Farewell Homily- Canon Davis Memorial Church, July 29, 2012
I had never been in Sarnia, or heard of Canon Davis Memorial Church before I got a phone call from Bishop Terry Dance in the spring of 2010 wondering if I would be interested in applying to serve as a parish priest here.
That winter I was in my third year as Rector of the South Parkland parish in the Diocese of Brandon, and while I felt my ministry was going well there, and I was the president-elect of the local Rotary Club, there were other considerations.
Family is an important part of any decision on ministry. It seemed to Coline and I that ministry in Ontario would allow us to better fulfill our family obligations. Coline’s mother needed more care than the senior’s home in Dauphin could provide. So we found one in Toronto with more care. But we needed to be closer in the caregiver role.
Our grown children in Toronto, and the Timmins area, were settling down, with marriage plans and children on the horizon.
I spoke to Bishop Jim Njegovan in Brandon and he gave his permission for me to apply to the Ontario dioceses, although he might have been wondering about how to fill a multi-point parish which had been vacant for almost three years before I arrived in 2007.
I sent the letters out the all the Southern Ontario Dioceses, and then came Bishop Terry’s phone call. The point of telling this personal story is that we can all be called to ministry in ways we might not expect.
Wherever we are called, we bring our gifts. I would hope my gift to all the parishes I have served in 11 years as a full-time parish priest is drawn from: my experience in leadership roles as a lay person, my musical skills from choral singing, my passion for proclaiming the gospel through my work in communications, my teaching and organizational skills from my writing efforts over the last four decades.
Perhaps most important I hope I have been able to be a bridge builder. These last forty years have been an era of almost constant change for the church. So many things have changed: liturgy, music, our role in the community, the age and size of our congregations.
I share with you a deep love of the Anglican tradition, as reflected in the Book of Common Prayer, which I grew up with, and as reflected in the Book of Alternatives which I have appreciated for these last 25 years. Both prayer books offer a framework for our Anglican liturgy which is one of the great gifts of our tradition.
It may seem like the Anglican church is in decline, and we are joining other parishes in following that path of decline.
We wonder why with our beautiful church building, our fine rectory, our sizable hall, with its additional rooms in the basement, why the 50’s and the 60’s—when this parish was a happening place—have become distant memories.
Perhaps rather than look at the decline in negative terms, we need to look at it as an opportunity to move in an unexpected direction.
We know we can’t sustain the model of a full-time priest living in the rectory any longer. But there are other options, and since the parish wants to continue, it’s up to everyone, regardless of age, to take part in a process of exploring something new, something creative. This isn’t just up to Pat as the Rector’s Warden, or Ed, as people’s warden, or even the parish council or the small group. It takes everyone.
We don’t know what the future will look like at this point, and as Greg Robbins from St. Paul’s says, it definitely won’t look like what we have now—doing everything we are doing now except with fewer clergy and the same number of buildings.
When you come down to it, buildings can be millstones as well as opportunities of ministry. Since we will all say the most important thing about the church is the people, not the building, and coming together to worship God as a community, then we have to try and think creatively about how our buildings can be used.
I had to think creatively about my own future in ministry when I realized that Canon Davis could no longer afford a full-time priest last fall. So after talking to Coline and the Bishop, I decided that rather than start over again with another parish in Huron, I would take early retirement and move home to Toronto where we have retirement housing. We will be near Coline’s Mum as she continues in her 95th year, and three of our grown children.
At least until I’m 65, I’ll have to work part-time in journalism or in the church to make ends meet. That’s where the creativity will come in. It’s a calculated risk. But we’ve taken risks before.
The two years here have been challenging. It isn’t easy to watch a dedicated group of lay leaders and faithful congregation members come to the realization that the hopes they had of renewal only two years ago, after two long incumbencies, were not going to come to fruition.
I’ve tried to do my best under difficult conditions, including some dissension and opposition to new ways of doing things, to provide a ministry of word and sacrament, pastoral care and administration, and work with parishioners and collegially with other clergy in the deanery and the Diocese.
I wish the entire Canon Davis community well as you attempt to meet the challenge of new realities in the church today. When I came here, it was certainly not with the intention of leaving this soon. But sometimes we have to let go of the old way of doing things before the new way becomes possible.
Now I move into another phase of ministry. And as the words to the famous mariners hymn go:
I feel the winds of God today
Today my sail I lift
Though heavy, oft with drenching spray
And torn with many a rift
If hope but light the water’s crest
And Christ my bark will use
I’ll seek the seas at His behest
And brave another cruise
Tuesday 31 July 2012
Sunday 22 July 2012
Marks of Mission Call for Justice and Safeguarding the Environment
Homily Marks of Mission 4,5 and 6
One of the greatest misconceptions about the Christian faith is that our scriptures and our faith have nothing to do with our political system, our economy, our way of living together in this world.
Perhaps these texts will be familiar: “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich empty away.”
That’s from the Magnificat, from Luke Gospel.
Or how about: “He will establish and uphold peace with justice and righteousness from this time onwards or forevermore.”
Indeed if you looked at our scriptures as a whole you would find more references to economic justice and money than any other subject. More than salavation. More than love.
The powerful and rich in society would like us to forget about this emphasis in both our Old and New testaments. While the early church in its first centuries was a church of the poor and the marginalized, the economic underclass—peasants, and slaves, the leadership of the church from the Roman Empire on became linked to secular wealth and power.
And the social justice dimension of the Christian faith was downplayed, leaving it as primarily a matter of personal devotion.
The final two Marks of Mission, plus a supplementary mark of mission adopted by the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada deal with this social justice dimension of our faith.
The fourth mark is “to seek to transform unjust structures of society.”
The fifth mark is “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.”
The sixth mark is “to work for peace-making, conflict resolution and reconciliation.”
Transforming unjust structures is rooted in the vision of the prophets of the Old testament. Listen to these words from the prophet of Amos.
“Hear this, you that trample on the needy and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, “When will the new moon be over so that we can sell grain; and the Sabbath so that we might offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”
Some things never change. Think of the fraudulent practices of Wall Street bankers, which caused the US economic crisis and led to many people losing their homes, and lifetime savings.
As Christians we need to address these issues from a Biblical perspective. Unjust financial practices and economic exploitation is an offence to God.
The church is at its best when it challenges power. I think of the famous Brazilian Archbishop Dom Helder Camara, a Roman Catholic. He was declared a “non-person” by the military distatorship which ruled the country in the 70’s.
He had been a staunch critic of the government, accusing it of exploiting poor Brazilians to line the pockets of wealthy people.
In a quotation, which has since become legendary, Helder Camara said: “When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. But when I ask why so many people are poor, they call me a communist.”
Archbishop Helder Camara realized that helping the poor wasn’t enough. In oder to do God’s work, to obey his calling he had to challenge the unjust structures which created poverty.
His example has inspired Brazilians since, and now the president of Brazil is a woman who was imprisoned by the military junta, and now leads a democratic nation which has one of the worlds fastest growing economies.
The fifth mark of mission is aimed at protecting our environment for future generations.
When people say economic growth that requires degrading the environment is a defensible position, they are ignoring our Christian calling to safeguard the earth, in order for future generations to live.
It is short sighted in the extreme to ignore climate change, and pollution of our air, water and land. Anglicans from throughout the communion have been working together on environmental issues.
A meeting in Lima, Peru in 2011, concluded that creation is in crisis, yet there is continued degradation of our environment, and an unwillingness on the parts of governments and businesses to take action.
The Anglican Communion Environmental Network set out a series of actions which can be taken by local and national communities to address these issues, through education and action.
In our own diocese we have an environmental action committee which has encouraged parishes to do what they are able to make their own spaces environmentally friendly,
The unofficial sixth mark of mission was originated here in Canada, in recognition of the need for reconciliation and peace making, in light of our history with aboriginal peoples and the abuses of residential schools and reservations.
The thrust of these last three Marks of Mission is seeking God’s Kingdom on earth, and applying Biblical teaching to the way we live out our lives in the economy, in our political system and in our communities.
Christian faith is not pie in the sky by and by as the old expression says. It is not some consolation for injustice which offers the promise of salvation later for suffering now.
Instead our task is to comfort the afflicted, but also to afflict the comfortable. Needless to say that sometimes has created problems when the church’s prophetic witness against injustice has collided with the interests of those of its members whose interest is in maintaining exploitation, and maintaining the status quo.
It is a delicate balance. The church can not be engaged by its nature in partisan politics. But that doesn’t mean it can’t speak out on issues of economic injustice, as the prophet Amos did in his time. Amos, who was said to be a shepherd, was undoubtedly not very popular amongst the wealthy landowners of the seventh century BC.
Neither are Christian churches likely to be popular with politicians and business leaders if they press for changes in unjust structures, or environmental protection measures which put people above profits.
Jesus wasn’t too popular with the Scribes, Pharisees, or the Jewish establishment either when he challenged them to give up their wealth and power and meet the needs of the poor.
But as we move forward as Anglicans in this community, no matter what shape our ministry takes, these issues need to be addressed.
One of the greatest misconceptions about the Christian faith is that our scriptures and our faith have nothing to do with our political system, our economy, our way of living together in this world.
Perhaps these texts will be familiar: “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich empty away.”
That’s from the Magnificat, from Luke Gospel.
Or how about: “He will establish and uphold peace with justice and righteousness from this time onwards or forevermore.”
Indeed if you looked at our scriptures as a whole you would find more references to economic justice and money than any other subject. More than salavation. More than love.
The powerful and rich in society would like us to forget about this emphasis in both our Old and New testaments. While the early church in its first centuries was a church of the poor and the marginalized, the economic underclass—peasants, and slaves, the leadership of the church from the Roman Empire on became linked to secular wealth and power.
And the social justice dimension of the Christian faith was downplayed, leaving it as primarily a matter of personal devotion.
The final two Marks of Mission, plus a supplementary mark of mission adopted by the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada deal with this social justice dimension of our faith.
The fourth mark is “to seek to transform unjust structures of society.”
The fifth mark is “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.”
The sixth mark is “to work for peace-making, conflict resolution and reconciliation.”
Transforming unjust structures is rooted in the vision of the prophets of the Old testament. Listen to these words from the prophet of Amos.
“Hear this, you that trample on the needy and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, “When will the new moon be over so that we can sell grain; and the Sabbath so that we might offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”
Some things never change. Think of the fraudulent practices of Wall Street bankers, which caused the US economic crisis and led to many people losing their homes, and lifetime savings.
As Christians we need to address these issues from a Biblical perspective. Unjust financial practices and economic exploitation is an offence to God.
The church is at its best when it challenges power. I think of the famous Brazilian Archbishop Dom Helder Camara, a Roman Catholic. He was declared a “non-person” by the military distatorship which ruled the country in the 70’s.
He had been a staunch critic of the government, accusing it of exploiting poor Brazilians to line the pockets of wealthy people.
In a quotation, which has since become legendary, Helder Camara said: “When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. But when I ask why so many people are poor, they call me a communist.”
Archbishop Helder Camara realized that helping the poor wasn’t enough. In oder to do God’s work, to obey his calling he had to challenge the unjust structures which created poverty.
His example has inspired Brazilians since, and now the president of Brazil is a woman who was imprisoned by the military junta, and now leads a democratic nation which has one of the worlds fastest growing economies.
The fifth mark of mission is aimed at protecting our environment for future generations.
When people say economic growth that requires degrading the environment is a defensible position, they are ignoring our Christian calling to safeguard the earth, in order for future generations to live.
It is short sighted in the extreme to ignore climate change, and pollution of our air, water and land. Anglicans from throughout the communion have been working together on environmental issues.
A meeting in Lima, Peru in 2011, concluded that creation is in crisis, yet there is continued degradation of our environment, and an unwillingness on the parts of governments and businesses to take action.
The Anglican Communion Environmental Network set out a series of actions which can be taken by local and national communities to address these issues, through education and action.
In our own diocese we have an environmental action committee which has encouraged parishes to do what they are able to make their own spaces environmentally friendly,
The unofficial sixth mark of mission was originated here in Canada, in recognition of the need for reconciliation and peace making, in light of our history with aboriginal peoples and the abuses of residential schools and reservations.
The thrust of these last three Marks of Mission is seeking God’s Kingdom on earth, and applying Biblical teaching to the way we live out our lives in the economy, in our political system and in our communities.
Christian faith is not pie in the sky by and by as the old expression says. It is not some consolation for injustice which offers the promise of salvation later for suffering now.
Instead our task is to comfort the afflicted, but also to afflict the comfortable. Needless to say that sometimes has created problems when the church’s prophetic witness against injustice has collided with the interests of those of its members whose interest is in maintaining exploitation, and maintaining the status quo.
It is a delicate balance. The church can not be engaged by its nature in partisan politics. But that doesn’t mean it can’t speak out on issues of economic injustice, as the prophet Amos did in his time. Amos, who was said to be a shepherd, was undoubtedly not very popular amongst the wealthy landowners of the seventh century BC.
Neither are Christian churches likely to be popular with politicians and business leaders if they press for changes in unjust structures, or environmental protection measures which put people above profits.
Jesus wasn’t too popular with the Scribes, Pharisees, or the Jewish establishment either when he challenged them to give up their wealth and power and meet the needs of the poor.
But as we move forward as Anglicans in this community, no matter what shape our ministry takes, these issues need to be addressed.
A Prayer at Sarnia City Council, July 16,2012
Dear wise and loving Creator:
“Thank you” on behalf of all who are gathered here today. Thank you for your many and abundant blessings in this city of Sarnia, in the province of Ontario, and in this nation of Canada.
Thank you for the gift of life itself, for the measure of health we need to fulfill our callings, for sustenance and for friendship.
Thank you for the ability to be involved in useful work and for the honor of bearing appropriate responsibilities. Thanks as well for the freedom to embrace you or the freedom to reject you. Thank you for loving the human race-- from your boundless and gracious nature.
In the scriptures you have said that citizens ought to obey governing authorities. You have established those very authorities to promote peace and order and justice. Therefore, We pray for our mayor Mike, for those who work in various capacities for the City of Sarnia, and, in particular, for this assembled council. We are asking that you would graciously grant them:
Wisdom to govern amid the conflicting interests and issues of our times
A sense of the welfare and true needs of our people
A keen thirst for justice and rightness
Confidence in what is good and fitting
The ability to work together in harmony even when there is honest disagreement
Personal peace in their lives and joy in their task
We pray for the agenda set before them today. Please allow their deliberations and decisions to benefit those who live and work in and around our beloved city of Sarnia.
We pray especially for those in our community who are less fortunate, and in need, for food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, care for the aged, and healing for those with addictions.
It is in your most blessed Name we pray, Amen.
“Thank you” on behalf of all who are gathered here today. Thank you for your many and abundant blessings in this city of Sarnia, in the province of Ontario, and in this nation of Canada.
Thank you for the gift of life itself, for the measure of health we need to fulfill our callings, for sustenance and for friendship.
Thank you for the ability to be involved in useful work and for the honor of bearing appropriate responsibilities. Thanks as well for the freedom to embrace you or the freedom to reject you. Thank you for loving the human race-- from your boundless and gracious nature.
In the scriptures you have said that citizens ought to obey governing authorities. You have established those very authorities to promote peace and order and justice. Therefore, We pray for our mayor Mike, for those who work in various capacities for the City of Sarnia, and, in particular, for this assembled council. We are asking that you would graciously grant them:
Wisdom to govern amid the conflicting interests and issues of our times
A sense of the welfare and true needs of our people
A keen thirst for justice and rightness
Confidence in what is good and fitting
The ability to work together in harmony even when there is honest disagreement
Personal peace in their lives and joy in their task
We pray for the agenda set before them today. Please allow their deliberations and decisions to benefit those who live and work in and around our beloved city of Sarnia.
