NOW AND HERE

November 14, 2010
Pentecost 25
Isaiah 65:17-25
2nd Thessalonians 3:6-13

(prayer)

If you were in church here at St. David’s last week, you may remember that we had read from the book of the prophet Haggai. If you weren’t here last week, don’t worry - this is not part of a multi-week sermon series that if you miss one, you’ll be lost. All I wanted to say is that today’s reading from Isaiah 65, comes from about the same time period as Haggai.

The Hebrew people have returned to the land of Judah after six or seven decades of living in forced exile by the rivers of Babylon.

It was a time of re-discovery. Only the most elderly of the people would have had any memory of the former glory of Jerusalem (and that would have been back when they were children), as the vast majority of the returning exiles had been born in Babylon – all they knew were the stories told by parents and grandparents.

They came back – not to a glorious land flowing with milk and honey and a grand capital city – but a land abused for decades and former mighty buildings laying in piles of rubble, including the magnificent stone temple that had stood for several hundreds of years since the time of King Solomon.

Into this reality, the prophet speaks for God:

17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.

18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.

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The message is: The past is history – in this new time, something new and wonderful begins: an era of happiness and prosperity; of peace and longevity and safety.

When I read Isaiah 65, I find myself taking a long, relaxing breath. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. You know it is a great space and frame of mind to be in – relaxed because life is good!

Those moments are precious. To have the anxiety of the past truly set aside and to live in a moment of calm. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

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God, I wish those moments would last.

I suspect that all of us would love to have a long, long life of the bliss that comes with calm. I suppose that is why Isaiah’s words are such a power vision for a hope we all long for,

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The reality is that the universe is a dynamic place – we are constantly in motion, time marches on – we can never really freeze a moment in time, because each time we become aware of the moment we are in, it passes and we are brought to the next moment ... and so on ...

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And yet we are gifted with memory, so those ‘past’ moments are not lost. The discipline of history is to make a conscious effort to keep the impact of those past moments a present reality.

As I also mentioned last week, for the Hebrew people re-settling Judah, there was little living memory of what life in Judah had been like before the exile. But the impact of that life and the connection of the people to their God endured. Not only had it endured, it had continued to develop over the 60 or 70 years away from the land and the temple mount.

“We can be changed in the present, by the impact of what has happened in the past.”

That is the central point of what I want to say today: We can be changed in the present, by the impact of what has happened in the past. For me this is significantly different from living in the past or even longing for the past, which I think are fruitless endeavours. Shakespeare wrote that “what’s past is prologue” (cf. The Tempest). Where we have been is simply the lead-up to where we are – it is the here and now where ‘true importance’ lies.

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November is traditionally the time of the year that this congregation of St. David’s United Church celebrates its anniversary. [Does anyone know why November? That’s not a rhetorical question, I really have no idea.]. I know, thanks to the history wall of pictures of former clergy (aka ‘the rogues gallery’) that our history goes back to 1898. That makes 2010 the 112th anniversary of our congregation. In fact for the 13 years, ours is a double history including churches established by both the Methodist and Presbyterian denominations. In 1911, these congregations saw the prudency of joining together. I suspect that neither may have been able to endure had they insisted on going it alone. All of this predates the formation of the United Church of Canada, which (in 1925) formally brought together our founding congregations that had already been together for 14 years.

2010 is the 85th anniversary of the United Church of Canada – are far as Christian denominations go, we are still babies on a global scale, and yet 85 years is a remarkable accomplishment.

Early on the Union was more of a paper connection, as former Methodist congregations and former Presbyterian congregations and former Congregationalist churches continued to function (on a Sunday-by-Sunday) basis quite differently, according to their own histories. But eventually, as the moments of time pressed onward, as new clergy were trained within the new United Church structure, as new congregations were established with no history in the former denomination, a new style of ‘being church’ began to develop: it took decades.

It must have been a similar experience that occurred with the ancient Hebrews during the exile, as new generations with no personal memory of the past began to live out their faith in ways that were relevant to their time and their context.

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Since the spring of this year we have highlighted that one of the projects of the United Church of Canada in this 85th anniversary year was to pair up congregations across the church, with hopes that they will connect with each other in some way over the year.

