BEYOND TODAY

February 23, 2014

Epiphany 7

Leviticus 19:9-18

Matthew 5:38-48

(prayer)

On Friday,
just after Team Canada won the men's semi-final game against Team USA, a
facebook friend of mine jokingly posted: "Will the bars be open Sunday
morning at 5AM?? LoL". Of course, it didn't take too long to learn that
the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission rules were - in fact - being suspended
for this morning and many bars with
big screens were only closed for a hour or two last night.  And they had eager customers wanting to see
if the men's hockey team could match what the women's hockey team had done. 

In fact, on
the way to church this morning, Patti and I drove a young man home who had been
kicked out an early morning bar before the end of the game and taken the
celebration to a friend’s house.  Given
where he said he started and where he needed to go, he had been walking in the
wrong direction.  I’m glad he came across
us or else, he might not have made it home.

If you were at
a pub at 5am this morning, I hope that you have enough energy for the rest of
the service.  But, hey, if you need to
take forty winks, go ahead.

Early this
morning, people knoew that the women's hockey never lost a game on their way to
the olympic gold medal.  Maybe the men
could do that too.  How perfect would
that be?

In case you
missed it… Canada 3, Sweden 0.

Jennifer
Jones' team went also undefeated to curling gold medals. Brad Jacob's rink also
won gold in curling, but (of course) they lost two games in the round robin; I
guess we can't call that perfect.

//

One of the
minor football coaches I work with is fond of asking the team as we lead up to
the weekend's game: 'What do I [we] want?'
The correct answer (the players quickly learn) is 'perfection'. 

||: 'What do
we want?' ... 'Perfection' :||

It's actually
a reference to the true-story-based football movie, Remember The Titans. In the movie, T.C. Williams High School Head
Coach Herman Boone (played by Denzel Washington) says something similar to his
1971 team dealing with the realities of the new racial diversity of their now
fully integrated high school.  "When
you put on that Titan uniform, you will be perfect."  Denzel Washington's coach Boone worked them
pretty hard.  Mistakes were made, but
they were 'acknowledged' and 'worked on' until they were corrected.  When they began there was a lot overt clicky
racism; by seasons end, they were a true
team and state champions. 

In the case of
my peewee team, we wanted perfection, we worked for perfection, but we weren't
very close to a championship.

//

//

In Jesus'
sermon on the mount, he tells the crowd to be perfect.  This instruction comes after a series of
examples were Jesus challenges the people to go beyond what might be commonly
expected in response to hardship caused by another:

·       
Turn the other cheek,

·       
Give your cloak as well,

·       
Go the second mile,

·       
Love your enemies,

·       
Pray for those who persecute you.

Jesus seems to
be saying the common expectation to a tit-for-tat (eye for an eye, tooth for a
tooth) revenge is not a good example of the kind of compassion that Jesus is
promoting.

God's natural
world treats all people the same: the sun shines on both the good and the evil;
rain wets both the righteous and the unrighteous.  The weather is indiscriminate, Jesus says.  There is no process of discernment: weather
is not a punishment, nor a reward.  The
sun and the rain, don't choose; they just are.

I think that
Jesus is saying that... rote revenge is just as mindless.

Love your neighbour and hate your enemies?  That is too easy of a rule. You have no real
choice to make. If you love only those who love you, how hard is that?  Learn to love your enemies - that would be
something indeed.

//

Jesus' view of
a more perfect way of living is to not give in to easy violence.  To get in the way of the path of
revenge.  To not quit on this quest, even
if others tried to draw him into the fight.

And nothing
bothers a bully more than the victim who refuses to be one - not because they attack
seeking an eye for an eye, but because they won't fight back and they run away.

These are not
just words of a mountain side sermon for Jesus.
The totality of his life will show that he lives out these words.

As Susan
McCaslin (in Arousing the Spirit -
Provocative Writings) tells us: "In the case of Jesus, what stands out
is his complete, unabashed commitment to non-violence.  He refuses to retaliate in the face of the
forces of the Empire that are threatened by him.  He chooses not to react with violence to the
violence that is done to him and instructs his followers to put away their
swords when he is arrested in the garden.
He forgives his enemies from the cross and has compassion for them in
their ignorance.  The violence stops with
[Jesus].  Even when he expresses outrage
in the temple, overturning the tables of the moneychangers, his is a symbolic
act of peaceful resistance that flows from a place of unity with the one he
calls Father."