We pray especially for those in our community who are less fortunate, and in need, for food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, care for the aged, and healing for those with addictions.
It is in your most blessed Name we pray, Amen.
Sunday 8 July 2012
Passing on Our Faith
Marks of Mission No. 2
Teaching Baptizing and Nurturing New Believers
How long have you been a Christian?
Many of us would say we have grown up Christian. We were baptized as infants. We attended Sunday school. We continued to be active through church youth activities, and apart from a brief absence perhaps around the age of 20, we always considered ourselves part of a parish.
Others would have a more specific answer, a time when we were encouraged to become a Christian, and joined the church and were either baptized as an adult, or made a profession of faith to reaffirm our commitment to Christ.
Whatever our background, our Christian journey is just that, a journey, with many stages, and with God’s help growth. And we all have something to pass on to other travellers.
Think of our roles as parents. We, with the help of an education system, help to pass on to the next generation the means to become productive citizens. And we often help each other, within family groupings, and within neighbourhood groups to fulfill that task. It takes a village to raise a child, the old saying goes.
That brings us to our second mark of mission: teaching, nurturing and baptizing new believers.
And on that score our Anglican church in general, and our parish in specific, has not been doing too well lately.
As I was looking over our baptismal and confirmation records looking for a specific request for information, I saw a pattern. During the 50’s and 60’s there were many baptized and confirmed. The numbers gradually but steadily declined over the 70’s and 80’s, 90’s until coming to an abrupt halt in the last decade. The last Baptism was in 2009. The last confirmation was in 2005.
That’s a telling sign that we aren’t meeting our challenge laid out in the second mark of mission.
Now far be it from me to lay blame for this. But when a parish ceases to grown, nurture the next generation, and welcome new adult members, it places its future in jeopardy.
When there are only funerals and no baptisms, weddings or confirmations, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a parish is in difficulty.
In our last Mark of Mission, the first one we talked about proclaiming the good news, telling others about our faith, communicating it in whatever evironments we are in, through our relationships.
We are Christ’s witnesses, not just the clergy or the leadership of the parish.
So we all share in the responsibility for the teaching that comes after the telling. So in that way the second Mark of Mission depends on the first.
Coming to faith is a complex process. And there is a spiritual hunger out there. The days have long past when we can expect that having a beautiful church. Good music and good liturgy are enough to ensure that people will join us in our Christian journey.
We have to reach out to the community, be more in evidence, go beyond our walls. And that can be done in different ways by people of all ages.
We can all be teachers, even if we feel inadequate for the role, because it’s really God who is working through us when we carry out our ministry in Christ’s name, and act as his witnesses.
While I was sorting my papers before our downsizing move which is now less than a month away, I came across a hand written thank-you not from a family who had called me to attend a seriously ill person late at night in the hospital. I prayed with them, and the person died peacefully. They felt through me God had answered prayer to relieve this person of his suffering. I felt, as I always do facing death, that it is God who is in control, and I am humbled to be in the role of intercessor.
So if we approach teaching, baptizing and nurture as a sacred task in which God will give us the strength, then perhaps it might seem more possible.
We Anglicans are often reluctant to talk about our faith, compared to evangelicals and fundamentalists. That’s a good thing in one way, because we don’t offer easy answers. And we view conversion as a complex process, not just a matter of professing a few core beliefs.
But it’s a bad thing because if we regarding faith as a private matter, than we lose a chance to make an impact on someone who might be searching for meaning. Some of the people who are joining churches theses days are doing it later in life. They are more aware of their own mortality, and realize our culture of cinsumption and materialism doesn’t offer all the answers.
So they are questing for something authentic. Our Anglican communion, as I’ve said before, offers the middle way between Roman Catholicism and the reformed tradition. We have music and liturgy which has stood the test of time, and has been modified in the last forty years to incorporate contemporary language and music.
It is the task of the whole body of the church to fulfill our call to ministry—to teach, baptize and nurture new believers.
That hasn’t been our pattern for some time, and while there are other societal factors at work—like the commercialization of Sundays, the growth of two income families, the demands of childrens’ sports and cultural activities---the fact remains that if we want to carry on as active parishes, we need to engage in this second mark of mission.
We need to have new people who are being baptized, taught and coming to faith. We need to take responsibility for each other on our faith journeys.
Another symptom of decline related to the second mark of mission is the absence of thriving Christian education programs for adults, and Sunday schools, other Christian education programs for children.
We are never too old to stop learning about our faith. When Coline came back to the church in her 40’s at a church in Streetsville, Ontario, she went through new member classes which talked out our faith, and how we live it out. That parish has become known for its strength in evangelism and outreach to the community.
So there are challenges, but there are also opportunities. It is a challenging time to be in the church, but also an exciting time because with God anything is possible. It is up to all of us to discern what gifts we can offer to contribute to the mission of the church.
Here is a prayer from the Diocese of St. David’s in Wales which is an attempt to address the five marks of mission. I will repeat it each Sunday for the remainder of this series.
God our Father, always behind us,
God the son, always alongside us,
God, the Holy Spirit, always ahead of us,
Calm our fears and renew our faith,
So that with you we may venture
To break new ground, take risks
And further your mission in this Diocese,
To your honour and glory.
Amen
Teaching Baptizing and Nurturing New Believers
How long have you been a Christian?
Many of us would say we have grown up Christian. We were baptized as infants. We attended Sunday school. We continued to be active through church youth activities, and apart from a brief absence perhaps around the age of 20, we always considered ourselves part of a parish.
Others would have a more specific answer, a time when we were encouraged to become a Christian, and joined the church and were either baptized as an adult, or made a profession of faith to reaffirm our commitment to Christ.
Whatever our background, our Christian journey is just that, a journey, with many stages, and with God’s help growth. And we all have something to pass on to other travellers.
Think of our roles as parents. We, with the help of an education system, help to pass on to the next generation the means to become productive citizens. And we often help each other, within family groupings, and within neighbourhood groups to fulfill that task. It takes a village to raise a child, the old saying goes.
That brings us to our second mark of mission: teaching, nurturing and baptizing new believers.
And on that score our Anglican church in general, and our parish in specific, has not been doing too well lately.
As I was looking over our baptismal and confirmation records looking for a specific request for information, I saw a pattern. During the 50’s and 60’s there were many baptized and confirmed. The numbers gradually but steadily declined over the 70’s and 80’s, 90’s until coming to an abrupt halt in the last decade. The last Baptism was in 2009. The last confirmation was in 2005.
That’s a telling sign that we aren’t meeting our challenge laid out in the second mark of mission.
Now far be it from me to lay blame for this. But when a parish ceases to grown, nurture the next generation, and welcome new adult members, it places its future in jeopardy.
When there are only funerals and no baptisms, weddings or confirmations, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a parish is in difficulty.
In our last Mark of Mission, the first one we talked about proclaiming the good news, telling others about our faith, communicating it in whatever evironments we are in, through our relationships.
We are Christ’s witnesses, not just the clergy or the leadership of the parish.
So we all share in the responsibility for the teaching that comes after the telling. So in that way the second Mark of Mission depends on the first.
Coming to faith is a complex process. And there is a spiritual hunger out there. The days have long past when we can expect that having a beautiful church. Good music and good liturgy are enough to ensure that people will join us in our Christian journey.
We have to reach out to the community, be more in evidence, go beyond our walls. And that can be done in different ways by people of all ages.
We can all be teachers, even if we feel inadequate for the role, because it’s really God who is working through us when we carry out our ministry in Christ’s name, and act as his witnesses.
While I was sorting my papers before our downsizing move which is now less than a month away, I came across a hand written thank-you not from a family who had called me to attend a seriously ill person late at night in the hospital. I prayed with them, and the person died peacefully. They felt through me God had answered prayer to relieve this person of his suffering. I felt, as I always do facing death, that it is God who is in control, and I am humbled to be in the role of intercessor.
So if we approach teaching, baptizing and nurture as a sacred task in which God will give us the strength, then perhaps it might seem more possible.
We Anglicans are often reluctant to talk about our faith, compared to evangelicals and fundamentalists. That’s a good thing in one way, because we don’t offer easy answers. And we view conversion as a complex process, not just a matter of professing a few core beliefs.
But it’s a bad thing because if we regarding faith as a private matter, than we lose a chance to make an impact on someone who might be searching for meaning. Some of the people who are joining churches theses days are doing it later in life. They are more aware of their own mortality, and realize our culture of cinsumption and materialism doesn’t offer all the answers.
So they are questing for something authentic. Our Anglican communion, as I’ve said before, offers the middle way between Roman Catholicism and the reformed tradition. We have music and liturgy which has stood the test of time, and has been modified in the last forty years to incorporate contemporary language and music.
It is the task of the whole body of the church to fulfill our call to ministry—to teach, baptize and nurture new believers.
That hasn’t been our pattern for some time, and while there are other societal factors at work—like the commercialization of Sundays, the growth of two income families, the demands of childrens’ sports and cultural activities---the fact remains that if we want to carry on as active parishes, we need to engage in this second mark of mission.
We need to have new people who are being baptized, taught and coming to faith. We need to take responsibility for each other on our faith journeys.
Another symptom of decline related to the second mark of mission is the absence of thriving Christian education programs for adults, and Sunday schools, other Christian education programs for children.
We are never too old to stop learning about our faith. When Coline came back to the church in her 40’s at a church in Streetsville, Ontario, she went through new member classes which talked out our faith, and how we live it out. That parish has become known for its strength in evangelism and outreach to the community.
So there are challenges, but there are also opportunities. It is a challenging time to be in the church, but also an exciting time because with God anything is possible. It is up to all of us to discern what gifts we can offer to contribute to the mission of the church.
Here is a prayer from the Diocese of St. David’s in Wales which is an attempt to address the five marks of mission. I will repeat it each Sunday for the remainder of this series.
God our Father, always behind us,
God the son, always alongside us,
God, the Holy Spirit, always ahead of us,
Calm our fears and renew our faith,
So that with you we may venture
To break new ground, take risks
And further your mission in this Diocese,
To your honour and glory.
Amen
Sunday 1 July 2012
Proclaiming the Good News
Five Marks of Mission part one
When Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel prize winner for his efforts to end apartheid in South Africa, was asked to put a face to what mission means for Christians, he told a story from his boyhood.
It happened when he was eight or nine years old. His mother was a poor, uneducated domestic worker who cooked and cleaned for blind black women. It was a time when blacks in South Africa were treated as inferiors, and had to carry passes.
Tutu recalled the story recently: “I saw something that I had never thought. There was a white priest in a long flowing cassock and he had a large sombrero hat, and as he passed, he doffed his hat to my mother. White priest, black woman in apartheid South Africa…For him it was a normal thing you do for any woman. This is how he demonstrated that he believed each of us is a God carrier…I wasn’t aware this story would stay with me. I am 80 now.”
Tutu said he later learned the priest was Trevor Huddleston, who later became an Archbishop. “I still remember the impact of Trevor Huddleston’s doffing of his hat, and that it was acknowledging what we say in our theology, you are created in the image of God, and you are a God carrier, and that is what we in our proclamation seek to be saying.”
The proclamation Tutu is talking about is the Five Marks of Mission first developed and affirmed by the Archbishops of the Anglican communion in 1984 and since adopted by the whole communion, and other denominations.
Today, for my last five Sundays with you, I begin a series on the Five Marks of Mission. Our Diocese is attempting to shift to a more missional focus, and the five marks are an important method to help us look at how we are doing—as a communion, as a national church, as a diocese, as a deanery, as a parish.
The five marks are:
First—To proclaim the good news of the kingdom.
Second---To teach baptize and nurture new believers
Third—To respond to human need by loving service
Fourth---To seek to transform unjust structure of society
Fifth—To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the world.
What comes to mind when you hear the word mission. For many of us, there are images of missionaries working with people in Africa, Asia, or Latin America, the great outward mission thrust of the early 20th century.
Another image of mission might be a Billy Graham Crusade or other gathering where people are asked to come forward and profess their faith in Christ.
But these images are only a part of what the five marks of mission are all about.
For Creation God has reached out to the world in love, sharing the bounty of creation with us. He sent his son Jesus to come among us—a gift to the world.
Our response as followers of Jesus begins with the first mark of mission, to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom.
The first Gospel to written down, the Gospel of Mark, begins with the words: “The beginning of the Good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.”
Later in the first chapter Mark writes: “Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God and saying , the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news.”
Proclaiming the good news comes in many different ways, by words, through communications media, but also by our actions, by how we live out the Good news that we believe in.
We live out our Christian faith personally, through prayer, worship, study, and acts of service, and as part of a Christian community. All are important.
One of the memories I have from my early life growing up in the church is hearing that we can’t compartmentalize our lives—Sunday morning is for the church, and God, and the rest of our lives is something completely separate and different.
Archbishop Tutu also reminds us that love is the key to proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom. “Mission is really making us aware of the incredible love God has for all of us. It says things like, you don’t have to earn God’s love. God loves you, period. Everything flows from there.”
Katherine Jefferts Schori, the presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, points to the need to embody the Good News in our daily lives.
“If we walked through life in that way, giving thanks and recognizing the image of God everywhere we go the world would work very differently. We live in a society that so often assumed the enemy rather than the image of God.”
We have a lot to think about as we consider this first mark of mission and how it might apply to our current discernment at Canon Davis Memorial Church in Sarnia.
We are part of a much larger trend---as an aging traditional mainline church in a society where the model of the neighbourhood parish church, with a parish hall, a rectory, and a full-time priest is no longer sustainable.
While that may be the case, the church has survived ups and downs for more than 2,000 years, including dark ages, plagues, wars and revolutions. The task of proclaiming the good news in our particular context remains.
And as a community that wants to be together, to build on an 86 year history, we need to look at where God is calling us now, and how we can proclaim the Good News.
There is no use dwelling on the past, or lamenting the present. We need to focus on the positive. What can we do with the gifts God has given us to proclaim the Good News? What is best way to move forward? With God’s help, and God’s love we can move into a new chapter of our life together.
When Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel prize winner for his efforts to end apartheid in South Africa, was asked to put a face to what mission means for Christians, he told a story from his boyhood.
It happened when he was eight or nine years old. His mother was a poor, uneducated domestic worker who cooked and cleaned for blind black women. It was a time when blacks in South Africa were treated as inferiors, and had to carry passes.
Tutu recalled the story recently: “I saw something that I had never thought. There was a white priest in a long flowing cassock and he had a large sombrero hat, and as he passed, he doffed his hat to my mother. White priest, black woman in apartheid South Africa…For him it was a normal thing you do for any woman. This is how he demonstrated that he believed each of us is a God carrier…I wasn’t aware this story would stay with me. I am 80 now.”
Tutu said he later learned the priest was Trevor Huddleston, who later became an Archbishop. “I still remember the impact of Trevor Huddleston’s doffing of his hat, and that it was acknowledging what we say in our theology, you are created in the image of God, and you are a God carrier, and that is what we in our proclamation seek to be saying.”
The proclamation Tutu is talking about is the Five Marks of Mission first developed and affirmed by the Archbishops of the Anglican communion in 1984 and since adopted by the whole communion, and other denominations.
Today, for my last five Sundays with you, I begin a series on the Five Marks of Mission. Our Diocese is attempting to shift to a more missional focus, and the five marks are an important method to help us look at how we are doing—as a communion, as a national church, as a diocese, as a deanery, as a parish.
The five marks are:
First—To proclaim the good news of the kingdom.
Second---To teach baptize and nurture new believers
Third—To respond to human need by loving service
Fourth---To seek to transform unjust structure of society
Fifth—To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the world.
