May This Church Be like a Tree

 

May This Church Be like a Tree – what a beautiful prayer and blessing for the church.

This blessing was written in the form of a hymn by Pablo Sosa and was his contribution to the Lutheran World Federation’s 500^th Commemoration of the Reformation, which was held in Namibia. It is common practice in Namibia to gather for worship and meetings under trees, just like in his part of the world, the Apostle Paul would go to the water the place people gathered to pray.

 

May This Church Be like a Tree is hymn number 1042 in All Creation Sings. It is a suggested hymn for today, as it echoes the imagery from Jeremiah and the Psalm of the day, Psalm 1.

Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.

They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leave shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. Jer. 15: 7-8

 

The World Council of Church’s in memorial piece for Sosa refers to him as the “grandfather of what became known as ‘ecumenical worship.’ …He was engaged in a creativity that not only learned from other traditions and cultures, but formed new liturgies so that the ecumenical community might participate with one another.”

Sosa believed that singing and music is “embodying the theology of another, and in the process understanding more clearly how we were shaped by our presumptions.” Sosa also believed that by embracing global song and singing together, “God was accompanying the people in the song, living within their history. Even the rhythm of the song brought God closer, incarnate within the beat of the street. The music itself was part of song’s theology.”

The 500^th Commemoration of the Reformation and the song May This Church Be like a Tree, emphasized to the Lutheran World Federation what a tree the global church has grown into and what abundant fruit there is yet to bear. The hymn calls the church to be a joyful place of feast (communion) and simple prayer; to be about justice, acts of love, and compassion; a resting place, a welcome shelter, open arms and an embrace for the pilgrim and stranger; a place of self-giving and abundance sharing.

Take a moment to think about this – the Lutheran expressions of church around the world that we represent, or ministries we have been connected with. Since WWII, especially, the church has changed their leaves, and grown new branches, letting other branches to be pruned and discarded. Branches of social awareness have abounded, and the theology of the church has become more expressive in contemplating the connection between faith life and worship life, the biblical connection between worship and justice. Sosa reflected much on this and the lifting up of hope with song. Sosa delightfully described worship as “the fiesta of the faithful.”

 

But this ‘fiesta of the faithful,’ was – is - born in and through the pains of a weary world.

Pablo Sosa grew up in Argentina. As an adult he became a composer and a pastor of a large Methodist Congregation in Buenos Aires. He taught liturgy and hymnology at a seminary. He served in Argentina during a period known as the Dirty war, Guerra sucia, 1976-83. During this period, Argentina experienced military dictatorship and a state of terrorism. Political dissidents, students, young professionals, intellectuals, trade unionists, writers, journalists, artists, citizens suspected of being left-wing activists, anyone associated with socialism or having left-leaning sympathies were subject to harassment, detention centres, torture, concentration camps, or death squad. Others were simply ‘disappeared.’ It is estimated that 22,000 to 30,000 people were murdered or disappeared.

 

Pastor Sosa and his congregation experienced the atrocities of the regime when two girls from the congregation were ‘disappeared’ because they worked among the poor. … Because they worked among the poor - Compassion and mercy- faith living threatened the regime. Churches both Protestant and Catholic were conflicted on how to be under and in this state of terrorism and military regime. How was the church to be? Was it to speak out, be silent, support the government, subversively undermine authority? Continue to openly resist by offering compassion and work for justice, or to only speak in house building resilience and hope among the people? During this time many people lost faith. As the Dirty War continued it caused economic meltdown and plunged the middle-class into poverty.

 

There have been and always are places in the world where God’s faithful question what it means to live faithfully. The Church – even from those who do not profess the faith of the church – is looked to for statements, answers, or action; and if none are forthcoming the church is vilified. Today we have an inkling of what it is to personally, as a community, and as a larger church body, understand living in a place and time where the church is seriously contemplating and discerning what faithful living is amid an aggressive world, where those in leadership only make this weary world wearier. Do we speak or stay silent, does the church support the powers that be or blatantly defy orders? With whom does the church stand, work, support?

 

In 1977 in Argentina, Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo held their first vigil for the ‘disappeared.’ A group of women gathered in the Plaza de Mayo, in a demonstration requesting to have their young adults returned to them alive. The women, and others, have gathered in solidarity every Thursday afternoon thereafter. They pursued details of the fates of their lost relatives. They named the disappeared as ‘fighters for the people.’ Their justice work in human rights continues today, until, in their own words, there is a “defeat of imperialism and the sovereignty of the people are achieved.” Faithful acts of love, compassion and mercy. A continued persistence in seeking justice.

 

ELCA pastor and professor Mary Hinkle Shore wrote: “With the beatitudes, Jesus announces that the provision of God is trustworthy when the world is offering poverty, hunger, grief, and rejection. With the woes, Jesus announces that the provision of God is even more trustworthy than acting in what we imagine is self-interest. The Messiah embodies a whole way of being in the world that is better and more basic to life than either eking out an existence or building barns and filling them.”

