“Living in the Light begins with Living Water” Sermon January 13, 2019 by Rev G. Christian
Sermon, January 13, 2019
Luke 3:15-17; 21-22
Acts 8:14-17
“Living in the Light begins with Living Water”
To live in the light of Christ is our calling in this season of Epiphany. Baptized with living water is our first-gift from God that leads us in a life towards a path of discovery of many God-given gifts. Activating the gifts of the Spirit is through understanding how our gifts are inter-related to the gifts of others here. We are called to stay true to the heart of our God-given gift; the love of God in Jesus. Each Sunday through Epiphany we will explore the gifts of the Spirit; the first being living water that gives us a start on our faith journey. For most of us, our faith journey started at our baptism.
Sometimes we need a reminder that baptism is an epiphany kind of moment; a manifestation of Christ in our lives. Epiphanies are not subtle. Yes, we can look for God in all kinds of people and places, but sometimes God comes crashing through the clouds and stops us dead in our tracks. So, this is where the heavens opening really matters for me; it is when there is an inability of God to be separated from whom God loves, you and I, whether we like it or not. You see, I have this inability of being able to stop going to church; I cannot not worship our God. My baptism was at the age of 14 years old, so I remember my baptism/confirmation as a time of unmerited love of God for me. The very words of God’s desire to make us God’s children is saying God chooses to be in Christ, in our lives.
Adult baptism is also confirmation in our church; it is a boundary crossing, a risk, bringing God close to us. The living water of baptism is about promise; the promise of God’s love and forgiveness. The season of Epiphany brings us closer to the fact that God will be present in our suffering and joys; our death and new life; our pain and our healing. This season also brings us closer to the fact that God will also be seen in the rejection and suffering, death and denial, pain and injustice of Jesus passion. We, all, need awesome moments in our lives, moments of gratitude, moments of re-discovery of who God really is, moments when we look to the heavens and see the heavens being opened and every-thing changes.
Let us go for a moment to the banks of the River Jordan where Jesus is being baptized. Here he makes his first public appearance and begins his ministry. John the Baptist has prepared the people for a Messiah who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. And here he is, Jesus, going under the water and coming up out of the water. Suddenly, heaven opens, the Spirit descends like a dove, a voice comes from heaven and speaks to Jesus so all can hear; You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well-pleased. What an awesome moment for all who witnessed this event.
This reading from Luke begins with a crackle and buzz, “As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning…” It’s a fluid situation that Luke presents here – Jesus’ baptism amongst an energized and wondering people. There is expectation about John which he quickly redirects to Jesus. What is important here is the mindset of the people who witness the baptism – their hopes and expectation. John’s explanation is equally vibrant with the Spirit, the winnowing, the gathering, and the chaff burned in the fire. All of this surrounds the national quest for the Messiah – what will this Messiah be? Who will be this Messiah? John brings the question down to earth, down to sandals and threshing floors, down to the ordinary.
Luke’s baptism happens in a flash, almost a sidelight in this buzzing scene of expectation. What the people are seeking, Jesus also seeks. However, what the people are hoping for will be radically changed by this Jesus who comes to the Jordan. Here in Luke the vision is shared with the people, the Spirit descends in bodily form, and the voice is heard. Is the creation story here as well? That possibility broadens Luke’s rendition of the Baptism of Jesus. All are involved, all are witnesses. A creation is upon them.
January is an exciting time. It is the beginning of a brand-new year. Some people like to make New Year’s resolutions or promises to themselves about what they plan to accomplish in the new year. The number one resolution that people make is, “I am going to lose weight.” I don’t think too many people succeed, since it seems to be the number one resolution year after year. I know that it usually makes my top ten list of things I would like to accomplish in the new year. Even if you don’t make any New Year’s resolutions, this is an exciting time. It is a time that we can forget our past mistakes and look forward to new opportunities that lie ahead of us. It is a time of new beginnings.
Jesus experienced times of new beginnings in his life too. One of those times was when he was baptized. Up until that time, he had not performed any miracles, but with God’s stamp of approval and with the spirit of God upon him, Jesus began to perform great miracles. From this new beginning, many people began to understand that Jesus was truly the Son of God and they began to follow him. New beginnings — God gives us opportunities for new beginnings. Let us make the most of them as we live a new life in Christ through the power of his Holy Spirit and Living Water.
Here is a story to sum up what I am trying to say: it’s called the “Goat’s Hair Monk”. First, I must tell you, the Goat’s Hair Monk wasn’t a monk and he didn’t wear a goat’s hair monk’s robe like John the Baptist. He was just one of the poor street people who roam the shabby streets of any decaying inner city. He got his name because he walked around muttering, “Goat’s Hair, Goat’s Hair”. The monk part came from his visits to an old church several times a day.
He was not your typical pan-handler with his hand out for charity, instead his hand was out giving things away to the poor. Reaching into his old, battered canvas bag he carried everywhere he went, he would pull out a pair of socks for a street-walker who had none, a pair of gloves for a disoriented bum whose hands were blue from cold, or a couple of sandwiches for a hungry old bag lady. With each gift he would mumble in his German accent, Goat’s Hair, goat’s hair. The Goat’s Hair Monk was living in the light.
A local street gang was convinced this monk was a millionaire with loads of money in his bag. One day when he was sitting in this old church, a beggar was given his cloak. Then praying, the street gang member snuck up and was confident he was sleeping and with hands out went to grab his bag. With a karate-like blow the monk grabbed the street kids arm and with a voice of thunder, yelled, God’s here. Wise up kid! Rob others and you yourself will be robbed of what’s precious to you. As the kid ran out of the church, he realized that the old man hadn’t been saying “Goat’s Hair” but “God’s Here”. The street kid began to realize that after his attack from a rival street gang that the comment, God’s here, filled his empty life and he became baptized and when the old man went into the church to pray, he went with him and soon became his body guard helping the poor on the streets. This little story sums up what living in the light can be. The Light of the world manifest in any of us who care. To live in the light of Christ is our calling in this season of Epiphany. Baptized with living water is a first-gift from God that leads us in a life towards a path of discovery of many God-given gifts. Our renewed self from the Living water, in this New Year gives us an opportunity to do something awesome this year. Amen.
“Shimmering Hope“ by Rev G. Christian January 6, 2019
Isaiah 60:1-6
Matthew 2: 1-12
“Shimmering Hope”
It happened, of course, not in a good and happy time, but in Herod’s time, a time of great injustice, and great suffering. Brutal King Herod, after all, was that most dangerous kind of powerful person: an insecure and fearful one, eaten up with worry about maintaining his power and his place and his comfort, and his advantage was his privilege. Protecting his privilege can demand a lot of energy, especially since Herod wasn’t a real king; he was just a puppet of the Empire, the hated and oppressive Roman Empire.
Just imagine, then, how thrilled this pretend king must have been on that day when a little band of “wise men from the East” showed up at his palace, with their camels parked out front, loaded down with treasure…and they asked him – asked him, the king! – for directions to the “real” King of the Jews! That comment would have upset his imaginary power.
It’s a good thing that, along with nature and common sense, the Magi also have Scripture; the Isaiah reading, and just like us, they need all of these (nature, common sense, scripture) in their search for God. And, like us, they need a community in which to interpret these things. God would also provide direction through a dream (just as Joseph was guided by a dream), but it’s no accident and not insignificant that they’re helped by Scripture, when they ask for directions from Herod and hear from the religious authorities who know just the right place to look for the answer.
