Wait for the Lord whose day is near. Wait for the lord. Be strong. Take heart. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
All through lent we’ve been waiting for the Lord. What are we waiting for and how long do we have to wait?
Today we are going to take our own journey through the Passion. We come with questions. We will leave with questions. I pray that we will learn something along the way.
Today we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus, the King of the Jews, the Messiah, the Chosen one or the Anointed enters into Jerusalem at the time of the Passover. At the same time, directly across the city, Pilate and his entourage would have been entering the city. The Romans kept a strong military presence in Jerusalem when the Jews celebrated their release from bondage, when they remembered throwing off the chains of their oppressors and fled to freedom. The Romans did not like this holiday. Jesus walks into this and stirs it all up.
Wait for the Lord whose day is near.
Whom shall we release … Jesus Bar Adam or Jesus Bar Abas: Jesus Son of Man or Jesus son of the father? Even in moments of truth, the answers are never perfectly clear. How can we know which to chose? How do we recognize the Messiah? Where do we look for the Messiah?
Wait for the Lord whose day is near.
Today we celebrate the Passion of Christ. We celebrate his walk to Golgotha: the place of the skull. On the way, he meets Simon of Cyrene. Simon would probably have been a Jew who made his pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover. Cyrene was in North Africa and was home to many displace Jews. Simon was compelled to carry the cross for Jesus and was healed by it. The same words which are translated as “they laid the cross on him” are used at other times to speak of laying healing hands on someone. Simon came to Golgotha and found salvation in a man on his way to die.
Wait for the Lord whose day is near.
Even as he died on the cross, Jesus faced the tempter. Jesus faces the same fears, the same pains, the same trials as us. When tempted to save himself from death, Jesus instead turns and pardons the sins of one who repents. When choosing between earthly life and eternal life, he chooses eternal life. At the moment of death this may be an easy choice for us, or at least easier, but sitting here in this place, firmly earthbound, this choice is close to impossible. How do we find the strength to choose eternal life when earthly life is so tempting?
Wait for the Lord whose day is near.
When Jesus dies on the cross, two very important things happen. “The sun’s light failed.” The light of the world left the world. “The curtain of the temple was torn in two.” The curtain which divided the main area of the temple from the sanctuary was destroyed. The laity were no longer barred from direct contact with God. They no longer had to pass their prayers and sacrifices to God through the priests. These two are the same event. The light had not left the world but it had changed.
Wait for the Lord whose day is near.
What are we waiting for? The Kingdom of God. How long do we have to wait? We can get glimpses every day. When we forgive or are forgiven we see, just for a moment, the Kingdom of God. When we see Christ in ourselves or in others, we see the Kingdom of God. In a little while we will celebrate the Eucharist, our own remembrance of the Passover, when Jesus died to heal us all, to free us all from eternal death, we glimpse the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is here already but there is much work to be done for it to be here fully. In the Kingdom of God, the choice is clear. In the Kingdom of God, we are tempted by salvation. In the Kingdom of God, the only choice is eternal life.
Today is the day of the Lord. His day is near. Be strong. Take heart.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Are you Martha, Mary or Lazarus?
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Are you Martha, Mary or Lazarus?
Each one of them is loved by Jesus. Each one is the friend of Jesus. They are all very different.
Martha – hardworking, detail oriented, knows what needs to be done and does it. Many people believe that Martha represents the organizers of the early church. She is the one who provided the space, gathered the people, and made it possible for worship to happen. Martha exemplifies the leader of a house-church or small worshiping community that met in someone’s home. She is the combination of the ACW, Altar Guild, Lay Reader, communion administrator, warden, and landlord all rolled into one efficient package. She either has a rich husband or comes from a rich family. She would need this backing because her house-church is a full time job plus some.
This very tiring picture is the up-side of Martha. The downside is that she is so busy that she has forgotten why she’s doing it all. She never takes time to just sit back and think about the big picture.