 

This is what I feel it is to be like a tree – embodying a whole way of being in the world that is better and more basic to life than either eking out an existence or building barns and filling them – some form of middle ground where no one has too much and no one too little.

This is what I feel it is to be like a tree – embodying a whole way of being in the world where worship and justice are connected. Where worship is the fiesta of the faithful. A place to be connected with God and each other, to be filled with a zest and power, to go and be the embodiment of hope in everyday life.

This is what I feel it is to be like a tree – embodying a whole way of being trusting in the provision of God. Where this principle is the root that waters discernment and decision making; our love, compassion and action. May we – the Church- be like a tree.

 

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, who trust is the Lord.

They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. Jer. 17: 7-8

Three Epiphanies

 EPIPHANY

An epiphany to the ancient Greek was a manifestation, a striking appearance. Today an epiphany is considered an aha! moment where a new insight or clarity of thought comes upon a person. There is an element of surprise to an epiphany. An Epiphany doesn’t just happen, pre-work -sometimes years of study, work, or searching are required before a discoverer experiences an epiphany.

An Epiphany is a feeling of enlightenment that positions one in a new headspace and/or heartspace.

 

In Christianity an Epiphany is a realization that Christ is the Son of God; the aha! moment is a new insight into the nature of God. The scripture texts in the Season after Epiphany provide examples of the manifestation of God: the wisemen seek and find the infant Jesus – Emmanuel (God with us), at Jesus’ baptism the Holy Spirit comes and God’s voice calls “you are my beloved and in you I am well pleased”, and Jesus’ powers are witnessed in the turning of water into wine.

 

This morning’s scripture from Luke is one of Epiphany. Jesus’ showcase of power wasn’t simply a miracle of providing a large catch of fish on a day when there were no fish to be had. It was an event that caused the disciples, Peter in particular, to recognize the transcendent and name Jesus as Messiah.

The experience of Epiphany positioned Peter in a new headspace and heartspace. It was such an aha! moment that he and his colleagues left their nets and followed Jesus.

 

As I reflected on the story of the calling of the fishermen to be disciples, while focusing on the idea of epiphany, I noted that there are ideas in the text to spur epiphanies for readers like us. This morning, I highlight three truths from the text that when taken to heart will transform and change a person’s life.

 

 

Epiphany #1 – EVEN WHEN BUSY, BE OPEN TO THE MIRACULOUS

The disciples are hard at work. It was not an easy task to be part of the fishing industry on the Lake of Gennersaret. Writing about Jesus and his part in the movement to transform the food economy, pastor T. Wilson Dickinson, describes the squeeze put on fishermen. The elite had control of the seafood economy. Fishermen paid an imperial official for the right to fish in the emperor’s lake– a fishing license so to speak. Then after the catch was brought to shore, the fishermen paid a toll or a tax on what they had caught. Fishermen were marginalized labourers working in an oppressive economic system. To pay to be on the Lake, meant that one needed to work hard and have a catch big enough to pay both the license fee and the surcharge on the catch.

On this particular fishing day, after catching nothing, how could the disciples be anything but disheartened? It would be reasonable for them to worried about paying their bills, feeding their families, keeping their jobs. It would be understandable for if they were considering side hustles to make a few denarii: patch a few nets, repair a dock, deliver someone else’s catch. They were busy making ends meet to provide for their families, when Jesus arrives.

 

Peter, whether needing a distraction or so done with the pressures, decides to take a huge risk and takes Jesus out in the boat. Maybe that day Peter had an inkling to hope in this Jesus who had been traveling to the small towns around the area. Although busy, there was an openness to change the script for the day. And what a script change - Once again, Luke is inspired by his favourite stories, the prophets Elija and Elisha, and the miraculous provisions of food provided in times of or in places of scarcity. The big haul of fish is representative of the abundance of God and God’s kindom.

Now if you were one of the fishermen on the boat, and you witness the great catch, what would your first words be? If you only experienced a miracle you would ask something like, “how did you do that? How did you know?” Peter had an epiphany brought on by the miraculous, the power of Jesus, recognizing Jesus’ power Peter forgot about the fish and how important a big catch was, and focused completely on Jesus.

EVEN WHEN BUSY, BE OPEN TO THE MIRACULOUS

 

Epiphany #2 – EVEN WHEN YOU THINK YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH- GOD SEES OTHERWISE

Jesus gets into Peter’s boat on a day when the fishermen couldn’t catch a fish. There were no fish stories to be told. No fish to share for supper. This though is the least of Peter’s self-esteem woes. Peter’s encounter with Jesus has given him a profound awareness and sorrow of his sinfulness – an unworthiness. He says, Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. Peter’s expression is also an epiphany of the power of Jesus. Jesus does not go away but stays. Peter’s full epiphany is that sin does not disqualify him from being in Jesus’ presence or disqualify him from God’s invitation to be more.

