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.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Leap of Faith
May the words of my lips and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
This past Thursday all the clergy of this region met here in our parish. Each month when we meet, one of the things we do is celebrate the Eucharist. Instead of a sermon, we all share our thoughts about the readings for the coming Sunday.
Before we started our meeting, I had a pretty good idea what I was going to talk about today. After the meeting? – not so much. In fact, after the meeting, I couldn’t even remember what I had been planning to say. It was just gone.
I was left with lots of ideas swirling around in my head, no clear direction to go in, and a vague recollection of something important that I’d planned to say.
I spent way too much time trying to get back my plan so that I could write my sermon for today. It just wouldn’t come. Finally, last night I just decided to give up on that and write something else. I started over from the beginning. Read the readings again. Looked over my notes about where they came from and what words might mean something different that I would expect. Prayed for direction and sat down in front of my computer.
It wasn’t until I started writing this that I realized this is exactly what our Gospel today is talking about. As long as I was focussed on the past, I had no clue how to move forward.
Our Gospel today is a grim message of hope. Jesus is telling us that there is always a way forward. There is always a path that will lead us closer to the Kingdom of God. No matter how bleak things are, there is always a light shining in the distance.
The problem is that heading toward that light might mean giving up something which we are attached to. Something that gives us comfort or stability. Maybe just something that we are used to. We have to leave these behind in order to get closer to God.
This is a constant struggle in every one of our lives. Change is always happening around us and it would be much more comfortable if everything would just stay the same. Life isn’t like that. Kids grow up and move away from home. The jobs that sustain us disappear. New jobs take their places. New jobs that can’t be done by the same people. We grow older and can’t do what we used to be able to do. It is an endless list.
In the church today this is especially true. Less and less people are coming to church. Many churches in Canada are closing or merging. Many more are struggling to pay their bills and still maintain at least a bit of mission. The old model of church in North America just doesn’t seem to work anymore. Or at least not very well.
Jesus’ message for us today is that there is a way forward. There is a way for us to get closer to the Kingdom of God.
This is very good news. This is a grim reality. In order to move forward, we have to let go of the past. This does not mean we have to forget it or throw out everything that makes us what we are. Our tradition is a great strength. Tradition is like the arc of an arrow flying through the air. It is always moving forward, moving toward its final target. But you can look back along its path and see where it’s been. It doesn’t take any sudden, sideways leaps.
No, to let go of the past, we have to acknowledge that our past got us to where we are. It is from this point that we move forward. Letting go of the past means that we don’t look back to see what we are doing wrong. We don’t look back to see what we could change to make things better. Letting go of the past means that we look forward to find where we need to be next. We look forward to see where our next step should be. We don’t make a sideways leap to become something we have never been or a backwards leap to become something we used to be. We take a small step forward from where we are now. Step by step into the future.
Looking back is deadly. Looking back is indulging in nostalgia: longing for the way things used to be and lamenting the loss. Looking back locks us into pain and despair.
Looking forward we can see the light. It might be dim and way off in the distance, but it is there. Looking forward we can live in hope that things will get better. Looking forward we can take that leap of faith and move step by step toward the Kingdom of God.
Thanks be to God.
This past Thursday all the clergy of this region met here in our parish. Each month when we meet, one of the things we do is celebrate the Eucharist. Instead of a sermon, we all share our thoughts about the readings for the coming Sunday.
Before we started our meeting, I had a pretty good idea what I was going to talk about today. After the meeting? – not so much. In fact, after the meeting, I couldn’t even remember what I had been planning to say. It was just gone.
I was left with lots of ideas swirling around in my head, no clear direction to go in, and a vague recollection of something important that I’d planned to say.
I spent way too much time trying to get back my plan so that I could write my sermon for today. It just wouldn’t come. Finally, last night I just decided to give up on that and write something else. I started over from the beginning. Read the readings again. Looked over my notes about where they came from and what words might mean something different that I would expect. Prayed for direction and sat down in front of my computer.
It wasn’t until I started writing this that I realized this is exactly what our Gospel today is talking about. As long as I was focussed on the past, I had no clue how to move forward.
Our Gospel today is a grim message of hope. Jesus is telling us that there is always a way forward. There is always a path that will lead us closer to the Kingdom of God. No matter how bleak things are, there is always a light shining in the distance.
The problem is that heading toward that light might mean giving up something which we are attached to. Something that gives us comfort or stability. Maybe just something that we are used to. We have to leave these behind in order to get closer to God.
