Trusting in God

Homily Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A
St. Luke’s, Burnt River, Christ Church, Bobcaygeon

Jesus had much to teach his disciples in what are referred to as the “Farewell Discourses” in John’s Gospel.

This was the first time we are told what he taught them just before Calvary and the Cross.

But sadly some people have misinterpreted the words of Jesus. Take for example Jesus famous “I am” statement. He says: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to my Father except through me.”

Some have interpreted this to mean anyone who is not a Christian is doomed to hell, or separation from God; anyone who follows Islam, Buddhism or any other faith.

My own feeling and the teaching of our church is that this kind of literal approach doesn’t work.

I came across this story about Billy Graham, one of the world’s great evangelists, who was asked about this text when he spoke to students at Harvard University.

An earnest Christian student asked a pointed question: “Since Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no-one comes to the Father except through me, doesn’t that mean people from others religions are going to hell.?”

Dr. Graham replied: “I’m sure glad God is the judge’s of people’s hearts and not me. I trust God to decide these questions justly and mercifully.”

The student was disappointed not to have a clear cut answer and pressed further. “Well, what do you think God will decide?”

Dr. Graham responded: “Well, God doesn’t really ask my advice on these matters.”

Another questioner asked: “What about those who aren’t even monotheists like Buddhists?

Dr. Graham replied: “You know I have been to many Buddhist countries and so many of the people I’ve met seem to live more like Jesus than many Christians I’ve seen.”

The reason I offer this story is to indicate how complex this whole matter of faith and eternal life is. There is not some simple formula, like the four way test in Rotary, or the famous “do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior?”

The invitation to follow Jesus as the way, the truth and the life is not exclusive. We are not joining a club, where there is a password to get in. Our Christian faith is not meant to be only for the elite few who really understand the Gospel.

Instead, its an open invitation, open to all. We can hold to the truth of our beliefs without negating the beliefs of others, or consigning to the eternal fires of hell if they don’t join us.

Jesus message in the Gospel passage, which expresses his care for all humanity is “do not let your hearts be troubled.”

This passage is often used at funerals. That seems fitting because as he taught Jesus was anticipating his own death, and the death of a ministry with the disciples, which would continue in a different way…with Jesus present through the Holy Spirit, the comforter.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.” That is something we find difficult in many instances. We worry about our health, our jobs, our financial well-being, our children, our communities, our family life, our parents. We find there is much in the world that troubles us. Just turn on a newscast.

Jesus asks us instead of allowing our troubles to overcome us, to trust in Him, in God, in the Holy Spirit.

Think of how often we put our trust in others and are disappointed…in businesses, in governments, in professionals, in institutions of all kinds.

The only sure trust is in God. However an attitude of trust does not necessarily mean we will get what we want, expect, or even deserve.

God’s grace is with us whatever the outcome. This most often arises in case of health. I remember visiting an elderly woman in hospital who had rheumatoid arthritis. She was in almost constant pain even with medication.

I prayed with her and also tried to reassure her that God is not punishing her, and she had done nothing to deserve this painful disease. Instead, God is suffering with her, as she endures an undeserved and difficult illness.

When we have faith, and trust in God’s grace, it doesn’t necessarily take the pain away, but it does allow us to carry on. What may have been hurting that woman in hospital was the idea that somehow she had some something wrong, and now had to suffer for it.

Depression is anger and pain turned inward on oneself, so the message of Jesus, not to let our hearts be troubled, and to trust in Him is one of consolation.
We are challenged as Christians to minister to the troubled hearts of the world, not only in our midst but in our wider communities.

We can become, the way, the truth, and the life, as we live out our Christian faith, and try to follow the teachings of Jesus.

The true mark of the Christian life, is to reflect something of the quality of Jesus in our own lives.

That may seem a tall order. But look at what happened to those twelve disciples and the other men and women who were early followers of Jesus. They were ordinary people, peasants in that more feudal agrarian economy.

Christianity began as a religion of the lower classes. They shared all in common and met in private homes. We live in a very different context with so many layers of history, and changes in the past two thousand years.

What we can learn from those early Christians is an attitude of passion and dedication to spreading the Gospel that is as much needed in our affluent North American culture, as it was in the days of the Roman Empire.

The Emmaus Road; Recognizing Jesus in Word and Sacrament

Third Sunday of Easter Year A 2014
St. Luke’s, Burnt River, Christ Church, Bobcaygeon

What must it have been like that first Easter day for followers of Jesus? Fear, uncertainty, despair, confusion.

In last week’s Gospel story from John we hear how on that very day disciples in Jesus inner circle went from all those feeling, to a hope, joy and peace through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit by their risen Lord.

From doubting the word of Mary Magdalene and other women who went to find an empty tomb, they encountered Jesus in the upper room, and began the next stage in their journey of faith.

But what about those who were not in the inner circle, the many followers of Jesus who had watched as Jesus was led away to be crucified, and then heard stories of his Resurrection and the empty tomb…but no first hand accounts.

That’s why Luke’s story of Cleopas, only mentioned this once in scripture and an unnamed second man travelling on the road to Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem is so important in understanding the transformation of Christ’s followers into inspired group to preach the Gospel.

The two men were talking about what had happened when they met Jesus. They were discouraged. And somewhat angry when this stranger didn’t seem to know what they were talking about.

“Are you the only one that does not know the things that have taken place in these days?” they ask.

Luke says their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

I can understand that. Sometimes I know someone even by name, as well as recognizing them, but in a place I don’t expect to see them, I don’t recognize them.

So not knowing it is Jesus, they tell him the story of the crucifixion, and empty tomb reports by the women.

Jesus responds somewhat impatiently---how foolish they are not to understand the prophetic background of these events in Hebrew scripture, and proceeds to open the scripture to explain his role as the suffering servant of Israel, the Messiah.

This is an important part of Luke’s teaching throughout his Gospel. Jesus is the Messiah foretold in Hebrew scripture. He’s a Messiah very unlike the one they had possibly looked for, one who would defeat Rome militarily and rule over a return to prosperity for Israel.

Instead of a triumphant Messiah, they had a crucified Messiah, who rose again, to defeat sin and defeat death, not to defeat Rome.

Jesus meets these two men in grief and loss, and patiently lays out the teaching of scripture.

After the teaching, Jesus begins to walk ahead as if to go on without them, before accepting their hospitality.

He breaks bread with them, and in that moment they know he is their Lord and Master. But they did not recognize him until breaking bread with him.

Then Jesus disappears, as quickly as he had joined them.

This story is different from other post Resurrection appearances by Jesus. He appears to two individuals, and this story is not mentioned elsewhere in scripture.

But it is profound because it shows Jesus connecting with us, as we, like the travellers on the Road to Emmaus, travel on the road to life.

Jesus accompanies us, teaches us, and offers us the bread and wine, so we connect with him in a real and tangible way.

God walks alongside us in our confusion, and our doubts, and meets us in word and sacrament to feed both our bodies and our souls.

Hospitality is an important part of meeting Jesus. We can’t keep the good news to ourselves. Like the Emmaus travellers we have to return to Jerusalem, or wherever we live to share the good news.

One of the most dangerous myths in our pluralistic society is that faith is a private matter. It’s sort of like saying politics is a private matter, when the political decisions we make through our votes affect the way our society operates.

Our faith informs everything we do, how we conduct our lives.