McCaslin's
words echo what we read in Matthew 5:48 - Be
perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The word “peace”
is not specifically used in today’s passage, but it is a word Jesus offers to
his friends as they met him as the risen Christ.  The gospel of John records that the greeting
Jesus gives to the disciples (huddled in fear in a locked room) is “peace be
with you”.  The Hebrew concept of peace
is not just calm - or a lack of violence - but a sense of wholeness and
completeness.  Peace (or shalom) is a state
of being.  And that kind of situation is
perfect.

//

Perfection can
feel far away or out of reach.  A perfect
Love of Enemies is as radical today
as it was in ancient Galilee. Even those who embrace conventional forms of
Christianity ignore this saying as impractical.
Peacemaking is part of the heritage of our spiritual forerunners.  Jesus said that the peacemakers are bless`ed
children of God.

In spite of
this (as Susan McCaslin) wrote, "peacemaking...has not been lived out on a
large scale...Jesus' way...is still pretty much an untried experiment."

//

Are we capable
of the kind of patience, love and forgiveness Jesus describes?

Will we at
least admit that there is no honour in the techniques of those addicted to the
bully power of imperial order - and that (in a perfect world) it would not be
so successful?

//

I know, as a
coach, that perfection does not come instantly - and it is seldom experienced
universally.  But here and there, in the
right moment, with the right combination of effort and circumstance - there it
is.

//

The most
common thing that gets in the way of a movement of true community and honour
for all is a discouragement that it seems impossible - a resignation that the
bully wins.

Jesus does not
give examples of massive change - he describes the small things that each
person can do - in small times (here or there) that create a peaceful (Shalom-filled)
moment.

Jesus did not
call the children of God to be peacekeepers - that is a passive term - it
implies peace is here and we simply need to maintain it, not let it slip
away.  The children of God are
peace-makers.

We do things
that bring us closer to that perfect, holy state of being.

Religious
practices throughout the world, in many different faith expressions, offer
guidance on ways to achieve modicums of inner peace.  And that is wonderful.

 But that is not what Jesus calls us to - we
are called to share peace, to make peace known, beyond our own psyche.

//

Perfect peace
is only achievable by linking together peaceful moments and experiences.  We have to think long term, beyond this
moment, beyond today.

You can
see that as an image for this message, I chose the classic North American image
of the entry into a new year – the dropping of ‘the ball’ in New York’s Times
Square. We are now almost eight weeks into 2014. How are those New Year’s
resolutions going? Of course, it is seldom good to be stuck in the past. It is
good for all of us to live in the moment – to notice the beauty and wonder that
is in our midst now – to know and appreciate the joy that is possible in the
now. But we are wise to not simply live for this moment alone. Yes, the future is uncertain, but we are called to be mindful of what lies beyond today –
to see beyond ourselves and simply our own needs and desires. The plan is to
keep the clocks moving even if that famous ball won’t be dropping for 10 more
months. Can we accept the challenge to live “in” the moment and “for” the
moments to come?  If we only do this when a loving peace is easy, how hard is
that.

Our story is
one of not giving up.

Jesus'
non-violence did not stop his violent death, but his commitment and compassion has
lasted longer than the empire that crucified him.

Thanks be to
God.

Let us pray:

(ad lib)

#348VU “O Love
How Deep”

WHERE YOU BELONG

February 16, 2014

Epiphany 6

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

1^st Corinthians 3:1-9

an ad lib sermon which attempted to make these points 

in a (hopefully) interesting way involving being bound in duct tape:

Living faith only in ritual is destined to be limited - the vibrancy of God is bound.

So... choose Life, Prosperity.  Unleash the Spirit.

Train your faith to handle the solid food.  Go deeper - reach further.

“Where you belong” - one of my favourite puns (double meaning):

  -belong - where you should be

  -belong - where you feel welcomed

Unbind the welcoming love of God!

#1MV  "All Are Welcome"

THAT'S THE POINT !

February 9, 2014

Epiphany 5

Isaiah 58:1-12

Matthew 5:13-20

(prayer)

Parents of
school-aged children know what our household has experienced over the past two
weeks: because of the end of term break at the end of January and Teacher's
Convention this past week, it has been two consecutive four day weekends for
the kids.  Add the fact that the
temperature has been hovering in the low negative teens, my kids have been
stuck in the house and were  desperate to
add a little variety to the routine.  One
of the way my life with kids has evolved over the years is that (when there is
no school), there are almost always extra kids around our house - often leading
to bringing out the sleeping bags and extra pillows for sleepovers in our
living room.  For Patti and it makes meal
planning a bit challenging: not just the normal quandary of what to make, but also how much.  Regardless, we always want to leave some
tasty leftovers in the fridge, because we do have two teenagers. 

