ST. DAVID'S UNITED CHURCH

Sunday, November 4, 2012

HEAR, O ISRAEL

November 4, 2012

Pentecost 23

Ruth 1:1-18

Mark 12:28-34

(prayer)

There is a scene, in the movie Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home, where Captain Kirk and the bridge crew of the Enterprise journey back in time to 1980s San Francisco:

[I didn’t have time to edit out an obscene finger gesture, so I won’t play the clip for you in church – I’ll post the unedited link with the sermon on the church website, if you want to watch it later.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr82dZpCr48

Let me paint the picture for you: Spock and Kirk are on a city bus while a punk rocker is listening to his boombox...very loudly. When Kirk asks him to turn it down, he only cranks the volume higher. Mr Spock (who has hidden his Vulcan ears with a simple headband) leans forward and ... puts the punk asleep with a classic neck pinch - to the delight of the people on the bus.

I am just old enough that I lived through the social transition between ... Boomboxes and Walkmans. Sometime in the years after high school while I was in university, I noticed an increasing proliferation of people listening to their cassettes through little portable devices. And they all had their own earphones: these little foam jobbies connected by an adjustable wire band that fit over the head.

It seemed that it was a few years earlier that if you wanted to listen to music in public (like in the Star Trek scene) that you had to afflict everyone in the area with your musical tastes by blasting your tunes through a boombox (which at the time we called (the less-than-politically-correct term) ‘ghetto blasters’.

No, but as the 1980s moved forward, each person could be in their own musical universe. All the rest of us had to hear was the white-noise-buzz of the bass beat (tzse, tzse, tzse...).

In the last 30 years, cassettes gave way to CDs and eventually mp3s, wmas, mp4s, etc. And modern ear buds have even improved to drown out all outside noise and even limit the white noise heard by others.

We live in an increasingly isolating society. Actual face-to-face contact and mouth-to-ear communication is becoming increasingly rare with the use of texting, instant messaging and the like.

We rarely even listen to music together again. I have driven in a car with several people where everyone was plugged into their own world. You, too, likely have seen the crowded room or bus or street corner where dozens of people are 'listening' on their own, but there is no connection happening.

Our earbuds allow us to live for a while in our own little bubble; that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This world is a crowded place and we all need to escape now and then. I know that I relish opportunities when the drone of the world can be ignored in favour of a personal song or podcast or website experience.

We may not all do it this specific way, but each of us (in some way or another) has times when we need to be plugged in to a personal distraction – to feed us mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I hear that there are still these things called 'books' - some of which still come in paper form.

And sometimes, we all need to unplug and listen together and share an experience.

Our scripture passages for today both centre on the value that is added into one’s life when connections are sought.

The book of Ruth begins with deep, unimaginable tragedy. Elimelech (whose name means ‘my god, the king’ - which speaks to relationship) and his family are forced to move away from Bethlehem because a famine had made life there impossible. So he, his wife Naomi and his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, moved across the border to live in the country of Moab. Presumably, they were able to scrape by a living there.

But famine was only the start of the tragedy: Elimelech dies leaving Naomi a widow and Chilion and Mahlon, fatherless. Even so, Naomi remained in Moab and continued to raise her sons. They still had each other. As the boys matured, they took wives: Mahlon married Orpah and Chilion married Ruth. The culture dictated that Naomi would be ever cared for by her sons.

But it seems that famine and the death of Elimelech weren’t tragedy enough – the text doesn’t tell us how or why, but (within ten years) Mahlon and Chilion also died – leaving Naomi without a husband or sons.

The only option Naomi had left was to go back home to Judah and find family there: brothers, parents, cousins, someone. Her daughters-in-law were in the same position, they were destined to head back to their families as well.

But...culture be damned, these three women had made a significant connection with each other. They were a family, even if the men that bonded them together were no longer alive, Orpah, Ruth and Naomi were a family! Ruth and Orpah insisited on staying with Naomi – even following her back to Bethelehem.

But, it couldn’t work – they needed more support than they could offer each other alone. These Moabite women would not find an open armed welcome in Judah – by all good predictions, they would be ostracized and nothing more than a burden to Naomi and her family.

They had to part their separate ways. It was the only plan that made sense. The relationship they had forged over the years would have to be broken (the final tragedy of the beginning to this story).

