for July 22 - Luke 10:38-42

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying.

But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me."

But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

What feelings, thoughts, and prompts to personal action does this reading evoke for you? Feel free to share them as Comments below or in an email.

sermon excerpts: "9 Day Wonder"

For once, Jesus’ parable is pretty clear cut and simple to understand. We hear about all the characters and we can easily make the identification about who was wrong and who was right. In real life, it’s always more complex; everyone has a story to tell and a lesson to share. For seven years, we’ve spent some time together to offer our stories and lessons, creating memories, but that time is drawing to a close.

That is how life works, nothing is permanent anymore, and the fact is that even the Samaritan moved on. He spent the night to see things were okay, but continues on his way the next morning. He doesn’t know if the victim recovers from his injury. He pledged to return and settle the account, but does anyone know anyone’s name in this story?

Here, we’ve had the benefit of spending more time together, learning names and families and stories. For a while, we journeyed together and we are changed for the encounter. For me, I’ve become a golfer, I’ve become a Mac user, I’ve earned a Certificate in Educational Ministry from the Centre for Christian Studies in Winnipeg. I’ve become a father.

The churches have each gained a chairlift and thereby increasing accessibility. Three different organists/musicians at each church have shared their talents during my time. The name of the charge has changed: from Arkona Pastoral Charge to Arkona-Ravenswood Pastoral Charge. The service of worship has changed to include A New Creed and the always-valuable reminder that we are not alone.

One of my classmates when I was taking the course in Winnipeg spoke very humbly about her ministry. She calls herself a “9-day wonder”, just a blip in the history and heritage of the churches that she serves, despite the fact she’s had a successful tenure of years there. She is someone that is well aware that the ministry of those congregations are greater than their ministers, very aware that the Samaritan was not a priest or a Levite, but an ordinary person who saw someone in need, stopped to help and continued on to do more of the same.

As we pause this day to remember, honour and celebrate the time that we’ve shared with as partners in ministry in this place, let us continue to do our best to follow in God’s way of justice, measuring up the plumb line of love, care and service to others. We’ve commemorated funerals, weddings, baptisms and the special occasion of just an ordinary Sunday. We’ve broken bread together and we’ll do so one more time around the common table in a moment and again after worship. We are feed and are fed by this gathering of family, friends and neighbours. We are not alone, thanks be to God. Amen.

for July 15 – Luke 10: 25-37

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?"

He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

"But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.'

"Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"

He said, "The one who showed him mercy."

Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

"Guest" Preacher on Sunday

This Sunday, I've asked a special "guest" to offer the sermon. Ralph Dailey is a member of Ravenswood United Church and a regular contributor to the Bible Study group.

He's often joked about offering a good ol'fire and brimstone pulpit pounder. (In spite of this,) I approached him about sharing some of his thoughts and convictions in worship and he readily agreed.

don Miguel Ruiz is a teacher of Toltec wisdom, a branch of ancient Mexican spiritual knowledge, and has published a popular book called The Four Agreements. Having read this book, Ralph has made it the focus of his sermon and will share some insight into living life by these four agreement.

He'll preach at Ravenswood and I'll re-present his message at Arkona. I am a firm believer that everyone has at least one sermon within them that needs to be shared; I'm glad to give someone the opportunity and support to do so. I only wish I had thought of it sooner.

sermon excerpts: "Rearview Mirror"

... There was longstanding tension between Samaritans and Jews for reasons political, religious, economic, historical, social, and any other reason you can come up with. It would take more time than we have to describe exactly what happened and why it matters. It’s enough to say the difference is like the gap between Catholic and Protestant, or Alberta and Quebec, or Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs. Which is to say that to an outsider looking in, the groups seem rather similar, but to those within the situation, the difference is insurmountable.

So when Jesus tries to take a shortcut through some Samaritan territory instead of taking the long way around to Jerusalem, it’s not surprising that the Samaritans did not receive him. Neither is James and John’s response, asking if they might send fire down from the heavens to destroy the uncooperative village. They may have been joking, or wondering how far their power could actually go, but their reaction is clear: they want revenge, they want punishment.

Naturally Jesus rebukes them and removes the group from any such temptation and proceeds onto another village. The fact that he spares the Samaritans is very much connected to his awareness that his ministry and mission was to bring salvation, deliverance and hope of resurrection to all people. It is consistent with the way he reaches out to those on the margins, the poor, the ill, the widowed, the rejected and powerless of society. God’s grace is available for all, even those Samaritans.

So it gets a little confusing in the very next verses where we see Jesus turning people away. He was previously very compassionate and understanding of a settlement of Samaritans that rejected him, but now he’s very demanding and inflexible with people who want to follow him. They have, in my opinion, valid and legitimate reasons for postponing their departure: a father’s funeral, saying good-bye to one’s family.

Jesus likens this behaviour to looking backwards while plowing and condemns such a person as unfit for the kingdom of God. Again this sounds rather harsh, but he does make a point. We can’t let ourselves be distracted by our past, not when important work in the present and future awaits.

