Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ.
I would like you to pretend that you are back 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, you wake up on this day, get the morning newspaper and you read about some strange happenings which occurred in your town during the night. As most newspaper do, this one, the Daily Bethlehem covered the story from every angle. You read....There is a story about astronomy in which the strange bright star over Bethlehem is explained The top astronomers of the day give their opinions concerning this latest appearing in the sky.
As you read further, you find on article concerning the many miles people traveled and the crowded conditions in your town especially last night. A special human interest story appeared which told of a pregnant woman traveling 70 miles on top of a donkey, then arriving so late that Mary and Joseph find no room in the inn, so they have to settle for a stable.
Then in the police reports, you find that a group of shepherds invaded your town during the night. The report gives little detail, but the shepherds were reported to have gone to that stable to see a little baby who was suppose to have been born. The police kept close track of those shepherds because of their reputation for causing trouble whenever they come to town. The report said something about the shepherds seeing angels in the sky and hearing the angels singing and telling them about a special baby being born this night in a stable. The report went on to say that the police were very suspicious of the shepherd's story.
Finally in the birth announcements you read about a baby born who as yet has not been named being born in a stable behind the inn. You find out that the parents, Mary and Joseph were of the house and lineage of David and that is why they are in your town because of the census ordered by Herod.
By all the accounts, there were some strange happenings in your town last night. As you read these stories, you come to the conclusion that these were all unrelated events. You wonder how the baby is doing since little was said concerning his welfare.
Using your imagination, those might have been the stories you read concerning the strange events in Bethlehem. Notice every angle was covered, but the story which was the short shortest concerned the baby born in that stable. Is that how it should have been? Maybe not, but that is the way it was and I bet if it happened today, it would be reported in the same manner.
The most important event of Christmas, the birth of God's Son would probably receive the least print, except the human interest side, the baby being born in a stable.
Is the human interest side of the story the reason God thought of Christmas? Did God think of Christmas so that everyone would fell for Mary and the Baby born in a cold, drafty stable in the middle of the night?
Why did God think of Christmas?
God thought of Christmas because God wanted to give us the gift of Himself. God to be with us, in a human form. God wanted to give us the gift of salvation. God wanted to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, to love us, to forgive us, to bring peace and contentment into our lives.
A story entitled The Miraculous Staircase by Arthur Gordon explains the gift of Christmas very well It seems in 1878 a chapel was built and completed and named Our Lady of Light and run by the sister of Loretto . But a problem developed, it seemed that the plans for the chapel came from Paris and the architect who drew them forgot to put a staircase leading to the choir loft. After the chapel was built, it was soon discovered that there was no room for a staircase.
One cold December day a carpenter came hearing about the problem and offered to build a staircase. The mother superior Magdalene was leaving to help in a village with sickness and couldn't talk with the Carpenter.
The best ones in Santa Fe and New Mexico couldn't figure out how to guild a staircase so she figured this one wouldn't either. She left giving orders for him to be fed and then he could go on his way. While fighting the sickness in the village she received some strange letters from home. It seemed that the carpenter was working late, into the night on something.
The Mother Superior having completed her mission in the village hurried home. Because of a snow storm she arrived late at night on Christmas Eve. The chapel was ablaze with light. She hurried in and was met by excited sister ushering her quickly into the chapel to the choir loft area.
"Like a curl of smoke the staircase rise before them as insubstantial as a dream. Two completed spirals it made, nothing seemed to support it. One sister whispered, it has 33 steps, One for each year of the Lord. Mother Magdalene moved toward the staircase, stepped up and began to climb. She reached the choir loft, she was ecstatic
"How did he do it?" she asked, "How did he finish it in time? What is his name?"
The sister answered,"He finished today, he left when he was done."
A young girl who had been mute came forward trying to form words and uttered, "his name was Jose" Jose is the name in Spanish for Joseph. The sisters bowed their heads.
This staircase can be seen today in Santa Fe. No one can explain how it was built. 33 Steps make two complete turns without central support. There are no nails, only wooden pegs. The curved stringers are put together with precision and the wood is spliced in seven places on the inside and nine on the outside!
That mysterious staircase was a gift, an unexplainable gift just as the baby born in the manger is an unexplainable gift from God to us.
Why did God think of Christmas, easy, to give us a gift, a gift of love which was freely given. A gift which is just as masterful as that staircase in Santa Fe.
This closing story tells it all, why God gave us Christmas!
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
II Samuel 7:1-11,16; Luke 1:47-55; Luke 1:26-38
Let us Pray - Creator and maker of us all - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - grow thou in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth. Amen
Christmas is a wonderful time of year, many good things happen - family gatherings
- baking
- candy treats
- rich food (am I dwelling on the tummy?)
- also music that lifts our hearts (carols, anthems)
- people dress up as well as they can
- visiting, sleigh rides, many other things,
it is a great time - a wonderful time, a time of promise,
But there is more than this to Christmas
There is a serious side
- the side that makes it all meaningful
- the side that was promised thousands of years ago...to Adam and Eve, to David the King, and to the prophets
The promise of God about this season came long before Jesus was born, it was a promise that evil would be defeated, a promise of a lasting peace, of lasting hope, of lasting joy and of lasting love. It was a promise that a king would be born... an everlasting king, who would rule his people with justice and truth, a king like David, but greater yet. A king whose reign would never end, a king who would look after the poor and give justice to the widow and orphan
And all of this goodness, all of this hope, rested one day, upon a young girl, barely a woman, who was engaged to a simple carpenter in the Land of Israel.
Imagine her with me... imagine yourself in her place...
Mary visited by an angel
- perhaps in a dream in a hot summer night...
- perhaps while carrying water from the village well...
And she is told by this angel that she is loved by God, that she is favoured by Him, and when she reacts with fear, and who could not be afraid of such a divine messenger, she is told to not be afraid, but to listen, and to understand that God was going to do something special to her, and through her, that God was going to cause her to become pregnant and to give birth to a son - a son who would become the promised king, the Messiah.
Mary's response was very predictable, it was like ours, HOW CAN THIS BE - SHE SAID - SINCE I AM A VIRGIN
How indeed can God work through us?
- We are nothing
- We are inadequate
- God is spirit, but we are flesh
- We are not important people,
- God would not use us,
- God could not use us,
except perhaps in very small things, like loving our neighbours, or helping the poor and the lonely during a difficult time, AND THESE OF COURSE ARE REALLY OUR ACTIONS, God does not actually direct them, or cause them, does he?
HOW CAN THIS BE - HOW CAN I GIVE BIRTH TO THE MESSIAH, I AM A VIRGIN?
But the angel persisted saying that the power of God would come over her - that she would conceive a son and that she should call him Jesus - which means "The Lord Saves"
And Mary replied - I AM THE LORD'S SERVANT, MAY IT BE TO ME AS YOU HAVE SAID."
Mary agreed to what God asked. Mary obeyed the Lord.
And a wonderful thing happened - she became pregnant.
BUT CONSIDER MORE Once Mary obeyed the Lord, once she accepted his word, there were imaginable difficulties, for after all - she was a single woman - who was pregnant - she had a fiance who was troubled, and did not know what to do for quite a while. Although there were difficulties, once she accepted God's message, once she really believed it, incredible Joy came.
In the words of day's canticle which we just said, Mary's soul magnified the Lord.
- She realized in way she could not before that God was in fact real
- that his promises to Israel, to Abraham and his children would come true
- that the world was save, for the saviour was coming.
Mary's soul magnified the Lord - it exalted the Lord - and God filled her, and gave her the joy and the peace and the hope and the love that our toys, our gifts, our carols, and our gatherings can only at best hinted at.
Our Souls too - we when we accept God's word and when we obey his commands, will realize great joy. God will expand in us, and use us - and give us the joy, peace, hope and love we need for ourselves and that which we need to be a light to the world around us.
The hope of Israel and the hope of the world rested on Mary, and she obeyed and Jesus was born.
The hope of our world rests today on us - will we be like her? Will we give birth to God in our actions and thoughts. Will we obey the Lord, and walk in his ways?
John's call to the people of Israel was Prepare Ye The Way of The Lord.
Advent and Christmas - a time of goodness - a goodness that can last and spread throughout the world - if we indeed do prepare ourselves, if we hope and obey like Mary - for with God nothing is impossible.
When we accept God's message to us through the angels, through the prophets, and through Jesus, not only our souls will magnify the Lord, but the souls of every man, woman and child who encounters us, for they will see the promise of God coming true in our lives. Thanks be to God for the gift of his word - Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN
Christmas is a wonderful time of year, many good things happen - family gatherings
- baking
- candy treats
- rich food (am I dwelling on the tummy?)
- also music that lifts our hearts (carols, anthems)
- people dress up as well as they can
- visiting, sleigh rides, many other things,
it is a great time - a wonderful time, a time of promise,
But there is more than this to Christmas
There is a serious side
- the side that makes it all meaningful
- the side that was promised thousands of years ago...to Adam and Eve, to David the King, and to the prophets
The promise of God about this season came long before Jesus was born, it was a promise that evil would be defeated, a promise of a lasting peace, of lasting hope, of lasting joy and of lasting love. It was a promise that a king would be born... an everlasting king, who would rule his people with justice and truth, a king like David, but greater yet. A king whose reign would never end, a king who would look after the poor and give justice to the widow and orphan
And all of this goodness, all of this hope, rested one day, upon a young girl, barely a woman, who was engaged to a simple carpenter in the Land of Israel.
Imagine her with me... imagine yourself in her place...
Mary visited by an angel
- perhaps in a dream in a hot summer night...
- perhaps while carrying water from the village well...
And she is told by this angel that she is loved by God, that she is favoured by Him, and when she reacts with fear, and who could not be afraid of such a divine messenger, she is told to not be afraid, but to listen, and to understand that God was going to do something special to her, and through her, that God was going to cause her to become pregnant and to give birth to a son - a son who would become the promised king, the Messiah.
Mary's response was very predictable, it was like ours, HOW CAN THIS BE - SHE SAID - SINCE I AM A VIRGIN
How indeed can God work through us?
- We are nothing
- We are inadequate
- God is spirit, but we are flesh
- We are not important people,
- God would not use us,
- God could not use us,
except perhaps in very small things, like loving our neighbours, or helping the poor and the lonely during a difficult time, AND THESE OF COURSE ARE REALLY OUR ACTIONS, God does not actually direct them, or cause them, does he?
HOW CAN THIS BE - HOW CAN I GIVE BIRTH TO THE MESSIAH, I AM A VIRGIN?
But the angel persisted saying that the power of God would come over her - that she would conceive a son and that she should call him Jesus - which means "The Lord Saves"
And Mary replied - I AM THE LORD'S SERVANT, MAY IT BE TO ME AS YOU HAVE SAID."
Mary agreed to what God asked. Mary obeyed the Lord.
And a wonderful thing happened - she became pregnant.
BUT CONSIDER MORE Once Mary obeyed the Lord, once she accepted his word, there were imaginable difficulties, for after all - she was a single woman - who was pregnant - she had a fiance who was troubled, and did not know what to do for quite a while. Although there were difficulties, once she accepted God's message, once she really believed it, incredible Joy came.
In the words of day's canticle which we just said, Mary's soul magnified the Lord.
- She realized in way she could not before that God was in fact real
- that his promises to Israel, to Abraham and his children would come true
- that the world was save, for the saviour was coming.
Mary's soul magnified the Lord - it exalted the Lord - and God filled her, and gave her the joy and the peace and the hope and the love that our toys, our gifts, our carols, and our gatherings can only at best hinted at.
Our Souls too - we when we accept God's word and when we obey his commands, will realize great joy. God will expand in us, and use us - and give us the joy, peace, hope and love we need for ourselves and that which we need to be a light to the world around us.
The hope of Israel and the hope of the world rested on Mary, and she obeyed and Jesus was born.
The hope of our world rests today on us - will we be like her? Will we give birth to God in our actions and thoughts. Will we obey the Lord, and walk in his ways?
John's call to the people of Israel was Prepare Ye The Way of The Lord.
Advent and Christmas - a time of goodness - a goodness that can last and spread throughout the world - if we indeed do prepare ourselves, if we hope and obey like Mary - for with God nothing is impossible.
When we accept God's message to us through the angels, through the prophets, and through Jesus, not only our souls will magnify the Lord, but the souls of every man, woman and child who encounters us, for they will see the promise of God coming true in our lives. Thanks be to God for the gift of his word - Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Isaiah 61:1-4,8-11; Luke 1:47-55; I Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8,19-28
Let us Pray - Lord God, Creator and Maker of us all, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
If we were still using Latin at our Sunday Service, the first word we would have heard in today's liturgy would have been "Gaudete", or "rejoice". The word is sprinkled throughout today's readings: in the first reading from Isaiah, the prophet proclaims that God has sent him to bring "glad tidings to the poor" and "I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul". The psalm of the day is taken from Mary's Magnificat, in which she exclaims "My soul rejoices in my God, my spirit finds joy in God my savior". The second reading from Paul's letter to the Thessalonians begins with the words "Rejoice always".
These readings have their basis in the Hebrew language, which has more words for joy and rejoicing than any other language and this from a language known for having few words. In the Old Testament, 13 Hebrew roots, found in 27 different words, are used primarily for some aspect of joy or joyful participation in religious worship.
1) Hebrew religious ritual proclaims God as the source of joy.
2) In contrast to the rituals of other faiths of the East, Israelite worship was essentially a joyous proclamation and celebration.
3) The good Israelite regarded the act of thanking God as the supreme joy of his life.
4) As noted in our readings, pure joy is joy in God as both its source and object, like a circle: God gives joy to us and we return it back to God. The Old Testament is a book of joy! The New Testament is a book of Good News! This is God's will for us to be joyful, to pray continuously and to give God thanks in all circumstances.
There is a story told about a man from who had to travel to London on business. This was years ago when Christians still kept Sunday as a very special day. For this man, "keeping the Sabbath" meant not riding the trains on Sunday. Thus, after he finished up his business late Saturday night, he had to stay over in London until the following Monday morning. On Sunday morning, he left the hotel looking for a place to worship. The streets were quite deserted, but finally he saw a policeman and asked him for directions to the nearest Protestant church. The stranger thanked the policeman for the information and was about to walk off when he turned and asked the policeman: "Why have you recommended that particular church? There must be several churches nearby that you could have recommended." The policeman smiled and replied: "I'm not a church man myself, but the people who come out of that church are the happiest looking church-people in London. I thought that would be the kind of church you would like to attend."
One thing many people have forgotten in their Christian pilgrimage the duty to be joyful. Maybe one of the reasons that Jesus used a little child as the sole embodiment of the kingdom of God is the innate joyfulness of children.
One writer tells of her trepidation at seeing the slums of Bombay. The poverty was overwhelming and hygiene was all but lacking. Nonetheless, the air was filled with the laughter of children at play.
Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross speaks movingly of an even worse situation. Visiting a children's barracks in one of the German death camps after the Second World War, she had expected to see evidence of horror. Instead, the walls were covered with drawings of butterflies, a universal symbol of joy.
For those of us who are adults, one of the things that make Christmas so joyful is seeing the wide-eyed expressions of wonder on little faces. Children know about joy. Somehow we adults seem to lose that awe and wonder somewhere along the road to adulthood.
There's a story I read to which some of you may be able to relate about a woman's remembrances of her grandmother, Gagi. At the time of her grandfather's death, at 90 years of age, her grandparents had been married for over 50 years. Gagi felt the loss deeply. The central focus had been taken from her life, and she retreated from the world, entering into an extended period of mourning. Her grieving lasted nearly five years, and during that time, her granddaughter visited her every week or two.
One day, she visited Gagi expecting to find her in her usual state of quiescence. Instead, she found her sitting in her wheelchair beaming. When she didn't comment quickly enough about the obvious change in her demeanor, Gagi confronted her: "Don't you want to know why I'm so happy? Aren't you even curious?" She went on to explain: "Last night I got an answer. I finally know why God took my husband and left me behind to live without him. Your grandfather knew that the secret of life is love, and he lived it every day. He had become unconditional love in action. I have known about unconditional love, but I haven't fully lived it. That's why he got to go first, and I had to stay behind. All this time I thought I was being punished for something, but last night I found out that I was left behind as a gift from God. He let me stay so that I too could turn my life into love. You see, you can't learn the lesson after you die. Love has to be lived here on earth. Once you leave, it's too late. So I was given the gift of life so that I can learn to live love here and now."
On one of her subsequent visits, Gagi told her of something that had happened to her that day. "This morning, your uncle was upset and angry with me over something I had done. I didn't even flinch. I received his anger, wrapped it in love and returned it with joy." Her eyes twinkled as she added, "It was even kind of fun, and his anger dissolved."
Though age continued on its course, Gagi's life was vigorously renewed. In the last days of her life, the granddaughter visited her often in the hospital. As she walked toward her room one day, the nurse on duty looked into her eyes and said, "Your grandmother is a very special lady, you know...she's a light." Yes, love and joy lit up her life and she became a light for others until the end.
The nurse in the story speaks of Gagi as a light. In John's gospel, when our Lord receives news of John the Baptist's death, he comments to his disciples: "This man was a light, consuming and revealing, but you wished to rejoice exceedingly for a while in his presence."
That one verse has stayed with me for many years and I have tried to live it to the best of my ability.
If we were to take Gagi's theory to heart, we would realize that obviously we're not ready to go yet either. We are still "works-in-progress".
