Sermon for May 27th 2012 - Pentecost Sunday

(Ann Weems – The church is ... (from Reaching for Rainbows))

The Church is Pentecost – but what is Pentecost?

We talk about The Holy Spirit, mystical visions, flames and fire, being sent out into the world, speaking in strange tongues, dancing, rejoicing … all things strange and alien to us.

We like our worship to be precise, predictable, orderly … stick to the bulletin thank you very much, and please be done within the hour, we have things to do and don’t want to be late … We don’t do well with unpredictability and things that seem out of control – it’s the Presbyterian in us, the mainline denomination in us – it is the way we’ve been and we like it, so let’s not change it …

But what if the gift of Pentecost is the ability – no, the necessity of changing ourselves over and over, and becoming what is needed by the world out there to offer the Gospel??

What if Pentecost calls us to abandon the comfort of the way things are, and instead we are to follow the Spirit wherever that journey takes us?

What a radical and discomforting thought – to willingly abandon everything we know, everything we’re comfortable with, everything we LIKE, to follow the Spirit into the unknown … yet, ironically that is the very process we have for decades expected of our candidate for ministry.

We train them, support them, then after their ordination and commissioning we send them out into the vast unknown and expect them to minister to the communities they’re more often than not simply plunked in.

Over the years I’ve marvelled at the stories this has created throughout the Church. The minister and his wife who arrived in a prairie town in the mid-1970’s and she expressed surprise that they had electricity and running water … or the published story of the young minister at Smoky Burn in Saskatchewan who found himself in a double holer alongside a parishioner making small talk while gazing at the vast prairie landscape … the stories are incredible, diverse, uncomfortable and laughable … and every year they are added to as newly ordained and commissioned ministry personnel are sent out into the unknown and told – and we ARE told in our vows of ordination and commissioning – to TRUST in the Spirit.

To be fair, for the most part it works – the experiences that mould us and shape us in those first months of ministry are at times incredible and rewarding – though, as I look back I think an apology is in order for the patient folks in Bella Coola who endured long winding sermons that tried to be scholarly and notable, but reading now were … well, not so much …

We learn along the way.

We grow along the way.

We change along the way.

And we trust in the Spirit every step … every breath … every moment of the journey …

Yet, it is a strange dichotomy – we have one set of expectations for our Ministry personnel and another for the occupants of the pews … the Ministers are to trust in the spirit and embrace the dynamic possibility of change and movement throughout their careers, while the people in the pews are to endure the change and movement by the coming and going of the people in the pulpit: WE MOVE – YOU SIT …

Somehow I don’t think that is what the Spirit has in mind …

Yet, change comes … look back on the journey each of us have had within the Church and think about what it was like worshipping in our youth, and contrast that to what it is like worshipping now … in my youth, not really that long ago, we – that is the younger generation – didn’t stay up stairs AT ALL. We were taken down ten minutes before Church started and herded into a service of readings and hymns before being lead off to our curtained cubicles for our Sunday School lessons. Then our parents would gather us after Church was over and we’d head home … the minister was some strange almost mystical figure in robes who stood way up there removed from the rest of us, and who seemed mysterious and powerful.

In my teens,I met our new minister one afternoon playing basketball across the road from the Church in the gymn of the local elementary school. The afternoon ended with Rev. Bob getting a nose bleed from an errand palm of one of the youth players … it wasn’t my finest hour …

Yet, I can’t imagine Reverend Wes or Reverend Ross playing basketball with us, even five years earlier … and I look back on my ministry and I’ve swam, climbed rocks, danced (not very well) and participated in ALL manner of activities with our youth – all things I have a hard time seeing some of those grand old men who were the ministers of the past doing … Change … it’s inevitable – it’s subtle – and it’s ongoing.

And sometimes we only see it when we pause to look back and see how far we’ve come …

Children at worship. Children at Communion. ALL manner of change has unfolded around us in our lifetimes - Yet, for ALL the change, we’ve experienced as communities of faith, in our life time, I marvel at how resistant we really are to it …

Ezekiel, offering the prophetic query – “Can these bones live?” knew that resistence … Can these dry, dead, dusty, broken up bones live?