The last thing
we want to hear after all that planning is: "But I don't like that!"

//

//

Several years
ago, there was a TV commercial, where a young boy is invited over to a friend's
house for supper.  He is quite reluctant
when he learns that the meal's menu includes broccoli until the friend says, Just in case you don't know, mom puts cheese
on them.  A smile comes across the
boy's face: I hear broccolis make you
smart.

//

Recently I
heard an elementary school student say "You know how food that's good for
you kinda tastes gross.  What if you
count invent a brocolli that tastes like cake?"

Me, I like
broccoli... and spinach, but cake-flavoured brussels sprouts or turnips?  I'd buy
that for a dollar.

//

When Julie
Andrews was considering whether to take on the movie role of Mary Poppins, she
was concerned that a song that was being written for her was not 'snappy'
enough.  So Walt Disney instructed
Richard and Robert Sherman to write a new song.
One day, after another unsuccessful song writing session, Robert Sherman
came home and learned that his children had gotten the polio vaccines that
day.  Robert asked one of them if the
shot had hurt, but was told that they didn't get a needle.  The medicine was put on a sugar cube and the
just swallowed it.

You can guess
what well-known Mary Poppins' song came out of that experience: "Oh a spoonful ofsugar helps the medicine go
down..."

//

//

You are the
light of the world.

You are salt
of the earth.

You are the
sugar with the medicine.

You are the
cheese on the broccoli.

//

You make a
enhancing difference where you are.

//

//

//

The book of
Isaiah in the Old Testament is made up of three distinct sections: chapters
1-39 are from the time of the Judean monarchy; chapters 40-55 are from a time
when the Hebrew people were forced to live in exile in Babylon; the final
section (chapters 56-66) are post-exilic, after a remnant of the people were
able to return to Jerusalem and Judea.
Today's reading comes from the last section of the book of Isaiah.

//

In today's
reading, we get a clear hint as to a major theme of early post-exilic life in
Judea - when the people returned, they witnessed the destruction that had
befallen the Temple in Jerusalem.  The
people had managed to maintain their national identity and their faith while in
exile. They had passed that heritage on to a new generation.  Now that the this new generation was back in
the homeland of their grandparents, there was a strong movement to reclaim the
aspects of their identity and faith that had been lost - there were plans to
rebuild the Temple and to reinstate the rituals and acts of worship of the
religious year.  This led to a rise in
personal piety.  Faithful living was
focused internally.

That gets the
prophet's attention: "Look, you serve your own interests on your fast day
[a day to just humble yourself; to bow down the head like a bulrush; to lie in
sackcloth and ashes.  Is this what you
think is acceptable to God?...  Such
fasting, as you do today, will not
make your voice heard on high."

//

Last week, we
read from the pre-exilic prophet Micah: What
does the Lord require of you [the acts of ritual]?  No, but to do justice, love kindness and to
walk humbly with your God.

Today, there
is a very similar message from post-exilic Isaiah:  What is
acceptable fast to God: a self-righteous activity?  No, one that promotes the health of the whole
community, not just yourself - and by health, it means spiritual health, yes,
but also physical well-being.  So, share
your bread with the hungry, clothe the naked.
Light will shine! Healing will spring forth!

That is
perfectly consistent with Jesus’ message we heard last week from the
beatitudes: where we are ALL to experience the blessings of God - even the
poor, and hungry, and grieving and persecuted.

//

You are
salt.  You are light.

These are not
just nice tasty metaphors, they are the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ -
they are the heart of the Hebrew Torah.
That’s the point.

You are light is not just, be seen - but it is to accept the
responsibility of providing light into the dark places, where loneliness and suffering
exists -to expose those aspects of our human condition that some (including us
sometimes) would rather pretend didn’t exist.

Being salt, is
not just showing off, it is making things in this world, more palatable - to
share the goodness around.

//

Make a
difference where you are.  Change this
world for the better - that's what God accepts/expects.

I am so grateful
that the Linnea Good house concert in a few weeks will shine light on the plight
of the abuse suffered by immigrant women in our community - it will be a time
of spiritual renewal and inspiration, but it will also expose a problem in our
community and allow people to be part of the renewal and healing that must take
place.

//

Somewhere in
the path of your life this week, you will be salt, you will be light - what
will you do with that gift, that responsibility.

//

Make a
difference in your community - shine light on the best of who we are and expose
the worst, so that we can fix it for the common good.