We are paired with Memorial United Church in Murray River, PEI. There has been some email contact between the churches. And, I know that Gladys and Alvin Burdeyney visited that church on a trip they made out east this summer and took some personal greetings from us to them. I think we even exchanged collectable church plates!

I hope others have attempted some connection, as the 85th anniversary year is nearing it’s end. I want to try something here to make another connection. If I can make it work, let’s record a video message for our sisters and brothers on the east coast.

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All things going well, I will email that video to them before the day is out. That kind of connection is a possibility that exists in our modern world. I know that as new generations develop new ways to connect and express their faith, that other generations are prone to wonder, ‘what’s the point?’

And yet, there is value in allowing our ancient, timeless story, to find new expression so that it can be heard and experienced in each new age. In fact, I think we should always get excited when discover that our mission and message fits into the modern world

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In 2006, the 39th General Council of the United Church of Canada approved “A Song of Faith” as a modern statement of faith to add to past statements that have tried to describe the life and purpose of the church over the ages. It was noted in the preamble: The church’s faith is grounded in truths that are timeless. These truths, however, must be embraced anew by Christians of each generation and stated “in terms of the thoughts of their own age and with the emphasis their age needs” (Statement of Faith, 1940). This is not a statement for all time but for our time. In as much as the Spirit keeps faith with us, we can express our understanding of the Holy with confidence. And in as much as the Spirit is vast and wild, we recognize that our understanding of the Holy is always partial and limited. Nonetheless we have faith!

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For the early Christians in Thessalonica, the promise of God’s active love expressed in the life of Jesus and the promise of God’s redemption founded in Jesus’ death and resurrection had led to a belief (for some) that there was no value in living a purposed life in this world – all of the attention was on the realm to come. I have said before that it was as if they took the words ‘freedom in Christ’ too literally. These people were not able to be in the world – they were not able to see this life as founded in goodness, as the Bible proclaims (cf. Gen 1). The author of the second letter to the Thessalonians strongly discouraged this attitude of ‘living in idleness’.

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There is a common theme in all of this: faith is an active endeavour – and it goes beyond a intellectual connection at the level of the mind. The attitude of faith, certainly begins internally, but has always been expressed (by our forbearers in every time and place) by actions: the love of Christ lived and shown in the world. We are not called to hide from the world, or retreat from the world, but to be part of the transformation the world!

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I am so proud to be connected to a church that nurtured this attitude in people to the point that at a provincial level here in Alberta, Women’s groups in the United Church got together and started the Child Well-being Initiative. (see insert with today’s bulletin)

More Info on CWBI
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Last weekend, I attended the Northern Region Symposium for United Church people from Yellowhead, Edmonton and Northern Lights Presbyteries. One of my colleagues in ministry had come to the event with his whole family including his four young daughters, the youngest of which is just a few months old. One of the speakers at the event drew our attention to this child and reminded us that the decisions we make as a society are never made in isolation. “What if”, the speaker said, “every decision we made as a society (as individuals, as churches, as governments) was based on her best interests?” Do you think we would choose to make her suffer today or in the future? That’s a faith-in-action challenge!

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The Thessalonians passage today discourages idleness by suggesting that “anyone unwilling to work, should not eat.” That kind of attitude is held by some ideologies to disconnect us from the needs of others. What the child well-being initiative does is challenge us to accept that no child has made any decision that should justify our society to allow them to live in poverty.

This coming Thursday, Women of the United Church will be at the Alberta Legislature to hold a press conference and present each Alberta MLA with a handmade doll as a tactile symbol of the need to ensure that over 77,500 children living in poverty in Alberta is almost eighty-thousand too many.

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And so, let’s honour our history, let’s celebrate our anniversary. But let’s not live in the past, or even long for the past. Let us be grateful for the gift of this life, this moment and the opportunities to live the love of our Christ in ways that transform our world into a place that sees that we are all connected by the benevolent source of all that is, and was, and ever shall be.

Faith is of today. It always has been!

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Let us pray:

Guide us God, today, to live into your vision for infinite peace and justice, where all your creatures live in harmony as you intend. AMEN.

#79MV “Spirit, Open My Heart”