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Resource Bp9 - Reign of Christ
After Pentecost, Aug 10/03. John 6, I Am The Bread of Life ecclesicakes Bp9
There is an old saying, You are what you eat. This morning's lesson from John applies this to the faith. According to John, faith depends on what you take into your soul or your being. John says, If you ingest Christ, you become a person of eternal life.
In this morning's lesson from John's Gospel, Jesus is portrayed as making an astonishing claim. He says of himself, "I am the Bead of Life." In Mark's Gospel Jesus asks, "Who do you say that I am?" but in John's Gospel, Jesus himself says who he is; he claims to be God's Bread from Heaven.
This assertion is how John's Gospel interprets the feeding of the five thousand. In John's Gospel the feeding of the five thousand is followed the next day by a sermon which interprets that event.
The topic of the sermon is: True Bread. I might sum up Jesus's sermon as follows: Yesterday you had bread from the earth, today I offer you bread from Heaven. Yesterday God gave you bread made from wheat for your daily life, today God offers you Bread made from myself for everlasting life. I am the Bread of Life!
The account of the feeding of the five thousand is in all four gospels, but it only John who gives it this interpretation. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus is portrayed somewhat as a second Moses, feeding the people in the desert. All through these gospels Jesus is portrayed to be like Moses and the other prophets who were messengers from God. Just as Moses was commissioned to lead the people to a promised land, Jesus announced a new Realm, the Kingdom o f God.
But for John, Jesus was something other than a new Moses or Elijah; more than a new teacher, or healer. For John, Jesus is the very Bread of Life.
This has great implications,ications for what it means to be a faithful person. If Jesus is a great Teacher, then the faithful learn from him and are shaped by those learnings. For John, to be faithful is something more than that. It is to take Jesus into your very being and be sustained by Christ.
John does not mimimize the need for food for the body, for temporal life. In fact John adds to the reality of the loaves and fish story by introducing the boy who presents his lunch to Andrew.
However, John also sees eating bread as a metaphor for the way we nourish our inner being for eternal life. As bread from the oven goes into our stomach, and into our blood, and nerves to give us temporal life, so Bread from Heaven feeds our spiritual, moral, and ethical life; gives us eternal life. Jesus is that Bread from Heaven which we ingest for eternal life.
John's gospel also uses images other than bread to capture this approach to faith. John also employs birth. So, It is only in John's Gospel that we hear Jesus telling Nichodemus that we must be born anew of the Spirit (3:7-8). Then, toward he end of John's gospel Jesus is shown to use the imagery of a growing plant: "I am the vine, you are the branches" (15:1-6).
In all these images faithfulness is understood to be something that profoundly alters our inner identity. With Jesus as our Bread of Life, we are nourished into a state of being which John calls "eternal life." As I read it, eternal life is not something that happens after we die. Rather is a state of being, a changed identity which we enter into here and now.
So it is with the experience of being born of the Spirit, or being a branch of Jesus the true vine. According to John faithfulness cannot be anything less than this. In John's Gospel Jesus warns that If we are not born from above by the Spirit we cannot even see the Realm of God, let alone enter it. If we are not a branch of the True Vine, we like a dead limb which God prunes away. If we do not feed on the Bread of Life, we have no life.
Now how may this apply to us? If we hunger and thirst to become the faithful person or community which John proposes, how might we do that?
John is very clear that this something God does for us. It is not something we can achieve of our own goodness, or by dint of our labours. So, the way to the spirituality which John proposes is is by letting God lead us into it.
I know of at least three ways by which we may put ourselves in the way of God: by the practising regular worship or reflection on scripture; by the sacraments of the church and by works of mercy.
The sacrament of Bread and Wine are obvious opportunities for letting God enter us so that we may be filled with Christ. In some communities this sacrament of taken every day. Every morning they feed on the Bread of Life.
In our tradition where communion is celebrated only once a month, it is expected that we will let God nourish us on the other Sundays of the month by the liturgy of the church and by private devotion. We open ourselves to the holy through the observance of the Last Supper and then let the Spirit nurture this in us week by week. Communion is the seed planted in, and each act of devotion is the watering. Or the communion is a rebirth and each prayer is a moment of growing more fully into Christ. wonder how many of experience this.
So, by the sacraments and worship of the church supported by our private devotions are ways by which God takes us to God's own self.
Another way is by acts of kindness, mercy and solidarity. Each time we let God move to acts of generosity, love, kindness, grace we are changed to be more Christ-like. Each timr we refuse such acts of the faith, we close ourselves off from Christ entering us.
So, I pray thsat is morning's act of worship has been for you a moment of nurture and growth into Christ to sustain us until we next eat the bread of communion and ingest Christ into our souls.