Let us, as the
prophet said to the returning exiles: practice righteousness!

//

That’s the
point!

//

[prayer]

Let us pray:

Gracious God, grant us eyes to
see your vision of a just society.  Help us
make a your goal a reality for all.
Amen.

#581VU “When We
Are Living”

WHAT'S NEXT?

February 2, 2014

Epiphany 4

Micah 6:1-8

Matthew 5:1-12

(prayer)

As you may know,  I like the discipline of planning Sunday worship services around a cycle of weekly scripture readings called a lectionary.  It keeps me from limiting my sermons to passages I am already familiar with; and it invites the sermon to come from the text, rather than search for texts that match the sermon (a nasty style called proof-texting). Using a lectionary is not required in the United Church but I like the discipline.

The lectionary I use is called the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) - it is either mandatory or optional in several different Christian denominations - my guess is that people across the parking lot at Peace Lutheran and on 50^th street at St. Paul’s
Anglican have read the same passages we read this morning.

The RCL is a three year cycle of readings which offer four passages for each Sunday - an reading from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), a Psalm, a reading from one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) and a reading from somewhere else in the New
Testament (usually from one of the letters/epistles). There are a few exceptions to that pattern during the year, but for the most part, it's... Old Testament, Psalm, New Testament, Gospel. 

I tend to follow the advice of my New Testament professor from Seminary that ministers should not just read scripture in church, without offering some reflection on what is says, so I
tend to limit myself to two of the four readings (or so) that I plan to touch on during the sermon or children’s story.

I must admit that I look forward to the Fourth Sunday After Epiphany in Year A of the RCL, because it contains some of my favorite passages of scripture.  For me, Micah chapter 6 and Matthew chapter 5 offer a window into the heart and mind of God: What does God require of you - ritual or action? and You are blessed, even if ____ (fill in the blank).

||: At the heart of the divine is the promise of holy presence as we live out our faith. :||

//

//

Some of you probably know that I appreciate humour - that’s something that came natural to me even before I had a brother-in-law who is a stand up comedian.

One of my favorite forms of humour is sarcasm.  I like to stay up past midnight weeknights to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart because it mixes two of my favorite pastimes: politics and stinging humour.  Ah, a little political sarcasm before bed.

Okay, about half the time I have to catch The Daily Show online the next morning - I don’t have the 'late night capacity' I once had. (January 29th Daily Show) 

//

//

I love how sarcastic Micah is with his rhetorical questions in today’s first reading.

He sets up his message by creating the context of a legal proceeding - God is taking the people to court to get some answers:  “What have I done to weary you?”  The prophet is challenging the people to consider where is God on their lives’ priority list?  What are they prepared to do for God?

Then the sarcastic questioning starts...

What does God require?  Oh, the harvest offerings to the temple: year old calves, grain, oil from you olives, burnt offerings and the like.  That’s what God requires?  So, I assume more would be better, eh?  How about instead of one calf, you brought a thousand rams? Or, instead of one flask of olive oil, what if you brought ten thousand rivers of oil?  Oh, I got it -
how about you pull the old Abraham classic - I bet it would sure please God if you offered your first born in sacrifice to God.  That kind of generous giving would have to gain you God’s favour, right?

Then the prophet answers his sarcastic, rhetorical questions: Does God require this
excessive ritual?

Of course not ,
Micah says, I was only being sarcastic - God doesn’t require faith lived out in ritual, God wants faith lived out in action.

DO justice;

LOVE with kindness;

BE humble in your walk with God!

Notice the action words: do, love, be.

//

What does God require of you?

Faith in action!

//

Don’t you think that message is as relevant in the early 21^st century CE as it was in the late 8^th century BCE?

And I'm not anti-ritual.

At their heart, rituals are valuable spiritual disciplines that can enhance a person’s connection to God; I believe in the intrinsic value of engaging in spiritual disciplines that focus the heart and mind on all that is holy.  But taking part in the act of a ritual is not the same as taking part in  an act of faith - and it is certainly not what we mean when we say putting our faith into action.

If it stops with the ritual, we are selling the potential of our faith short.

//

Today we will engage in the old Christian ritual of communion - which is based on the even older ritual of the Passover seder meal.  Communion is a symbolic act that reminds us that Christ is with us - that we are fed by the community of which we are a part - but it is not intended to be nourishment for inactivity - it is food and drink for the journey.  When Moses and the other Hebrew slaves in Egypt ate the unleaven bread, they did so with the hope and promise that the end of their captivity was at hand.  They rushed the bread making, so that the could be ready sooner to leave.

