August 19, 2012
Pentecost 12
Psalm 111
Ephesians 5:15-20
(prayer)
Right about now, in Ottawa, Ontario, the triennial meeting of the General Council of the United Church of Canada (41st) is coming to a worshipful and enthusiastic close. I had hoped that because we are two hours earlier, I would have been able to watch the closing worship service live on-line, but, alas, it was not streaming today. (post-sermon note: that's because the GC41 closing service was on Saturday!! ;) )
For the past eight days, ministers and lay people from congregations and conferences all across the church have been meeting to discuss life and faith and what it means to be the United Church of Canada in 2012 and the years to come.
I have been honoured to be a commissioner to two previous General Councils: the GC39 in 2006 (Thunder Bay ON) and GC35 in 1994 (Fergus ON). I was overwhelmed both times at what I can only describe as the very real presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit in those gatherings.
I have been able to have the live stream playing while I was in the office this week and I have been so impressed by our out-going Moderator, Mardi Tindal, and the kind and strong leadership she has offered to our church in the past three years and particularly how incredibly well she chaired this meeting. Mardi’s prayers after each of the five ballots of the election of the new moderator were awe-inspiring.
Mardi and I first met each other when I attending a United Church of Canada Camping Consultation at Naramata Centre about 20 years ago. She was a camp director from Camp Big Canoe and was mentored at Camp Quin-Mo-Lac in Ontario and I was a former camp director and was still active at Camp Maskepetoon on Pigeon Lake (where my daughter is a camper right now). We had many good chats over those great meals in the Naramata Centre cafeteria.
I like to think that Mardi Tindal’s experience (working at summer camp) has been a significant contributor to who she has been as our church’s Moderator for the past three years.
Living in a summer camp setting is like a large extended family, combined with the dynamics of a small town. Everyone needs to be treated as ‘kin’ and no one is left to languish on the outskirts of the community. At camp, we play together, we learn together, at church camps, we pray, learn the stories of faith and discover spirit together; at camp, we get to know each other, and it is an opportunity to let one’s guard down and just be yourself; we make lasting friends and we are changed. Or at least that was my experience.
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Where we have been, what we have done, affects who we are and how we can connect to the world.
Along the way, we watch and observe and we learn some things. Knowledge is great, but Wisdom is something more all together. Knowing (in our minds) how to live well, to live with compassion, justice and humility is one thing – understanding the depth of what that means and why it is good...is something more. That where our experiences come in to play.
It can be said that Wisdom is Knowledge that is tempered by Experience. Wisdom is the combination of knowledge and experience. That is why not every ‘smart’ person we know is necessarily wise. And the importance of experience is why the elders of our families and communities are often looked to as sources of wisdom.
Deep with our faith tradition is the call to seek wisdom. It is a valid goal for the people of Jesus to be wise followers of Christ.
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Over the past few weeks, in Sunday worship here at St. David’s, we have offered some focus on parts of the letter to the Ephesians, particularly instructions for the members of the early church on how to live (and how not to live).
In chapter five today, the people of the Ephesus church are encouraged to live with wisdom: they are asked to consider using their time well, to reject foolish, short-term thinking. The letter-writer is asking the people to make the most of every opportunity they have to live lives that are in keeping with God’s hopes and dreams for the world.
Through it all, the people of the church are encouraged not just to offer praise and honour for God when they are gathered together as the church, but to be “[singing] to the Lord in your hearts.” You know what it is like to have a song stuck in your head. “Wake me up before you go, go.” The Ephesians letter is literally asking us to let the songs of praise dominate our thoughts always.
As we look at the content of the letter, we can see that part of the context in Ephesus at the time (and maybe even among certain, specific individuals in the Ephesian church) was the pitfalls of alcohol abuse. It seems that the letter-writer wanted people to see that it is ‘wise’ for people to use their best judgments; not clouding their minds with too much liquor – or other ideas that get in the way of worshipping and serving God with joy. They [We] are invited to take what we have learned from studying our faith and meld that with our experiences of living out that faith.
Knowledge plus Experience:
We are to have a Wise faith!
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The author of the 111th Psalm offers words of wise praise: God is worthy of honour and has been faithful to the people and indeed all creation. God is steadfastly faithful, and just, and trustworthy.
The psalmist ends with the proclamation that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
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“Fear of the Lord” is a phrase that can be easily mis-understood. Fear in this context is not simply ‘being afraid’ as in the way we usually use that word today. I don’t believe that the Psalmist (and other biblical authors) is asking us to cower and hide from God - worrying if we will be harmed. Although, you may find a preacher here or there where that is the centre of the message: not me.
Fear, here, I believe, is synonymous with words like honour respect, praise and reverential awe - in the way that ... we are impressed by the magnitude of another’s presence: people may have experienced this with a teacher, or politician, or church leader, or someone else celebrated within our culture.
“Wow!”
“Wow!”
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Being able to say “wow” about God is the beginning of wisdom; to move the experience of faith from the head (from what we’ve heard and read and studied) into the heart and soul (where the impact can be felt and more fully understood) is something we are called to seek as people of Christ.
Faith cannot be simply the domain of the mind; nor can it really be only of the heart. It is the combination, the mix, the melding of deeper understanding ... is where wisdom is found.
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Over this past week, your General Council has listened to various reports and proposals and has called on the Spirit to reach deep into our hearts, and guide, and inspire.
