↓
 

Sicamous United Church

The United Church of Canada

Sicamous United Church
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Worship
  • Sermons
  • News
  • Calendar
  • Photos
  • Thrift Shop
  • Contact

Post navigation

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 … 19 20 >>

Longing for a Glimpse of Hope

Sicamous United Church Posted on December 31, 2017 by Rev. JuanitaDecember 31, 2017

With reference to Galatians 4:4-7 the first written reference to Jesus’ birth where Paul simply says he was `born of a woman’ & Luke 2:22-40 Jesus is presented at the temple and Simeon and Anna know that God is up to something in this child.

 This morning we sat in a circle and took turns reading the scriptures from different translations and finding where it sparked a response in us.  We also engaged with the following questions and ended the service by blessing each other into the New Year by joining hands and singing Auld Lang Syne.

Questions to ponder:

Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons

Protecting Love

Sicamous United Church Posted on December 17, 2017 by Rev. JuanitaDecember 17, 2017

with reference to Luke 1:46-55

The “Magnificat” – such powerful words by a young unwed mother-to-be.   This was her song of praise when she found she was pregnant, and trusted God with how things would work out.  I love the version we just sang, with that powerful Irish tune backing it up.  It is a song of God tossing the unjust rulers of this world off their thrones and lifting up the weak, and feeding the hungry and sending the rich away empty- handed.  I’m sure when Mary sang it she thought she was invincible and with a little help from God she could change the world.

But then – Jesus was born.  And despite the beautiful Christmas carols we sing of a blissful mother and a non-colicky baby, and hosts of adoring angels, I don’t think that’s what Mary experienced when the powerful contractions hit. Her baby, as the story goes, was born in some hovel, miles away from her extended family, in a political climate that would not tolerate murmurings of any kind of king or saviour, or anyone who might have the audacity to bring good news to the poor.  I expect that Mary felt very alone and afraid, despite the awkward assurances of Joseph.

We know, don’t we, in various ways what it is like to feel helpless in the face of someone else’s pain.  We know what it is to be frightened when we have no control over what is going on around us, or all our plans crumble beyond repair.

The stories around Jesus’ birth are more metaphor that they are history – we really don’t know how things unfolded; each gospel is different, yet each story has truth inside it.  Each story speaks to our human condition of danger and hope, of wonder and wandering.  The gospel of Matthew tells us that this little family had to go into exile – hiding over the border for a time in Egypt, for fear of King Herod – the narcissistic and powerful local ruler.

Mary gave birth to Love, and she and Joseph would protect that love however they could.  I remember clearly the moment I held my baby son for the very first time.  I didn’t think motherhood came naturally to me.  Suddenly I understood the primal animal instinct to protect one’s young.  I was shocked by it – I knew instinctively I would protect his life, even if it meant losing my own.  Fortunately, it hasn’t come to that, and in a couple months he too will discover the mysterious and marvelous world of being a parent.

But as I reflected on my experience of holding my babies in my arms, feeling the joy and the terror of being responsible for the well-being of these tiny lives, I wondered what is was really like for Mary, the mother of Jesus, on the night of his birth.  We sang the words of the Magnificat, the song Mary sang when she felt invincible before the child was born.

I wrote the song “After the Magnificat”, in 1986, as I pondered these things.  I wrote it as in `the words, and the guitar chords’, but it was not really accessible for the rest of the world.   Today it is.  In 2016, thirty years after I wrote the words, I penciled in the basic notes on a sheet of music paper, and my friend Sabrina listened intently to me singing and playing it.  “I detect a bit of a calypso beat”, she said, which surprised me – I didn’t know I knew how to play calypso!  Anyway – she did a wonderful musical score of the song, and I am delighted to have the Black & Bluez Band backing me up today, so I can share it with you.

After the Magnificat  

Tiny child, so soft and warm – How calm you are in the eye of the storm.

1. I was so excited with you inside of me

but now you’re in a big new world, now you are free.

I shall teach you how to walk, hope it will be fun,

but now I question in my mind – will you have to run?

