Sermon for January 25th 2015 ...

A Big Fish Story - there's more to Jonah than just a whale of a tale ...

We all know the story of Jonah and the whale ... but there is a problem with that ... the story of Jonah is more than the fantastic and clearly fictional tale of Jonah and the great fish ... even the text says a great fish not a whale ... 

The heart of the story of Jonah is not actually his encounter with the great fish – or whale as we’ve been lead to describe the being that swallows the prophet and later spits him up on dry land within walking distance of the city of Ninevah … take a moment to revisit the geography of that event alone … Jonah is swallowed somewhere in the Mediterranean then spit up on the shore within walking distance of Ninevah … the whale broke ALL aquatic speed records going out into the Atlantic, racing around the continent of Africa and then up around the Arabia peninsula to modern day Iraq …

Given that fact alone, we can draw the conclusion that the intent of the book was not to convey a historical nor a factual event, but rather to convey a lesson … a lesson that may be all about the very nature of God and how God relates to us … The story begins with the unbelievable perhaps to allow us to comprehend God more fully …

The heart of Jonah’s story is his own struggle coming to understand God and God’s nature more fully …

After Jonah answers God’s call to go to Ninevah and seek the repentance of the city – the very call that caused Jonah to flee on the ship to begin with – Jonah goes to the great city and the most amazing thing happens – the ENTIRE city repents – the whole city – from the highest and most powerful down to the lowly homeless beggars … they all fasted, put on sackcloths and ashes to show their repentance.

But Jonah didn’t embrace this as a good thing – instead he was ticked off – he wanted to see God’s wrath fall down on the city in fire or earthquake or at the very least some sort of pestilence or suffering … but that was not the way God chose.

One can almost hear Jonah whining and complaining to God – “I should have known this is what you would do … you give compassion when revenge is due … you should give punishment but noooooooo … you forgive them … YOU FORGIVE THEM!!”

And God answers Jonah asking – What reason to you have to be so peeved?

Jonah doesn’t reply but instead stomps off in a huff and heads into the desert to pout …  but God wasn’t done with Jonah yet – God caused a castor oil plant to spring up and shade the pouting prophet. The next morning, however, God sent a worm to cut the plant down, and then sent the scorching sun and a hot wind from the east to heat up the situation. Once again the prophet proclaims I would be better off dead.

God then asks again – “what reason do you have to be so angry?”

Jonah snaps – EVERY REASON!

God then says – “you are more concerned about a plant than you are about all my people. But you had nothing to do with its springing up or its being cut down. It just grew one day and died the next. Shouldn’t I have more compassion on the great city with a hundred thousand people who do not even know their right hand from their left? Who does not know their right hand from their left? Small children and people of any age who have the minds of small children … Should I not save an entire city for the sake of small children and people like small children ?

In a reflection on the book of Jonah and this exchange between God and the prophet, the great American Jewish rabbi and mystic Abraham Heschel observes that the essential lesson of the book of Jonah – the story of Jonah and the great fish, Jonah watching Ninevah repent, and the story of Jonah and the castor seed bush – ALL of it – is focused almost entirely on the revelation or the reminder that beyond justice and anger lies the mystery of compassion.

The very nature of God is about the supremacy of compassion.

The image of God being presented here emphasizes the mystery of God and God as just and merciful …

The story here is about morality and the relationship with God, not historicity and factual accuracy. The book of Jonah is described by some scholars as a midrash – a literary form that fills in background information and offers a reflective lesson. Unlike other prophetic books, Jonah’s emphasis is on the nature of God rather than the oracles.

The Midrash discussion raises questions like:

Can God change God’s mind and repent?

Does God’s preference to grant life rather than death extend beyond Israel?

Why weren’t the great empires that pounded Israel destroyed like the other prophets foretold?

And perhaps most significant – Is divine Mercy a more powerful attribute of God’s than justice?

This discussion then in turn opens the door to a broader spectrum of lessons for the listener … the midrash lesson on the very nature of God’s mercy and compassion leads into a critique of the prophetic profession by highlighting Jonah’s moodyness and pouting and his outright refusal to follow God’s call.

The attitude and response of Jonah perhaps offers an intentional counter point to the profession of prophecy in the ancient world … is the work of the prophet about promoting the Holy and the yearnings of God, or is it about the individual and their ego … Are the prophets to be the latest televangelist or onscreen spiritual guru of their day, or are they to promote and share the mercy and grace of God?

