both ends of the spectrum

It was one of those weekends: a burial of ashes long overdue, planning a funeral with one who is in palliative care, and a wedding. Today church seemed surreal, as all these emotions were churning inside. That's really the crux of faith - living in the chaos of life and bEing held together by something/someone outside of oneself. Yet the GRACE is that the someone outside of oneself is really deep within the depths of one's very being. Thanks be to God for the grace inside to be grace to others, especially when emotions are everywhere but calm.

Thanksgiving Sermon

As I say the following words, I invite you to ponder each one for a brief moment:

Goodness, flowing streams, springs, welling up, milk and honey,  abundance, blessings, satisfied, manna, give,  forgive, deliverance, hope, strength, awe, joy, enrich, provide, bounty, overflowing, richness, sing together, cheerful, righteousness, great generosity, increased harvest, thanksgiving, glory, surpassing grace, compassion, mercy, healing, praise

Breathe in deeply and consider the feeling you have at this moment.

Now in the same way, ponder each of these words for a moment:

Busy, schedule, running around, tired, confused, plodding, buy,  consume, use, revenge, fight, aggression, compete, pursue, power, more, time crunch, money, better, own, entitlement, scarcity, pollution, sadness, sick, depression, anxiety, destruction, death

Breathe in deeply and consider the feeling you have at this moment.

The feelings produced by these two very different paragraphs of words are an example of the difference between what Lutherans call law and gospel.  The law demands that one fulfill a set of rules and be in complete obedience to the ethical will of God, where as the Gospel is full of promise, including the forgiveness of sin through Christ. In scripture, law and gospel are both present.  Today’s texts are heavy on Gospel.  The first group of words are words from the texts of the day... words and thoughts that are Good News.

  How did you feel after pondering them? Uplifted, comfort, peaceful, content?

 You could feel the difference, right, especially in comparison with the second group. The second group of words are those that we experience in our day to day lives; words that bring on stress, knots in the shoulders, a sinking feeling, malcontent, dis-ease.

There is a story of a man in India who lives in a mud hut with his wife, two children and mother-in-law. He finds that the hut is crowded, loud, and chaotic.  He goes to the village shaman to see what could be done.  He commiserates with the shaman that the chaos of his family in the hut does not allow for time of quiet and reflection; there is no personal pace...he feels stressed in his own home.  He asks the shaman for advice about what he should do.

The shaman suggests the purchase of a king-like lounge chair.  A chair that says he is the man of the house, a chair that is comfortable, protects his space, allows him to sit and direct the traffic in the hut; a chair that commands respect.  So a large chair is bought, taken to the house and placed directly across from the door, where it is obvious; and the family takes notice for the chair takes up a large chunk of floor space in the hut.  The family walks around it –way around – the man has his space.  For two months the chair works wonders and the man is on top of the world...but then one day when he arrives home the chair, his chair, is full of children, the next day his mother-in-law is taking a nap in it, the next it has become the depository for laundry. Frustrated he returns to the shaman, unhappy.

The shaman suggests to the man that perhaps on his way home he should visit the local market and buy a couple of chickens; chickens would make everything better.  The man is not sure how this will help but doesn’t question sage advice; so he buys a couple of chickens.  The chickens are in the yard during the day, but as the desert cooled the chickens found their way into the already tiny hut.  For the first few weeks the man enjoys the eggs they lay for breakfast, but after 4 weeks it is too much and no better than the previous situation.  He returns to the shaman.  After a similar exchange of his last visit, the man is advised to go a buy a goat.  The goat also stays outside during the day, but as the desert cooled in the evening the goat entered the hut.  The man tolerates the goat because it is producing milk, but with the early rising chickens, the children, his wife and his bossy mother-in-law taking over his chair, it is enough after two weeks to trek once again back to the shaman. 

The shaman suggests that music would be a good idea to drown out the noise and chaos, so on the way home the man finds the only music available, the local snake charmer, who follows him home and plays every night for a bowl of food. For awhile, the goat and chickens are afraid of the snake in the basket so quietly stay in a corner, the children and mother-in-law are put to sleep by the charmers flute.  This too however after a short time losses its pleasure as the rest of the house begins dancing and clucking to the music, or biting at the basket for something to eat.  And if this is not enough, the ruckus is drawing complaints from the neighbours, the goat is eating the straw in the mud bricks of the hut, wild animals are trying to get in to snatch the chickens in the wee hours of the night, his wife is threatening to leave, there is nowhere left to sleep that does not smell like animal......a very sad and tired man plods to the shaman.

In exhaustion the man sits with the shaman, the shaman says, my son, “go home.  Send home the snake charmer, sell the goat and chickens, give away the chair...and all will be well”  The man does just this and do you know what he found, the little hut was perfect with plenty of room for his wife, children, and mother-in-law.  For the rest of his days he was content with what he had and with the relationships around him.  Life was good.