At this time of year, we need to let joy into our hearts. If your heart is aching this Advent season for any reason: the loss of love in a marriage, the memory of someone you love who is now with God, concern about a teenage child, concerns about your health, don't let despair defeat you. If you have recently lost a loved one and that person could come back and stand before you right now, they wouldn't tell you to continue to grieve for them. They would tell you: "I am at peace; you be at peace also. That is my wish for you." If something stands in the way of joy, let it go.
One of the things which I have seen stand in the way of joy is people taking themselves or what they do too seriously. We need to laugh at ourselves, because others will be more than willing to do so for us. When I believe someone is being too serious, I will often joke with them in the hope that laughter will bring them back to reality. We are eminently laughable at - I know that I am - and what we do is just a job or an appointed position, something that in the big picture is not worth getting upset about with another person and something which could be taken away in the twinkling of an eye.
Enjoy life, relish every moment, for we know not the day nor the hour. Find someway this special season to defeat the blues. Consider doing something for shut-ins who have no one to care for them. Do something positive, something heart-warming, something that will bring someone else joy. For joy has a way of boomeranging and giving the person who gives it more joy than the one who receives it. I read recently that we ought to "practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty".
Love came down at Christmas, as one seasonal song goes, and with it came joy, the ability for us to overcome sin and sadness, because our Lord loved us enough to become one like us. As in the chorus of a song, "Rejoice and be glad. Blessed are you, holy are you. Yours is the kingdom of God."
May joy be yours this Christmas season.
If we were still using Latin at our Sunday Service, the first word we would have heard in today's liturgy would have been "Gaudete", or "rejoice". The word is sprinkled throughout today's readings: in the first reading from Isaiah, the prophet proclaims that God has sent him to bring "glad tidings to the poor" and "I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul". The psalm of the day is taken from Mary's Magnificat, in which she exclaims "My soul rejoices in my God, my spirit finds joy in God my savior". The second reading from Paul's letter to the Thessalonians begins with the words "Rejoice always".
These readings have their basis in the Hebrew language, which has more words for joy and rejoicing than any other language and this from a language known for having few words. In the Old Testament, 13 Hebrew roots, found in 27 different words, are used primarily for some aspect of joy or joyful participation in religious worship.
1) Hebrew religious ritual proclaims God as the source of joy.
2) In contrast to the rituals of other faiths of the East, Israelite worship was essentially a joyous proclamation and celebration.
3) The good Israelite regarded the act of thanking God as the supreme joy of his life.
4) As noted in our readings, pure joy is joy in God as both its source and object, like a circle: God gives joy to us and we return it back to God. The Old Testament is a book of joy! The New Testament is a book of Good News! This is God's will for us to be joyful, to pray continuously and to give God thanks in all circumstances.
There is a story told about a man from who had to travel to London on business. This was years ago when Christians still kept Sunday as a very special day. For this man, "keeping the Sabbath" meant not riding the trains on Sunday. Thus, after he finished up his business late Saturday night, he had to stay over in London until the following Monday morning. On Sunday morning, he left the hotel looking for a place to worship. The streets were quite deserted, but finally he saw a policeman and asked him for directions to the nearest Protestant church. The stranger thanked the policeman for the information and was about to walk off when he turned and asked the policeman: "Why have you recommended that particular church? There must be several churches nearby that you could have recommended." The policeman smiled and replied: "I'm not a church man myself, but the people who come out of that church are the happiest looking church-people in London. I thought that would be the kind of church you would like to attend."
One thing many people have forgotten in their Christian pilgrimage the duty to be joyful. Maybe one of the reasons that Jesus used a little child as the sole embodiment of the kingdom of God is the innate joyfulness of children.
One writer tells of her trepidation at seeing the slums of Bombay. The poverty was overwhelming and hygiene was all but lacking. Nonetheless, the air was filled with the laughter of children at play.
Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross speaks movingly of an even worse situation. Visiting a children's barracks in one of the German death camps after the Second World War, she had expected to see evidence of horror. Instead, the walls were covered with drawings of butterflies, a universal symbol of joy.
For those of us who are adults, one of the things that make Christmas so joyful is seeing the wide-eyed expressions of wonder on little faces. Children know about joy. Somehow we adults seem to lose that awe and wonder somewhere along the road to adulthood.
There's a story I read to which some of you may be able to relate about a woman's remembrances of her grandmother, Gagi. At the time of her grandfather's death, at 90 years of age, her grandparents had been married for over 50 years. Gagi felt the loss deeply. The central focus had been taken from her life, and she retreated from the world, entering into an extended period of mourning. Her grieving lasted nearly five years, and during that time, her granddaughter visited her every week or two.
One day, she visited Gagi expecting to find her in her usual state of quiescence. Instead, she found her sitting in her wheelchair beaming. When she didn't comment quickly enough about the obvious change in her demeanor, Gagi confronted her: "Don't you want to know why I'm so happy? Aren't you even curious?" She went on to explain: "Last night I got an answer. I finally know why God took my husband and left me behind to live without him. Your grandfather knew that the secret of life is love, and he lived it every day. He had become unconditional love in action. I have known about unconditional love, but I haven't fully lived it. That's why he got to go first, and I had to stay behind. All this time I thought I was being punished for something, but last night I found out that I was left behind as a gift from God. He let me stay so that I too could turn my life into love. You see, you can't learn the lesson after you die. Love has to be lived here on earth. Once you leave, it's too late. So I was given the gift of life so that I can learn to live love here and now."
On one of her subsequent visits, Gagi told her of something that had happened to her that day. "This morning, your uncle was upset and angry with me over something I had done. I didn't even flinch. I received his anger, wrapped it in love and returned it with joy." Her eyes twinkled as she added, "It was even kind of fun, and his anger dissolved."
Though age continued on its course, Gagi's life was vigorously renewed. In the last days of her life, the granddaughter visited her often in the hospital. As she walked toward her room one day, the nurse on duty looked into her eyes and said, "Your grandmother is a very special lady, you know...she's a light." Yes, love and joy lit up her life and she became a light for others until the end.
The nurse in the story speaks of Gagi as a light. In John's gospel, when our Lord receives news of John the Baptist's death, he comments to his disciples: "This man was a light, consuming and revealing, but you wished to rejoice exceedingly for a while in his presence."
That one verse has stayed with me for many years and I have tried to live it to the best of my ability.
If we were to take Gagi's theory to heart, we would realize that obviously we're not ready to go yet either. We are still "works-in-progress".
At this time of year, we need to let joy into our hearts. If your heart is aching this Advent season for any reason: the loss of love in a marriage, the memory of someone you love who is now with God, concern about a teenage child, concerns about your health, don't let despair defeat you. If you have recently lost a loved one and that person could come back and stand before you right now, they wouldn't tell you to continue to grieve for them. They would tell you: "I am at peace; you be at peace also. That is my wish for you." If something stands in the way of joy, let it go.
One of the things which I have seen stand in the way of joy is people taking themselves or what they do too seriously. We need to laugh at ourselves, because others will be more than willing to do so for us. When I believe someone is being too serious, I will often joke with them in the hope that laughter will bring them back to reality. We are eminently laughable at - I know that I am - and what we do is just a job or an appointed position, something that in the big picture is not worth getting upset about with another person and something which could be taken away in the twinkling of an eye.
Enjoy life, relish every moment, for we know not the day nor the hour. Find someway this special season to defeat the blues. Consider doing something for shut-ins who have no one to care for them. Do something positive, something heart-warming, something that will bring someone else joy. For joy has a way of boomeranging and giving the person who gives it more joy than the one who receives it. I read recently that we ought to "practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty".
Love came down at Christmas, as one seasonal song goes, and with it came joy, the ability for us to overcome sin and sadness, because our Lord loved us enough to become one like us. As in the chorus of a song, "Rejoice and be glad. Blessed are you, holy are you. Yours is the kingdom of God."
May joy be yours this Christmas season.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Isaiah 40:1-11 and Mark 1:1-8
Let us Pray - Creator and maker of us all - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - grow thou in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth. Amen
Hagar the Horrible is one of the favourite cartoon strips of my wife.
One of her favourite Hagar strips is the one in which Hagar is addressed by a Monk.
In the first frame, the monk, bible tucked under his arm, an expression of peace on his face, says to Hagar, "Remember, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
In the next frame, we see the monk disappearing over the horizon, and we see Hagar, looking out at us - saying - "But I enjoy cursing the darkness"
How many of us enjoy cursing the darkness?
How many of us would rather complain about what is wrong than to add to what is right?
- To feel sad or upset, or angry, about what is going on around rather than to change it.
- To cast stones and criticize what is happening, rather than to gather up the stones and build from them a new and better thing?
You think it is a silly question maybe? That no sane person would want to feel upset or angry?
Well, all I can say is perhaps we are not as sane as we might be
Advent and Christmas is a strange times of year for many of us. A time in which, as we prepare for the coming of the Son of God, we often feel down, disappointed, and anxious. A time in which instead of feeling joy, we feel despair. A time in which instead of rejoicing, we fret and worry and drive others insane.
You know, as I anticipate the coming of the Lord, as I look forward to Christmas Eve, to the candles, to the hymns, to receiving in my hands the bread and the wine, I am amazed by the number of grinches that exist around me, the number of people who grump and complain about how Christmas is corrupt, how our songs have been stolen, our gifts cheapened, our hopes made trivial, and our dreams destroyed.
I am amazed by how I hear around me the voices of doom, by how people tell me that nothing is as it was, and that Christmas has become nothing but a merchant's delight, and that what is supposed to be a time of faith and hope has become nothing but a time of a greed and despair.
Where is our faith?
Where is our conviction?
Where is our sense that indeed God has come to us in Jesus
and that he had overcome the power of darkness?
Do we enjoy cursing the darkness?
Do we enjoy it more than we enjoy lighting a candle?
This is the season of good news, the season of preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord, the season of celebration, of rejoicing, of praising God for what he has done, and what he is doing, and what he will yet do.
But can you tell? Can people look at us and say "Yes, something special is happening! Something good is going on?"...
Every year at Christmas I want to cry with John the Baptist and with Isaiah the prophet. I want to cry with them:
Get with it. Get an attitude! See what is really happening! Prepare ye the way for God! Look for his coming in power! Make his paths straight! Know that the time of vindication and of peace is at hand! Rejoice and be glad - for while there is darkness in the world - there is also light, and the light is stronger than the darkness, the darkness cannot overcome it."
I want to cry - Prepare ye the way of the Lord, - Comfort,, O comfort my people, - The Lord comes with might, his arm rules for him, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom..."
There is so much good around us.
There is so much power and righteousness at hand.
What does the Monk say to Hagar??? It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness...
My friends,. a candle has been provided to us. A light has been granted unto the world, and it 's power is unquenchable.
So what are we doing???
Are we letting the enemy win???
Are we cursing the darkness rather than lighting a candle???
Are we dithering, rather than preparing the way of the Lord??
Think of the good news! Get an attitude! Prepare the way of the Lord. Celebrate the good news instead of cursing the bad news....
Do you really want good news? Then look for what is good, look for God - and you will see that not only is he is coming, you will see that he is here.
Who can account for the mothers who feed their children before they feed themselves? Who can explain the men who spend their spare time in lodges and societies dedicated to helping others? Who can account for the little ones who hug and play with their neighbours?
What keeps the food banks going?
What explains the tenderness of a young married couple?
What makes sense of the feelings that come to us when we see a baby take her first steps?...
Advent is about preparing for the coming of the Lord - but you know - that getting ready is not, for us, a getting ready for a future coming, it is an opening to the God who is already with us, an opening to the Prince of Peace - who came to us as a baby in Bethlehem, and who, after his resurrection, is Lord in heaven above.
Are we prepared?
Are we open?
Fred Craddock, a well known preacher and scholar, tells the story about a young pastor who visited an old lady who was very sick in a hospital.
He entered the room and saw person lying on the bed, gasping for breath. H decided to have a short visit, not to tire her. He asked, "Would you like me to pray for you?"
She nodded yes.
"What would you like me to pray?" asked the young preacher?
"I want you to pray that I will be made well, that God will give me health.", the old lady said.
The young preacher gulped. But he prayed, praying something like, "God, if it be thy will, restore this sister to health. However, let us accept thy will, so that whether she receives her health or not, she will know that you are still close to her."
When the prayer ended, the old lady's eyes flashed open. She sat up. She startled the preacher by throwing her legs over the side of the bed. She stood up. She stretched out her arms. She turned around to the astonished young preacher and said, "I feel better. I feel a great deal better. In fact, I feel like I have been healed.!"
With that she walked out of the room, headed down the hall toward the nurse's station, shouting, "I am healed!"
The young preacher staggered out, went down the stairs, out the door of the hospital and into the parking lot. As he stood at his car, before opening the door, the young preacher looked up. "Don't you ever do that to me again!" he said.
There are a lot of people who believe in God, and who yet miss the good news.
For them God is always coming, but never here.
God is always promising, but never delivering.
God is always near, but never quite in touch....
But this is never the case!
God lives. God is here. And God is coming here.
You can see it in the face of a new born baby!
You can see it in the gaze of young lovers!
You can see it in the look of old married couples!
You can see it within your own hearts, when you take time to look!
God will accomplish his purpose.
The kingdom will come.
The question for us is - will we get an attitude?
Will we be a part of the fulfilment of God's purpose?
Will we light a candle?
Or will we curse the darkness?
May His name be blessed!
Hagar the Horrible is one of the favourite cartoon strips of my wife.
One of her favourite Hagar strips is the one in which Hagar is addressed by a Monk.
In the first frame, the monk, bible tucked under his arm, an expression of peace on his face, says to Hagar, "Remember, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
In the next frame, we see the monk disappearing over the horizon, and we see Hagar, looking out at us - saying - "But I enjoy cursing the darkness"
How many of us enjoy cursing the darkness?
How many of us would rather complain about what is wrong than to add to what is right?
- To feel sad or upset, or angry, about what is going on around rather than to change it.
- To cast stones and criticize what is happening, rather than to gather up the stones and build from them a new and better thing?
You think it is a silly question maybe? That no sane person would want to feel upset or angry?
Well, all I can say is perhaps we are not as sane as we might be
Advent and Christmas is a strange times of year for many of us. A time in which, as we prepare for the coming of the Son of God, we often feel down, disappointed, and anxious. A time in which instead of feeling joy, we feel despair. A time in which instead of rejoicing, we fret and worry and drive others insane.
You know, as I anticipate the coming of the Lord, as I look forward to Christmas Eve, to the candles, to the hymns, to receiving in my hands the bread and the wine, I am amazed by the number of grinches that exist around me, the number of people who grump and complain about how Christmas is corrupt, how our songs have been stolen, our gifts cheapened, our hopes made trivial, and our dreams destroyed.
I am amazed by how I hear around me the voices of doom, by how people tell me that nothing is as it was, and that Christmas has become nothing but a merchant's delight, and that what is supposed to be a time of faith and hope has become nothing but a time of a greed and despair.
Where is our faith?
Where is our conviction?
Where is our sense that indeed God has come to us in Jesus
and that he had overcome the power of darkness?
Do we enjoy cursing the darkness?
Do we enjoy it more than we enjoy lighting a candle?
This is the season of good news, the season of preparing ourselves for the coming of the Lord, the season of celebration, of rejoicing, of praising God for what he has done, and what he is doing, and what he will yet do.
But can you tell? Can people look at us and say "Yes, something special is happening! Something good is going on?"...
Every year at Christmas I want to cry with John the Baptist and with Isaiah the prophet. I want to cry with them:
Get with it. Get an attitude! See what is really happening! Prepare ye the way for God! Look for his coming in power! Make his paths straight! Know that the time of vindication and of peace is at hand! Rejoice and be glad - for while there is darkness in the world - there is also light, and the light is stronger than the darkness, the darkness cannot overcome it."
I want to cry - Prepare ye the way of the Lord, - Comfort,, O comfort my people, - The Lord comes with might, his arm rules for him, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom..."
There is so much good around us.
There is so much power and righteousness at hand.
What does the Monk say to Hagar??? It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness...
My friends,. a candle has been provided to us. A light has been granted unto the world, and it 's power is unquenchable.
So what are we doing???
Are we letting the enemy win???
Are we cursing the darkness rather than lighting a candle???
Are we dithering, rather than preparing the way of the Lord??
Think of the good news! Get an attitude! Prepare the way of the Lord. Celebrate the good news instead of cursing the bad news....
Do you really want good news? Then look for what is good, look for God - and you will see that not only is he is coming, you will see that he is here.
Who can account for the mothers who feed their children before they feed themselves? Who can explain the men who spend their spare time in lodges and societies dedicated to helping others? Who can account for the little ones who hug and play with their neighbours?
What keeps the food banks going?
What explains the tenderness of a young married couple?
What makes sense of the feelings that come to us when we see a baby take her first steps?...
Advent is about preparing for the coming of the Lord - but you know - that getting ready is not, for us, a getting ready for a future coming, it is an opening to the God who is already with us, an opening to the Prince of Peace - who came to us as a baby in Bethlehem, and who, after his resurrection, is Lord in heaven above.
Are we prepared?
Are we open?
Fred Craddock, a well known preacher and scholar, tells the story about a young pastor who visited an old lady who was very sick in a hospital.
He entered the room and saw person lying on the bed, gasping for breath. H decided to have a short visit, not to tire her. He asked, "Would you like me to pray for you?"
She nodded yes.
"What would you like me to pray?" asked the young preacher?
"I want you to pray that I will be made well, that God will give me health.", the old lady said.