Aug 17,03 Wisdom ecclesicakes Bp0
I Kings 2:10-12 and 3:3-14; Psalm 111; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58
click here for other scripture related to wisdom
Three of this morning's lessons invite us to be wise. Solomon prays for wisdom in his role as king; Psalm 111 declares that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; and in Ephesians, a new community of Christians is called to live with wisdom.
Of course all these directions to be wise apply to you and I. We are called to be wise. That's very interesting. While Solomon, the king, prays for wisdom, wisdom is not the sole domain of some who are declared to be rulers or judges or prophets. No, scripture expects us all to wise, each and every one of us, and all of us together. One of the marks of a faithful community is to be the wisdom its members.
So, maybe it would be wise for us to reflect on what our scriptures deem to be the marks of wisdom. Let us remind ourselves of what it is to be wise.
But first, when do we need wisdom? In my experience we need wisdom in at least three areas of life:
1. Family and other personal relationships;
2. In moral and ethical aspects of life;
3. In forming community.
You are probably saying, "These three are not completely separate for one another." That's true they are intertwined, but now let's think of them as three parts of life in which we need wisdom.
For instance, if you are a parent, there will come a time when your son or daughter will want to do something that make you fearful. You will say to yourself, "O dear, what do we do now?"
Or if you are a young person, a friend may ask you to do something outside the normal boundaries. What will the wise youth do?
Or any of us will make decisions about how we use our money. What will be the wise use of you finances?
One church I served was asked if they would allow a congregation of homosexuals us their sanctuary,and meeting rooms and kitchen? What would a wise congregation do?
So, what is wisdom? The answer seems to be too simple. When Solomon asks God for wisdom, God says, "You have asked to discern what is right." To be wise is the have the ability to discern what is right.
That sounds simple enough doesn't it? If your child wants to go somewhere you are unsure about, you can easily discern what is right can't you? You can trust him/her to be wise can't you? But, you think: every year youth in our community get in trouble! What is the wise response?
If your church is asked to support some people who claim to be both Christian and homosexual what is the wise response - would your wisdom be affected by some members who threaten to leave the church over this issue?
This morning's scripture gives us some help in discerning wisdom. The Psalm lesson for today says that the beginning of wisdom is fear of God. Some biblical scholars prefer to use the word awe in place of fear 1. I think that sometimes the best way to interpret this passage is to use the word fear, and at other times awe is more fitting. So I will use both. The beginning of wisdom is found in being in fear and in awe of God.
In Ephesians Paul tells us we can be wise when we know what is the will of God.
So I would say wisdom is : discerning what is right in awe of God, knowing what the will of God is. let me repeat: wisdom is discerning what is right in awe of God, knowing what the will of God is.
By the way, neither Solomon or his father David, were particularly wise, but we are not asked to follow their lead. We have an advantage they did not have. We have Christ, and two thousand years of people working out what it is be wise followers of Christ.
So how might we apply this understanding of wisdom in our family, in our moral and ethical decisions, and in building a just world?
The first thing that occurs to me is this: wisdom is always situational. We are wise with respect to real questions. I don't think wisdom is a packet of right answers which we can pull out of book as ready answers to all situations.
So let us consider how all this may apply in our families with our children. Our child comes and to us and wants to go somewhere that makes us uneasy. How shall we act in a wise way?
First, we might ask ourselves how does being in awe of God apply to this situation? For me, one way it applies is to be in awe of God's presence in our child, and to be in awe of the responsibility God has given us as parents. It is awesome to have God's gift of a child enter your world, and to watch them grow and develop. It is awesome to be given the responsibility to guide and nurture this person. It is awesome to realize that at some time this child of ours will become a responsible Godly person, and may become wiser than we are.
So, when our children come to us seeking to go out into that world which scares us, our wisdom is always acted out within the context of this sort of awe of God. In awe of what is happening in this child, and in awe of what is happening between us and them.
And what is the will of God in this situation. Paul has a good list to apply to this and all situations. Let me read it to you from Ephesians chapter 4:31-5:2. I think the key verse here is : "be imitators of God." Our wisdom grows out of the grace which God has shown us. The will of God is that we should imitate God and extend grace at all times.
So, in all things having to do with parenting, I believe that we are called to act in awe of what God is doing within our family, and with grace and love. I am convinced that if we do that, we will know when we trust our child and let out lease and say: My dear beloved child, I do not want you do this, I thin k it is unwise, or you might be ready to say: Yes, go I trust that you are ready for this. Go, and take care of yourself as a child of God."