There are many ways that we “find our way” to God, to the little baby born King of Kings: nature does indeed point to the glory of God, the care of God, the presence of God, but we need the Bible, too, and personal experience, and our community that helps us understand all those gifts. Then, like the Magi, we’re drawn to worship the One we seek.
So, what do we hear in this nativity story? We hear that God has sent a gentle shepherd who will nevertheless upset the powers-that-have-been. We hear that the smallest things, like a newborn baby, can terrify the arrogant, and bring them down in the end. We learn that God’s reach of grace goes far beyond every obstacle within or without, and pushes us beyond them, too. We learn that a great light has dawned, a light that draws all people and calls us to live our lives illuminated by its truth. That’s what the Epiphany season, the season of light, is about: we hear the beautiful words, the promises in the text from Isaiah, about a light breaking forth for all of us who know what it feels like to “sit in darkness.” To sit in darkness could be a time of grief or a child’s illness, employment lost or health impaired and we hear the call to arise and become radiant with the light of God. To sit in the darkness could be a time of grief, or a child’s illness, or employment lost, or health impaired.
The Isaiah 60 reading speaks of light and glory and rising-up from wherever we have been pressed or pushed down, rising up to behold the glory that comes to us. It is the light of God that breaks through the thick darkness, and it will appear over us. Whether Isaiah speaks of rising from darkness to the light or Matthew speaks of the wise men bringing gifts, we see and hear the great invitation that would go out, in the end, to everyone, making them (and us) disciples, too.
How do we observe these seasons (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany) every year, year after year, and still find that place within us that is capable of being overwhelmed by joy? How is God still speaking to us, year after year, in every season, calling us to this joy, this remembering, this new vision? We each one of us has our own journey and all journeys tell a story of faith.
But not every journey toward the Christ starts like the magi’s in darkness, but there might come a time when, in the empty hours of an otherwise unremarkable night,
you have happened to look up at the usual sky, and noticed, almost by accident, between passages of gray beasts of slow-moving cloud the bright bloom of a strange star flowering, and something begins to open a little somewhere beneath your skin,
as if that new wedge of light in the sky had inserted itself into your soul, not enough to cause you any hurt, but just enough that you feel a pang, the twinge of something like longing, as if your eyes in the silence have become ears in the darkness, and you are hearing a holy summons, distant but ringing like a silver trumpet in the chambers of your listening heart, and you gaze at that star where it stands in the sky dropping dust on the night horizon, and you think it might be signalling a holy Presence in the world
and a road you can take to meet it, and that such a road, lit with such promise, might lead to a great adventure, where life becomes challenged and changed and as new as the sky above a better world. And so, you pack, and you leave on this journey, this journey where Christ is not only waiting but walking your road at your side, and you follow that light as it closes the distance, as it reaches deep within you, touching gifts
you carry in your hand.
The divine light that shines in the Child is not a foreign light to the earth. It is the Light at the heart of all life. It is the Light from which all things come. If somehow this Light were extracted from the universe, everything would cease to exist. So, this is a story about the Light at the heart of everything, the Light at the heart of you, the Light at the heart of me. Look around you now at the people next to you, at the life forms growing from the earth, at the radiance of the sun or the whiteness of the moon. And look also into your own heart. There in all things is the Light. Maybe it is deeply hidden. But it is there, waiting to come forth anew. In the Christ Child this Light shines. He is our epiphany, our showing. In him we see the Light of life; in him we have shimmering hope. Amen.
4th Sunday of Advent – December 23, 2018, “Blessed are we who Believe” by Rev G. Christian
Advent IV, December 23, 2018
Luke 1:39-56
“Blessed are we who Believe”
In the New Testament, there are these two equally obscure women, Elizabeth and Mary—one quite old and barren, the other little more than a child around thirteen—who are both nobodies and both chosen by God to bear great children. “He has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.”
And Mary is “betrothed” to this other little kid named Joseph, who is just as unknown and obscure as she is. And when he finds out that she’s pregnant, he plans to cut and run, but an angel comes to him and says, “whoa, stop, the baby in Mary is not yours,” and he says, well, um, I kind-a knew that part,” and the angel says, “no, no, what I mean is that the baby came from the Holy Spirit (a.k.a., “God”). The little guy in Mary’s womb is the son of God, so go on back to her now and play like you’re the daddy because that’s what God wants you to do,” and to give Joseph credit, the story says he does that.
When Mary hears from an angel that she is to give birth to a child, what she does is run away. Quite possibly she ran for her life, because there is some historical evidence that when unmarried women were found to be pregnant; they were stoned to death. She runs to Judah to another obscure town to talk to her cousin, Elizabeth, about the whole mysterious and strange occurrence. Elizabeth is evidently pretty-old and had been barren for good many years and thought she’d never have a baby of her own. But as it happens now, she’s gotten pregnant herself with a little baby she’ll name John who, as it turns out, will later baptize a gaggle of people (including Jesus), threaten the state, and get himself killed for it, but that’s getting ahead of the story.
When Mary gets there and the two of them greet each other, John jumps up and down in Elizabeth’s belly and Mary breaks into song (don’t we mothers always jump up and down and break into song), with this incredible magnificent; a song both and political and radical, about what her coming son is going to be doing in this messed up world.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted-up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
This is an ancient love story that warms our hearts again this Advent Sunday of love. Blessed are
we who believe…in love.
Remember the story of Susan Boyle who looked and dressed plain and dumpy and was way passed her prime; a nobody some thought, but she had a voice that angels would be jealous of. Simon Cowl, the host of the show who introduced her sneered at her in the beginning, but then later publicly apologized for his behavior. Susan became Canada’s singing sensation. Canadians love her music; our Love story; blessed are we who believe…in love.
We often overlook the most important things in life. And the Christmas Season encourages us to do that. The season encourages us to put everything we’ve got into busy preparation so that the true meaning of Christmas gets lost. If we don’t keep our eyes open during the hustle and bustle of Advent, then we might miss a true love story such as Shane and Dave found. However, my Christmas love story. My love story was the reunion of Dave and Shane and it was magic. Blessed are we who believe…in love.
This busyness forces us to look the other way. It does that in two ways:
First, the commercialization of the Christmas season works very hard to keep us from realizing that there really is supposed to be something important going on inside this season. We get a lot from the media about how this is a season of caring or giving, but very little about what that is… the rebirth of a gentle babe in Bethlehem.
Second, the Hustle and bustle of Christmas. We get so tied up in the many tasks of Christmas, that we might forget to experience Christmas.
Did you hear about the woman a couple of years ago –true story—who forgot to do her cards until the last minute and rushed out to buy three boxes of cards and brought them home and filled them all out and addressed them and sent them off and when she got home she was exhausted and she relaxed in her chair with a glass of wine and listened to music, and she picked up one of her cards and said, that’s nice, I’ll actually get a chance to read what I sent to people, so she picked up the first one and it said: “Just a little card to say…a special gift is on its way.” I laughed as you might be that she made a horrible mistake. She might have thought oh no, but if you think about it…a special gift is on its way in the name of Emmanuel. God with us.