What comes to mind when you hear the word mission. For many of us, there are images of missionaries working with people in Africa, Asia, or Latin America, the great outward mission thrust of the early 20th century.
Another image of mission might be a Billy Graham Crusade or other gathering where people are asked to come forward and profess their faith in Christ.
But these images are only a part of what the five marks of mission are all about.
For Creation God has reached out to the world in love, sharing the bounty of creation with us. He sent his son Jesus to come among us—a gift to the world.
Our response as followers of Jesus begins with the first mark of mission, to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom.
The first Gospel to written down, the Gospel of Mark, begins with the words: “The beginning of the Good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.”
Later in the first chapter Mark writes: “Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God and saying , the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news.”
Proclaiming the good news comes in many different ways, by words, through communications media, but also by our actions, by how we live out the Good news that we believe in.
We live out our Christian faith personally, through prayer, worship, study, and acts of service, and as part of a Christian community. All are important.
One of the memories I have from my early life growing up in the church is hearing that we can’t compartmentalize our lives—Sunday morning is for the church, and God, and the rest of our lives is something completely separate and different.
Archbishop Tutu also reminds us that love is the key to proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom. “Mission is really making us aware of the incredible love God has for all of us. It says things like, you don’t have to earn God’s love. God loves you, period. Everything flows from there.”
Katherine Jefferts Schori, the presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, points to the need to embody the Good News in our daily lives.
“If we walked through life in that way, giving thanks and recognizing the image of God everywhere we go the world would work very differently. We live in a society that so often assumed the enemy rather than the image of God.”
We have a lot to think about as we consider this first mark of mission and how it might apply to our current discernment at Canon Davis Memorial Church in Sarnia.
We are part of a much larger trend---as an aging traditional mainline church in a society where the model of the neighbourhood parish church, with a parish hall, a rectory, and a full-time priest is no longer sustainable.
While that may be the case, the church has survived ups and downs for more than 2,000 years, including dark ages, plagues, wars and revolutions. The task of proclaiming the good news in our particular context remains.
And as a community that wants to be together, to build on an 86 year history, we need to look at where God is calling us now, and how we can proclaim the Good News.
There is no use dwelling on the past, or lamenting the present. We need to focus on the positive. What can we do with the gifts God has given us to proclaim the Good News? What is best way to move forward? With God’s help, and God’s love we can move into a new chapter of our life together.
Monday 18 June 2012
Report of 170th Synod of the Diocese of Huron
Synod Report June 17/12
We
sometimes forget that in our Anglican system, we are organized and governed as
Dioceses, not individual congregations.
I
am appointed as priest by the Bishop in consultation with the congregation I
serve, and there wasn’t even always consultation.
I
can remember a time when clergy were appointed to congregations without any
consultation by the Bishop. In our Episcopal system Bishops work not only with
their fellow Bishops, but with a Synod structure.
To
those who haven’t been to a synod, there might be an assumption Synods spend
their time debating motions and acting as sort of a parliament.
Not so. Worship and Bible study are a central part of our synod experience. In our
opening service we had an inspiring variety of music, liturgy, and the Bishop’s
Charge, which sets the tone for synod.
This
year’s charge didn’t sugar coat the challenges the Anglican Church faces in the
Diocese of Huron.
Bishop
Bob Bennett called the 170th synod the hinge point in the life of
the church.
“We
continue to build on the faithfulness of the past by struggling with our
present, so that we will journey to a place where God wills us to be.”
Bishop
Bob, who works closely with Bishop Terry,
said the church now in 2012 no longer exists in the same way as it did
at the time of his baptism in the mid-20th century.
“Absolutely
guaranteed that the future will be unanticipated and in many ways
unrecognizable.”
Guiding
us into the future will be the five Marks of Mission developed by the worldwide
Anglican communion. “Feel the strength of the verbs that energize those five
marks: proclaim, teach, baptize, nurture, respond, seek, transform, strive,
safeguard, sustain and renew.”
Bible
studies offered clergy and lay delegates a chance to engage in small group
scripture study after hearing presentations on passages by Bishop Terry, Canon
Steve Harnadek of All saints, and Canon Todd Townshend.
Lyle
Moran, who was our lay delegate will focus on two of the efforts to lay
groundwork for change in the Diocese: the first changes to the canons and
constitution in more than two decades, and the Renew Campaign to raise funding
for parish, Diocesan and national church programs.
Another
primary activity as Synod is a chance for 60 Diocesan Committees and ministries
to connect with clergy and lay delegates and report back, both through plenary
sessions and displays outside in the corridors.
For
me this was different kind of synod because I am retiring from full-time
ministry. At the synod banquet on Monday night, the only formal meal of synod,
tributes are made to the retirees. And we all get a chance to say a few words
of thanks and have our photo taken with the Bishops.
It
was an honour to retire from Huron, although I’ve only spent almost two years
here. I was reminded by how connected we are in the Anglican Church when I
retired at the same time as the Rev’d Canon Don Ford who is at St. John the
Evangelist London. I met Don in the early 70’s when he was in Divinity and I
was an undergraduate arts student at Trinity College.
We
didn’t meet again until going on the clergy trip to Italy this past fall.
Bishop
Bennett closed his charge by reminding us, clergy and laity, that if what
happens in Synod stays in Synod, if what happens in the Cathedral stays in the
cathedral, if what happens in our hearts, stays in our hearts, then we are like
the disciples locked in the upper room in fear before being anointed by the
Holy Spirit.
“We
are God’s spirit-filled, and God’s sent community,” said Bishop Bob. And that
is the message of Pentecost—the day Huron Synod began this year.
Sunday 3 June 2012
An Anniversary, A Diamond Jubilee and the Trinity
Homily June 3, 2012
This is one of those Sundays where it is hard to know where to begin as preacher. We are celebrating our 86th anniversary as a parish, yet our future is uncertain.
We are also marking Trinity Sunday, named after a doctrine which is difficult to come to grips with, and has confounded even theologians for centuries.
And third, as Anglicans who are part of a worldwide communion which began with the English Reformation and the creation of the Church of England, independent of the Pope in Rome, we are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second.
And while all of these alone could be a subject for a preacher, I feel called to tackle all three, with your patience.
In reverse order….When we sing God save the Queen, we sing not only the Royal Anthem, we honour a remarkable woman who has served with distinction in a position which no longer has practical political power, but serves as a focus of unity not only for the United Kingdom but for the British Commonwealth.
Having never lived under another monarch because I was born the year of her accession to the throne, it seems remarkable to me that while presidents and prime ministers have come and gone, Elizabeth has remained in her symbolic but still important position as long as she has.
Her gracious and wise reign, which we pray for in the Book of Common Prayer service, has turned even her critics into admirers.
She is at the same time one of the world’s most recognizable public figures, and yet also leads a very private existence away from the cameras.
So we feel we know her. Yet there is much we don’t know about her…unlike some of the younger Royals who have allowed themselves to become tabloid fodder for their indiscrete behaviour.
Next…the Trinity. We may feel we know the Trinity after all the Trinitarian formula—Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a regular part of our worship.
But how easy it is to skip over the words without thinking of the monumental importance of thinking of God as one God, with three persons.
It is a mystery which many books have been written on. It is simple yet profound.
We believe in God who created the universe, who is transcendent—that is over all creation.
Yet that same God is also immanent, or close to us, because he sent his Son Jesus to be among us, to assume human form, to lay down his life.
And the same God sent the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the advocate, the breath of God, to reach out and touch us, now and always wherever we are.
The challenging part is explaining how we can have one God, but three different persons within an “undivided Godhead.”
People from other monotheistic religions would say we are trying to have it both ways---follow the one true God, but see God in three different manifestations.
That is where faith comes in. This is not something we can prove, like a science experiment. We believe God is ultimately beyond our human understanding. That is where both mystery and faith come in.
We have to use our best efforts to understand God, and how He is revealed in scripture, and how he is revealing Himself in the present, and into the future.
That task never ends. It is part of our Christian journey.
And that ties into my final task, the 86th anniversary. Last year we had a remarkable gathering for the 85th anniversary—a full church, people of all ages who have had some association with the parish.
It was a wonderful celebration of how much Canon Davis has meant to many people throughout the years from its beginning as a Sunday school mission for north Sarnia in 1925.
We celebrate that story again today, the many thousands of people who have worshipped here, been baptized and confirmed here, married here, buried here.
We celebrate the life of the parish community here—musical concerts, cubs, scouts, guides, brownies, suppers, dramatic presentations, youth groups, couples clubs. Womens’ groups, mens’ groups, Bible studies.
We also celebrate the relationships many of us have found through the parish—lifelong friends.
The celebration this year is somewhat bittersweet because when I finish in July there will no longer be full-time priestly ministry here at Canon Davis.
The future of the parish, at least as it is constituted now, is uncertain because of declining numbers and limited resources.
The task now is to discern how you the people of Canon Davis can continue to worship together.
The church is not just about buildings. If the building becomes a millstone, which is hard to afford, then it is time to look for other alternatives--- in terms of ministry, parish structure, and worship location.
So as we celebrate another anniversary, let us pray for wisdom is discerning our future together, and in this place, and pray for those who are working with Archdeacon Millward in addressing these challenges.
This is one of those Sundays where it is hard to know where to begin as preacher. We are celebrating our 86th anniversary as a parish, yet our future is uncertain.
We are also marking Trinity Sunday, named after a doctrine which is difficult to come to grips with, and has confounded even theologians for centuries.
And third, as Anglicans who are part of a worldwide communion which began with the English Reformation and the creation of the Church of England, independent of the Pope in Rome, we are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second.
And while all of these alone could be a subject for a preacher, I feel called to tackle all three, with your patience.
In reverse order….When we sing God save the Queen, we sing not only the Royal Anthem, we honour a remarkable woman who has served with distinction in a position which no longer has practical political power, but serves as a focus of unity not only for the United Kingdom but for the British Commonwealth.
Having never lived under another monarch because I was born the year of her accession to the throne, it seems remarkable to me that while presidents and prime ministers have come and gone, Elizabeth has remained in her symbolic but still important position as long as she has.
Her gracious and wise reign, which we pray for in the Book of Common Prayer service, has turned even her critics into admirers.
She is at the same time one of the world’s most recognizable public figures, and yet also leads a very private existence away from the cameras.
So we feel we know her. Yet there is much we don’t know about her…unlike some of the younger Royals who have allowed themselves to become tabloid fodder for their indiscrete behaviour.
Next…the Trinity. We may feel we know the Trinity after all the Trinitarian formula—Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a regular part of our worship.
But how easy it is to skip over the words without thinking of the monumental importance of thinking of God as one God, with three persons.
It is a mystery which many books have been written on. It is simple yet profound.
We believe in God who created the universe, who is transcendent—that is over all creation.
Yet that same God is also immanent, or close to us, because he sent his Son Jesus to be among us, to assume human form, to lay down his life.
And the same God sent the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the advocate, the breath of God, to reach out and touch us, now and always wherever we are.
The challenging part is explaining how we can have one God, but three different persons within an “undivided Godhead.”
People from other monotheistic religions would say we are trying to have it both ways---follow the one true God, but see God in three different manifestations.
That is where faith comes in. This is not something we can prove, like a science experiment. We believe God is ultimately beyond our human understanding. That is where both mystery and faith come in.
We have to use our best efforts to understand God, and how He is revealed in scripture, and how he is revealing Himself in the present, and into the future.
That task never ends. It is part of our Christian journey.
And that ties into my final task, the 86th anniversary. Last year we had a remarkable gathering for the 85th anniversary—a full church, people of all ages who have had some association with the parish.
It was a wonderful celebration of how much Canon Davis has meant to many people throughout the years from its beginning as a Sunday school mission for north Sarnia in 1925.
We celebrate that story again today, the many thousands of people who have worshipped here, been baptized and confirmed here, married here, buried here.
We celebrate the life of the parish community here—musical concerts, cubs, scouts, guides, brownies, suppers, dramatic presentations, youth groups, couples clubs. Womens’ groups, mens’ groups, Bible studies.
We also celebrate the relationships many of us have found through the parish—lifelong friends.
The celebration this year is somewhat bittersweet because when I finish in July there will no longer be full-time priestly ministry here at Canon Davis.
The future of the parish, at least as it is constituted now, is uncertain because of declining numbers and limited resources.
The task now is to discern how you the people of Canon Davis can continue to worship together.
The church is not just about buildings. If the building becomes a millstone, which is hard to afford, then it is time to look for other alternatives--- in terms of ministry, parish structure, and worship location.
So as we celebrate another anniversary, let us pray for wisdom is discerning our future together, and in this place, and pray for those who are working with Archdeacon Millward in addressing these challenges.
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Come Holy Spirit
Homily Pentecost Year B 2012
We as Anglicans have reputation of being people of the book, wedded to traditional liturgy and language, restrained and very proper in our worship style.
Yet in the past century perhaps the fastest growing churches, inspired by the events described in today’s Gospel which marks the feast of Pentecost, have embraced a worship style the exact opposite. There are no prayerbooks. Not as much scripture. The music is loud and often owes more to rock and roll than traditional hymns and organ music.
The appeal is to the emotions. The spirit of God has come among us, and the response is ecstatic worship, clapping, loud singing, speaking in tongues, emotional sermons. Praising the Lord vigorously and emphatically.
Some of you probably have experienced the Pentecostal church worship which has at least some of these elements.
I’m not saying it isn’t a valid choice, for those who want to praise and worship God that way, I’m saying we can’t let Pentecostal style churches have the exclusive claim on the moving of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus offered the disciples a taste of heaven on earth when he promised then that while he might not be with them in bodily form, he would send the Holy Spirit, the comforter, to be with them.
The story from Acts of that first Pentecost is full of drama. Suddenly from heaven a mighty rushing wind comes down and fills the house where the disciples are gathered. Tongues of fire appear, and one rests on each of Jesus followers.
Filled with the Holy Spirit, the disciples spill out into the street, speaking different languages so that all in the city where so many tongues are spoken might understand them.
The bystanders think they are drunk. But Peter tells the crowd they are witnesses to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which has been foretold in Hebrew Scripture. Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew, lived among them, died and was raised up by God to bring new life to the world.
This all happened 50 days after the Resurrection, hence the name Pentecost. It was a turning point which we often call the birthday of the church. The followers of Jesus had been nurtured until them by the appearances of the Risen Lord. But they were still fearful and unsure of what to do next.
After the Day of Pentecost they had been transformed. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, they moved boldly into the world to preach the Gospel.
The Holy Spirit is about an ecstatic experience of worship and praise among those first disciples. But it seems to me the key learning from Pentecost is seeing the Holy Spirit also as an advocate, who will be with us throughout our lives, consoling us when we are in sorrow, guiding us in truth.
This is a multi-dimensional picture of the working of the Holy Spirit which is particularly helping for those of us who are not part of the Pentecostal church tradition.
Author Diana Butler Bass has written a book called provocatively-- Christianity After Religion--which I would highly recommend.
She’s a church historian. And she says we are moving from an age of religion, where people defined their faith by a set of propositions to believe in-- to an age of spirit, where we see church as a community of ministry and mission
to the world, living the life of Jesus in public ways, to change the world around them in the way of Jesus. This is inspired by the Holy Spirit working among followers of Jesus.
Like the disciples we as followers of Jesus see and understand what God is doing in the world in our time to meet the world's need for healing and wholeness.
We see the world is hungry for a new form of community for people of all sorts in the world, based on love and forgiveness; a messiah more healing and saving than the secular gods of wealth and power; a way of life to follow that creates peace rather than division and domination.