Mary is a visionary. Mary is consumed with the big picture. She looks around her and just knows what is important. She knows ahead of time that Jesus is going to die, either because she understood what he was saying (which pretty much no-one did) or maybe because she was a prophet. We don’t really know why Mary knew, but she did. Mary, to me, represents the response of the church. She sees a need and takes action, regardless of the cost. She knows that our response needs to be one of generosity. She is the why of the church. She shows us were we should be going.
Mary also has her down-side. Mary is response oriented. If the church were run by her, very little would get done. It would be all outreach with no fundraising to back it up. Nothing would ever be set up in time for worship. People would never know when to be there. There would be no organization.
Lazarus seems to have the easy job. He doesn’t have to do much. He just has to be there. I see him as the average church goer (which doesn’t actually exist). He is consistent. He provides support for both Martha and Mary. He listens to what they have to say and adds his own input. Without him, neither Martha nor Mary have anything to do. Martha has no congregation to prepare for, no meetings to organize, no books to keep, no meals to prepare. Without him Mary has no resources to respond to needs, no one to listen to her when she describes her understanding of God and God’s call.
Oh – and Lazarus has to give up his life for Christ. Lazarus has to be so devoted to his calling that he is willing to die so that Jesus can show the world that death no longer has any power.
Together, these three people make up a healthy church. If any one of them is missing the church is in trouble.
But there is more to it than that. Each of these people is a reflection of the trinity of the Christian brand.
Martha is stewardship. She manages and takes care of God’s gifts. She uses what she needs and is very conscious of her responsibility for it all. She lives simply.
Lazarus is humanity. He is called to be alive, to live as Christ teaches him. He simply lives.
Mary helps others to live as Christ teaches us. She observes her world and responds to any need that she sees.
I believe that every one of us is a mix of all three. Each of us has our strengths and our weaknesses, but they are all there.
I know that I have a large portion of Mary in me. My weak side is Martha. I have to work very hard at the organization, at making sure that all of the work gets done. I am easily distracted when I see a need, any need. I get caught up in responding when I need to be planning or preparing.
I think that it is important for us to know ourselves. To know where our strengths lie, where our weaknesses are. To make the best use of our strengths and to work on our weaknesses. To become more complete as human beings.
When we know our own strengths, we can recognize them in others. We can seek out people with complementary strengths and work together. We can help each other with our weaknesses.
This is the good news today. This is the grace of God. Individually, we are incomplete, imperfect, not capable, or unworthy as our translations say. Together, we are complete. Together we are, as our Bible says, perfect.
Thanks be to God.
Are you Martha, Mary or Lazarus?
Each one of them is loved by Jesus. Each one is the friend of Jesus. They are all very different.
Martha – hardworking, detail oriented, knows what needs to be done and does it. Many people believe that Martha represents the organizers of the early church. She is the one who provided the space, gathered the people, and made it possible for worship to happen. Martha exemplifies the leader of a house-church or small worshiping community that met in someone’s home. She is the combination of the ACW, Altar Guild, Lay Reader, communion administrator, warden, and landlord all rolled into one efficient package. She either has a rich husband or comes from a rich family. She would need this backing because her house-church is a full time job plus some.
This very tiring picture is the up-side of Martha. The downside is that she is so busy that she has forgotten why she’s doing it all. She never takes time to just sit back and think about the big picture.
Mary is a visionary. Mary is consumed with the big picture. She looks around her and just knows what is important. She knows ahead of time that Jesus is going to die, either because she understood what he was saying (which pretty much no-one did) or maybe because she was a prophet. We don’t really know why Mary knew, but she did. Mary, to me, represents the response of the church. She sees a need and takes action, regardless of the cost. She knows that our response needs to be one of generosity. She is the why of the church. She shows us were we should be going.
Mary also has her down-side. Mary is response oriented. If the church were run by her, very little would get done. It would be all outreach with no fundraising to back it up. Nothing would ever be set up in time for worship. People would never know when to be there. There would be no organization.
Lazarus seems to have the easy job. He doesn’t have to do much. He just has to be there. I see him as the average church goer (which doesn’t actually exist). He is consistent. He provides support for both Martha and Mary. He listens to what they have to say and adds his own input. Without him, neither Martha nor Mary have anything to do. Martha has no congregation to prepare for, no meetings to organize, no books to keep, no meals to prepare. Without him Mary has no resources to respond to needs, no one to listen to her when she describes her understanding of God and God’s call.
