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 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 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

Looking Ahead to December 22, 2024 -- 4th Sunday of Advent -- Love Candle

 

The Scripture Readings this final Sunday of Advent are:

• Psalm 146 
•  Luke 1:39-55

The Sermon title is Jesus Is Coming, Sing Justice, Dance Love

Early Thoughts: Mary was not, it appears, meek nor mild. Mary had a vision of how was God was at work to transform the world -- ands wasn't shy about sharing it.

I think I like the story of Mary and Elizabeth's meeting as much as the Christmas story itself. Elizabeth, pregnant when it was well past the time that such thing should happen (to quote a play I was in 30 years ago "when a women who shops the Co-Op on Seniors day is about to have a child the world is not out of surprises yet") meets her cousin Mary, pregnant too soon. As Luke tells the story, the child Elizabeth carries will be known as John the Baptizer, he will predict the coming of the Messiah. The child Mary carries will be seen as God living among us, the Word-Made-Flesh, Emmanuel. Two special children and two bold mothers.

When they greet each other Elizabeth feels her child leap for joy (which can't have been too comfortable for mom in her last trimester), some might even say John was dancing in his mother's womb. At that instant one of the women (generally seen to be Mary but some sources say Elizabeth) is moved to song.

But her song is not a lullaby. Her song is not about the worries and wonders of impending parenthood. Her song is a cry for change, a manifesto for a just new world, a proclamation that God ahs something grand in mind. Mary sings of justice, of a world turned upside down by the God who created and loves the world.

I believe that working to create a world where justice reigns is what it means to put "love your neighbour" into action. The Christmas story is not just a sweet story about angels and shepherds and a baby in a manger. The Christmas story is a story of the world being changed. It is a story of God breaking into the world to live among us and start the avalanche of justice called for by the ancient prophets "But let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." (Amos 5:24) Mary sings a song of justice to help us dance the dance of love.

Both the children who are in this story today (albeit in utero) will carry forward the song of justice and the dance of love. John will preach a baptism of repentance and encourage folk to change how they live (se Luke chapter 3 for how he does that), Jesus will call attention to the way the world could be and invite us all to live into a new way of being. It is an old song, an ancient dance -- it's rhythms can be felt from the days of Moses right through to the new heaven and new earth in Revelation and on through wise ones, prophets, and teachers to this very day.

We are invite to sing and dance too. Are we ready to lift up our voices, faltering as they may be at times, and try out the steps, even when he may have two left feet? Can we join Mary, Elizabeth, John and Jesus in hope and joy, working for peace love and justice -- a world reborn and renewed?
--Gord