The age of the spirit also requires that we move beyond traditional models of church so that all believers, not just clergy and church leaders can see for themselves God's deeds for the healing and saving of the world, and can talk about them and publicly live them out in ways that the world can hear and understand.
Ours is very much a lived faith. The spirit helps us in our weakness. It brings hope when all else fails. Even when we are hurting deeply and it is hard to find the words to pray, says Paul, the spirit “intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”
Next week we will celebrate Trinity Sunday and I recognize one of the most difficult parts of our Trinitarian theology is an understanding of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I think most of us understand God as creator of the world, the one God. That we share with our Jewish brothers and sisters.
But we also believe God sent his son Jesus to come among us, and the Holy Spirit—not as something magical or occult, but as a divine spirit which touches our hearts and minds.
We have to be open to the leading of the spirit in our lives. It doesn’t mean the path will be clear or that there won’t be bumps along the way, but that God is with us. God cares for each one of us and has sent the Holy Spirit to be our guide and comforter. Amongst the uncertainties of the world, that is very good news indeed.
We as Anglicans have reputation of being people of the book, wedded to traditional liturgy and language, restrained and very proper in our worship style.
Yet in the past century perhaps the fastest growing churches, inspired by the events described in today’s Gospel which marks the feast of Pentecost, have embraced a worship style the exact opposite. There are no prayerbooks. Not as much scripture. The music is loud and often owes more to rock and roll than traditional hymns and organ music.
The appeal is to the emotions. The spirit of God has come among us, and the response is ecstatic worship, clapping, loud singing, speaking in tongues, emotional sermons. Praising the Lord vigorously and emphatically.
Some of you probably have experienced the Pentecostal church worship which has at least some of these elements.
I’m not saying it isn’t a valid choice, for those who want to praise and worship God that way, I’m saying we can’t let Pentecostal style churches have the exclusive claim on the moving of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus offered the disciples a taste of heaven on earth when he promised then that while he might not be with them in bodily form, he would send the Holy Spirit, the comforter, to be with them.
The story from Acts of that first Pentecost is full of drama. Suddenly from heaven a mighty rushing wind comes down and fills the house where the disciples are gathered. Tongues of fire appear, and one rests on each of Jesus followers.
Filled with the Holy Spirit, the disciples spill out into the street, speaking different languages so that all in the city where so many tongues are spoken might understand them.
The bystanders think they are drunk. But Peter tells the crowd they are witnesses to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which has been foretold in Hebrew Scripture. Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew, lived among them, died and was raised up by God to bring new life to the world.
This all happened 50 days after the Resurrection, hence the name Pentecost. It was a turning point which we often call the birthday of the church. The followers of Jesus had been nurtured until them by the appearances of the Risen Lord. But they were still fearful and unsure of what to do next.
After the Day of Pentecost they had been transformed. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, they moved boldly into the world to preach the Gospel.
The Holy Spirit is about an ecstatic experience of worship and praise among those first disciples. But it seems to me the key learning from Pentecost is seeing the Holy Spirit also as an advocate, who will be with us throughout our lives, consoling us when we are in sorrow, guiding us in truth.
This is a multi-dimensional picture of the working of the Holy Spirit which is particularly helping for those of us who are not part of the Pentecostal church tradition.
Author Diana Butler Bass has written a book called provocatively-- Christianity After Religion--which I would highly recommend.
She’s a church historian. And she says we are moving from an age of religion, where people defined their faith by a set of propositions to believe in-- to an age of spirit, where we see church as a community of ministry and mission
to the world, living the life of Jesus in public ways, to change the world around them in the way of Jesus. This is inspired by the Holy Spirit working among followers of Jesus.
Like the disciples we as followers of Jesus see and understand what God is doing in the world in our time to meet the world's need for healing and wholeness.
We see the world is hungry for a new form of community for people of all sorts in the world, based on love and forgiveness; a messiah more healing and saving than the secular gods of wealth and power; a way of life to follow that creates peace rather than division and domination.
The age of the spirit also requires that we move beyond traditional models of church so that all believers, not just clergy and church leaders can see for themselves God's deeds for the healing and saving of the world, and can talk about them and publicly live them out in ways that the world can hear and understand.
Ours is very much a lived faith. The spirit helps us in our weakness. It brings hope when all else fails. Even when we are hurting deeply and it is hard to find the words to pray, says Paul, the spirit “intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”
Next week we will celebrate Trinity Sunday and I recognize one of the most difficult parts of our Trinitarian theology is an understanding of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I think most of us understand God as creator of the world, the one God. That we share with our Jewish brothers and sisters.
But we also believe God sent his son Jesus to come among us, and the Holy Spirit—not as something magical or occult, but as a divine spirit which touches our hearts and minds.
We have to be open to the leading of the spirit in our lives. It doesn’t mean the path will be clear or that there won’t be bumps along the way, but that God is with us. God cares for each one of us and has sent the Holy Spirit to be our guide and comforter. Amongst the uncertainties of the world, that is very good news indeed.
Trusting God, not the world
Homily Easter 7 Year B
I read a story recently about a woman who told an interviewer. I don’t trust people anymore. It was reported that when she is out she is always looking at everyone around her, making sure there is no danger. Now the story was probably about about some criminal activity. And of course we need to be careful.
But we can’t live our lives in fear, suspicious of others. Jesus prays for his disciples and those that will come after them in this Gospel passage.
He prays that they will share his joy. And despite the evil in the world that will make them feel like stangers in a strange land , they will have faith, and in that faith they will find unity.
That prayer by Jesus before he died on the cross, part of the so-called farewell discourses, might seem somewhat ominous. We who follow Jesus are to be hated, to be strangers, to be marching to a different drum---of peace rather than war, of love rather than hate, of sharing rather than hoarding.
Indeed it when the church is “hated” and a “stranger” and when Christians are “hated” and “strangers” to power and wealth that we are truly authentic in our practice of faith.
The sad thing is that historically the church became corrupted when it was aligned with power and wealth in the middle ages and on into the 16th century. The reformation, including the English reformation, was a reaction to that corruption.
Yet since then there has always been a conflict between the church—and this includes all denominations—at its best when it is serving others, and speaking truth to power---and at its worst when it becomes too much part of the power structure and loses its moral compass.
What Jesus stresses is this priestly prayer is love, filled with hope and joy, not in material well being or individual glory, but in community. That’s why community life was at the heart of the early church—as they worshipped in homes led by Jesus disciples and other followers of “The Way,” as it was called then.
So as Jesus saw it there was a clear contrast between the world and his followers. They would need to be in the world, but not of it. As followers of Christ our first loyalty is not to the world but to God. And that puts us in conflict with the world.
The Christian path to peace and joy is not the same path as the world’s path. But some in the churches have never accepted that.
One of the keys to accepting the Christian path is seeing God’s grace active in the world, despite the conflict between the values of the Gospel and the values of the world.
What Jesus prayed helps us understand why it isn’t being without hope, or too pessimistic, or too critical, to not accept the world as it is, and to call for fundamental change.
In Jesus prayer the support for the disciples love for each other is the key to their survival in the face of a hostile world.
What does this mean for you and I today?
We can’t get too discouraged when by the world’s standards we are not quote unquote successful anymore.
Instead we need to seek God’s grace in our community life, not only in the parish but in the broader community.
In a way the story of our parish parallels the community’s story, Sarnia’s story. Only 40 years ago this was a prosperous place, with the Chemical valley booming, a good union town with good paying jobs.
Now while Mayor Mike can talk about Sarnia’s strengths, as he did to our Rotary club, the job market is worse and worse all the time. The call centre closes. The race track may close. Zellers closes. The valley has far fewer employees than it used to have.
So we are not alone in seeing better days, and other Sarnia churches are in the same boat, with a few exceptions—the full service evangelical churches.
But as we move from the season of Easter next week to the season of Pentecost, we recall that the early followers of Jesus faced tremendous obstacles as they sought to live out their new found faith.
But Jesus prays for us—that we might find joy and peace in him, and with holy spirit, and with grace find new life in new ways of being the church. As we prepare to celebrate our 86th anniversary amidst the challenges we face, let us pray that we might find new ways of being the church.
I read a story recently about a woman who told an interviewer. I don’t trust people anymore. It was reported that when she is out she is always looking at everyone around her, making sure there is no danger. Now the story was probably about about some criminal activity. And of course we need to be careful.
But we can’t live our lives in fear, suspicious of others. Jesus prays for his disciples and those that will come after them in this Gospel passage.
He prays that they will share his joy. And despite the evil in the world that will make them feel like stangers in a strange land , they will have faith, and in that faith they will find unity.
That prayer by Jesus before he died on the cross, part of the so-called farewell discourses, might seem somewhat ominous. We who follow Jesus are to be hated, to be strangers, to be marching to a different drum---of peace rather than war, of love rather than hate, of sharing rather than hoarding.
Indeed it when the church is “hated” and a “stranger” and when Christians are “hated” and “strangers” to power and wealth that we are truly authentic in our practice of faith.
The sad thing is that historically the church became corrupted when it was aligned with power and wealth in the middle ages and on into the 16th century. The reformation, including the English reformation, was a reaction to that corruption.
Yet since then there has always been a conflict between the church—and this includes all denominations—at its best when it is serving others, and speaking truth to power---and at its worst when it becomes too much part of the power structure and loses its moral compass.
What Jesus stresses is this priestly prayer is love, filled with hope and joy, not in material well being or individual glory, but in community. That’s why community life was at the heart of the early church—as they worshipped in homes led by Jesus disciples and other followers of “The Way,” as it was called then.
So as Jesus saw it there was a clear contrast between the world and his followers. They would need to be in the world, but not of it. As followers of Christ our first loyalty is not to the world but to God. And that puts us in conflict with the world.
The Christian path to peace and joy is not the same path as the world’s path. But some in the churches have never accepted that.
One of the keys to accepting the Christian path is seeing God’s grace active in the world, despite the conflict between the values of the Gospel and the values of the world.
What Jesus prayed helps us understand why it isn’t being without hope, or too pessimistic, or too critical, to not accept the world as it is, and to call for fundamental change.
In Jesus prayer the support for the disciples love for each other is the key to their survival in the face of a hostile world.
What does this mean for you and I today?
We can’t get too discouraged when by the world’s standards we are not quote unquote successful anymore.
Instead we need to seek God’s grace in our community life, not only in the parish but in the broader community.
In a way the story of our parish parallels the community’s story, Sarnia’s story. Only 40 years ago this was a prosperous place, with the Chemical valley booming, a good union town with good paying jobs.
Now while Mayor Mike can talk about Sarnia’s strengths, as he did to our Rotary club, the job market is worse and worse all the time. The call centre closes. The race track may close. Zellers closes. The valley has far fewer employees than it used to have.
So we are not alone in seeing better days, and other Sarnia churches are in the same boat, with a few exceptions—the full service evangelical churches.
But as we move from the season of Easter next week to the season of Pentecost, we recall that the early followers of Jesus faced tremendous obstacles as they sought to live out their new found faith.
But Jesus prays for us—that we might find joy and peace in him, and with holy spirit, and with grace find new life in new ways of being the church. As we prepare to celebrate our 86th anniversary amidst the challenges we face, let us pray that we might find new ways of being the church.
Sunday 13 May 2012
An Unselfish and Sacrificial Love
Homily Easter 6 Year B
Today as we mark the secular Mother’s Day, we are given in our scripture readings an idea of what love is all about—what God is teaching and commanding us to do when he asks us to love God and love each other.
In our society today there is a fundamental misunderstanding about love. Love is entirely tied up in feelings. And when feelings change, love disappears.
This is definitely not the love we are taught about in John’s Gospel, or John’s letter.
Now we may wonder about being “commanded” to love. But in a sense what we are celebrating on this Mother’s Day is the kind of unconditional, and unceasing love which most mothers show for their children.
It is a love based on feelings, but also on duty, on care, on being tied together in a mutually dependent relationship which imprints on both mother and child.
It is that part of mothering which is like the love God has for humanity, and demonstrated in sending his son Jesus , and the Holy Spirit to be with us.
Sacrificial, unselfish love is the ideal for the Christian life.
This month is mental health month in Canada. I am taking a five part course put on by the local Canada Mental Health Association. It involves those who have experienced mental illness—as sufferers, as parents, as spouses, as children, telling their stories to help those in the caring professions learn more about mental illness.
What struck me about the stories was the sacrificial and unselfish love offered by many ordinary people in helping to love and care for people with life changing and life threatening mental illnesses.
Mental illness has long had a stigma in our society. But that stigma is starting to fade as many prominent Canadians acknowledge they or a family member have suffered from mental illness from Olympic gold medalist Clara Hughes to former Conservative cabinet minister Michael Wilson.
In your own circle you probably know people who are suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, an illness affecting more and more people as the years go by.
When my Mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s I saw a dedicated volunteer worker for Children’s aid and longtime Altar Guild member at church, withdraw from all her activities in her mid-70’s.
In the early stages the once accomplished cook used purely food that could be reheated—usually bought at M&M’s. She sat beside the washing machine so she would know when a load was finished. Later she stopped going to church.
My Dad tried to care for her as long as he could, but she had to go into long term care, and died three years later.
She had always given us unconditional love, and I observed my father struggle to keep her in our family home. But they were both suffering and she needed more care.
Neither dad nor mum could understand why this terrible illness removed much of her life from her, just at a time when they had been enjoying retirement, travelling regularly to England, where my sister lived then.
It was hardest on dad as caregiver, I think he lost his faith after raising both my sister and I who where ordained in mid-life. And he helped us financially go to seminary!
What I am drawing from this experience is the model of love and care, which is offered to us by caregivers who are with a spouse with Alzheimer’s or some other mental illness.
We know from scientific research that mental illness is not a matter of personal weakness, but a combination of bio-chemical and genetic factors. Often difficult situations such as job loss or marriage breakdown can combine with these factors to cause such problems as depression, or bipolar disease.
The good news is through medication, therapy and love on the part of caregivers, there is hope. Even with Alzheimer’s there is a lot which can be done to make life better for both the sufferer and the caregiver.
It seems to me that as Christian communities we need to be conscious of God’s call to minister to each other in the midst of life’s challenges—including mental illness.
We are still battling the stigma. But self-help groups and better public education are letting people know they are not alone.
God loves us no matter what we are or what we do. We are not less in God’s eyes when we are weak, and struggling to make sense of our lives.
So in this Easter season, as we mark rebirth, and resurrection, and the spreading of the Holy Spirit, let us love others as God loves us, with that love that goes far beyond feelings, and to the very heart of what it means to be human and to share our humanity with others.
Today as we mark the secular Mother’s Day, we are given in our scripture readings an idea of what love is all about—what God is teaching and commanding us to do when he asks us to love God and love each other.
In our society today there is a fundamental misunderstanding about love. Love is entirely tied up in feelings. And when feelings change, love disappears.
This is definitely not the love we are taught about in John’s Gospel, or John’s letter.
Now we may wonder about being “commanded” to love. But in a sense what we are celebrating on this Mother’s Day is the kind of unconditional, and unceasing love which most mothers show for their children.
It is a love based on feelings, but also on duty, on care, on being tied together in a mutually dependent relationship which imprints on both mother and child.
It is that part of mothering which is like the love God has for humanity, and demonstrated in sending his son Jesus , and the Holy Spirit to be with us.
Sacrificial, unselfish love is the ideal for the Christian life.
This month is mental health month in Canada. I am taking a five part course put on by the local Canada Mental Health Association. It involves those who have experienced mental illness—as sufferers, as parents, as spouses, as children, telling their stories to help those in the caring professions learn more about mental illness.
What struck me about the stories was the sacrificial and unselfish love offered by many ordinary people in helping to love and care for people with life changing and life threatening mental illnesses.
