what binds us up. We also have a duty to ask what binds up and bends over our neighbours. We have a duty to look critically and ask if there are choices we make that may bind up our neighbours and keep them from standing up straight.

So how can we help set our neighbours free? How can we help take away the weight that is keeping them bent over? How have we possibly contributed to that weight?

Jesus comes to help us all stand up straight. Jesus challenges us to be part of the forces that bring healing and freedom to the world. May God help up accept healing. May God help us bring freedom to our neighbours (possibly at some cost to ourselves).
--Gord

Looking Ahead to July 13, 2025 -- 5th Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 10C

The Scripture Readings for this week are:

• Amos 7:1-17
• Luke 10:25-37

The Sermon title is How Do You Measure?

Source

Early Thoughts: Are you plumb and level? Or are you maybe a little bit off-kilter? What is it that has pulled you away from being plumb or 'true'?

It happens. Even the best built building may have had perfectly level walls and floors at first but over time things settle and start to change. (Not that anyone familiar with our church building might know something about buildings shifting and changing). Sometimes the variance is minor, easily covered up. Sometimes it requires major work in a short time to keep the wall from collapsing. And sometimes it starts minor but over time becomes a major flaw.

Amos has a vision where God says that the nation of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) is going to be measured with a plumb line. Has the nation remained true or have they started to fall away (spoiler alert---the next line foretells their destruction so guess how the measuring goes). 

Just like walls can start plumb and true but time can make them start to swerve, so it is with individuals and communities. Sometimes we don't even notice how we have started to swerve, it happens slowly and gradually until suddenly we realize we have lost our way, that we don't feel anchored or stable anymore. Sometimes there is a seismic event and the foundation feels like it has been pulled out from under us and things collapse in a heap.

But what scale do we use to measure? What is the marker of being in or out of plumb?

I think there are a variety of scales used to make that measurement in the world today. And some of those scales say different things, push us to different ways of thinking, lead to very different results. Often to be true to one set of measures means we are seen as out of kilter, a little cock-eyed, or downright out-of-whack by others.

However for those of us who seek to live in The Way of Jesus there is one over-arching measurement that we are called to use. The plumb line, chalk line, level that we need to use the measure our lives is summed up in one word. Can you guess what it is?

Love. Jesus sums up his tradition, the Law and the Prophets, by calling his friends to love God with all their being and to love their neighbours as they love themselves. Love is the scale by which we measure ourselves. Love is the foundation that keeps us steady. When we fail to act lovingly we are out of plumb, we are un-level, we are no longer being true to who we are called to be.

How do we measure up? When the plumb line of love is held up to our communities where do we start to move away from the line? Is that variance because we have lost sight of the goal or is it because some other plumb line tells us to act in a way that goes against what is truly loving? Which measurement scale are we giving preference to?

Measurement and judgment are a part of life. We measure and judge each other, ourselves, our governments, our communities -- sometimes intentionally and sometimes unconsciously -- on an almost daily basis. The real question is about what scale we use, what criteria we use. God calls us to use Love as the pre-eminent scale and criterion. WE measure our lives by love.

HOw do we do?
--Gord

Edit to add:
Just after I hit publish I started thinking about how I will do Children's Time this week with a plumb bob and a chalk line as props. It occurred to me that a plumb bob only works properly if nothing catches on the string to keep it from hanging freely. Gravity will pull it straight down unless something pulls it to one side. Same thing with a chalk line. With no obstacles between two points it will make a sharp straight line but if there is an obstacle the line will shift. So maybe one of the questions we might ask is what pulls us out of the true line? What is catching our string to keep us from being level and straight?

Looking Ahead to July 6, 2025 -- 4th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 9C

This week we will read some challenging words from Jesus as recounted in Luke 9:57-10:11

The Sermon is called Give Up What?!?

Early Thoughts:  What could you not give up? What would be too much to ask?

Jesus sometimes asks hard things. Jesus sometimes pushes us to a difficult place. Jesus pushes us to think about what is the highest priority.

SOurce

How many of us would find the requests made to bury a parent or go and say farewell to be totally reasonable? Most of us I think. But Jesus tells those people that that is not what he is calling people to.

How many of, when being sent out on a mission would think that the reasonable thing to do is plan what the bare necessities that we have to take are? Jesus tells his friends to take nothing, to be totally reliant on the kindness of strangers, to be incredibly vulnerable.

Where in this string of instructions might you choose to tap out?

IS this where Jesus continues to call us?  Does Jesus continue to call us to not do things that seem really important as we choose to follow his path? Does Jesus continue to send us out into the world vulnerable and seemingly unprepared, like lambs in the midst of wolves? (which sounds an awful lot like lambs prepared for the slaughter when I think of it).

From Agnus DAy

What if the answer is yes?

What things might we have to leave behind because they get in the way of our expectation of how the Way of Christ should/could/would look? And of course then the real question becomes the one I asked above -- what is too much to ask/what can you  or we not give up?

• Security? 
• Financial well-being? 
• The comfort of the known and familiar? 
• Assurance of success (however we define that) or even survival?