As a result of the discernment and decisions of the General Council, the United Church of Canada has a new more colourful and historically representative official Crest. [slide-crest] Acknowledging that at church union in 1925, within the founding denominations, there were many aboriginal congregations, who did not necessarily have the same opportunity to vote on union as did their non-aboriginal cousins.
The four sections of the Crest now bear the colours of the aboriginal medicine wheel: colours that speak of a unity of the world in all directions and a unity of people of all races. As well, the crest now includes a Mohawk phrase:
Akwe Nia’Tetewá:neren.
It is presumed that it was the Mohawk people who first encountered the Methodist missionaries in this land. That phrase means “all my relations” which within aboriginal culture reflects the kinship of all human kind. On the new Crest it is held alongside the latin phrase that has been on our crest since it first appeared in the 1940s: Ut Omnes Unum Sint – a quote from John 17:21, Jesus’ prayer “that all may be one”.
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The General Council had a record fifteen candidates for Moderator. [slide-moderators] The church’s Moderator offers leadership to the church for a three year General Council cycle: he or she chairs meetings of the General Council and its executive, is the main spokesperson for the church, and serves, in a way, as pastor of the whole church.
Early in the week, all of the candidates were all given red stoles to where so that people could spot them in the crowd and get a chance to meet them so as to make a wise decision on who to vote for.
It took five ballots and the church can look forward to the leadership of [slide-gary] The Right Reverend Gary Paterson. Gary is one of the ministers at the big downtown United Church in Vancouver: St. Andrew’s-Wesley United.
The news media’s first storyline was to note that Gary is the first openly gay minister to be elected to our church’s highest office, but the most impressive part of the whole process was how much sexual orientation was NOT an issue to the General Council Commissioners. I never got any sense as I watched things online and paid attention to the social media chat, that people were voting for or against any candidate based on their sexual orientation.
I remember Gary from 25 years ago when I was a student at the Vancouver School of Theology. He was the chair of Vancouver-Burrard Presbytery, which occasionally held their meetings at the college and I would sneak in the back and observe the goings on.
Gary Paterson has wonderful pastoral and leadership skills – and we will be well-served with him as our Moderator for the next three years.
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At GC41, the church looked at how we relate to world we all share.
[slide-kitamat] The General Council spoke out against the building of huge pipelines to transport massive amounts of raw oil for export: particularly noting the potential for harm to the land with the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline to Kitamat.
Also on the agenda for GC41 was a deep and detailed discussion the Israel-Palestine issues: [slide-wall] particularly the impact of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the building of security barriers (aka The Wall) well inside the boarders of the West Bank and the violence propagated by all sides. This discussion has been part of at least the last three GCs, highlighting that it continues to be an issue for our world and for people of faith – especially for those people whose faith traditions emanate from the region.
[slide-wiseman]
The General Council also looked inward at how we live as a church:
· The church’s official doctrine now includes four historical faith statements: the 1925 Articles of Faith, the 1940 Statement of Faith; the 1968 (and amended) New Creed, and the 2006 Song of Faith. You may recall that your St. David’s Church Council studied this issue and voted yes on adding each of these statements to the doctrine section of the Church’s Basis of Union. The majority of churches and Presbyteries (and ultimately the General Council) agreed with us.
· The GC passed a comprehensive Statement on Ministry, describing the uniqueness of the various streams of ministry within the church as a guide to what policies the church should have with-respect-to ministers.
· The next edition of the United Church Manuel (out in 2013) will be more effectively organized with simpler language and as such will be shorter. The electronic version of the next Manual will have links to various relevant procedural documents and forms.
· A General Council has so much business to deal with that many of the proposals are dealt with in one of three fully empowered commissions, who meet separately at the same time. A number of important decisions were made in those commissions and the details are becoming available on the web. In one of the commissions, a lively debate about gossip and its destructive force in The United Church of Canada led the General Council to approve a proposal encouraging church folk to stay away from gossip. The vote was so close it had to be counted. The proposal calls for the General Council to take a stand against spreading gossip, in the same manner that it has taken a stand against other evils of society, like say, gambling, and encourage congregations to raise awareness of the harmful aspects of gossip and to open discussion regarding how to differentiate between gossip and caring pastoral conversation.
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In my view, the work of this 41st General Council was deeply rooted in worship and prayer and in awe that God is our helper and guide.
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I see GC41 as symbolic of the whole church, indeed all of the children of God.
Wisdom is among the most ancient of biblical concepts. In the book of proverbs, we hear the origin stories told in the context of wisdom. Wisdom is personified as a co-creator with God. In other words, the origins of the universe, the origins of life, begin with wisdom.
What we are trying to learn along the way is...
When we see ourselves as spiritual beings, we are on the path of wisdom.
When what we have studied is strengthened by our actions lived out in love, we are on the path of wisdom.
When we are confident enough to know that we there is still mystery to behold, we are on the path of wisdom.
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The readings for today remind us that God calls us to be mindful of the ways in which we spend our time, whether in leisure or in work or in worship. Time is a precious gift and resource to our lives that we are invited to manage wisely.
This may include (for some of you) a re-aligning of the priorities of your life.
For others, it may be the call to pause and not just smell the roses, but ponder their value in grand scheme of existence.
We all are encouraged to not relegate our faith-focus to those occasional Sundays we might find ourselves in church, but to sing the songs of God in our hearts, always.
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These are all wise things for us to focus on.
Prayer:
Great God of wisdom, you share with us ways in which we can know ourselves, each other, and the greater world. Open us to learn – always – of your goodness and your glory. Amen.
#10MV
“Come Seek the Ways of Wisdom”
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