This is a constant struggle in every one of our lives. Change is always happening around us and it would be much more comfortable if everything would just stay the same. Life isn’t like that. Kids grow up and move away from home. The jobs that sustain us disappear. New jobs take their places. New jobs that can’t be done by the same people. We grow older and can’t do what we used to be able to do. It is an endless list.
In the church today this is especially true. Less and less people are coming to church. Many churches in Canada are closing or merging. Many more are struggling to pay their bills and still maintain at least a bit of mission. The old model of church in North America just doesn’t seem to work anymore. Or at least not very well.
Jesus’ message for us today is that there is a way forward. There is a way for us to get closer to the Kingdom of God.
This is very good news. This is a grim reality. In order to move forward, we have to let go of the past. This does not mean we have to forget it or throw out everything that makes us what we are. Our tradition is a great strength. Tradition is like the arc of an arrow flying through the air. It is always moving forward, moving toward its final target. But you can look back along its path and see where it’s been. It doesn’t take any sudden, sideways leaps.
No, to let go of the past, we have to acknowledge that our past got us to where we are. It is from this point that we move forward. Letting go of the past means that we don’t look back to see what we are doing wrong. We don’t look back to see what we could change to make things better. Letting go of the past means that we look forward to find where we need to be next. We look forward to see where our next step should be. We don’t make a sideways leap to become something we have never been or a backwards leap to become something we used to be. We take a small step forward from where we are now. Step by step into the future.
Looking back is deadly. Looking back is indulging in nostalgia: longing for the way things used to be and lamenting the loss. Looking back locks us into pain and despair.
Looking forward we can see the light. It might be dim and way off in the distance, but it is there. Looking forward we can live in hope that things will get better. Looking forward we can take that leap of faith and move step by step toward the Kingdom of God.
Thanks be to God.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Thank God for Flying Pigs
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.
And now for something completely different.
Possession. Casting out of demons. Flying pigs drowning themselves in the Sea of Galilee. Oh, my!!!
For those of you who weren’t in the Bible study on Monday, I’ll give you a bit of background for that last one. – The city of Gerasa was about 50 kilometers southeast of the Lake, which we now call the Sea of Galilee. Pigs, which have no sweat glands, would die long before they reached the sea by running. They must have flown down the hill.
So we have possession, casting out of demons and flying pigs all in one short story. This story seems to be completely out of our world view, and for the most part it probably is.
In Jesus’ time, most mental illnesses and some physical illnesses were thought to be caused by demons or unclean spirits. These demons were eternal somethings (the word literally means minor divinities) looking for somewhere to settle down. When they got into somewhere they weren’t supposed to be, for instance a human being, they caused all kinds of problems. Casting them out would instantly fix these problems, but there were very few people who could do this. Jesus was one of them. This particular man was possessed by many spirits, enough so that they called themselves legion (which would make 6,000 of them). Jesus was probably the only one with enough power to cast out that many.
Today we don’t blame sickness on demons, at least not usually. We do still have the rite of exorcism available to us in this diocese in the Anglican tradition. In order to use it however, I have to explain the situation to Bishop Sue and get her permission beforehand. And from historical accounts, some of which are quite recent, exorcism sometimes works.
But as I said, we don’t often blame sickness on demons anymore. So how do we make sense of this reading in our current world view?
Today’s version of this story would be about faith healing. We have our own legion of demons to choose from: cancers of all varieties, depression, cerebral palsy, dementia, addiction. The list goes on and on: diseases and conditions which are difficult or impossible to cure or even to manage with medicine.
We hear story after story about people traveling around the world for treatments which are not medically proven. Some of these people get better. Many don’t. This is a type of faith healing. This healing is sometimes medicine which just hasn’t been proven yet, but more often than not it is healing that happens because people believe so strongly that it the treatment will help. They have faith in the medicine. The power this kind of belief has over our bodies can be awesome and unexplainable. This is not the kind of faith healing that this story is about.
Placing that kind of absolute belief in God is transformative. It can sometimes accomplish the same type of physical healing, but that is only a side benefit. The healing that comes from faith in God transforms our lives in other ways.
If we look at the man healed in today’s story we see a man who has been cast out of society in just about every way possible. Jesus comes and the man kneels at his feet, acknowledging his power. Jesus transforms this man. Healing him of his afflictions does not make him just another ordinary citizen of Gerasa. No – he returns to a city which is terrified of him because of the extreme change. He goes back to a city where there is no real Jewish presence, where there are no followers of Jesus. He goes back to that city to proclaim a message which will leave him separated from the rest of society in a different way than before: just as isolated but with a real purpose to his life.
Modern examples of faith healing are everywhere. The most common examples are probably twelve step programs for addiction. A key step in these programs is acknowledging that we can’t do it ourselves. We need help from God. People who are successful in these programs are not cured of their addictions, but their lives are transformed in a way that can only come from God.