By his actions Jonah is rejecting God’s will, and focusing a bit too much on his ego … but God is patient, and draws him back … God shows the path to be trod, and guides him back. The mercy shown to Ninevah highlights that prophecy is not all about doom and destruction it is about transformation and renewal. The prophets standing in the market crying out that God’s wrath is about to fall upon the people may have a point – but the BIGGER point is that God’s mercy is at play and the prophets are merely messengers … God’s will shall be done …

This reminder then leads us to the third and final movement in the book of Jonah - a full and dramatic celebration of this merciful and loving God.

The celebration begins with Jonah fleeing by boat, then encountering a massive and devastating storm that results in his being heaved overboard only to be swallowed by a fish … the prelude is impressive and highly dramatic. But the gift of forgiveness and grace that comes in the main act is spectacular.

The book echoes phrases and images from the Psalms … Psalm 139 that celebrates that there is no where we can escape from God – if we go to the farthest reaches of world God is still there … if I flee anywhere God is still there … even the imagery of Jonah in the dark damp belly of the fish, draws the listener back to the lesson from the Psalms that even in the deepest corners of Sheol God will STILL be there …

In the depth of despair – and really is there any where more dark and desperate than in the belly of a fish?

In that despair God is still there … we can never escape from God no matter where we are …

So, on that background we then paint the lesson of repentance and forgiveness of Ninevah …

Jonah moves from the belly of the fish to be spat out on to dry land, and then he is party to the massive repentance of Israel’s greatest foe – Ninevah … God’s mercy is free and unlimited and it extends even to the residents of Ninevah. This is the stuff of theological high drama – it is in the view of Heschel, an expression of God’s nature in an unforgettable and highly memorable way.

As we close the book of Jonah what we should be carrying away with us is an appreciation that God’s anger is reactive BUT also transient, and even more importantly, beyond God’s anger lies something more.

God’s anger passes, but God’s love endures and from that anger remains righteousness and justice – misphat and hesed … the two core principles that undergird the ancient Jewish understanding of God.

God can be vengeful and angry

But God is also loving and kind

God can destroy a society in wrath

But God will also embrace the lonely and forgotten and draw them from dark horrid places they may be …

God is all about extending righteousness and justice to all not just for the select few … God is far bigger than our understanding, and instead of pouting like Jonah, we are invited to behold the majesty and awe that comes with the full and total repentance of a people like those in Ninevah … and that is the ultimately lesson for all of us …

 Let us pray …

Sermon for January 18th 2015 ...

WHAT IF ...

Walter Brueggemann writes:

Persons living in a system of anxiety and fear and consequently GREED have no time nor energy for the common good. Defining anxiety focuses total attention on the self at the expense of the common good.

As Canadians we pride ourselves on the provision and maintenance of the common good. We look back on the work of Tommy Douglas and medicare and pat ourselves on the back and say – “we’re good at providing for the common good … we’re all about the common good …”

But are we?

Four men have died homeless on the streets of Toronto this winter, and one in Brandon and no doubt others in other cities and communities … unemployment and precarious employment abound … the economics are not helping the majority of our fellow citizens … and all around us the common good is not what we think it is … it is fading and eroding and is less than good and less than common …

Yet the myth persists … even though we are living in a belief structure that emphasizes paucity rather than abundance. We live on a planet that is overwhelming in its resources and in what it offers us in our lives – yet we have come to believe that we live in a world that lacks much …

To return for a moment to Brueggemann – he writes of this:

Our immediate experience of the kingdom of paucity is our entitled consumerism in which there is always a HOPE for more in which we imagine that something more will make us more comfortable, safer and happier.

Brueggemann goes on to describe the tools by which a complacency is imposed and as a society, we buy into a myth that we live in a time and place of paucity, and we are to work harder and harder for more and more, when in fact we have enough … maybe even more than enough … but we have been convinced otherwise by political and business leaders, we are bombarded by the media constantly that we need the newer, bigger, latest more flashy gadget and gizmo, and we’re told over and over that our common good is under attack, not from OUR greedy and selfish choices but by external threats like immigrants, aliens, or today’s latest villain – terrorists …

We are immersed in a message that the common good is under threat, but we are never encouraged to look at where that threat comes from …

Perhaps though, like young Samuel lying in the dark of the temple compound waiting for a return of that whisper calling to him – perhaps we too are waiting for that call … or perhaps we need to heed it individually, and  collectively.