Mental illness has long had a stigma in our society. But that stigma is starting to fade as many prominent Canadians acknowledge they or a family member have suffered from mental illness from Olympic gold medalist Clara Hughes to former Conservative cabinet minister Michael Wilson.
In your own circle you probably know people who are suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, an illness affecting more and more people as the years go by.
When my Mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s I saw a dedicated volunteer worker for Children’s aid and longtime Altar Guild member at church, withdraw from all her activities in her mid-70’s.
In the early stages the once accomplished cook used purely food that could be reheated—usually bought at M&M’s. She sat beside the washing machine so she would know when a load was finished. Later she stopped going to church.
My Dad tried to care for her as long as he could, but she had to go into long term care, and died three years later.
She had always given us unconditional love, and I observed my father struggle to keep her in our family home. But they were both suffering and she needed more care.
Neither dad nor mum could understand why this terrible illness removed much of her life from her, just at a time when they had been enjoying retirement, travelling regularly to England, where my sister lived then.
It was hardest on dad as caregiver, I think he lost his faith after raising both my sister and I who where ordained in mid-life. And he helped us financially go to seminary!
What I am drawing from this experience is the model of love and care, which is offered to us by caregivers who are with a spouse with Alzheimer’s or some other mental illness.
We know from scientific research that mental illness is not a matter of personal weakness, but a combination of bio-chemical and genetic factors. Often difficult situations such as job loss or marriage breakdown can combine with these factors to cause such problems as depression, or bipolar disease.
The good news is through medication, therapy and love on the part of caregivers, there is hope. Even with Alzheimer’s there is a lot which can be done to make life better for both the sufferer and the caregiver.
It seems to me that as Christian communities we need to be conscious of God’s call to minister to each other in the midst of life’s challenges—including mental illness.
We are still battling the stigma. But self-help groups and better public education are letting people know they are not alone.
God loves us no matter what we are or what we do. We are not less in God’s eyes when we are weak, and struggling to make sense of our lives.
So in this Easter season, as we mark rebirth, and resurrection, and the spreading of the Holy Spirit, let us love others as God loves us, with that love that goes far beyond feelings, and to the very heart of what it means to be human and to share our humanity with others.
Thursday 10 May 2012
Our Heritage of Common Prayer
Common Prayer Homily May 2, 2012
“Speak now or forever hold your peace.”
“Till death do us part.”
“Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”
“From all the deceits of the world, the flesh and the devil.”
“Read, mark and inwardly digest.”
“All sorts and conditions of men.”
What these phrases have in common, is that they are from the Book of Common Prayer.
Today along with the Church of England we are marking the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which has formed the basis for prayer books in 50 countries in 150 different languages.
The original prayer book authored by Thomas Cranmer in 1549 was revised several times in the religious turmoil which followed the English reformation, and culminated in the revisions in 1662.
I believe the anniversary is being marked, not so much to delve into the history of the development of the prayer book, although that is a fascinating topic for historians and theologians, but to focus on the importance of a framework for common prayer in our Anglican tradition.
The past forty years have been an important time for liturgical reform, developing modern liturgies in contemporary languages has been done throughout our Anglican communion.
However, the prayer book remains an important part of our heritage, and our ongoing worship, even if it is replaced as the primary worship book by alternative service books.
As a cradle Anglican one of the things I’ve valued has been the fact that I can travel anywhere in Canada, or the world for that matter and find a liturgy which is somewhat familiar. I attended a centennial service for the Anglican Church of Korea in 1990. Even though the service was all in Korean, I knew by the action and movement of the liturgy what they were saying and what they were doing as they celebrated the Eucharist.
So the prayer book offers us a clear and well thought out pattern of worship including the Eucharist, Morning and Evening Prayer and the Pastoral offices.
Modern alternative service books have retained the pattern, if not the language or theology of the Book of Common Prayer.
It’s easy to criticize the Book of Common Prayer 1962 edition which I grew up with, for its use of exclusive language, it’s emphasis on penitence rather than celebration, the limitations of the one year lectionary for readings, and other shortcomings.
However, the book also has the strength of the BCP tradition in its elegant Morning and evening prayer services, the beauty of the language in the Eucharist, the enduring power of Cranmer’s collects.
The BCP tradition, like the King James Version of the Bible, which just celebrated four hundred years, and the works of Shakespeare, are a reminder of the power of language to offer our praise and thanksgiving to God.
The full name of the 1662 book is a mouth full. “The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and opther Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of Engalnd together with the Psalter or Psalms of david pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches and the form and manner of making, ordaining and consecrating of bishops, priests and deacons.”
The 1662 book was the product of a number of previous versions. The first in 1549 was largely the work of Archbishop and later martyr Thomas Cranmer. In the preface he explained why a new prayer book was necessary.
“There was never anything by the wit of man so devised or sure established which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted.”
One of the things which strikes me about the 1662 communion rite is that many of the phrases are familiar to us 350 years later, although the structure and order of the service is somewhat different.
The 1662 Prayer Book came at an important time in England’s history, two years after the restoration of the monarchy. It was a compromise between high and low church elements in the church. There were still dissenters. Nine hundred and thirty six clergy were deprived of their orders.
After 1662 development of the prayer book finished in England until the 20th century.
So it is only in the last century we have seen the phenomenon of first revised Books of Common Prayer throughout the Anglican Communion, and then Alternative Service Books throughout the communion.
Common Prayer is now found more in the shape of the liturgy, than in language which has been drafted in different provinces in the communion.
There is still much to celebrate in our Anglican history of common prayer, and if we lose it, we lose our distinctiveness. We owe a debt to Cranmer and the early leaders of the Church of England for their efforts at liturgical reform after the split from the Bishop of Rome.
“Speak now or forever hold your peace.”
“Till death do us part.”
“Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”
“From all the deceits of the world, the flesh and the devil.”
“Read, mark and inwardly digest.”
“All sorts and conditions of men.”
What these phrases have in common, is that they are from the Book of Common Prayer.
Today along with the Church of England we are marking the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which has formed the basis for prayer books in 50 countries in 150 different languages.
The original prayer book authored by Thomas Cranmer in 1549 was revised several times in the religious turmoil which followed the English reformation, and culminated in the revisions in 1662.
I believe the anniversary is being marked, not so much to delve into the history of the development of the prayer book, although that is a fascinating topic for historians and theologians, but to focus on the importance of a framework for common prayer in our Anglican tradition.
The past forty years have been an important time for liturgical reform, developing modern liturgies in contemporary languages has been done throughout our Anglican communion.
However, the prayer book remains an important part of our heritage, and our ongoing worship, even if it is replaced as the primary worship book by alternative service books.
As a cradle Anglican one of the things I’ve valued has been the fact that I can travel anywhere in Canada, or the world for that matter and find a liturgy which is somewhat familiar. I attended a centennial service for the Anglican Church of Korea in 1990. Even though the service was all in Korean, I knew by the action and movement of the liturgy what they were saying and what they were doing as they celebrated the Eucharist.
So the prayer book offers us a clear and well thought out pattern of worship including the Eucharist, Morning and Evening Prayer and the Pastoral offices.
Modern alternative service books have retained the pattern, if not the language or theology of the Book of Common Prayer.
It’s easy to criticize the Book of Common Prayer 1962 edition which I grew up with, for its use of exclusive language, it’s emphasis on penitence rather than celebration, the limitations of the one year lectionary for readings, and other shortcomings.
However, the book also has the strength of the BCP tradition in its elegant Morning and evening prayer services, the beauty of the language in the Eucharist, the enduring power of Cranmer’s collects.
The BCP tradition, like the King James Version of the Bible, which just celebrated four hundred years, and the works of Shakespeare, are a reminder of the power of language to offer our praise and thanksgiving to God.
The full name of the 1662 book is a mouth full. “The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and opther Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of Engalnd together with the Psalter or Psalms of david pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches and the form and manner of making, ordaining and consecrating of bishops, priests and deacons.”
The 1662 book was the product of a number of previous versions. The first in 1549 was largely the work of Archbishop and later martyr Thomas Cranmer. In the preface he explained why a new prayer book was necessary.
“There was never anything by the wit of man so devised or sure established which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted.”
One of the things which strikes me about the 1662 communion rite is that many of the phrases are familiar to us 350 years later, although the structure and order of the service is somewhat different.
The 1662 Prayer Book came at an important time in England’s history, two years after the restoration of the monarchy. It was a compromise between high and low church elements in the church. There were still dissenters. Nine hundred and thirty six clergy were deprived of their orders.
After 1662 development of the prayer book finished in England until the 20th century.
So it is only in the last century we have seen the phenomenon of first revised Books of Common Prayer throughout the Anglican Communion, and then Alternative Service Books throughout the communion.
Common Prayer is now found more in the shape of the liturgy, than in language which has been drafted in different provinces in the communion.
There is still much to celebrate in our Anglican history of common prayer, and if we lose it, we lose our distinctiveness. We owe a debt to Cranmer and the early leaders of the Church of England for their efforts at liturgical reform after the split from the Bishop of Rome.
Monday 30 April 2012
Shepherds model servant leadership
Homily Easter 4 Yr. B 2012
Throughout history we have associated leadership with strength, power, decisiveness, determination. Kings, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Dictators, CEO’s of large corporations, Popes.
Even as our societies have move to democracy, the yearning for strong leadership has been evident in the focus of our democratic system on party leaders, and prime ministers.
But on this Good Shepherd Sunday we look at a different kind of leadership, a very different model which Jesus offers us.
This is the servant leader.
The image of Jesus offers of himself , according to John’s Gospel, is the good shepherd who cares for his sheep, no matter what happens. Who defends them from evil, who unlike the hired hand, does not flee from danger when the wolf approaches.
Now we are a long way from first century Israel where shepherds were among the lowliest workers in an agrarian society. I’ve never met a shepherd.
However this is pattern in the teaching of Jesus. He takes images of rural life from that time, and makes them timeless and universal.
How else can we explain the power of this passage and the 23rd psalm and the comfort it brings us at the most difficult times in our lives, as we face life and death situations.
Shepherds in Jesus time may have been poor, but they had great responsibility caring for the sheep in their charge. There were not only wolves, but snakes, scorpions and other dangers. When the sheep returned to their fold at night the shepherd would care for the injured and sick, anointing them with oil, and feeding them with herb remedies.
That imagery is applied to the Lord in the 23rd psalm, because it too offers a very different image of God than we see at times in the Hebrew scripture. We see God who is with us during our darkest times. God cares for us. God comforts us.
The kind of leadership we see in these passages is not the king who rules from on high, but of a servant, one who suffers with us.
This weekend I have been serving as a spiritual director for a program called beginning experience, a program which offers care for people who are dealing with losss like the death of a spouse, divorce and separation.
It is a Christian self-help program which operates on a volunteer basis. People are introduced to the program through six week coping with grief sessions. Then there is a weekend which includes talks, small group discussions, and personal reflection and writing sessions to reflect on themes involved in the grief process.
The ultimate goal is to help participants come to terms with the mixture of grief, guilt, confusion and many issues of faith and family dynamics which follow from the loss of a spouse.
It seems to be that as we minister to each other as we struggle with our life issues we are called to follow this servant leadership model Jesus offers.
Like shepherds, we need to care for those who are in pain who need our help. We follow Jesus by serving others, not by amassing power and wealth.
The motto of Rotary International which both Nancy Dease and I are members of is “Service above Self” and I think that is the essence of servant leadership.
In a sense what leads us to cynicism about our business and political leaders is that the prime objective seems to be winning at all costs. It is too easy to be seduced by the attraction of wealth. Just look at the growth of the salary of CEOs compared to their employees.
These business and political leaders lose touch with the realities of day to day life for ordinary people.
That’s something Jesus never did. He spent most of his life, we are told, as a carpenter, and then in his three year ministry lived as an itinerant preacher, teacher, and healer living with supporters wherever he travelled.
The images Jesus uses like this one are taken from everyday life. So we have in Jesus our true model for servant leadership; one who gains his reputation not from political power, or wealth, but from his care for others as reflected in his teaching his healing, and his personal relationships with his followers.
So how have we seen servant leadership reflected in the church?
In the early church Christians were strongest among the downtrodden, the marginalized in society. In the Book of Acts we see a Christian community based on house churches. Followers of Jesus often lived in community sharing their earnings in common. The community built itself up through serving each other.
The transformation of Christianity into the dominant religion in the Roman Empire, sanctioned by the Emperor Constantine was the culmination a gradual change in the church to a more hierarchical model.
While ministering to the poor and outcast has always been part of the witness of the church, much of the time since Constantine the Church has been aligned with wealth and power.
And servant leadership has been sidelined. While the church has done great service in education, work among the poor and missionary work, servant leadership and what it means in our modern society is very much a question we must address.
Amid the great changes in the economy, our political life, technology, the media, we have to redefine what servant leadership means for our time in the 21st century.
This image of the good shepherd is a reminder that we must reach out beyond our fold, in order to live out our faith. We must serve and care for others. It is in that way we can truly be good shepherds.
Throughout history we have associated leadership with strength, power, decisiveness, determination. Kings, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Dictators, CEO’s of large corporations, Popes.
Even as our societies have move to democracy, the yearning for strong leadership has been evident in the focus of our democratic system on party leaders, and prime ministers.
But on this Good Shepherd Sunday we look at a different kind of leadership, a very different model which Jesus offers us.
This is the servant leader.
The image of Jesus offers of himself , according to John’s Gospel, is the good shepherd who cares for his sheep, no matter what happens. Who defends them from evil, who unlike the hired hand, does not flee from danger when the wolf approaches.
Now we are a long way from first century Israel where shepherds were among the lowliest workers in an agrarian society. I’ve never met a shepherd.
However this is pattern in the teaching of Jesus. He takes images of rural life from that time, and makes them timeless and universal.
How else can we explain the power of this passage and the 23rd psalm and the comfort it brings us at the most difficult times in our lives, as we face life and death situations.
Shepherds in Jesus time may have been poor, but they had great responsibility caring for the sheep in their charge. There were not only wolves, but snakes, scorpions and other dangers. When the sheep returned to their fold at night the shepherd would care for the injured and sick, anointing them with oil, and feeding them with herb remedies.
That imagery is applied to the Lord in the 23rd psalm, because it too offers a very different image of God than we see at times in the Hebrew scripture. We see God who is with us during our darkest times. God cares for us. God comforts us.
The kind of leadership we see in these passages is not the king who rules from on high, but of a servant, one who suffers with us.
This weekend I have been serving as a spiritual director for a program called beginning experience, a program which offers care for people who are dealing with losss like the death of a spouse, divorce and separation.
It is a Christian self-help program which operates on a volunteer basis. People are introduced to the program through six week coping with grief sessions. Then there is a weekend which includes talks, small group discussions, and personal reflection and writing sessions to reflect on themes involved in the grief process.
The ultimate goal is to help participants come to terms with the mixture of grief, guilt, confusion and many issues of faith and family dynamics which follow from the loss of a spouse.
It seems to be that as we minister to each other as we struggle with our life issues we are called to follow this servant leadership model Jesus offers.
Like shepherds, we need to care for those who are in pain who need our help. We follow Jesus by serving others, not by amassing power and wealth.
The motto of Rotary International which both Nancy Dease and I are members of is “Service above Self” and I think that is the essence of servant leadership.
In a sense what leads us to cynicism about our business and political leaders is that the prime objective seems to be winning at all costs. It is too easy to be seduced by the attraction of wealth. Just look at the growth of the salary of CEOs compared to their employees.
These business and political leaders lose touch with the realities of day to day life for ordinary people.
That’s something Jesus never did. He spent most of his life, we are told, as a carpenter, and then in his three year ministry lived as an itinerant preacher, teacher, and healer living with supporters wherever he travelled.
