Back to Work

It's been a somewhat restful, somewhat productive week of holidays. This Sunday is the Regional Rural Worship service at Trinity United, at 11:15. A common theme from the lectionary readings (listed here) is the sense of time and urgency. This is particularly relevant given our current situation of visioning and imagining our next course of action.

Happy March Break

I'll be off for a week of holidays, spending March Break with the kids, doing little bits of this and that around the house, with a few day trips mixed in.

Rev. Birchall is covering any emergency pastoral needs and I'll be back to work, refreshed and ready for the approach to Easter next Monday.

(And it is a lucky coincidence that college basketball playoffs begin this week too).

In the meantime, be well,
Kenji

sermon excerpts: "Promises in Stone"

Ten Commandments, carved in stone, considered a testament to God’s covenant with the Israelite people as brokered by Moses. It is in this development of the covenant that we see that people are required to become more active and participatory in their relationship with God. ... This one, at Mount Sinai, is the more rigorous understanding of a contractual obligation. The people live by these rules and God follows through on the promise of attendant care, rewards and benefits. Should the people renege on this deal, God has the legal right to opt out of the relationship and leave them to their own devices and the scheming of their enemies.

Ten Commandments, carved in stone. But we know in our life, and in life thousands of years ago: nothing is carved in stone, nothing is black and white. We live in a world full of grays. ... We could investigate the loopholes and questions of each of these 10 commandments. And I’m not saying that I disagree with any of them, it just seems a little sneaky of God to force the people to live by these rules when they’re so open to interpretation and context. It’s like we’re being set up to fail, that there’s always going to be a way for someone to say that we’re not obeying these laws.

Ten Commandments, carved in stone. Which kind of laws are they? Ones that are changeable and depend on people’s agreement and participation? On one hand, yes. But they are universal and unchanging in the sense that we do not break faith with others, by taking their possessions, subverting their relationships and besmirching their reputations. No community can break these commandments and survive as a life-giving gathering of support and care.

Ten Commandments, carved in stone. Permanently revered in the Ark of the Covenant, treasured and fought for many times over. Not so much for the ambiguous instruction they contain, but what they represent. The permanence of God’s care for us, a commitment to journey with us, the expectation that we question and wonder and think of our own answers.
These commandments teach that we all participate in our faith, in the expression of permanent unchanging truth of God’s love for justice, equality and fair treatment of all.

* * *

We look at many of the instructions about the reality of one true god, Sabbath keeping and preserving the sacred secret nature of YHWH’s name and find that these laws are specific to the Jewish reality of escaped slaves trekking through the wilderness. What connection or use do these laws have for us in our present day and age?

The preservation of trust within a community – of prioritizing the importance of God, one god, worthy of worship and praise. We keep faith with one another, through honesty and trust. Theft, betrayal, slander, murder, jealousy, these things all undermine a community.

God was trying to preserve the community and identity for a people that were struggling. They didn’t have a geographic home, there was no stable economy, the leadership structure was just beginning to emerge, how were they going to survive 40 years in the wilderness?

Focusing on their relationship with the divine, keeping the bond of trust and reliance on one another. That’s what the commandments intended to do – keep the community together while they faced great hardship and uncertainty.

The same goes for us: economic instability, emerging leadership strategy, uncertainty about the years ahead or where we’re going … and still we have a wealth of strength and resources – we have each other.

for Mar. 15 - Exodus 20: 1-17

Then God spoke all these words:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

* * *

What feelings, questions, thoughts and prompts to personal action arise from this scripture?
What about hymn suggestions or ideas for Children's Time? Share them as Comments below or in an email, and help shape Sunday's worship service.

World Day of Prayer sermon (Romans 12: 4-21)

Having been asked to preach at the World Day of Prayer Service yesterday, here is a condensed version of what I shared, based on Romans 12, the theme being "In Christ, there are many members yet one body":

The source of the discord in the Roman church is the very truth that Paul is trying to uplift and celebrate: the body of Christ has many members. While we are all varied and unique, by virtue of our personalities, talents and upbringing, let alone our geography, economic and social status, we all started in one place and belong to one spirit.

The epistle tells us to let people do what they do best. Allow people to express their gifts, don’t limit them or redirect their energies into doing something that someone else thinks they should do. We look at what our neighbours are doing and think that we should be doing that too.

Especially churches. We compare ourselves to our ecumenical counterparts, counting how many attend Sunday services, noting how many youth and children are involved; we identify ourselves in relation and contrast to the other congregations nearby. The letter to the Romans is speaking across time and space to say that we should celebrate our differences; there is enough for everyone if we narrowed our focus a bit and concentrated on our natural talents.