Now, what about the congregation which received a request to use their church from a Gay and Lesbian congregation. This was an actual happening. As I reflect on what happened, it seems to me that in oart they did act out of fear of God. After much discussion and after reading letters from six of their members who were against renting space to this group, and after studying the gay and lesbian group's articles of faith, they said: "How can we refuse these Christians a place to worship? We have space that is going unused on most Sunday evenings, while they have none." I believe they were in fear of going against God who reaches out in grace to the outcasts.
I believe they remembered that they were recipients of grace, for given sinners and could not stand by in judgement of others. They believed that by sharing their space was being "imitators of God."
So, they decided to personally visit the six objectors, and say yes to the request. Were they wise? They thought so.
May God inspire us all to dare to be wise, and do what seems right as we stand in fear and awe of God, and as we seek to be imitators of our God.
1. Theological Word Book of the Bible, AlanRichardson ed., SCM Press.
Some "wisdom" related pasages: Proverbs 1:2-3; 1:20f; and 2:6-10; Luke 12:16-34; and Lk. 16:19-31; 1 Cor. 1:18f; James 1:5, 22 and 2:1 and 3:13-18
Aug. 24, 03 God's Presence ecclesicakes Bp11
1K. 8: (1,6,10-11) 22-30, 41-43; Eph. 6:10-20; Jn. 6:56-69
Some of you will be able to remember when the first Soviet cosmonaut, Juri Gregarin, made an orbit around the Earth. Maybe you aren't old enough to remember it, but perhaps you have learned about it in school or through the Internet.
At any rate I wonder if anyone here can tell me what that astronaut said about God? What I remember is that he reported that he did not find God in the heavens. He reported that there is no God up there.
Why do you suppose cosmonaut Juri did not see God above the clouds? The soviet answer was: He saw no God because there is no God. This is the right answer for many people. We live in an age in which many many intelligent and good people simply cannot believe in God.
Others would say that God was there, but Juri could not see him. They would say Juri lacked the faith to see the Creator. These folk might go on to say that you don't need to go into the heavens to find God. God is to be found everywhere by those with eyes to see Jn 9:40).
We who are gathered here today seem to be among those who still hold to the idea that there is a God. Perhaps we can claim to have experienced God at some time. People have told me of seeing God in a nature. in a flower, or in mountain, going for a walk in the woods, or peering into microscope.
Others have told me that they have experienced God in their neighbour. Perhaps you have found God present in another person. I was once at a church conference that was addressed that great Canadian Humanitarian and person of faith, Jean Vanier. When Vanier spoke, I had a strong sense of God's presence; that the creator was addressing through this soft-spoken person of grace.
Perhaps the person in whom you knew God was someone in your family, or in your circle of friends.
For we Christians, the person in whom we most fully find the presence of God is Jesus Christ. The Gospel exists because those who first knew Jesus found in him the presence of the holy. For Christians, the presence of God is found in Jesus Christ. The Gospels communicate this by naming Jesus to be the Child of God, the Messiah. It is amazing that this continues to be true. Jesus still has the power to draw us to God.
Where else, other than in nature or in persons, can we claim to have found the Holy presence? Surely one such occasion is worship. The whole purpose of a worship service is to provide an environment in which we may find God. The hymns, prayers, readings, litanies and sermons are all vehicles to carry us into the presence of the holy. Do you begin to discover the presence of our creator when you enter the sanctuary for Sunday worship?
Now, let us return to this morning's lessons. The Bible readings for this morning give us four locations where we may see God.
-In his prayer, Solomon acknowledges that we may find God in nature - that is in creation.
-Then in the dedication of the temple we are presented with what was a new idea for the Hebrew people - The cosmic God of all creation is also found in holy spaces and the worship and work, and art of the church.
- In the reading from Ephesians Paul tells us that God can be found in ourselves. God is present in individual believers who devote themselves to the struggle to have justice and love win over hate and oppression. (God is to be found in ourselves and others who dress for that struggle as if they were a peace-keeper such as we see on the television news going into Afghanistan and Liberia, wearing truth as a belt and righteousness as a bullet-proof vest, wearing solid boots of readiness to walk the path of Good News, with faith like a defensive armour plating against lies which fly like bullets, with saving grace as a helmet and wielding the Spirit-given Word of Love as your only weapon.)
Finally, John tells us that we may know God, in Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life.
wonder if this is how it is for us. Where do we find God?
We live in an age when many people can not believe in God. For them the church and its claim that there is a God is a nonsensical fantasy. At best the church may have some worth when it invokes this God to expresses caring values. At its worst, God is called on to keep people enthralled in ignorance and enslaved to oppressive bigotries.
