I speak to you in the name of the one true and living God. Amen.
I talk quite often about how much God loves us. My faith in God’s love gives me great comfort. God’s love does not depend on our actions. God does not just love us when we are being good. God loves us when we are doing evil. God loves those who have faith. God loves those who disbelieve. God became human and died on the cross for all of people. For people just like you and me, complete with all of our flaws. God loves us, every one.
But what does this love look like? How about this: Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." 27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
For those who are curious, that is from the end of the first chapter of Genesis.
That is quite the vote of confidence. Not only did God use herself as the mold for us, he gave us dominion over everything else in creation. That’s pretty heady stuff.
God trusted us to have dominion over all of creation. God trusts us to rule over it. God trusts us to take care of it. God trusts us to use it wisely.
Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. – The beginning of chapter 4 of first Corinthians.
More heady stuff. Through Christ, we not only have dominion over creation. We also are stewards of God’s mysteries. Once again, we are shown God’s amazing trust in us. But this time our responsibility is set down as well. As stewards, we are required to be trustworthy.
That’s what our Gospel is about today. What does it mean to be a trustworthy steward of God’s gifts to us; of our inheritance?
Does it mean that we should store up our gifts? Save as much as we can for a day when we have little to give? Should we “tear down our barns and build larger ones, and there store all our grain and goods?”
That would be the frugal thing to do, but it isn’t good stewardship. Stewardship is about the good use of our gifts, not about the storage of them.
Our Gospel today talks about one other aspect of stewardship.
The rich man in our reading makes a crucial mistake. He believes that physical possessions, or material wealth, can satisfy his inner being, his very soul.
No amount of stored wealth can do that. We may delude ourselves into believing that it is so, but it just isn’t.
True satisfaction, the fulfillment we feel in deep in our hearts, only comes from action. It is in the moment and it is another gift from God. It doesn’t do any good to store it up. Saving it only makes it smaller.
There’s a funny thing that happens when we practice this kind of stewardship. When we choose to give a portion to do God’s work: a portion of our time, a portion of our wealth, a portion of our hearts, what is left over is somehow more that we started with. When we show God that we are worthy of his trust, God shows us just how much he has to give.
Thanks be to God.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The Power of Prayer
I speak to you in the name of the One True and Living God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
I will start by warning you that I am hoping for answers to the questions I ask today. Is that okay with you?
…
Second question: Why do we pray?
- Thank God
- Ask for help
o For ourselves
o For others we know
o For certain groups
- Guidance
- Mad at God or someone else
- To find peace
- To get closer to God
…
Who prays?
- Christians …
- Prayer is common to virtually all of the world’s religions in some for or other
…
How do we pray?
- Prayers written by someone else
o Prayers of the people
o The Lord’s Prayer
o The psalms
o Hymns
- Prayers we create ourselves
- Silently
- In groups like church
- Alone
- With some focus to help us
o Incense
o Prayer beads
o A cross
o Something we see that reminds us of God (Nature, Children)
o A labyrinth
- Standing, Sitting, Kneeling, Walking
…
What do we expect to accomplish through prayer?
- A closer relationship with God
- An improvement in our life
- An improvement in someone else’s life
- Not necessarily what we asked for
…
Can we see the effects of our prayers?
- Sometimes
- Often not
…
I am going to go back over the questions now and let you know what I came up with as a single answer for each of them.
Why do we pray? I believe that we pray because we have faith in God. Because of that faith, we are drawn into conversation with God.
Who prays? Everyone prays whether they intend to or not, whether they believe in God or believe that there is no God. Every time we notice something amazing we are praying. Every time we have concern for someone who we can’t directly help, we are praying. Just by being human, reacting as God intended to the world around us, we are praying.
How do we pray? There are as many different ways to pray as there are people on the Earth. I don’t believe any two people pray in exactly the same way. Just as each person’s relationship with God is unique, each person’s way of talking with God is unique.
What do we expect to accomplish through prayer? To make the world a better place. Every time we pray, we are working to bring the Kingdom of God more fully into the world. We may not accomplish exactly what we prayed for, but we do bring the world closer to God.
Can we see the effects of our prayers? I vary rarely see the direct effect of any single prayer. What I have noticed is that when my prayer life is healthy, my life is richer as are the lives of those I come in contact with. When I am lax in my prayers, I don’t do as well and neither do the rest of my family and all those I love.
Prayer is a powerful mystery and a gift from God.
This past week, to help myself with my challenge from two weeks ago, I wrote a prayer. I am going to pass out bookmarks now with that prayer on them. Once everyone has one, I would ask that we all repeat that prayer together to help each other make the world a better place.
