ST. DAVID'S UNITED CHURCH

Sunday, November 18, 2012

LOOKING FORWARD

November 18, 2012

Pentecost 25

1^st Samuel 1:^4-20

Mark 13:^1-8

(prayer)

A few days ago I found myself watching the Disney animated movie "Cars". For you who may be unenlighted by such fine cinema, the setting is a small, forgotten town that was by-passed when the interstate highway was built many years ago. Radiator Springs was, literally, off the map.

Perhaps the main theme of the movie is that when one travels in a fast, straight line because the only thing that matters is the destination, you can miss out on a lot of valuable stuff along the way.

[clip - Our Town - 3:35]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUxACOJiz2c

"The road didn't cut through the land, it moved with the land."

In 1898, the Presbyterian Church of Canada, established a mission congregation in Leduc. In the past 114 years, much has been built on that foundation: St. David’s United Church of 2012 is the current expression of that evolution.

We are no longer the Presbyterian church of 1898; we are not the Methodist Church of 1900; we are not the union church of 1911; we are not the St. David’s congregation that was born along with the United Church of Canada in 1925; we are not the vibrant Clearwater United Church; we are not the small house church in Beaumont, nor the ambitious congregation that opened up a store front church right across the street from the iconic St. Vital’s Roman Catholic Church.

This is not 1940, or 1968, or 1988.

It is not even Y2K when I was called to share this ministry with you-all.

We are … the United Church of western Leduc County in this unique moment in time – founded well in our past, but looking ahead.

This moment is a pivot point in time. We are balancing the past that has brought us to this exact second … with the possibilities that are to come. And so, in this moment, we can both look back and look forward. These are both valuable efforts that need each other.

On its own, a focus on the past is simply nostalgia with little meaning beyond the recollection.

Similarly, on its own, dreams and hopes are merely wisps of smoke, ungraspable: thoughts without substance.

Finding balance in this moment -knowing how and why we are here, knowing how and why we are who we are, with a view to where we hope to be - can bring us into deep focus.

On this 25^th Sunday after the day of Pentecost, two Sundays before the beginning of Advent, as we recognize and celebrate this congregation’s 114 years of history, we can look ahead from solid ground.

In the hills of Ephriam, lived Elkanah and his two wives: Peninnah and Hannah. Yes, he had two wives: a practice that was more socially acceptable at times in the past, than it in most of the world today. My focus today is not to judge or value various marriage customs.

Even so, the fact that Elkanah's wives competed for his approval and affections are central to the context of our first reading today.

One common very practical purpose of having a mate of the opposite sex is to create members of the next generation (from scratch). In the ancient world, infant mortality rates were higher than today and ... at the opposite end of the scale, life expectancies were much shorter. As a result, it was the view in the ancient world that a woman's ability to provide children was classed as very important. Last week, I read the 137th Psalm in church and it compared a man with many children to a warrior the with a quiver full of arrows. The polygamy practices of the day, had to be (at least partially) rooted in the need to populate the next generation. In today's reading from 1st Samuel, Peninnah is very proud of her status as a strong child-bearing woman. And because Hannah could lay no claim to that status, Peninnah mocked her repeatedly - sadly because the culture placed so much value on childbearing for young women, Hannah was made to feel worthless.

Even in ancient times, marriage was not all about procreation. Affection was/is part of the mix and (in spite of whatever else might be challenging) it remains a truth throughout the ages: love conquers all!

Elkanah's love for Hannah reached beyond the nursery. The text tells us that he loved her deeply. This affection softened the pain caused by sister-wife's taunts.

Softened, but not eliminated.

It is tragically sad that the societal expectations heaped on to Hannah left her feeling that, no matter what else about her life that was good, she still didn't measure up.

We can feel like that too - expectations heaped on us from outside can change the depth of who we are on the inside.

Peninnah was relentless and it wore away at Hannah until her barrenness was all that she felt defined her. It got to the point that all of Hannah's prayers surrounded her desire for her life to be about something more.

One day, the priest, Eli, saw her desperation (at first, when he saw her silent prayer of despair (mouth moving, but no sound), he thought she must be drunk). He offered her hope - hope that God understood her situation.

Her future hadn't changed yet. But as she stood on the precipice of hope and looked forward, the desperation left her.

A common characteristic of Biblical stories is the upside down twist, the triumph of the underdog, the turning of the tables of expectation ... so it should not surprise us that Hannah got pregnant and had a child. She named her son, Samuel - a name that means God Has Heard. Hannah dedicated her son to God's service. She looked to the future and saw wonderful potential and deep hope in Samuel. He grew to be one of the most renounced prophets in the land: advising judges and eventually choosing and challenging kings in Israel.

Jesus and his closest followers were mostly rural peasants from Galilee in the north. When they pilgrimaged to Jerusalem, they marvelled at the sights unique to the big city. The shear size of the city, the number and variety of the people and the big buildings. Probably, the same way I get when I go to cities larger than Leduc or Edmonton.