But nobody wants to be the church that says, “We’re not good at music.” Or, “We don’t know what to do with children.” Or “Our worship services are subpar.” So we continue to think that we have to be everything for everyone and we spread ourselves quite thin over many ministries.

I hope I’m not scandalizing too many of you when I refer to a slogan by a beer company. Steam Whistle Brewing in Toronto is a microbrewery that makes one kind of beer. In contrast to the many different flavours of Molson’s or Labatt’s products, there is only one Steam Whistle product. Their slogan is “Do one thing really really well.” Apparently, they know what they’re talking about because in the summer of 2006 they issued a request for people to return their empties because they were running low on bottles.

So even as faith communities might seek to differentiate themselves from their neighbouring congregations, to discover how their greatest strengths might translate into an expression of spiritual conviction in our tumultuous world, we cannot let go of the things that we don’t do as well, for fear that we would be less of a church. That was a very long sentence. To simplify: we’re afraid. If we can’t do everything, then we’re not good Christians.

Parker Palmer, founder of the Centre for Courage and Renewal (how’s that for a name!), calls this way of thinking “functional atheism”. If we don’t trust that our companion congregations in this community can do something as well as we can, if we don’t trust that God has other ways and means to make things happen, if we think we have to be the ones to do the work, we are functioning like atheists.

In doing so, we lose sight of the lesson to the Romans: love is enough. Share. We are incomplete people and we need others to fully experience and engage the mystery that is human life.
The richness and variety of our gifts are such that we need to combine them together for great and marvelous things to happen. We see glimpses of what could be when we meet together – for World Days of Prayer, for ecumenical fair services, for Food Grains Bank concerts, for funerals, for weddings.

Yet in spite of all our differences, our struggle to coexist peaceably, we have the profound and eternal assurance that God loves us as we are. We already have the gifts and talents that we need for the task ahead. We are equipped and prepared for the work our faith calls us to do.

And we have one another to help with the pieces we’re not so good at. We have gifts of prophetic voice, teaching, serving, encouraging, leading, mercy and generosity. No one has them all; which is why we belong together, united in one body as Christ alive and active in the world. We are not alone. Thanks be to God. Amen.

for Mar. 8 – Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.’

Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, ‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.’

* * *

What feelings, questions, thoughts and prompts to personal action arise from this scripture?
What about hymn suggestions or ideas for Children's Time? Share them as Comments below or in an email, and help shape Sunday's worship service.

sermon excerpts: "Promises in the Sky"

My scientific mind tells me that rainbows always existed. Even before Noah and the ark, they were always there. Light shining through moisture droplets in the atmosphere cause prismatic diffraction, breaking white light into its component parts: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

In this Genesis reading, rainbows take on special significance as a symbol of the covenant that God makes with Noah. Never again will the world be punished by flood. God cherishes and treasure all life and all creation. Now if we could learn the same lesson: to appreciate the miracle of our lives and the value of this worldwide community.

Our temptation is to distance ourselves from others, or define ourselves by how we’re different. Think about Presbyterians or Anglicans or Catholics or other United Churches, or conservative or liberal or moderate, or traditional or progressive – let alone Jews and Muslims!

It is scary to leave the safety of what we know, like the animals in the ark. The imperfect and flawed reality of what we know is not necessarily more appealing that the unknown, unguaranteed promise of success and new life. But the comfort of knowing what comes next is less risky. It is hard to leave a refuge or share what goodness we have, like the raven that was happy and safe with the olive tree all to himself.

It is worth noting that this covenant is not only with God and Noah, and his sons. It is with every living being on the earth – every creeping animal, every flying bird – is everafter safe from a divine wrathful flood. (Which maybe why we’re all so worried about hellfire and brimstone instead).

Noah and his family, on the cusp of a new and terrifying journey of re-creation and re-integration, finds solace in the sky. A gorgeous band of colour and light offering a promise, a covenant from God, is assurance for the task ahead.

Is it as simple and trite as preaching that after the storms of life a rainbow shines in the sky? It is true, that within our own lives there are times of trial and hardship. Storms roll in and out thunder claps and fades, but after it all, the rainbow remains. It is eternal; as long as the sun shines and clouds give rain there will be a sign of hope, a promise of care and an affirmation of value.

At the end of the rainbow we have God, giving a divine promise that we would not be abandoned, left to drown in the storms of life. Beneath this rainbow is this creation within which we lie, love, work and suffer. And in Christ, that covenant comes to life, urging us to face life and spread the rainbow message so that it covers the entire earth, from age to age, beginning and end.