(Hand them out)
Almighty God, you created all things and appointed me as a steward of your creation. Help me to find the time each day to remember what you have given me. Help me to give thanks. Help me to hear your call to service. I ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Saviour. Amen.
I will start by warning you that I am hoping for answers to the questions I ask today. Is that okay with you?
…
Second question: Why do we pray?
- Thank God
- Ask for help
o For ourselves
o For others we know
o For certain groups
- Guidance
- Mad at God or someone else
- To find peace
- To get closer to God
…
Who prays?
- Christians …
- Prayer is common to virtually all of the world’s religions in some for or other
…
How do we pray?
- Prayers written by someone else
o Prayers of the people
o The Lord’s Prayer
o The psalms
o Hymns
- Prayers we create ourselves
- Silently
- In groups like church
- Alone
- With some focus to help us
o Incense
o Prayer beads
o A cross
o Something we see that reminds us of God (Nature, Children)
o A labyrinth
- Standing, Sitting, Kneeling, Walking
…
What do we expect to accomplish through prayer?
- A closer relationship with God
- An improvement in our life
- An improvement in someone else’s life
- Not necessarily what we asked for
…
Can we see the effects of our prayers?
- Sometimes
- Often not
…
I am going to go back over the questions now and let you know what I came up with as a single answer for each of them.
Why do we pray? I believe that we pray because we have faith in God. Because of that faith, we are drawn into conversation with God.
Who prays? Everyone prays whether they intend to or not, whether they believe in God or believe that there is no God. Every time we notice something amazing we are praying. Every time we have concern for someone who we can’t directly help, we are praying. Just by being human, reacting as God intended to the world around us, we are praying.
How do we pray? There are as many different ways to pray as there are people on the Earth. I don’t believe any two people pray in exactly the same way. Just as each person’s relationship with God is unique, each person’s way of talking with God is unique.
What do we expect to accomplish through prayer? To make the world a better place. Every time we pray, we are working to bring the Kingdom of God more fully into the world. We may not accomplish exactly what we prayed for, but we do bring the world closer to God.
Can we see the effects of our prayers? I vary rarely see the direct effect of any single prayer. What I have noticed is that when my prayer life is healthy, my life is richer as are the lives of those I come in contact with. When I am lax in my prayers, I don’t do as well and neither do the rest of my family and all those I love.
Prayer is a powerful mystery and a gift from God.
This past week, to help myself with my challenge from two weeks ago, I wrote a prayer. I am going to pass out bookmarks now with that prayer on them. Once everyone has one, I would ask that we all repeat that prayer together to help each other make the world a better place.
(Hand them out)
Almighty God, you created all things and appointed me as a steward of your creation. Help me to find the time each day to remember what you have given me. Help me to give thanks. Help me to hear your call to service. I ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Saviour. Amen.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Martha and Mary and what is truly important
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.
Now as I was reading todays Gospel, I entered into a certain passage where a woman named Martha beckoned me deeper.
I love readings about Martha, Mary and Lazarus. They always have something to say about our strengths and weaknesses. They talk about how we are different. They talk about what it means to be human.
Last time we met Martha we were late in Lent and we were reading from the Gospel of John. Both today’s story and the one from John are almost certainly based on the same earlier source. In both stories Martha is serving dinner and Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet. But our two writers use this beginning to tell us something very different about ourselves.
During Lent we talked about how Martha was the organizer and doer, Mary was the visionary, and Lazarus was the one willing to die so that Jesus could work through him.
In today’s story, we only have Martha and Mary. Lazarus stays well out of the picture. Martha’s part in this story is very similar. She is rushing around trying to make everything ready for supper. She is distracted and she has too much to do. And all the while she is rushing around, Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to him talk.
When Martha starts complaining about Mary just sitting there while Martha is doing all the work, I find myself identifying with Martha. I can put myself in her sandals very easily. Especially right now, with Victoria away, I find myself rushing around trying to get everything done. I find myself torn between wanting Rosa and Paul to help me get things done and wanting them to sit and watch some TV so they won’t get in the way and make everything take longer. There is always something that needs to be done and never enough time to do it.
So what is Jesus’ response to Martha’s complaint? He says to her “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Well, what does that mean for us? Does it mean that we should all drop everything we are doing and sit listening for what Jesus has to say for us?
No – or at least not all of the time. Jesus did not tell Martha that she should drop what she was doing and join Mary. He told her not to stop Mary from what she was doing.
What Jesus was telling Martha is that what we think is necessary is not the same thing as what really is necessary. All of the work that Martha was doing was important and was worthy of being done, but in the big picture of the Kingdom of God, none of it was necessary. The only thing that is truly necessary from that point of view is our relationship with God. What Mary was doing was the most important. She was taking Sabbath time. She was listening to God.