 There is a poster in church hall that reminds those who see it that – Noah was drunk, Abrahm was too old, Isaac was a daydreamer, Moses stuttered, Joseph was abused, Sampson was a womanizer, Jonah ran away, Elijah was suicidal, Job went bankrupt, David had an affair, Martha worried, Paul was too religious, Lazarus was dead. --- all things that humans consider make one not good enough. Yet, all were loved by God, all were given invitations by God to work for God’s kindom. Whatever busy-ness was going on in their lives, each was open to the miraculous, because each said ‘yes.’

EVEN WHEN YOU THINK YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH- GOD SEES OTHERWISE

 

Epiphany #3 - EVEN JESUS NEEDED HELP

In the story Jesus needed to borrow a boat. Jesus is popular and the size of the crowds are pushing on him, so Jesus climbs into a boat and asks the skipper – Peter - to put it out a little way from shore; Peter does. Jesus needs helpers – the crowds are getting too big to handle all alone. This story in Luke, although centred on Peter, tells of three others who helped Jesus in bringing in the miraculous catch. They are told, do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people. They too had epiphanies for they say ‘yes’ to the invitation and become the first disciples to follow. In future stories in Luke, more help is needed and 70 more are sent out in pairs to work for Jesus – sharing the Gospel, the Good News, doing miracles and healings. By the time of Acts, even more helpers are recruited. In each instance those experiencing the power of Jesus, hearing God’s invitation,

left what they knew – everything – and worked in the kindom of God. Their headspace and heartspace had been transformed and that changed their whole lives.

EVEN JESUS NEEDED HELP

 

My prayer is that these three truths from the text will be reflected upon and taken to heart.

Even when busy, be open to the miraculous.

Even when you think you are not good enough – God sees otherwise.

Even Jesus needed help.

And in taking these to heart, may your headspace and heartspace be transformed, changing your whole lives.

Christian Unity: We Believe

 

This past week I have spent a lot of time with our ecumenical siblings, attending Week of Prayer for Christian Unity events, all reflecting on the 1700^th Anniversary of the Nicene Creed. Each get-together offered new incites into the Nicene Creed and why this creed is important this long after it was written. The answer is unity.

1700 years ago, Constantine called together 318 bishops to air their differences and settle a squabble about the divinity of Jesus and how God the Trinity worked. Constantine really didn’t care about which side of the argument was accepted, he just wanted Christian leaders to decide on a common statement. You see, Constantine’s purpose was unity of this growing group of Christians, because unity in this group would be good for the whole Empire. It didn’t matter what was believed, but that there was unity in the belief.

 

I was asked by someone, what I would say this Sunday, them thinking I would address American politics. My response was ‘nothing specific to this week’s news from South of the border.’ That is nothing in addition to what I have been preaching for months, what colleagues have been preaching, what Anglican Bishop Budde said in the presence of the president - the gospel.

For me this week was framed, by a profound sense of ecumenical unity amidst beautiful diversity.

I was encouraged by actions of faith – it is no small matter that in such a busy world, time was taken to learn and worship together, that churches around the world strengthened faith by being in relationship with each other. 

I know the church hasn’t always gotten things right, in fact the church often fails, the church forgets to preach the gospel. But sometimes – in times like these- the church boldly preaches and demonstrates the gospel. Often as Lutherans, we turn to examples like Luther or Bonhoeffer, but there are many stories of local pastors, bishops, congregations, people like you who act in faith and stand for the gospel.

 

This week a colleague passed away. I did not know personally know this colleague, who had pastored for a time in Ottawa and Montreal. Pastor Maris Kirsons was a boy when fleeing Latvia with his parents, to be a Displaced Person in Germany, and then coming to the United States. After becoming a pastor, he came to Canada to serve Latvian congregations. Maris was faithful in action and preaching. His obituary says, he will be remembered by the many people whose lives he touched serving in the ministry of Word and Sacrament, teaching youth with relevance, and advocating for liberty for the captive nations during the oppressive occupation of the USSR. Perhaps the most iconic portrait of him is a photograph in which he is standing, arms outstretched and bleeding on a Soviet flag as a means to speak up for the millions held as prisoners under Moscow’s regime during the Helsinki Accords 1982 human rights conference in Madrid, Spain. He was arrested for this act of protest.

 

Unity – it gives the church courage to preach and be about the gospel. Latvian speaking Lutheran churches around the world are connected to the Lutheran bodies in the countries where they are, and together are part of the Lutheran World Federation – who work with Anglican and Roman Catholic bodies, study with and have relationship with Moravians and Mennonites, belong to the World Council of Churches, and so on.