The young preacher gulped. But he prayed, praying something like, "God, if it be thy will, restore this sister to health. However, let us accept thy will, so that whether she receives her health or not, she will know that you are still close to her."
When the prayer ended, the old lady's eyes flashed open. She sat up. She startled the preacher by throwing her legs over the side of the bed. She stood up. She stretched out her arms. She turned around to the astonished young preacher and said, "I feel better. I feel a great deal better. In fact, I feel like I have been healed.!"
With that she walked out of the room, headed down the hall toward the nurse's station, shouting, "I am healed!"
The young preacher staggered out, went down the stairs, out the door of the hospital and into the parking lot. As he stood at his car, before opening the door, the young preacher looked up. "Don't you ever do that to me again!" he said.
There are a lot of people who believe in God, and who yet miss the good news.
For them God is always coming, but never here.
God is always promising, but never delivering.
God is always near, but never quite in touch....
But this is never the case!
God lives. God is here. And God is coming here.
You can see it in the face of a new born baby!
You can see it in the gaze of young lovers!
You can see it in the look of old married couples!
You can see it within your own hearts, when you take time to look!
God will accomplish his purpose.
The kingdom will come.
The question for us is - will we get an attitude?
Will we be a part of the fulfilment of God's purpose?
Will we light a candle?
Or will we curse the darkness?
May His name be blessed!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7,17-19; Mark 13:24-37
Let us Pray - Lord God, Creator and Maker of us all, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord and help us to respond in faith both now and always. Amen.
Today's texts deal with the coming of the end of time as we know it
- the time when God arrives to judge the world
- the time when the Son of Man gathers the elect from the four corners of the world.
The Rev. William Peake once wondered HOW THE MEDIA WOULD HANDLE THE END OF THE WORLD and he put together a few possible headlines. Here is a sample of what he wrote:
USA Today: WE'RE DEAD.
Wall Street Journal: Dow Jones Plummets as World Ends.
National Enquirer: O.J. and Nicole, Together Again.
Inc. Magazine: 10 Ways You Can Profit From the Apocalypse.
Rolling Stone: The Grateful Dead Reunion Tour.
Sports Illustrated: Game Over.
Playboy: Girls of the Apocalypse.
Ladies' Home Journal: Lose 10 Pounds by Judgment Day with Our New "Armageddon" Diet!
TV Guide: Death and Damnation: Nielsen Ratings Soar!
Discover Magazine: How will the extinction of all life as we know it affect the way we view the cosmos?
Microsoft's Web Site: If you don't experience the rapture, DOWNLOAD Software patch RAPT777.EXE.
America Online: System temporarily down. Try calling back in 15 minutes.
You know my brothers and sisters-in-Christ - as much as most people try to deny it - the end is coming. Science tells us this, experience tells us this, and the scriptures tell us this. And it will not be some temporary system failure. Rather it will be a complete crash - a crash that will bring in its wake a new heaven and new earth - and not merely some patch, some fix it quick continue as usual remedy that allows us to go on as if nothing had happened.
And that should catch our attention. It should make us think.
The end is coming. That is the plain truth of the bible.
It's both its prayer - as in the reading from Isaiah this morning
"O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence" and it's promise
"But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory
The end, my friends is coming - it is coming to each one of us individually - a fact which cannot be denied and which ought to be enough to make us think and it is coming to all of us together to our whole world to the sun and the moon and all beneath them.
It might be sooner - or it might be later. But it is coming.
We now have the technology to darken the skies, and to make the heavens shake and to cause stars to fall from heaven.
We now have the means to bring about what is described in the Book of Revelation: the means to cause 1/3 of all the birds of the air to perish and 1/3 of the fish of the sea to die.
We can assemble with very little problem at all an army of two hundred million men on the fields of Armaggedon - which do not lie all that far away from the nation of Iraq, and we have built already the scorpions that have fire in their tails and the machinery by which the whole world might see the death of two men, two witnesses to God's love, in the city of Jerusalem.
And if we have the means to make it happen - perish the thought we should actually do so then how much more so God?
- the God who through the prophets spoke of it thousands of years ago,
- the God who through his son - promised it - indeed warned us of it, not quite some two thousand years ago.
From the fig tree learn it's lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.
The season of Advent is about the coming of the Lord - the coming of the Lord as a babe in a manger in Bethlehem - and the coming of the Lord as a judge in power and might.
And the question of the season, the challenge of the weeks that lie ahead of us is this -are we ready?
Are you ready to meet God?
Are you ready to stand before the judgement seat?
Are you ready to welcome the new world?
Are you ready to see the old world come to an end?
The question for you and me and for the world is not are we ready in the sense that some survivalists are ready for the next big war - but are we ready for Jesus? Are we ready for the time when the world is judged - when we are judged.
The question is not have we saved enough canned food and toilet paper in our basement shelters, incidentally for those of you are visitors to Hong Kong, there are no basement shelters here in Hong Kong - but have we prepared our eternal soul to dwell in heaven.
The question is not whether we taken our resources and converted them into physical assets where neither stock market crashes or computer failures can affect them - but whether we have taken our resources and converted them into spiritual assets - the assets that never pass away even though all other things will cease.
There are some things that we can take with us - and there are other things that we cannot. The question of Advent, is are we ready? Are we awake? Are we prepared?
Our hope is that God will redeem our world.
The question is - are we ready to be redeemed?
Are we allowing the potter to form us - his clay?
Or are we thinking that the day of the Lord will never come?
It is coming my brothers and sisters-in-Christ. For us all - ready or not. May you - may I, be alert and awake. Amen
Today's texts deal with the coming of the end of time as we know it
- the time when God arrives to judge the world
- the time when the Son of Man gathers the elect from the four corners of the world.
The Rev. William Peake once wondered HOW THE MEDIA WOULD HANDLE THE END OF THE WORLD and he put together a few possible headlines. Here is a sample of what he wrote:
USA Today: WE'RE DEAD.
Wall Street Journal: Dow Jones Plummets as World Ends.
National Enquirer: O.J. and Nicole, Together Again.
Inc. Magazine: 10 Ways You Can Profit From the Apocalypse.
Rolling Stone: The Grateful Dead Reunion Tour.
Sports Illustrated: Game Over.
Playboy: Girls of the Apocalypse.
Ladies' Home Journal: Lose 10 Pounds by Judgment Day with Our New "Armageddon" Diet!
TV Guide: Death and Damnation: Nielsen Ratings Soar!
Discover Magazine: How will the extinction of all life as we know it affect the way we view the cosmos?
Microsoft's Web Site: If you don't experience the rapture, DOWNLOAD Software patch RAPT777.EXE.
America Online: System temporarily down. Try calling back in 15 minutes.
You know my brothers and sisters-in-Christ - as much as most people try to deny it - the end is coming. Science tells us this, experience tells us this, and the scriptures tell us this. And it will not be some temporary system failure. Rather it will be a complete crash - a crash that will bring in its wake a new heaven and new earth - and not merely some patch, some fix it quick continue as usual remedy that allows us to go on as if nothing had happened.
And that should catch our attention. It should make us think.
The end is coming. That is the plain truth of the bible.
It's both its prayer - as in the reading from Isaiah this morning
"O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence" and it's promise
"But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory
The end, my friends is coming - it is coming to each one of us individually - a fact which cannot be denied and which ought to be enough to make us think and it is coming to all of us together to our whole world to the sun and the moon and all beneath them.
It might be sooner - or it might be later. But it is coming.
We now have the technology to darken the skies, and to make the heavens shake and to cause stars to fall from heaven.
We now have the means to bring about what is described in the Book of Revelation: the means to cause 1/3 of all the birds of the air to perish and 1/3 of the fish of the sea to die.
We can assemble with very little problem at all an army of two hundred million men on the fields of Armaggedon - which do not lie all that far away from the nation of Iraq, and we have built already the scorpions that have fire in their tails and the machinery by which the whole world might see the death of two men, two witnesses to God's love, in the city of Jerusalem.
And if we have the means to make it happen - perish the thought we should actually do so then how much more so God?
- the God who through the prophets spoke of it thousands of years ago,
- the God who through his son - promised it - indeed warned us of it, not quite some two thousand years ago.
From the fig tree learn it's lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.
The season of Advent is about the coming of the Lord - the coming of the Lord as a babe in a manger in Bethlehem - and the coming of the Lord as a judge in power and might.
And the question of the season, the challenge of the weeks that lie ahead of us is this -are we ready?
Are you ready to meet God?
Are you ready to stand before the judgement seat?
Are you ready to welcome the new world?
Are you ready to see the old world come to an end?
The question for you and me and for the world is not are we ready in the sense that some survivalists are ready for the next big war - but are we ready for Jesus? Are we ready for the time when the world is judged - when we are judged.
The question is not have we saved enough canned food and toilet paper in our basement shelters, incidentally for those of you are visitors to Hong Kong, there are no basement shelters here in Hong Kong - but have we prepared our eternal soul to dwell in heaven.
The question is not whether we taken our resources and converted them into physical assets where neither stock market crashes or computer failures can affect them - but whether we have taken our resources and converted them into spiritual assets - the assets that never pass away even though all other things will cease.
There are some things that we can take with us - and there are other things that we cannot. The question of Advent, is are we ready? Are we awake? Are we prepared?
Our hope is that God will redeem our world.
The question is - are we ready to be redeemed?
Are we allowing the potter to form us - his clay?
Or are we thinking that the day of the Lord will never come?
It is coming my brothers and sisters-in-Christ. For us all - ready or not. May you - may I, be alert and awake. Amen
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Ezekiel 34:11-17,20-24; Psalm 100; Matthew 25:31-46
Let us pray. Creator and maker of us all – bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts – grow in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth. Amen.
I do not how many times we have heard the parable of the sheep and the goats – it is a well known story to many of us. It is a church favourite here in Hong Kong. It is also one the passages in the Gospels that underlies what theologians call “The Social Gospel.”
Every nation is gathered before the judge, before the throne of the Son of Man, before the King, and the King separates them. The right from the left, the sheep from the goats, and he judges them. Only those on the right hand side are save, and those on the left are condemned.
Most of us know this parable, and we know therefore the basis upon which the King makes His final judgement about the various nations when they are gathered before Him.
I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was a stranger and you took me in..”
How well we know this story, and for some of us – those who measure things by how much they have done – it serves as a warning – and for others, who also measure themselves by what they have done for others – it is a comfort.
Yet, despite all our knowledge of this parable, our being reassured that we know what it means, and that we know the God of whom the story tells us about, we may not have grasped the fullness of the story.
I am going to ask you to think with me on the response of the sheep and of the goats who were standing before the King, and at the same time to consider with me the message that is found in the surprise that were expressed by both the sheep and the goats.
This parable is full of shocking, unexpected, dumbfounded surprises to everyone:
- surprise at the words and the judgements of the King
- surprise that it is not our beliefts that are considered by the King, but our actions
- surprise that it is not which denomination or how long we believe in Jesus that is being taken into consideration but our compassion and our love.
Some theologians will tell us that this is because the judgement of the nations are just that, a judgement on those people who are not joined to Christ, a judgement on those people who do not profess or follow Jesus, on those who, as the Scriptures tells us, are judged by the law that is written in their hearts. Others will say that the judgement of the King applies to all the people. Whether you are a believer or unbeliever, it makes no difference, that Jesus, in telling this story, makes no distinction between those who follow him and those who do not. For all people are expected by God to live by the law that is written in their hearts – that, as the Apostle James puts it in the second chapter of his letter to the church, “faith without works is dead”.
Whatever is the truth of the matter there is a judgement; and in that judgement, there is a great sense of surprise in both those is the “sheep” and those who are the “goats”.
We, of course, might expect the goats to be dumbfounded at the words of the King.
They are supposed to be confused, shocked and surprised when they at last come fact to face with God, are they not? Their unbelief is meant to be condemned, is it not? Their lack of compassion and of mercy for the least amongst us, is worthy of condemnation, is it not?
Yet, what makes the parable amazing is that the sheep were just as surprised.
The sheep, the righteous - those who have given the cup of cold water, who have visited those in prison, and worked for many different causes in society for the poor and needy, and have given so much to charity, and taken in refugees and strangers into their homes. They were just as dumbfounded and shocked by the King’s judgement as the unrighteous.
Both groups, both the sheep and the goats, asked the very same question of the King when he renders His judgement. Both groups asked, “Lord, when did we see you?”
Lord, when did we see you? Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
There was a time in my life when I thought that this surprise was a good thing – a very good thing that is for the sheep.
I felt and believed that their surprise fit in well with the Biblical injunction, not to let your left hand know what your hand is doing – especially when you are doing good.
I felt that the surprise of the sheep was good because it indicated to us that they were not simply doing nice things to the people around them as a way of gaining credit from God; that it meant that their love and compassion for other people was unstained by any selfish thoughts – unstained by the idea that they were somehow working towards their salvation.
The words of surprise of the sheep seemed rather sweet to me: Lord, when did we see you? When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
And so I let the more hidden message of the parable go by.
After reading and studying this passage once again, I have come to realize that the surprise of the sheep can be seen in a different light, and I do not really know how to characterize what that light reveals, but I do know that it makes me feel a little bit sad.
Why is it that the sheep, the righteous, were surprised? Why is it that they did not see their Lord as they reached out in acts of love and compassion? What did they really miss?
What do we miss?
I think of the great joy I have had when I have been the recipient of other people’s kindness, the recipient of other people’s love.
As a young man, during my first year in England, I joined a church over there.
I was not that well known to the people of the church. I had just joined the congregation. I was not involved in much more than Sunday worship, and my skin colour is not even white. But during my first Christmas there, I and the people I shared the house that I was living in, were showered with boxes and boxes of food, and other good things.
It was an incredible feeling to be so richly and unexpectedly blessed. I felt cared for and understood, and I praised God for those who had reached out to me.
Their act of kindness and others done by that particular congregation changed my life and helped to bring me standing here in front of you today.
Alex Haley, the author of the story ‘Roots’ tells the story of how his father had his life changed by a similar act of kindness.
He was the youngest of eight children, living in a farming family. Everyone in the family was needed to help with the crops. After several years of schooling, the family will pressed each child to work on the farm. Fortunately for the boy, the mother intervened on behalf of this child, and he was allowed to stay on in school.
When he completed secondary school, he chose the Lane Institute for his university education, working as many as four jobs in addition full-time studies. It was all physically and emotionally tiring.
During the summer holidays he worked as a porter on a train, and early one morning when he was working on the train, he met a man who could not sleep and wanted someone to talk with. This man was impressed by a black porter working to earn money for university and tipped him the princely sum of five dollars, which was a lot of money in those days.
When the summer holidays came to an end that year, Mr. Harley had to make a decision as to whether he should use his summer earnings to purchase a mule and began to work on the farm, or to complete his last year of university. He took the risk of completing his university education.
Alex Haley tells us what happened next. When his father arrived on campus, the president called him into his office and showed him a letter he had just received. The letter was from the elderly man whom his father had met on the train, and inside the envelope was a cheque for the sum of $518, enough money to cover his father’s tuition fees and living expenses for one full year.
The kindness of an unknown person made all the difference in the life of Alex Haley’s father, Alex Haley himself, and every succeeding generation of that family.
As a person who has been in need of help in the past, I know what the acts of love and care performed by a stranger can mean to oneself.
Each of you here, I am almost certain, also knows what it can mean.
Each of you, I am almost certain, has a story like mine, or like that of Alex Haley’s father, stored away somewhere in your personal history in your family’s history.
So – what are we really missing, when, as the doers of these deeds of kindness, we are surprised when the Son of Man says: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcome me?”
What are we missing when we feel burned out, tired from giving to too many worthy organization, worn out from working on too many worthy causes?
What are we missing when we doing good deeds and yet feel that we have not yet met God?
I think that the answer is simple. We are missing the sense of holy in the ordinary. We are missing the sense of the imminence of God.
It may be stretching the point of the parable of the sheep and the goats a bit far, but I just cannot get away from the feeling that we all to often lead our lives as if Christ did not exist. Our moment and our days, even when filled with doing good deeds, often are not sanctified, blessed, made fully alive by the sense of Christ’s living presence.
My best moments as a human being, are not just the moments when I show care to one of the least of my brothers and sisters. My best moments are when I do so in the awareness that I am ministering to my Lord and Saviour: when I am aware that Christ lives inside the least of my brothers and sisters, whether these brothers and sisters are the less fortunate of those of us who are joined to Christ, or the pagans and gentiles amongst us, the ones in whom no form of blessed can be detected. Those of whom, we do not consider to be our brothers and sisters because of who they are or what they may have done.
Such a sense of awareness serves to keep me humble. Such an awareness serves to keep me alert.
It is an awareness that should all be cultivating. This awareness that Christ may be found and found especially amongst the poor, and the lonely and the sick, amongst those in prison, and those who simply needed nothing more but a drink of cold water.
Let us all think of it, think back 2000 years ago, when the Son of Man, the one who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords wandered this earth as a poor preacher in a poor land, having no home to call his own, much less a throne of righteousness. Think if when the Son of God was put on trail for blasphemy and flogged 39 times, and then was hung on a cross as a common criminal.
Lord, when did we see you? When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
And think of it today, 2000 more years later.
Where is Christ to be found?
Is he not among us, as it was so very long ago?
Is he not, according to His own words, to be found in the least of our brothers and sisters, in those who are most neglected, scorn or despise?
Thinking about where Christ is to be found transforms what I do and helps me to transform into who I am.