In the face of this, how can we claim to know the presence of God? Would you be comfortable in telling your neighbour that you experience the presence of a creator in nature? Or can you testify that you find a pathway to the holy in the experience of worship? Could it be that you find the God of love and justice in those who devote themselves to God's Shalom? Would you feel confident that God's presence shines through yourself? Finally, is it a strong part of your faith to confess that you find God i the life, and teachings of Jesus?
My hope is that each of us will have known God in this worship today, so that we may continue to know know God with us and within us everywhere we go through his coming week.
Aug. 23, 31 Sensual God ecclesicakes Bp12
Song of Solomon 2:8-14; James 1:16-17; Mark 7:221-22.
In our tradition, I know of at least six ways to use story in conveying an understanding of the the nature of God or in showing how God is at work in the world. They are: as an illustration, a legend, an allegory, a parable, a metaphor or in creating myth. For instance, Nathan's challenge to David may be an illustration, while the round of Elijah stories may be seen as legend. Each of the Gospels use stories of Jesus in Christian Son-of-God myth-making*. Of course, other biblical narratives such as the Exodus are given as history. Today's readings from Song of Solomon may be taken as allegory, metaphor or parable. Or they can be read as a lovely sensuous love poem which celebrates God's gift of romantic love.
I would take the view that these verses of the Song of Solomon are the latter. As literature it is a lovely sensuous love poem, expressing deeply-felt romantic love which draws two persons to one another. As scripture it celebrates and affirms this love as a gift from God.
This is a gift which many many people have known. Reading these verses will remind many of us of the time in our life when that love was all-consuming. This is the gift that led to most of us being conceived and born. Yet, here is one of the few places where such love is affirmed and celebrated in the Bible. It would be good for those of us who have known such love and for those who aspire to it, to read this passage with deep thanksgiving.
As James writes in our epistle reading today: "Every perfect gift comes from above." The Song of Solomon would have us consider sensuous love as among those good gifts.
I think that nothing more need be said about this passage. As scripture, It affirms and celebrates God's gift of the sensual love of lovers. End of sermon!
Then, it is also true that more can be said. Without taking away anything said so far, this poem can also be used as a metaphor or as a parable. However, Thomas Dozeman cautions: "Only with the power of real sexual drive in the background does the over whelming force of the metaphor of falling in love with God come into focus."1.
This said, the whole poem then can be used as a powerful metaphor for the relationship that may be found between God and humankind. God is our lover who comes bounding over the hills to woo us. God entices us with the springtime of grace, calling to us, "Come away with me!"
Would any of us let our hearts beat fast at the news that God has come for us? Would we get goose bumps in anticipation of being swept into God's love? Have any of us experienced that?
So, this love poem can serve as a metaphor of our relationship with God as Creator, Christ, and Spirit.
I want to add that this poem can also be used as a parable. A parable is a narrative, or in this case something of a ballad, which derives from our common experience and which holds a truth within it without making it into an allegory. 2.
So, what truth do we find in this lover's song? One lesson that comes to me is this: Love is compelling, passionate, and filled with desire. Love is truly portrayed here. I find that this parable defines for us what love is.
This is a truth we would do well to carry with us when we let the word, love, slip off our tongues. If we say to another, "I love you," and we are true in our speaking, that love will be compelling, passionate and filled with desire.
If we say that we love our neighbour, we are saying that we desire good for that neighbour in a way that passionate, and compelling.
If we say, "God is love, " we mean the same thing. The love God has for us is not less than the love portrayed in this song.
Praise be to God for the wonderful gift of this love. May we be wiser than Solomon in our use of this gift, and may we allow ourselves to enthralled by this love from God.
May that which comes from our heart, be formed by the love which has captures it (Mk. 7:21-22)
*Myth-making. I am using the term myth, in the same way it is used by Burton Mack who writes about the Christ myth as found in 1 Cor. 15:1-3: :Mack says It reflects a lengthy period of collective intellectual labour, including agreements about the value of focusing on Jesus death..." Who Wrote the New Testament? Harper Collins 1989. pp. 79-80.
1. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Proper Seventeen, Yr. B. The Song of Solomon. Abington Press 1993.
2. It is, of course, possible to allegorize this poem. I think that to do so diminishes it.
Sep. 7, 03 Be-coming Clean ecclesicakes Bp13
Prov. 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23; Ps. 125; James 2:1-17; Mk. 7:24-37
All of today's scripture lessons deal with what is for many is the essence of a spiritual life - being and doing good.
Generally, I find that in spiritual movements there are two main ways to be of the spirit- performing the holy rituals and doing good. The spiritual life is found in two actions: by "going to church," taking part in the worship and sacraments and by doing good toward your neighbour. These two make up the faithful life.