"Look at the size of those buildings!"

Jesus could have said yeah pretty impressive, eh. But he never seemed to pass over a teaching moment so instead he channeled his inner 'Debbie Downer' and said Yeah, they're big now. But they'll eventually be damaged or they'll erode - sooner or later they'll crumble and become rubble and dust (mwa mwa).

Later as they looked down at the city from their campsite on a hill just outside of town, the disciples asked Jesus to say a bit more, like ... Is this 'tumbling down' coming soon?

Jesus' answer was (I think) intentionally vague: When you hear about conflict, war, disaster ... it's still not time yet.

The disciples were simply instructed to be very careful as they might move forward.

We are not who we were, but those past experiences form part of who we are today. Good and bad have been part of this journey; joy and struggle, up and down.

The path ahead is not a nice clean, straight sanitized 'interstate'. Our future will include its curves, its ups and downs and we will need to confront and accept what we come across.

This true for us, corportately: as a body:

This is not 1940, or 1968, or 1988 ... or 2000.

We are … the United Church of western Leduc County in this unique moment in time – founded well in our past, but looking ahead.

How will we move forward as this particular Eyelash within the body of Christ?

And it is also true for us, individually that we stand on the edge of an uncertain future:

We will react to the road ahead - we may move with it or (at times) need to forge a new path.

But today... as we find ourselves at this moment, this instant of time, looking forward, out on what may be, we can hold on to an ancient faith (one that helped Hannah's sad countenance turn around) ... We are not alone. We live in GOD'S world.

God is with us. God has been with us. God will be with us. We are not alone.

Thanks be to God.

Let us prayer,

When life is happy, laugh with us God.

When life is a struggle, hold us close, God.

When life is uncertain, help us know that you are always there.

Amen.

#510VU "We Have this Ministry"

Sunday, November 11, 2012

CONTRIBUTIONS

November 11, 2012

Pentecost 24

Psalm 127

Mark 12:^38-44

ALL AGES SERVICE

(prayer)

Ad Lib Notes

· My pre-ministry education was accounting; I'm an "AK".

· Obvious it was not engineering or construction.

· I'm sure I could have learned under a skilled mentor, but I wound up following the rabbi side of Jesus, not the carpenter.

· Always amazed at scenes of 'barn-raisings'. A community coming together to accomplish a BIG task.

· Two and a half years ago, while I attending a music-related retreat, a number of us spent a day working on a Habitat for Humanity neighbourhood in Hendersonville, NC. Did clean up, not building because that was the contribution needed that day. I may not have hammered a single nail, and my small few hours of sweat equity may not be visible in those homes - but my contribution was a valuable part of the whole.

· Psalm 127 is only five short verses long, but it carries a profound and hopeful message.

· It has two ways of making its point: (1) Builders and Guards make valuable contributions in our lives; (2) Children (okay, "sons" in the sexist past of biblical times) are this generations contribution to the future.

· God is the builder of our home (our lives);God watches over us; God invites blessing into our lives that extends beyond just us and beyond just this moment in time.

· Psalm 127 is an invitation to consciously appreciate the contribution God makes in our lives. It is an invitation to sacred humility - something more than ourselves in this existence.

· //

· That's half of the story from our Bible readings today: God adds value to our lives.

· But the inward has an outward parallel: alongside God contributing to our lives, we are also invited to contribute to a greater good beyond ourselves.

· Sacrifice a la facebook post...giving in holiness.

· Talk about widow's sacrificial giving: her whole living!

· How much easier it can be for us to give and contribute out the bounty of our time and resources.

· Quote Mk 12:38ff - be weary of the long robed, long prayer giving so-called experts.

· Hmm...me? Liturgical garb. Explain "alb" as baptism (albus - latin for white) garb; washed, made pure by God --- "stole" as practical protective hood; symbol of office; yoke of Christ. But uniform of minister.

· Sets me apart. Not what I believe. Priest: presider. Priesthood of all believers. Minister: servant. Ministers: all of us.

· Sixteen years ago, I stopped wearing the clerical collar (aka dog collar). After 22 years of ordination, time again to be more conscious of how I present myself (strip: watch mic) - will wear alb and stole for sacraments of communion and baptism. Also for services of deep and honoured celebration like weddings and funerals. Who knows, maybe in another decade or so, I'll make more adjustments to my "habits".

· //

· Two fold invitation: IN - appreciate the contribution God is to our lives; OUT - contribute beyond ourselves to benefit more than ourselves.

· Cf. Greatest commandment; SDUC motto.

· //

· Allow God to make a difference in our lives and let us make a difference in the lives of others.

· Call to contribute AT LEAST from our bounty - challenged to experience a measure of sacrifice.

(Prayer)

#527VU "God! As With Silent Hearts"

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”