This story of the road to Emmaus also helps us understand why we worship with others.

Whenever two or three come together to worship in Christ’s name, they are following the teaching of Jesus.

And we notice as far as our liturgy, our worship goes, that this follows the pattern of our communion service. First the word, the scripture is shared, then the bread and wine are shared in a spirit of hospitality. They we depart to carry the Gospel teachings into our own lives.

A very ancient pattern. Symbol and ritual are an important part of how we live out our faith, corporately, and individually.

I’d like to conclude with a prayer. Lord Jesus, stay with us, be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen.

Honest Doubt and Faith

Second Sunday of Easter Year A 2014
St. John’s Dunsford, Christ Church, Bobcaygeon

Lord Alfred Tennyson, a 19th century English poet laureate wrote: There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.”

This morning’s Gospel is about honest doubt. We’ve growing up hearing Thomas nicknamed “doubting Thomas” because of this post resurrection appearance by Jesus to the disciples. It has become part of our vocabulary.

Yet in a way we are all Thomas. We have honest doubts about our faith, even if we are afraid to admit them.

I think Thomas has been hard done by for the last two thousand years. He was missing from the upper room the first time Jesus appeared to his disciples. So when he comes and finds his friends changed men, no longer huddling in fear but energized and ready to proclaim the Gospel, he doubts their experience. He wants to touch the wounded hands of his master so he too can believe.

I identify with Thomas. I am skeptical. I like to see evidence before I decide whether to believe a story.

Thomas is only mentioned once before this story in the Gospels. In John 11, verse 16 we learn Thomas understood Jesus when he foretold his own death. Thomas tells his fellow disciples, many of whom couldn’t accdept what Jesus told them. “Let us go, that we may die with him.”

Doesn’t sound much like a doubter there.

When Jesus first appears to his disciples (when Thomas is away) he greets them with the peace, then he breathes on them.

This breathing of the Holy Spirit is often called John’s “Pentecost” because Jesus conferes the power to forgive sins, and pours his spirit on the disciple, foreshadowing the Day of Pentecost we celebrate in six weeks.

Thomas missed that important moment. But the very fact he was willing to leave the safety of the upper room to go out indicated an act of faith and courage at a time when the followers of Jesus were a dispirited lot.

So when Thomas was back and Jesus appeared he wanted to share in the experience of the risen Christ. He wanted to believe—something demonstrated by his response to Jesus---“My Lord and My God,” surely not the declaration of a skeptic. Doubt had turned to assurance.

And Jesus has more assurance for those of us who could not share in his post-resurrection appearances. “Have you been blessed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

That’s an important teaching, because if faith had only been possible for those who witnessed the risen Christ, or had a chance to listen to their testimony, than Christianity might have been a footnote in history, rather helping to shape the world’s history since that time.

The blessing of Jesus, for those who have faith in things unseen, extends to us today as we struggle with a world where many follow scientific rationalism, and profession no faith in God…only in themselves.

What happened to Thomas after this famous encounter with Jesus.

Accounts found in what are called the New Testament apocrypha, books that weren’t accepted as part of the Biblical Canon, tell of Thomas going to preach the Gospel in India. He was a reluctant evangelist. He didn’t know how he would reach people from a very different culture than his Mediterranean world.

The Acts of Thomas say Jesus appeared to Thomas and told him: “Fear not. Go to India and Preach the Gospel. My grace is with thee.”

After briefly refusing Thomas agrees to go. “I will go whither thou wilt, Lord Jesus. Thy will be done.”

Later he was martyred, dying by the sword. But the church survived in India from that time, and still reveres Thomas as a saint.

What can we learn from the story of Thomas?

Perhaps the most important is there isn’t anything wrong with asking questions. Sometimes during its history the church has persecuted those who questioned creeds and dogma.

Yet our faith is sure one of relationship, with God, with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit—all part of our Trinitarian understanding of the divine. And how we live out our faith is not in agreeing to a set of propositions, but in that relationship, and living out that relationship in our lives.

That’s why we can’t or shouldn’t come to church on Sunday and profess a faith, without trying to live it out in the rest of our lives.

Our Christian faith doesn’t provide easy answers. I’m not saying that. But it provides a basis to make choices. If we love Jesus, love our neighbours as ourelves, the Holy Spirit will help us in making the right choice.

Of course we will sometimes have doubts. It was easy for Thomas. It isn’t easy for us.

But a living faith is able to encompass doubt and grow. Let us pray during this Easter season of new birth, new life and resurrection, that we might grow in our doubts and fears, and grow closer to Christ.

Homily Easter 2014, Year A
Christ Church, Bobcaygeon, St. John’s, Dunsford

Things had never looked bleaker for the disciples of Jesus the day after they had seen their master, their leader, their friend, the one who they believed was the Messiah, brutally executed by the Roman authorities and laid in a heavily guarded tomb.

The tomb was sealed, and could only be opened on punishment of death. Peter, who had denied Christ three times, was a broken man, weeping and discouraged. Judas, who had betrayed Christ, hanged himself.

It was left to Mary Magdalene, a friend and follower of Jesus and another Mary to come to the tomb that first Easter morning to find out if Jesus had indeed fulfilled his own prophesy that he would rise gain on the third day.

The fact that only his female followers were brave enough to go to the tomb was evidence that his disciples were a dispirited lot.

And all the four Gospels indicate it was women who first attended the tomb, despite their lack of status or credibility in the first century world.

So Mary was literally the first evangelist, the one who heard the message from the angel that Jesus had been raised, and would be going to Galilee to appear before those who followed him.

Then Jesus meets the two Marys and tells them not to be afraid—to share their good news with the disciples, so they will go to Galilee to see him.

One interesting part of the story of the empty tomb and the Resurrection is that Jesus never appeared to Pilate or to the Jewish authorities, or those who sought to oppose.

His appearances after rising to new life in a new body, were aimed primarily at re-energizing his disciples and others who followed him in order that they might go out and preach the Gospel to all nations.

It was an extraordinary transformation, because if the disciples had not take up the cross, and preached the Gospel we would not be here worshipping today as part of two billion Christians throughout world.

Jesus resurrection was an act of civil disobedience, of proving that even the power of Roman domination could not squash God’s activity in the world.

Jesus is and was Lord, not the Roman Casear, or any secular rulers since.

The Kingdom of God broke into the world, and demonstrated that death would not triumph over truth.

To the Romans it must have been perplexing. How could a Jewish peasant leader, a prophet, a teacher, triumph over the crushing weight of Empire.

The Romans persecuted these Christians unmercifully, but the movement begun that first Easter continued to grow. No matter how many Christians were thrown to the Lions, they wouldn’t deny their faith or go back to the Gods of Rome.

Hundreds of years later Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, and unfortunately ever since then the church has been somewhat intertwined with power and privilege rather than carrying on its emphasis on following Christ, with his care for the poor and marginalized, and opposition to economic exploitation. Christ sought justice for all, not the domination by the few of the many.

Let us move forward to today. In some ways we may feel like those disciples did on Holy Saturday. Our secular society seems to be losing its moral compass. The rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer. Many youth are discouraged because there aren’t enough jobs. Our media exert unparalleled power, at the expense of the simpler pleasures of life. Our economic values get distorted when cutting taxes becomes more important that what taxes are used for—providing four our common life together, our roads, our schools, our health care system, our provision for those who are poor or disabled and the list could go on.