It gives a rich meaning to my actions, it lifts up my spirit in hope and in worship. It makes me wanting to praise God, even when I am feeling tired and worn out. It gives me new strength.
What a privilege we have, each and every one of us, when we reach out and touch someone, for in doing so, we may be, no, we are, in fact, reaching out to touch God, reaching out to touch Christ.
I understand the surprise of those on the right side of the Son of Man. I understand the feeling of shock and surprise of the sheep. I understand it because it is so very easy for me to forget the privilege that I have. So easy for me to start living a life as if Christ was not actually here in this building, this town, and this place we call Hong Kong. So easy for me to do what I do as if it were a burden, rather than as a glorious service to my God…
I understand, but at the same time, I do find it a little sad. Sad, not because doing good has no effect, but feeling sad, because seeing Christ in those around us is so enriching, so helpful, as we walk the walk that he calls us to walk, and yet seeing so many losing the way in this walk.
Lord, when did we see you? When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
And the King will answer them, “Truly I tell you – just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.
May you be with Christ in your walk, day by day. Amen.
I do not how many times we have heard the parable of the sheep and the goats – it is a well known story to many of us. It is a church favourite here in Hong Kong. It is also one the passages in the Gospels that underlies what theologians call “The Social Gospel.”
Every nation is gathered before the judge, before the throne of the Son of Man, before the King, and the King separates them. The right from the left, the sheep from the goats, and he judges them. Only those on the right hand side are save, and those on the left are condemned.
Most of us know this parable, and we know therefore the basis upon which the King makes His final judgement about the various nations when they are gathered before Him.
I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was a stranger and you took me in..”
How well we know this story, and for some of us – those who measure things by how much they have done – it serves as a warning – and for others, who also measure themselves by what they have done for others – it is a comfort.
Yet, despite all our knowledge of this parable, our being reassured that we know what it means, and that we know the God of whom the story tells us about, we may not have grasped the fullness of the story.
I am going to ask you to think with me on the response of the sheep and of the goats who were standing before the King, and at the same time to consider with me the message that is found in the surprise that were expressed by both the sheep and the goats.
This parable is full of shocking, unexpected, dumbfounded surprises to everyone:
- surprise at the words and the judgements of the King
- surprise that it is not our beliefts that are considered by the King, but our actions
- surprise that it is not which denomination or how long we believe in Jesus that is being taken into consideration but our compassion and our love.
Some theologians will tell us that this is because the judgement of the nations are just that, a judgement on those people who are not joined to Christ, a judgement on those people who do not profess or follow Jesus, on those who, as the Scriptures tells us, are judged by the law that is written in their hearts. Others will say that the judgement of the King applies to all the people. Whether you are a believer or unbeliever, it makes no difference, that Jesus, in telling this story, makes no distinction between those who follow him and those who do not. For all people are expected by God to live by the law that is written in their hearts – that, as the Apostle James puts it in the second chapter of his letter to the church, “faith without works is dead”.
Whatever is the truth of the matter there is a judgement; and in that judgement, there is a great sense of surprise in both those is the “sheep” and those who are the “goats”.
We, of course, might expect the goats to be dumbfounded at the words of the King.
They are supposed to be confused, shocked and surprised when they at last come fact to face with God, are they not? Their unbelief is meant to be condemned, is it not? Their lack of compassion and of mercy for the least amongst us, is worthy of condemnation, is it not?
Yet, what makes the parable amazing is that the sheep were just as surprised.
The sheep, the righteous - those who have given the cup of cold water, who have visited those in prison, and worked for many different causes in society for the poor and needy, and have given so much to charity, and taken in refugees and strangers into their homes. They were just as dumbfounded and shocked by the King’s judgement as the unrighteous.
Both groups, both the sheep and the goats, asked the very same question of the King when he renders His judgement. Both groups asked, “Lord, when did we see you?”
Lord, when did we see you? Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
There was a time in my life when I thought that this surprise was a good thing – a very good thing that is for the sheep.
I felt and believed that their surprise fit in well with the Biblical injunction, not to let your left hand know what your hand is doing – especially when you are doing good.
I felt that the surprise of the sheep was good because it indicated to us that they were not simply doing nice things to the people around them as a way of gaining credit from God; that it meant that their love and compassion for other people was unstained by any selfish thoughts – unstained by the idea that they were somehow working towards their salvation.
The words of surprise of the sheep seemed rather sweet to me: Lord, when did we see you? When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
And so I let the more hidden message of the parable go by.
After reading and studying this passage once again, I have come to realize that the surprise of the sheep can be seen in a different light, and I do not really know how to characterize what that light reveals, but I do know that it makes me feel a little bit sad.
Why is it that the sheep, the righteous, were surprised? Why is it that they did not see their Lord as they reached out in acts of love and compassion? What did they really miss?
What do we miss?
I think of the great joy I have had when I have been the recipient of other people’s kindness, the recipient of other people’s love.
As a young man, during my first year in England, I joined a church over there.
I was not that well known to the people of the church. I had just joined the congregation. I was not involved in much more than Sunday worship, and my skin colour is not even white. But during my first Christmas there, I and the people I shared the house that I was living in, were showered with boxes and boxes of food, and other good things.
It was an incredible feeling to be so richly and unexpectedly blessed. I felt cared for and understood, and I praised God for those who had reached out to me.
Their act of kindness and others done by that particular congregation changed my life and helped to bring me standing here in front of you today.
Alex Haley, the author of the story ‘Roots’ tells the story of how his father had his life changed by a similar act of kindness.
He was the youngest of eight children, living in a farming family. Everyone in the family was needed to help with the crops. After several years of schooling, the family will pressed each child to work on the farm. Fortunately for the boy, the mother intervened on behalf of this child, and he was allowed to stay on in school.
When he completed secondary school, he chose the Lane Institute for his university education, working as many as four jobs in addition full-time studies. It was all physically and emotionally tiring.
During the summer holidays he worked as a porter on a train, and early one morning when he was working on the train, he met a man who could not sleep and wanted someone to talk with. This man was impressed by a black porter working to earn money for university and tipped him the princely sum of five dollars, which was a lot of money in those days.
When the summer holidays came to an end that year, Mr. Harley had to make a decision as to whether he should use his summer earnings to purchase a mule and began to work on the farm, or to complete his last year of university. He took the risk of completing his university education.
Alex Haley tells us what happened next. When his father arrived on campus, the president called him into his office and showed him a letter he had just received. The letter was from the elderly man whom his father had met on the train, and inside the envelope was a cheque for the sum of $518, enough money to cover his father’s tuition fees and living expenses for one full year.
The kindness of an unknown person made all the difference in the life of Alex Haley’s father, Alex Haley himself, and every succeeding generation of that family.
As a person who has been in need of help in the past, I know what the acts of love and care performed by a stranger can mean to oneself.
Each of you here, I am almost certain, also knows what it can mean.
Each of you, I am almost certain, has a story like mine, or like that of Alex Haley’s father, stored away somewhere in your personal history in your family’s history.
So – what are we really missing, when, as the doers of these deeds of kindness, we are surprised when the Son of Man says: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcome me?”
What are we missing when we feel burned out, tired from giving to too many worthy organization, worn out from working on too many worthy causes?
What are we missing when we doing good deeds and yet feel that we have not yet met God?
I think that the answer is simple. We are missing the sense of holy in the ordinary. We are missing the sense of the imminence of God.
It may be stretching the point of the parable of the sheep and the goats a bit far, but I just cannot get away from the feeling that we all to often lead our lives as if Christ did not exist. Our moment and our days, even when filled with doing good deeds, often are not sanctified, blessed, made fully alive by the sense of Christ’s living presence.
My best moments as a human being, are not just the moments when I show care to one of the least of my brothers and sisters. My best moments are when I do so in the awareness that I am ministering to my Lord and Saviour: when I am aware that Christ lives inside the least of my brothers and sisters, whether these brothers and sisters are the less fortunate of those of us who are joined to Christ, or the pagans and gentiles amongst us, the ones in whom no form of blessed can be detected. Those of whom, we do not consider to be our brothers and sisters because of who they are or what they may have done.
Such a sense of awareness serves to keep me humble. Such an awareness serves to keep me alert.
It is an awareness that should all be cultivating. This awareness that Christ may be found and found especially amongst the poor, and the lonely and the sick, amongst those in prison, and those who simply needed nothing more but a drink of cold water.
Let us all think of it, think back 2000 years ago, when the Son of Man, the one who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords wandered this earth as a poor preacher in a poor land, having no home to call his own, much less a throne of righteousness. Think if when the Son of God was put on trail for blasphemy and flogged 39 times, and then was hung on a cross as a common criminal.
Lord, when did we see you? When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
And think of it today, 2000 more years later.
Where is Christ to be found?
Is he not among us, as it was so very long ago?
Is he not, according to His own words, to be found in the least of our brothers and sisters, in those who are most neglected, scorn or despise?
Thinking about where Christ is to be found transforms what I do and helps me to transform into who I am.
It gives a rich meaning to my actions, it lifts up my spirit in hope and in worship. It makes me wanting to praise God, even when I am feeling tired and worn out. It gives me new strength.
What a privilege we have, each and every one of us, when we reach out and touch someone, for in doing so, we may be, no, we are, in fact, reaching out to touch God, reaching out to touch Christ.
I understand the surprise of those on the right side of the Son of Man. I understand the feeling of shock and surprise of the sheep. I understand it because it is so very easy for me to forget the privilege that I have. So easy for me to start living a life as if Christ was not actually here in this building, this town, and this place we call Hong Kong. So easy for me to do what I do as if it were a burden, rather than as a glorious service to my God…
I understand, but at the same time, I do find it a little sad. Sad, not because doing good has no effect, but feeling sad, because seeing Christ in those around us is so enriching, so helpful, as we walk the walk that he calls us to walk, and yet seeing so many losing the way in this walk.
Lord, when did we see you? When was it we saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or in prison, and took care of you?
And the King will answer them, “Truly I tell you – just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.
May you be with Christ in your walk, day by day. Amen.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Matthew 25:14-30
The parable of the talents is a parable about the manner in which God will judge the world and his people. It is a straightforward account.
A man who is about to leave on a journey entrusts his servants with different portions of his property. They are to look after that property and to ensure that it continues to work for the master, that it continues to make a profit while he is away.
Two of the servants double the investment they are intrusted with, and are richly rewarded for doing so; but the third gains nothing from it for his master, all he does is keep what he is given safe - following the custom of the time he buries the money so that no harm might come to it.
The result for him? What was entrusted to him is taken from him and given to the servant with the 10 talents - and he is cast off the estate of his master and into the place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth! - forever! - in darkness! - in torment....
Wow! Pretty heavy stuff this!
Right in there with several other stories and teachings about the end of time - stories in the 24th and 25th chapters of the Gospel of Matthew about the coming of the master to his rightful estate - of the groom to his bride - of the king to his throne in the imperial court - cautionary tales - that end with evil servants being cut to pieces and assigned a place with the hypocrites and careless maidens being denied their spots at the wedding feast - stories, like that of today's parable of the talents - which end with the ones who have blown it - the ones who have proven themselves to be goats instead of sheep, being thrown into eternal fire - while those who have heeded their Master - those who have looked for him - those who have fed him and clothed him - those who have invested for him - enjoy great reward.
As I said - it is a straightforward account this parable of the talents, this parable of the three servants who each were entrusted with fabulous wealth by their master, - a straightforward account of how God judges the world.
So what should we make of it?
Well - I think we need to consider ourselves to be one of the servants in the parable. Or perhaps even as a forth servant.
We need to consider ourselves - and our family - and our church as a servant entrusted with fabulous wealth - wealth to look after - wealth to steward - while our master goes on a long trip.
We need to consider ourselves as having been given one or two, or three, or four, or five or maybe even ten talents and being left with this money - this treasure - to do with what we will.
What would we do? What will we do?
I ask that because that is what God has done. God has given each one of us a fabulous a treasure - each in a different but abundant measure, and left what we do with it up to us.
God has endowed you.
God has endowed me.
God has endowed this church.
So where are we at with it?
And we going to play it safe? And it put it in the bank? Like the third servant did? Or are we going to risk it? Like the first and second servants did?
Think about it.
Think about what God has entrusted to you.
Think about who God has entrusted to you.....
Think about it.
Think about what we have been given in this life by our God. What we have been entrusted with for a matter of a few years, and what we have been promised will be ours for an eternity.
Think of the fantastic treasure that has been poured out upon us with the giving of our breath, with each meal we can eat, with each person we come into contact with, with each sight we can see.
I don't think that most of us think about enough. If we did - things would be different wouldn't they? Different for us. Different for our world.
There is a little article I been told has been reprinted in various forms in different church newsletters. It goes like this:
What would the church be like if every member were just like me?
- Would our church be empty on Sunday, or full to overflowing, if everyone attended as I do?
- How much Bible Study and prayer would occur if everyone took the time I do?
- How many bruised, hurting, lonely people, would be touched by the church if every member acted exactly as I do?
- Would we need more ushers and offering plates if everyone gave like me?
- How many children would be led to faith through the Sunday School and church if everyone had my priorities?
- Would the church just be an attractive social club? Would it be closed, bankrupt, out of business? Or would it be a dynamic force for Jesus Christ in our community and our world - if everyone were just like me?
What would the church be like if every member were just like me?
You know - one of the basic teachings of the bible, of the whole bible, the New Testament as much if not more than the Old, is that if don't use it - we lose it.
Even though Paul writes: "it is by grace, through faith, that we are saved, not by works, lest anyone should boast" there remains a judgement. A judgement grounded in mercy most surely; a judgement given in love - no doubt; but none-the-less, a judgement.
Some once rewrote the Parable of the Talents to try to get at this point. The rewrite goes like this:
Once there was a king who had three sons, each with a special talent. The first had a talent for growing fruit. The second for raising sheep. And the third for playing the violin. Once, the king had to go overseas on important business. Before departing he called his three sons together and told them he was depending on them to keep the people contented in his absence.
Now for a while things went well. But then came the winter, a bitter and cruel winter it was. There was an acute shortage of firewood. Thus the first son was faced with a very difficult decision. Should he allow the people to cut down some of his beloved fruit trees for firewood? When he saw the people shivering with cold, he finally allowed them to do so.
The second son was also faced with a difficult decision. Food became very scarce. Should he allow the people to kill some of his beloved sheep for food? When he saw the children crying from hunger, his heart went out to them and he allowed them to kill some of the sheep.
Thus the people had firewood for their fires, and food for their tables. Nevertheless the harsh winter continued to oppress them. Their spirits began to sag, and there was no one to cheer them up. They turned to the fiddler, but he refused to play for them. In the end things got so bad that in desperation many of them emigrated.
Then one day the king arrived back home. He was terribly sad to find that many of his people had left his kingdom. He called in his three sons to give an account of what had gone wrong. The first said, "Father, I hope you won't be angry at me, but the winter was very cold and so I allowed the people to cut down some of the fruit trees for firewood." And the second son said, "Father, I hope you won't be angry with me because when food got scarce I allowed the people to kill some of my sheep."
On hearing this, far from being angry, the father embraced his two sons, and told them that he was proud of them.
Then the third son came forward carrying his fiddle with him. "Father", he said, "I refused to play because you weren't here to enjoy the music."
"Well then", said the king, "play me a tune now because my heart is full of sorrow." The son raised the violin and bow, but found that his fingers had gone stiff from lack of exercise. No matter how hard he tried, he could not get them to move. Then the father said, "You could have cheered up the people with your music, but you refused. If the kingdom is half-empty, the fault is yours. But now you can no longer play. That will be your punishment."
What would the church be like if every member was like me?
What would the world be like if every believer believed like I do?
You know the problem with the third servant don't you?
His problem was his fear. He either feared too much - or not enough. And so he was very very careful of all that the master gave him.
Like the man who is afraid to love - because he might get hurt. Like the woman who is afraid to reach out - because she might be rejected. Like the child who is afraid to walk - because he might fall down, the third servant was afraid; and as in the case of all most fears, his fear came true - what he had was not enough for his master.
The third servant was afraid. He was afraid even though the constant message of God - the message seen whenever God visits his people - is - "be not afraid".
Be not afraid.
Be not afraid of losing what you have.
Be not afraid of being alone, or of being hated
Be not afraid of suffering or dying.
Trust God.
Trust in the one who said "they who seek to save their lives will lose them, but they who give their lives for me and for the gospel, will save them."
Trust in the one who gave himself on the cross - and who in doing so made an end of death.
The parable of the talents is not a lesson about our degree of ability or productivity.
It is a lesson about our attitude and our responsibility
- about stepping out with God's treasure in our hands and risking it all for the sake of God.
- about really daring to love - really daring to care, even though the conditions do not seem right for it, even though the persons involved do not really seem worthy of it, even though a thousand and one bad things might happen.
The sin of the third servant that could not be forgiven, it is the sin of not daring to risk - the sin of not believing that God will reward all who trust in him, the sin of not trusting the one who gave his life for us to raise us up when we give our lives for him.
The mystery of the Gospel is not entrusted to the Church to be buried in the ground. It is given to the Church in order to be risked in the change and interchange of the spiritual commerce of humanity.
Be not afraid
- if we invested ourselves as well as we are able too in God's work
- if we use the gifts of God for the glory of God, God will be pleased with us - and we will enter into his joy, we will sit down and eat with groom, and we will abide in the blessedness saved up for all who trust and believe, both now - and forevermore. Amen
A man who is about to leave on a journey entrusts his servants with different portions of his property. They are to look after that property and to ensure that it continues to work for the master, that it continues to make a profit while he is away.