I once got so stressed out in shopping at the last minute that when I had finished the day (rushing from store to store, beating back other purchasers, and fighting for elevators and escalators in Ontario malls), and had gone out to my car, I put my presents on top of the car and drove away and left them behind…(Perhaps it’s because “God looks out after preachers and fools” but someone I knew saw what happened and called me later to tell me he had my gifts.) Ever done that or almost done that? That was when I made a conscious decision to put Christ back into Christmas and divorce myself from the hustle and bustle of Christmas. I have stream-lined and simplified my gift giving with special gifts not abundant gifts. My love story for Jesus…
Sometimes a little child will lead us to “know” the important parts of the season. There is a story of the parents who were in a big rush to get Christmas all done up, and they told the kids that under no uncertain terms were they to get out of bed until daybreak on Christmas morning. Then they snuck around and placed baseball bats, and bicycles, etc. under the tree, and went to bed. About four in the morning their little, seven-year old rushed into their room saying “Mommie, I saw it. Quick come quick.” The parents grumbled but got up, deciding that the surprise was ruined, so they might as well get all the kids up so that some could see their toys since one had already done so. So, they hustled all the others up and brought them down stairs. But the little boy ran right passed the tree and went over to a window and said, “see, see, there it is in the east. It’s the star. I saw it.” Blessed are we who believe. Amen.
Luke 1:39-45, the gospel reading for the 4th Sunday in Advent in the Year of Luke, continues the extended story of John the Baptist which we have in this gospel, albeit now with another character added – Mary. It is striking that the long opening chapter of Luke’s gospel (80 verses) is almost entirely devoted to the pre-birth, birth, and introduction of John the Baptist. It is easy to overlook the fact that of these 80 verses, nearly 60 of them have to do with John, and most of the rest of them have to do with Mary, and only a few have to do with Jesus. This year of Luke, then, gives us a rare chance to explore this story in depth, and ponder why John’s story was deemed so important by this gospel writer.
(The following questions are designed to unearth some of the key issues for Law/Gospel preachers. For a further look at this type of preaching you are invited to purchase my guide to Law/Gospel preaching by clicking the image of the book on this page.)
1. How does the Word function in the text? The Word here functions as pure gospel. It is a scene of great joy. This visitation, and the announcement that God’s divine favor has been visited upon God’s people is a scene of hilarious joy. The people of God are no longer forgotten, no longer in exile (as it were), no longer sitting in anticipation of the Lord’s coming, but the Word of the Lord has been fulfilled.
2. How is the the indications of joy in the text hint at the oppression under which these women have been living, but nothing in the text points directly at their own need of a saving Christ. Mary’s song of praise in the verses that follow this text (46-55) point out the context of these women and their fellow citizens – “lowly”, “hungry”, living under “the powerful” and “the proud.”
3. With whom are you identifying in the text? Elizabeth, the one who says, “And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” is the one to whom the Word comes. She is the one with whom we can most easily identify, not Mary. We too stand agape as the Christ is sent to us to proclaim freedom, to forgive, and to bless.
4. What, if any, call to obedience is there in this text? The call to light of the announcement that Christ has come for us, will have to come from different texts.
5. What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by the text? We need to take our cue from Mary’s song to answer this: lowly/raised up, hungry/filled with good things, oppressed/delivered, forgotten/remembered.
6. Exegetical work: It is especially important in this text to read the verses that precede this account. In earlier verses we see that John was said to be filled with the Holy Spirit even before his birth. when Mary calls out her greeting to Elizabeth, the unborn John gives witness to the Christ’s presence even before his mother does. And then, as if John had passed on the Spirit to his mother, Elizabeth cries out in a loud voice, “Blessed are you among women!” It is telling to note that the redundancy present in the Greek text gives voice to the excitement of Elizabeth, when it says, literally, “She cried out loudly with a great shout.” The joy present was deafening! It is also worth noting that Gabriel’s appearance to Mary was only days before this visitation. Luther surmises that the Christ was only 4 days in the womb when Mary reached Elizabeth’s home! Clearly it was not Mary’s outward appearance that signaled the presence of the Christ, and even less her identity as “the mother of my Lord.” The presence of the Christ could only be signaled by the Holy Spirit. It is perhaps worth pondering the question, “What signals for us the presence of the Christ amongst us?”
Blessings on your proclamation!Luke 1:39-45, the gospel reading for the 4th Sunday in Advent in the Year of Luke, continues the extended story of John the Baptist which we have in this gospel, albeit now with another character added – Mary. It is striking that the long opening chapter of Luke’s gospel (80 verses) is almost entirely devoted to the pre-birth, birth, and introduction of John the Baptist. It is easy to overlook the fact that of these 80 verses, nearly 60 of them have to do with John, and most of the rest of them have to do with Mary, and only a few have to do with Jesus. This year of Luke, then, gives us a rare chance to explore this story in depth, and ponder why John’s story was deemed so important by this gospel writer.
(The following questions are designed to unearth some of the key issues for Law/Gospel preachers. For a further look at this type of preaching you are invited to purchase my guide to Law/Gospel preaching by clicking the image of the book on this page.)
1. How does the Word function in the text? The Word here functions as pure gospel. It is a scene of great joy. This visitation, and the announcement that God’s divine favor has been visited upon God’s people is a scene of hilarious joy. The people of God are no longer forgotten, no longer in exile (as it were), no longer sitting in anticipation of the Lord’s coming, but the Word of the Lord has been fulfilled.
2. How is the Word not functioning in the text? There is no word of Law here at all. There is no word that lifts up the need of humanity for the saving action of God. All of the indications of joy in the text hint at the oppression under which these women have been living, but nothing in the text points directly at their own need of a saving Christ. Mary’s song of praise in the verses that follow this text (46-55) point out the context of these women and their fellow citizens – “lowly”, “hungry”, living under “the powerful” and “the proud.”
3. With whom are you identifying in the text? Elizabeth, the one who says, “And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” is the one to whom the Word comes. She is the one with whom we can most easily identify, not Mary. We too stand agape as the Christ is sent to us to proclaim freedom, to forgive, and to bless.
4. What, if any, call to obedience is there in this text? The call to obedience, the Word that says, “Follow Jesus” is not present here. That word, which gives us guidance on how to live in light of the announcement that Christ has come for us, will have to come from different texts.
5. What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by the text? We need to take our cue from Mary’s song to answer this: lowly/raised up, hungry/filled with good things, oppressed/delivered, forgotten/remembered.
6. Exegetical work: It is especially important in this text to read the verses that precede this account. In earlier verses we see that John was said to be filled with the Holy Spirit even before his birth. And so when Mary calls out her greeting to Elizabeth, the unborn John gives witness to the Christ’s presence even before his mother does. And then, as if John had passed on the Spirit to his mother, Elizabeth cries out in a loud voice, “Blessed are you among women!” It is telling to note that the redundancy present in the Greek text gives voice to the excitement of Elizabeth, when it says, literally, “She cried out loudly with a great shout.” The joy present was deafening! It is also worth noting that Gabriel’s appearance to Mary was only days before this visitation. Luther surmises that the Christ was only 4 days in the womb when Mary reached Elizabeth’s home! Clearly it was not Mary’s outward appearance that signaled the presence of the Christ, and even less her identity as “the mother of my Lord.” The presence of the Christ could only be signaled by the Holy Spirit. It is perhaps worth pondering the question, “What signals for us the presence of the Christ amongst us?”