I truly believe that the church, the community of the faithful, the followers of Christ need to take these questions very seriously as we move forward. As an institution we have not become really good at risk-taking. As a group we have tended to preference the comfortable place. In more than one congregation the response to financial and human resources dwindling has been a call to do what ever is needed to ensure survival (I once had someone honest enough to say "at least until after my funeral"). But Jesus calls us to not worry about survival or even success(again however we might define that). Jesus challenges us to leave behind those things that might bring comfort and live on trust and faith.

THe way forward is to worry about being faithful and proclaiming the Good New. We don't get there by worrying about survival as a first priority. We don't get there by playing it safe. We don't get there without letting go of some things, even some things we REALLY LOVE.

Can we do that?  I'll be honest enough to say that some days it sounds terrifying to me. Then again, Jesus does not ask us to do it alone. We do it with a partner, with a community, as partners in the project. That might make it a little less scary.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to June 29, 2025 -- 3rd Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 8C

The Scripture Reading this week is Galatians 5:1-26

The Sermon title is Freedom!!

Source

Early Thoughts:"...tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom" It has become one of the most well-known scenes in movie lore, the Scottish rebel/hero William Wallace spurring the Scots on to battle by reminding them that the path to freedom lies in defeating the English army of Edward I. Later, as the movie draws to a close, as he is being hanged, drawn, and quartered, the last work that Wallace speaks is "freedom".

Or another image from an earlier show...
In the Star Trek (Original Series) episode The Omega Glory (which I learned this morning was one of the first episodes Gene Roddenberry wrote for the series) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy find themselves on a planet locked in a violent conflict between the Yangs and the Kohms, being held prisoner by the Kohms. Kirk uses the word freedom and one of the Yang prisoners is both surprised and offended because the stranger has used one of their sacred words -- "that is a worship word". Yes the episode goes on to glorify the US ideals and understanding of freedom and independence but that line has always stuck with me --freedom is a worship word.

In the Gospel of Luke the first public act Jesus performs after returning from his time of trial in the wilderness is to read in the synagogue. He reads from the prophet Isaiah saying:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The work of Jesus is to bring freedom, to set people free. Many of the miracles we see Jesus performing, particularly the exorcisms, are about setting people free. One of my favourite healing stories in the Gospels is also found in Luke (chapter 13) where Jesus heals a woman who has been crippled, unable to stand up, for 18 years. As she is healed Jesus tells her she is set free from her ailment. A few verses later Jesus says "..ought not this woman...whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage..."

Freedom is a worship word for us too. We are set free from those things that bind us, that keep us from being who God created us to be.

How can we best use that freedom? How might we misuse that freedom?

The answer to the second question is Legion. to try to explicate all of them would take far too long. Let it suffice to say that we just need to look around the world to see the consequences of freedom misused and abused.

The first question is a bit more nuanced. And for that I turn to Paul, who seems to be reminding the Galatians (and us) that freedom doesn't mean everything is good. In his 1st Letter to the Corinthians Paul says (twice) that all things are permitted [in the freedom we have in Christ] but not all things are beneficial. For Paul the question of how we live out our freedom is essential. If we are no longer bound by the Law (in a religious sense that is) then how do we guide our behaviour? In 1st Corinthians Paul raises the ethic of those things that build up the community and the members thereof. Here in Galatians Paul phrases it in terms of the commandment to love your neighbour as you love yourself. Paul repeatedly tells us not to let ourselves be enslaved or dominated by some external yoke but here suggests that we should be enslaved to each other through the commandment to love.

This Sunday is the Sunday before both Canada Day and Independence Day with Bastille Day just a couple of weeks away. All three are national days that celebrate the coming of a new way of being, sometimes peacefully through law and sometimes through rebellion or riot. It is also 10 days after Juneteenth, as day when the news of the Emancipation Proclamation finally spread through all the Southern States at the end of the Civil War. These are days when freedom is talked about a LOT. What do we mean by freedom on those days? Is it the same as the freedom offered to us by God through Jesus Christ?

We are free. We are free to make choices. We are free to act. We are also subject to the consequences of our actions -- freedom never means that there are not consequences. We can use this freedom to build our own little empires, to do things that benefit us at the cost to our neighbours. OR we can use this freedom to build up the community, to bring hope instead of despair, to seek liberty and Good News for those at the margins, to spread love and justice around. We can use our freedom to, as Paul might put it, live by the flesh. Or we can use our freedom to live by the Spirit, to seek to have the fruit of the Spirit flow through us.

From ChatGPT

Our freedom is limited because while all things are permitted not all things are beneficial. May God help us use our freedom wisely, profitably, lovingly and justly.

--Gord

Looking Ahead to June 22, 2025 -- 2nd Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 7C

The Scripture Reading this week is 1 Kings 19:1-14.

The Sermon title is Eat, Sleep, Listen

Early Thoughts: When the world falls apart, when everyone is out to get you, when you are starting to panic what do you do?

In the pre-story to this week's reading Elijah has made some very powerful enemies. And now the queen wants to kill him (in revenge for Elijah first embarrassing and the slaughtering the prophets of Ba'al) so he is on the run.