What if … what if, we are being challenged and called as a people to step up and act to preserve, reinforce and expand the Common Good by remaining grounded in our scriptures, our traditions and in who we are?

What if we are called to MORE?

Reflecting on the butterfly effect where a tiny action has enormous repercussions a Buddhist writer observes:

We can never know how our actions will ripple out and affect others. We may, though force of habit, disparage ourselves, considering an action to be inadequate, or resign ourselves to its certain mediocrity, but we can’t possibly know the ultimate result of anything we do. TS Elliot wrote “For us there is only the trying. The is not our business.”  Sharon Salzberg goes on to observe: “Life can’t be explained by a perfectly linear predictability – “I thought this, so he felt that …” It is a LOT MESSIER, and more outrageous, and more mysterious. However, this remarkable ‘coincidence’ can still illustrate the point: Even though the woman didn’t perform a concrete physical or verbal action, her commitment to positive intention apparently had an effect. When our intention is to do good for others, and we nurture that intention, we can have faith that in the same way, often unknown to us, it ripples out …

What if the messiness we are called to face is having the courage to revision the world around us, and to return ourselves and our society to the Common Good we not only believe is there despite all the evidence to the contrary, but that we also need and value. This Common Good needs us to take responsibility for its preservation and continuance, it needs us to act in its defense, and it needs us to speak up and speak out when we see it under attack – that attack could be cuts to medicare, cuts to welfare, cuts to education – even here in our community incremental cuts to programmes at the local high school are an example of the erosion of the common good we ASSUME is here and intact. Periodically, we are called to look around and consider what we are being called to be about …

And as people of faith – this shift from paucity and scarcity to abundance and blessing is not only central to our understanding of the world – it begins here (communion table) and ripples outward in many messy and unexpected ways.

Instead of speaking from a perspective of scarcity, we need (WE MUST) chose to speak with words of blessing and abundance – afterall, we are called by God to more …

Brueggemann  contends we are speak using “verbs of abundance”

He writes:

It is our propensity in society and in church, to trust the narrative of scarcity. That is what makes us greedy and exclusive, and selfish, and coercive. Even the Eucharist can be made into an occasion of scarcity, as though there were not enough for all. Such scarcity leads to exclusion at the table, even as scarcity leads to exclusion from economic life … but the narrative of abundance persists among us. Those who sign on and depart the system of anxious scarcity become the history makers in the neighbourhood. These are the ones not exhausted by Sabbath-less production who have enough energy to dream and hope. From dreams and hopes come neighbourly miracles as good health care, good schools, good housing and good care for the earth. These dreams subvert the nightmare of the world’s pharaohs …  (Journey to the Common Good. Pg 34 – 35)

It calls us – it challenges us  beyond ourselves.

We – you and I are called to act … to allow this transformation to overwhelm us and call us to a commitment to what  Brueggemann calls “the practice of neighbourhood”.

The practice of neighbourhood is about being commitment to the radical idea that we live in a world that has more than enough for everyone. We have a world of abundance … the practice of neighbourhood is about being committed to the common good.

Imagine that … a people of faith motivated to be an engaged and involved citizen beyond our cheque book charity … instead of just writing a cheque or saying a prayer for a cause like homelessness, what if we engaged in addressing it?

Writing letters, picking up the phone and asking our politicians and leaders why temporary food banks and shelters opened in the 1990’s are not only still open but being expanded and joined by more and more … what if, we dared to ask WHY? Why are we neglecting the most vulnerable and marginalized?

The verbs of abundance are part of our calling … a calling that echoes the calling of Samuel and Nathan and Phillip and all the others … a calling that moves us from a notion of “everyone for themselves” back to a place where we remember our neighbours …

We are called to remember that as individuals we are called to be energized by an awareness of the possibilities based on our beliefs, and to commit to the effects of those beliefs that provide hope for improving the society around us … we are called to enact, embrace and BE CHANGE … instead of crying out “someone needs to do something” perhaps our calling is telling us that WE are those who are to do something … it’s not about the latest hot button cause or what special interest groups are about – it is about being called by faith, to preserve, commit and live the common good that is based in an understanding of abundance and generosity.

Our God is generous and our world teems with abundance … why do we fail so miserably to act accordingly?

            Why have we fallen into a belief of paucity and scarcity?

Why do we not heed our call?

The common good is calling … for the sake of our neighbours, do we dare over look and ignore it?

            What if …?

Let us pray …

Sermon for January 11th 2015 - What if? ... a prophetic call to action ...