We also face a society where we are afraid to trust each other, and the internet has opened a new level of bullying, fraud , and vulnerability.

We like the disciples can hide behind closed doors and try to preserve our lives from all this.

But Jesus continues to call us to follow him, to preach the gospel, to serve others, to take risks and do the right thing.

Death does not have the final word. Jesus sets us free to challenge worldly powers when they are wrong, to pick up our cross, to resist the violence of the domination systems which still continue even in our relatively peaceful part of the world.

That may seem like a tall order.

But as I hear from other clergy about the new and inspiring ministries which are developing in every part of our Diocese I know that the picture of the church often presented in the media is not accurate. We may be declining in membership in some areas, but we are gaining in others, and those who remain members are much more committed to new ministries to address the mission of the church on a local level.

I can tells you that the parish I left in Toronto where I was a parishioner (not on staff), has recently hired two women clergy to work in the fields of Christian education –for children. youth and adults. The parish is building for growth.

In our own deanery we have the Theologian in Residence program. During Lent between 30 and 40 people joined in lively weekly studies at St. James Fenelon Falls and St. Paul’s Lindsay, both with Sylvia Keesmatt, our resident theologian.

We will be hosting Sylvia in the fall for another Bible study unlike any you’ve been to before. It is called Colossians remixed.

A committed and energized laity are the only way the church can grown. I will do my best as your priest in a ministry of word, sacrament and pastoral care. But I will also try and work with and enable lay leaders.

Today we commission officially our lay pastoral visitors. I think it is important to recognize their work. I couldn’t work effectively without them especially as I get more experience in this congregation, and when we work together we can provide the kind of pastoral care our congregations needs.

My Easter hope is that we can gain strength in the coming year as a Resurrection people. God has much for us to do in ministry. And we can all play a part.

Jesus Emptied Himself

Homily Good Friday 2014, Christ Church, Bobcaygeon

One of the most troubling impacts of John’s account of the Crucifixion is the misinterpretation throughout the ages of the author’s characterization of “the Jews” being responsible for the death of Jesus, while Rome, reluctantly agreed.

The reason I mention this today is hearing of the most grotesque anti-Semitism found just this week in the Ukraine, where pro-Russians rebels circulated pamphlets remanding Jews register themselves and their belongings or be deported.

Sounds like the ultimate act of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust of Nazi Germany.

The roots of anti-Semitism throughout the ages have rested in a tragic misinterpretations and distortion of the Jews as Christ killers. And sadly even after the Holocaust Anti-Semitism continues—given new life by hate groups who keep popping up on the internet.

John certainly did not mean for this to happen. He meant the Jews to refer to the Jewish leadership who were co-opted by the Romans in a ruthless reign of terror over Palestine and Judea.

Pontius Pilate was a brutal thug, exiled to the most remote part of the empire, not the troubled and vacillating ruler he is portrayed as in John’s Gospel.

Why would John downplay Pilate’s responsibility for the death of Jesus, and put the blame mostly on the Jews.

The answer can be found on who John was writing for—the community of new Christians who had just been kicked out of the synagogue.

The Christians of John’s community were fighting for survival in a difficult religious atmosphere.

At first Christians were a faction within Judaism. They were Jewish in all respects. But their ideas about Jesus Christ meant different Jewish communities responded in different ways towards them.

How should we look at the Crucifixion in a time far removed from the actual historical event.

We believe as Christians it was a turning point in history. Jesus, sent by God as his incarnate son, came among us. He grew up among us, shared our human joys and sorrows, ate, worked, slept, and went on a three year journey of healing, teaching and preaching which built on the wisdom of the Hebrew Scriptures.

But Jesus knew his ministry could not continue indefinitely like this. He knew the power of Rome and the Jewish religious authorities could not tolerate his life changing message, and his growing following.

So he entered Jerusalem, and taught without fear in the temple at the time of the Passover…knowing there would be consequences. He shared a meal with his friends and prepared to be betrayed.

Paul says Christ emptied himself on the cross for our sake. There could not be a resurrection in triumph without the cross and sacrifice.

Rome should shoulder most of the blame for the death of Jesus. Rome was power—both economic and military. Power did not tolerate prophets who questioned the deity of the emperor and the many Gods of Rome, or the legitimacy of their domination system.

So the collision between the love of God for humanity, and the inhumanity and godlessness of Rome was inevitable.

And since that first Good Friday, the sacrifice of Jesus, has always been a reminder that our faith rests on God working in the world, against the forces of evil, sin, injustice and violence.

Our mandate, as Jesus passed on to his disciples at the last supper, is to love one another as Christ loves us, a love he "emptied" in his passion and death on the cross.

Homily Celebration of the Life of Norma LaChance 1937-2014, Christ Church, Bobcaygeon April 15, 2014

This is a celebration of life, not of death. Our memories of Norma have not died. Her spirit has not died.

In the reading from the letter to the Thessalonians one of the issues facing the early church was addressed. Early Christians, and this is one of the earliest texts in the New Testament, were concerned about their brothers and sisters in Christ who died. There was an expectation at that time that the end of the world as they knew it and the second coming of Christ was imminent.

So they didn’t want friends and loved ones who died to be excluded from rising to be with the Lord forever.

So they are encouraged by the words of Paul’s letter that those who die in the Lord will be cared for, and all will meet the Lord when He comes again.

The Romans passage adds another dimension to this message of consolation. “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be the Lord of both the living and the dead.”

The God we believe in, the Jesus we believe in, the Holy Spirit we believe in, does not only care for us in life but in death.

We have no idea of the mysteries of death and eternal life. But we know God will never forsake us. As Paul says, we do not die to ourselves. We live on in the memories our friends and family, in the lives we have impacted.

Our Christian faith is a lived out faith. We believe God is active in our world. So it does make a difference how you live your life, and respond to God’s call.

So we gather today to give thanks to God for Norma and all the many lives she has touched. We mourn her death, but we celebrate her presence among us, and entrust her to God’s care.

Homily Celebration of Life of Steve Austin 1956-2014, Christ Church Bobcaygeon

This service is a celebration of the life of Steve Austin. You’ve heard the family’s memories of a man who was a respected and well liked husband, father, brother, worker, sportsman, outdoorsman.

We celebrate that life, which is full of good memories, as we mourn the earthly end of that life.

As Christians we believe death is not the end. We don’t know, and can’t describe what eternal life looks like, we confidently profess our faith that Steve is now in a place where is no more pain, no more dying, no more tears.

The reading from first Peter and the Beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel give us a way to understand death in a different light. It is part of the circle of life, death and resurrection that we celebrate each year on Holy Week, the week we begin today.

God cares so much for humanity that he came among us, only to be rejected and condemned to death, a death we know he freely accepted for our sake.
The empty tomb on Easter morning is a testament to the power of God to raise his Son to eternal life.

Jesus wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus, and when he saw how Lazarus meant to his friends and family.

Jesus weeps with Sheree, Brady, Riley and Joel and the entire Austin family as they morning the death of Steve, much too early in years.

What can be of comfort us in this difficult and challenging loss. I think it is in our memories of Steve, what he would have said, what he would have done, and simply being in his presence. Those memories will always be with us.