Elijah, it seems, has lost hope. He thinks it would be just as well that God takes him from the earth right now. But God, it seems, disagrees. God reminds Elijah to take care of himself, to eat and drink (God provides the food and water)  and allows Elijah to sleep. This combination of sleep and sustenance revives Elijah and he continues on his way. Never underestimate the power of taking care of yourself in the middle of a crisis.

Elijah in the Desert

Then Elijah is ready for the next step. He is ready to talk with God about his situation and is told that God is about to appear.

First a great wind. Then and earthquake. Then Fire. Chaos and calamity abound. But God is not (at this time) in the chaos and calamity). When God comes by as promised He is found in the "sound of sheer silence". So maybe Simon & Garfunkel were right to tell us the the words of the prophets are whispered...in the sounds... of silence?

Elijah could have given up in the wilderness, could have succumbed to his panic and fear and died.

Elijah could have assumed that God was there in the chaos, in the wind or fire or earthquake. After all it would hardly be the first time in our faith story that this is how God is revealed.

But he did neither of those things. He trusted in God in the wilderness and survived the journey. He had the wisdom and discernment to know when God was truly present and then went out to meet Her. And then Elijah is honest with Them about what is happening, laying it all on the table so God can respond.

Then comes the (or another) important part. God hears Elijah's complaint  and in the verses immediately following this reading God sends Elijah back to continue the work. When we deal with the chaos and tumult of life healthily we are then able to go back out and continue the work. It is not always about escaping the chaos, it may not even usually be about escaping the chaos (sometimes it is though).

What do we do when our world falls apart? What is our response to crisis? Do we give up? Do we panic and make hasty decisions? Do we remember to take care of the basics? Do we embrace the chaos? Or do we respond with trust and wait for God to arrive so we can voice our laments, our fears, our worries? What prepares us to keep up the good fight, to make good trouble, to join in the mending of the world?

I know what I do. It leads to sleepless nights and a lot of stress -- and an overly large consumption of chocolate.. Maybe I need to find a better answer.

What about you?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to June 15, 2025 -- Affirmaversary

 

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Romans 5:1-5 
• John 16:12-15 
•  Acts 11:1-12

The Sermon title is D.E.I. is Missio Dei

Early Thoughts: As I sit here trying to start this week I don't even know where to begin. The deluge of news from south of the 49th Parallel is so unaffirming, so uninclusive, so unwelcoming. Where is the vision of strength in diversity?

This week we mark the 2nd Anniversary of St. Paul's officially becoming and Affirming Ministry. The Affirming process is started around and really is aimed at questions around sexuality and gender but to really be a "Come As You Are" church, to really be welcoming and affirming of all we have to go farther than gender and sexuality. God has created a world with incredible diversity. God wants us to embrace that reality -- not live in our own silos where "like will to like".

Since the beginning of the current Trump Administration we have heard a lot about the 'evils' of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (D.E.I.) as a somethin that shapes policy [arguably we have heard a lot about the supposed evils of D.E.I and early things like Affirmative Action for many many years but those voices were given amplification and power since January this year]. There is a lot of rhetoric about how D.E.I. is supposedly harmful or weakens the society. Many of us find it a poor cover for racism, sexism, ableism and so on.

But there is a deeper theological issue for me. As I said above God created a world with great diversity. When we want to limit that diversity, when we want to ensure only the 'right' parts of that diversity get power and wealth and privilege are we not acting against God's dream, God's vision for the world?

At the end of May I attended the Northern Spirit Regional Council Annual Meeting. At that meeting I was re-introduced to a couple of concepts. One was the idea of Ubuntu. Ubuntu comes from the Bantu languages and translates to Humanity. As a philosophy it reminds us that we need to care each other because our individual well-being is tied to the well-being of those around us. The other was a traditional Masai greeting: "And How Are the Children?". This greeting reminds us to care for the future, to worry about the well-being of the weaker among us. It, as the article I just linked puts it, makes us check its ethical compass. The traditional response is "All the Children are Well", meaning that things are stable.

In a world where lifting up diversity is seen as a problem, a world where striving for equity is bad, a world where only those who fit in get included could we honestly answer "all the children are well"?

D.E.I. is an acronym. Dei is a word, a Latin word. It means God. More than a few of my colleagues pointed that out as the President and DOGE were maligning, attacking and dismantling D.E.I. earlier this year. In both Jewish and Christian Scripture God makes it clear that God's hope for the world is a place where we can wholehearted share the Masai greeting--both parts. The Reign of God, that thing Jesus proclaimed over and over, is (I believe) a place where Ubuntu is a guiding principle. We might refer to it with words like "love your neighbour as you love yourself" or "by this shall all others know that you are my disciples, that you love on another" or "love your enemies". It expresses the same sort of commitment to care for the well-being of everyone.

IN a world where some of these philosophies are seen as problematic, or dangerous, or misguided we have a duty. We have a duty to proclaim the importance on D.E.I even when it is unpopular. We have a duty to speak out in protection of those at the margins. We have a duty to lift up a different way of being together. God calls us to do just that. May God help us to have the courage to do just that.
--Gord