With a hand to the plow, we can’t fall asleep at the wheel, we have to keep focused on the task at hand. ... Jesus was right, we can’t plow effectively by looking back and admiring what a wonderful job we’ve done. If we’re caught up in seeing how straight the furrow is, absorbed by the sight of soil dark and rich, freshly turned, we’re going to get off track and the rows would no longer be even.

We tend to do that in our lives; look back and rest on the laurels of what worked in the past, of great and glorious success. ... It is tempting in these hurried and uncertain days, to find refuge in the past, in history and tradition. The glory days of church when it was the centre of community life, when dozens of children were in Sunday School, present a lovely ideal. But when we dream of the past, we don’t see the challenges of the future or the opportunities around us. And Jesus’ words of looking back are found in the automotive industry, on side-view mirrors that let us know that “Warning: objects are closer than they appear” which is a reminder that things are distorted when we look behind us.

They say that we can’t pick our family but we can pick our friends. And because of this fact, the character of our relationship with these people is very different. I’m speaking in broad generalizations when I say that you pretty much like your friends, but there’s no such guarantee for your family.

Friendship is built on shared experiences, misadventures and common interests, but most of all, from a willingness to be friends. We’ve all had friends that we’ve drifted away from or had an argument with; and we know that we can stop being friends with someone. We can’t stop being family with someone, even if we wanted.

What then, of our faith? What is our relationship with God like? Our faith is a different kind of loyalty, something else that cannot be switched off or ignored. It is always there, as close as prayer, a kind thought or an act of charity. The lesson that Jesus is trying to impress upon those who make excuses or delays, is that being a Christian overrides everything else, even the unbreakable bond of family.

Jesus told someone else that the Son of Man has no home. Everything in the world, birds of the air, foxes of the field, have somewhere to rest, to find refuge and safety. Not so for Christ, or those who follow him. We can understand this in the context of persecution, but does it apply in our day and age?

It is a pertinent reminder for us to keep on the go, that our faith requires action and outreach. There is more to honouring a relationship with the divine than merely being “spiritual” or wondering what Oprah would do. To be people of God, we must be in community with others. And by extension, I would suggest that we then treat others in this community with the same steadfast, unbreakable loyalty that Christ asks of us.

Admittedly, when we commit so permanently to a community, we also experience the frustration of getting many different people and personalities to cooperate and respect one another, conflicts of trying to chart a course for the future of the group amid varying opinions, impatience with committee work and reports and the like. Remembering the uprooted life of the Son of Man, and for all of us, there is no such thing as being comfortable.

We are to be pushed onward and outward, beyond our comfort zone, as individuals and as a congregation. We can only do this if we’re looking at what is around us and ahead, not looking back at a distorted view of the past. As Jesus hinted, the dead will remain buried; we are called to push on through life.

When plowing a field, farmers focus on a point in the distance to move toward. Unwavering from that target, the furrow unfurls straight behind the plow. But the energy and effort needs to keep heading forward. Centuries later, Jesus’ lessons in agriculture apply to our personal lives and to our church congregations. We are on the move, heading into the unknown future, but we go together.

Monday School Picnic

Arkona United's Monday School had its wrap-up barbeque this evening. We shared some learnings and memories of the past year and each of the kids were presented with certificates.

On the sadder side, I reminded the kids that I would not be there when/if Monday School resumes in the fall. At least I'll have this photo as a reminder:

sermon excerpts: "Prison Break" (Acts 16: 16-34)

A little late, but here're the excerpts from May 17:

Paul and the apostles spent a fair bit of time in prison. Being the church in those early days was a hazardous endeavour. Following Christ was lonely, despite the attempts to create community. If it wasn’t the persecution of the Roman Empire, it was resistance from the Jewish traditionalists that did not regard an executed criminal as Messiah.

So prison was not out of the question for people who expressed and lived their faith in Christ. What I’ve learned from TV and movies is that if you’re going to survive in prison, you don’t draw attention to yourself. You keep quiet, do your time and try not offend anyone or get drawn into any arguments. Paul and Silas don’t seem to understand that concept. They spend their time singing hymns and offering prayer, attracting the attention of the other inmates.

Prison in those days was a different sort of enterprise. It was more of a holding tank, not for the criminally dangerous, but the politically inconvenient, or those who simply owed money to powerful people. Maybe there was more of a willingness to listen to others and share their stories of injustice and how they came to be imprisoned among these prisoners. Or perhaps, the conviction of Paul and Silas’s faith moved them beyond self-preservation and internal power plays.

The inmates would not know much about these new guys. They would have seen them hustled in, bruised and bleeding, looking a frightful sight from the public beating they received. The other prisoners would note these new guys were chained to wooden stocks and thrown into the inmost, deepest, securest cell. If anything, the other prisoners would be leery and apprehensive about these new characters, certainly they must be truly dangerous if this was the treatment they got from the authorities. These guys must be the real deal!

So for these new guys to spend their evening in prayer and song, must have piqued the other prisoners’ interest. All this would be something that the jailer was used to, he would have seen all types in his work. But then the one thing that he’d never seen before happened: after a midnight earthquake left the doors open and chains broken, the jailer discovers that the prisoners stayed put.