When Jesus and his disciples at bread and drank wine in remembrance of Moses and the Exodus, they followed up the meal with a walk to a prayerful garden, where Jesus bared his human soul to God - seeking guidance for the next steps of his life’s journey.

For James, Peter and John, Jesus’ expectation was for a minimal amount of action on their part at that point “please stay awake with me as I go deeper into the garden to pray”.

It is one of Jesus’ most vulnerable moments - friends, you have been with me from those first days on the shores of Lake Galilee.  I don’t want to feel alone here, will you stay awake with me?

//

The actions of faith can be dramatic, we can build shelter for the homeless, we can feed the hungry; we can hold massive conventions (a la Billy Graham Crusades) to share the gospel.  But the actions of faith can be known in more subtle ways - with your presence, show someone that they are not alone. 

Later in the gospel of Matthew, when Jesus lists a number of ways people can judge the faithfulness of their actions, it includes, feeding the hungry and clothing the cold, but it also includes the ministry of presence: visiting the sick, the imprisoned.  The passage in Matthew 25 is addressed to people who are limiting their activities to things that serve
Jesus directly (for the readers of Matthew in the early 70s, that would be
largely ritualistic), but Jesus says the when you do these things to the least of your sisters and brothers, you do it to me.

//

Some of Jesus most powerful actions, didn’t require a lot of physical movement, but they shifted attitudes:

·    No, don’t shoo them away; let the little children come to me.

·     I am know people see you as a dishonest traitor because you collect the Empire’s
taxes, but I want to have supper with you tonight, Zacchaeus.

·    Look, I don’t care if you see this woman as a sinner, Simon.  You can think less of me if you want, but she has chosen to sooth my weary feet and I am most grateful for that.

·    Wait a second, who touched me? (Don’t talk to that woman Jesus, she is unclean, has
been for 12 years; come on, it is Jarius’ daughter who needs your help - you know he is the biggest giver to our synogogue).  Yes, I know and we will visit his house soon, but this daughter of God here needs my help too.  Woman, you have a
gutsy faith.  That serves you well.  Go now and be freed from your suffering.

·    I know it is the Sabbath day and our laws require us not to work, but this man’s hand is shrivelled up.  I can help him stretch it out and he can be healed.  If that’s work and against the Torah, so be it.

//

So, when we move away from this table today, let us be grateful for having our bodies and spirits fed - but let’s not stop there, let us be inspired for the next steps of our
journeys.  Let us go and help people know that they are not alone in this world.

//

That’s the basic message of the beatitudes.  People are "blessed" by the experience of not being alone, not being a part from The Holy, even in times of grief and persecution.

Matthew’s version is the most familiar, but a shorter version of thd beatitudes is found in Luke, chapter six.  It follows the old testament style of contrasting blessings and related but opposite woes.

^{Luke 6:20}…‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  ²¹‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. ‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. ²²‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. ²³Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.  ²⁴‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  ²⁵‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. ‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. ²⁶‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

Many Biblical scholars speculate that the Luken version might be closer to the basic teaching that Jesus directly shared: simplier, focusing on practical day-to-day issues, less metaphorical.

//

Matthew and Luke were written in the early 70s of the first century CE. The Hebrew Temple had been laid ruin by the occupying Roman authorities in response to a Jewish revolt.  These blessings (shared by the authors of Luke and Matthew) were written to people who were living in the shadow of religious disaster.  They were scattered and unsure where their authority authority would come from.  In the battle between the authority of Jesus’ own religion and the Empire - the Empire had won.

So where was the new authority in the post-Temple, post-ritual era?

In that blessing/woe teaching of Jesus, they found a new path paved by the authority of faithful living.

//

//

It's now ~20 centuries later - What does our God require of us?  How can we know and share the blessings of God for ourselves, for each other in the church and to God's world at large?

//

Some time over the course of the next few days, each one of us will have an obvious
opportunity to be a practical holy blessing in someone's life.  It may be ministry of care, of support, of social action, or perhaps the simple ministry of presence.  Let the light of the Spirit shine through you!

//

from Seasons of the Spirit

“[Today’s] passages invite us us to see God’s love in a new light, bend our understanding of the world around us, and take more seriously our responds to God’s loving welcome and
liberation.”

//

May it be so with us and the church.

Let us pray:

Holy God, we live in your presence and that is a blessing.  Give us
the courage we need to live beyond the rituals and do justice, love kindness
and always walk humbly with you, loving God. Amen.

***offering***