Looking Ahead to November 23, 2025

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 65:17-25 
• Luke 1:68-79

Taken from FB,
Click to enlarge

The Sermon title is MWGA (Make the World Great Again)

Early Thoughts: What does it mean to make something great again? When was the greatness and what has changed?

In the last few years, thanks to a certain 2016 Presidential campaign, we have heard a lot about making something great again. It started of course with MAGA (America) but has also been used by people to talk about Canada or Alberta. In last month's municipal election one candidate's signs said "Make GP Great Again".

So many questions come up. Great for who? Why is _____ not great now? Who wins and loses in your vision of greatness?

Some have tried to bring the church into this Make ___ Great Again discussion. Often under the auspices of Christian Nationalism, with the assumption that somehow greatness and Christianity are intrinsically related. As Brian Zhand points out in the quote pictured above, the church is not in the business of making America, or Canada, or Alberta, or Grande Prairie great again. The church is in the business of lifting up a different way of being.

This Sunday marks the end of the liturgical year, the Reign of Christ Sunday. It is a day when we are asked/encouraged to take seriously Jesus claim that in his ministry the Reign of God has broken into the world. It is a day when we are encouraged to ask where our loyalty is meant to lie. Is it to a nation state or is it to the world that God envisions? Here is a quote from C.S. Lewis about loyalty and sabotage...

I think we can all agree that the vision we find for a renewed world in passages like this week's reading from Isaiah is not what we see in our news feeds and TV screens. But here is the Good News. God is actively at work.

God is actively and continuously at work renewing the world. It might be a more gradual process than we would wish but God is actively at work making the world better, maybe even great.

Click to enlarge

Here is another meme I screenshotted from Facebook earlier this fall. It helps describe what I think it means to say the God is making the world great/ Not again, again suggests that there was some sort of idyllic past we are trying to get back to. God calls us to look forward, to how things are being renewed. The Reign of Christ/Kingdom of God is not found in the past, it is found in the present and growing into the future. 

We are invited to catch the vision, to share in the dream of a world renewed and reformed. We are invited to join in the task that has been ongoing for millennia. In Christian terms, we see Jesus as announcing the inauguration and beginning of the Reign of God. This reading from Luke (which we we read again on Advent 1 as we move into another year of hope) is the song Zechariah sings at the naming of John the Baptist. In the final verses he sings about John but the early verses sing of the promised Messiah or Saviour -- the one we call Jesus. The one who will renew the people  as God has promised of old.

How do we see God making the world great? How have you been asked or invited or challenged to take part in God's great renewal? How do the promises and actions of the world around us help or get in the way of God's project of MWGA?
--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

Looking Ahead to May 11, 2025 -- 4th Sunday of Easter

With this Sunday being Mother's Day we will take some time early in the service to talk and think about families. Many of us have family by blood and family by choice. Many of us are part of more than one family. I invite you to ponder this quote from Lilo & Stitch:

Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten

Who is part of your family(ies)? 

This week we conclude our series of post-Easter appearance stories with John 21:1-17

Source

The Sermon title is Shore Lunch with Jesus

Early Thoughts: John 21 is a strange chapter. The last verse of chapter 20 is a very clear ending to the Gospel. It might as well have "The End" in it. But then all of a sudden we have another chapter, another story, another appearance. Many believe that Chapter 21 is the work of a different author within the Johannine community that gets edited in to the Gospel.

The last time we met the disciples we were in Jerusalem, locked in an upper room for fear of what might happen next. They had 2 visitations (a week apart) from the Risen Christ who spoke of peace, breathed the Holy Spirit onto them, and sent them out. Well they have gone out...sort of.

A small group of the disciples are in this story. They have gone home, gone back to what they knew, maybe they are trying to get 'back to normal'. We are back on the Sea of Galilee (also known as the Sea of Tiberias after that city was founded on its shore in the early first century CE). But they have not gone home to preach and teach. They were once fishermen and now Peter says "I'm going fishing", he is going back to what he knows best, to what he understands. I can understand that. When what we thought we knew has been tossed around in the storms of life we often want to find something familiar, something that makes sense.

But life doesn't always let us leave it there. Or at least God doesn't.

Jesus shows up. After a night of empty nets Jesus shows up and a massive catch of fish follows. [Note that there is a very similar story in Luke chapter 5, at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Some have suggested that it is one story used differently by the two writers.] Peter runs to shore to greet the Risen Lord and they find breakfast waiting for them. Another appearance, the third one to the disciples (4th overall in John when we remember that the first appearance was to Mary alone).

But really it seems that this story is about Peter. The others see Jesus, eat with him but the meat of the story comes next. Peter and Jesus have this exchange about love and commissioning. Generally it is understood that the threefold questioning is to counteract Peter's three fold denial of Jesus in the Passion narrative. I wonder if it is also to lock in the understanding that a large part of  discipleship is to care for others.

What does this appearance tell us about what it means to be followers of the Risen Christ. Again we are reminded that Easter happens in many different places (last week on the road and in a house in Emmaus, this week along the shore of the lake many miles from Jerusalem). Again we are reminded that when we meet Jesus there is feeding involved. Again we are reminded that Jesus brings abundant life. What else?

We are reminded that to follow Jesus is to be given a task. We don't just go about our regular business, our lives will be changed by our encounter with Christ. In the verses that immediately follow this reading Jesus reminds Simon Peter that his life is no longer his own, that his choices are now shaped by forces outside his own mind.

That was quite a shore lunch after a fishing trip!
--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 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?

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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

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