Ending the Thanksgiving Sermon

note that the previous post is the poem

Thanksgiving 2015

“Living it Out”  - Cynthia Kirk’s poem

Why does the world not look like the kin_dom brought to life by Cynthia Kirk’s poem?

It really makes me wonder because I think I would be hard pressed to find someone who questioned any of her statements.  Her words, although written for today’s audience, are no different than the kin_dom brought to light in the words of the Hebrew prophets, and the vision of early Christian communities as written in letters commending certain actions to form such community.

The snippet read from the prophet Joel is from a longer poem that begins in the despair and brokenness of a people and a nation who have been in captivity. Joel’s words are spoken as the people return to the land, to cast a vision of what could be if people embrace the moment as a time for change.  The people can re-build and form community in any way they choose!  In the prophet’s eyes they are starting fresh on a clean slate.

The prophet’s eyes see a clean slate, yet, the peoples’ eyes are clouded.  Some of the clouds are positive, but, it does not take long for the conversation to turn to what once was and actions that rebuild a shadow of what was, rather, than, stepping into an undetermined new build.

No one would have argued with the vision Joel articulated –

A soil that had no fear, rather it that be glad and rejoice; animals who lived without fear, had lots of food to eat; a green planet with fruit trees bearing lots of fruit; people would be glad and an abundance of resources would abound, where everyone had plenty and were satisfied.

Why did the people not live into the prophet’s casting of God’s vision? 

It was going to mean changing attitudes by articulating and then living new principles and values. It was going to mean responsibility for one’s self, one’s community, the animals, and earth. In Joel’s scenario the people are the cog at the centre of the wheel – healing and wholeness do not happen unless the people (as a people) are on board to what is necessary to build the vision.

Elections are the time, perhaps, when we are most willing to listen to prophet-sorts or to imagine what-could-be.  For a month we have heard parties and their leaders casting a vision of what the next few years would like if we voted them in. There have been lots of blogs, editorials, opinion pieces that oft times passionately express varying visions of what-could-be.  Eyes are looking forward, but, and it is a big but, are the people looking forward to building and trying something entirely new.  It would take a lot of passion and energy. It would time consuming and it would require responsibility.  But wouldn’t it be worth doing?  The positives surely out way the negatives.

What I appreciate about the readings for Thanksgiving is the giving of direct steps people can take to get their act together --- actions that lead to the forming and articulation of principles and values to live by.

The letter to Timothy says: first of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

Take those words to heart, on the eve of an election,  prayer for your leaders --- with thanksgiving, none the less.  In the past few week, has the prayer you offered for our leaders equalled the criticisms or opinions you have made?  …  That was my hunch.  Step one to responsibly living into a new attitude and building a new world --- pray for leaders more than you talk about them.

A quick peek at Matthew only need include the final verse.  Matthew goes on about worry – which is a simple time waster, especially when the worry described is self-centered. Matthew ends the visioning session with these words: But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Step two to responsibly living into a new attitude and building a new world ---focus on others and not your self. 

The highlight of Thanksgiving service for me is the altar display. As you know it is created by donations –not of one person, but, rather, a people. Look at the abundance collected. Best of all it is not for us, it is for the food bank to feed those who face a lack of plenty.  This is a small example of people living into kin_dom.  One person’s cans of food make very little difference, together abundance abounds.

Out of a value of thanksgiving and a sense of abundance, go out this week praying for our leaders with prayers of thanksgiving, and consciously focus on others, and not yourself.

Thanksgiving comes in fullness when are living in kin_dom.

 

Starting A Thanksgiving Seromon

www.sothlutheran.com/Session_15_1_.pdf

www.lutheranworld.org/sites/default/files/Welcoming_the_Stranger.pdf

This is the link to the affirmation statements made in the sermon this morning.

The Polarity of Want and Welcome

Those conflicts and disputes among you where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you…….WANT

You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.     ….WANT

What were you arguing about on the way?  …they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. …WANT

Then Jesus took a little child and put it among them…WELCOME

Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.      ….WELCOME

On Thursday 13 Lutheran pastors from the Atlantic Ministry area gathered for worship, study, and conversation.  Together we reflected on the readings for today and surmised various ways to preach the Word based on the same.  Our conversation rallied around two ideas:  WANT and WELCOME: these are the law and Gospel found in the Word this morning.

The scripture connects, in fact states, WANT is the cause of conflicts and disputes, exhibited in behaviours of  murder, theft, and coveting — it can be extrapolated from conflict and dispute that WANT is the cause of armaments, war, torture, exiles, and the current refugee crisis facing the planet.

The scripture connects unanswered prayer with the idea that prayer is often self-serving, for our own pleasure and comforts.

Although I had never thought about it this way, until Thursday’s conversation, the balance to WANT is WELCOME.