That reminds me …. How is everyone doing in my challenge? -- I didn’t do so well this past week. I think I managed about three out of seven days, maybe four. I hope to be able to report a better result next week.
Remember, the challenge is to take time once each day to do something for God which doesn’t directly benefit you. This can’t be something you already do. It should be something new. Just spend at least ten minutes each day to show God that we remember that we have dedicated our lives to God.
Last week we read “Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.” I think that should include one more bit.
Thou shalt love the Lord your God with at least a little bit of your time!
I give thanks to God for his infinite patience. I pray that God will help be to be less distracted by my business and to find the time to sit back and listen to what God has to say.
Now as I was reading todays Gospel, I entered into a certain passage where a woman named Martha beckoned me deeper.
I love readings about Martha, Mary and Lazarus. They always have something to say about our strengths and weaknesses. They talk about how we are different. They talk about what it means to be human.
Last time we met Martha we were late in Lent and we were reading from the Gospel of John. Both today’s story and the one from John are almost certainly based on the same earlier source. In both stories Martha is serving dinner and Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet. But our two writers use this beginning to tell us something very different about ourselves.
During Lent we talked about how Martha was the organizer and doer, Mary was the visionary, and Lazarus was the one willing to die so that Jesus could work through him.
In today’s story, we only have Martha and Mary. Lazarus stays well out of the picture. Martha’s part in this story is very similar. She is rushing around trying to make everything ready for supper. She is distracted and she has too much to do. And all the while she is rushing around, Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to him talk.
When Martha starts complaining about Mary just sitting there while Martha is doing all the work, I find myself identifying with Martha. I can put myself in her sandals very easily. Especially right now, with Victoria away, I find myself rushing around trying to get everything done. I find myself torn between wanting Rosa and Paul to help me get things done and wanting them to sit and watch some TV so they won’t get in the way and make everything take longer. There is always something that needs to be done and never enough time to do it.
So what is Jesus’ response to Martha’s complaint? He says to her “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Well, what does that mean for us? Does it mean that we should all drop everything we are doing and sit listening for what Jesus has to say for us?
No – or at least not all of the time. Jesus did not tell Martha that she should drop what she was doing and join Mary. He told her not to stop Mary from what she was doing.
What Jesus was telling Martha is that what we think is necessary is not the same thing as what really is necessary. All of the work that Martha was doing was important and was worthy of being done, but in the big picture of the Kingdom of God, none of it was necessary. The only thing that is truly necessary from that point of view is our relationship with God. What Mary was doing was the most important. She was taking Sabbath time. She was listening to God.
That reminds me …. How is everyone doing in my challenge? -- I didn’t do so well this past week. I think I managed about three out of seven days, maybe four. I hope to be able to report a better result next week.
Remember, the challenge is to take time once each day to do something for God which doesn’t directly benefit you. This can’t be something you already do. It should be something new. Just spend at least ten minutes each day to show God that we remember that we have dedicated our lives to God.
Last week we read “Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.” I think that should include one more bit.
Thou shalt love the Lord your God with at least a little bit of your time!
I give thanks to God for his infinite patience. I pray that God will help be to be less distracted by my business and to find the time to sit back and listen to what God has to say.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Making Time for God
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.
Our world is a very busy place. When I moved my family here from Vancouver I was hoping to get away from that. And to some extent I have. At least here it’s not frantic. But it is still busy. There is never enough time to get everything done. I still hear the words “I don’t have time” far too often.
This business is a fact of life. It is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It just is.
Many of the things that keep us busy are very important and truly need to be done. We have to work. We have to pay bills. We have to see that our children get where they need to be. And somewhere in there we definitely need to have some social interaction.
Life is just busy.
In our Gospel today we have the story of the Good Samaritan. In this story, we have three people all passing a badly injured man. All three of these people make decisions as they pass. They look at what rules they have to live by and weigh their priorities.
For the priest and the Levite, the need for ritual purity outweighs the need to help the poor, the needy, and the sick. For both of them, if they were to touch or even come to close to the man and he turned out to be dead, they would have to go through a long process to once again be ritually clean and to return to their jobs in the temple.
For the Samaritan, the priorities are different. For the Samaritan, there is a long history of his people and the Jews being enemies. He does not have the same religious reason to help the sick and needy. Since he was traveling deep within Judah and had the financial means to help, he was probably a merchant. He would probably know at least something about the Jewish rules of cleanliness. For him, if the man turned out to be dead, it could mean that his profits for his current trip could be drastically reduced or he might even lose money.