Blessings on your proclamation!
3rd Sunday of Advent, “Heaven is Singing” -December 16, 2018 – Rev Gloria Chrsitian
3rd Sunday of Advent – “Heaven is Singing”
Isaiah 12: 2-6 Philippians 4: 4-7
December 16, 2018
Well, with Christmas nearly here, there is probably not one among us whose thoughts don’t stray towards Bethlehem with wonder in our thoughts. Do you want to go to Bethlehem? Well, getting there hasn’t always been easy.
Back in 1996 when I was on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, getting to Bethlehem required disembarking our tour bus at an armored check point outside the town, having our passports taken, then walking a full block under the watchful eye of heavily armed Israeli soldiers. Only after successfully navigating this pulse-quickening walk could we board a Palestinian bus to finally take us into Bethlehem. Our tour bus still had to stop at a checkpoint before entering the city, but then instead of requiring passengers to get off, armed soldiers got on. They walked up and down the aisles with intimidation. After a few anxiety-producing minutes, when the all clear was given, we could drive to the other side of the checkpoint, change buses, and enter Bethlehem.
We simply drove to a kiosk where our bus driver spoke to a guard for a few moments. Then we were waved on, with the greatest discomfort was the speed bump that lies at the gate of the twenty-five- foot cement wall which now sadly separates Israel from the West Bank. And that is how you get to Bethlehem these days, at least physically.
But let me hasten to say, that if getting to Bethlehem physically seems a bit challenging, it is nothing compared to the difficulty of getting to Bethlehem spiritually. At least that is what John the Baptist would have us understand and what the church has been reminding us of for as long as the lectionary has existed, because at Advent there is no getting to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem without first naming God as your salvation.
It is like saying I will trust and not be afraid or joy comes from knowing that God will show me the way. Salvation is like singing to God for God has done glorious things in my life. So I will sing and let it be known throughout the world.
So what counts as thoroughgoing salvation; that is, a forgiveness from mistakes and the consequences of them and singing to heaven because one has been saved from the disaster of the decision?
- For me, salvation has come when I knew the right path to follow in my life having sometimes wishing for the adventure of the wrong path. I could have gone one way or another way, but God helped me to follow the right path even after I had made mistakes.
- Salvation comes when we do right by our family and friends who become family to us confident in God’s promised blessings of joy.
- Salvation comes when we admit our wrongs and pray with thanksgiving for forgiveness, presenting your request to God.
- Salvation is knowing you are dearly beloved child of God with the gifts of the spirit at your disposal. The greatest of these gifts is love.
Well, I can tell you what it’s not! Undoubtedly along the way I have heard of many demonstrations of half-hearted repentance, the kind that we are capable of. Maybe we, like the folks of the biblical day, tell ourselves our half-hearted repentance for wrong-doing is adequate if we simply feel a little badly about what we have done or left undone. It’s not a mark of full repentance. Or maybe we think, like the folks of John’s day, that our half-hearted repentance for wrongdoing is adequate because of our identity as decent church folks who are part of the Christian family. Maybe we think that identity gives us extra credit points and ought to protect us. Maybe, trying to depend on one’s heritage or privilege doesn’t demonstrate full repentance.
Let’s face it, our tender feelings aren’t enough. And our pedigree as children of God isn’t enough, either. What matters is what we do, and how we live.
A number of years ago, Norman Cousins wrote an editorial in which he reported a conversation he had on a trip to India. He talked at length with a Hindu priest named Satis Prasad. The man said he wanted to come to our country to work as a missionary among the North American people. Cousins assumed that he meant that he wanted to convert us to the Hindu religion. But when asked, Satis Prasad said, “Oh no, I would like to convert them to the Christian religion. Christianity cannot survive in the abstract. It needs not membership, but believers. Not people who talk about their faith but live their faith. The people of your country may claim they believe in Christianity; but from what I read at this distance, Christianity is more a custom than anything else. I would ask that you either accept the teachings of Jesus in your everyday life and in your affairs as a nation or stop invoking God’s name as sanction for everything you do. I want to help save Christianity for the Christian.” I suppose one could say this but not here. You folks live your faith as you go into the community with your mission dollars.
Some in the crowd asked, “What then should we do?” “Share with one another. If you have two coats give one to someone who has none. If you have more food than you need give some away to someone who is hungry.” In other words, demonstrating being humble in one’s life will involve generosity. Be generous.
But the tax collectors in the crowd were apparently still not clear and they shouted, “Teacher, what should we do?” Now, the tax collectors in John’s day paid the Roman overlords for the privilege of collecting tolls and tariffs and customs fees. Then they extorted as much money as possible from the populace to recoup their initial outlay and make a profit. “Collect no more than the amount prescribed.” In other words, a demonstration of salvation will be absolute honesty and dependability.
“Be satisfied with your wages.” In other words, a demonstration of salvation will be an end of grasping greediness and the false contentment.
Generosity, integrity, contentment: signs of a life that has undergone thoroughgoing salvation…proof that faith is more than talk. No easy outs, no short cuts, no excuses.
Paul in his letter to the Philippians was never shy about asking his listeners to do something great. Not for some personal entitlement, but in order to accept the peace of God which transcends all understanding that will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.
And have no doubt the Messiah is definitely on the way. We might be awed by the majesty and mystery of the One coming. We might not be worthy to untie the thongs of the Messiah’s sandals. Presumably we are becoming prepared for Jesus’ birth anew and for the sake of readiness for the Messiah’s coming maybe we are ready to step into the presence of greatness, the greatness found in Bethlehem, without the self-consciousness of any misdeeds and wrong-doings clinging to us. Let the past go, I say, be rid of it, be sorry for it, lay it down. Take up new lives, worthy of the one whose presence you seek.
And that my friends, that is the identity you want on your passport when you make for that gate to Bethlehem and ask it to open for you.
As we journey to Bethlehem in this season, we pray the gates may open wide for us and for the many others who wish to love and welcome God’s Son and stream into his presence singing to the heavens: Rejoice in God always, I will say it again. Rejoice! Amen.
Advent II, December 9 – Rev Gloria Christian
Sermon for Advent II – “Walking in the Wilderness”
Luke 3:2-6
Luke 1: 26-33
It seems to be a long walk in the wilderness from the days of John preparing a way for the Lord; a long walk in the wilderness from Isaiah’s prophecy when crooked roads will be made straight to the birth of Jesus foretold. It is like having to cross over to the other side before we can see the beauty of the birth and behold the Prince of Peace.
I remember a trip to Vancouver with friends when we visited Stanley Park and I stood transfixed as I approached the bridge that would carry me to the other side; to this magnificent wilderness of forest. To really appreciate the redwood forest, one had to make this journey. So the only thing standing between me and this adventure was the rope bridge with wooden slats.
I really didn’t think much about it until I started across and happened to look down, and by the middle, realized that the bridge had begun to sway with the movement of my fellow travelers.
That’s when I grabbed the ropes on the side as if they could save my life when the whole thing broke through and plunged to the rocks below. I silently counted the number of slats between me and the view. There were about 20 of them, which was just enough to keep my conviction of a dramatic death alive.
The problem was that the people behind me were coming. Actually, they were waiting for me. I felt their presence just over my shoulder. Even though I was too afraid to turn around and look, I knew they were there. And there was only one direction to go–forward. Forward to the peace and tranquility of the forest.