It took some convincing, but Orpah gave in to the logic and reason ... and went back to her family. Ruth was a bit more stubbornly illogical. ¹⁷... ‘Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. ¹⁷Where you die, I will die—there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!’ ¹⁸When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

In the end, compassion strengthened in the past and promised for the future won the day.

Chapter 12 in the gospel of Mark is a series of case studies that Jesus has to endure – he is challenged by four distinct groups of religious and political leaders: Pharisees, Herodians, Sadducees and Scribes. It would have been impossible to get anyone from these groups to agree with each other, so it is not surprising that they had issues with Jesus. They each had questions for Jesus to see if he could measure up with their version of ‘the truth’.

The Herodians and Pharisees has a political and moral question for Jesus – ¹⁴Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?

The Sadducees tried to catch Jesus is scriptural paradox over the issue of life-after-death (which Sadducees didn’t believe in, by the way): ²¹ ...There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; ²¹and the second married [his brother’s widow] and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; ²²none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. ²³In the resurrection, whose wife will she be?’

In each case, Jesus came up with answers that did not allow his challengers to gloat. In today’s reading, the fourth group takes their shot – the experts on the Torah, the Scribes: ²⁸Which commandment is the first of all?’

The Torah is vast and varied – no matter which commandment or law or suggestion or ritual Jesus chooses, an argument could be made for something else just as great or greater.

Jesus answers by saying that (what has since been labelled as) Deuteronomy 6:^4-5 is the first of the commandments.

⁴Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.^* ⁵You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

Sh'ma Yisrael (שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל‎; "Hear, [O] Israel”) are the first two words of a section of the Torah, and are the title (sometimes shortened to simply "Sh’ma") of a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. The first verse encapsulates the monotheistic essence of Judaism: "Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is one,". Observant Jews (of before and during Jesus’ time and even of today) consider the Sh’ma to be the most important part of the prayer service in Judaism, and its twice-daily recitation as a mitzvah (a religious commandment). It is traditional for Jews to say the Sh’ma as their last words, and for parents to teach their children to say it before they go to sleep at night.

It was also a common practice to have the first few letters of the Sh’ma etched into the house’s doorpost or on a plaque affixed to the door, so that people would be reminded of this prayerful commandment each time they left and arrived at the home.

You may recall the scene from the Fiddler on the Roof where (just before the family leave Anatevka for the last time) Tevye pries his “Sh’ma off the door and takes it with him to attach to a new home when that is found.

In our time, you can also get the first words of the Sh’ma on rings, on bracelets, necklaces, pendants, etc. - all ways to keep this great prayer a part of daily life.

The greatest thing Jesus sees in all of the Torah is the call to love this one God with every emotion, from the very depth of our spirit, and with every effort our bodies and minds can muster .

Before the Scribe can tell Jesus he is correct (which is seems he is prepared to admit), Jesus goes further: ‘the second greatest commandment is (what was later labelled) Levitcus 19:¹⁸’: ¹⁸You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself. Mark and the other gospel writers only quote the final line of this verse from Leviticus.

By linking Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19, Jesus created a triangular loving relationship: Love of God, Love of Neighbour and Love of Self.

How is the greatness of God’s Law expressed? In love. In compassion that comes from every facet of our being – love for God, love for neighbour and love for one’s self. Love and compassion need to be this full, this complete.

This three-fold love calls us to be egocentric, but doesn’t call us to abide there.

It is only in the fullness of 'sharing' that true compassion can be known.

Jesus and the ancient lawkeepers are telling us that we have to unplug to live our lives to their fullest. It is not just about ourselves; it’s not just about a personal relationship with The Holy; it’s not just about selflessly serving others; it’s not about serving God, by sharing God’s love with others.

Meat Loaf may have sung that Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad; but that’s not good enough when it comes to being true to the heart of the Torah or the heart of the Gospel:

Love of God, Love of Neighbour AND Love of Self are all needed.

The most profound nature of our existence is known in the full sharing that becomes community - community where God’s and our love and compassion are known.

The great commandment begins with the call to listen (Sh’ma ’Israel: Hear, O Israel) – ‘pay attention, listen up, this is something YOU NEED TO KNOW...’

Love God from the heart, from the soul and from the mind/body.

And then Jesus adds: You also NEED TO KNOW...

Love yourself and Love your neighbour.

Grudges, self-loathing, desires for vengeance or actions leading to burnout will not help you find true body, mind and spirit balance – for yourself or for your community.