Two of the servants double the investment they are intrusted with, and are richly rewarded for doing so; but the third gains nothing from it for his master, all he does is keep what he is given safe - following the custom of the time he buries the money so that no harm might come to it.
The result for him? What was entrusted to him is taken from him and given to the servant with the 10 talents - and he is cast off the estate of his master and into the place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth! - forever! - in darkness! - in torment....
Wow! Pretty heavy stuff this!
Right in there with several other stories and teachings about the end of time - stories in the 24th and 25th chapters of the Gospel of Matthew about the coming of the master to his rightful estate - of the groom to his bride - of the king to his throne in the imperial court - cautionary tales - that end with evil servants being cut to pieces and assigned a place with the hypocrites and careless maidens being denied their spots at the wedding feast - stories, like that of today's parable of the talents - which end with the ones who have blown it - the ones who have proven themselves to be goats instead of sheep, being thrown into eternal fire - while those who have heeded their Master - those who have looked for him - those who have fed him and clothed him - those who have invested for him - enjoy great reward.
As I said - it is a straightforward account this parable of the talents, this parable of the three servants who each were entrusted with fabulous wealth by their master, - a straightforward account of how God judges the world.
So what should we make of it?
Well - I think we need to consider ourselves to be one of the servants in the parable. Or perhaps even as a forth servant.
We need to consider ourselves - and our family - and our church as a servant entrusted with fabulous wealth - wealth to look after - wealth to steward - while our master goes on a long trip.
We need to consider ourselves as having been given one or two, or three, or four, or five or maybe even ten talents and being left with this money - this treasure - to do with what we will.
What would we do? What will we do?
I ask that because that is what God has done. God has given each one of us a fabulous a treasure - each in a different but abundant measure, and left what we do with it up to us.
God has endowed you.
God has endowed me.
God has endowed this church.
So where are we at with it?
And we going to play it safe? And it put it in the bank? Like the third servant did? Or are we going to risk it? Like the first and second servants did?
Think about it.
Think about what God has entrusted to you.
Think about who God has entrusted to you.....
Think about it.
Think about what we have been given in this life by our God. What we have been entrusted with for a matter of a few years, and what we have been promised will be ours for an eternity.
Think of the fantastic treasure that has been poured out upon us with the giving of our breath, with each meal we can eat, with each person we come into contact with, with each sight we can see.
I don't think that most of us think about enough. If we did - things would be different wouldn't they? Different for us. Different for our world.
There is a little article I been told has been reprinted in various forms in different church newsletters. It goes like this:
What would the church be like if every member were just like me?
- Would our church be empty on Sunday, or full to overflowing, if everyone attended as I do?
- How much Bible Study and prayer would occur if everyone took the time I do?
- How many bruised, hurting, lonely people, would be touched by the church if every member acted exactly as I do?
- Would we need more ushers and offering plates if everyone gave like me?
- How many children would be led to faith through the Sunday School and church if everyone had my priorities?
- Would the church just be an attractive social club? Would it be closed, bankrupt, out of business? Or would it be a dynamic force for Jesus Christ in our community and our world - if everyone were just like me?
What would the church be like if every member were just like me?
You know - one of the basic teachings of the bible, of the whole bible, the New Testament as much if not more than the Old, is that if don't use it - we lose it.
Even though Paul writes: "it is by grace, through faith, that we are saved, not by works, lest anyone should boast" there remains a judgement. A judgement grounded in mercy most surely; a judgement given in love - no doubt; but none-the-less, a judgement.
Some once rewrote the Parable of the Talents to try to get at this point. The rewrite goes like this:
Once there was a king who had three sons, each with a special talent. The first had a talent for growing fruit. The second for raising sheep. And the third for playing the violin. Once, the king had to go overseas on important business. Before departing he called his three sons together and told them he was depending on them to keep the people contented in his absence.
Now for a while things went well. But then came the winter, a bitter and cruel winter it was. There was an acute shortage of firewood. Thus the first son was faced with a very difficult decision. Should he allow the people to cut down some of his beloved fruit trees for firewood? When he saw the people shivering with cold, he finally allowed them to do so.
The second son was also faced with a difficult decision. Food became very scarce. Should he allow the people to kill some of his beloved sheep for food? When he saw the children crying from hunger, his heart went out to them and he allowed them to kill some of the sheep.
Thus the people had firewood for their fires, and food for their tables. Nevertheless the harsh winter continued to oppress them. Their spirits began to sag, and there was no one to cheer them up. They turned to the fiddler, but he refused to play for them. In the end things got so bad that in desperation many of them emigrated.
Then one day the king arrived back home. He was terribly sad to find that many of his people had left his kingdom. He called in his three sons to give an account of what had gone wrong. The first said, "Father, I hope you won't be angry at me, but the winter was very cold and so I allowed the people to cut down some of the fruit trees for firewood." And the second son said, "Father, I hope you won't be angry with me because when food got scarce I allowed the people to kill some of my sheep."
On hearing this, far from being angry, the father embraced his two sons, and told them that he was proud of them.
Then the third son came forward carrying his fiddle with him. "Father", he said, "I refused to play because you weren't here to enjoy the music."
"Well then", said the king, "play me a tune now because my heart is full of sorrow." The son raised the violin and bow, but found that his fingers had gone stiff from lack of exercise. No matter how hard he tried, he could not get them to move. Then the father said, "You could have cheered up the people with your music, but you refused. If the kingdom is half-empty, the fault is yours. But now you can no longer play. That will be your punishment."
What would the church be like if every member was like me?
What would the world be like if every believer believed like I do?
You know the problem with the third servant don't you?
His problem was his fear. He either feared too much - or not enough. And so he was very very careful of all that the master gave him.
Like the man who is afraid to love - because he might get hurt. Like the woman who is afraid to reach out - because she might be rejected. Like the child who is afraid to walk - because he might fall down, the third servant was afraid; and as in the case of all most fears, his fear came true - what he had was not enough for his master.
The third servant was afraid. He was afraid even though the constant message of God - the message seen whenever God visits his people - is - "be not afraid".
Be not afraid.
Be not afraid of losing what you have.
Be not afraid of being alone, or of being hated
Be not afraid of suffering or dying.
Trust God.
Trust in the one who said "they who seek to save their lives will lose them, but they who give their lives for me and for the gospel, will save them."
Trust in the one who gave himself on the cross - and who in doing so made an end of death.
The parable of the talents is not a lesson about our degree of ability or productivity.
It is a lesson about our attitude and our responsibility
- about stepping out with God's treasure in our hands and risking it all for the sake of God.
- about really daring to love - really daring to care, even though the conditions do not seem right for it, even though the persons involved do not really seem worthy of it, even though a thousand and one bad things might happen.
The sin of the third servant that could not be forgiven, it is the sin of not daring to risk - the sin of not believing that God will reward all who trust in him, the sin of not trusting the one who gave his life for us to raise us up when we give our lives for him.
The mystery of the Gospel is not entrusted to the Church to be buried in the ground. It is given to the Church in order to be risked in the change and interchange of the spiritual commerce of humanity.
Be not afraid
- if we invested ourselves as well as we are able too in God's work
- if we use the gifts of God for the glory of God, God will be pleased with us - and we will enter into his joy, we will sit down and eat with groom, and we will abide in the blessedness saved up for all who trust and believe, both now - and forevermore. Amen
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Joshua 24:1-3a,14-25; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13
Let us Pray: Bless I pray, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - in Jesus name. Amen.
A Time of Remembering - A Time of Decision - this is the focus of today's reading from the Book of Joshua
As Joshua - as an old man - about to die - called the people of Israel together - to remember and to decide - so we are called together here today - to remember - and to decide
We remember today - what for some
- the sacrifice, the pain, the loss
- the comradeship - the closeness - the hopes and fears
- the evil that threatened - the victory that came
We remember too - as we did in the Litany of Reconciliation and Justice - the deeper things of God and of this world - of the things in this world that divide families, groups, peoples, and nations one from the other - and of the need not only forpeace - but for the justice that upon which true peace is built - the justice and the love that shows mercy to those who seek it - and even to those who do not..
Value of remembering
- for some - is strictly in telling the story - in sharing what is important to them - in working out the good and the bad - the happy and the sad - one has encountered.
- for others it is the issues - the lessons - involved in any telling of the past - the education it can provide - for others it is a matter of honouring - of respecting - of evoking the emotions and feelings that are best in a person - laughter, joy, tears, peace, outrage, forgiveness, humility, determination.
Remembering is good - but primarily today, remembering is a call for decision on our part - and without the decision - without the deciding that we are called to do remembering has little power or purpose.
In our scripture reading this morning Joshua told the story of how God had treated the children of Israel - how he had chosen Abraham - and Isaac - and Jacob and promised them a land - how he had remembered Joseph in Egypt and raised up Moses to deliver the people - how he had led his people safely from the clutches of Pharaoh and watched over them in the Wilderness of Sinai - and how finally he had brought the 12 tribes across the Jordan and into the promised land, driving out their enemies before them, and giving them a land that they had not laboured for, grapes and olives that they didn't plant.
He tells the story - he remembers and he then calls the people to understand what has been remembered and to make a decision the decision to choose to follow and be true to the God who gave them life - or to choose to follow in the path of the nations around them and to worship their gods.
The people respond to this challenge by reciting back to Joshua the story as they remember it - of how God worked miracles to set them free and all though other nations were all around them the Lord protected them where-ever they went and they then say to Joshua that like him - they will serve the God of Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Moses - the God that has been good to them.
And so we are called today to remember - to remember not only all those who suffered and died - who sweat and sacrificed so much - but to remember the reason for which all honourable men and women have fought through the centuries - namely the good of not only their nation - but of the whole world - AND - most importantly - We are called to choose.
When Joshua reminds the people of their history - of their experience - and then demands that the people choose what God they will serve - he tells them that this is no easy decision that there is a cost involved the cost of total commitment - and that should they falter - should they put their hand to the plow and look back; - should they attempt to live with one foot in the kingdom of God - the God who gives life - and the other in the world of idols that God himself will turn against them and make terrible things to happen to them - and then he will finally wipe them out - even though he has been good to them in the past.
Today we remember - and we are called to choose
We are called to choose this day much the same thing Joshua called the people of Israel to choose.
We are called to choose life or death, to choose God and the things of God - or ourselves alone - and the things of this world
And the message for us is the same as the message to the children of Israel, the same message that every veteran of every battle with this world's evil can tell you - namely they who forgot - they who choose to ignore the call of God and to instead be like everyone else - to be a people who look after only themselves - a people who seek wealth instead of justice - who pursue happiness rather the way of truth - who elevate peace as a value over that of the truth of God - are lost.
Should we follow other gods - should we value our own prosperity while ignoring the poverty of others - should we desire our own comfort more than we desire to help others - should we value the peace of endless compromise to the hard work of speaking truth to those who lie, and in doing justice even though it may cost us our own lives then not only will the sacrifice made by so many others on our behalf be in vain, and their memory dishonoured even as speak their names but we ourselves and our descendants after us - will perish.
The kingdom of God, the kingdom that is distinguished by joyful peace, by freedom from pain and death, by love that knows no hate, by plenty that knows no limit demands our all.
As Jesus gave himself wholly for us on the cross - and in doing so rose to new life on the third day so we are called to give ourselves completely for the sake of what is right. May His name be blessed day by day, Amen!
A Time of Remembering - A Time of Decision - this is the focus of today's reading from the Book of Joshua
As Joshua - as an old man - about to die - called the people of Israel together - to remember and to decide - so we are called together here today - to remember - and to decide
We remember today - what for some
- the sacrifice, the pain, the loss
- the comradeship - the closeness - the hopes and fears
- the evil that threatened - the victory that came
We remember too - as we did in the Litany of Reconciliation and Justice - the deeper things of God and of this world - of the things in this world that divide families, groups, peoples, and nations one from the other - and of the need not only forpeace - but for the justice that upon which true peace is built - the justice and the love that shows mercy to those who seek it - and even to those who do not..
Value of remembering
- for some - is strictly in telling the story - in sharing what is important to them - in working out the good and the bad - the happy and the sad - one has encountered.
- for others it is the issues - the lessons - involved in any telling of the past - the education it can provide - for others it is a matter of honouring - of respecting - of evoking the emotions and feelings that are best in a person - laughter, joy, tears, peace, outrage, forgiveness, humility, determination.
Remembering is good - but primarily today, remembering is a call for decision on our part - and without the decision - without the deciding that we are called to do remembering has little power or purpose.
In our scripture reading this morning Joshua told the story of how God had treated the children of Israel - how he had chosen Abraham - and Isaac - and Jacob and promised them a land - how he had remembered Joseph in Egypt and raised up Moses to deliver the people - how he had led his people safely from the clutches of Pharaoh and watched over them in the Wilderness of Sinai - and how finally he had brought the 12 tribes across the Jordan and into the promised land, driving out their enemies before them, and giving them a land that they had not laboured for, grapes and olives that they didn't plant.
He tells the story - he remembers and he then calls the people to understand what has been remembered and to make a decision the decision to choose to follow and be true to the God who gave them life - or to choose to follow in the path of the nations around them and to worship their gods.
The people respond to this challenge by reciting back to Joshua the story as they remember it - of how God worked miracles to set them free and all though other nations were all around them the Lord protected them where-ever they went and they then say to Joshua that like him - they will serve the God of Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Moses - the God that has been good to them.
And so we are called today to remember - to remember not only all those who suffered and died - who sweat and sacrificed so much - but to remember the reason for which all honourable men and women have fought through the centuries - namely the good of not only their nation - but of the whole world - AND - most importantly - We are called to choose.
When Joshua reminds the people of their history - of their experience - and then demands that the people choose what God they will serve - he tells them that this is no easy decision that there is a cost involved the cost of total commitment - and that should they falter - should they put their hand to the plow and look back; - should they attempt to live with one foot in the kingdom of God - the God who gives life - and the other in the world of idols that God himself will turn against them and make terrible things to happen to them - and then he will finally wipe them out - even though he has been good to them in the past.
Today we remember - and we are called to choose
We are called to choose this day much the same thing Joshua called the people of Israel to choose.
We are called to choose life or death, to choose God and the things of God - or ourselves alone - and the things of this world
And the message for us is the same as the message to the children of Israel, the same message that every veteran of every battle with this world's evil can tell you - namely they who forgot - they who choose to ignore the call of God and to instead be like everyone else - to be a people who look after only themselves - a people who seek wealth instead of justice - who pursue happiness rather the way of truth - who elevate peace as a value over that of the truth of God - are lost.
Should we follow other gods - should we value our own prosperity while ignoring the poverty of others - should we desire our own comfort more than we desire to help others - should we value the peace of endless compromise to the hard work of speaking truth to those who lie, and in doing justice even though it may cost us our own lives then not only will the sacrifice made by so many others on our behalf be in vain, and their memory dishonoured even as speak their names but we ourselves and our descendants after us - will perish.
The kingdom of God, the kingdom that is distinguished by joyful peace, by freedom from pain and death, by love that knows no hate, by plenty that knows no limit demands our all.
As Jesus gave himself wholly for us on the cross - and in doing so rose to new life on the third day so we are called to give ourselves completely for the sake of what is right. May His name be blessed day by day, Amen!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Joshua 3:7-17; I Thessalonians 2:9-13; Matthew 23:1-12
Let us Pray - Creator and maker of us all - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - grow thou in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth. Amen
Promised Land - across and through the Jordan
- think of this in terms of metaphor
- through death into the eternal realms of God - into heaven
- to the place where the saints dwell forever
- to the place where death is no more....
But crossing the River into the Promised Land was not always seen as a Metaphor for dying/rising
Rather - at the time of Moses - the time of Joshua - from whose book we read today, the Promised Land was a real place - a place in which the people looked forward to living now - It was a place where the land flowed with milk and honey, where the people could not only cry "Free At Last - Free at Last" - but also cry - At home at last - At home where God promised he would lead us - in the place which God promised he would give us. The Promised Land is the rich and abundant land God promised to Abraham - and to his children after him - the place promised to Isaac and to Jacob - the place of which Moses spoke as he led his people out of Egypt. It is the rich and abundant life promised by Christ to all his followers.
The Promised Land was - and is a real place -- located in our space - and our time. As Caleb and the others who spied out this land for Moses - reported - it not only was a rich land - a blessed land - but it also was a land so real - so good - that others occupied it -- it was a place of cities and of towns - of warriors and giants -- not all of whom would prove to be friendly - but all of whom - with God's help - would be overcome - that the people might truly be blessed in their occupation of that land.
All of us long for this kind of land - this kind of place - this kind of life - where our enemies are overcome by the power of God - and where our needs are met with unheard of abundance - where the fear and the awe of the wilderness in which we wander is replaced by the joy and the celebration of life lived in a place like unto Eden itself.
And God promises to us - as he promised to the children of Israel just such a place. Just such a way of life. And as he did with the children of Israel - he guides us through the wilderness towards it - he leads us to the very edge of the place - and shows us the way to enter into it.
Today, in the third chapter of the book of Joshua we see the final stage of the people's wandering in the wilderness - the stage where they are finally called into the promised land - we see them cross through the Jordan and into the land of promise.
The details of the story are instructive for our own entering into the land - the state of being - that God has promised to us in Christ Jesus.
First we must understand about the River Jordan - the largest river in the region - no bridges across it - the Kings highway from Egypt to the Euphrates, from the land of the Pharaohs to the land of Assyria and of Babylon never crossed the river - but ran along side it - it is normally a murky river - slow moving and muddy - even so it can be easily crossed at certain places - that is if you don't mind stepping into a river whose bottom you can't easily see, if you don't mind getting the feet wet, and much more....