And forward we go throughout the biblical stories until the 6th month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John who prepares the way for Jesus coming. Those biblical characters from Isaiah to John’s wilderness walks; he walked through war upon war until their prince of peace is born.
Maybe it’s the dark nights in Advent that makes us take seriously all these barriers that stand in the way of peace flowing to all people. Our cries for the coming of Jesus come from our deep awareness that there is still so much that seems to stand in the way of peace, so many barriers that seem to stretch out before us. Sometimes all we can do is count them, one by one, while we stand stuck in life, unsure how to take the next step forward.
There is the Middle East. ISIS is so brutal that we can hardly describe them to our children, their rampage so bloody that even the stories scar us.
There is the atomic bomb that to this day has devastating affects on the people of Japan.
There’s our changing climate. We watch lakes dry up in some places and torrential rains fall in others.
There is much more…
Clearly, Luke understands this darkness. Yet his desire was not to lead his listeners into despair reminding them that they are clinging to the bridge for dear life, ready to crash to the rocks below, but to announce to them that not one of our barriers could keep the Word of God from coming.
“The Word of God came to John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness” to a tiny, faithful family, on the edge of the empire, in the wilderness, there is nothing less than the Word of God, the breath of life, the presence of the Creator. I’m not sure if Luke means this to sound like a creation story or our own story, but I suspect he wants us to know that God’s power is stirring. It is just over our shoulder, pressing us forward into a new future with the light of God shining on our path.
On this day in December, I don’t know if we’re clinging to the bridge but I do know that we have struck a match to light one more candle on the Advent wreath, and the power of that light is changing everything. Even our shadows take on a new beauty when caught by the light. It is making a way in the wilderness, making the crooked straight, and the rough places smooth, and turning the road toward Bethlehem.
To most in the world, it might not seem like much; but to us, we see in this tiny flicker of light the glory of the rising sun, the Word of God, the presence of the Spirit, coming to us in real time, in our historical time. We see the view of a future set before us that is filled with forgiveness and peace and reconciliation and love. Frankly, we see the best picture we’ll ever take.
And it turns out, we don’t have to hold on for dear life, because the life of the coming one is already holding on to us. I know it’s two weeks before Christmas. I know there is so much that stands between this day and that Holy night. There will be shopping and decorating, stress and family, wrapping and baking, joy and sadness. There will even be shorter days than today. There will be Caesar Augustus and Quirinius; there will be a long and crooked road from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
But nothing can stop this birth. The child is coming, and we will be carried to the other side–to Bethlehem, to Easter, and to that moment when all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Amen.
Why Now? Advent 1 Sermon Dec 2, 2018 – Rev Gloria Christian
Luke 21:25-31
“Why Now?”
So, why now are we reading about end-times at the beginning of Advent. The lectionary is very mysterious to me many times. Where is the hope? Oh, Advent is about waiting for Jesus to come; whether it be the second-coming or preparing our hearts for Jesus to rest there as we hustle and bustle about in preparation for Christmas.
If we are waiting for Jesus second-coming then what would be the signs: Jesus said, “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. I don’t know any other passage in the Gospels that is harder to understand, to feel our way into, to know how to respond to, than these words of Jesus about the Second Coming. He is speaking about the end of the world and about the coming of the Kingdom of God as the climactic last act of history, and he is speaking in words and images as foreign to our whole way of thinking as his subject itself. As the day approaches, there will be a great cosmic upheaval, he says, with signs in the sun and moon and stars, and the powers of the heavens themselves shaken. Is he speaking literally or simply poetically? Does he mean there will be real eclipses and strange comets that have never been seen before, maybe a reordering of the constellations themselves to scrawl some fateful starlit message across the night sky? Or is he speaking symbolically of some upheaval not of the world without but of the world within—an upheaval of the hearts and minds and spirits of the human race? The seas will go wild, he says, and at their roaring the nations will be terrified by whatever it is that is happening or about to happen, and then, most extraordinary of all—as the cause and climax of everything that has preceded it—the Son of Man will appear, he says, in a cloud, “with power and great glory.”
We have all read about these signs; for me I am not waiting for the apocalypse, end-times. I am waiting for the re-birth of faith in the hearts of my family. I am waiting for the secular world to become aware of a power greater than themselves. I am waiting for our communities of faith to fill with God’s children.
I guess to make a difficult statement easier to understand he tells a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves, so these signs will announce that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”
Where is the story of the babe Jesus, the shepherds and heavenly choirs? Is it because the coming of the Lord includes much more than the Christmas story? After all, the disciples asked the question, When and with what signs will these things take place? As surely as one can discern the approach of summer by the leafing of the fig tree, so these signs will announce that the kingdom of God is near. I’m not waiting for the second coming of Christ; for biblical believers the second coming was imminent. Over 2000 years later the end-time believers are still waiting. Not I! I believe the kingdom of God came with the birth of a baby boy in Bethlehem. I believe the kingdom of God is not some end time but right here and now. If not, why would people like Mother Teresa have walked with the ill to bring the kingdom of God in Calcutta. Mother Teresa told a story about the time she came down with a terrible fever. Her temperature rose; she became delirious. She had a vision of being at the gates of heaven and telling St. Peter that she was ready to pass from this world to the next. But St. Peter refused her entry into the high vault of heaven. Mother Teresa asked why. Peter replied: “Because there are no slums in heaven.” Waiting for the Christ Child is best spent working for the cause of Jeremiah’s righteous Branch. That cause is justice and righteousness in the land. St. Peter turned Mother Teresa back from heaven’s gate because there was work for her left on earth. Her vocation was in the slums of earth not in the glory of heaven.
So, it is with us. If Advent is anything, it is a season of painful waiting in the world and not detached from the world; a season of darkness before the light comes; a season about a future that is not yet.
Advent is about the coming of the Child of Mary. Our vocation as Christian disciples is to make Advent more about earth than heaven. We must be like Peter at heaven’s gate: We must remind ourselves that there is work, to do as we wait. The best way to wait is to work for the kingdom–for justice and righteousness in the land. That’s what Jeremiah did with his life and that’s what Mother Teresa did with her time on planet earth.
As we light the candles of Advent, we must acknowledge that we have some of the light but not, all, of the light. God’s Church waits each year for the Lord -for we know in our hearts that with the coming of the Christ Child we have work to do, threats to meet and dreams to make real. In Jesus of Crib and Cross, God comes to be with us and for us in the world where we taste and see.
We must travel lightly–with only our prayers, our pained hearts and our willing hands. We must be alert at all times, and especially for the poor, with those with whom we differ and with the earth that is suffering and weary. We must be praying daily to have the strength to stand now before the Son of Man, this Christ Child who will come and who is forever our Lord and Savior, yes, this Jesus, Child of Mary. Amen.
November 25 Sermon “A Wise Reign” Rev Gloria Christian
John 18: 33-37
“A Wise Reign”
To suggest that Christ was royalty begets the question of paradox; ie, contrary statements. The language of scripture suggests that the reign of Christ is political and yet Christ wasn’t interested in politics. There is an interesting relationship between politics and the Christ’s followers. If we look at God being, Sovereign then Caesar is secondary. Not a good idea! However, politics is simply not recognized by the Biblical writers as important to faith and the fulfilment of our faith journey, yet we are a church of social justice that is very political. All very paradoxical or contradictory wouldn’t you say.