I’m sharing this from personal experience having both my parents die in the last decade. There are many times I think of them, and feel their presence in my own life. I miss them but God gives us the gift of memory to help ease the pain of absence of a loved one.

So please join in the rest of this celebration of Steve’s life, and pray for Sheree and the family as they move on in their life journey’s without Steve. One of things which is sometimes difficult after a death , especially of one so young, is that people don’t know what to say.

The best thing is to listen, to be a friend, to extend a helping hand, a warm gesture. Life won’t ever be quite the same without him, but faith calls us to care for each other, to help each other. We are our brother and sister’s keeper---contrary to the individualism which is all too common in our society.

Dry Bones Live Through the Spirit
April 6, 2014/ Lent 5, Year A

There is a catchy song I couldn’t get out of my head after we talked about our Old Testament reading from Ezekiel at Bible study this week. Turns out “Dem Dry Bones” is a spiritual written by James Weldon Johnson, an African American born in 1871.

Sadly, the song has lived on mostly as a children’s song not a spiritual. It has been renamed “The Skeleton Song” by many sites on my internet search.

That is ironic considering that the Book of Ezekiel and its apocalyptic and alarming visions were so vivid and in need of explanation that Jewish children at that time were not allowed to read the book without adult supervision.

Rather than a funny story about skeletons, the real life situation, which inspired the Prophets vision came from Israel defeated, and in exile in Babylon, not knowing if the people would ever return home.

Jerusalem fell and the great temple was destroyed in 586 BCE. So Ezekiel wrote at a time of catastrophe, a time where people were losing their faith in God, indeed in everything.

And so Ezekiel has this vision that he is set down in the midst of a valley of dry bones. God asks him the question: “Can these bones live?”

Bones were important in Hebrew thought. The root meaning of bones, is powerful, which means the frequent references in this passage would stress the stability and firmness represented by the bones. And if the bones were strong so was faith.

That’s why the image of a field with very dry and unburied bones would indicate a spiritual calamity for Israel. Usually the bones would have been carefully buried.

Can these bones live: it is a question which humanity has often faced throughout history whenever there is catastrophe: when the Black Death swept through Europe in the middle ages, taking a quarter of the population, when The United States was plunged into a civil war with millions of casualties, when Jews were herded into concentration camps by the Nazis, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when apartheid enslaved and brutalized black people in South Africa…the list could go on.

And the answer is the same each time, only God knows. Only through God can the dry bones of catastrophe turn into bones, which are living, with sinew, flesh and skin.

To look at this passage symbolically, we all face times when we feel like “dry bones” without life, without spirit. But like Ezekiel we need to say to our dry bones---hear the word of the Lord.

What happens when Ezekiel prophesies to the bones---God promises to put flesh on the bones, bring them back to life.

Then there is a rattling sound and God breaths life into the bones.

The bones are the whole house of Israel. A whole people have been revived and God promises them new life and a return to their homes.

It is powerful vision, but God doesn’t act without Ezekiel’s participation.

And so when we encounter our own “dry bones” we need not only to pray for God’s intervention, but prepare to respond creatively, rather than passively and become agents of our own renewal.

The spirit, which blows in this passage from Ezekiel and makes the bones live, has echoes of the spirit of the creation stories in Genesis, and of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Disciples at Pentecost.

Having this Ezekiel passage read today is a good preparation for the story of Lazarus in John’s Gospel, which is rich in symbolism and in themes.

Just as God breathes new life into the valley the dry bones, Jesus offers the sixth sign of John’s Gospel---the resuscitation of Lazarus, four days in the tomb.

It is the sign, the miracle, that ultimately leads to the Cross in John’s Gospel. The message is clear Jesus is not only a healer and teacher, he has the power of life and death.

The raising of Lazarus foreshadows the Crucifixion of Jesus, but the raising is not the same as the empty tomb, and the resurrection we celebrate Easter morning.

Jesus is not only reviving a friend, he is showing that as God’s incarnate son, he has the power over death, and that death is not the end….that teaching will be reinforced by his Resurrection.

Jesus says to those who witnessed Lazarus rising: “Unbind him and let him go.”

That message can be for us to. To unbind ourselves, and allow God to work in us in birth, in life, in death, in resurrection.

Homily on Romans 5 Lent 3 Year A March 23,2014

The story of the Samaritan woman at the well meeting Jesus is one of the longest encounters with Jesus recorded in scripture. That’s why is good to be able to do it as a narrative reading—to accentuate the dialogue.

But while this story from John’s gospel explores many important themes, I’d like to look instead at the reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans.

When we suffer through physical or mental illness, we may wonder where God is in all this. We pray for healing, for restoration of health. Yet if our prayers aren’t answered in the way we hope, then what does that mean?

Does it mean our prayers were ignored? That we are being punished or judged to have fallen short?

Paul has an answer, but not one we necessarily expect or hope for. He says we are justified by our faith. In Paul’s time justification was a legal term. A person was justified if declared not guilty of the charge, which brought him or her before the court.

Paul uses this metaphor to describe how we have a new relationship with God, through what God has done for us in his so Jesus. We are “not guilty” of our sins through the grace of Jesus.

And not only that we have a chance to share in God’s glory through the gift of eternal life.

However that doesn’t mean things will be easy.

Next comes a very important reminder of the nature of human life: “we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the holy spirit. That has been given for us.”

This is a statement of faith, but also a statement of reality. Too often particularly in our affluent society we expect to have instant gratification. Suffering doesn’t fit into our idea of the good life, so we struggle when suffering comes along, and don’t develop that endurance that Paul is talking about.

As followers of Christ we must develop endurance out of our sufferings, whatever they may be, on order to carry on as a a people of hope.

Too much we see cynicism and individualism prevail in our common life as a society.

But in Jesus, God has offered us blessings, reconciliation, the chance of a life filled with the love of God and our fellow human beings.

That is a life with the gift of the Holy Spirit, that we can share with our families, our friends, our community. It is a gift freely offered. It doesn’t mean we won’t have sufferings or even doubts. But Paul gives us the powerful message that Christ came for us in our weakness, not our strength.

God loves us in spite of how we fall short. Our reconciliation to God, through Jesus, brings us peace and salvation.

Homily Second Sunday in Lent Year A, March 16

God tells Abram to “go from your country” to the land that God will show him. God promises a blessing on Abram and his descendants.

If we look at the Book of Genesis this is the turning point, we have seen how Adam and Eve sinned by eating of the tree of knowledge, and thereby left paradise in the Garden of Eden.

We have seen how the evil that unleashes sin led Cain to murder his brother Abel. How the wickedness of humanity prompted God to send a flood, but allow humanity to survive through Noah and the animals he brought on board the ark.

We have seen how people built the Tower of Babel to reach the heavens. But the only result was division and many different languages for the peoples of the earth.

These are all stories the ancients passed down to explains early history. But in Abram God has found a leader who he will bless. Abram is already 75, according to the text, and he has already accumulated wealth and success in human terms.

But Abram is obedient to God’s call and God’s promise. He moved on to an unknown land with his possessions and his extended family.

If we look at the human story throughout history, it has a story of moving on. My ancestors on both sides came from the United Kingdom, first my mother’s side of the family from Scotland in the early 1800’s, and then my dad’s from southern England in 1912.

My ancestors like yours went from their country to a new land full of promise, but also of many challenges.