The images Jesus uses like this one are taken from everyday life. So we have in Jesus our true model for servant leadership; one who gains his reputation not from political power, or wealth, but from his care for others as reflected in his teaching his healing, and his personal relationships with his followers.
So how have we seen servant leadership reflected in the church?
In the early church Christians were strongest among the downtrodden, the marginalized in society. In the Book of Acts we see a Christian community based on house churches. Followers of Jesus often lived in community sharing their earnings in common. The community built itself up through serving each other.
The transformation of Christianity into the dominant religion in the Roman Empire, sanctioned by the Emperor Constantine was the culmination a gradual change in the church to a more hierarchical model.
While ministering to the poor and outcast has always been part of the witness of the church, much of the time since Constantine the Church has been aligned with wealth and power.
And servant leadership has been sidelined. While the church has done great service in education, work among the poor and missionary work, servant leadership and what it means in our modern society is very much a question we must address.
Amid the great changes in the economy, our political life, technology, the media, we have to redefine what servant leadership means for our time in the 21st century.
This image of the good shepherd is a reminder that we must reach out beyond our fold, in order to live out our faith. We must serve and care for others. It is in that way we can truly be good shepherds.
Thursday 19 April 2012
Peace be with You; John's Pentecost
Homily Easter 2 Yr. B 2012
This story of the risen Jesus coming among his fearful disciples in the closed upper room is about more than convincing his most trusted followers he is risen.
This Gospel text is often called John’s Pentecost, because in the Gospel of John there is no depiction of the events of the Day of Pentecost when the disciples were heard in many languages after receiving the gift of the spirit in tongues like fire.
Instead in John’s Gospel we have this more gentle and intimate gift of the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathes on the disciples, asking them to receive the spirit and the power to forgive sins.
The disciples are now witnesses of the Risen Christ. And we as Christians are to follow in their path, to be Christ’s witnesses in the world.
God’s mission never ends. The mission to love, save and bless the world is never over.
The peace Jesus offers is not just for the disciples at this time of trial for them, it is for all of us who follow Jesus. That’s why those words-- “Peace be with you”—are part of every worship service in some shape or form.
The new life Jesus offers is available to all who believe, whether among the first witnesses to the Risen Christ, to Thomas, who missed that day, and needed to touch the wounds of Jesus, to Paul who finally saw the light of Jesus on the road to Damascus, and to all of the followers of Jesus since that time.
We are a Eucharistic community. We share Christ’s body and blood. Our Christian faith is a very earthy, material one which we are reminded of in our worship as we eat the bread and drink the wine, and raise our voices in praise and worship.
Jesus who appeared to the disciples that day was in a transformed body, but he was certainly not a ghost or apparition or he would not have been able to have Thomas touch his wounds from the cross.
Many things have changed in recent years, but the central truth of our faith remains the same. We are all witness of the Risen Lord, in water and word, in bread and wine.
Our faith is not a private matter, but something to be shared with others in community, and for the world to see and hear.
Jesus is Risen, He is Risen indeed. Alleluia.
This story of the risen Jesus coming among his fearful disciples in the closed upper room is about more than convincing his most trusted followers he is risen.
This Gospel text is often called John’s Pentecost, because in the Gospel of John there is no depiction of the events of the Day of Pentecost when the disciples were heard in many languages after receiving the gift of the spirit in tongues like fire.
Instead in John’s Gospel we have this more gentle and intimate gift of the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathes on the disciples, asking them to receive the spirit and the power to forgive sins.
The disciples are now witnesses of the Risen Christ. And we as Christians are to follow in their path, to be Christ’s witnesses in the world.
God’s mission never ends. The mission to love, save and bless the world is never over.
The peace Jesus offers is not just for the disciples at this time of trial for them, it is for all of us who follow Jesus. That’s why those words-- “Peace be with you”—are part of every worship service in some shape or form.
The new life Jesus offers is available to all who believe, whether among the first witnesses to the Risen Christ, to Thomas, who missed that day, and needed to touch the wounds of Jesus, to Paul who finally saw the light of Jesus on the road to Damascus, and to all of the followers of Jesus since that time.
We are a Eucharistic community. We share Christ’s body and blood. Our Christian faith is a very earthy, material one which we are reminded of in our worship as we eat the bread and drink the wine, and raise our voices in praise and worship.
Jesus who appeared to the disciples that day was in a transformed body, but he was certainly not a ghost or apparition or he would not have been able to have Thomas touch his wounds from the cross.
Many things have changed in recent years, but the central truth of our faith remains the same. We are all witness of the Risen Lord, in water and word, in bread and wine.
Our faith is not a private matter, but something to be shared with others in community, and for the world to see and hear.
Jesus is Risen, He is Risen indeed. Alleluia.
Sunday 25 March 2012
A covenant for our hearts
Homily Lent 5 Yr. B Jeremiah
Whether we like it or not covenants of all different kinds are a critical part of our lives. When we get married, when we are employed, when we arrange for the purchase of goods and services, we are part of a covenant.
Our legal system too is based on a covenantal arrangement. Some covenants are made binding by oaths, or ceremonies.
Others are based simply on mutual agreement, trust and perhaps a handshake.
But in most covenants there is some reciprocal agreement. I’ve been talking a lot about covenant the last five weeks as we’ve progressed from Genesis to Exodus and now this week to the prophet Jeremiah.
God’s covenant with the people of Israel has been reframed several times. Abraham and the Israelites are promised the land of Canaan in Genesis 15. That promise is repeated to Moses in Exodus.
But some of the Israelites rebel against Moses while the people of Israel are still in the desert. God then turns what had been an unconditional promise into one which is conditional.
If you obey my laws, then you will live long in the land that I give you.
And God sends the ten commandments as a legal foundation for obedience of his covenant.
The trouble is the people of Israel have trouble living up to their end of the covenant even under the leadership of two great Kings, David and Solomon.
When the Assyians overrun Israel and drive the Hebrews into exile in Babylon the people of Israel are shattered. They weep. They mourn the loss of Jerusalem to the invaders.
It is in this context that Jeremiah, the prophet writes. When we think of Jeremiah, we probably are more likely to think of a grumpy, angry prophet, reminding the people of Israel of their failures, their sins, how they brought this punishment on themselves.
However, there is a section of Jeremiah’s writing from which today’s scripture is taken called the “Book of Consolation.”
Jeremiah offers people hope in what he calls a “new covenant” different than the past covenants with God that they broke.
This covenant, instead of being a matter of laws to be obeyed, will be written on their hearts. “I will be their God and they shall be my people.”
This new covenant also means God will forgive the sins of the people of Israel and no longer remember them.
In terms of the overall narrative of the Old Testament, this is a pivotal moment.
As Christians we can see it pointing towards Jesus, who is written on our hearts and promises forgiveness of our sins.
But we need to remember this covenant was proclaimed by Jeremiah about 600BC.
It comes at a particular time in the life of the people of Israel. God has seen the people scorn him again and again.
Yet God still cares for his people and wants to offer a new way forward, hope for the future, a chance to make things right.
One thing we should think about when considering the text is that in our society the heart is usually associated with emotions.
But for Jeremiah and the Hebrews the heart was the central organ, the mind.
In writing the covenant on our hearts, God is making the covenant part of our minds, allowing us to internalize it rather than relying on external law.
How do we internalize God’s covenant, God’s forgiveness, God’s care for us.
Biblical scholar Walter Bruggemann calls the new covenant “an invitation to deep breath and fresh generosity, and a move beyond petty and deep resentment towards the embrace of the other.”
Jesus put it simply: Love God, and Love Your Neighbour.
What would it look like if we actually were able to do that in our society. What would the impact be on poverty, homelessness, health care, relationships, education, employment.
In our culture today we don’t have enough humility, enough forgiveness, enough caring. Me first is far too prevalent. Anger, frustration and hatred corrode our common life.
But what Jeremiah was saying to the people of Israel is still true today.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We have to Let God write the covenant on our hearts and in our minds, so we can make a difference one person at a time.
That’s the only way change can come. One person at a time. If we think of changing the whole world it is overwhelming.
When I was watching the NDP convention yesterday I recalled how only a few years ago the NDP didn’t have a single member in Quebec. And the party was fourth party in the House of Commons.
Now the new NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, who is from Quebec, is leader of the opposition and leads a caucus including almost 60 members from Quebec. Mulcair was the only member NDP member from Quebec before the last election.
So what starts small can grow.
And the same thing applies in the life of the community of faith. That’s what gives us hope for the future. Like thepeople of Israel we don’t know what the way forward is. But God’s covenant, written on our hearts in Jesus, offers us a way forward.
Whether we like it or not covenants of all different kinds are a critical part of our lives. When we get married, when we are employed, when we arrange for the purchase of goods and services, we are part of a covenant.
Our legal system too is based on a covenantal arrangement. Some covenants are made binding by oaths, or ceremonies.
Others are based simply on mutual agreement, trust and perhaps a handshake.
But in most covenants there is some reciprocal agreement. I’ve been talking a lot about covenant the last five weeks as we’ve progressed from Genesis to Exodus and now this week to the prophet Jeremiah.
God’s covenant with the people of Israel has been reframed several times. Abraham and the Israelites are promised the land of Canaan in Genesis 15. That promise is repeated to Moses in Exodus.
But some of the Israelites rebel against Moses while the people of Israel are still in the desert. God then turns what had been an unconditional promise into one which is conditional.
If you obey my laws, then you will live long in the land that I give you.
And God sends the ten commandments as a legal foundation for obedience of his covenant.
The trouble is the people of Israel have trouble living up to their end of the covenant even under the leadership of two great Kings, David and Solomon.
When the Assyians overrun Israel and drive the Hebrews into exile in Babylon the people of Israel are shattered. They weep. They mourn the loss of Jerusalem to the invaders.
It is in this context that Jeremiah, the prophet writes. When we think of Jeremiah, we probably are more likely to think of a grumpy, angry prophet, reminding the people of Israel of their failures, their sins, how they brought this punishment on themselves.
However, there is a section of Jeremiah’s writing from which today’s scripture is taken called the “Book of Consolation.”
Jeremiah offers people hope in what he calls a “new covenant” different than the past covenants with God that they broke.
This covenant, instead of being a matter of laws to be obeyed, will be written on their hearts. “I will be their God and they shall be my people.”
This new covenant also means God will forgive the sins of the people of Israel and no longer remember them.
In terms of the overall narrative of the Old Testament, this is a pivotal moment.
As Christians we can see it pointing towards Jesus, who is written on our hearts and promises forgiveness of our sins.
But we need to remember this covenant was proclaimed by Jeremiah about 600BC.
It comes at a particular time in the life of the people of Israel. God has seen the people scorn him again and again.
Yet God still cares for his people and wants to offer a new way forward, hope for the future, a chance to make things right.
One thing we should think about when considering the text is that in our society the heart is usually associated with emotions.
But for Jeremiah and the Hebrews the heart was the central organ, the mind.
In writing the covenant on our hearts, God is making the covenant part of our minds, allowing us to internalize it rather than relying on external law.
How do we internalize God’s covenant, God’s forgiveness, God’s care for us.
Biblical scholar Walter Bruggemann calls the new covenant “an invitation to deep breath and fresh generosity, and a move beyond petty and deep resentment towards the embrace of the other.”
Jesus put it simply: Love God, and Love Your Neighbour.
What would it look like if we actually were able to do that in our society. What would the impact be on poverty, homelessness, health care, relationships, education, employment.
In our culture today we don’t have enough humility, enough forgiveness, enough caring. Me first is far too prevalent. Anger, frustration and hatred corrode our common life.
But what Jeremiah was saying to the people of Israel is still true today.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We have to Let God write the covenant on our hearts and in our minds, so we can make a difference one person at a time.
That’s the only way change can come. One person at a time. If we think of changing the whole world it is overwhelming.
When I was watching the NDP convention yesterday I recalled how only a few years ago the NDP didn’t have a single member in Quebec. And the party was fourth party in the House of Commons.
Now the new NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, who is from Quebec, is leader of the opposition and leads a caucus including almost 60 members from Quebec. Mulcair was the only member NDP member from Quebec before the last election.
So what starts small can grow.
And the same thing applies in the life of the community of faith. That’s what gives us hope for the future. Like thepeople of Israel we don’t know what the way forward is. But God’s covenant, written on our hearts in Jesus, offers us a way forward.
Monday 19 March 2012
Facing Our Fears
Homily St. Patrick/Mothering Sunday Lent 4 Yr. B
In our reading from the Book of Numbers today we heard the story of God sending poisonous snakes among the grumbling Hebrew people.
The people ask Moses to pray to God for relief and God tells him to set a snake on top of a pole, and anyone who is bitten and looks on the pole will live.
Snakes have always been an object of fear, ever since the role of the snake as tempter in the Garden of Eden.
One of St. Patrick’s legendary claims to fame---and I had to mention this the day after St. Patrick’s day—is that he banished the snakes from Ireland by chasing them into the sea after they interrupted him taking a forty day fast on top of a hill.
This legend probably draws from the Old Testament mention of snakes in Exodus when Moses and Aaron use their staffs in battles against the Egyptian sorcerers, and both sides’ staffs turn into snakes.
The reason I say legend is not to diminish St. Patrick’s accomplishments but to report that there is no scientific evidence Ireland ever had snakes. “So there was nothing for St. Patrick to banish,” says naturalist Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.
The story from Numbers is equally hard to fathom, if taken literally. It is hard for me to conceive of God deliberately sending poisonous snakes to hurt or kill the Hebrew people who have survived the Exodus from Egypt.
So what’s behind this story, which is also mentioned in our Gospel reading, with Jesus being raised up on a Cross, just as a the serpent is raised on a pole, for the people of God to look on.
The time in the wilderness was a difficult time for the Hebrew. They had escaped slavery and degradation in Egypt. But they were not in the promised land.
Instead they were in the desert. And they are very unhappy about the conditions. So they start to angry. Moses, their leader, and God, who helped them get this far, are their targets.
Why, they wonder, are they struggling to exist in this desolate land—with no food, no water, and what food they do get is miserable.
So God sends poisonous snakes to punish them….or did he?
Maybe this story is a second or third hand account based on a memory of one of the ancient Hebrews finding their camp infested with snakes, and someone had died of a bite.
Maybe they had tried an old Egyptian magical remedy, capturing a snake and putting its head on a pole to try and forestall panic.
Or maybe the people were infected with parasitic worms, know as fiery snakes, which could cause infection or death.
In any case, as humans we have a built in fear of snakes. This crosses all cultural boundaries.
Perhaps this story is teaching us that we have to face our fears, and conquer them, rather than giving in to them.
The story of the Hebrews grumbling in the desert reminds me of how negativity, dissatisfaction, and disgruntlement seem to creep through our lives—in our local communities, in our nation, in our world, and even in our church.
Things aren’t what they used to be. Remember the 50’s and the 60’s when the church was full, and we had lots of young people, and the hall echoes to the sounds of the Sunday school, and the scouts and guides.
Remember when we sang the old songs. Used the old books all the time. We were the hub of the community.
The trouble is we end up like the ancient Hebrews who complained to Moses and God that they were eating better in Egypt.
We get stuck by those fiery snakes---negativity, doubt, anger, fear of the future.
And change becomes more difficult. We are stuck thinking about what was good in the past, and not allowing ourselves to think about something new and exciting in the future.
We don’t confront our collective fears, but rather hope they will go away.
What is the cure? The Gospel of John identifies the snake on the pole with the crucified Christ.
By looking at the Cross we are confronted with the suffering of Jesus, with our own suffering and the sin and suffering of the world.
During Lent we as Christians need to examine ourselves, and put things into perspective.