Faith healing is like this. Our body may or may not be healed – our souls are. By putting that kind of faith in God we are healed. Our demons are cast out. Even the ones we never realized were there. We all have them. We all have the power to give them to God.
Thanks be to God.
And now for something completely different.
Possession. Casting out of demons. Flying pigs drowning themselves in the Sea of Galilee. Oh, my!!!
For those of you who weren’t in the Bible study on Monday, I’ll give you a bit of background for that last one. – The city of Gerasa was about 50 kilometers southeast of the Lake, which we now call the Sea of Galilee. Pigs, which have no sweat glands, would die long before they reached the sea by running. They must have flown down the hill.
So we have possession, casting out of demons and flying pigs all in one short story. This story seems to be completely out of our world view, and for the most part it probably is.
In Jesus’ time, most mental illnesses and some physical illnesses were thought to be caused by demons or unclean spirits. These demons were eternal somethings (the word literally means minor divinities) looking for somewhere to settle down. When they got into somewhere they weren’t supposed to be, for instance a human being, they caused all kinds of problems. Casting them out would instantly fix these problems, but there were very few people who could do this. Jesus was one of them. This particular man was possessed by many spirits, enough so that they called themselves legion (which would make 6,000 of them). Jesus was probably the only one with enough power to cast out that many.
Today we don’t blame sickness on demons, at least not usually. We do still have the rite of exorcism available to us in this diocese in the Anglican tradition. In order to use it however, I have to explain the situation to Bishop Sue and get her permission beforehand. And from historical accounts, some of which are quite recent, exorcism sometimes works.
But as I said, we don’t often blame sickness on demons anymore. So how do we make sense of this reading in our current world view?
Today’s version of this story would be about faith healing. We have our own legion of demons to choose from: cancers of all varieties, depression, cerebral palsy, dementia, addiction. The list goes on and on: diseases and conditions which are difficult or impossible to cure or even to manage with medicine.
We hear story after story about people traveling around the world for treatments which are not medically proven. Some of these people get better. Many don’t. This is a type of faith healing. This healing is sometimes medicine which just hasn’t been proven yet, but more often than not it is healing that happens because people believe so strongly that it the treatment will help. They have faith in the medicine. The power this kind of belief has over our bodies can be awesome and unexplainable. This is not the kind of faith healing that this story is about.
Placing that kind of absolute belief in God is transformative. It can sometimes accomplish the same type of physical healing, but that is only a side benefit. The healing that comes from faith in God transforms our lives in other ways.
If we look at the man healed in today’s story we see a man who has been cast out of society in just about every way possible. Jesus comes and the man kneels at his feet, acknowledging his power. Jesus transforms this man. Healing him of his afflictions does not make him just another ordinary citizen of Gerasa. No – he returns to a city which is terrified of him because of the extreme change. He goes back to a city where there is no real Jewish presence, where there are no followers of Jesus. He goes back to that city to proclaim a message which will leave him separated from the rest of society in a different way than before: just as isolated but with a real purpose to his life.
Modern examples of faith healing are everywhere. The most common examples are probably twelve step programs for addiction. A key step in these programs is acknowledging that we can’t do it ourselves. We need help from God. People who are successful in these programs are not cured of their addictions, but their lives are transformed in a way that can only come from God.
Faith healing is like this. Our body may or may not be healed – our souls are. By putting that kind of faith in God we are healed. Our demons are cast out. Even the ones we never realized were there. We all have them. We all have the power to give them to God.
Thanks be to God.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Justified by Faith not the Law
May the words of my lips and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Whatever is Paul talking about? That is one of his more convoluted arguments. I think it needs a bit of unpacking to have any idea of what he means.
Paul uses a few very key words in our reading today: justified, the law, faith, Christ, and grace.
That first word, justified, means to be made right or proved to be right with God; in other words, to be shown or made to be righteous. Being justified is the core of what Paul is talking about.
How do we become justified with God? … How do we become righteous?
The Bible is full of rules. Two weeks ago we read some of those rules during our service. Does anyone remember which rules we read? … The Ten Commandments. Today we read another set of rules which we call the summary of the law. The Galatians ask Paul if we are made right with God by following all these rules. What do you think he answered? … “No one will be justified by the works of the law.” That’s a pretty emphatic answer. Has anyone here read “The Year of Living Biblically?” A. J. Jacobs did a very good job of showing just how impossible it is to follow all of the laws all of the time. I thank God that this is not the way to be right with God.