Can these (…) bones live?

Too often we look around us, especially in our modern era with so many people busy with so many OTHER things than Church, and we wonder CAN these BONES live?

This past week a fellow blogger from the Maritimes lamented on his blog Maritime Preacher that within the United Church of Canada there are Church congregations who are pleading to be allowed to simply die.

Nick Phillips writes a timely observation:

Yes, we do have too many churches. But some of these churches which wish to be left to die are actually churches in areas where there is a huge opportunity to share the Gospel message. One church in particular is in a residential neighbourhood, absolutely full of small families and they are the only protestant church in the area. And they are more than satisfied with continuing with nothing more than Sunday morning services presided over by a part-time aging retired minister.

Heart… breaking…

No wonder people don’t want to have any kind of connection to the church if this is the public message we are giving.

When did we lose our passion? Why? How? What took it away?

I can’t believe I serve in a denomination where churches wish to die when so many people in our communities are looking for hope, joy, love, peace… the things that our great and wonderful Father, our God in heaven, is just waiting to pour out for all who come to know him.

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do…”

Let’s bring it back!

Let’s bring Christ back into our churches and have the Spirit move us to serve faithfully, sacrificially, with our whole being so the world may once again know how great is our God!

Pentecost is about embracing the Spirit’s call of faith. Daring to dream. And having the courage to act on our faith … church suppers, knitting circles, yard sales, mens’ coffee, a booth in the local farmers’ market, support to the food bank, services out in the community, and being PRESENT … these are signs not just of life, but of the real and dynamic change that is possible when the People of God – you and I – take seriously the call of the Spirit to go out into the world and LIVE.

Can these bones live?

Yes, they can … if they dare to believe in the power of the resurrection, and are bold enough to go out into the world in the name of Christ proclaiming, sharing and LIVING the Gospel!!

I’ve journeyed in this United Church of ours for over 20 years in a place of leadership in ministry. I’ve experienced invigorating highs and soul crushing lows, I’ve seen the best and the absolute worst of what people can do, and I’ve known the dark lonely corners of feeling utterly rejected by the Church … and yet, at no point on that journey have I EVER felt the kind of hopelessness that would offer the answer NO, to the question “Can these bones live?”

The ONLY thing preventing these bones from living, is a lack of faith. And a lack of faith can only come when we’ve abandoned the call of the Spirit …

Today is Pentecost, the Birthday of the Church, the day when we celebrate and affirm the winds of the Spirit blowing over us and through us.

Today is when we say AGAIN “Yes!” to the question – can these bones live?

Today is when we say AGAIN – “YES!!” to the call of the Spirit.

Today is when we say AGAIN – “YES!!” to our ministry and our faith.

Can these bones live? (this is NOT a rhetorical question) …

Can these bones live? …

Can these bones live? ...

Then let’s go into the world and show them how lively and alive we truly are!!!

May it be so … thanks be to God … Let us pray …

Sermon for March 18th 2012

(To be clear - this is NOT me!!)

Our readings this morning shift our focus from God’s covenant with the people, and how to live that covenant to exploring the covenant relationship itself and pondering how we will rejoice over the gift of Grace God offers in the midst of a world roiling with suffering, brokenness, hurt and loneliness … one of our passages today has revisted what is perhaps the most famous scripture passage that of John 3:16.

A few years ago in a Sunday Morning Service I had one of the members of the Choir hold up a sign reading "John 3:16" much like those we see at sporting events and live tv happenings ... through the service at random intervals Bob held up the sign without saying a word ... it was an effective way to remind us of the importance of the issue we must face when we consider that it is not how many times can we hold up a sign at a sporting event proclaiming “John 3:16” – but rather how can we make real that love God has for the world…

Our Old Testament reading is from the book of Numbers, which one commentary I consulted this week notes should have been called “Into the Wilderness” because of the happenings and events the book records. It goes on to acknowledge that the content of the book of Numbers is a retelling of the fears haunting the Israelites as they continue their generational adjustment to the freedom that came with their departure from Egypt.