This seems to make sense, doesn't it. For instance, to be a Christian is to both be a faithful participant in the Sunday worship* of the church and to be active doing good in the community at large.
However, there is a tension between these two facets of the faithful life. Sometimes we make one more important than the other. In my experience, it is the case that church-going tends to be seen as more central to the faith than is doing good. Quite often doing good is seen as a lesser form of spirituality.
However, there are those who see loving your neighbour as equally important to taking part in the sacraments. This is the position put forward by today's readings from Proverbs, the Psalm, James and Mark. They do so in an environment in which doing good is being diminished.
Proverbs and Psalm 25 were written at a time when participating in the rituals of the temple were seen as the ultimate in spiritual activity. The Temple was the place where God chose to be present. It was there in the Temple that the people could make a sacrificial offering and have the stain of their sins taken away.
However, there was a school of ethical teachers who considered the temple rituals to be not enough for the spiritual life. These teachers taught that the essence of the faith is a high level of moral and ethical behaviour. They named this ethical and moral behaviour, wisdom.
For them, the essence of wise person was to be and to act as a good person - to have an honestly earned "good name. " We sometimes may think that a wise person is one who gives insightful solutions to problems. However for the wisdom teachers, a wise person is one who both speaks and acts with justice, generosity and goodness.
Perhaps you can think of someone you know who would be considered wise under such a definition. Inn my experience Carl Ridd was one such person.**
These ancient ethicist who wrote the biblical book of Proverbs held wisdom to be so high that they said, Wisdom was the first of God's creations (8:30). Wisdom preceded all the rest of creation. Wisdom was created first and then served as God's architect in creating everything else (8:30). So Proverbs gives us this picture of God and Wisdom working side by side to bring all other life in to being.
They took this notion even further. They saw Wisdom as God's friend. They wrote that she was God's God's delightful companion, and God's source of joy (8:30b).
So wisdom is more than an attitude or an idea. They held Wisdom to be a heavenly person, a feminine co-creator with God and a messenger from God.
This brings us to Wisdom's relationship with humankind. Wisdom comes us as a combination advocate, and teacher. Wisdom is an advocate for a spiritual life that is based on being a good person, and teaches us that to be wise is to do good to neighbour, and to call for for justice and fairness to all, including the poor (22:22).
It is interesting that you don't have to go to the temple to find Wisdom because she is in the streets (1:20). It would seem that the wisdom teachers set up shop in public places. They seem to have had a store-front ministry in the malls of that time, exhorting people to be good, kind and generous in their living.
James, whose epistle we read this morning seems to belong to the wisdom school. He definitely exhorts his readers to put the Gospel into practise. He says it is not enough to listen only, but rather we must turn what we hear into good works.
I really like this wisdom - I like the idea of putting faith into practise. I like to think of the church as a community which lives by this wisdom.
However, there is a weakness in this wisdom. Anyone who reads Proverbs will see the weakness right away. The weakness is that such wisdom can become degraded into a set of rules that one can use to gain a benefit, and to gain favour from those in power.
Let me read you a few passages from Proverbs which illustrate the beginnings of this degradation: (22:8; and 22:11). These verse urge us to be good because we will get a blessing from it, and to be gracious in our conversation because the king will then like us.
This is what Jesus seems to have to be a fault in the philosophy of the Pharisees. They adhered to a list of behaviours which they claimed made one spiritually clean or unclean - in favour with God and man.
Mark shows Jesus to be in opposition to that form of spirituality. Rather, Jesus is shown to be advocating the central core teaching of the wisdom teachers: be a good person and show love to neighbour whoever she or he is.
However Jesus himself seems sometimes to forget this. Mark gives us a story in which Jesus responds very much like a Pharisee might when a woman asks him for help. He tells her that what he has to offer is not available to a person outside the circle. Then, the woman shows him how wrong he is, and he accepts the correction, and gives her what she asks for - the healing of her daughter.
Then in the next story from Mark Jesus touches and heals a person whom the pharisees would have considered to be spiritually unclean. In this passage, Jesus is shown clearly to be at one with the wisdom school.
Now, what does this have to do with us?
I think it supports us in our expressions of love for neighbour.
For instance, Trinity Baptist church of Kelowna, B.C. which is giving selfless support to families who lost their homes in a terrible firestorm, and to those fighting this blaze.
Other examples:
I know of a congregation in which several elderly women worked every winter to knit and sew dozens of layettes to be given to poor families at the birth of a child. They did this without ever asking for thanks or recognition. This was wisdom in action.
After many years of this work of love, the congregation decided to include these layettes into the liturgy as an offering to the God of Love. This was wisdom, indeed!
A struggling congregation which always contributes 10% of its budget to social outreach ministries. This is wisdom.