Paul even takes it one step further that Jacobs did. Paul reminds us that Christ himself broke the law: “is Christ then a servant of sin?” On several occasions, the Bible makes a point of telling us that Jesus is breaking the rules set down in God’s law. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all talk about Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners. This is important because it breaks the ritual purity laws. All of the Gospels talk about Jesus breaking the Sabbath. He heals and does other work on the Sabbath and makes the point that the Sabbath (and other laws) are made for us, not the other way around. That is extremely important. The law is given to us. We are not given to the law.
Back to the question: how do we become justified with God?
“And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law.”
This is where grace comes in. Being righteous is about knowing that God loves us and responding to that. It is about faith. All it takes for our relationship with God to be right is for us to truly believe that we have a relationship with God and that God loves us. God became human and walked among us to show us what this relationship looks like and to prove that love to us.
So if the law does not make us right with God, why do we have it? Does it matter at all?
Absolutely! The law is very important. All of those rules show us how people throughout history have felt God’s call. When we look at them either individually or as a whole, they show us what is important to God. There are rules about taking care of ourselves. There are rules about taking care of the poor and the sick. There are rules about respecting each other. There are rules about respecting and honouring God. There are rules that show us where society was going wrong.
All of these rules are important. All of them can teach us something about God. Many of them require us to understand the people who wrote them for them to mean anything to us today, but they are all important.
Jesus told us that of all the laws, if we follow two specific ones, we have understood the heart of the law. I believe those two laws are impossible to break if you are truly living by faith. We read these laws earlier today. We call them the summary of the law.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
God calls us to love. First we are to love God. Next we are to love ourselves and everyone else equally.
If we follow the other rules but break these we are being ruled by the law. If we follow these two rules we are living by faith. If we break any other rule in order to keep the laws of love, we have understood God’s gift of the law to us. We are justified. By the grace of God, we are right with God.
Thanks be to God.
Whatever is Paul talking about? That is one of his more convoluted arguments. I think it needs a bit of unpacking to have any idea of what he means.
Paul uses a few very key words in our reading today: justified, the law, faith, Christ, and grace.
That first word, justified, means to be made right or proved to be right with God; in other words, to be shown or made to be righteous. Being justified is the core of what Paul is talking about.
How do we become justified with God? … How do we become righteous?
The Bible is full of rules. Two weeks ago we read some of those rules during our service. Does anyone remember which rules we read? … The Ten Commandments. Today we read another set of rules which we call the summary of the law. The Galatians ask Paul if we are made right with God by following all these rules. What do you think he answered? … “No one will be justified by the works of the law.” That’s a pretty emphatic answer. Has anyone here read “The Year of Living Biblically?” A. J. Jacobs did a very good job of showing just how impossible it is to follow all of the laws all of the time. I thank God that this is not the way to be right with God.
Paul even takes it one step further that Jacobs did. Paul reminds us that Christ himself broke the law: “is Christ then a servant of sin?” On several occasions, the Bible makes a point of telling us that Jesus is breaking the rules set down in God’s law. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all talk about Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners. This is important because it breaks the ritual purity laws. All of the Gospels talk about Jesus breaking the Sabbath. He heals and does other work on the Sabbath and makes the point that the Sabbath (and other laws) are made for us, not the other way around. That is extremely important. The law is given to us. We are not given to the law.
Back to the question: how do we become justified with God?
“And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law.”
This is where grace comes in. Being righteous is about knowing that God loves us and responding to that. It is about faith. All it takes for our relationship with God to be right is for us to truly believe that we have a relationship with God and that God loves us. God became human and walked among us to show us what this relationship looks like and to prove that love to us.
So if the law does not make us right with God, why do we have it? Does it matter at all?
Absolutely! The law is very important. All of those rules show us how people throughout history have felt God’s call. When we look at them either individually or as a whole, they show us what is important to God. There are rules about taking care of ourselves. There are rules about taking care of the poor and the sick. There are rules about respecting each other. There are rules about respecting and honouring God. There are rules that show us where society was going wrong.
All of these rules are important. All of them can teach us something about God. Many of them require us to understand the people who wrote them for them to mean anything to us today, but they are all important.
Jesus told us that of all the laws, if we follow two specific ones, we have understood the heart of the law. I believe those two laws are impossible to break if you are truly living by faith. We read these laws earlier today. We call them the summary of the law.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
God calls us to love. First we are to love God. Next we are to love ourselves and everyone else equally.
If we follow the other rules but break these we are being ruled by the law. If we follow these two rules we are living by faith. If we break any other rule in order to keep the laws of love, we have understood God’s gift of the law to us. We are justified. By the grace of God, we are right with God.
Thanks be to God.
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