Sermons | Sicamous United Church- Part 24

What Do We Hold On To?

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Rev. JuanitaMarch 2, 2014

Based on Matthew 17:1-9 & 2 Peter 1:16-19

My friends, this Sunday brings to a close the season of Epiphany. It began with light as the magi followed a star to find Jesus. The whole season has been about the revealing of light – the light of God’s love made manifest as Jesus is revealed in new ways.

In the story of Jesus’ transfiguration read this morning, the light is brighter than ever before but it doesn’t last long; the moment passes quickly, and as Jesus moves toward Jerusalem, and his passion and death, we move into the season of Lent. One more splurge with the Shrove Tuesday Pancake supper this week, followed by a more somber and reflective `holy pause’ on Ash Wednesday at 11:00 AM.

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Turn The Other Cheek … and other bizarre sayings

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Rev. JuanitaFebruary 24, 2014

Rev. Juanita Austin

based on Matthew 5:38-48

I want to acknowledge that I’m using some notes by David Ewart – who was on staff at Naramata Centre when I attended Winter Session in 1976-77, but I first heard this understanding of this passage from Matthew from a course with Walter Wink in 2001.

Matthew 5:38-41 has a tragic history of poor translations and even worse interpretations. This passage is NOT recommending becoming a doormat; nor does it tolerate domestic violence.

First of all, the translation, “Do not resist an evildoer” fails to convey the full meaning of the underlying Greek. It would be better translated as, “Do not violently resist an evildoer.” Thus the teaching is primarily about non-violence. It is not about acquiescing to evil.

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Called to Shine

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Rev. JuanitaFebruary 11, 2014

Based on Matthew 5:13-20

sweet little lamp in St. Jerome’s cell – the church of the Nativity – Bethlehem

Imagine, if you will, that you are one of Jesus disciples, or someone in the gathering crowd. You’ve heard about this man – you have heard that he recently moved into the neighbourhood and caused a bit of a ruckus in the Zebedee household when James and John left their boats and their dad, to follow him. You’ve heard that he can heal people, and that he’s caused a bit of a stir among the established leaders of the day and that’s enough to peak your interest. Word’s been going around town that he’s preaching up on the hill today, not in the synagogue, and so you and your buddies are checking it out. He’s beginning now and you’re listening in. “You are the salt of the earth”, Jesus says, and you look over your shoulder. Who’s he talking to? Is there some plain-clothes Pharisee standing behind you? “You are the light of the world,” says this itinerant preacher. Again you look around. “YOU are the light of the world”, he says, and this time he’s lookin’ right at you. You’ve been called many things in your life, but it’s never been `salt of the earth’ or `light of the world.’ Whatever does he mean by that, you wonder, and when is he going to get arrested for blasphemy!?

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Get up, go ahead, do something, move…

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Rev. JuanitaFebruary 4, 2014

Based on Matthew 5:1-12

In the last week of November, I had the great privilege of stepping off the bus at the old town-site of Capernaum in Israel and making my way down the rocky bank to the Sea of Galilee. My sandals were quickly off, pant-legs rolled up, and I stepped into that amazing body of water that holds so many of our faith stories. Camera in hand, I took pictures of my feet, my sandals, the sun on the water, my co-pilgrims on the journey. It was sheer delight. Back on the shore, above the archeological dig that was the biblical town of Capernaum, rose a hillside, covered in dry amber-coloured grass. This is the best-guess sight of the Sermon on the Mount, beginning with the Beatitudes that Helen read this morning. After playing in the water and finding a few choice pebbles to bring back for my children, I got down to some serious studying.

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What I Never Knew I Always Wanted

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Rev. JuanitaJanuary 28, 2014

Based on Matthew 4:12-23 and 1^st Corinthians 1:10-18

Andrew and Simon were back to their usual chore – back to fishing. As the first rays of sun cracked open the edge of the horizon, they pushed the old boat off the sandy shore of their home town – Capernaum. They worked instinctively, silently. They knew the routine.

Not much was said when Andrew came back a week ago. He’d gone off several months before to follow some wild-eyed prophet in the desert; some baptizing crusader, shouting repentance like the prophets of old – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos. They’d learned about such great men, as boys in school. But prophets like that were just in the dusty scrolls the old priests read. Weren’t they? That didn’t really happen anymore, – did it? But something had caught Andrew’s attention and he’d gone traipsing off into the desert – a variable fish out of water, and there he stayed.

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Come and See

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Rev. JuanitaJanuary 22, 2014

based on John 1:29-42

When I first read this passage, I found myself getting just a bit irritated. I mean, after all, last week in Matthew’s gospel, in the story of Jesus’ baptism it seem pretty clear that John and Jesus did know each other. In Luke’s gospel it’s clearly stated that their mothers were cousins, and John leapt with joy in Elizabeth’s womb when pregnant Mary came to visit. Yet here in verse 31 John says, `I myself did not know him, but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

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Baptism – Transformation – Healing Change

Posted on January 18, 2014 by Rev. JuanitaFebruary 4, 2014

Juanita at the Jordan River

based on Matthew 3:13-17

You all know the story of Jesus baptism; it’s told a little differently in each gospel, but it is in all four gospels, whereas the story of Jesus birth is only told in two. I wonder what our faith would look like if we spent as much energy on Jesus’ baptism as we do on the stories of Jesus birth. We probably won’t turn society around and do that, but today, I invite you to take this opportunity of `time out’ of the ordinary, to open your heart and mind, and even your body, to the experience of baptism.

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Being the Magi

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Rev. JuanitaJanuary 7, 2014

Based on Matthew 2:1-23 Sunday, January 5th 2014

Are you ready for a spiritual pilgrimage? Do you realize by showing up here this morning, we are opening ourselves to that very thing? There are other, less risky places to be on a Sunday morning. But we are here, and so I invite you to travel with the Magi this morning, to be the Magi this morning, the ones seeking wisdom, divine guidance, the unknown and the unexpected; the ones who risk being changed by the journey.

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Rule Breaker

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Rev. JuanitaDecember 22, 2013

Based on Matthew 1:18-25

On Friday, November 29^th, less than a month ago, I stood in a little chapel in the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Palestine. We had just heard Mathew’s gospel account of the birth of Jesus. You know how when you’ve heard something about a 100 times, you don’t really hear it anymore because you think you know everything there is to know about it? Well there I was, in this appointed sacred place, with a healthy dose of skepticism. I know nobody really knows the facts around Jesus’ birth, and I remember as a youth feeling ostracized by other Christian friends because I was from that United Church which questioned the whole `virgin birth’ story, and I remember thinking, yes but Matthew is misquoting Isaiah, it doesn’t say `virgin’ it says `young woman’ – in Hebrew it’s a different word…

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Beyond the Magnificat

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Rev. JuanitaDecember 18, 2013

Based on Luke 1:38 &47-55

Rev. Laura Hermakin, former priest at St. John’s Anglican Church in Salmon Arm wrote: “The Magnificat, the song of Mary begins so joyfully that its subversive message is often overlooked. We want to rejoice in our Saviour who is merciful, who has done great things for us. We might be less thrilled with one who has “scattered the proud” and “brought down the powerful.” We may be comforted by a Christ who has “filled the hungry with good things,” but we might not want a Saviour who has “sent the rich away empty,” especially those of us who live in wealthy nations.

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