This story is told over and over again throughout the world. In many cases departures can be painful, and require great sacrifice. This is certainly true for many refugees from countries where there is violence and persecution.

But we also have to see God active in blessing our journeys, even if they require being uprooted as Abram was in ancient times.

Abram is also an example because of his age. It would have been easier to stay, to leave the challenge of moving on to the next generation. But God was not finished with Abram.

And we must believe God is not finished with us, whatever our age. We all have gifts to offer as we seek to serve God, whether it is by moving on to something new, or helping to carry out an existing ministry in a better way.

God certainly wasn’t finished with Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee. And Pharisees usually don’t fare well in the Gospels.

They were guardians of the Jewish law, which they held sacred. They believed the law governs every aspect of life. So they codified the law in a Book called the Mishnah, and the interpretive book on the Mishnah, the Talmud.

The word Pharisee means separated one. They were a group apart, who dedicated themselves to observing every aspect of the law.

Nicodemus was also a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, a court of 70, which was the supreme ruling body for Jews. And he belonged to a prominent family.

So this meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus was remarkable. A Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, a wealthy and educated man meeting the son of a carpenter, who had no formal education, and lived as an itinerant rural preacher.

It happened at night John reports. The time is symbolic. It represents darkness, confusion, uncertainty.

John uses darkness and light that way in his Gospel. Jesus , by contrast, is light, and brings light to the darkness.

The dialogue between the two men is difficult because they are speaking on different levels.

Nicodemus can’t understand what Jesus means when he says no-one can observer the Kingdom of God without being born from above.

Taking this literally, Nicodemus wonders how anyone can be born a second time---how could one re-enter one’s mother’s womb.

Jesus continues with his theological approach, reminding Nicodemus that no-one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and of spirit. “You must be born from above,” he tells Nicodemus.

But Nicodemus is still puzzled. “How can these things be?” he asks.

That is something all of us can sympathize with. The mysteries of God—--father, son and Holy Spirit, rest on faith, not the law, or science or the intellect.

Jesus has cautionary warning for Nicodemus. “You are a teacher of Israel yet you don’t understand this?”

So Jesus is telling Nicodemus that if he can’t understand the simple truths Jesus is teaching, how will he understand the deeper things of life, the heavenly things.

So we like Nicodemus have to remember that our Christian faith is in both our heads and our hearts. It is much more than obeying a set of laws, or saying a creed.

We have to recognize God’s power and blessing in our lives.

And so this dialogue ends with one of the core Gospel passages for Christians. It begins in love. “For God so loved the world.” It continues with the act of giving—that he gave. It describes the gift as the one most costly—his only son. And those who believe in his truth—whoever believes. Will ultimately find eternal salvation—may not perish, but have eternal life.

May we learn from and be inspired by these words as we carry on our Lenten journey.

Homily for the Funeral of Alice Jermyn, Christ Church, Bobcaygeon, January 2014

Funerals are a time of paradox for us as Christians. We are in grief. But we are celebrating as Alice joins the other saints of God in glory, in an eternal life which remains a mystery to us.

You have heard about how this servant of Christ was much loved and appreciated during her lifetime, how she was dedicated to her family, her church and her community.

Our prayers are with the Jermyn family as they grieve. She lived a long and fall life. She will be greatly missed.

Yet as John tells us in the Gospel: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Jesus goes to prepare a place for us. It is a place we can’t really comprehend. But since we believe in Christ as the way, the truth and the life, then we can also have confidence that as Paul reminds us---nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, including death.

That message of confidence and consolation isn’t meant to say that we shouldn’t grieve.

When anyone who is near and dear to us dies, we must go through that process of grief, which must include mourning and tears. We have sustained a real loss.

The prophet Isaiah reminds us that God sustains the faint and the powerless, and will renew our strength, even in grief, so we shall be raised up with wings like eagles and shall run, and not be weary.

That is the message we have had from God from the time of creation, a message reinforced with the incarnation of Jesus, and proclaimed during this season of Epiphany . Jesus is the light of the world.

Even in times of darkness and grief, we are sustained by our faith. We know that as John’s gospel teaches us: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”

God's Call and Our Response

Second Sunday After Epiphany Year B, 2012

When were you called by God?

That’s a question which is raised when we think about today’s reading from Samuel, parts of the 139th psalm, and the passage from John’s Gospel.

We often think in terms of our lives as consumers, customers, making informed choices about education, leisure pursuits, friends, activities, and even what we believe about politics and faith issues.

And yet this idea of call and response is at the centre of today’s scriptural teaching.

That’s not to say we don’t have free will. As Christians we believe God creates us with free will. God also is present with us. God cares for us. God sent his son Jesus to share in our humanity, and the holy spirit to give us strength.

So we don’t believe our lives are all mapped out, and we don’t have any choices. We are not simply marionettes. Like many other Christians we do not believe in what is called pre-destination.

Having said that Samuel, the psalmist and John all remind us of God’s call, and the power of that call in our lives, if we respond.

Think of those powerful words in the psalm: “You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. My frame was not hidden from you, When I was away in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body.”

So our intimacy with God is both inspiring, and frightening. That’s what makes Christianity different from other monotheistic religions, we believe in God who is both omniscient—over all the universe---and personal. To be on intimate terms with the creator of the universe is frightening.

There is nothing we can hide from God. Some people feel threatened by that.

During the past two thousand years since the calling of those first disciples outlined in John’s Gospel, call and response have been at the centre of our lives as Christians.

This is how we have grown from a small Jewish sect in an outlying corner of the Roman Empire to the largest body of religious believers in the world, some 2.3 billion people. While our numbers are somewhat in decline in the affluent west-Europe and North America, they are growing in South America, Africa and Asia.

“Your works are wonderful, O Lord. Lord you have searched me out and known me; you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar,” says the psalmist.

That’s a hard concept to grasp. Maybe it is more difficult for us in an age of affluence and technological progress, since we think we can do it all ourselves. Our human pride doesn’t allow us to conceive of God as co-creator of the ongoing life of the world.

God didn’t just create the universe, then sit back and let things happen. We believe in God who created, and is creating, through the Holy Spirit.

God calls us over and over, as he did the young Samuel. God knows us before we know him, as Nathaniel found out.

Philip had been called by Jesus, and Philip in turn witnessed to Nathaniel about Jesus. Nathaniel initially doubted—hence the famous line—can anything good come out of Nazareth?” But Philip persists: “Come and See.”

Nathaniel does meet Jesus, and comes to faith.

The style of evangelism Philip used has always been the most effective. You can tell someone what a difference your faith has made, and how much your faith community, your parish means to you. However in order to evangelize, or share the good news, you have to ask them to “come and see.”

Our scripture readings today stress the importance of making that invitation.

When I think of how I got involved again with a parish after finishing university and moving out west, it was based on an invitation. Some friends who I worked with were members of the Cathedral choir in Edmonton. I had never sung in a choir since grade school—too busy with other things, but I had never been invited.

And when I turned up I found quite a mix of people from choir boys still in elementary school to seniors. The choirmaster was a crusty Australian, Hugh Bancroft who had come to Canada and made his home as musician—playing organ and directing choirs in Anglican Cathedrals in Winnipeg then Edmonton. We use his hymn “There’s a Voice in the Wilderness” during Advent.

So I found a home in All Saints Choir and when I moved to Calgary, was asked again to join the choir at the first parish I joined there.