Together important work is accomplished – the care of displaced persons and the organization of refugee camps and resettlement projects, the feeding of millions who are suffering from famine, and advocacy and development to address climate justice that affects the poorest on the planet. Unity allows for these gospel actions of compassion and mercy, the bearing of fruit for the benefit of the whole world.

 

This idea of creating unity through the faith identity of a people is not new – Constantine didn’t come up with a revolutionary idea. Identity – unity - is the theme of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

In 538 BCE, Persian King Cyrus authorized the return of those who were exiled in distant Persia cities back to their homelands. It was not an on mass all-at-once return but rather undertaken in waves of returnees that extended over years. Each wave of people took part in the long process of rebuilding the Temple and the city of Jerusalem.

This period of time was one of figuring out how to start again. Rebuilding the Temple and the city was fraught with argument and tension. There were so many groups of people with not only differing ideas, but fundamentally different perspectives. There were people living in the land who had not gone into exile, people who continued to work the land, there were waves (different groups) of returning exiles. Those identified as ‘outsider’ – kept changing and it depended on whether you were an exile returning or one who had remained in the land. By Nehemiah’s time we are in the third stage of resettlement. The Temple has been built. An ‘outsider’ is now considered those who are foreigners, other people, nomadic Arabs.

 

Third stage of the reconstruction of Jerusalem, 445 BCE under Nehemiah’s leadership, was focused on the building of the walls of Jerusalem and repopulating the city. But it was also a time when leaders - Ezra and Nehemiah- saw the need for identity making; where different groups who have been at the same task, people loosely associated with each other, are once more knit closely together with common purpose, ideals, values, and ethics. A strong thriving people requires unity.

And so, Nehemiah returns to teaching the story and reading God’s covenant made with the people following the exodus from Egypt. The Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) gets read, religious practices are reinstated – easier now that Temple has been rebuilt. Much time is spent encouraging a renewed commitment to live the life of covenant, making this whole group a distinctive people from the polytheistic and multi-cultural Persian Empire that is around them. Ezra and Nehemiah held a service of dedication that included celebration, purification, procession, and separation. The point was unity.

 

Neh. 8: 1 reads that all the people gathered. There was unanimity; they gathered as one (men, women, those who could understand, and those with ears attentive to the reading of the book of the Law). This attentiveness and oneness stood in contrast to arguments regarding the building of the wall and the repopulation of the city. They stood side-by-side to hear from the book of the Law of God.  Emphasis was on oneness!

More than that – the reading of the Law happened outside the gate – in the public square. This means that anyone who wanted to listen was welcome to do so, whether they were considered an insider or an outsider, a generational farmer, a naturalized citizen, a returnee, a descendant of the 12 tribes, a Persian, a foreigner, a traveler passing through.

About this passage, Prof. Helen Chukka of Wartburg Theological seminary in Iowa writes that, “in listening to and receiving the Torah, the people were invited to dwell in the feeling of trust and the expression of hope.”

 

At the end of the week, this is where I rest - in Christian unity, dwelling in the feeling of trust and the expression of hope. The theme verse at each service was from John 11: Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

United the response was WE BELIEVE. We believe in God, the Father, the Almighty…We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only son of God…We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord the giver of life…

This statement reverberated around the world as Christians shared and focused on one expression of faith, trusting in God who is the unifying agent. 1700 years of this statement of faith continues to bring unity, a unity that on any given day turns into faithful gospel-filled actions, that are supported and repeated by the whole body of Christ. Unity. We believe. May this continue to be so.

Reflection on Church Community and Intimate Partner Violence

Trigger warning: please note that this sermon mentions intimate partner violence and domestic abuse.

When starting in a new job, settling into a neighbourhood or town, hanging out with a new group of people, you can learn a lot about them by the stories they choose to share right away. It is the same when a pastor begins ministry in a parish. Over the past few weeks, two stories have been floating around in my memory, both are stories that I heard in the first two weeks of being a pastor in my first call. The stories are two that I heard from more than one person.  

The first story was told to me during a tour of the area pointing out parishioner’s homes, people who needed visits, places to be careful, and so on. The story at one house was of a remaining family member who lived in a house where a relative had committed a murder suicide.

The second story was of a former Anglican priest who took care of the people in his charge. On one occasion he arranged to secret a woman and her children from a volatile domestic violence situation and safely took them to a shelter that was a few hours away.

These memories have been on my mind because of the 6 deaths due to intimate partner violence that have happened in NS in the past 3 months.

I wonder why I was told the two stories right away, when arriving in my first parish. Was it because I was a female pastor? Did the community feel safe in telling me? Or was it for my own safety? Was I being tested to see if I would listen, would I stay, could I be trusted?

Was I being told because people knew of present and immediate instances and concerns of intimate partner violence or domestic abuse? Would I be an ally? Would I be able to help?

 

The stories were told to me by women, not as gossip, but in earnest tone, conveying the information was important. It was important so that I could understand the individuals and families that had been involved. It was important because both events affected the whole community and the women in particular.

