A Carton of Eggs - Spear

 

“The cross is laid on every Christian… The cross is not the terrible end of a pious happy life. Instead, it stands at the beginning of a community with Jesus Christ… Because Jesus’ every command calls us to die with all our wishes and desires, and because we cannot want our own death, therefore Jesus Christ is his word has to be our death and our life. The call to follow Jesus, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, is death and life.”

             Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

I wonder if you have ever experienced a time when your expectations have been shattered. If something or someone was not who you expected them to be.

 

            This is how I experience the passage in the Gospel of John. The spear serves as part of the revelation that Christ’s death ensures our salvation. Many people expected Jesus to be a ruler or a military leader. Instead, they are sent this Jesus who is both human and Divine and preaches love not insurrection. The Jewish people expected Jesus to free them from the Roman occupation and turned on him when it was revealed that this was not the reality.

 

            John says that the spear was used to ensure that Christ was dead so the body could be removed from the cross to honour the Sabbath and fulfill the prophecy (John 19:36-37). This spear then becomes symbolic of the brokenness and messiness of grace.

 

            What are some of the spears that we can use to dismantle oppressive systems in our own society? In naming the thing and demanding accountability, how can we respond in ways that are just?

 

Loving Parent,

 you come to us at times we cannot anticipate and in ways that are unexpected. Help us in asking the difficult questions, in working towards a world that is truly just for all. We ask this in Jesus’ name, May it be so. Amen.

                                                                                 ---Victoria Featherston

A Carton of Eggs - A Die

 

 

Matthew 27:35: When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

 

When I was growing up, my mother (an Anglican by marriage but a Baptist by birth and temperament) forbade the playing of cards on Sunday.
Restrictions around games of chance in many Protestant denominations no doubt have their beginnings in the distasteful scene of Roman soldiers casting lots at the foot of the cross to divide up Jesus’ clothing.

Not that the Roman ruling classes, any more than 20th century Baptists, were keen on gambling.

Caesar Augustus, Emperor of Rome during Jesus’ time, noticed his subjects’ growing interest in gambling (with its related social ills) and restricted it to the mid-December harvest festival of Saturnalia. However, evidence from early writings and archeology suggests that gambling, sanctioned or not, was a popular Roman pastime across all social classes.

 

Certainly the soldiers at the foot of the cross weren’t worried about restrictions on gambling. One of the few bright spots in a soldier’s sojourn at a terrible crucifixion like the one at Golgotha would have been the chance to take home the clothing, no matter how simple, of the condemned man.

But the descriptions in the Gospels make it clear that Jesus was no ordinary criminal. The soldiers at the base of the cross divided his inner garments among themselves, but his robe was of high quality, woven as a seamless garment, unusual at the time. So they decided to throw lots for it rather than tear such a valuable garment into four pieces.

The man who won the robe was accustomed to the plain, even tattered, clothing of thieves and other criminals sentenced to death in Jerusalem. He must have wondered why the condemned man who suffered on the cross above him had worn such a precious garment.

Heartened by his win, the centurion found the seeds of doubt about Jesus’ guilt and a sense of taking part in something extraordinary beginning to grow in his mind.
That wasn’t the end of the centurion’s story.

When Jesus died, says scripture, the curtain of the temple was torn in half and an earthquake shook Jerusalem.

The centurion and his comrades were terrified and said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
In gambling for Jesus’ robe, the centurion won not only a fine piece of clothing that symbolized the purity and continuity of Jesus’ message but also the realization that this preacher, so loved by his followers, was much more than he appeared to be.

Prayer:   

God in heaven, walk with us through these difficult times, bring peace to our world and give us the newfound faith of the centurion as we await the life-affirming promise of Easter.  Amen.

                                                                        ---- Claire McIlveen

A Whole Caricature of God: Life, Death, and Life

 Over the years, this rocking chair has heard a lot of stories read to children curled up between its arms, in the lap of the reader. The stories have included Bible stories and stories about Bible stories. Lots of images of God have been shared and heard in this chair.

This morning I invite you to ponder the images you carry of God: think about the stories you heard as a child – read to you by grandparents, told by Sunday School teachers, acted out by staff at camp; recount the images you have gathered and meditated on over the years.