We need to learn from our sin, our pain, our suffering, our inadequacies, and those of the world, and then, and only then turn towards the Easter message that in death, Jesus overcomes death, and that Easter is the beginning of new life, of transformation, of renewal.
May this coming Easter be a time of renewal and new life for all of us.
In our reading from the Book of Numbers today we heard the story of God sending poisonous snakes among the grumbling Hebrew people.
The people ask Moses to pray to God for relief and God tells him to set a snake on top of a pole, and anyone who is bitten and looks on the pole will live.
Snakes have always been an object of fear, ever since the role of the snake as tempter in the Garden of Eden.
One of St. Patrick’s legendary claims to fame---and I had to mention this the day after St. Patrick’s day—is that he banished the snakes from Ireland by chasing them into the sea after they interrupted him taking a forty day fast on top of a hill.
This legend probably draws from the Old Testament mention of snakes in Exodus when Moses and Aaron use their staffs in battles against the Egyptian sorcerers, and both sides’ staffs turn into snakes.
The reason I say legend is not to diminish St. Patrick’s accomplishments but to report that there is no scientific evidence Ireland ever had snakes. “So there was nothing for St. Patrick to banish,” says naturalist Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.
The story from Numbers is equally hard to fathom, if taken literally. It is hard for me to conceive of God deliberately sending poisonous snakes to hurt or kill the Hebrew people who have survived the Exodus from Egypt.
So what’s behind this story, which is also mentioned in our Gospel reading, with Jesus being raised up on a Cross, just as a the serpent is raised on a pole, for the people of God to look on.
The time in the wilderness was a difficult time for the Hebrew. They had escaped slavery and degradation in Egypt. But they were not in the promised land.
Instead they were in the desert. And they are very unhappy about the conditions. So they start to angry. Moses, their leader, and God, who helped them get this far, are their targets.
Why, they wonder, are they struggling to exist in this desolate land—with no food, no water, and what food they do get is miserable.
So God sends poisonous snakes to punish them….or did he?
Maybe this story is a second or third hand account based on a memory of one of the ancient Hebrews finding their camp infested with snakes, and someone had died of a bite.
Maybe they had tried an old Egyptian magical remedy, capturing a snake and putting its head on a pole to try and forestall panic.
Or maybe the people were infected with parasitic worms, know as fiery snakes, which could cause infection or death.
In any case, as humans we have a built in fear of snakes. This crosses all cultural boundaries.
Perhaps this story is teaching us that we have to face our fears, and conquer them, rather than giving in to them.
The story of the Hebrews grumbling in the desert reminds me of how negativity, dissatisfaction, and disgruntlement seem to creep through our lives—in our local communities, in our nation, in our world, and even in our church.
Things aren’t what they used to be. Remember the 50’s and the 60’s when the church was full, and we had lots of young people, and the hall echoes to the sounds of the Sunday school, and the scouts and guides.
Remember when we sang the old songs. Used the old books all the time. We were the hub of the community.
The trouble is we end up like the ancient Hebrews who complained to Moses and God that they were eating better in Egypt.
We get stuck by those fiery snakes---negativity, doubt, anger, fear of the future.
And change becomes more difficult. We are stuck thinking about what was good in the past, and not allowing ourselves to think about something new and exciting in the future.
We don’t confront our collective fears, but rather hope they will go away.
What is the cure? The Gospel of John identifies the snake on the pole with the crucified Christ.
By looking at the Cross we are confronted with the suffering of Jesus, with our own suffering and the sin and suffering of the world.
During Lent we as Christians need to examine ourselves, and put things into perspective.
We need to learn from our sin, our pain, our suffering, our inadequacies, and those of the world, and then, and only then turn towards the Easter message that in death, Jesus overcomes death, and that Easter is the beginning of new life, of transformation, of renewal.
May this coming Easter be a time of renewal and new life for all of us.
Sunday 11 March 2012
Turning Thou Shalt not into Thou Shalt
Homily, The Ten Commandments
In the Bible "the Ten Commandments don't begin with 'Here are ten commandments, learn them by rote,' or 'Here are ten commandments, obey them.'
Instead, they begin one of the times they are repeated in the Book of Exodus with a sweeping announcement of freedom: 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery' (Exodus 20:2).
We will probably always think of the declarations that follow as the Ten Commandments. But we could, and probably should, think of them as invitations to God's liberation.
Because the Lord is your God, you are free to not need any other gods. You are free from the tyranny of lifeless idols. You are free to rest on the Sabbath. You are free to enjoy your parents as long as they live. You are set free from murder, stealing, and covetousness as ways to establish yourself in the land."
I am indebted to a minister friend from south of the border for that insight.
I’ll admit I’ve sometimes had trouble with the ten commandments. First of all—why these ten out of all the more than 600 laws in the Old Testament.
Also the ten commandments—while still applying to our lives—seem much in need of updating—at least on the surface.
And that negative tone. Thou shalt not…. It seems to put too much emphasis on what we shouldn’t do, then on what we should do to serve our God.
But there are positive ways of looking at the ten commandments. Here is another list of the ten—put in a more positive way, which I think helps us move forward.
1) Love the Lord God whom more than any "thing" in the universe.
2) Honor God's image in others by avoiding the name of God to lie, curse, or justify an unjust bias.
3) Give yourself adequate time for rest, community, and spirituality.
4) Respect your elders.
5) Respect human life.
6) Honor your commitments and your God given sexuality.
7) Be honest.
8) Respect the property of others.
9) Rejoice in the good fortune of others.
10. Speak the truth in love.
Let’s put the ten commandments or the Decalogue in their Biblical context.
Exodus is the story of the people of Israel from a small nomadic band who settled among foreigners who despised them to being a people God would dwell with and lead on a journey to a new land.
It is the story of a people who are first enslaved, but miraculously are freed to follow God. The journey from slavery to freedom is also a journey from following the commands of human taskmasters- the Egyptians, to following God.
We can look at the receiving of the ten commandments as a pivotal moment in the journey of the people of Israel.
One of the key understandings we gain from this passage and its place in the journey of the Hebrew people is that God’s act of grace—in the Exodus—or deliverance from the Egyptians, precedes the law.
The law reminds us of God’s grace freely given, and our grateful response.
By dwelling on the “thou shalt not” aspect of the ten commandments we miss the truth--- that the laws are for our benefit, as a way to a better life.
Or we can fall into the trap of legalism. That is—-we obey the law only because we fear judgment, and hope to escape punishment by God. Or we obey the law to gain God’s favour.
Both those approaches are wrong.
The law is a law of liberation, as my friend Joe says, freeing us to a life living in harmony with God and our fellow human beings.
That’s why the writer of today’s psalm says: “the precepts of the Lord are right and give joy to the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure and gives light to the eyes.”
The commandments have had an enormous impact on Judaism and Christianity. They remain an important part of our Biblical and liturgical record.
It is helpful to think of the commandments broken down into four groups.
The first three demand worship of God alone, and prohibit idolatry and taking the Lord’s name in vain.
The next two support a weekly Sabbath, or pause day, and ask for honour for parents.
The next three commandments focus on the individual and the family, calling for the sanctity of human life, marriage and sexuality.
The final two commandments are a reminder of the necessity for truthfulness in public society, and the need to avoid being corrupted by desire for the possessions of others.
When we think of the ten commandments in this way, it offers us a whole new way of thinking of how they could apply to us—particularly during this Lenten time of self-examination.
There are lots of questions we could ask ourselves arising from these ancient laws:
• How do I show my appreciation for God’s care from me as creator, redeemer and sustainer?
• Do I honour my commitments to God, to myself to others?
• Do I honour God in my speech?
• Do I care for my parents, and for elders, deepening relationships, and attending to their wisdom?
• Do I harbour anger and hostility which separates me from others, and from God?
• Do I give in to materialism—desire for things over a desire for better relationships with others and with God?
• Do I tell the truth about who I am to myself and others?
On a surface level the ten commandments may seem simple. But when we ask questions like these, you can see they challenge all of us to think about our lives, our relationships, and how we can do better.
In the Bible "the Ten Commandments don't begin with 'Here are ten commandments, learn them by rote,' or 'Here are ten commandments, obey them.'
Instead, they begin one of the times they are repeated in the Book of Exodus with a sweeping announcement of freedom: 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery' (Exodus 20:2).
We will probably always think of the declarations that follow as the Ten Commandments. But we could, and probably should, think of them as invitations to God's liberation.
Because the Lord is your God, you are free to not need any other gods. You are free from the tyranny of lifeless idols. You are free to rest on the Sabbath. You are free to enjoy your parents as long as they live. You are set free from murder, stealing, and covetousness as ways to establish yourself in the land."
I am indebted to a minister friend from south of the border for that insight.
I’ll admit I’ve sometimes had trouble with the ten commandments. First of all—why these ten out of all the more than 600 laws in the Old Testament.
Also the ten commandments—while still applying to our lives—seem much in need of updating—at least on the surface.
And that negative tone. Thou shalt not…. It seems to put too much emphasis on what we shouldn’t do, then on what we should do to serve our God.
But there are positive ways of looking at the ten commandments. Here is another list of the ten—put in a more positive way, which I think helps us move forward.
1) Love the Lord God whom more than any "thing" in the universe.
2) Honor God's image in others by avoiding the name of God to lie, curse, or justify an unjust bias.
3) Give yourself adequate time for rest, community, and spirituality.
4) Respect your elders.
5) Respect human life.
6) Honor your commitments and your God given sexuality.
7) Be honest.
8) Respect the property of others.
9) Rejoice in the good fortune of others.
10. Speak the truth in love.
Let’s put the ten commandments or the Decalogue in their Biblical context.
Exodus is the story of the people of Israel from a small nomadic band who settled among foreigners who despised them to being a people God would dwell with and lead on a journey to a new land.
It is the story of a people who are first enslaved, but miraculously are freed to follow God. The journey from slavery to freedom is also a journey from following the commands of human taskmasters- the Egyptians, to following God.
We can look at the receiving of the ten commandments as a pivotal moment in the journey of the people of Israel.
One of the key understandings we gain from this passage and its place in the journey of the Hebrew people is that God’s act of grace—in the Exodus—or deliverance from the Egyptians, precedes the law.
The law reminds us of God’s grace freely given, and our grateful response.
By dwelling on the “thou shalt not” aspect of the ten commandments we miss the truth--- that the laws are for our benefit, as a way to a better life.
Or we can fall into the trap of legalism. That is—-we obey the law only because we fear judgment, and hope to escape punishment by God. Or we obey the law to gain God’s favour.
Both those approaches are wrong.
The law is a law of liberation, as my friend Joe says, freeing us to a life living in harmony with God and our fellow human beings.
That’s why the writer of today’s psalm says: “the precepts of the Lord are right and give joy to the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure and gives light to the eyes.”
The commandments have had an enormous impact on Judaism and Christianity. They remain an important part of our Biblical and liturgical record.
It is helpful to think of the commandments broken down into four groups.
The first three demand worship of God alone, and prohibit idolatry and taking the Lord’s name in vain.
The next two support a weekly Sabbath, or pause day, and ask for honour for parents.
The next three commandments focus on the individual and the family, calling for the sanctity of human life, marriage and sexuality.
The final two commandments are a reminder of the necessity for truthfulness in public society, and the need to avoid being corrupted by desire for the possessions of others.
When we think of the ten commandments in this way, it offers us a whole new way of thinking of how they could apply to us—particularly during this Lenten time of self-examination.
There are lots of questions we could ask ourselves arising from these ancient laws:
• How do I show my appreciation for God’s care from me as creator, redeemer and sustainer?
• Do I honour my commitments to God, to myself to others?
• Do I honour God in my speech?
• Do I care for my parents, and for elders, deepening relationships, and attending to their wisdom?
• Do I harbour anger and hostility which separates me from others, and from God?
• Do I give in to materialism—desire for things over a desire for better relationships with others and with God?
• Do I tell the truth about who I am to myself and others?
On a surface level the ten commandments may seem simple. But when we ask questions like these, you can see they challenge all of us to think about our lives, our relationships, and how we can do better.
Sunday 4 March 2012
We are Children of Abraham
Homily Lent 2 Yr. B Genesis
One man stands out among all the characters in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Yet Abram, renamed Abraham by God, is not a king like David, not adopted royalty, like Moses, not a prophet, like Elijah.
Abraham was instead a nomadic herder, or possibly a caravan merchant, born in Haran, on what is called the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia.
Yet in our great Biblical narrative Abraham stands out as the inheritor of the covenant that God made with Noah, as well as God’s blessing and promise that he will be the father of nations.
All this must have seemed so unlikely to Abram. He and his wife Sarah were well past child bearing age. And indeed when Abraham had a son Ishmael with Hagar, the Egyptian, God still promises Sarah, Abram’s barren wife, a child.
She laughs. But the last laugh is on her when she is with child, and Isaac is born. Hagar and Ishmael are expelled from the household, but go on to found descendants of Abram who would be Arabs.
Now Abraham is regarded as father of three great religious traditions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
All this from a nomadic patriarch who trusts God, and takes a leap of faith to follow God, and accept his blessing and the promise of a land for his people.
Perhaps the reason this reading is part of our Lenten series from Genesis is that we, like Abraham, are being prepared for a leap of faith, each Lenten season as we follow Jesus to the cross.
Our story of salvation starts with Abraham, after humanity has failed to live up to God's intention for us---first in the Garden of Eden, and then in the disobedience which led to the great flood.
God makes a covenant with Abraham, and demands obedience in the covenantal act of circumcision.
Paul says Abraham's faith is what made the covenantal relationship with God different. Abraham responded to God's call in faith.
Abram was a descendant of Noah's son, Shem. In Genesis 12 God summons Abram to leave his home in Haran, promising that he will be blessed as part of a great nation, and that his name will be great. "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you," God says.
So God is calling on Abram to trust him. God will reveal where he is to live. God will be the source of his blessing and his success.
Abram's salvation will be in following God. This may sound simple. But it required great trust.
The society Abram lived in thousands of years ago was often dangerous and violent.
People lived in a time of peril, of doubt, of loss. It wasn't easy to have faith. It wasn't particularly comforting.
Unlike Moses Abram had no burning bushes. No ten commendaments from the top of the mountain.
God demanded obedience from Abram. He had to leave behind his family, his homeland and all that was familiar.
All this for the vague promise of journeying to the "Land I will show you."
One thing we can see from the account in Genesis is that Abraham doesn't evolve any kind of theology, or set of beliefs about God.
His faith is rooted in journeying with God, in obedience rather than settling down.
Sometimes it was hard to see the promise realized. His wife Sarah was barren for many years. The Canaanites inhabited the promised land and it wasn't fertile yet.
So faith wasn't easy. That's why God repeated the promise, the blessing and the covenant, as in today's reading.
Another thing worth thinking about. Abraham was not particularly a man of virtue. As well as fathering Ishmael with Hagar, Sarah's servant, he flees to Egypt to avoid famine and pretends Sarah is his sister. Saran is taken into Pharoah's household and Abraham is given sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels and slaves.
Pharoah finds out Sarah's true identity, but Abraham still leaves a rich man.
What does Abraham's story, Abraham's covenant with God mean to us as Christians thousands of years later.
Perhaps one of the things is should mean, but doesn't, is that we as Christians recognize we share a common heritage with Jews and Muslims. We are all children of Abraham.
Yet in our world today Christianity, Islam and Judaism often live in tension. There is a lack of understanding of our common story, our common holy places and our common beliefs.
Somehow we have drawn further apart, rather than closer together as believers in the one God. We all claim Abraham, but have allowed ourselves to divide into many factions--even within our own faith traditions.
