EUGENIA UNITED / ST. JOHN’S UNITED
Summer
Worship 2012
AUGUST
19TH – 12TH of Pentecost
Scripture
Readings:
I Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Psalm 111 (VU 833)
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58
Hymns:
Eugenia:
410 VU This Day God Gives Me
651
VU Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah
501 VU Break Now The Bread of Life
224 VU Sing a Happy Hallelujah
509
VU I The Lord of Sea and Sky
St
John’s:
410 VU This Day God Gives Me
224
VU Sing a Happy Hallelujah
501
VU Break Now The Bread of Life
651
VU Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah
509 VU I The Lord of Sea and Sky
Call to
Worship:
Diana Butler-Bass
writes in her recent book “Christianity after Religion”:
The history of Christianity can be told as a story of
the tension between order and prophecy. Jesus came as a prophet, one who challenged
and transformed Judaism. A charismatic community grew up around his teachings
and eventually formed into the church. The church organized, and then became an
institution. The institution provided guidance and meaning for many millions.
And then it became guarded, protective of the power and wealth it garnered, the
influence it wielded, and salvation it alone provided. (pg 89)
I offer this
quotation today because for the first time in a very long time, I can honestly
say that I am proud to be part of this United Church of ours … I’ve had a long
and winding road in the United Church, and have often felt that as a
bureaucracy, the United Church has lost its connection with that which makes it
the United Church. We’ve let the rules and the policies and procedures define
us – we’ve listened to the lawyers so much in the wake of the Residential
School findings, that our core of being a Church engaging the world with values
of faith has slipped away … today prophecy has pushed back the order and
something courageous has happened …
But this past week as
I watched, listened and read about what was happening at the 41st
gathering of our General Council, I felt the refreshing winds of the Spirit
blowing not only through that court of the Church, but outwards into the
circles of community we call home … For the first time in almost 30 years our
Church has embraced and enacted spirit fueled change. And over and over and
over, as resolutions were discussed, debated and voted on, delegates and Church
voices spoke of prayer … spoke of discernment … and spoke of listening for and
listening to the Spirit …
It was a truly
remarkable week, and one that stirs hope … this past week we’ve moved and grown
and embraced our faith like never before.
Some of the
highlights from this General Council include the changes to the United Church crest
to reflect our long history with the First Nations of our country. Our Crest
now bears the four directional colours in the background panels, and the Mohawk
words for “That all may be one.” As GC ended, a formal protocol was signed
between the Church and the First Nations ministries to reflect not only the
past that we’ve walked, but to help improve relations in the future … we’ve
taken another step in living the historic apologies our Church has offered our
First Nations sisters and brothers for the errors of the past.
At GC we’ve also had
the adoption of the three articles of faith we were part of studying through
the fall and winter – now, in addition to the Articles of Faith we include the
Statement of Faith, the New Creed and the Song of Faith as part of the
definition of who we are …
GC also stood with
the First People of BC and said an emphatic NO to the proposed Northern Gateway
pipeline that would carry oil into Kitamaat and send tankers out through the
rugged BC coastline.
GC took the unpopular
stand to call on Israel to stop building settlements on the occupied
territories and to change its approach to the Palestinian people. The initial
proposal was modified, and we are called now to boycott products from the Occupied
territories and to prioritize our support of the Palestinian people.
And perhaps most
significant of all – our new moderator The Reverend Gary Paterson, the minister
from St Andrew Wesley in Downtown Vancouver steps into the role bringing with
him a gracious and gentle leadership, a deep personal spirituality, a gift for
preaching, and a poet’s sense of the prophetic role of Church. Gary also
happens to be gay, and his spouse of over 30 years, Tim Stevenson, are very
much part of the historic journey we’ve taken as a Denomination in our
acceptance of Lesbian and Gay people not only in our congregations, but in our
leadership.
We stand in an
interesting time … our Church has courageously and boldly wrestled with issues
of economics, politics and spirituality, and for the first time in a very long
time we have a positive feeling coming out of our National meetings …
Yet, yesterday the
media offered a ‘study’ that claims the United Church is doomed … a researcher
at a very conservative Bible College examined the results of a survey conducted
with a small cluster of University students and announced that we – the United
Church – we lost and we are in an irreversible decline …
According to their
findings, our bent for social justice, our political involvement, and our
wandering away from things of faith – have resulted in our increasing
irrelevance. I read the article and found myself laughing at the one sided bias
it offered – the study’s authors are standing outside and yet again taking aim
at the United Church and saying “They’re no longer Christian.”
As I read it sitting
at the farmer’s market, I wondered what their criticism of the Church would be
like NOW with a Gay Moderator … or with our stand against the Northern Gateway …
or our stand WITH the Palestinians …
Yet, in those public
stands, I see hope.
As people get to know
us through our booth at the farmers’ market I see and experience hope …
yesterday a woman bought one of our “Love They Neighbor” t-shirts saying – “I
can’t believe a Church group ACTUALLY offers something like this. Too many
church say the words, but won’t live them … I think it’s great that your Church
offers these to the community … you’re saying AND living the words …”
And that simple idea
is key to sharing our faith and moving forward in our world.
People are not
interested in Church the way it has BEEN. They have wrestled with, and
struggled with the hypocrisy that has too often marked our journey. We have
been rightly accused of saying one thing, but living another … we haven’t been
living the words we share and we’ve suffered the consequences of that.