Tiny child, so soft and warm – How calm you are in the eye of the storm.

2. The world is waging war on every side,

everyone wants more and more, they’re never satisfied,

we are so in need of hope, we long for liberty,

our cry is echoed in the wind, it’s moaning through the trees.

Tiny child, so soft and warm – How calm you are in the eye of the storm.

3. I am so frightened.  How can I provide

a place to grow and live, a place to hide?

Is there some secret that I cannot see?

Have you some wisdom that you can share with me?

Tiny child, so soft and warm,  how calm you are, – you `Eye of the Storm.’

 

Words and music – Juanita Austin – April 1986 

Musical arrangement – Sabrina Trigg 2016

 

Posted in Sermons

Your `credentials’ please…

Sicamous United Church Posted on December 13, 2017 by Rev. JuanitaDecember 13, 2017

Based on Isaiah 61:1-11 & John 1:1-14

 Here is a story that I don’t remember, but I have been told that it is true…  When I was a little girl about Georgia’s age (3), living at the service station my parents co-owned at Mile 245 on the Alaska Highway, some traveler asked me, “Who are you?”  I replied “I’m Goldilocks… I think.”

It takes time to know who you truly are, what your gifts are, and what your calling in life is.  And just when you think you’ve got it figured out, it can change!

Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons

Advent 2 – A Path of Peace

Sicamous United Church Posted on December 5, 2017 by Rev. JuanitaDecember 5, 2017

Based on Isaiah 40:1-11, and Mark 1:1-8

 What do 65.3 million people in the world have in common?  They are refugees – they are homeless – having fled war and or persecution.  They are living in exile.  On average – they remain uprooted for 17 years.  On average!

Human history is rife with people who have had to be on the move – not always from the tragedy of war and persecution, but uprooted, exiled to some degree.

Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons

Advent 1 – Hope and Beyond.

Sicamous United Church Posted on November 28, 2017 by Rev. JuanitaNovember 28, 2017

With reference to Mark 13:24-37 Isaiah 64: 1-9

`O God, tear open the heavens and come down, make the mountains quake and rivers boil, make the nations sit up and take notice.’   So is the cry of the rag tag bunch of exiles who have come home to Jerusalem 50 years after been lead into slavery in Babylon.  But what have they come home to – a city destroyed, their temple – nothing but a pile of rubble.

Some 520 years or so later, in some backwater town, in a little country on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, a child is born one night in some animal shelter.  No one takes note, except his anxious parents, and the story tells that some unlikely visitors, shepherds from the surrounding hills, come to take a peek at the wee one.

The mountains did not tremble, and the adversaries of God only stretched and yawned.

Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons

Singing our Faith (Favourite Hymns)

Sicamous United Church Posted on November 19, 2017 by Rev. JuanitaNovember 19, 2017

What an awesome morning!  Twelve songs, and even more beautiful and tender stories of why these songs held a special place in our hearts.  We were joined by members of Canoe United Church this morning, and although they didn’t get in on the hymn choosing, they each found one from the list that they too could tell a story about.  These songs connected people to past places and loved ones, to experiences of loss and grace, to an awareness of God’s healing love and transformation.  There were tears, but they were prayerful and blessed.  There was laughter, and it too was holy.  There was gratitude that both Jim and Steve, –post medical treatment, were strong enough to make music, and Barb filled out the sound with piano accompaniment.  Georgia, at just under three years old, added percussion when the spirit moved her.  Despite an untimely bout of sore throat, I managed to lead the singing, and we all enjoyed refreshments and conversation after worship.  Oh, and here’s what we sang.  What’s your favourite?