How do you picture God, how do you experience God, how do you describe God?

 

As has been our experience over Lent, Luke’s gospel continues to be placed in front of us with words and stories to upset our understandings and interpretations. The text today confronts human understandings of God and draws attention to the consequences of human understanding.  There are many ways that a parable reads us. The prodigal son parable is an excellent example.  We often read the parable and put ourselves in the story as one of the sons. Turning the process around, letting the parable read us, the story says much about human understanding of God and people living out their understanding of God --- the good, the bad, and the ugly.

 

Luke's text paints four caricatures of God:

 

Caricature #1-

God becomes human.

God goes to dinner.

God welcomes sinners.

God eats with sinners.

God tells a story in parable form.

 

Caricature #2 –

God ignores rudeness.

God gives what is asked for.

God divides all God had between them.

God waits.

…

God has compassion.

God expresses unconditional love.

God runs.

God embraces.

God celebrates.

 

Caricature #3 -

God exuberantly revels in joy.

God indiscriminately and lavishly spends resources.

God works.

God is hungry.

God suffers in the mud.

God has an idea.

God comes back, returns.

 

Caricature #4 -

God farms – grows stuff.

God works hard and ceaselessly.

God receives no recognition.

God’s demeanour is stern.

God is annoyed, even angry.

God shows disgust for wastefulness and debauchery.

God adheres to law and rigid righteousness.

God passes judgement.

God refuses to go to the wayward.

 

A caricature is a description of someone or something presented through an exaggeration of characteristics in order to create a comic or grotesque effect.  Were any of the caricature descriptions of God jarring?  The caricatures look at God as depicted by the characters in the text: the first was Jesus (God eating with sinners), the second was the father in the parable, the third the youngest son, and finally the oldest son.

 

The Bible represents a collection of thousands of years of history, story, interpretation, experience, and relationship with God. And since the scripture canon closed, there has been another 2000 years of theology, interpretation, story, and experience. God has been described in many and various ways.  It is important to acknowledge this history because how we caricaturize God affects how we go about living as people of faith and promise.  The prodigal son parable illustrates this so well. Our understanding of God determines which character in the story becomes God, and which characters are human (and how their behaviour is God-like or not).

 

Today we are given an opportunity: we can stick with our own understanding of God, perhaps the one taught to us by our religious affiliations, or we can let the parable read us.   We can seek a deeper relationship and encounter with the holy by reflecting on God on the boundary (our growing edge) -that would be pondering God in a form we do not want to consider, the God that makes us uncomfortable, the God we are afraid to face, the God that would lead to too many questions.

 

This parable allows for the fullness of reflection - to contemplate the omniscience of God – almighty, all powerful, all-seeing, all-knowing… and what does that really mean in a world full of the good, with a double dose of the bad, and the ugly.

 

If I err in my search for God, it is a turning away from caricature #4, a God who could be angry, annoyed, disgusted, enforcing the law, rigid in righteousness, passing judgement, refusing to go out and find the lost.

Within Christian history and tradition this plays out in a God who would require purgatory, works righteousness, rituals proving one’s faith, re-baptism, a narrow gate to get to heaven and vast pools of fire to burn sinners, and the God and devil at constant war over every soul.

 

Perhaps just as uncomfortable is caricature #3 of a God who enjoys life -including activities humans have put on the sin list- giving lavishly and extravagantly without judgement, reserve, or reason, with no regard to an idea of ‘deserving’ or ‘undeserving.’

And there is the image of God sitting in the mud – suffering, vulnerable, in the midst of the places and with people humans and human societies shun.  God in the faces of the poor, the prisoner.

And who would have thought of God in the pig pen – a situation-where God sits on purpose to give humans the possibility and opportunity to participate in the kindom by feeding and serving the least. A God willing to take the situation to extremes, to risk death (as we know comes on Good Friday), to die to warm the human heart to the expanse and cost of God’s kindom.  