Plugging in and enjoying the quiet personal universe of the self is good and valuable – it is not to be ignored, Jesus has mandated that.

But, when unplugged, we are to serve a greater good – that our fellow travellers on this road know the full blessings of compassion: that they not only are told that they have value and matter to this world, but that they experience this as true in how we all get along with deep respect and acceptance.

And throughout our self-care and service, we are also to hold space for the holy mystery of our existence ... for the humble connection we have with the source of all being: with the heartbeat of the universe ... with God.

Balance is a tricky thing. We seldom have those moments of perfect clarity where all is in sync. If Jesus has anything for us to hear today, it may very well be that we are to attune our hearts, our spirits, our efforts to a concern for God and Neighbour and Self – this can allow us to know when there is part of this triangle that is being overshadowed or lost in the noise.

Some Good News: It is God’s very nature to be loving and, when we seek to be more loving (internally and externally), we find ourselves drawing closer to God.

May this be our experience, today and forever more. [end]

Let us pray:

Fill us with your love, gracious God that we might love you, others and ourselves. Amen.

***Offerings***

Sunday, October 28, 2012

PERFECTLY FINE

October 28, 2012

Pentecost 22

Hebrews 7:^25-28

Mark 10:^46-54

(prayer)

There is worry and angst in the world, that is for sure. In 2012, we are more globally aware than at any other time in history. And so, we can carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. Every once and a while, it is wise to contemplate that there is much that is right with this life: we have valuable relationships that give us support and purpose; we are connected spiritually that remind us that we are part of something larger than ourselves. This is good. Even in the midst of difficulty, these are indeed ‘happy days’.

I believe that, as we explore the scripture passages for today, that this is one of the things we can come away with: we are not intended to be creatures of perpetual doom and gloom. We can admit that there are aspects of this life that are ‘perfectly fine’.

As we read into the later verses of chapter ten in the gospel of Mark, Jesus and his disciples are continuing toward Jerusalem. In today’s reading, they have made it as fair as Jericho, less than 25kms east of their goal.

Jericho would have been a natural stopping point on the journey from Capernaum to Jerusalem, but the historical significance would not have been lost on the first readers of the gospel.

Jericho was the entry point of the Hebrew people’s return to the land of promise after centuries of slavery in the time of Moses. Symbolically, to ‘rest’ there would be a sign of new life and freedom!

So, with that context in the back of our heads, we can hear the story of Bartimaeus in a new light.

The man begged at the roadside on the western edge of Jericho. Although unable to see, he had heard about this one called Jesus of Nazareth: Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!

If you have ever been on a busy city sidewalk, as the people pass by others who are vocally panhandling, you have witnessed what happened next. It seems that, like in our day, not everyone in Jesus’ time appreciated the needs of those who were forced to beg.

Bartimaeus’ call for mercy was responded to with shouts to shut up!! Bart responds by upping his volume too: Son of David, have mercy on me!!

It is an interesting note of history and of today that the cries of those in need of compassion are given exactly the opposite - they are often ignored (most just avert their eyes and walk by quickly) or they are vilified for even asking for help.

Bartimaeus was rejected by the crowd...including the disciples, who I picture acting like bodyguards for Jesus.

It is Jesus who runs counter to the culture of the moment. Jesus stopped ... and asked someone nearby to call the man over to him. Then the crowd changed their mood of ‘ambivalence’ toward Bartimaeus to a mood of ‘benevolence’: Take heart, he is calling you. Come!

Simple words from Jesus resulted in an immediate change in the attitude of the crowd. On those words, Bartimaeus sprung up, threw off his cloak and ran right over to where Jesus was.

Bartimaeus found new life in Jesus. He, literally, saw his world differently as he was shown the compassion he needed. The text tells us that Bartimaeus became an active disciple of Jesus at that point: He followed Jesus on the Way.

Our faith, as fellow followers of Jesus, invites us to experience a new wholeness in life along the Way.

When we look at the world through our Jesus lenses, what can we see that is in need of an experience of new life? We can each ask: as a follower of Jesus’ Way, how is my sight changed?

Faith changes us, because we are given a new perspective on our lives and the world we live in. We can even pray like the old hymn says:

Open my eyes that I may see,

glimpses of hope thou hast for me.
Open my eyes, illumine me,

Spirit Divine.

Faith changes our worldview. And that is perfectly fine.