God offers us a vision of harmony, of a blessing which is available to all Abraham's children.
In Lent maybe we can start to let go of our prejudices, and our egos, and seek to discern what God is calling us to do to claim God's blessing, to honour the covenant which Noah and Abraham made with him.
One man stands out among all the characters in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Yet Abram, renamed Abraham by God, is not a king like David, not adopted royalty, like Moses, not a prophet, like Elijah.
Abraham was instead a nomadic herder, or possibly a caravan merchant, born in Haran, on what is called the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia.
Yet in our great Biblical narrative Abraham stands out as the inheritor of the covenant that God made with Noah, as well as God’s blessing and promise that he will be the father of nations.
All this must have seemed so unlikely to Abram. He and his wife Sarah were well past child bearing age. And indeed when Abraham had a son Ishmael with Hagar, the Egyptian, God still promises Sarah, Abram’s barren wife, a child.
She laughs. But the last laugh is on her when she is with child, and Isaac is born. Hagar and Ishmael are expelled from the household, but go on to found descendants of Abram who would be Arabs.
Now Abraham is regarded as father of three great religious traditions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
All this from a nomadic patriarch who trusts God, and takes a leap of faith to follow God, and accept his blessing and the promise of a land for his people.
Perhaps the reason this reading is part of our Lenten series from Genesis is that we, like Abraham, are being prepared for a leap of faith, each Lenten season as we follow Jesus to the cross.
Our story of salvation starts with Abraham, after humanity has failed to live up to God's intention for us---first in the Garden of Eden, and then in the disobedience which led to the great flood.
God makes a covenant with Abraham, and demands obedience in the covenantal act of circumcision.
Paul says Abraham's faith is what made the covenantal relationship with God different. Abraham responded to God's call in faith.
Abram was a descendant of Noah's son, Shem. In Genesis 12 God summons Abram to leave his home in Haran, promising that he will be blessed as part of a great nation, and that his name will be great. "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you," God says.
So God is calling on Abram to trust him. God will reveal where he is to live. God will be the source of his blessing and his success.
Abram's salvation will be in following God. This may sound simple. But it required great trust.
The society Abram lived in thousands of years ago was often dangerous and violent.
People lived in a time of peril, of doubt, of loss. It wasn't easy to have faith. It wasn't particularly comforting.
Unlike Moses Abram had no burning bushes. No ten commendaments from the top of the mountain.
God demanded obedience from Abram. He had to leave behind his family, his homeland and all that was familiar.
All this for the vague promise of journeying to the "Land I will show you."
One thing we can see from the account in Genesis is that Abraham doesn't evolve any kind of theology, or set of beliefs about God.
His faith is rooted in journeying with God, in obedience rather than settling down.
Sometimes it was hard to see the promise realized. His wife Sarah was barren for many years. The Canaanites inhabited the promised land and it wasn't fertile yet.
So faith wasn't easy. That's why God repeated the promise, the blessing and the covenant, as in today's reading.
Another thing worth thinking about. Abraham was not particularly a man of virtue. As well as fathering Ishmael with Hagar, Sarah's servant, he flees to Egypt to avoid famine and pretends Sarah is his sister. Saran is taken into Pharoah's household and Abraham is given sheep, oxen, donkeys, camels and slaves.
Pharoah finds out Sarah's true identity, but Abraham still leaves a rich man.
What does Abraham's story, Abraham's covenant with God mean to us as Christians thousands of years later.
Perhaps one of the things is should mean, but doesn't, is that we as Christians recognize we share a common heritage with Jews and Muslims. We are all children of Abraham.
Yet in our world today Christianity, Islam and Judaism often live in tension. There is a lack of understanding of our common story, our common holy places and our common beliefs.
Somehow we have drawn further apart, rather than closer together as believers in the one God. We all claim Abraham, but have allowed ourselves to divide into many factions--even within our own faith traditions.
God offers us a vision of harmony, of a blessing which is available to all Abraham's children.
In Lent maybe we can start to let go of our prejudices, and our egos, and seek to discern what God is calling us to do to claim God's blessing, to honour the covenant which Noah and Abraham made with him.
Monday 20 February 2012
Moving on from the Mountain Top
Homily Last Sunday after Epiphany year B
For the ancient Hebrews mountain top experiences were an important part of how they experienced their faith. Moses ascended a mountain and came back with the Ten Commandments that established a law for how to live.
For many of us, mountains are a place of adventure, of recreation, and of retreat, a place to get away from the distractions of day to day life. Our spirits are lifted by the glory of nature. We can see with great clarity, and we feel closer to God, our creator.
Today’s gospel reading tells of a mystical mountain top experience shared by Jesus with his most trusted disciples, Peter, James and John.
It is a pivotal moment in Mark’s Gospel narrative.
By the middle of Mark’s account, we have witnessed Jesus calling his disciples, teaching, healing, and casting out demons.
He has already told his disciples of his coming death and resurrection. “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribe, and be killed and after three days rise again.”
Mark says six days after this prediction of his death Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain, “by themselves.”
While Jesus is there, he literally changes in front of their eyes and his clothes turn a dazzling white—a colour impossible to obtain by bleaching cloth.
To transfigure is defined in the dictionary as “to give a new and typically exalted or spiritual appearance to,” a definition which no doubt owes it origin to this Bible passage.
Mark describes Jesus as appearing with Elijah and Moses, thus establishing the continuity of God’s revelation through Moses to Elijah and then Jesus.
This tie between Jesus and Elijah is also underlined by our reading from the Old Testament which reminds us of how Elijah ascends like a whirlwind into heaven on his chariot of fire after leaving Elisha behind to carry on his work.
The most challenging part of the story is Peter’s immediate reaction to the transfiguration. He says to Jesus that the tiny group should stay on top of the mountain, and build three dwellings, one for each of Jesus, Elijah and Moses.
That’s when the voice comes from Heaven, as it had when Jesus was baptized, saying: “This is my son, the beloved, listen to him.”
As well as reinforcing the prediction Jesus has made just days earlier, Peter’s suggestion that the mountain top experience could somehow carry on, by building dwellings and staying there would seem to be a warning for us as we carry on our journeys of faith.
Mountain top experiences can be wonderful. Mountain top experiences of any kind. But we have to come back down the mountain.
The journey doesn’t end on the mountain top. We need to take the long view, and move on. Perhaps that will help us understand our challenge to be the church in a changing religious environment in North America.
Our mountain top may have been the 1950’s and 60’s when the churches were full, and the hub of the community in many ways. But we couldn’t stay on that mountain top. Society has changed. Sunday has changed. Only a third as many people go to church and there are many more churches.
That doesn’t mean we don’t continue to experience the presence of God, as individuals, as parishes.
Peter, James and John were witnesses to the supernatural power of God on the top of the mountain when they saw Jesus transfigured.
They didn’t really understand what they had seen, but it helped prepared them and the other disciples for what lay ahead.
They were the witnesses on which Christ built the church.
It may be hard for us to relate to supernatural events like this. After all if we reported seeing Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus while standing on top of one of the Rocky Mountains we might be accused of having too much to drink, or smoking funny cigarettes.
But some of us have probably had dramatic moments of spiritual insight, or God’s healing presence---experiences which can’t be explained by science.
Our visions and our spiritual awakenings are something only we can assess. Others may have had no such experiences but still feel God’s presence in their lives.
Our faith is something we can depend on in an age of uncertainty. Science and technology can’t give us all the answers, and lots of scientists would confirm that.
We need the hope our faith gives us in a world that has so much suffering and evil.
Mountain top experiences can be uplifting and inspiring as we serve Christ in an often bewildering world.
It’s sometimes hard to grasp all the information we have access to with the explosion in communications over the past few decades.
But mountain top experiences—experiences of joy, of beauty, of revelation of God’s presence and love for us—help us amidst a broken world.
We can’t build our home there, as Peter found out, but we can find strength to carry on with the journey.
The story of the Transfiguration is literally an answer to prayer. Usually in the Gospels when Jesus goes up to the mountain it is to pray, to be apart. This time he took three of his disciples with him.
As we prepare for the season of Lent, and the journey to Calvary and the empty tomb let us offer our prayers for strength on our Christian journey.
For the ancient Hebrews mountain top experiences were an important part of how they experienced their faith. Moses ascended a mountain and came back with the Ten Commandments that established a law for how to live.
For many of us, mountains are a place of adventure, of recreation, and of retreat, a place to get away from the distractions of day to day life. Our spirits are lifted by the glory of nature. We can see with great clarity, and we feel closer to God, our creator.
Today’s gospel reading tells of a mystical mountain top experience shared by Jesus with his most trusted disciples, Peter, James and John.
It is a pivotal moment in Mark’s Gospel narrative.
By the middle of Mark’s account, we have witnessed Jesus calling his disciples, teaching, healing, and casting out demons.
He has already told his disciples of his coming death and resurrection. “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribe, and be killed and after three days rise again.”
Mark says six days after this prediction of his death Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain, “by themselves.”
While Jesus is there, he literally changes in front of their eyes and his clothes turn a dazzling white—a colour impossible to obtain by bleaching cloth.
To transfigure is defined in the dictionary as “to give a new and typically exalted or spiritual appearance to,” a definition which no doubt owes it origin to this Bible passage.
Mark describes Jesus as appearing with Elijah and Moses, thus establishing the continuity of God’s revelation through Moses to Elijah and then Jesus.
This tie between Jesus and Elijah is also underlined by our reading from the Old Testament which reminds us of how Elijah ascends like a whirlwind into heaven on his chariot of fire after leaving Elisha behind to carry on his work.
The most challenging part of the story is Peter’s immediate reaction to the transfiguration. He says to Jesus that the tiny group should stay on top of the mountain, and build three dwellings, one for each of Jesus, Elijah and Moses.
That’s when the voice comes from Heaven, as it had when Jesus was baptized, saying: “This is my son, the beloved, listen to him.”
As well as reinforcing the prediction Jesus has made just days earlier, Peter’s suggestion that the mountain top experience could somehow carry on, by building dwellings and staying there would seem to be a warning for us as we carry on our journeys of faith.
Mountain top experiences can be wonderful. Mountain top experiences of any kind. But we have to come back down the mountain.
The journey doesn’t end on the mountain top. We need to take the long view, and move on. Perhaps that will help us understand our challenge to be the church in a changing religious environment in North America.
Our mountain top may have been the 1950’s and 60’s when the churches were full, and the hub of the community in many ways. But we couldn’t stay on that mountain top. Society has changed. Sunday has changed. Only a third as many people go to church and there are many more churches.
That doesn’t mean we don’t continue to experience the presence of God, as individuals, as parishes.
Peter, James and John were witnesses to the supernatural power of God on the top of the mountain when they saw Jesus transfigured.
They didn’t really understand what they had seen, but it helped prepared them and the other disciples for what lay ahead.
They were the witnesses on which Christ built the church.
It may be hard for us to relate to supernatural events like this. After all if we reported seeing Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus while standing on top of one of the Rocky Mountains we might be accused of having too much to drink, or smoking funny cigarettes.
But some of us have probably had dramatic moments of spiritual insight, or God’s healing presence---experiences which can’t be explained by science.
Our visions and our spiritual awakenings are something only we can assess. Others may have had no such experiences but still feel God’s presence in their lives.
Our faith is something we can depend on in an age of uncertainty. Science and technology can’t give us all the answers, and lots of scientists would confirm that.
We need the hope our faith gives us in a world that has so much suffering and evil.
Mountain top experiences can be uplifting and inspiring as we serve Christ in an often bewildering world.
It’s sometimes hard to grasp all the information we have access to with the explosion in communications over the past few decades.
But mountain top experiences—experiences of joy, of beauty, of revelation of God’s presence and love for us—help us amidst a broken world.
We can’t build our home there, as Peter found out, but we can find strength to carry on with the journey.
The story of the Transfiguration is literally an answer to prayer. Usually in the Gospels when Jesus goes up to the mountain it is to pray, to be apart. This time he took three of his disciples with him.
As we prepare for the season of Lent, and the journey to Calvary and the empty tomb let us offer our prayers for strength on our Christian journey.
Sunday 12 February 2012
Praying for the Playoffs?
Homily Epiphany 6
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal apparently wants to offer divine intervention for the Montréal Canadiens.
The Archdiocese placed an ad in Montreal newspapers this week, encouraging people to pray for an eight-place finish — and a playoff spot —for the Montreal.
The ad shows the Eastern Conference standings with every team listed except the Canadiens. In eighth place, the final playoff spot, it simply says, “Let Us Pray.”
It’s a lighthearted, but serious attempt to connect the Catholic
Church to the other religion in Quebec, and elsewhere in Canada, hockey.
It is no coincidence that the jersey of Les Canadiens is called “La sainte flanelle” (the holy flannel). Following Les Canadiens is a serious matter. One fan has literally created a Habs “temple” in his house, with the appearance of a Catholic church, complete with altar, the centre of which sits a replica Stanley Cup.
I hate to disappoint the Habs faithful, but as St. Paul reminds us today, only one competitor can win in any competition. So the important thing is how you play the game—trying to do your best whatever the outcome.
As a Leafs fan I’ve had to remember that ever since the glory days, back in the 60’s when my beloved Maple Leafs won four Stanley Cups in six years.
Paul might have something to say to this year’s edition of the storied Canadiens. In today’s reading he reminds us that in a race all runners must compete, but only one receives the prize.
So while Les Glorieux may have had more success than any other team in North American professional hockey, they can’t rest on their laurels. Despite the prayers of the Montreal Archdiocese, they will have an uphill battle to make the playoffs.
The paradox Paul highlights is that all must run the race in a way to put themselves in a position to win. But only one succeeds.
The lesson for us as Christians is that while we won’t always win the race, we are ultimately seeking the prize which is imperishable—the chance to live in eternal oneness with God our creator and redeemer.
This isn’t pie in the sky by and by. Paul urges us not to run aimlessly, beating the air, but to exercise self control, and serve others.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal apparently wants to offer divine intervention for the Montréal Canadiens.
The Archdiocese placed an ad in Montreal newspapers this week, encouraging people to pray for an eight-place finish — and a playoff spot —for the Montreal.
The ad shows the Eastern Conference standings with every team listed except the Canadiens. In eighth place, the final playoff spot, it simply says, “Let Us Pray.”
It’s a lighthearted, but serious attempt to connect the Catholic
Church to the other religion in Quebec, and elsewhere in Canada, hockey.
It is no coincidence that the jersey of Les Canadiens is called “La sainte flanelle” (the holy flannel). Following Les Canadiens is a serious matter. One fan has literally created a Habs “temple” in his house, with the appearance of a Catholic church, complete with altar, the centre of which sits a replica Stanley Cup.
I hate to disappoint the Habs faithful, but as St. Paul reminds us today, only one competitor can win in any competition. So the important thing is how you play the game—trying to do your best whatever the outcome.
As a Leafs fan I’ve had to remember that ever since the glory days, back in the 60’s when my beloved Maple Leafs won four Stanley Cups in six years.
Paul might have something to say to this year’s edition of the storied Canadiens. In today’s reading he reminds us that in a race all runners must compete, but only one receives the prize.
So while Les Glorieux may have had more success than any other team in North American professional hockey, they can’t rest on their laurels. Despite the prayers of the Montreal Archdiocese, they will have an uphill battle to make the playoffs.
The paradox Paul highlights is that all must run the race in a way to put themselves in a position to win. But only one succeeds.
The lesson for us as Christians is that while we won’t always win the race, we are ultimately seeking the prize which is imperishable—the chance to live in eternal oneness with God our creator and redeemer.
This isn’t pie in the sky by and by. Paul urges us not to run aimlessly, beating the air, but to exercise self control, and serve others.
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