I realize I was being told the stories of intimate partner violence and domestic abuse because the women were telling me that such events happened in their community, they noticed, they cared, and as I built relationships with the women, I quickly learned that they supported those in difficult circumstances to the best of their abilities and wanted to include me in the support system.

 

The scripture from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians comes to life for me in the actions of the women living out their faith. Paul writes that the Spirt of God works through a variety of gifts, a variety of services, and a variety of activities. Every person – that includes you-  has been gifted so that their life can be a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. The variety of gifts, ways to serve, and participation in activities, all create an increase in Wisdom, faith, healing, and so on.

 

The women lived out their faith of noticing, caring, and supporting – women experiencing intimate partner violence and children suffering domestic abuse- from many directions. The gift of listening, at the top of the list as listed by survivors, I will talk about in a moment. The other work of the church women – services and activities- had a common thread, relieving as much stress as possible from individual households. The more stress in a system, the great the risk of desperation and an increase of violence. For the women, it was scripture-based faith work, relieving stress was feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, taking care of the widow…

The gift of faith was lived out in sharing preserves and baking, homegrown produce or fresh caught fish left on doorsteps. It was remembering birthdays, marking children’s graduations, and such with cards so you could slip in a gift card or money. It was hosting meals at the church with phoned invitations by men to the man of the household to come for the meal with their family (of course extra food was tactfully sent home with families). It was the church having or finding odd jobs at the church, or individual’s homes, for the man to gain confidence, skills, or have extra cash; or for the woman to have a few extra dollars to hide away should she decide to leave the abusive situation. It was having access to the church basement where kids could hide out, where notes could be left and exchanged; where a phone could be accessed in an emergency. Faith was lived out in women’s Bible studies where -no matter what time of day or night there was lunch served so there was time for a freedom to talk and others to listen. It was lived out by the men supporting the work of the women and participating by making deliveries, finding work or other reasons to interact with the abusers. Faith was lived out by the church opening their doors to anonymous and Al-anon groups.

 

In Corinth, Christian community was called together in specific place, a place that was in a context where culture and society paid no attention to Christ. Paul called the Christian community to pay attention to their identity in Christ and what that meant for their daily living in the world.  The Corinthian church community, needed to align their focus. They spent much of their energy in internal conflict, the mistreating of each other, nit-picking, and arguing. Paul’s letter encouraged individuals in the community to change their focus to what they could do together for the common good. Christian communities were encouraged to notice, care, and support others - examples in scripture from the early church where equivalent to food banks, sharing of resources, freeing of slaves, paying of servants, care of the widow and orphan, visiting of the prisoner --- in today’s context that translates to advocating for living wages, affordable and appropriate housing, and food security.

 

A healthy Christian community is one of a variety of gifts, services, and activities given and created through one Spirit. As we have been actively working on transforming church property, talking about this building, another building, it is important to hear Paul’s reminder of God’s big vision that compels communities to create space and an atmosphere with a focus on the common good for the societal context in which they live.

Earlier I said I would come back to listening – one of the gifts given by the Spirit- and a gift we can learn as individuals and as a community to help those living in intimate partner violence or domestic abuse.

The kindom of God is real in a moment of open conversation: sitting with each other, listening – listening that believes what the other is saying and responds without pressure or judgement, and responding “thank you for sharing, I believe you. It is not your fault.” Author and leadership guru, Brene Brown, describes listening this way, “In order to empathize with someone’s experience, you must be willing to believe them as they see it and not how you imagine their experience to be.” With practice we can do this. In addition, if one is willing to offer help by asking “how may I help you?’ Let the person telling their story guide what ‘helping’ might be – and if you offer to help, follow through. Listening is support and listening is a big gift on its own. And once you have listened, keep checking in!

 

When I listen to Paul's letters - What I appreciate is his continued faith and hope in God’s big vision, God’s dream of kindom. He continued to encourage Christian community that it is possible to live out God’s kindom through Christ centred community. The communities Paul wrote to were both faithful and messed up and yet he still had hope and believed in the power of the Holy Spirit to work through human hearts and hands, forming gracious, redeemed, creative, vibrant, loving, and justice filled communities regardless of the surrounding society. When we hear letters of Paul to specific communities, we are reminded of all of Paul’s letters and the core message – regardless of how we are messed up, regardless of the society surrounding us and how messed up it is– faithful living as a community of Christ followers is essential, and God’s purpose for us, is to live and bring the kindom into the context in which we live. As a community we have a variety of gifts, services, and activities, that can be applied to daily living and to addressing intimate partner violence and domestic abuse –

let us use our gifts to the glory of God and  for the healing of the whole world. Amen.

New Year 2025: Respair and Big Naps

 

As we said good riddance to the sufferings and fears of 2024 - and wished happiness and health and peace to friends and family at the turn of year - 2025 began broken with its own terrors, violence, and chaos.