The context of the Hebrews letter is all about a changing worldview and can be summed up in this way:

As the Christian movement rolled into the later years of the first century, many of the believers had some significant soul searching to do about the relevance of their traditional beliefs.

For those whose path to Christianity was through Jesus’ own faith tradition, Judaism, the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in the year 70 left them wondering about all of those rites and rituals that were tied to Temple worship life. What about the acts of atonement, what about the bringing of first fruit and other offerings and what about the rituals of cleansing and purification?

How could people be assured of their right relationship with God in a post-Temple era?

There was no longer a Temple. There were no longer high priests at the Temple to confirm that all was ‘good’. Was there any aspect of the faith they held dear that still made sense?

Into a changing context, a first century church leader sought to assure the people that there was a continued relevance of what they knew and had experienced.

It wasn’t exactly the same, but there was an underlying familiar truth that they could hold on to.

What was different was a sense of an eternal ‘right-ness’ with God. To be fair the tradition of repeatedly bringing temple offerings was not so much a belief that people had lost God’s favour and needed to regain it, but the rites were repeated as a means of keeping the promise of God front and centre – of making that memorial action a part of regular life.

For the early Christians, who did not (and even if they wanted to, could not, after year 70) adhere to the Temple traditions, one of the key interpretations of the stories of Jesus death and resurrection was to see the crucifixion as an atonement offering (a sacrifice) willingly given by Jesus and the resurrection was the assurance returned by God – in the tradition of the ancient Hebrew rites.

It is not the only way the events of Jesus’ final days were interpreted by the early church or in the centuries and millennia since, but it is one that made particular sense to those Christians who were used to that kind of language and practice.

We see this interpretation of Jesus’ passion most obviously expressed in the letter to the Hebrews.

The way that I read Hebrews in 2012 is to say that we are in a perpetual state of right-ness with God. Our short-comings, our mistakes, our sins (if you will) are set aside by God: NOT because we have bought that forgiveness through our actions or prayers or faithfulness, but because God gifts it to us.

It may simply be our faithful hearts and minds that allow us to see the grace of God in our lives.

But, I would go further to say that – even if we don’t see it – God’s grace envelopes us and holds us safe and secure.

And that is a perfectly fine notion to consider.

Instead of moving through this life with a sense of utter worthlessness and unworthiness in need of some future divine intervention (sadly sometimes promoted by Christians and other [so called] people of faith), we are already declared ‘good’ and we are already ‘made well’.

Bartimaeus was annoyingly rejected by the crowd following Jesus and even by Jesus’ close disciples. In the same way, sometimes, people (sometimes even Jesus’ modern disciples) fail to see the wide reach of the grace of God extending into the lives of some people in this world.

I believe that it is not perfectly fine to ignore the cries for compassion in this world simply because we might have cause to cast some blame on to people for their own problems.

Panhandling is not a very visible circumstance in the communities of Beaumont and Leduc. Sure, people working with helping agencies or in churches see the need more easily, but for the average Jane and Joe on the street, it’s not an upfront issue.

I have been privileged in my life to have travelled to a few larger cities and spent time in the streets where panhandling is much more front and centre: Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, New York, Los Angeles, even Penticton and Kelowna. I have travelled with one or more children at times into these areas.

I am so pleased that my children (and I) have had the opportunities for worldview changing experiences and for an education in the potential of the human spirit.

When I am in a big city, I always carry loose change and small bills in my pocket so that I can initiate some contact with individuals who are simply asking for compassion. I have engaged in conversations of life and generosity with people in need and I have been chastised by other people on the sidewalk for this: “don’t encourage those people.”

I ‘beg’ to differ – it is perfectly fine to bring encouragement into the lives of others: especially those who hunger for compassion.

As I engage the scriptures and read the stories of faith passed on to us, I am increasingly convinced that the God-at-the-heart-of-existence is far more liberal that the most progressive among us, when it comes to being open to new welcome and compassion. We may have our moments when we want to block out the calls for compassion – to ignore or chastise this calls, but God is closer to this perfection than we are able to achieve. This God (and we see this embodied in Jesus) is perpetually forgiving, eternally encouraging, everlastingly hopeful and steadfastly faithful.

The Apostle Paul knew it and tried to express it in words:

unconditional love (agape - agaph), he wrote, is the greatest of all gifts, without which we are nothing (cf. 1^st Corinthians 13:¹³).