A community of faith in which everyone is truly welcome, and all members serve important roles within the church whatever their status in the community. This is wisdom.
A congregation which supported an openly lesbian woman in her progress toward becoming a minister in the church. This is wisdom.
All the unnoticed acts of love and mercy shown by countless people of the church each week as they go out from worship committed to building a world of love and peace.
And let us give thanks for the courageous leadership of Canadian Chiefs of Police who this week have vowed to change the mind set and policies of their police forces where they treats poor people with less respect than is given other members of society.***
And let us praise God for the gift of the Holy Spirit of wisdom wherever she shows her presence and guidance.
*Among the various Christian traditions there are various ways of expressing this: being born again, joining the church, being of the body of Christ etc.
**Carl Ridd served many years as a teacher of religion at the U. of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada. In his life and in his teaching Carl was always an advocate and actor for wisdom.
*** For instance, responding to calls froma bkack family with prejudgment, or dumping male Aboriginals on the edge of town.
Oct 21,02 Its In the Relationship Ecclesicakes Bp15
Proverbs 31; Psalm 1; James 3:13- 4: 8; Mark 9:30-33
Dear Reader, The follwing was inspired by Marion Soards and co. in Preaching the Common Lectionary.
A central theme that is to be found running through all these passage is this: The quality of our lives stems from the quality of our relationships - our relationship with God and with our neighbours. Each passage uses a different metaphor or injunction to urge us to establish good relationships with God and neighbour. They are: marriage, a tree growing, and submitting your life to a higher good. The Gospel lesson may be read as teaching us the place power has in good relationships.
We may also find this same truth espoused by our secular people of wisdom. For instance this week the Discovery Channel reported on a study into happiness and where we find it. No Christian should be surprised that the study found that happiness does not come from the accumulation of things. The study found that the possession of things can be like a narcotic; the more we get the more we want. I suppose the proliferation of "big box stores" in Canada is evidence of that.
When they turned their attention to where happiness could be found they discovered to no amazement that it was in good relationships, which they pointed out, you cannot buy.
I remember an earlier study from the 60's which showed that children need love in order to move through the stage of human development.
This should not be news for those of who know thw commanment to love, but it is helpful that scientific research has again confirmed it for us.
The Holy Spirit inspired the biblical writers to express this long ago. Over and over again the bible teaches us that the good life stems from relationships; with God and with neighbour. Each of this morning's passages do so:
Proverbs tells us that to be fully human is to marry your life to God's Wisdom. Chapter 31 of Proverbs is addressed to a young man. It advises him to take God's Wisdom as his bride. But let us make that inclusive and say: young women take God's wisdom as your husband. Thus proverbs uses marriage as a metaphor to convey the spiritual life. It is a life married to God's Wisdom.
Is this true for any of us? Are we married to God's Wisdom? Is God's Wisdom at our side in all things? Are we "at one" with our creator?
Then, Psalm 1 conveys this truth through the imagery of an apple tree growing by a stream. I imagine the Psalmist sitting on a hillside contemplating such a tree full of good fruit. As he studies the tree he is aware that the tree is nurtured by God's sun and water, and it comes to this poet that our life with God is just like that. God's Law is to our souls as the water and sun are to the tree. So the palmist takes up a harp and sings: "Happy are those who.. delight in the law of God!"
Is this true for any of us? Are we like a tree growing by the stream of God's presence, and full of the good fruit of kindness, and peace?
In this morning's passage from James, we are challenged to to submit to God. This probably is a more difficult passage for us to hear. Submission is not something I would do easily. Yet, let us not dismiss it. James sees that there is in the world a strong draw away from God, so we have choices to make. We are challenged to give ourselves one way or the other; give ourselves to God or give our selves to those things that are not of God. Submit to God and the life of mercy and good fruits, or to a life of greed and judgement.
Actually, the more I think about it, the more I realize that submission is a big part of every one of my meaningful relationships. In all my significant relationships I must submit to the rule of love with respect. I expect and need the same from the other. This is true of relationships within family, and church, and society.
I have seen how this works in community groups that I am a part of, such as the United Nation's association, and the Thistle Seniors Curling Club. Submitting to the rules of respect and love allow us to work or play together. Also, I have seen how the failure to do this can poison an atmosphere so that it becomes impossible to be together. Sadly this is far too often true among ministers in the church. It was very interesting to hear this past week that as Parliament opens, the members of parliament have taken a pledge to respect one another. They say: This is what the public wants from them. If they can submit themselves to to this discipline, of respect they may be a role model for all f us.
Dare I ask if this applies to our relationship with God? Do we see ourselves submitting to God; choosing the way of the Spirit? What does our United Church Creed say about this?