 

The prodigal son parable asks us to examine what is going on in our heads and hearts when it comes to understanding God. It is important because our understanding of God affects how we go about living life. If we see God in only one way, or a narrow caricature, there is an imbalance within us and then in the work we undertake in the world. Full picture, a full meal deal -  a fuller living only happens in an expansion of understanding.  If we get stuck on God as angry and vengeful, we too become angry and vengeful. If we are scared of God and God’s judgement: we act scared, withdrawing to hide, and focusing on self preservation we fail to suffer with others or to indiscriminately and lavishly share. If we fail to reflect on God who gets annoyed, we run the risk of doing whatever we please, accumulating wealth for ourselves, and in high living forget the intricacies of relationship. When we understand God only as soft, then that greater than ourselves is no longer great and is bereft of power.

Humans in their everyday life, live out their understanding of God…  and God help us…

Without purposeful reflection to balance our understandings, and continuing to face and grow a deeper understanding of God, we find ourselves in “the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

God help us to deeper understanding to find ourselves and live – not the good, the bad, the ugly- but rather the abundance in; life and death and life.   

 

During this fourth week of Lent, you are encouraged to find a sensible chair – to settle in for reflection. Reflect on the prodigal son parable and the expansive God found therein, take extra time with the caricature lines with which you disagree, wrestle with your understanding and experience of God. Seek a deeper relationship so that you can live a balanced and holy understanding of God in the world; a wholeness of life and death and life.

 

A Carton of Eggs - Crown of Thorns

 

Scripture:  Matthew 27:27-31

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him.  And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”  Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head.  And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to be crucified.

Reflection:  Reflecting on Jesus being mocked as the King of the Jews, his silence in the face of his accusers, and being adorned with a crown of thorns instead of jewels, our egos are challenged to feel the peace of God’s humble love. Yet, Jesus placed no blame and accepted his role to bear the pain and suffering.

His sacrifice and resurrection are our assurance that we may live without fear. And, through acceptance of our own thorns and challenges, find a deeper appreciation of the simple abundant joy, peace, and happiness that is revealed each time we free our minds from the self-inflicted pain of blame and judgement.

 

Prayer:  As Jesus so humbly endured the humiliation of his earthly passing, may we free ourselves from fear as we face and accept the challenges of our own earthly life. May our mindsets be soft to accept and appreciate the gifts in both the challenges and the joys. Amen

                                                     --- Heather Mosher

 

A Carton of Eggs - The Whip

 

Leather is made from raw or tanned hide. Leather is so versatile.

 We make shoes, belts, hats, vests, coats, pants, and tools.

 Leather is used to sharpen knives. 

It is used in armour, helmets, gloves. We use it as bikers.

 In Jesus day leather was used frequently for whips. 

A Bull whip, for instance moves so fast, the cracking sound is the sound barrier breaking.

 

Leather is worn by bikers because the material is tough and it offers protection. Leather is much tougher than human skin. When it is cut in large portions leather is protection from cuts and abrasions. Cut in small strips leather can cut. We see boxers hit with leather gloves, we see horses hit with riding crops…

 

Yes, a bull whip is made of leather. Like many things leather expresses the values, the attitude and the behaviour of the person who carries it. It was leather that protected Jesus’ feet, it was leather than cut his skin and made him bleed. It was leather that he used to carry heavy beams as a carpenter. It was leather that placed the weight of the cross on him as he carried it. In so many ways the lessons learned through leather is a challenge in how I use my tools, my words, my tongue, my tone. When I am expressing grace I am laying out the leather of protection, of comfort, of safety. When I am not expressing grace I am critical and my words cut much like a whip.

 

Jesus, your grace teaches us to receive challenge and acceptance. I am quick to see the challenge I am most vulnerable when I must receive the acceptance. Show me how to invite you to experience these moments of challenge and acceptance. We will do this together. Amen. 

                                                        ----Jeff Hosick

Moving Out of the Easy Chair

 When you go to someone’s house and are invited into their living room to sit down, how do you choose where to sit?  Do you choose the easy chair – that’s the winged-back, often reclining, upholstered chair? Do you go to the chesterfield? Or do you choose a hard surfaced chair – perhaps a rocking chair like the one I am sitting in?