Even though, Jesus is the perfect high priest, capable of deeper compassion and love than we can realistically achieve, we can still strive to be perfectly fine in how we live out a belief in the grace of God in our lives. We can do this in being consciously compassionate to each other as our first and best reaction in the journey of this life. After all, it would be what we would need in that situation.

This is the promise that accompanies a compassionate worldview – that we all matter, we all are cared for and we all deserve to be loved.

This is how new life can be experienced in our lives and in the lives of the people we meet.

Let us pray:

God, when others cry out, help us to listen and not turn them away. When their cries are to us, give us the strength and courage to respond on your behalf. When we cry out to you, help us to listen then, too, and rejoice in the answers you give. Amen.

#371VU “Open My Eyes”

Sunday, October 21, 2012

NOT SO AMONG YOU

October 21, 2012

Pentecost 21

Job 38:^1-7

Mark 10:^35-45

(prayer)

Well, God certainly has a sarcastic side, eh? Did you listen to how God spoke to Job: If you’re so smart, tell me how to create a universe? What measurements would you use? How deep should the foundations be? You must have been there when this world was created. No? Oh yeah, that was me! You are speaking words without knowledge.

The bible is filled with passages where God is described in terms of human characteristic (anthropomorphized): God has been described as angry, heartbroken, delighted. When we read this Job passage, we could add down-right snarky to the list.

And it seems that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree of life. Jesus, also, had a least one angry moment when he saw the blatant commercialism of the Temple. And we know that Jesus cried when a dear friend of his died. And certainly he had moments of pure delight as he met people and played with children.

In the second reading for today, there is a bit of that divine snarkiness again as Jesus spoke to James and John: Are you able to do what I am doing? Oh yeah, really?

I have to admit that ‘sarcasm’ is my favorite kind of humour: I also like a good pun, but well done sarcasm makes me laugh. It can be a little dangerous of a form of humour, because if people take you seriously, you can sound pretty insensitive and callous. Sarcasm is not for every situation, that’s for sure. But when it is used, the purpose is to point to something beyond the words – the message is intentionally veiled, but unless you can see that part, the sarcasm can have no effect.

Some of you may know bits and pieces of the story of Job.

He is described as the epitome of the upstanding and righteous person; Job is faithful without fault. And God is very proud of him.

Then we can read that God gets into a debate with a character simply known as ‘the accuser’ (in Hebrew: הַשָּׂטָן, ha satan). The argument goes that, of course it is easy for Job to be faithful and righteous, he has an extremely comfortable life – he has wealth and happiness – he has all of the comforts that can afford a life of faithfulness.

Last week, the gospel story in Mark was about a rich young man coming to Jesus, asking, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’. The answer was to ‘follow the commandments.’ ‘Well, I’ve done that since I was a boy!’ That man, like Job, had no need to steal or covet, he had all he needed. In our day and age, we know that the root cause of most crime and societal dysfunction is poverty. Wealth and privilege simply make living a better life, easier.

That was The Accuser’s point: If Job wasn’t so comfortable, he wouldn’t be so faithful.

Then, to paraphrase the book of Job, God says, “Oh yeah, wanna bet?”

“You’re on!”

The story goes that God, then, changes the circumstances of Job’s life: wealth and property gone; family dead; his health severely compromised. All he has left are a few friends, who seem content to insult Job about how he is responding to the whole situation.

You see, God was winning the bet. Job was remaining faithful. But his friends were quick to point out that all the evidence pointed to the idea that Job must have done something to lose favour with God – Job must not be faithful enough. When Job insists that his faith is a strong as it ever was, the friends then try to get Job to turn his back on God, who it appears doesn’t care about Job.

Job does not curse God, instead Job demands justice from God. It was out of deep faith that Job stood by his belief that God must have a just response to the situation. The reading today is the beginning of God’s answer to Job.

The situation is more complicated that you realize. You do not have my capabilities, God says. You are going to have to trust that I have the big picture in control.

God spends the next several chapters of the text listing off the litany of things over which God has control like we begin to see in the first few verses of chapter 38. God’s claims-to-fame are mostly expressed in that sarcastic style: “Can you do [this]...?

In the end, Job accepted God’s authority over all creation, including him and his life – Job prayed for God to forgive the words and actions of the three friends and, eventually, Job became even richer than before, with a new family, even greater than before.

