Lenten Message

Let us pray,

Holy and Gracious God, guide us in this season of lent. Help us to find reflections of you within ourselves and in those around us. Lead us into the light of your resurrection. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Today we begin our own road to Emmaus. We begin our pilgrimage to witness the resurrection. During this season of lent many people will make special efforts to be self sacrificing; giving up something which is dear to them for the season. I encourage you to try something different this year. Rather than giving something up for lent, take something on. Pick something that you know you should be doing to live your life as one of Christ’s disciples and make a special effort to do this throughout lent. Some possibilities are daily prayer, both personal and as a family, saying something kind to each person you meet throughout the day, or even bringing your children to church every Sunday in lent. Taking on such a discipline can help us to enter into the Easter light.


I ask you in this next moment of quiet to make your personal commitment silently to God.

Meditation on the Transfiguration of Jesus

May the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O God. And may the holy spirit lead us towards greater understanding of your image reflected in us. Amen.

Please make sure that the copies of this icon are spread evenly throughout all of you. Pass them around so that everyone spends some time holding one and looking closely at it. Feel free to move around during this meditation and come up to look at the original. The Gospel will be read as part of this meditation.

As we prepare to start our journey through lent, we are called to examine ourselves. We are called not to give up something that is part of us, but to discover and bring out that which is truly us.


Let us pray.

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.

Jesus often went to mountains or to the wilderness to pray. Mountains were seen as places where you came closer to God. The wilderness was a place of self discovery. Both were places to go to be away from all distractions.


And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.

Jesus was not changed. A greater truth about him was revealed to Peter, John, and James. This is called the Transfiguration of Jesus. Transfiguration is not a change in fact. It is a change in perspective. A change in how we perceive the world. Transfiguration shows us a deeper truth about now. This is different from revelation which shows us a truth which may be partly true now but is rooted in the future. Such as the revelation of the Kingdom of God.


Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

In Jesus Christ the prophesies of Moses and Elijah are fulfilled. The prophets deliver those prophesies directly to Jesus.


Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.

We resist seeing transfiguration. We are much more comfortable seeing the world as we know it to be especially when we are confronted with a reality which is different from our understanding.


Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"-- not knowing what he said.

Even when we keep our eyes open, we are often unable to understand what is shown to us by God.


While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud.

We are not capable of understanding the full image of God. Every time God interacts directly with people in the Bible God is either obscured, partially hidden, or represented by something else such as a pillar of fire. The face, or image of God is not within the capabilities of our perception. Transfiguration allows us to stretch the abilities of our perception and to grow in understanding.


Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!"

God speaks to us directly.


When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

Witnessing a transfiguration is a very personal event. It is a personal glimpse of God’s message to us. It is a command to share not the event itself, but the truth which it revealed.

Fishers of Men

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 have a story about some fishermen. I’m sure the beginning of this story would be very familiar to many if not all of you. These fishermen have two boats. They have just gotten in from a hard day of fishing with little luck. This is not surprising. They are trying to catch fish in the Lake of Gennesaret, which you might know better as the Sea of Galilee. There weren’t many fish in the Sea of Galilee. The fishermen were some of the poorest members of society. If you had no other way of feeding your family, you would try fishing. It wouldn’t make you rich but you might be able to eat.

Along comes Jesus. He is as popular in this story as he was unpopular in the story before. Do you remember last week? The crowd there wanted to push him off a cliff for claiming to be a prophet. Now the crowds are pressing around him and pushing him towards the water not to do him harm but because they don’t want to miss a word he might say. Kind of like paparazzi.

Well, anyway … Jesus sees these two boats. He has an epiphany. “If I go out a bit in the boat, the water will keep them back and I’ll actually be able to talk.” The boat served kind of like this pulpit, keeping Jesus safe from the mob hanging on his every word. Then Jesus thinks a moment … “I need to do something to show them what I mean.” So he has the fishermen let out their nets into the barren waters. Simon says “There aren’t any fish here but you’re the teacher. So here goes.” Simon didn’t believe they would get any fish. Down go the nets. Up come the fish. So many fish that they can’t haul them all in. Even with two boats, there are too many fish.

Hallelujah, the fishery is saved. Or is it? Do the fishermen say thank you to Jesus, sell their fish, and head back out to catch more? No.