Before sitting down, I make an effort to determine which seat is the most used by my host; I don’t sit there. I want my host to be comfortable. Then I scan for a chair that is an ideal talking distance from that seat. Third, I choose a seat that is hard and straight; having experienced being swallowed by a chair, or getting covered in pet hair, or not being able to reach my teacup or pass communion.  The hard chair suits my needs.  

In one of the Harry Potter books, Dumbledore, the headmaster at Hogwarts School of Magic says, “Dark times lie ahead of us and there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right.”

Today we reflect on the choices that we make --- if we take stock of our choices, it is surprising to see to how many one could apply the principal question, ‘am I choosing what is easy or what is right?’

What I appreciate about Dumbledore’s saying, is that the making of choices is reframed. Humans have a tendency to judge a choice or decision through their understanding of what is right and what is wrong. Determining and judging right from wrong can be tricky when so often choices are muddied and not so straightforward. Our concepts of right and wrong determine how it is that we articulate and perceive sin. We look at sin by judging what is right and what is wrong. We can say and believe that murder, stealing, and adultery are sin. Yet, there are times when there are caveats; it is not murder if it is self-defence. Determining sin gets tricky, especially in relation to sins outside of a simple view of the Ten Commandments. From my experience sin is more nuanced in our everyday living, and includes things done and left undone; sins of omission. Everyday sin falls into a spectrum of a choice between what is easy and what is right. The easy choice is not necessarily wrong – but isn’t fully life-giving either.

 

As always, the scriptures for today are placed on our path, to upend our thinking. God declares in Isaiah, My ways are not your ways, my thoughts not your thoughts. This passage draws on a deep concept that is repeated over and over in Hebrew scripture. God, described as abundantly merciful, calls, and waits for people to choose to turn, return, to the abundance of mercy.

In biblical texts ‘what is right’ is written in the word, ‘righteous’ or ‘righteousness.’  Readers and hearers have mistakenly understood righteousness as religious piety, something attainable by faithful people, however in the Hebrew scripture there are clues for a different understanding – God’s upending of our thinking.

Righteousness, tzadiyq, in Hebrew is often used in connection with word yasher meaning upright; upright being the core value of righteousness.  When the righteous are compared to the wicked, the Hebrew word used for wicked is connected to the verb to depart; if one is wicked, they have chosen to depart from relationship with God, each other, creation; suggesting that the polar action of depart --- to come, to return, applies to the definition of righteous. Righteousness can be defined as returning to relationship, following the path (the way) of God, which is described by Isaiah as abundantly merciful.

 

Jesus’ parable of the fig tree draws on this understanding of righteous and righteousness. As humans do, the landowner judges the lack of productivity and the lack of fruit on the tree as failure and cause for destruction/annihilation. The hands-off landowner comes to the vineyard to see the fig tree; there is no touching the tree or having any kind of relationship with it, yet despite not paying it any attention the landowner is expectant of receiving great things.

The gardener -God – has a different tact.  Getting hands dirty, being in relationship to the fig tree, the gardener tempers the human judgement of the landowner with a call to patience that includes a plea for further tending and cultivation. The gardener sees potential, promise, and growth. The gardener will wait through the fig trees long juvenile period (the 3-5 years) before it begins to bear fruit; in that time there is learning and growing. As the fig tree matures there is movement – in human beings the movement to maturity is one of making choices that shift from what is easy to what is right.

 

Following the way is an ever-continuing journey of making choices, continually seeking to move away from what is easy. On Ash Wednesday the congregation made confession; there was much on the list of confessions.  One of the confessions was an admission of “our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people:”

Reflecting on the journey of Christian maturity – on fruit bearing – lets use a simple example related to self-indulgent appetites and the exploitation of other people.