The fears they faced in turn created pockets of frustration, petulance, rivalry, rashness, and outright rebellion in the community … not ANYTHING we’re familiar with in modern life … Over and over though, the stories emphasis the importance and the centrality of whole heartedly trusting in God and God’s unending patience in dealing with a fearful and a fear-filled people.

In this morning’s reading, the people are once against grumbling about the conditions in which they find themselves … grumbling seemingly to be something they’re very very good at … in this case they are being plagued by venomous snakes. The people cry out for God’s help to keep them from suffering and dying from the bites of the snakes.

Mercifully God provides relief from the painful inflamed wounds - all the people need to do is look up and fix their gaze on the bronze serpent Moses lifted up on a pole … the people were asked to look up … to face the very thing they feared by looking past the real one, and seeing the bronze serpent … a metaphor perhaps?

Face the fear in THIS MOMENT by having the courage and the vision to look up – up towards where we think of God being – to look up BEYOND this moment to something bigger … to look beyond the fears and frustrations and the emotions of THIS MOMENT and to keep our eyes fixed on this gift of Holiness, this gift of Grace, this gift God offers, so that we can journey THROUGH this moment and find wholeness …

Then we turn to our New Testament reading where Nicodemus comes in the night to visit Jesus.

Nicodemus is a knowledgable and well connected man – he has much to lose associating with this wild provincial yahoo Jesus who has been stirring things up all through Galilea. So, he arrives in the darkness of night to keep his visit secret, and in the process we have a moment in Jesus’ ministry where his teachings tackle the fundamental Jewish traditions and teachings from which Jesus’ understanding and knowledge arises … in this reading we have a glimpse into the heart of how Jesus and the earliest Church understood his ministry, his role and his place in life and faith …

Jesus on the cross is to become the bronze serpent … in the troubles of this moment we are to look up beyond it and through the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross KNOW that we are people of the Resurrection, and that THIS moment is fleeting in the presence of God … no matter HOW BAD this moment may we know that wholeness will come!

One of the essential proclamations in the Gospel reading today is that God brings about our healing and our salvation though the death and resurrection of Jesus – For God so loved the world that Jesus was given so that EVERYONE – not just a select few EVERYONE may have eternal life.

The bronze serpent of Jesus crucified, suffering and dying becomes an essential and central aspect of our understanding of this Covenant with God to be a people of the Resurrection …

We ARE a community of the Ressurection … this weekend we can get it – finally. The cold and snow of winter has ebbed away and we are standing in the transition – a very very pleasant transition – between seasons with the warmth of the sun seeming that much more powerful and wonderful …

But as we stand basking in the warmth of the sun and SAYING the words – we are a community of the resurrection, the question lingers – how will we live out that understanding of being, of embodying and of celebrating this Resurrection?

Perhaps more importantly, the bigger question becomes – do we even show that we’re people of faith who trust and celebrated the gift of Grace as revealed through the Resurrection?

In a way, we would serve ourselves well to step back and consider the lessons we teach our children and how those moments can in turn teach us … we are very good at trying to convey to our kids the importance and centrality of faith.

We’ll teach them songs like “They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. They will know we are Christians by our love …”

But if we dare to listen to the youth in each successive generations, they will question the disconnect between what we’re teaching and what we’re actually living … we may teach them the songs “they’ll know we are Christians by our love …” but our teens and our young people ARE going to call us on whether we are actually living out that fine words …

In many respects, the Church has gotten very good at living out our faith on the BIG stage … we can do the food banks, and the mission trips and the outreach over there somewhere, but when it comes to the day to day living out of a simple concept like “they’ll know we are Christians by our love” – we face a few more challenges …

But before we despair, I’ve come to appreciate over the last few weeks as we’ve faced challenges within the circle of our faith community here, that we are doing pretty well in striving to live out our faith.