All three passers-by had nothing to gain and much to lose by helping the man. All three had to look at their priorities and make a decision.
All of the priorities that I have listed are personal. They are all about how helping the man will affect their day to day lives. What these priorities leave out is their relationship with God.
That’s what our Gospel today is really about: our relationship with God.
We don’t have the same problems facing us that the three men in our story did. None of us is going to have our livelihood damaged by helping someone on the side of the road. None of us will be kept from going to word because we came near someone who was “unclean.”
I think our problems today are even greater. In our Gospel today, none of the passers-by had any difficulty seeing the need. They all saw and they all made their decisions about how to respond. Our problem goes much deeper.
We are too busy.
We are not just too busy to help. We are too busy to see the need.
We have so much going on in our lives that we walk right past the need without ever noticing it. We never even get to the point of looking at our priorities and making a decision.
We are just too busy.
I am going to put out a challenge today, both to myself and to all of you.
For the rest of the month, I challenge us all to make time for God. I challenge us to do something every day which is not for ourselves. It doesn’t matter if it takes ten minutes or two hours, just that it happens every day.
There are so many things that we could do that it won’t be hard to find something. It might mean spending some extra time praying for someone or something in need. It might mean walking down the street and picking up the garbage in the ditch. It might mean dropping in on a neighbour we don’t know well and finding out how they are doing. It might even mean taking a walk in the woods and looking for things that remind us of the glory of God.
At the end of the month I’m hoping that this will have become a habit which we can’t break. After all, we are all here today not because we’ve dedicated our Sundays to God but because we’ve dedicated our entire lives to God. Let’s not keep God waiting any longer.
Our world is a very busy place. When I moved my family here from Vancouver I was hoping to get away from that. And to some extent I have. At least here it’s not frantic. But it is still busy. There is never enough time to get everything done. I still hear the words “I don’t have time” far too often.
This business is a fact of life. It is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It just is.
Many of the things that keep us busy are very important and truly need to be done. We have to work. We have to pay bills. We have to see that our children get where they need to be. And somewhere in there we definitely need to have some social interaction.
Life is just busy.
In our Gospel today we have the story of the Good Samaritan. In this story, we have three people all passing a badly injured man. All three of these people make decisions as they pass. They look at what rules they have to live by and weigh their priorities.
For the priest and the Levite, the need for ritual purity outweighs the need to help the poor, the needy, and the sick. For both of them, if they were to touch or even come to close to the man and he turned out to be dead, they would have to go through a long process to once again be ritually clean and to return to their jobs in the temple.
For the Samaritan, the priorities are different. For the Samaritan, there is a long history of his people and the Jews being enemies. He does not have the same religious reason to help the sick and needy. Since he was traveling deep within Judah and had the financial means to help, he was probably a merchant. He would probably know at least something about the Jewish rules of cleanliness. For him, if the man turned out to be dead, it could mean that his profits for his current trip could be drastically reduced or he might even lose money.
All three passers-by had nothing to gain and much to lose by helping the man. All three had to look at their priorities and make a decision.
All of the priorities that I have listed are personal. They are all about how helping the man will affect their day to day lives. What these priorities leave out is their relationship with God.
That’s what our Gospel today is really about: our relationship with God.
We don’t have the same problems facing us that the three men in our story did. None of us is going to have our livelihood damaged by helping someone on the side of the road. None of us will be kept from going to word because we came near someone who was “unclean.”
I think our problems today are even greater. In our Gospel today, none of the passers-by had any difficulty seeing the need. They all saw and they all made their decisions about how to respond. Our problem goes much deeper.
We are too busy.
We are not just too busy to help. We are too busy to see the need.
We have so much going on in our lives that we walk right past the need without ever noticing it. We never even get to the point of looking at our priorities and making a decision.
We are just too busy.
I am going to put out a challenge today, both to myself and to all of you.
For the rest of the month, I challenge us all to make time for God. I challenge us to do something every day which is not for ourselves. It doesn’t matter if it takes ten minutes or two hours, just that it happens every day.
There are so many things that we could do that it won’t be hard to find something. It might mean spending some extra time praying for someone or something in need. It might mean walking down the street and picking up the garbage in the ditch. It might mean dropping in on a neighbour we don’t know well and finding out how they are doing. It might even mean taking a walk in the woods and looking for things that remind us of the glory of God.
At the end of the month I’m hoping that this will have become a habit which we can’t break. After all, we are all here today not because we’ve dedicated our Sundays to God but because we’ve dedicated our entire lives to God. Let’s not keep God waiting any longer.
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