These fishermen haul in their catch, pull their boats up onto the shore, and walk away from it all.


What is going on here? Obviously Jesus is turning everything upside down again, but what does it mean?

Back around the time of Jesus they had a saying – they said that teachers went fishing for students. But they didn’t mean that they literally went fishing. I think Jesus is playing with this idea of fishing for students to tell us something very important. Maybe even a number of very important things.

Jesus has a mob of people following him, trying to hear every word he says. This throng may be following Jesus but they are not his followers. Coming to hear the message isn’t enough. If the message of Christ does not change them in some way, they might be hearing the words, but the words don’t mean anything. In this story only the fishermen are changed and they are the ones who are still there at the end of this story and in stories to come. The message of Christ has not lost its power. His message continues to change us; to change the way that we see the world.

Jesus came into the lives of these fishermen. He went to their place of work. He showed them what they had to gain from following him in terms that they could understand. He gave them a catch beyond their wildest imaginings. Then he showed them what they should be doing. He showed them what was really important. And because they had already come to trust him, they let their old ways fall from them and took up Christ’s way. Jesus does this for us, too. The words of Christ, his message, has meaning in our everyday lives. Jesus meets us where we work. Then he shows us where we can make a difference in the world. What we have to give to his cause. And when we give what we can, we end up richer for the giving.

The final message that I see in this passage is, I believe, the most important. Simon Peter fell down at Jesus’ knees. He said “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” And Jesus said “Do not be afraid” and gave him his new job to do. Jesus knew that Simon Peter was a sinful man. That didn’t matter to him. Jesus forgave him and accepted him for who he was. This is where grace is found in this message. We are all sinful. We pull away from God. We test God. We try to avoid God’s call. And when we take a moment away from our struggle, God is still there. God is still calling, telling us what our job is. God is still there. Telling us that we are his beloved. God is still there. Telling us that we are forgiven.

Children's Eucharist

This Sunday we will be doing an instructed eucharist. The children will be assisting me throughout the service. For the additional text of an instructed eucharist please see http://montreal.anglican.org/resources/chldeuch.shtml. We will also be talking about promises and gifts during the sermon time.

Gifts of the Spirit - The Body of Christ

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’s lesson from the first letter to the church in Corinth continues Paul’s explanation of spiritual gifts. He talks about how members of the church come from all backgrounds. … Some are rich. Some are poor. Some are Greek. Some are Jews. Some are male. Some are female. … But we are all members of the one body. We are all members of Christ’s church through our baptism.

Just as we all come from different backgrounds, we all bring different skills, talents, and resources with us to Christ’s table. We all contribute to the body of Christ and we all help shape the body of Christ. With the loss of the gifts of any one of us, the body of Christ is reduced. Without any one of us, the ability of the church to do God’s work is made smaller.

As we come closer to our annual meetings, we need to think about what we have to offer. How we can be involved in God’s work through our church. What resources of time, talent and treasure we have that we can return to God. How involved we each want to be in the decision making of the church.

Some of the possibilities are serving on the vestry or parish council, becoming a reader, serving on the altar guild, helping with the Church School, attending the annual meetings, and many more. Another possibility is the Fresh Start program. I’m going to turn the pulpit over to Kelvin who will tell us all more about it. Thank you Kelvin.

Keeping the Sabbath

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 of you who are parents, have you ever told your children to be quiet? -- Asked them? -- Pleaded with them?

Did it work?

Being quiet is hard work. We spend years studying, learning, gaining new skills just to figure out what we are going to do with our lives. I think that along the way we forget how to just be. When we spend time with our friends and families we need to have an activity … something to do. When we go about our daily lives, we have so many things that we have to get done.

Even when we come to church, we need no know when to stand, when to sit and when to kneel. We need to find that next hymn. We need to be ready to answer to “The Lord be with you.”

(Pause)

Today we listened to a very important lesson about spiritual gifts. We do not chose what gifts God gives to us, but we are expected to make use of them. For the most part we all have different gifts. But there is one gift that God gave to the entire world. God also commanded us to take it. I think this is probably the commandment that we break the most.

God gave us the Sabbath and commanded us to keep it.

Keeping the Sabbath does not mean coming to church or going to synagogue or participating in any other kind of worship activity.