We’re not perfect, but we’re trying … through prayer we’ve lifted one another up to God and acknowledged the many challenges, concerns and burdens being felt within our community – a process that continues and that is ongoing … by countless small gestures, we’ve continued to nurture the bonds of community that pull us together, and we strive to open that circle to include others, and to welcome in more than just the same old folks who share the pews with us Sunday by Sunday … prayerfully, faithfully, and with care – we continue to strive to share with the community around us, the best of who we are in faith, and the blessings of this faith we share …

As I reflected on ALL of this, I couldn’t help but consider the role our youth and young people play as a vivid reminder of who we are as a community of faith … and as I thought more about this, I was reminded of a reading by Ann Weems that speaks of who we are and what we do as a Church, and how that circle continues to draw itself ever wider to include more and more people who are yearning for this gift of grace …

Ann Weems writes: (stay tuned – I need to find the reference!)

In the season of Lent, we are to avoid the Alleluias as we prepare and anticipate the coming Holy Season and the dark shadowy places that are very much a part of that journey. But in prayer, and in fellowship, with laughter and great care for one another, we as a Community of Faith can and will continue to share and celebrate this faith we have as a community of the Resurrection …

May it be so … thanks be to God … let us pray …

Sermon for March 4th 2012 - Lent 3

We’ve recently been discussing the 2006 Song of Faith as a part of a Remit on their inclusion in the foundational documents of the United Church of Canada. The Song of Faith expresses much about our Church, our Heritage and our faith. It says in part:

We sing of a church

seeking to continue the story of Jesus

by embodying Christ’s presence in the world.

We are called together by Christ

as a community of broken but hopeful believers,

loving what he loved,

living what he taught,

striving to be faithful servants of God

in our time and place.

Our ancestors in faith

bequeath to us experiences of their faithful living;

upon their lives our lives are built.

Our living of the gospel makes us a part of this communion of saints,

experiencing the fulfillment of God’s reign

even as we actively anticipate a new heaven and a new earth.

The church has not always lived up to its vision.

It requires the Spirit to reorient it,

helping it to live an emerging faith while honouring tradition, challenging it to live by grace rather than entitlement,

for we are called to be a blessing to the earth.

When I was part of a study tour of the Middle East I marvelled at the number of times we stood in one of the sites commemorating a Holy event or a Holy moment only to be told that the various Religious Orders tending the building had had a full on brawl over the cleaning or tending of the site. were told

The one that stood out for me was the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem which stands on the place claiming to be where the stable once stood … the ancient building is surrounded by the modern city of Bethlehem, and that the time the entire region was experiencing the full one effects of the First Intifadah – the Uprising of the Palestinians using rocks and signs against the military occupation of Israel.

Our guide spoke of the preparations for the previous Christmas a few months earlier and laughingly describe the monks and priests from various orders beginning to argue over who was responsible for cleaning and sweeping the floor … they couldn’t agree and soon voices were raised … they each were claiming parts and pieces of the same floor … tempers flared, people got pushed and shoved, then in a flash brooms started swinging … remember these are men in Holy Orders, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox – men dedicated to lives of prayer and worship of God while living in the place where Jesus is said to have been born.

The end result THAT year was one monk ended up in the hospital with fairly serious injuries while a dozen or so others had various injuries from the full on brawl they had engaged in WITHIN the sanctuary …

This story came back to me this week as I read one of the lectionary resources and found the following quotation:

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in something that it becomes all-consuming. What was once life giving can become life-denying, even one’s greatest passion (parenting, work, ideals, dreams)

What are we fixated on at this moment? Something that once gave vision, hope and life, but now is a burden and no longer life giving?

What do we need to let go of so that we can be mindful of life in its full array?

The other example that comes to mind are the folks now being highlighted in a voyeuristic way on shows like Hoarders … ordinary folks who started off collecting something because it gave them a passion and a cause … I recently saw one programme where a man in England had packed two houses, five garages and his yard full of stuff – the majority of it was newspapers, magazines and other print media – 37 years worth – that he intended to digitalized so that it was more easily accessible …

He had 37 years worth of newspapers, magazines and other print media that he wanted to scan and digitalize into an archive that others could use … the biggest fly in the ointment was that he didn’t have a computer … but the towering piles filled his house to the point that he had only tiny tunnels near the ceiling through his five bedroom home to crawl from room to room – he had one chair to sit on, and access to two burners on his stove to cook his daily meal of boiled eggs …

