True Wealth

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.

We had a wonderful event take place in our community this past week.  Thirty-one of our youth North of Smokey graduated from high-school.  They were sent off with a wonderful message from their valedictorian.  She told them that life was not going to be easy.  They all had hard times in their future, but they were also going to achieve great things.  It was a wonderful message because it was both inspiring and realistic.  I wish everything we taught our youth was like this.

Unfortunately, our society, through TV, the internet and many other sources, sends some really awful messages.

Girls should all be tall and thin with big breasts.

Boys should be tall, muscular and good at sports.

Drinks and food that are full of sugar are good for you.

Energy drinks are a good part of your daily routine.

Winning the lottery is a good plan for retirement.

And that’s not even getting into the sexual messages we are bombarded with daily.

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that we read today ties in with one of these messages; the one about winning the lottery.  If we listen closely to what Paul is saying, we have to accept that the world today is seriously broken.

Paul is talking about how wealth is divided up.  Some with more and some with less.  That is okay.  Jesus said the same thing.  Jesus never said that he saw a future where everyone had the same amount of money.  He said that those that have need to help those that don’t have.

Paul says that and a bit more.  Paul sets some guidelines about how much the rich should give and how much the poor should receive.  It’s all about being realistic.  It’s all about moderation.  If you are rich, don’t give so much that you have trouble getting by.  If you are poor, don’t ask to be rich, just ask for enough to get by.

If we could listen to this message and accept it, no-one would ever play the lottery.

Do you know why?  The lottery is about extremes.  Most of the money spent in any kind of gambling, including bingo and 50-50 draws, is spent by people that really can’t afford it.  We spend that money because our society pounds the message into us over and over again that being extremely rich is the only true goal in life.

The only way to really be happy is to have more money than you can spend.  Of all the messages I listed earlier, I think this is the most destructive.  It is more destructive than unrealistic body images.  It is more destructive than unhealthy food.  It is even more destructive than learning about sex from internet pornography.

Why is this?  What happens when one person gets wealthy?  Several people become poor.  What happens when one person gets rich?  A bunch of people become poor or a few become impoverished.  What happens when one person becomes extremely rich?  Lots of people become impoverished.  All of these are on the individual level.  This effect becomes truly horrible when it happens with nations.  What happens when a nation becomes rich?

We live in a rich nation.  Our government tells us that it is important for our economy to keep growing.  It does everything it can to make sure of that.  We live in a rich nation that is intent on getting richer.  There are many nations around the world that don’t have enough money to feed their people.  In Canada some live in poverty.  In many nations, almost everyone lives in poverty.

Is this okay?  Is this how Jesus would want it to be?

So how do we change it?

We have to change the message.  We have to give up the false god of wealth.  We have to teach ourselves and our children a different idea of happiness.

I know with my own children how hard it is to convince them that they can be happy without all of the gadgets, toys, foods and everything else that they see in commercials or that their friends tell them about.  So how can we really change anything?

I think I know where to start.  We need to teach about dividing things into two groups: those things we need and those things we want.  We can work with our own families to do this.  Make a list of all of the things you spend money on and divide it into two parts: needs and wants.  You might even make a second list of what you spend time on.  Once our lists are done, we can put a cost next to those things in the want column.  What will it cost my family to do that or to not do that?  Will we have to give something up?  What will it cost others if I do or don’t do that?

Once we actually understand the costs of our needs and wants we can start to talk about the real cost of helping someone else or choosing not to help.  You can choose whether to spend money on that lottery ticket, and be able to say what you have to give up in return.

Also, if we truly want to take Paul’s message to heart, I think we need to make the same kinds of lists as a parish.  We need to list all of our wealth and divide it into needs and wants.  We need to list all of our costs and divide them into needs and wants.  If and when we do this, we can have a better idea of the future of this parish and what it can and can’t afford to do.  We can make our decisions not only by what money is needed, but also by what the cost will be to the community.  We will be able to measure our wealth by a different standard.  Not by how much money we have, but by what we stand for and what we can do.

If we can change the meaning of wealth for even a few people, then we have followed our calling.  If we can change our meaning of wealth as a parish, I have no doubt that this parish will be making a difference in this community long into the future.

Thanks be to God!

Repentance - The Positive Way Forward

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.

