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.
Wednesday 30 May 2012
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.
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