Crossing a river, even when you have a bridge, represents a big event in life. Rivers epitomize a big obstacle in the itch to be mobile. Indeed the symbol of crossing the river flows deeply in our faith history.
Sometimes, the symbol of the river means a roadblock. As it most surely meant to the people of Israel on the day appointed for them to cross the Jordan. It is one thing to put your feet in a gentle stream and another to step into roaring flood waters. Which, according to verse 15, is what the Jordan was like the day the people crossed over it.
Not only was the river in flood - but - according to verse 4 of today's passage, the people are not familiar with the place where they are about to cross the river - they have not been there before - they do not know what it will be like.
Joshua and the leaders of the people tell the people that they are to enter the promised land by following the priests (who carry the ark of the Covenant - the sign and symbol of God's presence with them - into the river) and that the river will part for them to make their passage through it possible.
I think it is very significant that one has to step into the roaring waters before they are parted, rather than waiting for them to first be parted. Very significant indeed. It was when the soles of the feet of those bearing the ark touch the water that the waters part. Not before.
In verse 15 through 17 we hear the conclusion of the matter:
"As soon as the feet of the priests touched the water, the river stopped flowing, and the water started piling up at the town of Adam near Zarethan. No water flowed toward the Dead sea, and the priests stood in the middle of the dry riverbed near Jericho while everyone else crossed over."
In the faith journey, there comes times when it looks like you are backed up against a barrier, a river at flood stage. The promised land is on the other side of the raging river.
As followers of Christ, as a people whom have been promised a new land, a new life, we are called to step out in faith - before the circumstances seem to be ready - that we may enter into that land - that we experience that life. We called to cross the river, to enter the turbulent and muddy flood waters so that we may receive the fullness of what God has promised to us and to those who follow us.
It can be a frightening proposition....
But we - like the people of Israel - have God with us. And as we step forth - carrying God with us - as we hold in our hearts the precious name of God - as we trust in God's living presence even though the circumstances do not appear to favour us - the waters will part.
What today's story tells us - with it's mention of how the priests led the way for the people into the river - is that God goes before us into the flood waters of life. God stands in the middle of the murderous waters, and God watches us pass safely to the other side.
The story is one of salvation. It affirms that God loves you and will not let anything stand in the way of his divine love and salvation for you.
The hymn "HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION" sings this faith in verse 3:
"When through the deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow; For I will be near thee, thy troubles to bless, And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress."
Fear not my brothers and sister-in-Christ - take the plunge - step out in faith -get your feet wet - and God will bring you safe to the other side of the Jordan, to the land and to the life that he has promised to all who follow him.
This is the message of the Gospel that we proclaim.
As Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica this message is not a human word, rather it is God's word - able to work in those who believe.
Trust in it. Trust in God - and step forward - and God will make straight your path and bring you into the promised land. Blessed be the name of God - now and forever. Amen
Promised Land - across and through the Jordan
- think of this in terms of metaphor
- through death into the eternal realms of God - into heaven
- to the place where the saints dwell forever
- to the place where death is no more....
But crossing the River into the Promised Land was not always seen as a Metaphor for dying/rising
Rather - at the time of Moses - the time of Joshua - from whose book we read today, the Promised Land was a real place - a place in which the people looked forward to living now - It was a place where the land flowed with milk and honey, where the people could not only cry "Free At Last - Free at Last" - but also cry - At home at last - At home where God promised he would lead us - in the place which God promised he would give us. The Promised Land is the rich and abundant land God promised to Abraham - and to his children after him - the place promised to Isaac and to Jacob - the place of which Moses spoke as he led his people out of Egypt. It is the rich and abundant life promised by Christ to all his followers.
The Promised Land was - and is a real place -- located in our space - and our time. As Caleb and the others who spied out this land for Moses - reported - it not only was a rich land - a blessed land - but it also was a land so real - so good - that others occupied it -- it was a place of cities and of towns - of warriors and giants -- not all of whom would prove to be friendly - but all of whom - with God's help - would be overcome - that the people might truly be blessed in their occupation of that land.
All of us long for this kind of land - this kind of place - this kind of life - where our enemies are overcome by the power of God - and where our needs are met with unheard of abundance - where the fear and the awe of the wilderness in which we wander is replaced by the joy and the celebration of life lived in a place like unto Eden itself.
And God promises to us - as he promised to the children of Israel just such a place. Just such a way of life. And as he did with the children of Israel - he guides us through the wilderness towards it - he leads us to the very edge of the place - and shows us the way to enter into it.
Today, in the third chapter of the book of Joshua we see the final stage of the people's wandering in the wilderness - the stage where they are finally called into the promised land - we see them cross through the Jordan and into the land of promise.
The details of the story are instructive for our own entering into the land - the state of being - that God has promised to us in Christ Jesus.
First we must understand about the River Jordan - the largest river in the region - no bridges across it - the Kings highway from Egypt to the Euphrates, from the land of the Pharaohs to the land of Assyria and of Babylon never crossed the river - but ran along side it - it is normally a murky river - slow moving and muddy - even so it can be easily crossed at certain places - that is if you don't mind stepping into a river whose bottom you can't easily see, if you don't mind getting the feet wet, and much more....
Crossing a river, even when you have a bridge, represents a big event in life. Rivers epitomize a big obstacle in the itch to be mobile. Indeed the symbol of crossing the river flows deeply in our faith history.
Sometimes, the symbol of the river means a roadblock. As it most surely meant to the people of Israel on the day appointed for them to cross the Jordan. It is one thing to put your feet in a gentle stream and another to step into roaring flood waters. Which, according to verse 15, is what the Jordan was like the day the people crossed over it.
Not only was the river in flood - but - according to verse 4 of today's passage, the people are not familiar with the place where they are about to cross the river - they have not been there before - they do not know what it will be like.
Joshua and the leaders of the people tell the people that they are to enter the promised land by following the priests (who carry the ark of the Covenant - the sign and symbol of God's presence with them - into the river) and that the river will part for them to make their passage through it possible.
I think it is very significant that one has to step into the roaring waters before they are parted, rather than waiting for them to first be parted. Very significant indeed. It was when the soles of the feet of those bearing the ark touch the water that the waters part. Not before.
In verse 15 through 17 we hear the conclusion of the matter:
"As soon as the feet of the priests touched the water, the river stopped flowing, and the water started piling up at the town of Adam near Zarethan. No water flowed toward the Dead sea, and the priests stood in the middle of the dry riverbed near Jericho while everyone else crossed over."
In the faith journey, there comes times when it looks like you are backed up against a barrier, a river at flood stage. The promised land is on the other side of the raging river.
As followers of Christ, as a people whom have been promised a new land, a new life, we are called to step out in faith - before the circumstances seem to be ready - that we may enter into that land - that we experience that life. We called to cross the river, to enter the turbulent and muddy flood waters so that we may receive the fullness of what God has promised to us and to those who follow us.
It can be a frightening proposition....
But we - like the people of Israel - have God with us. And as we step forth - carrying God with us - as we hold in our hearts the precious name of God - as we trust in God's living presence even though the circumstances do not appear to favour us - the waters will part.
What today's story tells us - with it's mention of how the priests led the way for the people into the river - is that God goes before us into the flood waters of life. God stands in the middle of the murderous waters, and God watches us pass safely to the other side.
The story is one of salvation. It affirms that God loves you and will not let anything stand in the way of his divine love and salvation for you.
The hymn "HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION" sings this faith in verse 3:
"When through the deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow; For I will be near thee, thy troubles to bless, And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress."
Fear not my brothers and sister-in-Christ - take the plunge - step out in faith -get your feet wet - and God will bring you safe to the other side of the Jordan, to the land and to the life that he has promised to all who follow him.
This is the message of the Gospel that we proclaim.
As Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica this message is not a human word, rather it is God's word - able to work in those who believe.
Trust in it. Trust in God - and step forward - and God will make straight your path and bring you into the promised land. Blessed be the name of God - now and forever. Amen
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Ruth 2:1-13; 4:13-22; Ezra 9:10-10:5, 10:15; and Matthew 22:34-46
Let us pray – Creator and maker of us all – bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts – grow thou in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth. Amen.
Can love be wrong?
In my humble opinion, the Book of Ruth is one of the most beautiful books in the Bible. To me it is a beautiful story; it is a story that contains in it so many different elements. It is a story about life and death, famine and feast, love and loss, and love regained.
I would encourage you to read the story for yourself sometime this week. It is a very good story, it is a good story, if you got a good translation, will give you and your family entertainment, and to top it up, it is just as good, if not better, than a good television show.
In my sermon of today, which incidentally, is a story sermon, I would like us all to look at the love between Ruth and Boaz and what it might mean to our faith – in other words, what it might mean to how we are going to love our neighbours and our God.
I want to start off by telling you the story of Jonathan, that mysterious person whom we have been hearing about in today’s Old Testament from the Book of Ezra.
To give you a bit of background to the story, I will like to remind you that what happened in the Book of Ezra actually took place over five hundred years after what happened in the book of Ruth.
Even before Jonathan got to the corner of the Old Inn he could already hear someone praying in the square right in front of the house of God.
He knew immediately that something special was happening. Within the city of Jerusalem there was an unusual quite (imagine Causeway Bay being quite during a business day), and apart from the quietness, he noticed that for the last hour he had seem groups of people drifting towards the direction of the temple.
What finally aroused Jonathan’s curiosity and caused him to put down his tools and headed towards the temple was due to the unusual quietness and the movement of the people.
However, he could hardly see anything when he finally got to the temple square as there was already a huge crowd gathered there. All he could see was people everywhere.
Jonathan was very persistent, and after a couple of minutes, having moving first this way, and then that, he finally came to a place where he could see between the adults who were in front of him and over the heads of the children who were also present. And when he finally could see, he saw Ezra, the priest, on his knees before the temple in the middle of an intense prayer.
Ezra had torn his clothes and his tunic. He was also weeping and rocking back and forth. He was rocking back and forth, as he prayed to the Lord God of Israel, and in his voice, a voice which carried clear and loud over the square, Jonathan heard in the voice of Ezra the sound of grief.
Jonathan listened with all the people in the square to the prayer, and heard Ezra confesses to the Lord that his people had sinned, he heard Ezra expressed his fear that God’s people would sin once again, and that they would once again break the commandments of God and become unfaithful to Him. Ezra expressed his fear that the people would once again make treaties with corrupt nations and marry people from countries that scorned and despised both the laws of God and His chosen people. Jonathan as well as all present at the square witnessed Ezra weeping. He heard the anguish in Ezra’s voice, as he prayed that the people of Israel will not be acting the same way that they had been acting in the past. He prayed that they will not again run the risk of total destruction by loving those whom they should not love, and as a result binding themselves to foreigners, to people who worshipped other gods.
Jonathan felt deeply moved upon seeing and hearing the prayers of Ezra.
He too grieved for the glory that Israel once had and now lost. He too mourned for the Israel’s loss of innocence, for the time when David was King, and not only the true faith, but the entire nation was strong.
Jonathan knew, as did all the people present at the square that day, that some kinds of love are simply wrong.
He knew, from the history of Israel that some kinds of love were very dangerous to the nation and to the true faith, and Jonathan felt greatly tempted to join in his voice to those of all the other people who began to weep bitterly with Ezra over the sins and plight of Israel.
He was also tempted to take the vow that they were taking, after Ezra had finished praying. The vow that Shecaniah proposed while everyone was weeping:
- the vow to divorce those whom they should have never married;
- the vow to divorce them and send them as well as their children to the lands to which they originally came from, back to the lands of corruption from which they first came.
As the people around him wept and lifted up their voices in agreement with Shecaniah, Jonathan was tempted to join in with them, but something inside him would not allow him to do so.
Something held Jonathan back from joining the people that day. He was not certain what it was that held him back from that day, but as he walked away from the square with the other people. With a heavy heart he thought about it, and what he was going to do when the people were going to be gathered again in three days time to take action on Erza’s words and to fulfill the vow that had been made.
Jonathan thought about how from the very beginning the people of God had been warned about intermarriage.
Moses had told Israel that it would surely lead to idolatry, and that foreign women would corrupt the faith of their husband, and teach their children to love and worship other gods, until finally the day would come when the nation would perish, because it no longer worshipped the Lord God of Israel.
As Jonathan continued on working in his shop during the next two days, he kept on recalling how Ezra had claimed that the destruction of Israel and of Jerusalem and of the temple happened because the people of Israel had ignored Moses’ warning and their God.
He kept on remembering how Ezra had explained to the people that the current poverty and weakness of Israel was due partly to the same problem, that the people were suffering because they were once again contaminating the nation by marrying foreign women; and that they had weakened themselves by loving the wrong people.
The more he thought about it, Ezra’s words seem to made sense to Jonathan. He was not sure as to hwy he had held back from taking the vow. After all, he did not have a foreign wife, and he nothing to lose personally by going alone with what to all appearances seem to made sense.
Different traditions often do not mix well.
Different faiths more often than not conflicted with each other, and in such a conflict, both faiths normally perish, for a faith that is changed is a faith that is lost.
There were other people besides Moses and Ezra who said that if one truly loved God with all of one’s heart and soul and mind and strength then they would not risk their faith by marrying foreigners, or by loving a person from a different culture and belief.
That kind of love could not help but be dangerous; it could not help but being wrong, and it could very much be like inviting a wolf to come and live inside a sheep pen, no matter how kind the wolf seems to be, and how loving the sheep are, nature would end up having her way.
Jonathan kept on thinking about these things, and he felt confused and disturbed by his reluctance to take the vow – a reluctance he continued to feel despite all the arguments that he had thought of regarding the taking of the vow. It was in this kind of a state of confusion raging in his mind when he went up to the temple square on the third day with all the men of Judah and Benjamin.
His state of mind was exactly the same as the weather of the day – as it was a miserable rainy day. He sat in the square with several thousand other men, trying in vain to stay warm and dry as Ezra mounted the temple steps to talk to them.
Jonathan suddenly felt a measure of desperation when Ezra began to speak.
He still did not know what she should do when Ezra called out for all the men of Israel to renounce their foreign wives. He did not know that if he could agree to the action that would be legislated that very day.
But then, just as Ezra spoke he suddenly what was bothering him.
As Ezra once again proclaimed to the people that the men of Israel had been unfaithful to God because they had married foreign wives, he suddenly understands what had been bothering him all this time. He realized why he had not taken the vow proposed by Shecaniah, son of Jehiel.
It was all because of Ruth.
He remembers that his mother had often told him the story of Ruth and Boaz, about how Ruth had followed Naomi from Moab to Bethlehem, after the death of her first husband. He remembers hearing of how she had worked in the fields gleaning the wheat left behind by the reapers so she could care for herself and for her mother-in-law, until one day Boaz had noticed her and shown her his favor by instructing the harvesters to leave some sheaves for her.
Jonathan remembers how his mother had always loved the story of Ruth, she delighted in telling of the cleverness of Naomi in arranging things so that Ruth would meet up with Boaz again, and how Boaz had won Ruth from the relative who should have married her as according to the law of Moses by getting him to renounce his claim in public.
Jonathan’s mother had dearly loved the story of Ruth and now he realized that it was the story or Ruth that had prevented him from taking the vow of Shecaniah.
Jonathan knew that some kind of love are dangerous, but he also knew as well that all kinds of love can be used by God, it can be used by God, and it can be blessed, even if it may seem to be wrong to have that love.
Jonathan realized that the reason for his hesitation in the square three days ago was because he had known somewhere in his inner being that although it can be a dangerous to love a sinner, however, that love does not necessary end in disaster.
Jonathan remembered what Ezra and Shecaniah seems to have forgotten.
He remembered that Ruth was a Moabitess, she was a foreigner, she came from a tribe who were famous for corruption and idolatry.
Despite Ruth’s switch of faith; despite her proven loyalty to Naomi, Ruth was a like an Irish Protestant marrying a Roman Catholic; Ruth was like a black person marrying a white person in the United States way back in the 1930’s; Ruth was like a prostitute marrying a church elder.
Ruth was the leopard that according what Ezra said about foreigners, could not change its spots; she was the one who led to the destruction of the first temple and the defeat of the nation.
According to Ezra, she was the one, who even now, was destroying the people of Israel.
Jonathan, as he sat huddled down in the square, with the rain pouring down on him, suddenly felt a thrill ran through his body as he remembered how the story of Ruth and Boaz ended, and he thought about what would have happened if Boaz hade to take the vow of Shecaniah.
You see, after Ruth and Boaz got married, she became the mother of Obed, and Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David, who became the king of Israel, the very king out of whom was to come the Messiah, the very king who had made Israel a great nation and the God of Israel famous throughout the known world.
If Boaz had not loved Ruth, who was a foreign woman, and it was supposedly wrong to love, then all the right things would never have happened. There would have been no king David, no king Salomon, no temple, no glory, no kingdom, no power, no might…nothing!
As so as Jonathan sat in the rain and watched Ezra and the people of Jerusalem weep again for all their sins, and decide to send away all the foreign women that they had married. He praised god for the love that they called wrong, for the love that had given to Israel its greatest king and which would soon give to the whole world the Messiah that the world desperately needed.
He praised God, and he, along with three other men present in the square that day, refused to agree with what Ezra proposed. He refused to be in agreement that the love of Ruth and Boaz had been wrong.
May His Name be Blessed day by day. Amen!