Today we are celebrating the birth of John the Baptist.  Sometimes, when I read the stories about John the Baptist, I wonder if his story was told just to make Jesus look normal.

First, we have a couple of people getting on in their years.  Well, really, they were old.  Even though they had always wanted kids, they didn’t have any.  Elizabeth was old enough that it should have been impossible for her to get pregnant.  Since they were devout followers of God, he was a priest, they believed in the power of prayer.  The story doesn’t tell us, but they had probably been praying for kids since they were newly married.  By this time, they had probably given up hope of ever having kids, but they had a good routine going, so they kept on praying.

God answered their prayers.

Mary was Elizabeth’s niece.  She was a good girl who was engaged to be married.  The word used to describe, which we translate as “virgin” from the Greek, comes from the older word in Hebrew which means young.  She would have been somewhere around thirteen or fourteen years old: old enough to have kids, but young enough not to want them quite yet.  She and Joseph are definitely not praying for her to get pregnant, at least not yet.

You know what happens.

This is just the first time that Jesus is just a bit more “normal” than John.  I could spend two or three sermons just showing how John makes Jesus seem a little less weird.  Elizabeth and Zachariah are so stunned by the news that they can’t believe it even though the evidence becomes unmistakable.  Mary and Joseph accept God’s message and immediately begin to plan their lives accordingly.  John lives his entire life before his ministry in the wilderness.  Jesus spends forty days in the wilderness.  John eats bugs and honey.  Jesus eats with outcasts and sinners.  At every step, Jesus is just a bit more normal.  Jesus’ message is a bit easier to accept because John came first with his wild ideas.

But are John’s ideas really wild?  Jesus didn’t seem to think so.  Many of Jesus’ teachings build on what John was teaching.  Primarily in two areas: baptism and repentance.  For John, they were tied together in one package.  Jesus separated them a bit.

I’ve talked several times about baptism.  Today I am going to talk about repentance.

What does repentance really mean?  I know what I was taught as a kid.

Repentance:  Telling God that I feel guilty for the bad things I have done and meaning it.

Feeling guilty.  Can anyone tell me if feeling guilty is a positive or negative emotion?  (Negative).

What happens when we feel negative emotions?  (We feel more negative emotions.  We withdraw.  We get depressed if it goes on long enough.)

Thankfully repentance has nothing to do with guilt, at least not in the Bible.  We have two main words which we translate as repentance.  Neither one of them has anything to do with guilt.  The Hebrew word means to turn around or turn back.  No guilt, just go back to doing what you should have been doing in the first place.  The Greek word means to be of new mind.  Again, no guilt; forget what you were doing that was wrong to make room for new possibilities.

Nothing good comes from guilt.  Nothing good comes from any negative place.  But when we put these two ideas together, we get something very powerful and positive.

If we must look back, let’s look not at what has gone wrong but rather at what has gone right.  When we feel ourselves being drawn into negative feelings for ourselves or for others, let’s put that away and be of new mind.  Let’s open ourselves to the possibilities of the good that we can do together.

I’ve been here almost three years now and in that time, I have seen you do some wonderful things.  We have done some wonderful things together.  We have reached out to the community through special services, blessing the fleet and the bookbags, Back to Church Sunday, World Day of Prayer, our Advent services, the All Souls service and the Palliative Care service, our visits from Santa Claus, and just recently Messy Church.  We have opened our doors to youth in times of tragedy and of pilgrimage.  We have made some small changes to make our buildings and our services more welcoming to those who do not know our ways.

In my time here, I have seen two churches that have always been together but separate, try to bridge their differences and work together.  It has not been easy, but you have shown me and each other that it is possible.  In this time of financial difficulty, you have found the strength to reach out and ask for help and the compassion and love necessary to give that help without judgement even though it came at a dear cost.

When God answered the prayers of Elizabeth and Zachariah, he not only gave them a son, but he gave that son a purpose.  John was to prepare the way of the Lord.  John was sent to open people’s hearts and ears to the message that Jesus would be bringing.  This is our calling too.

I pray that we can build on the good things that we have all done together.  And when we lose sight of that good, and we will, because we are human, we need to repent and return to that good path where our minds can be open to new possibilities; possibilities that we can only reach by working together in love; possibilities that are possible because we are open to God’s call; possibilities that let us prepare the way of the Lord in this community for those who come after us.  With each other and with God’s help, we can do it.