As uplifting as this story is, I suspect that you might share an uncomfortableness that I have: how could God play so callously with Job’s life, just to win a debate? I know Job got a new family and new wealth at the end and is said to have lived a long and prosperous life, but ... what about the trauma in the middle?

What we have here is a story, not an historical account. All of the central aspects of the story are interpretations of the facts of what are happening. The three friends offer what they see as the reasons for Job’s plight. The story teller gives us a divine motivation for what happened, but the basic history of the story is that:

There was a man named Job. He lived a good life, but then deep tragedy struck his life. His friends tried to convince him to either confess his unrighteousness to God (because it was Job’s fault) or to curse God (for being unworthy of devotion). Job refused to do either, instead holding fast to his faith in God, even to the point of demanding justice. In the end, Job’s faith is what stands out. It gets him through the tragic times and when his life improves, his faith journeys with him to his final breath.

Okay, as stories God, it’s not the greatest to learn about God’s compassion in the touchy-feely sense, but it does express God’s confidence in the integrity of the created order.

A moral to the story can be to say that: “Seek to remain faithful even in difficult times; God will always be faithful to you.”

The original hearers of the book of Job certainly would have gotten that message.

“God will always be faithful to you!”

As I noted earlier, last week the Gospel reading was also from the Mark chapter 10; it was a lesson about the sacrificial nature of discipleship. It ended with a proclamation by Jesus’ disciples that the have given up everything to follow him. Jesus then spoke about the blessings of God that outweigh what they have sacrificed. Jesus’ memorable final line of that conversation: ³¹...many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

The lectionary skips over three verses to get to today’s reading. Those verses describe that Jesus and his followers begin their fateful journey to Jerusalem. The author of Mark, even hints at the events of Holy Week as this journey begins.

Presumably it is on the way to Jerusalem that John and James make their special request of Jesus:

‘Since you have promised us all great rewards and blessings in heaven, could we get seats of honour in your heavenly kingdom. We have been with you since the beginning, when you asked if we wanted to follow you and fished for people. We left our family, our work, everything we knew. Can we have the number two and three seats beside you?’

Jesus hints that his own sacrifices are still not an end. And he questions whether even these two long-time loyal disciples are prepared to sacrifice along with him.

The conversation was loud enough that the other ten disciples found out what was going on and they were upset with James and John. The text doesn’t tell us whether they were mad because John and James were being selfish and putting themselves above the others, or because James and John thought to ask first.

Jesus responds to this tense situation like he always did, he told a parable, a lesson-story:

‘Think about the nations of the world, Caesar and the other leaders rule with a heavy hand – they are tyrants. They see themselves as better than everyone else and feel they deserve anything they want. Well...it is not so among you. That is not the way I want you to behave; that is not the way I want you to be. Just a few days ago, I spoke about the first being last and the last being first. This is what I meant: whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.’

Jesus’ message and actions were intended to reach and influence and serve ‘many’ not just a ‘few’.

It sounds easy. But in reality it is not: servanthood doesn’t always come easy – most people, I believe, prefer to be in control, rather than serve. If we are all honest, we probably have to admit that.

Our culture is ascension-based: it’s all about advancing one’s self. We seek to acquire more time; we look to the bigger house, more toys. Our economy is never content with maintaining what we have – if it doesn’t grow, it’s bad. This past Friday, the Wall Street stocks took a bit of a tumble because some company’s earnings reports were lower than expected. Microsoft, General Electric and McDonalds are all still profitable, but because they weren’t profitable enough, the Dow Jones sunk over 200 points and had its worse day in over four months.

But it is not so among you.

That’s the vision of the culture that surrounds us – personal, selfish advancement must be perpetual.

We have the choice to be counter-cultural.

Ah, choice.

It can cause us so much grief.

Oh, how much easier life would be to not be faced with choices of how to live, how to connect, how to find balance. And yet, even as we choose a faith that guides us, the path is still for us to travel, including the choices (some really perplexing and hard) along the Way.

Can we choose to ‘drink the cup Jesus drinks’?

Can we choose to accept that selfish personal advancement will not be the dominating motivation of this life?

Are the lives of others important to us - to the point that we can accept that our well-being is tied up with their well-being. You see it is not about setting aside our own needs – it is about living as partners not as tyrants.

Each day, we will experience a number of opportunities to make this choice in small or big ways.