Our reading from John this week records the most dramatic confrontation in all of scripture…Pontius Pilate’s interrogation of Jesus in the Roman court: his three-fold declaration that he found him innocent and then his death sentence verdict to pacify the mob. Pilate is in a dilemma: he either mocks the Jews or protects his job. For Pilate the passion narrative and trial are political rather than a religious crisis. Two kingdoms clash in the story.
Jesus response to Pilate’s interrogation, “Are you King of the Jews?” is to say, “My kingdom is not of this world, my kingdom is from another place.”
Jesus’ answer is a bit coy – as is often the case in John’s Gospel. He doesn’t come outright and say – yes, I’m King of the Jews, but he does accept the premise that he is a representative of the heavenly kingdom. If you must call me a king, he seems to be saying, then understand that “my kingdom doesn’t originate from this world.” Too often Christians have read these words in such a way as to devalue earthly experience. Too often we pine for our departure from this life to that of the next. Our earthly goal, some believe, is to make our escape and leave the world and its challenges behind. But is that what Jesus has in mind?
Jesus is mocked, beaten, flogged, humiliated with the purple robe of kingship and a crown of thorns suggesting Jesus is a political poser. The crowd yells, we have no king but Caesar.
A notice placed on his cross “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” further aggravates the Jewish temple leaders. As we come to the gospel reading from John, it may seem odd to have a text that might be read on Good Friday standing in for Christ the King Sunday, but the questions posed are important ones for us to consider. The point isn’t just whether Jesus is king, but what kind of king will he be? Pilate understands monarchy and power through the lens of empire. He is a representative of Rome’s control. He sees in Jesus merely a pretender, a person with a following but no real power.
The kingdom of God that Jesus announces is what life would be like on earth, here and now, if God were king and the rulers of this kingdom would be about: peace-making instead of war mongering; about liberation instead of exploitation; about mercy not vengeance; about care of the vulnerable instead of privilege for the powerful; about generosity instead of greed; about embrace rather than exclusion. The Lord’s prayer just might be the most political act; Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. We have a different agenda than a political statement when we pray; we are submitting to the above reign of Christ in our life: peacemaking, liberation, mercy, generosity, embracing…
So, if Jesus is King, how does he reign? A monarch from the 1st century of the Roman Empire was of a different breed from most of today’s monarchs. Modern Canadians likely envision kings and queens existing in the image of Elizabeth II, a figure head, who has no real power, except that of personality. We have Prime Ministers here – they have great power but whatever power Prime Minister Trudeau has, it’s nothing like that exercised by Caesar. So, what does it mean for us to declare Christ to be King? Is he a figure-head or is he powerful. What allegiance are we willing to give? We have faith that Christ’s reign will hold a word of hope; will both love us and free us from our inevitable mistakes in life; Jesus for us is the Alpha and Omega, who is and was and is to come. God is in us and we are in God then Christ’s reign through us is of goodness, of love, of mercy, and justice, even as all things are made new.
So how do we listen to the voice of Jesus in our noisy world of frantic shopping and aggressive drivers needing to be someplace important. Today is the last stop before the end of our church year and Advent begins a new year. Reign of Christ Sunday is a bridge between the end of our year and the beginning of another with Advent. Today we sort of slam on our brakes to express our faith before we experience Advent before we experience the most holy of nights. How tempted are you to give into the siren call of our hectic, noisy world with its conflicting messages and competing claims? Our culture tells us we need so much at Christmas.
Our consumer culture tells us that we need so much, that if we wear this or buy these or drive that we will be happy forever, or until we get home — whichever comes first. We learn that we are less than, not good enough, too homely, too poor, always reaching for the brass ring or next rung on the ladder to an illusion of success. All the while, Jesus softly and clearly testifies to the truth and invites us to listen and follow. Jesus, our uncommon king has no need to compete with the loud and stifling messages of the world because what he offers is life and truth and hope for all time–in all times. Maybe now is the right time to challenge one another to enter the season of Advent with open ears, expectant hearts, and quiet space each day. Listen. Can you hear him? May Jesus speak to you; best of all, Jesus loves you like no other.
I don’t know about you but as I age the gift giving at Christmas has gone far away from common sense. Do you have grandchildren or greatgrandchildren or nieces and nephews and watched then open birthday and Christmas gifts? The reality for these children and what they accept as normal is abundance without even knowing who the giver is. It saddens my heart to see that the next generation will be more advantaged and will think the world is their monopoly, more than any other generation. Maybe they will be more advantaged but by 2090 as I heard on the news, people will be dying from global warming. Then reality will be a different statement. Maybe it is because I have 9 great grandchildren endowed with gifts from grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, cousins and looking for more when the gift giving is over that I am so skeptical. I want to put on the brakes this Christmas and pray that family time and love is their greatest gift. Let love reign this Advent as we wait for the coming of Love once again in our lives. Amen.
The Saints Give Us Security by Rev Gloria Christian
Sermon, Nov. 4, 2018
“The Saints Give Us Security”
As many of our saints that have brought us to the faith are now passed on to their glory; I realize the sorrow at this moment that may be in your heart. Death, of course, is inevitable, and its pain, its loss, its cause for anger is all true and real. And the hard part about death is that we are in the business of tending its consequences; i.e., how our life has changed, without, I suspect, taking enough time for our personal sadness and grief. Death has many small deaths within it; like the loss of a phone call, the loss of a hand to help us; the loss of a shoulder to cry on. The mini deaths go on…
We live in, exist in, this constant state of in-betweenness, don’t we? The certainness of death and the grieving process and how to live the most of life here and now, how to give witness to the promise of the resurrection without it dismissing the reality of death in our midst here and now. Believing that loving our neighbors is never for the sake of eternal life after death, but always because it is a means by which death itself is overcome here and now…
“Love your neighbor as yourself” is a fitting testimony for All Saints Sunday. According to Jesus, a mark of discipleship is this very act — loving your God, your neighbor as yourself. While All Saints Sunday reminds us of and remembers those who have died, it is also a call to present day saintly behavior. I make no claims to be a saint. But I think we come pretty-close when we act out this commandment. So that those who observe how we choose to live and be in the world will catch a glimpse of the sanctity of God’s love, the holiness of God, and that a life of sainthood does not mean perfection or having your own feast day. There can be another way of being in the world besides self-service, self-aggrandizement, autonomy, and narcissism. And yet there is hope when communities come together to help a child dying with cancer or a family burned out of their home.
When loving your neighbor becomes the first way to be in the world, the primary lens through which to view the world, the choice that you consciously make to live your life in your world, that is a radically different way to be than what our world of love self only adheres too on the most part.
Loving your neighbor is a saintly activity. The choice to love the neighbor does indeed set us apart from those who know only what it means to love their own selves and stop there. Others will know what sainthood looks like, not because we are better or holier than thou, but because we have been called to see outside of ourselves for the sake of seeing the world as God does; ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself’ — means your neighbor is as worthy of love as we are.