So committed to his ideal of collecting information, he was buried by it … and over and over, each week programmes on tv show families who are overwhelmed by their interests and passions to the point that they are overwhelmed by the burden and they no longer live, but simply exist within their hoard …

Our Scripture readings today challenge us to be willing to let go and put our trust in God …

Abraham and Sarah are called by God to leave their homes and travel to an unknown land where they will be blessed with a great nation descended from them … Sarah’s response is to laugh … and it’s safe to say that even Abraham had moments of uncertainty and doubt … but despite a variety of set backs and bad choices along the way, ultimately these two followed God, and with courage lived out the promise by embodying, celebrating and living Hope.

Jesus too, in his teachings to his disciples is challenging them to face the transition before them and to put their trust in the living giving work God has called them too – work that is not always embraced nor welcomed in our world where people put A LOT of energy into maintaining the status quo.

We in the Church are worshipping PROCESS,

busily making our lists

and listing our busy-ness,

in danger of sacrificing our souls for our schedules.

Task-forced, agenda bleary, paper logged

we look for God in the boardroom

and salvation in committee.

When the process becomes more important than people,

it’s time to break through

to the poetry of promise.

It’s never too late to return to the Poet

whose sky sings stars

whose earth dances green

whose promise writes love upon our hearts.

(Ann Weems – Searching for Shalom)

Our reading from Mark reminded me of a quotation I’ve cited before that comes from the late American Comedian Bill Hicks, who ended many of his stage shows with the observation:

The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly colored, and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, "Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, "Hey, don't worry; don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." And we … kill those people. "Shut him up! I've got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok … But it doesn't matter, because it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace

Hicks, well steeped in Evangelical Christianity by his upbringing, hits the nail firmly on the head.

He echoes the wise and respected theologians who note

We all have resistance to the poten­tial cost of being faithful to our relation­ship with God. Are we ready to respond to God’s call by working for justice and peace among the many suffering peoples of the world? Are we willing to stand with religious leaders who are often the victims of the violence that they are try­ing to end? Are we ready to be counted as Christians if it means giving up certain privileges and comforts?

For Abraham and Sarah, faithfulness to the covenant meant giving birth to a child called “laughter” in their old age. For Jesus, faithfulness to the covenant meant following a path which he knew would lead ultimately to his death on the cross. In real life, keeping faith is always full of risk! During this Lenten season, we are called to reflect on what such faithfulness means for us at this time in our life and circumstances.

The Lenten Season is when we are called to consider if our priorities and values continue to affirm our faith and our life, or have they become a burden that serves to deny and burden that faith and life …

Living in Covenant means being willing AND ABLE to let go of things that stand in the way of keeping and living our faith …

Anne Weems writes of this:

Here we are, you and I,

called to be God’s Holy People.

You say you’re not the holy type,

but I’m not talking about holier-than-thou.

I’m not talking about religious ritual,

And the LAST thing I mean is self-righteousness!

Jesus chastised the self-righteous,

the ones who spent their days doing religious things,

the ones who spent so much time in religious ritual

that they didn’t have time for tender-heartedness.

I’m NOT talking about them;

I’m talking about us.

I’m talking about paying attention

to the things Jesus taught people,

ordinary people, people like you, people like me …

Look at the disciples: ordinary people

called to follow,

called to be God’s Holy People,

called to live in this world with tender hearts.

Live Holy lives … impossible?

is anything impossible to God?

That old woman Sarah thought it impossible to have a child …

The lepers thought it impossible to be healed …

The disciples thought it impossible

to feed five thousand with two loaves and five fishes …

Mary and Martha thought it impossible

that their brother Lazarus was alive …

The lame thought it impossible to walk …

The blind thought it impossible to see …

Here we are, ordinary people,

called to be the Holy People of God.

If you have eyes to see and ears to hear,

see and hear God’s holiness in your life.

(Ann Weems – Searching for Shalom)

May it be so – thanks be to God … Let us pray …