But today – there is
every indication that within the life of our church – locally AND as a
denomination, something is stirring that not only calls us back to that place
of speaking, living and sharing a consistent message, but it is also something
that draws other people into becoming part of that journey.
Theologian and
researcher Diana Butler-Bass shares an experience she had while on a flight
across the US. The gentleman sitting next to her commented on her going to a
Church Conference that he used to attend Church but didn’t any more.
He noted that
Churches didn’t care about his questions, so there was no reason to keep going.
Diana pressed him about
what questions the church didn’t care about and he replied “Oh doubt, life
making the world a better place – you know – questions … They seemed more
interested in things that don’t really matter. And then perhaps most telling
was his last observation – “Church is disconnected from life …”
Ouch.
We have been
disconnected from life. We’ve built our comfortable worship spaces and shut the
door and tried to create the Kingdom of God here within our neat and tidy walls
… and we’ve failed …
We’ve failed, not because
there is anything wrong with the Kingdom of God, but rather because the Kingdom
of God is not something that will prosper and grow behind closed doors, but
because the Kingdom of God is about going out into the world and engaging our
neighbors, our community and our world in sharing, celebrating and LIVING the
Kingdom.
The Kingdom of God is
about living the words we speak.
ALL around us our
world is struggling … economically many people are struggling to make ends meet
and to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads … politically we see
struggles all around the world from far flung corners like Syria where that
struggle is bloody and violent and devastating to our own nation where conflicting
ideals are being wrestled with, people are discontented and alienated … and
socially, we are awash in a myriad of issues that can frighten and divide us …
Comedian and political commentator Jon Stewart observed that we live in Hard
times, but not in the end times like some voices would counsel … Diana
Butler-Bass picks up on Jon’s observation by noting that we do indeed live in
hard times, and perhaps the opportunity is there for Church folks – you and I –
to step up and engage the world with what we have to offer.
We are the Body of
Christ – the risen and transformed community that has the Gospel to share … we
are the Kingdom of God and we have that message to offer not to one another,
but to our neighbours, our community and the world.
AND, today, perhaps
like never before we have an opportunity to LIVE our faith because of the
discontent rampant in our society:
Butler Bass observes
of discontent:
Not many people think of discontent as a gift –
however, discontent is the beginning of change. Only by noticing what is wrong,
seeing the systems and structrures that do not foster health and happiness, can
we eve make things different. If people were satisfied, there would be no
reason to reach for more, no motivation for creativity and innovation. Discontent
is one short step from longing for a better life, a better society, and a
better world; and loning is another short step from doing something about what
is wrong. Indeed, restlessness possesses a spiritual quality – as Jesus said –
blessed are the poor in spirit, for their’s is the kingdom of God!” (pg 84)
Butler Bass goes on
to celebrate the spiritual dimension of discontent noting:
Religious discontent is indistinguishable from the
history of spiritual renewal and wakening. Relgion is often characterized as contentment,
the idea that faith and faithfulness offer peace, security, and certainty. …
religion has another guise as well – the prophetic tradition. In the prophetic
mode, faith discomforts the members of a community, opens their eyes and hearts
to the shortcomings of htier own lives and injustice in the world, and presses
for human society to more fully embody God’s dream of healing and love for ALL
peoples.
Religious faiths
struggle between the pastoral and prophetic comfort and agitation. In a very
real way, institutions are inherently pastoral – they seek to maintain those
things that give comfort by baptizing shared values and virtues of a community.
They reinforce the way things are (or were) through appeals to divine or
supernatural order. They are always slow to change. Institutions resist
prophets. Prophets question. They push for things to be different. They push
people to behave better toward one another. They want change.
… What the
church taught seemed at odds with their experience of life or God. They became
increasingly disenchanted with what the Church offered. Discontent grew. They
questioned the way things were done. They experimented with new ideas and
spiritual practises. They met on the
sly, singing subversive songs and praying to their favourite (often unapproved)
saints, and served people the institution overlooked or oppressed. They bent
the rules and often broke them. The established Church typically ignored them,
sometimes tolerated them, or often branded them heretics, tried to control them
and occasionally killed them. When enough people joined the ranks of the
discontented, the institutional church had to pay attention. In the process,
and sometimes unintentionally, the church opened itself up for genuine change
and renewal
Today, the
movements of the discontent are remembered by names many people REVERE: the
Benedictine renewal, the Franciscan movement, the Brethren, the Protestant
Reformation, the Anabaptist community and THE METHODISTS. (pg 88-89)
We DO live in hard
times – times of discontent and uncertainty … and every indication is there to
tell us that as the Spirit moves among us, we are embodying and sharing a faith
that when lived rather than just spoken of, has the potential of transforming
not only ourselves, but the world around us.
Being willing to
engage the world and wrestle with the big and uncomfortable issues has been
part of who we are as United Church, and today, for the first time in almost a
generation we seem to have once again remembered that … research tells us that
people today are searching for places to explore their spiritual issues and to
wrestle with life’s questions. They want a place where they can feel God’s
presence and where the people practise what they preach …
Today it would seemt hat the United Church of Canada
has remembered our heritage as a Church that was born of spiritual and Spirit-FILLED
discontent!!
Look around this sanctuary
… we’re doing that in real and tangible ways every day … the doors are open …
let’s go out in to the world and offer the whisper of hope that arises from our
faith engaging the discontent ALL around us!!
May it be so … thanks
be to God … Let us pray …