So call has been important in my life—not only in terms of being a choir member and active in parish life, but in later discerning a call to ordained ministry after 20 years as a journalist.

We can all be called to different ministries in the church, and we can respond to that call in some way no matter what our age, or what the circumstances are.

Our parish is in the midst of a challenging time of discerning its call to ministry, and how that might look, both in the short term, and in the longer term. We are working as a parish council, and as a congregation to look at the future, and what kind of parish we will be, and what that would entail—in terms of change.
Might we become partners with another parish? Could we share priestly ministry?
How would we make best use of buildings and other assets?

How do we move forward with a committed but heavily taxed group of lay volunteers—now combined with a full-time priest and part-time organist, secretary and janitorial staff---but in the fall looking at part-time clergy coverage.

There are no easy solutions, and Archdeacon Millward told the parish council and other interested parishioners yesterday that of the 34 parishes he supervises as archdeacon—thirteen will have vacancies by the fall. So there will be a shortage of clergy, at least for the short term.

But it all comes back to call. This is a major time of change for the church, and we are not alone in facing these difficult challenges. We have to discern our call to ministry and how we can build sustainable parishes.

As the Archdeacon told us, there is no master plan that would close this parish or any other. That decision is up to the parish.

Parishes do face the challenge that if they don’t make positive decisions to change, they will be left in a position where there is simply no other alternative.

Whatever happens we need to remember that none of this is our fault. The parish faces a radically different society, and a radically different mission field than during its heydays in the 1950’s. Sundays are no longer for church for most people—even nominal Christians use Sundays—including Sunday mornings as a day for sports, family time, social activity, and community events.

With two income families, time is in short supply for parents of young children, and even the evangelical churches have a somewhat older demographic than they used to.

So let us accept the things we cannot change, as the old saying goes, and realize that this parish has a rich history, which we give thanks for, and a future which is uncertain. Let us pray for wisdom and patience as move into a wilderness time where we are clearly seeking direction, and God’s blessing.

First Sunday in Lent, Year A, March 9, 2014

Sin.

It is just a three-letter word, but has a lot of baggage. First of all, many people would not agree on what is sinful and what is not. And even if we do agree, what do we do about it. Should sin be met with punishment or forgiveness? Who decides?

We are uncomfortable about talking about sin. But it has been part of the human condition since the beginning of time.

The Bible attempts to explain sin through the story of Adam and Eve. Sin is linked to temptation. Temptation involves defying God’s command to taste forbidden fruit.

Yet after all these years since creation—do we really understand all the dimensions of sin. How can we put sin in perspective? How do we understand sin? A dictionary defines sin as “to commit an offense or fault.”

Sin is much more than an individual problem. It concerns families, households, communities and nations. As well as repenting for our own sins during this period of Lent, we need to repent collectively of the sin that is committed in our name.

So when we think of sin we have to think of societal sins such as racism, poverty, slavery, war, and economic exploitation.

In today’s reading from Genesis we hear the story of Adam and Eve, tempted by the serpent in the garden to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

This story is an attempt by the Hebrew people more than 3,000 years ago to explain the origin of sin, the origin of temptation. It is the story of our human fall from innocence, from paradise. It explains the reality of our free will. Eve chose to disobey the Lord God, as did Adam in eating of the tree of the fruit of knowledge.

The story is profound in its simplicity. Once we as humans gain the knowledge of good and evil, we start making choices and start taking responsibility for those choices.

These choices are both a blessing and a burden. They come with a cost. We each make individual choices. But we also make choices as families, communities and nations.

Genesis teaches us that sin is much more than the serpent tempting Eve to eat the apple, and Adam taking another bite.

We have to go beyond the literal meaning of the text and grasp God’s gift of free will, coming as it does with the risk of sin, and the temptation to use God’s gifts in a sinful way.

There’s a timelessness to this story of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We see it in many current issues in the scientific community and beyond on recent discoveries involving DNA, artificial birth, the creation of new life and cloning.

Many ethical issues of life and death have yet to be resolved. God gave us the skill and intellect to develop scientific knowledge. But we must use that scientific knowledge responsibly. We need to exercise our free will with discernment, otherwise we upset the balance of God’s creation.

Indeed many ethicists would argue we’ve already gone too far in upsetting that balance in our pursuit of material wealth.

Paul explains in the reading from Romans how Jesus is the new Adam. Just as the ancient Hebrews taught that sin came into the world through one man, Adam, so Paul tells us that God’s free gift in Christ Jesus is an act of grace which abounds for all.

Just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace brings us etermal life through Jesus.

We notice in Paul a much different view of sin than our modern individualistic approach. Paul saw human beings as a vast network. Each part affects the whole.

English poet John Donne, a devout Christian, wrote “ no man is an island…any man’s death diminishes me.”

Paul believes that as Christians we enter into the divine life of Jesus. It is a free choice. Through Jesus we are made new.

Temptation remains a challenge for Paul and for us. In today’s Gospel we have a vivid depiction of Jesus facing temptation from the devil. The story has echoes of the Exodus story of the Hebrews. All the Hebrew scripture quotes from Jesus are from the Book of Deuteronomy.

Jesus goes into the wilderness alone, for a time of testing, fasting and struggle. We can’t escape the parallels with Moses. The wilderness. The high mountain. The 40 days.

Jesus responds to the challenges of the tempter: political power, ministry through bread, and the use of a sign to coerce faith. His response is rooted in the faith of his ancestors.

The Hebrew people learned they could not live by bread alone. They too were tested by God, and the wilderness as they sought the promised land. The Hebrews failed the test in the wilderness. But Jesus did not.

This story of temptation by power, by bread, by false idols, is something we continue to struggle with today. There is a great temptation for us to align ourselves with power, with privilege, with wealth.

Jesus calls us to resist that temptation and follow his command to love God and love our neighbours.

That means caring for others who are less fortunate, and addressing issues of poverty and racism.

Perhaps most important about this story is that it emphasizes the humanity of Jesus. Many centuries ago the early church concluded that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. This mystery—a term we use to describe something we don’t fully understand—is to explain our unique understanding of Jesus as human, and also as God incarnate. Jesus is not some sort of super-being.

We believe he took on our human nature. So before he began his public ministry he had to go through testing and preparation for the time to come. If Jesus was a super-being, than the tests wouldn’t have made sense.

We believe Jesus went to the top of that mountain and refused the tempter’s offer to rule all the kingdoms of the world. He turned down the offer of making bread out of stones, and he spurned the idea of throwing himself off the temple and calling on Angels to deliver him.

Jesus took the humble path. He preached, he taught, he healed and he ministered to those in need.

That is our example as we begin our Lenten journey. We often think of Lent as a time to give up chocolate, or alcohol or something else we enjoy. But if we leave it there we risk trivializing a time of self-examination, a time of renewal, and a time for spiritual growth.

World Day of Prayer, March 7, 2014, St. John's Dunsford

Just the mention of Egypt brings many images to mind, the magnificent pyramids, one of the seven wonders of the world, the Nile River which has brought water and life to this country of many deserts, and more recently hundreds of thousands of ordinary people camped out in Tahrir square in Cairo demanding democracy and the ouster of a corrupt dictator who had ruled for three decades.

Egypt is a land that fascinates us, but also makes us uneasy, because of the civil strife which currently makes life difficult for all Egyptians, and especially the Christian minority.