Thanks be to God.

Sowing the Seed

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.

The Kingdom of God ….  How many times have we talked about the Kingdom of God?  I’m not sure, but it’s been quite a few.

Today’s parable talks about the Kingdom of God in an entirely different way.  Jesus isn’t telling us what the Kingdom of God will look like.  He is telling us how the Kingdom of God will come.

The kingdom is one of grace and mercy that will come because God brings it.  The Kingdom of God is the creation of God.  The farmer does not know how the seed germinates and grows.  In the same way, the Kingdom of God grows in hidden, mysterious ways, independent of our human efforts.

Who is responsible for building the Kingdom of God?  Not us … God.  Building the Kingdom of God is God’s job, not ours.  But that doesn’t mean we have nothing to do.

The parable tells us that we are to be faithful farmers, sowers of the seed, and we are not to worry about the crop because God will produce the harvest.  We are often tempted to get so caught up with worrying about the harvest that we forget to sow the seed.  Or we may forget that God keeps us in this world to act as ministers of reconciliation, to bring people back together and to be salt to prevent the rotting from getting worse.  Or we may be so depressed by the apparently endless power of evil that we lose all faith and contribute to the darkness.  If we try to do God’s job, we set ourselves up to fail.

So what is our job?  Is it to grow the church?  To bring more people in through these doors?  No, it isn’t.

Our job is to sow the seed.  Every time we tell someone about the good news of Jesus Christ, we are sowing a seed.  Every time we show someone what it means to live as Christ teaches us, we are sowing a seed.  Every time we reach out to someone in Jesus’ name, we are sowing a seed.  When we gathered this past Friday for messy church, we were sowing the seed.  When we reach out again this Friday, we are sowing the seed.  This is the first part of our job.

Jesus tells us that we are supposed to spread as much seed as possible and then wait.  What happens next we have no control over.  Only God knows if that seed will take root.  Only God knows if it will grow.  We just watch and wait … oh yes, and sow more seed.  Never stop sowing seed.

Our second job is to tend the crop.  Once the seed has taken root and started to grow, we are supposed to take care of it.  This is where church comes in.  We are the crop.  We need to take care of each other and anyone else who responds to the message we are spreading.  We need to support and encourage each other so that we can continue sowing seed.

And we give thanks that God will do the parts that we cannot do.

Thanks be to God.

The Family of 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.

A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" ³⁴ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." Mark 3:32-35 (NRSV)

What is a family?  One definition I found in the dictionary said a family is "A group consisting of parents and children living together in a household."  That is, no doubt, one way to define a family, but a family can be much more than that, can't it?  What about members of our families that don’t live with us?  Do they stop being family?

Another way we can define family is the group of all of those people who are related to us.  This family includes all of our aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, grandparents and grandchildren.  This is what I think of when I hear the word family.

Both of these families are very important.  Our families support us and we support them throughout our lives.  We need our families.

But Jesus is asking us to think about family in a different way.

A family can be any group that is brought together by common interests, beliefs, and love for one another.  One of the best examples of this kind of family is the Church.  The Church is a family bound together by love for God, their Heavenly Father, and for one another.

In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus was together with his disciples in a house.  When Jesus' mother and brothers arrived at the house, they sent someone inside to look for him.  They told Jesus, “Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.”

Jesus looked around at the people seated around him and answered, "Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Did Jesus love his real mother and brothers?  Of course he did, but he also realized that he had another family.  It was a family made up of those who loved his Heavenly Father and wanted to do his will.

You and I love our families, but we also have a wonderful family of faith made up of brothers and sisters who love God and love one another.  It is wonderful to be a part of "The Family of God."

Our family here in this church is much like our other families.  Throughout our lives, we support each other in and through the church.  We also look to each other and to the church for support in our own times of need. 

Can anyone name some of the ways we support each other?

 

-         Visiting those who are shut in and the sick

-         Financial help

-         Food, clothing, shelter

-         Companionship

-         Childcare

-         Prayer 

As the family of God, we do all of these for each other.  Just like in any family, sometimes we do it well and sometimes not so well.  So how do we get better at doing it well all the time?  We pick one area and practice, practice, practice.

So starting today, we will be praying for three or four families within our parish family each Sunday.  During the following week, unless they don’t want a visit, I will visit them and I ask that you continue to pray for them.