As we learned this story in Monday School, some of the kids explained that they wouldn’t have run away either, they didn’t want to get into more trouble. However, the run-of-the-mill prisoner would have run off for freedom at that miraculous opportunity. Certainly, the jailer expected as much.

The punishment for an escaped prisoner was death for the jailer. He was prepared to kill himself over this personal failure and loss of honour. We learn that he too, was a prisoner, trapped in the expectations of an empire and society that had narrowly defined roles for all its members.

Paul and Silas deliver him from his captivity by doing the opposite of what was expected. They stayed put. They gave up their freedom so that they could fulfil their mission and calling to preach God’s word and share the story of Christ’s life and love. For all this talk of prison and the compelling story of Paul and Silas, we see that freedom is the theme running through the scriptures…

Paul and Silas are thrown in jail because of trumped up charges of inciting Jewish (not Christian) rebellion. What they actually did was free a slave girl from exploitation and spiritual blackmail. Although whether her life was better or not after losing her “gift” is an unknown story.

Unfortunately, it seems that freedom comes at the expense of someone else. The way that the world works, someone has ownership or responsibility over another. The slave owners, the jailer, had power over other people who were not free. When these people were released from their bonds, the slave owners and jailer suffered. It is a win-lose situation.

Can we ever get to a place where one’s personal freedom does not diminish another group? It comes to an understanding of mutual respect and acceptance of other’s rights. This embodies Jesus’ fervent prayer and hope that all may be one (John 17: 20-6). When we are all one, we recognize that we are connected and equal.

… This may be the key to how our churches are to survive in the coming years, remembering that Jesus desires for us to be one. That may mean giving up some personal freedom. Paul and Silas sacrificed their freedom by remaining in jail. We remember that Jesus sacrificed much more so that we may know the true power and personal expression of God’s presence in our lives.

We are called to a life of freedom, not only for ourselves, but for all in the world. If we are truly one before God, our care and commitment to others even in our darkest, bleakest times, will shine a small light in the face of fear, powerlessness and despair. Such is the freedom that Christ won for us; in that, all may be one and we are not alone. Thanks be to God.

Catching Up with Conference

My apologies for the lapse in updates here. Understandably, but not excusably, things are a little busy as we're making plans and preparations for transitions and holiday cruises!

London Conference's Annual Meeting in Ridgetown was rather uneventful. Two resolutions were amicably passed: one to establish a Fair Trade for Social Justice Committee to be staffed and administered by Youth Forum; another to make the President of the Conference UCW a delegate with full voting rights to General Council, when applicable. The Conference Assessment fee remains the same at $6.25 and the Mission and Service Fund objective is $3 million.

There were some special presentations to the court, including Cathy Crowe a Toronto "street nurse" and advocate for the homeless and the GO Project, an engaging exploration of youth and young adult visions of what church should be.

There are now 11 new ministers from London Conference. They were ordained, commissioned (as diaconal ministers), designated (as lay pastoral ministers) and admitted (as transfers from other denominations), in two worship services on Saturday evening and Sunday morning.

The President-Elect is the Rev. Susan Cameron, from Thamesview United in Fullarton; the Rev. Bruce Cook began his second term in office at the rise of Conference.

sermon excerpts: "Waters of Life" (Revelation 21:22 - 22:5 and John 5: 1-9)

One of the many themes running through the Bible is the removal of artificial and unhelpful barriers. We hear this in the readings today: we cannot separate the Temple from society, or God’s world from our own. John’s vision of heaven in the Revelation is not so much a description of the afterlife than it is what the world was supposed to be like when God created it. We see perpetual light, when in Genesis all there was was darkness.

Overwhelmed by God’s abundance, we will never be separated from God’s love and presence. We will all be known and called by name, the mark of the Lord upon us. This is the life to which we are called, the vision that we work towards so that those children of God who are baptized may find that the gates are never shut and goodness abounds.

When we baptize, when we welcome people to the church, we are removing one more barrier between one household and the community. In a way, we’re giving up our right to privacy, because we invite an entire faith community into our lives. Baptism is the expansion and extension of family, the congregation functions as godparents, helping nurture and support the spiritual care and growth of its people. Of course, once we include more people and opinions into the situation, things are liable to get messy, complicated, and chaotic.

I often refer to the healing power of the pool of Bethesda as proof that creation comes from chaos. And it may seem like that in these days of the congregation trying to figure out what to do next, with the news of my departure, financial uncertainty and questioning the viability of the churches, what the next step might be. Yet we trust in the swirling storm of uncertainty, God’s healing and new restored life will be available. Such is the cleansing power of water.

Which is why we use ordinary, everyday water as a symbol of welcome, of inclusion and God’s presence at work in our lives. Water washes over us readily and easily. If you’ve cursed flooded basements or watched the aftermath of floods or tsunamis, you know that water can overcome any barrier or dam.

It moves beyond all obstacles and continues to flow. Such is the water of life, the love of God and the power of community. The welcoming power of Christ to a life of mystery, wonder and appreciation is found in our baptism and cannot be stopped. It is a most profound reminder that we are not alone. We live in God’s world. Thanks be to God.