It is wrong to see Egypt’s current strife as a battle between religious factions. Most Muslims want to live in harmony with Christians that have deep roots in Egypt going back to the time of the early church.

Some extremists and terrorists have used the banner of Islam to attack Christians and their churches. But that does not make this a religious conflict.

Our Gospel story of the woman at the well has lessons for us in how to address relationships between people of different cultural and religious backgrounds.

Jesus surprises the Samaritan women at the well by treating her with respect, and even talking to her at all. Jews were enemies of the Samaritans. At that time an observant Jew might walk twice the distance to get to his destination rather than cross through Samaritan land.

Such was the enmity built up through many hundreds of years. The Samaritans believed most of the same things as the Jews, following the one true God, but they did not believe in Temple worship, with Jerusalem at its centre. Instead they insisted the prime place of worship should be Mount Gerazim, where they believed Abraham had offered his son Isaac to God.

It’s important that this story of Jesus encountering the Samaritan woman occurs at a well. Water is literally the difference between life and death in this part of the world, and Jesus tries patiently to use this analogy of water as life, to explain what God offers us, through Jesus, as the living water.

Jesus disarms the woman by his knowledge of her past. She realizes her encounter with the divine and goes to share the good news.

So we see Jesus overcoming divisions of ethnic and religious background, with respect, and a willingness to share himself, as the “living water” God offers us.

In Egypt today many Christians carry on with their faith in spite of persecution, violence and even death. The living water that Jesus offers help them as they continue to live out their faith in the most difficult of circumstances.

The revolution of two years ago has not brought freedom and peace, but civil strife. We must pray with these Christian woman of Egypt for peace, justice and safety amidst the uncertainly of this time.

Transfiguration, March 2,2014
Matthew Year A Last Epiphany

Mountains have always played an important role in the human experience told in scripture, whether it is the story of the Hebrew people and their quest for faith and freedom, and a covenant, or the story of Jesus, as he seeks solitude to pray and prepare himself for his world changing ministry and mission.

So as we celebrate this Sunday of Transfiguration, we acknowledge the power of the mountain top experience. The images of clouds, seemingly within reach.

As humans we have always sought to reach the heights of mountain tops by climbing. There we can see more clearly the bounty of God’s creation, the vastness of the land and seas.

When I travelled to India and Nepal a couple of decades ago as a journalist I was fortunate enough to spend some time in what is often referred to as the top of the world, the Himalaya mountains. Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, but it is also the home of the world’s highest peaks.

It is hard not to be awestruck by the almost supernatural beauty of these majestic mountains.


It was a mountain that Moses ascended, as told in our reading Exodus, to have an encounter with God.

The parallels with the later Transfiguration story with Jesus and his disciples on the mountain are inescapable.

And then we have Peter writing in his second letter about that amazing experience, an unforgettable revelation of God, that he had been privileged to be part of.

So what is it about this Transfiguration story which demands our attention today.

If we look at the overall telling of the story of Jesus ministry this is a pivotal moment.

We began this season of Epiphany with a star, which led the magi, astrologers from the east, to the child Jesus. Epiphany is the sharing of the light of Christ to the world. Part of our celebration is the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, which begins his public ministry. A voice from heaven says “this is my son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Now we move on to the Transfiguration. Jesus has begun his ministry with healing and teaching, and he has fed the 5,000. He has also begun to prepare his disciples for the journey to Jerusalem and its end on the hill at Calvary.

Who do you say I am, he asked his disciples. And brash Peter answers that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

So the transfiguration or transformation of Jesus, in the eyes of the disciples, has already begun.

This mountain top experience is rich in symbolism. Jesus takes only Peter, James and John, his most trusted disciples with him. They are terrified when they see visions of Moses, of Elijah, but then they start to appreciate the amazing revelation they are part of.

Peter blurts out that maybe they can stay, and build houses for Jesus, Moses and Elijah.

It is then we hear the voice of God repeating the words from the Baptism of Jesus, this is my son in whom I am well pleased.

But there’s a twist….this time God adds a command for Peter , James and John—listen to him!

That isn’t all. Jesus appears in a different light, transfigured, shining, bright…almost blinding.

This is the scene that Peter would recall many years later as he preached the gospel and wrote letters to the early Christian communities he ministered to.

The powerful mountain top image of Jesus transformed.

But we can’t stay there! And that is perhaps the greatest learning, not only for Peter, James and John, but for all of us as we follow Jesus.

We all hope to have mountain top experiences, where we have visions of peace, justice, harmony and love. We long for the clarity of the view from the mountain top, the exhilaration of being on top of the world.

Think of our wonderful Olympic athletes as they achieved tremendous performances on the world stage. Our men’s and womaen’s curling and hockey teams all winning gold….a matter of pride, and celebration of excellence and teamwork.

But our Olympians couldn’t stay and build houses on the podium at Sochi. They returned to their jobs and their regular teams and competitions.

And so in our world as Christians we long for those elevating experiences, an inspirational service, wonderful music, a shared meal like our Pancake supper. We celebrate our festivals, sacred and secular.

There is a time for celebration, for ecstasy, but also for the more mundane, but necessary tasks of life.

We reminded of that in the upcoming season of Lent, a time of self-examination, of preparation for our annual observance of the death and resurrection of Jesus. After the pancakes, comes the ashes—Ash Wednesday, and 40 days of penitence.

You can give something up for Lent, as self-denial. Or you can take something on—a Lenten study, more Bible reading or devotional books.

The idea of transformation, which we have seen in the Transfiguration story, is to prepare the disciples for something harder than they can ever imagine, spreading the gospel of Christ when he is no longer with them, at least in human form.

So we leave the season of Epiphany, spreading Christ’s light in the world, to follow a Holy Lent when we look inside ourselves, and prepared ourselves to remember the passion of Christ---the story of death and new life. Let us be transformed by the love of God, Father Son and Holy Spirit as we continue on this journey of faith and life in Christ.

Yr. A Epiphany 7 Matthew 5
February 23, 2014

It is amazing what some Biblical literalists can come up with when they proof text scripture irresponsibly.

I saw a new item this week on a retired US general named Jerry Boykin who is now part of something calling itself the Family Research Council.

In a recent speech Boykin calls Jesus a real man’s man, and a tough guy. When Jesus returns in the second coming envisioned in the Book of Revelation, Boykin says he will be carrying an assault rifle, wearing a cloak covered in the blood of his enemies.

You might wonder how he could get that from scripture. In the Book of Revelation 19, John of Patmos has a vision of a warrior on a white horse called the Word of God. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.

The retired general thinks the sword of our time is the assault rifle, so when Jesus comes he will mow down his enemies.

Now this retired general is obviously a kook. But it is scary to think he had a command position in part of the world’s most powerful military.

More scary for us as Christians seeking to be understood in a more secular society, is the gross misunderstanding of Jesus and what he taught. We follow a prince of Peace, not a bloodthirsty warrior.

We need to look at the entire trajectory of the Gospels, and the teaching of Jesus. Our Gospel passage today is one of the most striking in support non-violence and a new approach to conflict.

Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Turn the other cheek. Jesus rejects the approach, which calls for revenge—an eye for an eye. If someone wants to steal something, don’t fight, give it up. Be generous to those less fortunate.