When I encounter the Genesis reading and reflect on what to say this morning, given a troubling week in our world with events and happenings that have been deeply troubling and disturbing … as I thought about what I might be able to offer by way of reflection today two stories come to mind. Both set on beaches …

The first story has an old man and his grandchild walking along the beach at sun set … the beach is perhaps along the Mediterranean in what we today call Israel … the sun is setting over the horizon as the two make their way along the sand in silence … the quiet is broken by the young child – when I first heard this story almost 40 years ago, the child was a boy, but today we know it could be a boy or a girl … the child addresses his grandfather asking – “where did it all come from?”

Bewildered, the grandfather says “all? What do you mean all?”

Looking up at the stars beginning to sparkle in the twilight sky, and at the expanse of water and sand around them the child says – “all of this …” waving his arm dramatically, “where did all of this come from?”

“Oh,” laughs the grandfather, “all of creation … well, when I was about your age my grand father told me what his grandfather had told him, which has been told to him by his grandfather before him … Grandfather said – “in the beginning …”

And so, one version of how the Genesis story of creation came into being and has been passed on from generation to generation began …

The heart of the story we tell and retell as generations before have told and retold the same story, is that all of this – all that we see and touch and hear and experience – ALL of it, is Good …

Created by God – creation is beautiful and breath-taking and GOOD!

If we peruse our headlines and reflect on happenings in our world over the last few days from the ongoing search for the missing airlines in the south, to the devastating massacres in Paris and Nigeria and persistent violence and conflict around the globe ... in the face of these happenings, it is easy to say that the world is far from good and that we live in a dark and troubled world … but then, a second story comes to mind …

This story, like the first is on a beach and has a young child and a parent or grandparent walking along the sand following a storm. The surface of the beach is covered with star fish washed up by the waves of the storm … with the sun coming out the star fish are beginning to die as they dry out. The young girl runs and grabs star fish in both hands and dashes back to the surf and tosses the creatures as far into the water as her arm can manage to toss them.

“Oh honey,” says her grandfather looking about at the hundreds or even thousands of star fish scattered across the sand, “I don’t think it’s worth the effort. There are so many star fish, you can’t possibly make a difference …”

Undaunted, the little girl picks us more starfish and tosses them into the surf looking at her grandfather saying “Makes a difference to that one …”

In the face of the dark stories that can rob us of hope, the stories of two children walking along the sands of a beach call us to reframe our moods and opinions and to remember AND to accept that Creation is good, and maintaining that goodness is up to us …

Jesus’ baptism sets the model for our baptism – as he rises from the water the voice rings out from heaven – “this is my beloved in whom I am well please …”

In our own baptism, whether it was a decade or seven decades ago, echo that sentiment – we are God’s beloved, in whom God is well pleased … as we rise (usually figuratively) from the waters of baptism, we are charged WITH our community to affirm that all of creation around us is GOOD, and that with that goodness comes the calling to be like the little girl in our second story … to see around us the devastation of the storm and instead of sitting on our hands and bemoaning how terrible things might be – we take hold of one of the afflicted and make a difference to “that one” …

One life at a time we can make a difference … one gesture at a time we can and we should and we are obligated by faith to affirm the goodness of creation, and to share our faith through our actions and our lives … that’s the commissioning that comes through Baptism when we are affirmed as God’s beloved and sent into the world with God’s love and presence upon us …

BUT …

BUT !!!!

If this was true, and we as people of faith, really took that commissioning seriously, why are we still struggling with issues of violence, alienation, poverty, homelessness, and all of the dark and troubling stories that fill our news each day … stories that take away the light and the goodness and cause us to think that the world is a bad place filled with bad people?

Over the last month, I have had several conversations with people who have challenged me in a positive way to reflect on whether my calling to ministry remains in the day to day ministry of serving in a Pastoral Charge like this … as I’ve been asked by folks outside the church – “are you sure this is what you are supposed to be?” I simultaneously have encountered literally dozens of articles and reports on poverty, food security, homelessness, wealth inequity, precarious housing, precarious employment and the growing socio-economic problems our community, our nation and our society are facing …

Six years ago, I was working for the Federal Government immersed in the world of programme and policy setting as the Homelessness Coordinator for the City of Brandon in Manitoba … conversations about all of these issues were first and foremost and it seemed that we might begin to do things in new ways that actually make a difference …