This passage from Mark, this Sunday, as we celebrate All Saints Sunday invites us to get outside of ourselves to sense what it feels like, what it means, to love the neighbor. This is our security that our loving saints have given us; this is church…
Naomi and Ruth’s story is especially refreshing because it is a story of love between a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law. This love brought Ruth to her new Hebrew religion. Theirs is not a story of struggle and power over another like Hagar and Sarah; Rachel and Leah; Miriam and her sister-in-law. Their story is about loving your neighbour despite differences in age, nationality, and religion. A loving relationship that stands the test of time. It is the persistent love of Ruth for Naomi that helped heal her grieving for her lost husband and sons and the inability to bear another child. Naomi sees new reasons to live because of Ruth’s gleaning the fields for food and other responsibilities of care for her.
What do you remember of the events that first brought you to church and into a family of faith? Take a moment this week and reflect upon your faith journey. My sister Ruth Ann who died last September 20, first took me to Sunday School and taught me that there is a world outside my family of origin. At three, I didn’t understand the impact that our faith would have on me. Throughout my life the yearning of belonging to God and becoming a member of the United Church and being a servant for God has never left me. I would love to hear your story and listen to your faith journey. My sister and I and our relationship is a love story that held us up through many traumas in our life. She was always there for me and I, for her. Grieving is, in itself a journey where we too need the care of someone who will guide us to healing.
To care passionately about the quality of another person’s life, to respect each other’s choices, and to allow for each other’s differences: these are the lessons embedded in the Book of Ruth. These are the gifts that our saints have taught the church from which we have security today.
“Christians who celebrate All Saints’ Day do so in the fundamental belief that there is a prayerful spiritual bond between those in heaven and the living.”
We know that our neighbour is actively mourning and needs your comfort and a word of hope. Maybe someone needs a call to action to those who are looking for new meaning in the midst of the death-dealing force. “See, I am making all things new,” says the one on the throne in Revelation. This statement contains comfort to those learning to live without a loved one, to those seeking a new job and means of livelihood, to those seeking new relationships after abuse, to those seeking new meaning in the midst of despair and depression. All of us in the faith community are the saints of God. Those saints we have known who are deceased inspire us as we remember them for they too faced the death-dealing forces of culture in their lives. One does not become a saint by being mild-mannered and timid. Through the lives of all saints, living and in heaven, there runs a strong thread of hope in God’s assurance of radical and complete transformation in the love and justice of God.
Let us take a moment and reflect upon the saints in our lives…..
Amen.
What Is Peace? by Rev Gloria Christian
Sermon, October 28, 2018
Mark 10:46-52
“What is Peace?”
In calling upon Jesus as “Son of David”, the blind beggar Bartimaeus demonstrates that he does indeed see who Jesus is. Today, we are meditating upon the very word ‘peace’ and just what it is for each of us. Peace could mean something different for each one of us. For Bartimaeus ‘peace’ seems to be in seeing again. He no longer begs for his food; seeing frees Bartimaeus from oppression. Peace is therefore, life-giving and holds freedom.
The story about Bartimaeus, is about freedom. He won’t shut up. Even though people tell him to. And that’s hard. We are so quick to fall into silence in general, worried about offending or hurting feelings or being rejected or whatever. And so, when folks tell us to shut up, we’re all too quick to oblige. But Bartimaeus won’t. He is free. Free to defy his neighbors. Free to call for help. Free to make his needs known to Jesus. Free. Perhaps he’s suffered enough, or feels like there’s nothing left to lose, or just doesn’t care anymore. Or perhaps he just senses — or, really, sees — that in the presence of Jesus all the rules change, and he is no longer “Blind Bartimaeus” but instead “Bartimaeus, Child of God.” Whatever the reason, he knows he is free and seizes his faith and his courage to live into that freedom and Jesus says that’s what made him well. Peace is about freedom. Freedom from turmoil, anxiety, hatred, prejudice…
A friend of mine who recently had his first cataract removed, is in turmoil over not being able to see at all out of his bad eye and with his good eye he sees clearly at a distance but can’t wear glasses yet for close-up work on the computer; he yearns for peace to come and settle his turmoil. Being able to see, that aha moment in our lives does bring peace to us. It can be a fleeting moment, or it can be a lasting peace.
“Peace” can sound merely sentimental or cliché. But deep down, it’s what most of us long for. Consider the proverb: The highest happiness is peace.
Not a peace inside that ignores pain in oneself or others or is acquired by shutting down. This capital P – Peace is a durable peace, a peace you can come home to – even if it’s been covered over by fear, frustration, or heartache.
When you’re at peace – when you are engaged with life while also feeling relatively relaxed, calm, and safe – you are protected from stress, your immune system grows stronger, and you become more resilient. Your outlook brightens, and you see more opportunities. In relationships, feeling at peace prevents overreactions, increases the odds of being treated well by others, and supports you in being clear and direct when you need to be.
I think there are four kinds of peace, and I’ll point out where each might be found. The first two kinds are pretty straightforward, while the third and fourth take a person into the deep end of the pool. It’s helped me to notice, appreciate, and (hopefully) practice each of these. It’s OK to focus on just one for a while; any peace is better than none!
In particular, enjoy your peacefulness, wherever you find it. In our culture of pressure, invasive demands for attention, and jostling busyness, inner peace must be protected. When you experience it, enjoy it, which will help it sink into you, weaving its way into your brain so it increasingly becomes the habit of your mind.
The Peace of Ease is number one.
This is the peace of relaxation and relief, and it comes in many forms. You look out a window and feel calmer and can talk through a problem with a friend. You exhale slowly, activating the soothing presence of your nervous system. You finish a batch of emails or dishes. You were worried about something but finally get good news.
Whew. At rest. It’s easy to underestimate this sort of peace but it really counts. Take it in when you feel it.
The Peace of Tranquility is number two.
This is deep quiet in mind and body. Perhaps you’ve felt this on first waking, before the mind kicks into gear. Or while sitting next to a mountain pond in prayer, something of its stillness seeps into your heart. At the end of a workout, meditation, or walking, you might have felt serene.
When mind and body are this settled, there is no sense of disturbance, and no struggling with anything, or grasping after it, or clinging to others. There’s an inner freedom, a non-reactivity, that is wonderful.
The Peace of Awareness is number three.
This is a subtler kind of peace. Perhaps you’ve had the experience of being upset and your mind is racing . . . and at the same time there is a place inside that is simply seeing, untroubled by what it sees. Or you may have the sense of awareness as an open space in which sights and sounds, thoughts and feelings, arise and disappear; the space itself is never ruffled or harmed by what passes through it. I think First Responders and Medical Personnel acquire this peace, so they can cope. I’m not speaking of anything mystical here, only what you can see directly in your own mind. As either a bare witness or the space through which the stream of consciousness flows, awareness itself is always at peace. Are you in the deep-end yet?
The Peace of What’s Unchanging is number four.
First, while most things continually change, some don’t; for example, the fact that things change around us doesn’t mean we have to change. There needs to be stability in one’s life. Two plus two will always equal four. The good thing you did this morning or last year will always have happened. Things that don’t change are reliable, which feels peaceful. I think, this is why many people don’t like change in the church. The church must be an unchanging space; a place of peace.
Second, while individual waves come and go, the ocean is always ocean. While the contents of the universe are changing, the universe as universe is not. You can get an insight of this by recognizing that you are a local wave in a vast sea of human culture, human nature, and the physical universe; yes, you are changing, but within an unchanging all-ness of it all. The sense of this, even if fleeting, can really put you at peace. I hope you have kept up with me and haven’t sunk at this deep end of the pool.