Can love be wrong?
In my humble opinion, the Book of Ruth is one of the most beautiful books in the Bible. To me it is a beautiful story; it is a story that contains in it so many different elements. It is a story about life and death, famine and feast, love and loss, and love regained.
I would encourage you to read the story for yourself sometime this week. It is a very good story, it is a good story, if you got a good translation, will give you and your family entertainment, and to top it up, it is just as good, if not better, than a good television show.
In my sermon of today, which incidentally, is a story sermon, I would like us all to look at the love between Ruth and Boaz and what it might mean to our faith – in other words, what it might mean to how we are going to love our neighbours and our God.
I want to start off by telling you the story of Jonathan, that mysterious person whom we have been hearing about in today’s Old Testament from the Book of Ezra.
To give you a bit of background to the story, I will like to remind you that what happened in the Book of Ezra actually took place over five hundred years after what happened in the book of Ruth.
Even before Jonathan got to the corner of the Old Inn he could already hear someone praying in the square right in front of the house of God.
He knew immediately that something special was happening. Within the city of Jerusalem there was an unusual quite (imagine Causeway Bay being quite during a business day), and apart from the quietness, he noticed that for the last hour he had seem groups of people drifting towards the direction of the temple.
What finally aroused Jonathan’s curiosity and caused him to put down his tools and headed towards the temple was due to the unusual quietness and the movement of the people.
However, he could hardly see anything when he finally got to the temple square as there was already a huge crowd gathered there. All he could see was people everywhere.
Jonathan was very persistent, and after a couple of minutes, having moving first this way, and then that, he finally came to a place where he could see between the adults who were in front of him and over the heads of the children who were also present. And when he finally could see, he saw Ezra, the priest, on his knees before the temple in the middle of an intense prayer.
Ezra had torn his clothes and his tunic. He was also weeping and rocking back and forth. He was rocking back and forth, as he prayed to the Lord God of Israel, and in his voice, a voice which carried clear and loud over the square, Jonathan heard in the voice of Ezra the sound of grief.
Jonathan listened with all the people in the square to the prayer, and heard Ezra confesses to the Lord that his people had sinned, he heard Ezra expressed his fear that God’s people would sin once again, and that they would once again break the commandments of God and become unfaithful to Him. Ezra expressed his fear that the people would once again make treaties with corrupt nations and marry people from countries that scorned and despised both the laws of God and His chosen people. Jonathan as well as all present at the square witnessed Ezra weeping. He heard the anguish in Ezra’s voice, as he prayed that the people of Israel will not be acting the same way that they had been acting in the past. He prayed that they will not again run the risk of total destruction by loving those whom they should not love, and as a result binding themselves to foreigners, to people who worshipped other gods.
Jonathan felt deeply moved upon seeing and hearing the prayers of Ezra.
He too grieved for the glory that Israel once had and now lost. He too mourned for the Israel’s loss of innocence, for the time when David was King, and not only the true faith, but the entire nation was strong.
Jonathan knew, as did all the people present at the square that day, that some kinds of love are simply wrong.
He knew, from the history of Israel that some kinds of love were very dangerous to the nation and to the true faith, and Jonathan felt greatly tempted to join in his voice to those of all the other people who began to weep bitterly with Ezra over the sins and plight of Israel.
He was also tempted to take the vow that they were taking, after Ezra had finished praying. The vow that Shecaniah proposed while everyone was weeping:
- the vow to divorce those whom they should have never married;
- the vow to divorce them and send them as well as their children to the lands to which they originally came from, back to the lands of corruption from which they first came.
As the people around him wept and lifted up their voices in agreement with Shecaniah, Jonathan was tempted to join in with them, but something inside him would not allow him to do so.
Something held Jonathan back from joining the people that day. He was not certain what it was that held him back from that day, but as he walked away from the square with the other people. With a heavy heart he thought about it, and what he was going to do when the people were going to be gathered again in three days time to take action on Erza’s words and to fulfill the vow that had been made.
Jonathan thought about how from the very beginning the people of God had been warned about intermarriage.
Moses had told Israel that it would surely lead to idolatry, and that foreign women would corrupt the faith of their husband, and teach their children to love and worship other gods, until finally the day would come when the nation would perish, because it no longer worshipped the Lord God of Israel.
As Jonathan continued on working in his shop during the next two days, he kept on recalling how Ezra had claimed that the destruction of Israel and of Jerusalem and of the temple happened because the people of Israel had ignored Moses’ warning and their God.
He kept on remembering how Ezra had explained to the people that the current poverty and weakness of Israel was due partly to the same problem, that the people were suffering because they were once again contaminating the nation by marrying foreign women; and that they had weakened themselves by loving the wrong people.
The more he thought about it, Ezra’s words seem to made sense to Jonathan. He was not sure as to hwy he had held back from taking the vow. After all, he did not have a foreign wife, and he nothing to lose personally by going alone with what to all appearances seem to made sense.
Different traditions often do not mix well.
Different faiths more often than not conflicted with each other, and in such a conflict, both faiths normally perish, for a faith that is changed is a faith that is lost.
There were other people besides Moses and Ezra who said that if one truly loved God with all of one’s heart and soul and mind and strength then they would not risk their faith by marrying foreigners, or by loving a person from a different culture and belief.
That kind of love could not help but be dangerous; it could not help but being wrong, and it could very much be like inviting a wolf to come and live inside a sheep pen, no matter how kind the wolf seems to be, and how loving the sheep are, nature would end up having her way.
Jonathan kept on thinking about these things, and he felt confused and disturbed by his reluctance to take the vow – a reluctance he continued to feel despite all the arguments that he had thought of regarding the taking of the vow. It was in this kind of a state of confusion raging in his mind when he went up to the temple square on the third day with all the men of Judah and Benjamin.
His state of mind was exactly the same as the weather of the day – as it was a miserable rainy day. He sat in the square with several thousand other men, trying in vain to stay warm and dry as Ezra mounted the temple steps to talk to them.
Jonathan suddenly felt a measure of desperation when Ezra began to speak.
He still did not know what she should do when Ezra called out for all the men of Israel to renounce their foreign wives. He did not know that if he could agree to the action that would be legislated that very day.
But then, just as Ezra spoke he suddenly what was bothering him.
As Ezra once again proclaimed to the people that the men of Israel had been unfaithful to God because they had married foreign wives, he suddenly understands what had been bothering him all this time. He realized why he had not taken the vow proposed by Shecaniah, son of Jehiel.
It was all because of Ruth.
He remembers that his mother had often told him the story of Ruth and Boaz, about how Ruth had followed Naomi from Moab to Bethlehem, after the death of her first husband. He remembers hearing of how she had worked in the fields gleaning the wheat left behind by the reapers so she could care for herself and for her mother-in-law, until one day Boaz had noticed her and shown her his favor by instructing the harvesters to leave some sheaves for her.
Jonathan remembers how his mother had always loved the story of Ruth, she delighted in telling of the cleverness of Naomi in arranging things so that Ruth would meet up with Boaz again, and how Boaz had won Ruth from the relative who should have married her as according to the law of Moses by getting him to renounce his claim in public.
Jonathan’s mother had dearly loved the story of Ruth and now he realized that it was the story or Ruth that had prevented him from taking the vow of Shecaniah.
Jonathan knew that some kind of love are dangerous, but he also knew as well that all kinds of love can be used by God, it can be used by God, and it can be blessed, even if it may seem to be wrong to have that love.
Jonathan realized that the reason for his hesitation in the square three days ago was because he had known somewhere in his inner being that although it can be a dangerous to love a sinner, however, that love does not necessary end in disaster.
Jonathan remembered what Ezra and Shecaniah seems to have forgotten.
He remembered that Ruth was a Moabitess, she was a foreigner, she came from a tribe who were famous for corruption and idolatry.
Despite Ruth’s switch of faith; despite her proven loyalty to Naomi, Ruth was a like an Irish Protestant marrying a Roman Catholic; Ruth was like a black person marrying a white person in the United States way back in the 1930’s; Ruth was like a prostitute marrying a church elder.
Ruth was the leopard that according what Ezra said about foreigners, could not change its spots; she was the one who led to the destruction of the first temple and the defeat of the nation.
According to Ezra, she was the one, who even now, was destroying the people of Israel.
Jonathan, as he sat huddled down in the square, with the rain pouring down on him, suddenly felt a thrill ran through his body as he remembered how the story of Ruth and Boaz ended, and he thought about what would have happened if Boaz hade to take the vow of Shecaniah.
You see, after Ruth and Boaz got married, she became the mother of Obed, and Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David, who became the king of Israel, the very king out of whom was to come the Messiah, the very king who had made Israel a great nation and the God of Israel famous throughout the known world.
If Boaz had not loved Ruth, who was a foreign woman, and it was supposedly wrong to love, then all the right things would never have happened. There would have been no king David, no king Salomon, no temple, no glory, no kingdom, no power, no might…nothing!
As so as Jonathan sat in the rain and watched Ezra and the people of Jerusalem weep again for all their sins, and decide to send away all the foreign women that they had married. He praised god for the love that they called wrong, for the love that had given to Israel its greatest king and which would soon give to the whole world the Messiah that the world desperately needed.
He praised God, and he, along with three other men present in the square that day, refused to agree with what Ezra proposed. He refused to be in agreement that the love of Ruth and Boaz had been wrong.
May His Name be Blessed day by day. Amen!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
I Thessalonians 1:1-10 and Matthew 22:15-22
O Lord, we pray, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
It is a sign of poverty to conceive of everything in terms of what you already know or think you know; a sign of destitution to evaluate everything and everybody according to categories that will admit nothing new because those categories are already fixed in the concrete of what you believe to be true.
The Pharisees were some of the best church people of their day, but some of them were very poor. Their understanding of the world and of God was boxed in and confined by what they had learned and what they expected to be true.
Because they were like this, as so many people are, when they looked at Jesus and listened to him they were alarmed by what they saw and heard.
Jesus taught many things about the Kingdom of God that they could agree with - things like God will judge evil doers and condemn them, while rewarding the righteous with good things, yet Jesus associated with people who were obvious doers of evil: prostitutes, tax collectors, adulterers and the like - and spoke of God's forgiveness of them and of God's desire to give them new life.
The Pharisees could not understand that.
They were also uncertain about how to classify Jesus because He taught that obedience to God and his law was necessary - that in fact they needed to obey it from their hearts and souls, yet he healed people, and allowed his disciples to pick corn on the Sabbath day, and he touched and blessed those persons their faith told them should not be touched nor blessed.
Jesus disturbed many of the Pharisees and the religious authorities of his day. He upset the world they had created by their beliefs. And because what he said and did would not fit into their neat little boxes, those boxes which defined for them what was from God and what was not, they ended up rejecting Him.
2000 years ago a philosopher by the name of Epictetus said,
"Men are disturbed not by things that happen but by their opinion of the things that happen."
This is the problem of some of the Pharisees.
Their understanding of events tell us more about who they are than it does about who Jesus is.
One day, after having decided that Jesus was a danger to the true faith of Israel, the Pharisees, who were Jewish Nationalists, combined forces with the Herodians, who were a group that counselled collaboration with the Roman Government, to trap Jesus in his own words - so that either the people would reject him or the Roman authorities would arrest him.
They decide to ask Jesus if paying taxes to Caesar is lawful, knowing full well that if he said NO - then the Roman authorities would arrest him, and that if he says YES - then the common people would reject him.
Their question was exceptionally clever. It was the kind of question that gets a person no matter how they answer it, a question like the old chestnut that asks: "have you stopped beating your wife yet"?
The scriptures say that Jesus knew their evil intent and said to them;
You hypocrites - why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin that is used for paying the tax.
Hypocrisy is defined in dictionaries as claiming a virtue one does not have. It comes from the root word in the Greek - to play a part or to act on the stage.
The part, or role, that the Pharisees were playing was the role of being learners of God. They, with the Herodians, pretended to be in interested in what Jesus had to teach, but in reality they were more interested in finding him at fault than they were in learning from Him, they were more interested in protecting their own understanding of what God was like, and making sure that everybody else fell into line with their views, than they were in seeing if, in fact God was doing a new thing through this prophet.
Jesus, by calling them hypocrites, suggests that they are not really people who want to know God and understand his law. That they would rather live out what they already think they know about the living God and God's will and purpose - than to actually encounter that God and do what that God wants them to do in the here and now - in the reality of what is happening around them - in the place where God is - in the time when God can be found.
Are we a people who believe in a living God and a living word?
Do we have a relationship with God - a relationship with the Christ - that is current, that is up to date?
Or are we a people who believe certain things about God - and try to impose those beliefs on others - without thinking about how God might be doing something new - how God might even now be in our midst healing and helping, teaching and commanding, warning and leading, much as he did in the past as he did through those whose teachings we quite rightly value so highly.
Are we willing to see God where we don't think God will go?
Are we able to hear God in the voices of those we think are misguided?
Are we able to know the presence of God even in those whom we know to be sinners?
There is a story in the Old Testament about how God spoke to a prophet through his donkey - well, that isn't the actual word that is used - but you understand - and that the prophet, though he was in the hire of the enemies of the people of Israel, was able to hear the word of God from this dumb animal and did what that word asked of him.
Do we shut out the voices of the donkeys around us because - as everybody knows - donkeys can't speak, and thus miss the message that God wants us to hear - the message we need to hear?
One the major problems that we have in this life is that we tend to value comfort over truth, that we prefer the world to work according to the formula that our experience has provided us, rather than to have to adjust our expectations and our ways of doing things according to what is happening.
We tend to live out our expectations and impose them upon others so that the things will work as they we think they should work - rather than allowing the world - allowing God - to shape us and to work for us.
What tremendous gifts we miss out on because of this side of our human nature.
Jesus once said to the religious teachers who gathered around him and who were criticizing him for breaking the law of God as they understood it by healing on the Sabbath Day - and by daring to say that God was his Father.
"You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. And it is the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life"
As it was then - so it is now.
Our knowledge of God - our understanding of the scriptures - our traditions - our formuli for what makes for life all has great value to it - but the risk is that we will not look up from what we already know to actually see God working around us - the risk is that we will immerse ourselves so deeply in those things that are meant to help us encounter God - that we will miss God even when he walks up to us and calls us by name and seeks to gift us with his presence.
We sing here each week before the scriptures are read a verse from the hymn "Open My Eyes That I May See".
We ask God to open our ears that we may hear voices of truth that he sendest clear.
We ask God to illumine us - to show us His will - to set us free. Free from our preconceptions. Free from our judgements. Free to see what is really real - and to live by it - and adapt to it - and to share it rather to simply hear and see and do the same old thng.
Our traditions - our teachings - our understandings - they have great value, like a road map has great value. They help to guide us - they tell us where we are.
But they should not be allowed blind us to the beauty of countryside around us; or to the actual conditions of the roads upon which we are called to travel - or to who is travelling with us.
They should not become a substitute for the actual experience of loving God and entering into a relationship with the living Christ and loving one another as he loves us.
Jesus responded to the question put to him by the Pharisees and the Herodians by giving them an answer that was not an answer that could be turned into a formula - though many have tried ever since.
Just as the words "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and unto God what is God's" did not allow the Herodians and the Pharisees to rouse the crowd or the Romans against Jesus - so those words do not tell us exactly what we should do when the demands of the country we are living in seem to contradict the demands of our God.
What they do tell us is that we need to struggle with and pray about every situation in which our civic duties seem to be leading us into activities where our duty to our brothers and sisters is imperiled.
Each person here is made in the image of God. Each one of you "belongs to God".
And God - if you allow it - belongs to you.
Not as a fixed possession that you can box up and use as you see fit when you see fit, but as a partner - a friend - a lover - a companion - who fits you perfectly - one who challenges you to change your ways when you are going astray and who loves you and seeks you out when you have wandered away - one who encourages you when you are down and lifts you up when you fall, - one who works with you - not against you - even when they are rightly angry with you - one who forgives you before you even ask - and who expects and hopes and prays that you will love them in return.
God is here in our world.
God is here in our church.
Christ is in our midst.
In our hearts - if we allow him and in the person next to you - if you will see him.
May you see God where God is to be found and give Him what is due to him.
Blessed be the Lord our God, and Christ Jesus His Only Begotten, And the Spirit that works to make us one. Amen.
It is a sign of poverty to conceive of everything in terms of what you already know or think you know; a sign of destitution to evaluate everything and everybody according to categories that will admit nothing new because those categories are already fixed in the concrete of what you believe to be true.
The Pharisees were some of the best church people of their day, but some of them were very poor. Their understanding of the world and of God was boxed in and confined by what they had learned and what they expected to be true.
Because they were like this, as so many people are, when they looked at Jesus and listened to him they were alarmed by what they saw and heard.
Jesus taught many things about the Kingdom of God that they could agree with - things like God will judge evil doers and condemn them, while rewarding the righteous with good things, yet Jesus associated with people who were obvious doers of evil: prostitutes, tax collectors, adulterers and the like - and spoke of God's forgiveness of them and of God's desire to give them new life.
The Pharisees could not understand that.
They were also uncertain about how to classify Jesus because He taught that obedience to God and his law was necessary - that in fact they needed to obey it from their hearts and souls, yet he healed people, and allowed his disciples to pick corn on the Sabbath day, and he touched and blessed those persons their faith told them should not be touched nor blessed.
Jesus disturbed many of the Pharisees and the religious authorities of his day. He upset the world they had created by their beliefs. And because what he said and did would not fit into their neat little boxes, those boxes which defined for them what was from God and what was not, they ended up rejecting Him.