And at each of those moments, you can ask – is it so with me?

Let us pray:

God, we can be demanding and often we want to be assured of the path before us. Remind us that you are with us always and maybe that is enough to know. Amen.

#684VU “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace”

Sunday, October 7, 2012

APPRECIATING PROMISE

October 7, 2012

Pentecost 19

Joel 2:^21-27

Matthew 6:^25-33

ALL AGES SERVICE

(prayer)

Birds flapped their wings and glided overhead. They landed nearby and pecked at the seeds on the ground. The grass swished back and forth in the breeze. The flowers opened their petals to the warm sun’s rays. Puffy clouds floated across the sky.

It was a beautiful, sunny day to be outside. The grass was soft and the birds chirped with joy ... and a crowd of people sat around Jesus, listening.

Take a moment and think about those things with which God has blessed you/us and for which you/we feel gratitude.

// (pause) //

These are gifts from God, which assure us of God’s accompaniment when we feel worried and anxious.

It is a strange reality of our existence that a little joy can go a long way in offsetting some pain or worry.

At least ya got yer health !

Of course that is not always true.

At least ya got yer God !

The promise of our scriptures is that this is always true.

Both the Joel and Matthew readings for today invite us to grab on to the confidence that the authors are promoting.

Both of these passages acknowledge that the current situation is less than ideal.

Joel is written at a time of drought. There is a real fear that the fields will not produce enough to provide for the needs of the people.

In Matthew, Jesus speaks to people who know (from real personal experience) what it is to be anxious about the basics of living – will they have enough food to eat; will they have adequate clothing?

The message is ‘do not fear’, ‘do not worry.’ Jesus and the prophet can say these words because they are confident in the promise of a hopeful future.

‘The treshing-floors shall be full of grain!’

‘If God clothes the grass of the field, will God not much more cloth you?’

It is thanksgiving weekend. It is a common activity, in families, communities and even churches, to look back onto our lives and to appreciate what we have: for some of us, we express our gratitude to God for providing all that we know and enjoy and for be a presence in our lives.

Thanksgiving provides for us that discipline. And that is good.

And still, I see a slightly different approach in today’s readings that can be a good discipline as well.

Joel and Jesus are inviting people to be grateful for the promise of what is still to come. To appreciate that God promises to be with us as we move from drought to bounty; from worry to calm.

The prophet says, rejoice and be glad, even in the midst of drought, for the rains are on their way and the grain stores will be full.

The Christ says, God has provided all that is needed, for birds and flowers AND US. Even if we are worried, God is not.

How can what Jesus says here be true in the most logical and practical way?

SHARE!

BE GENEROUS!

SET ASIDE FEAR AND WORRY!

AND APPRECIATE THE PROMISE!
SHOW THE LOVE OF GOD IN OUR ACTIONS WITH OTHERS!

Thanksgiving is more than an examination of how we have already been ‘blessed’ by abundance. It is about allowing that abundance to do its charitable magic.

Thanksgiving is about being the hands and feet of Christ within a world with too much fear and too much worry.

It was a beautiful, sunny day to be outside. The grass was soft and the birds chirped with joy ... and a crowd of people sat around Jesus, listening.

One young man with a concerned look on his face spoke up and said to Jesus, “Jesus, I am worried. I’m not sure I will find enough food for my family to eat.”

“I am worried, too,” said a woman close by. “We need warm clothing for the cold nights that will soon be here.”

“I am always worrying that our well might dry up and we will be left with no water,” said another.

“I worry sometimes, too,” replied Jesus. Then Jesus looked around and pointed to the large shady tree behind them. “Do you see those little birds pecking the seeds on the ground? They are not able to plant their own food. God cares for them. And God cares for you, too. Now look at those flowers blooming in the field.

How beautiful they are!

Even the great King Solomon, when he dressed up in the best clothes he had – even King Solomon wasn’t as beautiful as these flowers. God cares for the flowers. And God cares for you, too. Worrying won’t change things. God loves you. God delights in you and loves everything about you. And God knows what you need.”

Jesus smiled as he told the people, “God has given us a world that makes it possible for everyone to have food,

and clothing, and water.

How wonderful is that?”

“Yes!” cried the people, “and now it’s up to us to make sure that happens!”

Let us pray:

God, you pour out mercy until our hearts overflow. God, help us see that your hope is more than we can ever imagine. Amen.

**offering**