So far, I find this morning's passages inviting us to ground our lives on a relationship with God. Taken together they offer us three ways to image that relationship: marriage, nature, submission to a higher good. Thus Proverbs advises that we marry ourselves to God's Wisdom, the Psalm suggests that we see ourselves as like a tree nourished by a stream, and James enjoins us to be disciplined and to submit to God's rule of love and respect.
Now let us consider what Mark has to say. Mark asks the question: how will power be distributed in our faithful relationships? This morning I am reading Mark in light of these three previous passages. It is fine to suggest that we marry ourselves to the Holy, or that we grow in God like a tree, or that we submit to Christ's new commandment, "Love one another," but all of this will count for little if we do not settle openly the question: Who will have power?
Mark answers that question power by telling us a story: The disciples of Jesus are arguing about who among them will be the greatest in God's kingdom. Jesus has been teaching about the kingdom of God, and it seems that some of the disciples are vying for cabinet posts in this kingdom. They apparently God's kingdom as being like secular the kingdom. They seem to be expecting that the relationships in God's kingdom will be the same as they are in Herod's kingdom; hierarchical relationships of power. I guess they would see God as the king, and Jesus as the Prime Minister, and themselves in other posts of power: finance, defense, attorney general and so on.
Mark portrays Jesus using this as teachable moment. Jesus explains that this is not how it will be in the Realm of God. In God's realm there will be no lording it over one another.
Then to illustrate how it actually is, he draws to himself one of the children in their company.1. It seems to me that in the context of this argument about power, a child as one who is dependent upon others, has very little power of their own. So, if a child represents how it is in the Realm of God, the Realm of God is a community of the powerless, who, like children, get their power from a loving, caring, nurturing family.
Therefore, to be a member of the Realm of God we are asked to give up our power, by pouring what power we have into a common pool of power which is available to all the members. No one has power over another, but all have power with one another.
Also there is this story: A few years ago, at the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash. At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run the race to the finish and win. All, that is, except one little boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry. The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed down and looked back. Then they all turned around and went back... every one of them. One little girl with Downs syndrome bent down and kissed him and said, This will make it better. Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line. Everyone in the stadium stood, and the cheering went on for several minutes. People who were there are still telling the story. Why?
Because deep down we know this one thing: What matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What matters in this life is helping others win, even if it means slowing down and changing our course, sharing our power.
So, again I ask us to ponder this. Does our relationship with God, and with our neighbours include pouring our power into a common pool of power, from which we may draw what power we need; giving up to God our power in trust that we will get a greater power back again?
I find it scary to consider giving up my power. Yet I know that the only power I have is that which is given me by the community. It a;so seems to me that through sharing is the only way power can be used for the good of humanity and creation.
Power easily becomes evil when one has power over man, and when the majority deny power to the minority.
So, the message I share for today is this: The good life of faith and grace derives from good relationships with God and with our neighbour. This relationship includes the democratizing of power.
1. It seems to me that children gathered (or were brought) wherever Jesus went.
Two Ways to see God in our livesBp16
Lectionary for Proper 21, 15th after Pentecost
Esther 7 and 9; Psalm 124; James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50
Today's scripture lessons remind that there are at least two ways to know God in our lives. One way is to notice the obvious goodness in our lives. The other way is to find God where God does not seem to be present.
I was reminded of this in a conversation I once had with a colleague.
A friend of mine who was also a minister of a congregation and I were talking about how our our work. We were telling stories of the blessings and the challenges of our pastoral work. I told him of some really good decisions our board had made, and I shared with him my disappointment at not being able to attract many people to Bible study.
He told me of two funerals he had had on the same day. One funeral was the celebration of the life of Tom, a beloved church elder who had many friends and who lived a godly life. Tom praised God every morning and went to sleep every night with thanksgiving on his lips.
The other funeral was for Fred who lived to himself, had few friends and never went to church.
My friend said he believed that God was present in the lives of both these men even though it seemed that one did not know God..
I asked him how he celebrated God in the lives of these two quite different persons.
He told me that Tom's funeral was easy to plan. It was a glad celebration of a life well lived.
To me, Ted's funeral illustrates one way we find God at work in our lives. God is seen in the life style of good people. Mark and James call us to live a life such lives.
My friend found Fred's funeral more a challenge and he struggled with what would be the theme of this funeral for a lone man with no church connection. My friend wanted the funeral to reflect God in Ted's life too.
Fred had no family, so my colleague sought out Fred's few friends, and asked them about Fred's life. He was searching to find how God was working in the life of this lonely man in whose life there seemed to be no room for God.