Oh – and Lazarus has to give up his life for Christ. Lazarus has to be so devoted to his calling that he is willing to die so that Jesus can show the world that death no longer has any power.
Together, these three people make up a healthy church. If any one of them is missing the church is in trouble.
But there is more to it than that. Each of these people is a reflection of the trinity of the Christian brand.
Martha is stewardship. She manages and takes care of God’s gifts. She uses what she needs and is very conscious of her responsibility for it all. She lives simply.
Lazarus is humanity. He is called to be alive, to live as Christ teaches him. He simply lives.
Mary helps others to live as Christ teaches us. She observes her world and responds to any need that she sees.
I believe that every one of us is a mix of all three. Each of us has our strengths and our weaknesses, but they are all there.
I know that I have a large portion of Mary in me. My weak side is Martha. I have to work very hard at the organization, at making sure that all of the work gets done. I am easily distracted when I see a need, any need. I get caught up in responding when I need to be planning or preparing.
I think that it is important for us to know ourselves. To know where our strengths lie, where our weaknesses are. To make the best use of our strengths and to work on our weaknesses. To become more complete as human beings.
When we know our own strengths, we can recognize them in others. We can seek out people with complementary strengths and work together. We can help each other with our weaknesses.
This is the good news today. This is the grace of God. Individually, we are incomplete, imperfect, not capable, or unworthy as our translations say. Together, we are complete. Together we are, as our Bible says, perfect.
Thanks be to God.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Why?
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Last week I talked about the trinity of the Christian brand. Do you remember what it is?
God the Creator – Living simply. This is about stewardship. Responsibly using and taking care of what God has given to us.
God the Son – Simply living. We are created as reflections of God. God cares so much for us that he lived and died as one of us. We need to discover that reflection of God within ourselves and make that reflection the centre of our being. This is about recognising our gifts and using them.
God the Sustainer – Helping others with the first two. Just as God through the Holy Spirit helps us, we are sent by God to help others.
Over the next few weeks I am going to be returning to this trinity. Today’s Gospel reading speaks directly to both this trinity and to things that have been happening in the world recently.
So what is today’s Gospel telling us? What does it say about how the world works? About how God works? And about our responsibility in this picture?
“Do you think that because these Haitians suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Haitians?” The answer is a definite NO. What does Jesus say next? “But unless you repent, you will all perish as they did!” This story is talking about what we call natural disasters. We have just had two major earthquakes in the world. The earthquake that hit Haiti was a magnitude seven. It was devastating. More than two hundred thousand people are dead, three hundred thousand injured, and over one million homeless. The second earthquake was even larger; a magnitude of eight point eight. There are an estimated two million people affected by this earthquake. How many dead? Five hundred and twenty-eight.
What did the people of Haiti do to anger God? … Why did God spare the people of Chile?
“Or those eighteen who were killed when the towers of Port-Au-Prince fell on them – do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Chile?” And the emphatic answer is NO! “But unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
Jesus makes it very clear. Those who are killed by disasters are not being punished by God. Those who survive are not spared. God is not responsible for these deaths. God is not favouring Chile over Haiti. Every single person on earth is the chosen of God.
So what is the difference between Chile and Haiti? Both countries are devastated. But why are so many dead in Haiti? Why so few in Chile?
In one word … stewardship.
In Chile, buildings were destroyed. They are no longer usable. But people were able to walk out of them. In Haiti this was not the case. The buildings were not damaged beyond use, they were utterly destroyed. Why is this? Whose fault is it?
It is our fault. Not specifically yours or mine, but ours none the less. Haiti has been systematically stripped of her natural resources by an attitude toward stewardship. By the belief that the earth belongs to us. It is ours to use as we see fit. All of the materials that could have been used to build structures that would resist the effects of an earthquake are long gone. The metals were taken by her colonizers. She was left so impoverished that her people were driven to cut down her trees to heat their homes and cook their food. No wood. No steel. The two building materials which stand up when everything else falls down.