When we think about these teachings, they are indeed counter-cultural. We are part of a world where conflict is all to common-place, ranging from violent armed conflict in many countries, to criminal activity, to bullying in schools and in the workplace. Violence is glorified in many of our mass media, and in the world of gamers.

Unfortunately turn the other cheek doesn’t appear to be too popular out there.

No doubt it is a hard teaching to follow. Our instinct is to hit back. To get revenge. To stick up for ourselves, rather than take one for the team.

In hockey I’ve always admired players that don’t retaliate when they take an illegal hit or check. I disagree with my fellow Anglican Don Cherry who like the rough stuff including fighting.

The unselfish player takes one for the team, and holds his head up high, while the other guy—hopefully-- takes a penalty.


A personal story I could share is as a young reporter covering a court case, I was trying to shoot a picture of a person charged with fraud, outside the court house. This is perfectly legal. The guy came up and slugged me—one punch. But I did not fight back. I knew that would be sinking to his level, and it wouldn’t do me any good.


I can also still vividly recall getting decked by one punch when I was in grade eight. I didn’t fight back, and the bully got suspended.


So I’m not saying it’s is easy. But turn the other cheek can work. Of course there are times when self defense might be necessary, but it is frightening to see the term self defense used to justify anything up to murder south of the border…with stand your ground laws in places like Florida, where many of our fellow parishioners go on vacation.

In following Christ’s teaching in Matthew it seems clear to me that Christians should support severe restrictions on guns for anyone other than police, the military and hunters. Guns don’t allow any room for turning the other cheek, or loving your enemy.

Turning to the final verse in this section. “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.”

This is one of those sayings of Jesus, which is hard to interpret. Logically, we are human and therefore fallible, and not perfect. We are all sinners in some respect. So perfection would seem to be an unreachable goal.

Yet Jesus wants us to be as perfect, as much without sin, as much living according to his teaching as possible. He lays out the two great commandments: love God and love your neighbor as yourself as a rule of life. Everything flows from that.

And while perfection is elusive, we can all strive to be faithful, and to care for others.

We can see what true perfection is like in the person of Jesus. Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians, that Jesus is the true foundation that we must build on as Christians.

If we lay any other foundation, it just won’t work. If we have Jesus as our foundation, God’s spirit dwells with us.

Now that is a very theoretical description by Paul. However it also offers us a link between our personal experience of life, and our faith in something larger and greater than ourselves, namely God at work in the world through His son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, the comforter.

These may seem like lofty descriptions, but I’m sure many of us have experienced moments of grace when prayers have been answered, insights gained, and strength given to carry on.

That’s why we keep coming back to be part of Christian community, to worship God, to share the joys and sorrows of life with our fellow Christians.
We are part of something larger. Our lives do mean something. God cares for us, and offers us the teaching of Jesus in scared text to help us live in a different way. It’s not easy. But it is what we are called to do.

Homily Feb. 16 Year A—Epiphany 6
St. Luke's Burnt River, Ontario
Christ Church, Bobcaygeon,ON.

As a grandfather I’ve had a chance to get acquainted with children’s television again, after a couple of decades away. One of the shows I really enjoyed is called Wonder Pets.
The program is gentle, educational and it has a good message. Three pets, who live in an old fashioned one room schoolhouse, suddenly become animated when the phone rings with another animal in distress. They rush to the scene and help out whatever animal needs help.
The message is teamwork. Individually the pets can’t accomplish much, but together they can make a difference.
It’s a timeless message and it’s the message that Paul was trying to get across to the Corinthians. We are all part of God’s team. We need to be loyal to God, not leaders of various factions. It’s God’s team, not Bob’s team, or Ron’s team, or Todd’s team. We work together offering our gifts to the glory of God, not for our own glory.
Now that was a tough message for those Corinthians. After all in its time Corinth was like Toronto—the centre of the universe—at least in the mind of some of its leading citizens.
The Christians in Corinth thought they were spiritually advanced. They knew what they were doing.
That’s why Paul punctures their pride by referring to them infants who need to be fed with milk, not solid food.
Think about that. How would feel if you thought you were really a spiritual person, excited about your new found faith, and a visiting preacher told you that you were actually like a baby you to learn and weren’t ready yet to learn it because you were still behaving in the old ways—with jealousy and quarrelling.
That’s why this message still challenges us today. We aren’t particularly good about teamwork. Our society is based so much on competition, on individualism that teamwork can be a difficult task. Somehow we have to give up something for the good of the whole body of Christ, rather than our own individual needs.
That’s why a consumer model of church doesn’t work. If we attract people by providing for their needs, we seem to lose the element of teamwork. Instead we need to offer people a chance to share their gifts, to work others toward a common goal in mission and ministry.
To quote John F Kennedy: “Ask now what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
As part of God’s team we give of ourselves to the greater good, and we will be blessed.
One of the best examples this week of teamwork came from the Canadian long track speed skater, who gave up his spot in the 1000 metres to a team-mate who had fallen in qualifying in the national championships, and was therefore a back-up.
His family was at the Olympics this was his race, his spot, yet he believed his team-mate would be faster, and have a better chance at a medal, so he gave up his spot for the good of the team.
What a sacrifice to make, to work for years and practice with the goal of being part of the world’s top sporting event, and then to give up your chance to a team-mate.
Paul also speaks again the danger of following what he calls “merely human” leadership—giving himself, and another Christian leader Apollos as examples.
Paul sees himself and other Christian leaders as servants, who are serving God, with their gifts, according to how they have been called.
This is a key concept in our understanding of ministry in the church. As priest I am your servant and God’s. I am called to serve in this particular ministry, but we all share in this ministry as servants of God.
One of the pitfalls of the church has been too much clericalism, where the clergy developed a following, and have become too powerful, which can lead to abuses, particularly in denominations or congregations where there is too much clerical authority.
Again the key is teamwork and a willingness to be God’s servant. As Paul says, we are God’s servants as Christian, and using the language of a primarily agrarian economy in the first century, we all labour in God’s fields, working together.
Paul also likens God to a builder, who has assigned Christian leaders to be master builders creating a foundation on which others must build.
The larger truth Paul is touching on is human presumption, something which we continue to see a lot of today. Rather than priding ourselves on our wisdom, our power, our strength, our accomplishment, we need to remind ourselves of the primacy of God. Without God none of this could be accomplished. Putting our faith in human leadership will inevitably lead to disappointment.
For the church we have to recognize that growth and development, spiritually or otherwise are really at God’s initiative. That doesn’t mean we are to be passive in our lived out faith; it means we need to be constantly praying and seeking to discern God’s will.
One of the problems the Corinthians had was that they were evaluating their leaders by the world’s standards---wealth, power, wisdom and honour, not God’s standards.
Instead Paul wants leaders who can exercise care and self-sacrifice, while working for a common purpose. Above all they must be trustworthy stewards of God’s mysteries, he says later in the letter.
Perhaps the most important takeaway from this passage for us in this parish at this time is the idea of teamwork. We have different roles and different gifts, but we can carry out our Christian mission best if we work together.
One of the best things about coming to ministry later in life is that I’ve already experienced many different roles in lay leadership. I know its challenging, and I appreciate the sacrifices many people make. Who knows what we can accomplish if we can work together in harmony?
Let us pray for God’s wisdom in working together in this parish during this time of transition and new beginnings.