Would you say that you are content?

We spend a lot of life living the second paragraph of words that I shared earlier.  We spend a lot of time being busy, seeking more, go-go-going.  We overeat, oversleep, overwork, over play, over schedule, over indulge, over spend -trying to fill a need in our lives, trying to be content, to find a place where we have what we want so that we can be totally happy.  And in the end we end up with a hut full of chaos, with things that we don’t need, didn’t really want, and didn’t think out.  We are addicted. We have been conditioned to be consumers.

Think of your life, how much time do you fill with consuming things, events, wants, needs?  Which paragraph do you put more energy into?

Earlier it took less than two minutes to read the Good News paragraph of words. In that two minutes your body and spirit went through a transformation, mind you it was short lived, but it was a transformation none the less.  The feeling created by hearing the Good News was what contentment feels like.  As the apostle Paul says it is indescribable.  Over and over again throughout scripture God’s people are commended to “mediate on these things”...”these things” are scriptures and thoughts that are wholesome, life-giving, full of expectant promise.  If we can feel connected to God’s promise in a short exercise in a sermon, what if we meditated “on these things” more frequently?

Currently the church sign says, “Right now, say something aloud that you are thankful for”. Try it, say something aloud that you are thankful for....something else...something else...something else.  This is thanksgiving – a joyful expression.  Contentment is staying in the Good News even in times when we may not be all that thankful.

In our lives, just like scripture, there is law and gospel.  Far too often we spend our time focused on the laws, and the darkness we see and experience in the world around us; it comes out in our pains, sufferings, complaints, suggestions of unfairness directed at us.   We forget about the Good News, the light of Christ within and in the end we fall short of living in the abundance of God; content.

On this thanksgiving Sunday you are invited to not just be thankful today, you are invited to accept and pursue the promises of God every day.  You are invited to be Good News by meditating on Good News –to repeat as a in a mantra-while driving, or falling asleep, or while walking, or while taking a shower, the words of Good News you remember...

Goodness, flowing streams, springs, welling up, milk and honey,  abundance, blessings, satisfied, manna, give,  forgive, deliverance, hope, strength, awe, joy, enrich, provide, bounty, overflowing, richness, sing together, cheerful, righteousness, great generosity, increased harvest, thanksgiving, glory, surpassing grace, compassion, mercy, healing, praise

( big breath in and out)

By entering a state of contentment, into the promises of God, into the realm of indescribable grace –the world will change because you have changed. And the kingdom of God will come near.

 

Pentecost 16 sermon

Pent 16A

A displaced person, also called a DP, is a person who has been forced to leave his or her native place, sometimes due to forced migration or a complete loss of home. Originally DP was used during WWII to refer to refugee outflows from Eastern Europe, where people were displaced from their native homes, forced off their land and thus became homeless, refugees, prisoners or recruited labour.  Over the last 65 years the term displaced person has been expanded as vast groups of people around the world have been displaced and forced to migrate due to war, civil unrest, famine, or natural disaster.

  This morning we find the Israelites in the desert; a gangly group of displaced persons fleeing the tyranny of the Egyptian Pharaoh and a life of oppressive slavery.  The people are wandering, seeking a home.  Home comes in an unexpected way –not in a homeland- rather this group of displaced persons is given a set of commandments with which to form a community; a community that was to be based first in relation to God and because of this relationship, a relationship with the each other.

Oliver James in his book, “Affluenza”, comments that psychologists squabble over human beings fundamental needs, however, psychologists do agree on 4:

Human beings need to feel part of a community

Human beings need to give and receive from family, neighbours, and friends

Human beings need to feel competent, not useless, but effective in chosen tasks

Human beings need to feel autonomous and authentic; masters of their own destiny, not living behind masks

Did you hear the first fundamental need? People need to feel part of a community.

That is what is happening as we have journeyed through the book of Exodus.  We are watching a bumbling group of mis-matched people become a united community. The words we hear today in the Ten Commandments, as they have come to be called, are the parameters of interconnectedness –how they are going to treat each other as people living together. The Ten Commandments were a created as a freedom to live righteously with maximum love for God and neighbour.

In 1915 when the fore-fathers and mothers of this congregation gathered together to form a community they set down a constitution; a rule book of how the community would behave. The opening paragraph included the words that this community was:

“to sustain by the labour and gifts of love the pure Word and Sacraments as God’s only appointed means for saving the lost and for edifying His people; and to maintain a discipline doctrine, righteousness of life, and the peace and growth of the Church”.