Favourite hymns:

We Sing of Welcome

VU 315 Holy, holy, holy – a favourite of Kris Nickerson

VU 409 Morning Has Broken – a favourite of Joanne Fitzpatrick

Church in the Wildwood (Little Brown Church in the Vale)  a favourite of Ann Dolman

We Sing of Grace  

VU 365 Jesus Loves Me – a favourite of Georgia Smith

VU 266 Amazing Grace – a favourite of Joanne Fitzpatrick

In the Garden – a favourite of Anne Dolman

We Sing of Trust in God

MV 106 I Am the Dream – a favourite of Jim McConnell

VU p808 On Eagle’s Wings (chorus only) – a favourite of Bernice Hyam

VU 959 Our Father (Lord’s prayer)

We Sing of Discipleship 

MV 161 I Have Called You – a favourite of Amanda VanDamme

VU 657 He Leadeth Me – a favourite of Kris Nickerson

VU 352 Lord of the Dance (I Danced in the Morning) – a favourite of Helen Pearson

 

Posted in Sermons

Got a Light?

Sicamous United Church Posted on November 17, 2017 by Rev. JuanitaNovember 17, 2017

Based on Joshua 24 and Matthew 25:1-13

 Usually I am a great proponent of people helping each other, team work, group effort etc.  There’s too much individualism!  But there are times when you alone have to make a decision for it affects the way you live your life.

The reading from Joshua takes place after the tribes of Israel have established a hold on the Promised Land.  Joshua, Moses successor, and the military commander of the people is close to dying.  He’s led, and worked and advised, but now he is old, and he has one last chance to address the people.

Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons

What to wear, what to wear?

Sicamous United Church Posted on November 5, 2017 by Rev. JuanitaNovember 5, 2017

yes, I do own a clergy collar!

A reflection on Matthew 23: 1-12

Some time ago, 20 years in fact, while I was in ministry at St. Andrew’s United Church in Williams Lake, Barry Sale, a member of the congregation brought me a gift.  It was something I had never seen before – or since. Cylindrical in shape, six inches in diameter, 2 inches deep, and covered in a soft leather drawstring bag.  `What is this?’ I asked.  `Open it’, he replied.  (Should I?)

Inside I found some antique starched linen clergy collars… and this note:

Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons

MAKING ROOM at the TABLE

Sicamous United Church Posted on October 25, 2017 by Rev. JuanitaOctober 25, 2017

fish from the Sea of Galilee

a sermon by John Longhurst in support of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank with reference to Luke 14: 12-24 (Jesus tells a parable of a host inviting the most unlikely guests to his banquet) 

In order to fully appreciate the point Jesus is making in this parable, we need some background on social and religions codes in 1st century Palestine. As people who live in the 21st century, we don’t rank people according to their income, social standing, disabilities or religious purity—or, at least, we shouldn’t. As a result, it can be hard for us to understand what is going on in this chapter. Things were more complicated back in first century Palestine. When it came to social events like banquets, there were rules related to wealth & social standing, purity, reciprocity and even where to sit. Only those of similar wealth and social standing, only those deemed pure by the rigorous purity laws of the day, and only those who could afford to extend a return invitation should be invited to be your guests. And as for where to sit, the closer you were seated to your host, the higher your status in their society.

Continue reading →

Posted in Sermons

Searching through the wreckage… for treasures of gratitude.

Sicamous United Church Posted on October 14, 2017 by Rev. JuanitaOctober 14, 2017

With reference to Deuteronomy 8:7-19 and Luke 17:11-19

 In this season of the church year, over the past few months we have remembered the pivotal story of the Exodus, the events of the Hebrew scripture from Joseph in Egypt, through the generations to Moses – into a time of slavery and suffering.  We have celebrated the courage and tenacity of the women who helped Moses to survive and become a leader.  We have walked together through the sea into a path of freedom.

That freedom had its price. The price was uncertainty, hunger and thirst, it was losing the familiar, it was having to live together in community in a new way, and now… now we watch as the long journey is nearly over.  We watch as the people gather to enter a land that is already occupied by others, and we know that we are hearing history from the perspective of those who will soon over take it.  There are all sorts of ethical ambiguities about that – so let’s just acknowledge it for now.  In the reading from today, part of Moses’ final address to the people, he tries to bring it home to their hearts one last time – `Don’t forget the God who brought you here.  Don’t forget when you’ve finally made it to easy street, when your crops and flocks and investments are doing well –that you did not do this all yourself.’