 

This week we pray for Keith and Debbie Dowling, Reg and Dorothy Billard, and Ethel and Joe McNeil.

Normally, we will do this as part of the prayers of the people, but today we are going to do a special prayer to ask God to bless this ministry and help us to grow as a parish family within the family of God. 

Let us pray,

Heavenly Father, we thank you for our families and we thank you for our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.  We ask today for you to send your Holy Spirit upon us as we begin a new ministry.  Guide and strengthen us as we pray for one another.  Help us to support each other by sharing your love.  We offer prayers today for all of the member or the family of God, remembering especially Keith and Debbie Dowling, Reg and Dorothy Billard, Ethel and Joe McNeil.  We ask that you watch over them in all of their needs, both known and unknown.  This we ask in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

The Year That King Uzziah Died

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.

“In the year that King Uzziah died.”

What did it mean to the people of ancient Israel, or of any ancient kingdom, when their king died?

-         Queen Elizabeth II

-         King George VI (died February 6, 1952)

-         Minority Government 2006, 2008

-         First ever NDP as official opposition

-         9/11

Put all of that together and you might get close to being able to imagine the year that King Uzziah died.  Everything that gave their world stability was gone.  Not only was the king dead, but for some time before he died, he was isolated because of a serious illness said to be punishment by God for his pride.  So the people were left in limbo, in a time of extreme uncertainty as their king lay dying and out of favour with God.

In the middle of all of this confusion, Isaiah saw a vision.

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Does this sound familiar?

Holy, holy, holy Lord,

God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

These words, adapted from Isaiah’s vision, are the oldest part of the liturgy that we use every Sunday.  They were first used as early as the first century and they were being used as part of the Eucharist as early as the sixth century.

When we say these words we are transported into the throne room of God’s presence as the divisions created by time and space crumble away and as the false divisions of our human brokenness as the church are transcended. These words thus act as a symbol of our unity as God’s people and with all those divine and earthly who offer praise to God.

They are words not only of praise but of hope. Hope in the unity that we long for and hope that in the face of whatever we might be experiencing God is being worshipped and adored.

These words should remind us that whatever the event occurring, the death of King Uzziah, war, terrorism, economic meltdown, ecological crises, the death of someone we love, the terminal prognosis, the anxiety and depression that afflicts us, or whatever trial we may be experiencing God is being praised and is worthy of such praise.

So Isaiah says: “Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.”

As human beings our lives appear to be plagued by many problems, some or most of which we make for ourselves.  Exposed in the light of God’s glory we confess that we are an imperfect people who need God’s help and the good news is that God offers us such help.

For Isaiah it comes in the form of a burning coal borne by angel’s wings and touched upon his lips but ultimately it comes to whole world as it is born from above.

The good news found in the story from the Gospel of John is that God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world but in order that it might be saved through him.

It is God’s work to transform us, by sending the Son and the Spirit to renew us in our relationships as people with one another and with God.

As Jesus points out to Nicodemus believing in Jesus because he does cool miracles is not enough, in fact believing in Jesus for any reason is not enough!  It is the work of God’s Spirit giving birth to us from above that transforms who we are into who we are made and called to be as people.

When we baptize someone, it is not just about giving them a personal connection with God.  Every time someone is baptized, God sends Christ into the world all over again so that everyone can be saved through him and share in God’s love.

Can anyone tell me what a paradox is?  (Two or more contradictory things that are true at the same time)

The paradox of our Christian existence is that while we are born from above, while signs of the kingdom do break in, while we do with one voice praise God with the sanctus, we live in the tension of still having unclean lips.  We harm one another, in pride we compete for power and position, we neglect the cry of our brothers and sisters who do not even have the basic necessities of life.  We carry a message of love and hope yet struggle to be all that we are called to be, even to those whom we love most dearly.

We are the world for whom Christ died; we have been saved, we have been made whole.  We are constantly being renewed by his love as we continue to enter his presence to have our lips touch by the burning coal and like Isaiah, like Nicodemus, we are given an opportunity to respond, saying ‘Here I am send me’, even when the message we carry is a difficult one to understand, live by and proclaim to a world that wants to ignore it.

(Adapted from Peter Lockhart, http://revplockhart.blogspot.ca/2012/05/year-king-uzziah-died.html)