Keeping the Sabbath means setting time aside to just be. Setting time aside to “be” family, not to “do” family. Setting time aside to “be” with our friends, not to “do” something with our friends. Setting time aside to “be” a community gathered for worship, not to “do” worship.

Doing is easy. We are all good at doing, whether it is what we are supposed to do or not. Being is hard. For the next little while, try to just be. Don’t try to do anything. Don’t be surprised when it doesn’t work, when you get distracted by something someone else is doing. That’s okay. We’re all out of practice. God gave us the Sabbath for a reason. If we can only get into the practice of keeping it, it will be obvious why we were given this gift in the first place.

(3 minute silence)

That was only 3 minutes. Imagine what it would be like to do that for a whole day.

Thanks be to God.

Worthiness

God of light and life, your fire fuels our lives and illuminates our paths. Help us to know your presence as we journey. Amen.


Are we really worthy of God’s grace?

What does it even mean to be worthy? John says “āmi hikanos lusai ton himanta tōn hupodāmatōn autou.” That is “I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal” as we are used to hearing it. We usually think of being worthy as being good enough, or at least I do. This would mean that John is not good enough to even be a slave of Jesus. I do not think this is what John meant when he said this.

This word “hikanos” is not used to denote social position, so John isn’t talking about being socially acceptable as the slave of Jesus. It does not refer to wealth, so John isn’t too poor or too rich to be Jesus’ slave. It doesn’t have anything to do with intelligence. John is not mentally unable to be Jesus’ slave.

So what does it mean. There are two possibilities. The first is a bit unlikely. “hikanos” can be about size, speaking of a large number or quantity. But somehow I don’t think John was saying that there were not enough of him to untie Jesus’ sandal, though I guess he could have meant that he was metaphorically not big enough, whatever that might have meant.

The other meaning of “hikanos” refers to being physically capable: having the strength, the skills or the training. This meaning of worthy fits very well with my understanding of our relationship with God. John did not have the skills necessary to serve Jesus. John’s great gift from God was the ability to prepare the way. To start to teach people so that they were ready to hear the much greater message that Jesus was to bring. But he was not called to follow Jesus and assist him in his ministry. That just was not what the Holy Spirit had enabled him to do.

John’s second great gift was that he knew his own abilities and his limitations. John was gifted with the ability to see things very clearly. He could tell who was coming to be baptised with the intent to work at making their own life better. He could see that many who came to him believed that the ritual alone would save them. They saw it as an easy way to “wash up” with no intent of working on their way of life. In a while they would simply “wash up” again. He could also tell who was just going through the motions because it was expected of them. He could see peoples’ motivations.

John was certainly “good enough.” He was just the wrong man for the job.


We have another text that we will read today which speaks of “worthiness.” “We are not worthy so much as to gather the up crumbs under thy table.” If this does not mean that we aren’t “good enough” to deserve even the cast offs from Jesus’ table, what does it mean? And what are the “crumbs” anyway?

The Gospel of Mark talks about crumbs. In it we hear about a woman from Syrophoenicia and her conversation with Jesus. “He said to her ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter.’” In this case, a crumb is an act of God. It is the healing of a girl afflicted with a mental disease by Jesus. Matthew tells a similar story involving a Canaanite woman. In both cases, the “crumbs” are the ministry that happens around the edges of Jesus’ central message. They are the ministry that is a by-product of the Christian way of life.

These are the “crumbs” which we do not have the skills, or gifts, to pick up and carry out. We are not worthy. By ourselves, we do not have the ability to carry out God’s plan as seen in Jesus Christ. Only God can do that.

But here is where we find an amazing gift of grace. By being in communion with one another and with God, we are enabled. We are given a special gift. A gift of becoming bigger than ourselves. We come to Christ’s table as individuals. We all have gifts. We all have failings. Not one of us is perfect, which in Biblical terms means complete.

We bring our individual gifts to that table. They are cleansed of our failings through the grace of God. They are merged with other gifts which have been laid upon the altar. They are made perfect.

As individuals, we are not worthy to bring about the Kingdom of God. When we enter into the Body of Christ, the Communion of Christ’s earthly followers, together we become complete. The Kingdom of God is present in the Communion of all of God’s people. Together, bringing all of our gifts to the table, we can carry out God’s work.

Thanks be to God.