 

However today, this first Sunday of the New Year, you have made a choice. You have chosen to start the New Year gathering in faith community. Coming to a place where the broken is accepted, the broken is redeemed, the broken is loved, the broken is found, and the broken is washed in grace.

 

I invite us to start fresh and for a moment let go of the beginning of 2025 (breath in and loudly breathe out)

Let us BREATHE and start fresh.

 

Instagram content creator Worry_lines, posted this week: “to have big plans, you have to have big dreams, and to have big dreams, you have to have big naps.”

This is what it is to start the New Year gathering as a faith community – we come to hear God’s big plans – to as a community embrace big plans and have big dreams; plans and dreams that contain hope, love of neighbour, welcome of stranger, belief in kindness, faith in commonwealth and the possibility of peace.

While some of us do take naps during the sermon, being here, we all take a big nap from the world and the garbage the world inundates us with. Napping from the world is respite.

Big naps mean big dreams – the kind that are life changing and world changing.

 

You have probably heard the phrase, “In times like these” –

In 1943, Ruth Caye, who was a mother of 5 and a pastor’s wife in Pennsylvania, was deeply affected by the news from the front of WWII, the casualties of war and the seeming lack of progress, the rationing of food making life difficult, and the general malaise among people. After reading 2 Timothy 3: 1 In the last days perilous times shall come…She took to writing down a few thoughts and a tune came to her. Her hymn was later made famous by George Beverly Shea and the Billy Graham crusades. Her words were:

In times like these we need a Saviour/ In times like these we need an anchor/ In times like these we need the Bible/ in times like these O be not idle

Be sure and very sure. Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock – Jesus is the rock.

 

Ruth could have stuck her nose into various passages in scripture that speak of last days and perilous times.

I particularly think of the prophets. Jeremiah being a good example. Jeremiah, known as the ‘weeping prophet,’ spends 5 decades speaking big dreams into the doom and gloom of idolatry, social injustice, and the moral decay of his day. He faced opposition, imprisonment, and personal struggles. He must have taken lots of naps, for he had a hope that went beyond human understanding. In the middle of a war, with the enemy army invading and destroying, displacing people and exiling them, he buys a piece of land at full price. Believing God’s big dream of settled living, with abundance of produce, peace among people, love of neighbour, love of God; where everyone has enough, no one has too much; foreigners are welcomed, and the land is respected. That’s a big dream.

 

“In Times Like These” is a phrase older than Ruth Caye. Nellie McClung, a Canadian author, politician, and social activist wrote a book in 1915, titled: “In Times Like These.” This was during WWI. Her chapters: The War that Never Ends, The War that Ends in Exhaustion Sometimes Mistaken for Peace, What Do Women Think of War (Not that It Matters), and War Against Gloom. Before writing her thoughts on the war against gloom, I think she took a big nap, so she could dream big, so she had something to offer that she did not find in the world around her. She wrote an eloquent poem prayer, so suitable for the beginning of a New Year in times like these:

 Not for all sunshine, dear Lord, do we pray-  We know such a prayer would be vain;

But that strength may be ours to keep right on our way, Never minding the rain!

 

The Oxford Junior Dictionary is a condensed dictionary used mostly in schools. Words are chosen for the dictionary as words that the editors think all students should know. Every few years the dictionary editors review the words, removing some and adding others. In 2007, 40 common words of natural things (like dandelion, fern, otter) were left out, and replaced by virtual things (like blog, bullet-point, voicemail). This disturbed author Richard Macfarlane enough that he wrote the book The Lost Words. Using 20 of the 40 words he created a spell-book of sorts to bring magic and mystery and curiosity to the 20 natural item words; to provide a place to dream and imagine an acorn, a wren, a dandelion. Richard must have taken a big nap before putting the book together, to dream of the power of words. He believed that if you don’t have words for something, then it ceases to exist in the imagination.

 

God must have started with a big nap. God certainly rested after the creation of the world, before dreaming again. The opening of John’s Gospel sets before us the mystery, the beauty, and the vastness of creation, of God’s imagination and big dream, of the presence of the Word, woven in, around, and through everything.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s son, full of grace and truth.

From his fullness we have received, grace upon grace.

 

I have taken a nap or two over the past week. My dreams have been filled by one word, RESPAIR.

Respair is an old English word that means new hope; a recovery from despair.

In times like these I believe we need respair. In times like these I believe that new hope and recovery from despair are a big dream, a dream that is dreamed and comes to be by resting here, in faith community, in the Word, in prayer; or in other words taking a nap with God.

In times like these, you have acted boldly coming to a place where we dream big – a place where the broken is accepted, the broken is redeemed, the broken is loved, the broken is found, and the broken is washed in grace upon grace.