2000 years ago a philosopher by the name of Epictetus said,
"Men are disturbed not by things that happen but by their opinion of the things that happen."
This is the problem of some of the Pharisees.
Their understanding of events tell us more about who they are than it does about who Jesus is.
One day, after having decided that Jesus was a danger to the true faith of Israel, the Pharisees, who were Jewish Nationalists, combined forces with the Herodians, who were a group that counselled collaboration with the Roman Government, to trap Jesus in his own words - so that either the people would reject him or the Roman authorities would arrest him.
They decide to ask Jesus if paying taxes to Caesar is lawful, knowing full well that if he said NO - then the Roman authorities would arrest him, and that if he says YES - then the common people would reject him.
Their question was exceptionally clever. It was the kind of question that gets a person no matter how they answer it, a question like the old chestnut that asks: "have you stopped beating your wife yet"?
The scriptures say that Jesus knew their evil intent and said to them;
You hypocrites - why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin that is used for paying the tax.
Hypocrisy is defined in dictionaries as claiming a virtue one does not have. It comes from the root word in the Greek - to play a part or to act on the stage.
The part, or role, that the Pharisees were playing was the role of being learners of God. They, with the Herodians, pretended to be in interested in what Jesus had to teach, but in reality they were more interested in finding him at fault than they were in learning from Him, they were more interested in protecting their own understanding of what God was like, and making sure that everybody else fell into line with their views, than they were in seeing if, in fact God was doing a new thing through this prophet.
Jesus, by calling them hypocrites, suggests that they are not really people who want to know God and understand his law. That they would rather live out what they already think they know about the living God and God's will and purpose - than to actually encounter that God and do what that God wants them to do in the here and now - in the reality of what is happening around them - in the place where God is - in the time when God can be found.
Are we a people who believe in a living God and a living word?
Do we have a relationship with God - a relationship with the Christ - that is current, that is up to date?
Or are we a people who believe certain things about God - and try to impose those beliefs on others - without thinking about how God might be doing something new - how God might even now be in our midst healing and helping, teaching and commanding, warning and leading, much as he did in the past as he did through those whose teachings we quite rightly value so highly.
Are we willing to see God where we don't think God will go?
Are we able to hear God in the voices of those we think are misguided?
Are we able to know the presence of God even in those whom we know to be sinners?
There is a story in the Old Testament about how God spoke to a prophet through his donkey - well, that isn't the actual word that is used - but you understand - and that the prophet, though he was in the hire of the enemies of the people of Israel, was able to hear the word of God from this dumb animal and did what that word asked of him.
Do we shut out the voices of the donkeys around us because - as everybody knows - donkeys can't speak, and thus miss the message that God wants us to hear - the message we need to hear?
One the major problems that we have in this life is that we tend to value comfort over truth, that we prefer the world to work according to the formula that our experience has provided us, rather than to have to adjust our expectations and our ways of doing things according to what is happening.
We tend to live out our expectations and impose them upon others so that the things will work as they we think they should work - rather than allowing the world - allowing God - to shape us and to work for us.
What tremendous gifts we miss out on because of this side of our human nature.
Jesus once said to the religious teachers who gathered around him and who were criticizing him for breaking the law of God as they understood it by healing on the Sabbath Day - and by daring to say that God was his Father.
"You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. And it is the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life"
As it was then - so it is now.
Our knowledge of God - our understanding of the scriptures - our traditions - our formuli for what makes for life all has great value to it - but the risk is that we will not look up from what we already know to actually see God working around us - the risk is that we will immerse ourselves so deeply in those things that are meant to help us encounter God - that we will miss God even when he walks up to us and calls us by name and seeks to gift us with his presence.
We sing here each week before the scriptures are read a verse from the hymn "Open My Eyes That I May See".
We ask God to open our ears that we may hear voices of truth that he sendest clear.
We ask God to illumine us - to show us His will - to set us free. Free from our preconceptions. Free from our judgements. Free to see what is really real - and to live by it - and adapt to it - and to share it rather to simply hear and see and do the same old thng.
Our traditions - our teachings - our understandings - they have great value, like a road map has great value. They help to guide us - they tell us where we are.
But they should not be allowed blind us to the beauty of countryside around us; or to the actual conditions of the roads upon which we are called to travel - or to who is travelling with us.
They should not become a substitute for the actual experience of loving God and entering into a relationship with the living Christ and loving one another as he loves us.
Jesus responded to the question put to him by the Pharisees and the Herodians by giving them an answer that was not an answer that could be turned into a formula - though many have tried ever since.
Just as the words "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and unto God what is God's" did not allow the Herodians and the Pharisees to rouse the crowd or the Romans against Jesus - so those words do not tell us exactly what we should do when the demands of the country we are living in seem to contradict the demands of our God.
What they do tell us is that we need to struggle with and pray about every situation in which our civic duties seem to be leading us into activities where our duty to our brothers and sisters is imperiled.
Each person here is made in the image of God. Each one of you "belongs to God".
And God - if you allow it - belongs to you.
Not as a fixed possession that you can box up and use as you see fit when you see fit, but as a partner - a friend - a lover - a companion - who fits you perfectly - one who challenges you to change your ways when you are going astray and who loves you and seeks you out when you have wandered away - one who encourages you when you are down and lifts you up when you fall, - one who works with you - not against you - even when they are rightly angry with you - one who forgives you before you even ask - and who expects and hopes and prays that you will love them in return.
God is here in our world.
God is here in our church.
Christ is in our midst.
In our hearts - if we allow him and in the person next to you - if you will see him.
May you see God where God is to be found and give Him what is due to him.
Blessed be the Lord our God, and Christ Jesus His Only Begotten, And the Spirit that works to make us one. Amen.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Exodus 20:1-20; Psalm 19; Philippians 3:4(b)-14
O Lord, we pray, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
Today we celebrate, with our brothers and sisters around the world the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
In some places it will be called "The Eucharist" - in others it will be called "Communion" - in others it will be called "The Love Feast", in still others it will be called, "The Table of the Lord" or "The Lord's Supper" - and as varied as the titles are for what we do today - so will be the means by which our brothers and sisters come to the table - and the kinds of bread and wine offered - and the understanding that people and their pastors, priests, ministers, will have of what they are doing.
Some will come forward to receive as we will do today and receive unleavened bread in the form of a wafer into the palms of their hands. They may or may not then sip from the cup - which may be wine - or unfermented grape juice - or even some other beverage in those places where grapes are unknown.
Others will tear a piece of bread from a broken loaf - and then dip it into the common cup.
Still others, like we often do, will be seated in their pews and will have individual cups and unleavened bread passed from person to person.
Still others may do these things as a part of a full meal - seated at a table in a sanctuary of God's presence - or in a church hall - or a home - or a school building - or simply sitting in a circle in a hut or in a clearing in the midst of a jungle or forest or in the middle of a place of sand and rock.
Some today will regard the bread and the wine - after the word's of consecration are prayed - as being fully and actually the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour. Others will regard the entire sacrament as an important "memorial" - and see Jesus as being being spiritually present in special manner - but deny his physical presence in the elements.
Indeed, there will be differences, some of them quite profound, in how our brothers and sisters around the world view the sacrament. Some will think that their way of doing what they are doing is the only proper way to do it. Some traditions will welcome only those persons who have made a public profession of their faith to the table, while others will welcome very young children, even babies to the table. Some will insist that each person must belong to the denomination and the community where the sacrament is being observed - others will have an table open to "all those who love the Lord and desire to walk in his path".
There will be a tremendous variety of practices and understandings this day as we celebrate the Lord's Supper - but one thing will stand out above all the differences of opinion and practice, and that is that all of us will consider what we are doing as important, so important that we might even risk argument with one another about it's meaning.
So what do we make of that?
What is our communion with one another when we have such a wide variety of practices and understandings? What is our communion with one another - and with God? Another way of putting this is to ask - Where, given our differences, is our "Commune - ity"
Some years I read a book by Tex Sample, a Professor of Church and Society. It is a wonderful book about doing "Ministry in An Oral Culture". In a section of the book titled "Tradition and Social Change" he cites an observation made by a colleague, that goes like this.
'What is common in community is not shared values or common understanding so much as the fact that members of a community are engaged in the same argument... in which alternative strategies, misunderstandings, conflicting goals and values are thrashed out."
Think about that for a minute.
What helps to define us as a community - both the community that we have here in this church, and the community that we share with our fellow believers around the world - is the fact that we are all engaged in the same argument - that we all view ourselves as followers of the Christ and engaged in working out the best way, the right way, for some the only way, to order our lives as his people in response to his calling.
Part of what makes us a World Wide Communion - is not that we agree with one another in everything - but that we believe that the discussion we have are of importance.
The Apostle Paul, in discussing the differences of opinion in the Church in Rome over the Holy Days that they should celebrate and whether or not, people should eat or not meats that had been purchased in the market place - which generally came from the animal sacrifices that were offered at various pagan temples, writes :
One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
The important thing that Paul is telling us in this passage, is that - "each of us should be fully convinced in our own minds" as to what is important - and do all that we do - or don't do - with thanks to God and in the realization that Christ is Lord of all who serve him - both the living and the dead.
There is nothing wrong with our differences of opinion as to what is right and what is wrong, what is good - and what is not good, what is true and what is not true.
Our common argument in fact helps to define us as a communion - as the people of God, as brothers and sisters of one another.
Think of your own families for a minute - families of flesh and blood and how they function.
Is there perfect agreement among you?
Are there not members who believe, sometimes quite passionately, that the family should do this or that thing while others in the family hold forth for something else - something entirely different?
And yet - while there are these kinds of disputes - if we are yet a family - do we not sit down together at meal time - and eat as one that which has been prepared for us - some taking more from a particular dish as their tastes and their inclinations lead them - others more from another?
Do we not, if we have any sense at all of being a family, gather on special occasions and join together at the table that has been set and give thanks to God for providing us the opportunity to be together and providing the food that we eat - even if our diets are different?
Do we not seek to bless one another and pray that they may live long and prosper - that they may do God's will and know God's mercy and help each day - without demanding that they do exactly what we do or think exactly the way we think?
The church around the world today is a family. We are the family of God - a family formed by our common desire to follow Christ Jesus, who is both our brother and our Lord.
We are the people of God, called together and given life, through Christ Jesus our Lord.
We are ones who trust in Jesus - and, with Paul and all the apostles and the saints strive to follow him faithfully and to keep the special law he gave us - the commandment that we love one another as he has loved us.
How do we commune today? Where is our community with God and one another?
It is in all the things we share that are of God and are fully agreed about - and in the those things that we share that are of God that we differ in.
It is in Christ Jesus - whom we seek to follow in varied scheme and practice - and in God our Father - who sent Jesus to open the way to life for all people and to make us one family.
Our communion is a mystic communion - one not limited by time or space - but rather realized where-ever men and women and children have sought, and are seeking, and will yet seek to do God's will.
It is a mystic communion that comes to us a gift from God, the God who wills that we love him with our whole heart, mind, strength and soul, and that we love one another as we love ourselves and who is able us to do that when we turn to him and trust in him and strive to do what he asks.
It is communion that is realized - one that is known deep inside us - when in humility and with gentleness and patience, we bear with one another in love and accept God's gifts with grateful and humble prayer.
God is with us, Christ is with us - and with all our brothers and sisters who call on his name today.
I can see them now - all around the world - eating and drinking what God has provided and each praying, as we have prayed, that God's will be done here on earth as it is in heaven; - that it be done here in our midst as his people - and here within our individual lives as his unique and precious children.
Praise be Our God - to Christ Jesus his Son - who has called us here today and invites us to commune with him and with one another in love. Amen
Today we celebrate, with our brothers and sisters around the world the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
In some places it will be called "The Eucharist" - in others it will be called "Communion" - in others it will be called "The Love Feast", in still others it will be called, "The Table of the Lord" or "The Lord's Supper" - and as varied as the titles are for what we do today - so will be the means by which our brothers and sisters come to the table - and the kinds of bread and wine offered - and the understanding that people and their pastors, priests, ministers, will have of what they are doing.
Some will come forward to receive as we will do today and receive unleavened bread in the form of a wafer into the palms of their hands. They may or may not then sip from the cup - which may be wine - or unfermented grape juice - or even some other beverage in those places where grapes are unknown.
Others will tear a piece of bread from a broken loaf - and then dip it into the common cup.
Still others, like we often do, will be seated in their pews and will have individual cups and unleavened bread passed from person to person.
Still others may do these things as a part of a full meal - seated at a table in a sanctuary of God's presence - or in a church hall - or a home - or a school building - or simply sitting in a circle in a hut or in a clearing in the midst of a jungle or forest or in the middle of a place of sand and rock.
Some today will regard the bread and the wine - after the word's of consecration are prayed - as being fully and actually the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour. Others will regard the entire sacrament as an important "memorial" - and see Jesus as being being spiritually present in special manner - but deny his physical presence in the elements.
Indeed, there will be differences, some of them quite profound, in how our brothers and sisters around the world view the sacrament. Some will think that their way of doing what they are doing is the only proper way to do it. Some traditions will welcome only those persons who have made a public profession of their faith to the table, while others will welcome very young children, even babies to the table. Some will insist that each person must belong to the denomination and the community where the sacrament is being observed - others will have an table open to "all those who love the Lord and desire to walk in his path".
There will be a tremendous variety of practices and understandings this day as we celebrate the Lord's Supper - but one thing will stand out above all the differences of opinion and practice, and that is that all of us will consider what we are doing as important, so important that we might even risk argument with one another about it's meaning.
So what do we make of that?
What is our communion with one another when we have such a wide variety of practices and understandings? What is our communion with one another - and with God? Another way of putting this is to ask - Where, given our differences, is our "Commune - ity"
Some years I read a book by Tex Sample, a Professor of Church and Society. It is a wonderful book about doing "Ministry in An Oral Culture". In a section of the book titled "Tradition and Social Change" he cites an observation made by a colleague, that goes like this.
'What is common in community is not shared values or common understanding so much as the fact that members of a community are engaged in the same argument... in which alternative strategies, misunderstandings, conflicting goals and values are thrashed out."
Think about that for a minute.
What helps to define us as a community - both the community that we have here in this church, and the community that we share with our fellow believers around the world - is the fact that we are all engaged in the same argument - that we all view ourselves as followers of the Christ and engaged in working out the best way, the right way, for some the only way, to order our lives as his people in response to his calling.
Part of what makes us a World Wide Communion - is not that we agree with one another in everything - but that we believe that the discussion we have are of importance.
The Apostle Paul, in discussing the differences of opinion in the Church in Rome over the Holy Days that they should celebrate and whether or not, people should eat or not meats that had been purchased in the market place - which generally came from the animal sacrifices that were offered at various pagan temples, writes :
One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
The important thing that Paul is telling us in this passage, is that - "each of us should be fully convinced in our own minds" as to what is important - and do all that we do - or don't do - with thanks to God and in the realization that Christ is Lord of all who serve him - both the living and the dead.
There is nothing wrong with our differences of opinion as to what is right and what is wrong, what is good - and what is not good, what is true and what is not true.
Our common argument in fact helps to define us as a communion - as the people of God, as brothers and sisters of one another.
Think of your own families for a minute - families of flesh and blood and how they function.
Is there perfect agreement among you?
Are there not members who believe, sometimes quite passionately, that the family should do this or that thing while others in the family hold forth for something else - something entirely different?
And yet - while there are these kinds of disputes - if we are yet a family - do we not sit down together at meal time - and eat as one that which has been prepared for us - some taking more from a particular dish as their tastes and their inclinations lead them - others more from another?
Do we not, if we have any sense at all of being a family, gather on special occasions and join together at the table that has been set and give thanks to God for providing us the opportunity to be together and providing the food that we eat - even if our diets are different?
Do we not seek to bless one another and pray that they may live long and prosper - that they may do God's will and know God's mercy and help each day - without demanding that they do exactly what we do or think exactly the way we think?
The church around the world today is a family. We are the family of God - a family formed by our common desire to follow Christ Jesus, who is both our brother and our Lord.
We are the people of God, called together and given life, through Christ Jesus our Lord.
We are ones who trust in Jesus - and, with Paul and all the apostles and the saints strive to follow him faithfully and to keep the special law he gave us - the commandment that we love one another as he has loved us.
How do we commune today? Where is our community with God and one another?
It is in all the things we share that are of God and are fully agreed about - and in the those things that we share that are of God that we differ in.
It is in Christ Jesus - whom we seek to follow in varied scheme and practice - and in God our Father - who sent Jesus to open the way to life for all people and to make us one family.
Our communion is a mystic communion - one not limited by time or space - but rather realized where-ever men and women and children have sought, and are seeking, and will yet seek to do God's will.
It is a mystic communion that comes to us a gift from God, the God who wills that we love him with our whole heart, mind, strength and soul, and that we love one another as we love ourselves and who is able us to do that when we turn to him and trust in him and strive to do what he asks.
It is communion that is realized - one that is known deep inside us - when in humility and with gentleness and patience, we bear with one another in love and accept God's gifts with grateful and humble prayer.
God is with us, Christ is with us - and with all our brothers and sisters who call on his name today.
I can see them now - all around the world - eating and drinking what God has provided and each praying, as we have prayed, that God's will be done here on earth as it is in heaven; - that it be done here in our midst as his people - and here within our individual lives as his unique and precious children.
Praise be Our God - to Christ Jesus his Son - who has called us here today and invites us to commune with him and with one another in love. Amen
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