My friend learned that Fred had been an orphan, and grew up in several group homes. He never knew his parents or if he had any siblings. One person who knew Fred for a long time said, "Fred never developed the ability to trust anyone or any god." Probably he was never baptized. The only creature he loved was his dog which he rescued from an animal shelter.
I asked my colleague if he found anything of God in Fred's story.
He told me that the story of Fred's life spoke to him powerfully of God's call to love our neighbour. He said Fred's childhood reminded him of Jesus' love for children and for those who are marginalized. He sensed God to be present in Fred's painful and lonely life. My friend said that this probably came from his own belief that God does not abondon those who cannot trust God. He shared this insight in the funeral, and said that Fred's from within Fred's life God was calling the church and its members to have a ministry of care toward all children. My friend also told me that he thanked God that Fred who could not trust people had found a friend in his dog.
What my friend did with Fred's funeral is a second way to find God at work in our lives. It is the way of reflecting on situations in which God cannot be obviously seen, and letting God speak to you through that situation.
The biblical book of Esther is that kind of story. God is not mentioned in Esther, so the reader has to find God in it. In Esther the unnamed God is found in Esther's courage to speak out on behalf of her people who were in danger
In our world and in our own life, there will be times when we can see God obviously present, and we can celebrate that. Also they are many times when it seems that is not present. But while God may seem not to be present, be assured that God is present in every circumstances of life, and we are called to open our eyes and ears to see and hear God speaking to us through these situations.
May we this week be given the grace and inspiration to live a life in which God can clearly be, and may we be given the insight to see God at work even in unlikely places through this coming week.
October 20, 03 Divorce and Marriage ecclesicakes Bp17
Proper 22, 17th after Pentecost
Job 1: 1 -2:10; Psalm 26; Heb. 1:1-4 and 2:5-12; Mark 10:2-16
Dear Reader - as usual, my preparation included reading Marion Soards and Co."Preaching the Common Lectionary."
The Gospel lesson for today is Jesus answer to a question about Marriage and divorce. In this sermon I am inviting us to see the terms, marriage and divorce, as ways of thinking about our relationship with God and neighbour.
So, I am asking you to think of divorce as a spiritual concept wider than the break-up of a marriage. Marion Soards notes that when Jesus was asked about divorce within marriage, he referred to an even greater divorce, the divorce of humanity from its Creator which he called a "hardness of heart." Mark portrays Jesus as putting marital divorce as part of a greater Divorce in which we all share.
So, the terms, marriage and marriage could be used to describe the relationship a faithful person has with God and with neighbour.
In today's readings Job and Jesus may be seen as models of what it is to be married to God and neighbour. Jesus is one who blesses children whom he sees as images of the Kingdom of God. Job is a blameless man who fears God and turns away from evil. We are called to emulate them in our living - be at one with God and neighbour - joined through a warmness of heart in which the "two become one."
Divorce,then, is of course the very opposite. It is separation, brokenness, disappointment and loss of hope. I say this as a divorced person. Many divorced people will tell you that their marital divorce was way for them to get out of a relationship that had gone bad. Divorce can be the best thing that can happen to a couple from whom love has fled. Others who did not want divorce may have felt abandoned.
So, saying that humankind is "divorced" is a way to describe the disappointment, brokenness grief and abandonment that taints the covenant we made with God, and the pledge we made to love our neighbour.
Before going further with this imagery, I need to say that as I see it, all of us embody both these states. All of us are in some part of our being and living divorced from our creator and our neighbour. Everyone of us in some aspects of our heart and spirit very much married to God - at one with God's heart and God's spirit, and seek the welfare of our neighbour. Each us puts nails in Christ's hands and each of dedicates our lives to being a disciple of Christ who does unto others as we would have done to us. Also, I fervently believe that God is with us in it both our at-one-ness and in our hardness of heart This is the good news.
Then, there is a third theme that runs through all of these passages. That third theme is suffering. Our readings opened with the suffering of Job, then in Hebrews moved on to the suffering of Christ on the Cross, and finally Mark opens us to the suffering of marital divorce.
As I see it, suffering is a part of both our brokenness and our at-one-ness. We suffer over brokenness and over connectedness. We suffer both because of the disconnections we experience and because of the connections we know. When I feel connected to refugee families in Africa or Afghanistan I suffer. When I experience being disconnected with a member of the church I suffer again.
The author of Job has his character respond to this suffering by remaining faithful to God. Satan seeks to divorce Job from God through suffering. But Job refuses to be separated from his Creator. He refuses either to see his suffering as coming from God as a punishment, or to see good things as reward for being faithful. Job refuses to curse God and die. I am sure that you have known people like Job - there are a lot like that in the church. I have visited them in the hospital, I have seen their faith shine through their suffering.