Jesus offers “the peace that passeth understanding,” and I understand in a changing world, this quote of Jesus’ is meaningful to many people (including myself).
May we all be at peace.
Believers have an obligation to “let the peace of God rule” in their hearts. This means we have the choice either to trust God’s promises (letting peace rule) or to rely on ourselves and reject the peace God offers. Jesus gave His disciples peace based on the truth that He has overcome the world. Peace is a fruit of the Spirit, so, if we are allowing the Spirit of God to rule in our lives, we will experience God’s peace. To be spiritually minded brings life and peace.
The world will continue to have wars and interpersonal conflicts until Jesus comes to establish true, lasting peace, but God will give peace to those who trust God who makes it possible for us to have peace. Once God’s peace rules in our hearts, we are then able to share that peace with others; we become publishers of peace and ministers of reconciliation. Then our eyes will be truly open and we will see!
Peace truly is a gift from God. Amen.
Recognizing that Food is Sacred
October 21, 2018 Sermon by Gloria Christian – World Food Day
Psalm 65:9-13
Mark 4:1-20
“Recognizing that Food is Sacred”
Recognizing food as sacred is not something uppermost in my mind, I must say. I see the bread and juice as sacred during communion, but my everyday lunches and dinners are just gobbled to fill hunger. We as a community of faith, as a denomination, and as earth creatures are called to understand seeds as sacred.
We have been celebrating God’s creation for some weeks now and this is the last Sunday of the time for creation. We have been celebrating God’s creation of a self-sustaining web of life in which plants, animals, land, water, air and us as interwoven.
Many traditions affirm that food is an element in spiritual celebrations. Maybe we can adopt the practice of affirming that eating is a sacred spiritual practice which celebrates the delicate connectedness we have with the seeds that make our food we eat possible.
So, I ask, what should we do to be more mindful of the sacredness of food while dining? Living alone, eating doesn’t feel very sacred. I think, when we are eating, eating might be all we think about; the only thing we are honouring with our attention. No phone or iPad within reach, no TV or radio on in the background. Preferably not even speaking to others for a few minutes; just eat with our full attention to the food. Just maybe, each bite might be approached with reverence, with full appreciation of where the food came from and the effort that went into preparing it. Maybe we would pay attention to subtle flavours, textures, how each bite makes us feel, or the subtle differences that exist depending on the morsels that come together with each fork-full making each dish as appetizing for all the senses as possible and imagine the nutrients flowing through our bodies, nourishing every cell. Would we then recognize food as sacred? All we have to di is look at a malnourished child or adult to understand their pain and sorrow. Perhaps then we would recognize food as sacred.
The following reflections of how and why seeds are sacred are given by two United Church folk:
Adrian Jacobs says Aboriginal people have a ceremony in spring to bless the seeds before the planting season. They also called corn, beans, and squash their ‘three sisters.’ This is in keeping with our view of creation as relatives, says Adrian e.g., elder brother sun, grandmother moon, grandfather thunder, and mother earth. The sustenance provided by food makes Haudenosaunee people happy. This is how they celebrate seeds as sacred.
From my other readings for this World Food Day, a seed contains in itself all the DNA necessary to produce a full-grown plant and fruit containing seeds for the future. In essence, in a seed is a universe of plants that expresses the wisdom and miracle of the Creator. Adrian Jacobs is Cayuga First Nation of the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. Jacobs is the Keeper of the Circle/Principal at the Sandy Saulteaux Spiritual Centre, in Beausejour, Manitoba.
Patricia Vickers another member of our church says, “Where I come from, our soil is comprised of rock, sand, silt, and peat. There was no cultivation of medicinal plants in the past or present. The seeds must thrive without the assistance of our intervention. Plant medicine knowledge is passed on through the mother’s line. For females, one is shown by an aunty how to gather the plants that were once seeds. She must search for where the seeds have grown into cedar, devil’s club, and spruce to assist others or self with purification.
“All life is sacred. A seed, in particular, is significant because a seed needs to be connected, in contact with all elements to grow, to become. We speak of thought as a seed, says Patricia, and the heart as the place where the seed grows. When one’s heart is not clean, it will not produce good thoughts, good seeds. The seed is the beginning; it is already the nature, the essence of what it will become. May our hearts hold good seeds.” Patricia Vickers’ heritage weaves ancestry from the United Kingdom and the Eagle Clan from the village of Gitxaala, British Columbia.
I’m not a gardener, although my father-in-law tried many years ago to help me with a garden; but you gardeners know of the sacredness of a seed and the miracle of its produce. Going back to Patricia’s faith and belief that thought is a seed and the heart is the place the seed grows fits with our gospel reading this morning.
Jesus has something crucial to say in the Parable of the Sower. The parable is about different types of soil that receive the seed. The seed is the word of God. The point of the story is that the sower, sowing the seed, obtains different results from different soil.
Whenever God’s Word is communicated the results depend on the fertility, the soil, of the hearer’s heart.
There were two methods of sowing seed in Jesus’ day. One was to balance a bag of seed on the back of a donkey, cut holes in either side of the bag and let the seed run out as the donkey walked over the ground. The other method was to throw the seed by hand. This latter method seems to be the picture Jesus had in mind.
The reason some seed “fell by the wayside” was that farmers left paths for travelers through their fields. This ground naturally would be hard-packed by the traffic. So, birds would quickly eat the seed which fell there.
The hearts of some folks have become so hardened by the world’s traffic that the seed of the Word cannot penetrate and the young plants, being rooted only in shallow soil, had no subsoil supply of water to draw upon. Therefore, the hot, midday sun dried up and killed those fragile sprouts.
it. They have heard too many false advertisements, bought too many lemons from fast-talking used car salesmen, been jilted by too many fickle lovers. Having been burned in the past, they are bitter and cynical and say People are no good; they are all liars and hypocrites. The preacher’s sermon is just one more sales pitch and the preacher just another con artist.
With such people the message goes in one ear and out the other. Nothing can get through the protective shell they have built around themselves.
Shallow hearers quickly drop out. Galilee is underlaid with limestone rock. In some places this rock is covered only by a thin layer of soil. The early spring sun would warm this rock, which in turn kept the soil warm. Seed which feel on this soil would germinate quickly. But this warm soil contained little moisture Jesus remarked that God’s Word cannot take root in shallow hearts. Their unchurched friends mocked their newfound faith. It became a chore to get up on Sunday mornings. Suddenly these easily-won converts dropped out of sight as though they were in the FBI’s witness protection program! As Jesus said, “they are offended” when they find out it isn’t all a bed of roses; there are a few thorns too.
Even in the good soil the harvest varied, depending on how good it was. A hundredfold may seem like a bumper crop but ancient records show that in some cases such was possible.
Not all Christians have the same gifts, abilities or potential. Some produce more fruit than others, though all believers are commanded to bear some fruit. The point is that we are to bear as much fruit as we can with our individual talents. This happens as we move from being merely hearers of the Word to doers of it as well. For that is the mark of a responsive hearer. As Jesus cautioned, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear”
Today as we think of World Food and the countless here and abroad who starve, might we think about the seed as sacred and how we sow our seeds, our faith and our generosity, are small ways we can help in the community to feed the hungry with Mission and Service dollars and with monies for outreach into the community from the Thrift Shop. Amen.