Six years later, one of those I was working to help died alone and cold – a victim of the cold in an urban park in Brandon … the use of food banks is higher now than it has ever been … across Canada more and more people are using food banks and soup kitchens found in smaller and smaller towns … the needs for affordable housing, adequate food and income that meets expenses is more urgent than ever before …

What bothers me is not being out of the circles of conversation about these issues – but that when I look at the conversations WITHIN the church – within the body commissioned to care for the widows and orphans – to care for the very marginalized who are most effected by income insecurity, poverty, housing issues and all that accompanies – when I look to the church for words and gestures that address these issues, I see lovely stories of one little boy or little girl doing what they can to make a difference to THAT ONE … this is where my struggle lies right now – I see a disconnect in what the church is saying and doing and what it should be doing … the old Social Gospeller within me is dissatisfied with where the Church is heading … we aren’t addressing the real issues any more … we’re keeping it light and fluffy and pink and fuzzy …

Admittedly, our focus is often on simple survival – how will we keep the lights on and the doors open? How will we attract more people?

Or we are focused on hot button issues that lead us astray from what we are really facing … despite the fact that jesus himself spoke more about economic issues than he ever said about sex (and I won’t mention that jesus said absolutely NOTHING about issues of homosexuality) despite the evidence that Jesus was concern about economics more than almost anything else – you seldom see Churches where economics are discussed – instead issues of sex dominants the focus of most churches and we keep our conversations and studies and sermons in a warm pink fuzzy glow … we don’t talk honestly about what MORE we can do beyond helping that one …

But as people of faith, we are called to act … helping one is good, but as Michael Enright pointed out on CBC last week – helping one by supplying fresh socks, a new toothbrush, a meal or two and maybe a blanket is good – and it makes us feel better – but it is not addressing the issue, nor offering meaningful solutions …

The isolated acts of charity are desperately needed and are valuable and faithful – but we need to take the next step in affirming that creation is truly good – but committing ourselves to returning it to that state of goodness by actively and consciously and FAITHFULLY doing more than just handing out socks and bowls of soup on occasion …

What would happen is ALL the members of ALL the Churches across Canada appealed to their MP’s and our Prime Minister demanding that the social issues around poverty, food security, housing and homelessness are addressed with more than just bandaids?

What if we demanded a National Housing Policy that begins with declaring housing a right NOT a privilege?

What if we demanded that instead of building more and more volunteer run food banks and soup kitchens, our Government implemented a guaranteed minimum income for ALL Canadians that ensures adequate access to food, shelter and clothing?

What if – instead of demanding tax cuts that result in programme cuts to services to the most vulnerable, and instead of calling them welfare cheats we treat them as fellow citizens and the neighbours they are and we NAME the simple fact that far more money is given in tax cuts to the wealthiest among us, and in subsidies to businesses that pay extravagant bonuses and salaries to their executives while cutting wages and benefits to their workers – far more money goes to THAT, than has ever gone to supporting social assistance programmes … instead of bailing out banks with BILLIONS of dollars that went to pay bonuses to execs for a job well done … sit with THAT for a moment – since 2008 BILLIONS in government money paid the executives for a job well done in a banking sector  that needed a gov’t bail out to keep the banks open and operating – where was the job well done? They bankrupted the bank and needed Government money BUT STILL got millions in bonuses … if I bankrupt my shop I don’t get rewarded I get to be homeless … yet we’ve come accept that we will spend Millions of dollars to prop up business and banks – MILLIONS and not blink an eye – but when it comes to social assistance programmes that offer help to the most vulnerable and marginalized we will insist on full accounting down to the penny lest someone cheat on the meager income the programme offers … yet we will give execs who bankrupted companies, laid off hundreds of employees, cut benefits and pensions – we will give them rewards in the millions of dollars while those at the other end of the spectrum are placed under intense scrutiny for the 12 000 dollars we expect them to live off of …

So - what would happen is ALL of the people of faith across Canada began to question that and demand change?

What if, we took our calling to be God’s beloved SO SERIOUSLY, that we no longer focused on the distracting issues like sex but instead focused on the real life issues like poverty, hunger and economics and DEMANDED our politicians and leaders start to do something to address these things?

 I would dare to suggest that we would slowly find ourselves moving back to a place where we realize that creation truly is good … we would see that creation is good … we would no longer just say the words but we live the evidence … what if we chose today to embody our calling to be God’s beloved moving into the world and transforming it into the good that it is meant to be?
            What if …?

Let us pray …