Although not specified in the reading, when you take over what someone else has built, you not only have God, but you have them to thank.  The reading for today generally stops at verse 18 “Remember it is God who gives you this power and wealth as a sign of the covenant God made with your ancestors.  I added the verse 19 – because it’s there.  “If you forget God, I warn you that you will be destroyed.”  Oh I just wreck all the fun don’t I?

The thing is, whether it’s the new generation of freed slaves about to enter the land of Canaan, or any multinational mining company, or any person or group of people that says – “this is mine – I made it, I won it, I conquered it, I get it”- then we’re in trouble.   When we are in it only for ourselves, when we set ourselves up as the winners, when we don’t act with humility – we will face destruction every bit as much as those who heard the words on the edge of the promised land, for we live on a finite planet, and we ignore that to our peril.

Jim and I watched a documentary last week Call of The Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees about scientist, conservationist and author, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, on her journey to the most beautiful forests of the northern hemisphere. She tells us the amazing stories behind the history and legacy of these ancient forests while also explaining the science of trees and the irreplaceable roles they play in protecting and feeding the planet.  I want to say more about that another day, but it connects with the need for humility about our place in the universe.  There must be a sense of awe, a sense of interdependence, a sense of more (not more for us, but more than us), for this awareness builds gratitude.

It seems so simple to be grateful, to say Thank You, but it can go madly off in all directions as we see in the story of the healing of the 10 lepers, the return of the one and speculation about the lives of the others.  There are so many other responses possible – depending on our life experience, our frame of mind, our training, and our orientation toward life.  I tried to explore the various options in this song called: The Other Nine

THE OTHER NINE

Were there not ten lepers healed that day?  

Were there not ten lepers who walked away?

One came back to give God praise,

What happened to the nine on the healing day? 

 

One walked away, afraid to look back 

In case Jesus found in him some lack,

Some reason to rescind this gift of grace 

 He didn’t want to look into that holy face.

 

The second was tired of getting’ down on his knees,  

And beggin’ and thankin’ and sayin’ “please.”

The third didn’t think it had anything to do 

With the words of Jesus who said, “I love you.”

 

The four was a woman who just wanted to go home

Seven years in exile is too long to roam,

The fifth was afraid of this new freedom he had.

Jesus took away his lifestyle and now he was mad!

 

The sixth leper felt he was duty bound

To go to the police and report what he found. 

You can’t have someone messin’ with the status quo

Sayin’ “God forgives you” when it just isn’t so. 

 

A seventh man looked – not a leperous spot. 

He was so damn happy well – he just forgot!

The eight went to the priest who said, “My son,

I’ll let you back in the temple, but don’t tell anyone.”

 

The ninth leper saw a man who was blind.

She kissed both his eyes and her voice was kind. 

She said, “I’ve been given such a gift today

I pass it on to you so you can see the way.”

 

Were there not ten lepers healed that day?

Were there not ten lepers who walked away? repeat and fade)  

 

words and music by  Juanita Lynn Austin –  April 27th 2012                 

based in part on a reading by Martin Bell – in The Way of the Wolf 

 I hold to the hope of that ninth leper, who turns her healing into a gift and pays if forward.  From what has been the wreckage of her life she offers compassion.

This past week, we heard of the unfathomable tragedy of the shooting spree in Los Vegas.  And while we try to make sense of the senseless, I was struck with the beautiful gift of gratitude people expressed in the aftermath.  The kindness of strangers – holding hands with the dying, rides to the hospital and staying with the wounded until they were wheeled into surgery… Our local Salmon Arm paper has a story of three women from the Shuswap who were at the event, and were helped to safety by strangers.

Little selfless acts that inspire others – even our own little act of turning the money we were going to spend on our roof repair, over to victims of the wild fires, inspired a church in Sarnia Ontario to do the same.  What else have we done and could we do that can continue to inspire?  What have others done that has inspired you to find the treasure of gratitude even in what seems to be the wreckage of life?

Posted in Sermons

Post navigation

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 … 19 20 >>
©2019 - Sicamous United Church
↑