The fore-fathers and mothers who wrote this statement of community purpose were themselves displaced persons.  Some were descendants of the families from the Little Dutch Church –Germans who came to Halifax in the mid 1700s, and no longer had a church home.  Others were displaced persons from Lunenburg County, come to the city for jobs. Yet others were men stationed here because of WWI. These people had a common need, a need to feel part of a community; a need to give and receive; a need to feel competent; a need to feel autonomous and authentic.  Together these displaced persons formed a relationship based on a common need of relationship with God, which translated into a relationship with each other, that over the years grew into the community of today.

In Paul’s letter to the Philippians he recites a long list of points that make him, without a doubt, a member of the first century Jewish community. Paul belongs –he’s circumcised, of the tribe of Benjamin, parents were Hebrews, a Pharisee, a zealous upholder of the law- a fighter for the cause.  But despite a “seeming to belong”, Paul is a displaced person.  After the encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, a life altering God-experience, he no longer has a place in the world he knew and had dedicated his life to.

Paul’s credentials no longer matter, for they pale in comparison to having relationship –given through the death of Christ.  It is the power of Christ’s love even to death and God’s power over death by resurrection that motivates Paul to press toward the ultimate goal –life everlasting and the fruition of God’s kingdom.

Paul has through relationship with God been changed and in changing become a catalyst for pulling together displaced persons who grow into Christ following communities. Displaced persons, those at odds with Rome, or the Synagogue, those who were sick, held different beliefs or practiced alternate ways, all were grafted into Christ the vine at baptism, nourished by bread and wine, shared in Christ’s suffering they knew the power of resurrection and lived it out in community.

           

You may have noticed in the past week, other churches in Halifax have advertised on their church signs that this is World Communion Sunday.  This celebration is observed, on the first Sunday in Oct, by Christian denominations around the world to promote Christian unity and ecumenical cooperation. The tradition originated in the Shadyside Presbyterian Church, in Pittsburg in 1933. It was adopted throughout the US Presbyterian Church in 1936, and from there spread to other denominations and the World Council of Churches. By observing this celebration congregations are asked to think of Holy Communion in the context of the global community of faith; Christians in every culture break bread and pour the cup to remember and affirm Christ as the Head of the Church. We are reminded that they we belong; that we are part of the whole body of Christ; a vast community.

           

Recently I have been doing work on a school paper that outlines my strategic plan for ministry here at Resurrection.  Readings have suggested that communities that last from generation to generation do so because there is a set of core values at work.  These values do not change, although they might be expressed in new ways, the meaning and essence are the same.  Resurrection’s core values are found in the stories of the displaced persons who sought to create a community of like-minded believers who worshiped in a Lutheran way.

Over the years many displaced persons have come through this home.  Highlights include Norwegian sailors,  WWII displaced persons from Europe: some of whom are still with us today; over the years the number of students come from all parts of the world to study in Halifax; those who have transferred here for internships or jobs; refugees from Ethiopia; and various other CFAs

But you know there is a part of each of us that is a displaced person: perhaps economically, socially, politically, in relation to orientation, morally, physically, mentally, educationally and so on.

In our world today, when we are about being rather than having, when we don’t conflate our wants and needs, when we focus on the need for community, for giving and receiving, for living authentically, for being useful –when we are about fundament human need; we are truly displaced persons.  The world doesn’t follow the same ethic, a sense  of faith directing  ones’ actions is perplexing, offered compassion is not trusted as being free with no strings attached.  As Jesus’ followers there is a need to come together in community to foster relationship with God and each other, in order to have the strength to return to the world where the tenants want more, to consume more, to build more, to control more.

Being displaced persons and being grafted into the vine of Christ, being a community here, sharing in communion with like-minded Jesus’ followers around the world – we understand the need to find the lost, to offer compassion, to invite others into community, to love the displaced that come through the door.    

Although almost 100 years old the opening statement of the 1915 founding document rings true today: that we will be about 

Sustaining labour and gifts of love

Word and Sacrament

Discipline doctrine 

 Righteousness of life

Peace and growth of the church

These purposes act like the Ten Commandments did for the Israelites when they were a gangly group of displaced persons, with no home.  These core values are about relationship, our relationship with God and how that affects our relationship with each other and with a lost world. 

Jesus asks the Pharisees, “have you read in scripture:  ‘the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’”; Jesus is referring to himself.  Jesus had a different relationship with God and thus with the people of his time.  Jesus as a displaced person, who was at odds with the world around him.  Jesus was compassionate to the core.  Through death Jesus showed the path to resurrection -choosing to follow means bravely being a displaced person in the world, prepared to stand firm, prepared to die.

May we be displaced persons as Jesus was; at odds with the world; offering compassion, sharing community, welcoming the displaced, creating home; so as to further God’s movement toward perfect relationship –at homeness, at oneness.