Those who were killed when the towers of Port-au-Prince fell on them were not responsible for it falling down.
For the past generation we have been being shown over and over again the huge cost of bad stewardship; of taking more than we need or giving less than we could. The cost of living grandly is much greater than the interest on a bank loan.
For the past generation we have been being shown over and over again the huge cost of not helping our neighbours; of not investing our time and money in those less fortunate than ourselves; of not investing our time and money in future generations.
Is there any good news in this message?
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good,; but if not, you can cut it down.”
I believe that this attitude has already started to change. More and more people are realizing that we do not own the earth. More and more people are realizing that if we don’t care for it, it cannot care for us. The good news is that God wants us to succeed. When we try to be good stewards, when we try to help others, when we try to be reflections of God, God will help us. We are responsible for the world, but we are not alone. God is with us.
Last week I talked about the trinity of the Christian brand. Do you remember what it is?
God the Creator – Living simply. This is about stewardship. Responsibly using and taking care of what God has given to us.
God the Son – Simply living. We are created as reflections of God. God cares so much for us that he lived and died as one of us. We need to discover that reflection of God within ourselves and make that reflection the centre of our being. This is about recognising our gifts and using them.
God the Sustainer – Helping others with the first two. Just as God through the Holy Spirit helps us, we are sent by God to help others.
Over the next few weeks I am going to be returning to this trinity. Today’s Gospel reading speaks directly to both this trinity and to things that have been happening in the world recently.
So what is today’s Gospel telling us? What does it say about how the world works? About how God works? And about our responsibility in this picture?
“Do you think that because these Haitians suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Haitians?” The answer is a definite NO. What does Jesus say next? “But unless you repent, you will all perish as they did!” This story is talking about what we call natural disasters. We have just had two major earthquakes in the world. The earthquake that hit Haiti was a magnitude seven. It was devastating. More than two hundred thousand people are dead, three hundred thousand injured, and over one million homeless. The second earthquake was even larger; a magnitude of eight point eight. There are an estimated two million people affected by this earthquake. How many dead? Five hundred and twenty-eight.
What did the people of Haiti do to anger God? … Why did God spare the people of Chile?
“Or those eighteen who were killed when the towers of Port-Au-Prince fell on them – do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Chile?” And the emphatic answer is NO! “But unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
Jesus makes it very clear. Those who are killed by disasters are not being punished by God. Those who survive are not spared. God is not responsible for these deaths. God is not favouring Chile over Haiti. Every single person on earth is the chosen of God.
So what is the difference between Chile and Haiti? Both countries are devastated. But why are so many dead in Haiti? Why so few in Chile?
In one word … stewardship.
In Chile, buildings were destroyed. They are no longer usable. But people were able to walk out of them. In Haiti this was not the case. The buildings were not damaged beyond use, they were utterly destroyed. Why is this? Whose fault is it?
It is our fault. Not specifically yours or mine, but ours none the less. Haiti has been systematically stripped of her natural resources by an attitude toward stewardship. By the belief that the earth belongs to us. It is ours to use as we see fit. All of the materials that could have been used to build structures that would resist the effects of an earthquake are long gone. The metals were taken by her colonizers. She was left so impoverished that her people were driven to cut down her trees to heat their homes and cook their food. No wood. No steel. The two building materials which stand up when everything else falls down.
Those who were killed when the towers of Port-au-Prince fell on them were not responsible for it falling down.
For the past generation we have been being shown over and over again the huge cost of bad stewardship; of taking more than we need or giving less than we could. The cost of living grandly is much greater than the interest on a bank loan.
For the past generation we have been being shown over and over again the huge cost of not helping our neighbours; of not investing our time and money in those less fortunate than ourselves; of not investing our time and money in future generations.
Is there any good news in this message?
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good,; but if not, you can cut it down.”
I believe that this attitude has already started to change. More and more people are realizing that we do not own the earth. More and more people are realizing that if we don’t care for it, it cannot care for us. The good news is that God wants us to succeed. When we try to be good stewards, when we try to help others, when we try to be reflections of God, God will help us. We are responsible for the world, but we are not alone. God is with us.
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