This year let us read and listen to poetry – whether a bit from the prophet Jeremiah or the beginning of the Gospel of John, Nellie Mc Clung or Ruth Caye; let their dreams and the Word woven in the writing fuel life and beauty and mystery, and respair.

Take big naps so you have big dreams – and can live out God’s dreams.

And remember to BREATH.

 

Expectant Home: Christmas Eve sermon 2024

 

Expectant Home.

Our first home – everyone’s first home- is snug and warm. It is neutral warmth, meaning the exact right temperature. There is a soothing constant beat of momma’s heart, and white noise of fluid and digestion.

There is a gentle buoyant movement, a rocking, side to side. Best of all there is touch, a deep pressure massage; one is wrapped in an all-day-never-ending hug.

 

Expectant Home.

Through Advent the congregation explored the theme of shelter and continues the theme this evening as we contemplate shelter and the expectant mother Mary, whose womb is home to God. Mary, expectant mother, shelters the saviour of the world. A few months ago Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, welcomed Mary into her home – she too expectant with a baby – and she expresses being blessed by Mary’s and God’s presence in her home. John the Baptist, Elizabeth’s baby, leaps in her womb, in his first home, acknowledging Emmanuel, God-with-us, Jesus soon to be birthed to a new home on earth. 

 

Expectant Home.

Tonight, we shelter in our thoughts and prayers expectant mothers – we hold expectant hopes and dreams.

We pray for mothers who are housed this night in maternity wards, hospitals, birthing houses; for those sheltering in precarious or emergency places. We give thanks for sheltering hands of doulas, midwifes, nurses, doctors, EMTs, and the occasional taxi driver who assist babies into their second homes. This home we call earth.

 

Expectant Home.

Our second home – where we are met by brightness and expanse, noise and changing temperature; a place where everything is new to us, chaotic, overwhelming. A place where our first few weeks are spent sleeping and eating – growing and processing - to acclimatize to this our second home.

A whole bunch of research has been done on helping babies transition the move from their first home to their second. The thought is that adults – moms, dads, and those who gather around a little one- are the shelter for the baby by imitating a womb-like-home, and this welcomes, settles, and calms babies in their worldly home. The three practices for sheltering infants: swaddling, lullabying, and rocking.

 

Expectant Home.

There comes with each baby welcomed into the world hope, hope wrapped in the miracle of life, hope wrapping potential and possibility. There is hope that the baby will be swaddled, lullabied, and rocked; made to feel at home, to grow into this earthly home. Yet, there is no guarantee that this second home will be home at all.

As we contemplate the expectant birth of Jesus, we consider children without permanent homes, who find shelter in orphanages, foster care homes, or institutional settlings like group homes or treatment facilities. According to the Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada approximately 63,000 children across Canada live in government care. 30,000 of these children are available for adoption. In a given year only 2000 are adopted into homes. In addition, there are another 235,000 children/youth nationwide at risk of entering care due to unstable family situations. On their website the Children’s Aid Foundation boldly states, “We believe every child deserves to live in a safe and loving home.”

 

Expectant Home.

A safe and loving home. For centuries prophets were expectant, waiting for God’s vision of home to come. Home, a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth, where the Messiah would open a door to a home of peace, mercy, and love.

Tonight, we gather to celebrate home: the event where God came to dwell among us. In Bethlehem, which translated is ‘House of Bread,’ embraced the expectant hopes of generations to heal the fears of all the years that night when Jesus was born.

Bp. Azar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land, writes in his 2024 Christmas Message, “We are approaching another Christmas without peace in our land. Like God’s people in the time of Jesus, we are suffering under the weight of state violence and control. With tens of thousands dead and millions displaced. Christmas in Bethlehem will once again pass without the typical tree lightings, scout marches, and other festivities. As the world prepares to celebrate, our hearts are with our people in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. We feel the darkness that surrounded the first Christmas. Not a night of parades or Santa Claus, but of the holy family searching for refuge far from home.

Yet, even in these dark days as we wait for the light to come, we find hope in the words of Paul in Hebrews, Chapter 13 Verse 8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

 

Expectant Home.

Until recently in North America, there was a general expectation that one would leave their second home, not earth, but the house they grew up in, to rent, then buy a starter home, to later buy a bigger home. This is no longer true, everything is not the same today as yesterday. Perhaps we have been deluding ourselves, chasing and building shelter that is not expectant home.

At Christmas we want the shelter of hope and peace. We want joy and love in our dwellings. We are expectant. Jesus, the Word Incarnate, comes to this earthly home. Two thousand years later we shelter in the words, the hope, the faith, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever; especially amid bomb shelters, building rubble, broken homes, no homes, and promises of housing and peace yet to be.

 

Tonight, in community, in singing, in hearing the Christmas story, in candlelight, in communion, we are filled with expectant home: swaddled, lullabied, and rocked. We return to an atmosphere like that of our first home, sheltered in a never-ending-hug. Coming home we are embraced, settled, and calmed.