Take prayer – when praying for others, creation, outside of ourselves   - when praying not so that we make ourselves feel better; honest lamentation, supplication, devotion – we are welcoming God to fill the prayer and the void into which we pray.  We welcome our own hearts to be moved, willed to change to address the void for which we have prayed.

To welcome means that I set my wants to the side:  I open my home to a stranger – even though there may not be enough food or jobs or security. To welcome means I will place on the back burner my want for stability, the status quo, to have things the way they have always been. I release the want of comfort, perfection, and to have a controlled solution.  Welcome means that I shed my wants.

Hear the Word speak to Law and Gospel- Want and Welcome in the poem by Canadian poet Doug Fetherling:

Explores as Seen by the Natives

The need to explore

is the reason they give

for coming

with lanterns to push back the dark

clothes and helmets to keep away the sun

weapons to kill with delight

what presumes to kill only for safety

or food—

all things explorers use to experience without learning

as they trample through our land

And we are eager to assist them.

They move too quickly

to notice life best viewed

standing still, but push on

without resistance

conquering what they have just discovered

and we have known all along

We who are not asked,

who curiously follow

Soon they will return to

wherever it is they are from

talking as though they invented

what we show them now

and encouraging others to come

In truth they invent only new names

never content with the old ones we use

We who are only too willing to help

Much of the literature I have read and stories I have heard, from the voice of First Nation’s peoples- is the welcome given to those who came to these shores. A welcome to walk the land, to take what was needed, to be a part of all that the Great Spirit had given.

How crazy it must have been to welcome a people who instantly came prepared to satisfy every WANT:

Lanterns to provide the want of light in the darkness,  clothes and helmets to answer the want to be kept out of the sun, weapons to satiate the want of security and food?

Fethering’s reflection is that these things – WANT – was in the way of people experiencing and learning. WANT inhibited experiencing God in the sunshine, the vastness of the universe in the brilliance of the nighttime sky, the idea of being present in a place and co-existing rather than subduing and trampling.

Want clouded the explorers’ hearts and eyes such that they did not feel the welcome being offered to them; the opportunity to experience a thankfulness for of the creation around them. 

Rather WANT had them move quickly, to push on- because around the corner there was a bigger conquest, a better resource over the next hill --- and they missed the  Creator’s welcome as they went on past, God found in the wigwam with the grandmother rocking her relation, the campfire surrounded by God’s story and the dances of lamentation and praise.  The welcome of kinship and open pots of food--- where there was life in the knowledge and practice that there was an abundance for all. 

WANT never had a chance to subside because movement was quick and has only become quicker – WELCOME awaited, awaits, “is best viewed,” standing still.

….stand still (orants) and quiet for at least 15 secs…

On Friday I led a quiet day retreat for Anglican priests.  As part of Morning Prayer there was a prayer that had spaces of silence, each varying in length from 2-4 minutes. The prayer lasted for 20 mins., most of it in silence. Some did not want to sit in silence, but, tolerated this prayer imposed on them. There was some shuffling of papers, uncrossing and re-crossing of legs, and big sighs.  As the time went on people became more and more relaxed as they became more open, and welcomed sitting in silence.   It was hard to move from our want – of getting something out of the day but on our own terms, getting refreshed and feeling good about praying without any hard work or discomfort.  Standing still was the welcome to have us physically and emotionally slow down.

….standstill (orants) and quiet for at least 15 secs…

I want. You want. The world wants.

Today this can change if you so will, not for your own sake, but, for the sake of the world.

The phrase can change to: I welcome. You welcome. The world welcomes.

And I believe this must start with me. It starts with you.  We must be the first ones to do so.

So, consider the number of WANTS that cross your mind and affect your actions every week:

·         You want to wake up in the morning wide-eyed and bushy-tailed.

·         You want a day without pain in your joints.

·         You want a cup of coffee.

·         You want to go to the store for some item or other.

·         You want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to….

·         You want the Syrian refugee crisis to come to an end.

·         You want it not to rain on Friday because you have things to do.

·         You want to fall asleep.

You get the picture.  We have lots of wants and wishes that pass through us and affect us every day.

When you experience a want this week balance it by physically standing still for a minute.  Welcome the moment, the option of change, of something different, of experiencing God.  And after the pause, say “Thanks be to God, Amen.” And then carry on until the next want surfaces.

The exercise will be challenging and I suspect the first few days, there will be lots of pausing… in the end, I pray that each of you experiences a change of heart: one where there becomes fewer wants for oneself and a compassion for the care and concern of others.

I welcome stories, by email or on the FB page, of the opening of your heart.  The welcome of God in the moments of your day; a welcome that transforms attitude to thankfulness and an abundance that knows no bounds.