Expectant Home.

This is our first home, transitioned to our second home. The event of Jesus’ birth, dwelling with us, warms our hearts to be home, to be shelter, to imitate our first home where God creates with expectant hopes filled with love and peace and joy.

We can be home – swaddling - weighted blankets, lots of covers, hugs, holding hands;

We can be home - lullabying, - humming, singing, quiet talking, whispered words of encouragement;

We can be home - rocking – cradling, bouncing on our knee, dancing, walking;

We can be home. We can be home for others.

Swaddling, lullabying, and rocking takes us HOME – returns us to Creator- and a God who chose to become incarnate for the love of all who share this earthly home.

 

Jesus Christ is home, the same yesterday and today and forever.

Expectant Home.

 

Advent Shelter: Devotion #11

SHELTER: The Example of an Innkeeper – by Claire McIlveen

 

‘Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and blood

When blackness was a virtue, the road was full of mud

I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form

Come in, she said

I'll give ya

Shelter from the storm                               -Bob Dylan, 1974

These days, when we think of shelter, the first thing that comes to mind is literal shelter: a place of refuge from wind, rain and snow. 

A home.

Or is Dylan’s hero seeking a place of refuge from the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” as Shakespeare’s Hamlet puts it: somewhere away from the challenges, contradictions and occasional strife that can preoccupy us in our daily lives?

Sometimes shelter is warm and comforting: a mother’s hand upon an ailing child’s forehead, a lover’s embrace, the camaraderie of old friends, the neighbour’s gift of a casserole after a death in the family.

It can also be spiritual shelter in the form of a welcoming religious community or even a political philosophy where we can safely explore ideas and live in hope of a better world.

But we can’t find refuge from daily life, human warmth or spiritual enlightenment without a home.

Home is where personality is born and resilience is fostered, dreams are incubated and progress is imagined. Without home, we don’t have much, other than a gnawing anxiety about how to put a roof (or in the case of too many, a tent) over our heads and where our next meal will come from. You can’t imagine a better life if you are hanging on to the present one by non-existent fingernails.

In a society where shelter - an absolute need in Canada - is sold to the highest bidder and many just can’t bid, the outcome is catastrophic.

But as Christians, we have the example of the innkeeper to follow: we can do what we can to help.

We can push the issue of lack of affordable housing to the forefront of public discourse. We can support movements and political parties that offer genuine solutions to the problems of homelessness and push against solutions that seek to move the problem - and the homeless - out of sight and out of mind.

We can donate to movements and charities that help the homeless where they are now and to find homes.

Our church’s investigations into redeveloping the property to provide some low-income housing is an important initiative that we can support.

As we move into Advent and celebrate the innkeeper who gives Mary and Joseph a roof over their heads for the birth of Jesus, let us give thanks for all the kinds of shelter in our lives and work towards a time when everyone in the world can share in our abundance.

 

https://youtu.be/-gsDBuHwqbM?si=JP1kFCXVOKneGbQM

 

 

 

 

Advent Shelter: Devotion # 10

 

Refugees: Finding Home  -- by Amana

 

Living in a house with lots of people can be both fun and tough. There’s always noise, laughter, and stories being told, but it can also feel crowded at times. It takes patience to share space and make sure everyone feels cared for or has space for some alone time. Helping our new family members settle in Canada has been a big responsibility too, mostly for my parents (as it means doing a lot of paperwork and helping them figure out how things work here). Whereas I get to do all the fun parts, like helping them learn new things, like which fast food restaurants are the best, or going out with them and showing them where all the fun places are, and occasionally cheering them up when they start missing home. It’s hard and fun work; it’s also really rewarding because you see their hope grow as they settle into a new life, and you also get to learn about current and past life back home.

 

An example of this is my grandmother, who has taught me so much through her stories. Like the wars she’s lived through, the people she lost, and even funny stories of how my mother was being mischievous (although my mother says she was a well-behaved kid growing up). She’s been through a lot in her life—wars, being separated from family, and even losing some. Despite all those challenges, she shows so much strength and faith. She reminds me that even when life is hard, trusting God can give you peace. I’m learning from her that real shelter isn’t just about having a house; it’s about being surrounded by love, support, and hope for the future.

 

Prayer: 

Dear God, we pray for families who have had to leave their homes as refugees. Please keep them safe and give them hope. For those living in refugee camps, help them find comfort and protection. Show us how to share what we have so that others can feel Your love and care. Thank You for being a shelter for everyone who needs You. Amen.

 

 This picture is a map that Bob put up in the fellowship hall. People place a tab with their name on it and put a pin in their country of origin. The signs say "I am from..." in various languages.

The Welcome Angels flag is from the Rhenish Lutheran Church in Toronto. Our confirmation classes wrote letters to each other. Welcome Angel is a project that welcomes new immigrants and refugees, most recently Ukrainians and Chinese.