Consider the buying of a coat.  It is easy to go buy a coat. It is a harder choice – more mature- to leave the coat on the rack if you already have a coat; to keep wearing a coat that may be out of style and not yet thread bare for the sake of the environment.  If you need a coat, it is easy to buy a coat, yet there is a choice to be in relationship with the environment and buy second hand; there is choice to be in relationship with the earth by selecting natural fabrics; there is choice to be in relationship with the makers of the coat supporting non-sweat shop producers and to be willing to pay more for that coat; there is a choice to proclaim to others the finding of ethically made products; there is a choice to be in relationship with neighbours embracing homemade and locally made coats; there is a choice to be in relationship with God by following the way -covenant love- seeing the need around you and addressing the need by buying a coat for a stranger; there is a choice to be relationship with the stranger so rather than dropping the coat at a service agency you personally give the coat and sit down and talk with stranger; there is a choice to be in relationship with the stranger by taking them shopping and letting them choose their own coat; there is a choice to be in relationship with the stranger by inviting them to join you for dinner after shopping; or to go together to church, sit together, introduce them to the community.

There is always a choice that is a step farther away from easy and closer to what is right. This simple example of buying a coat is easy, maturity of relationship with the gardener – with God, determines where ‘what is right’ leads us.

Buying a coat is not about being right or wrong – it is an ever-maturing path of bearing fruit and making decisions that move away from easy. Moving away from easy, returns us to following the way.

 

May you in all your choices take pause…

Consider, these are dark times, and we must choose between what is easy and what is right.

Blessings as you mature through the patient tending and abundant mercy of the gardener; as you follow the way produce fruit for the healing of the world.

A Carton of Eggs - 30 Pieces of Silver

 

                                         30 Pieces of Silver the Price of Betrayal

“Search me God and know my heart, test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139

One of the most common acts of betrayal is usually considered to be the biblical story of Judas. An account of Judas’ betrayal of Christ is found in each of the four gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. So how should we interrupt this metaphor or symbol of the betrayal of Christ? Well, that is up to us as individuals but I will share a couple of my thoughts.

30 pieces of silver, the amount paid to Judas to betray Jesus has, over time, become a universally accepted insulting symbol of treason and betrayal. It is now seen as the price at which people will be willing to sell out their beliefs, values and even themselves.

The money that Judas received was a small amount, the sum to be paid to a slave’s owner if that slave were injured or killed in some manner. This can be symbolically seen as portraying Christ of having little value, as being worthless and useless. The irony in this of course is, that which was considered worthless has given us the most precious and priceless gift of eternal life.

While listening to a sermon once, the Pastor used the phrase “and Christ cried”. That was a “gut punch” to me. The thought and mental image of making loved one’s cry in disappointment let alone making Christ cry evoked such an emotional feeling in me that still to this day I cringe with guilt and remorse. Thankfully I haven’t been like Judas and betrayed Christ.

But wait, don’t I betray Christ every time I fail to live my beliefs, every time I don’t live a Christian life. Isn’t this the very definition of betrayal? What are our 30 pieces of silver that we accept as we betray our selves. We must certainly make Christ cry!

We are reminded through the example of Esau in Hebrews 12 that not every wrong can be made right. Not every decision can be reversed. Our choices can have permanent outcomes. There is a price to betrayal, one that we don’t want to pay and even in the healing, the trauma lives with us forever. So let us be ever mindful of how we treat ourselves, and how we treat others. Let’s make sure we choose God to make a home in our hearts and to guide our paths and be thankful for God’s forgiveness.

May God bless and keep each one of us on this journey, and may our love always show in our actions. Amen and so let it be!                                                                       

                                                                                          -----John Cameron

A Carton of Eggs - Praying Hands

 

Reflection on Prayer 

Prayer is traditionally viewed as one of the ways to deepen our relationships with God. However, at times it can feel that we are having a one side conversation and unsure if the message is being received. This can be especially hard for many of us as our busy lives and minds are constantly bombarded receiving, processing and interpreting information. It's not easy for us to find a moment to step into a reflective mode and still feel that anything is happening. 

Most people when they pray ask God for something. Asking God for these things acknowledges our dependence on God- in many ways for everything. Through the Gospel, we see Jesus taking time deliberately to go off and pray. We can especially see this leading up to Jesus' death. In Mark 14:32-42, Jesus enters the Garden of Gethsemane with Peter and James to pray. While praying Jesus finds Peter and James sleeping instead of praying three times.

Even though sometimes we can fall asleep in the sounds of silence, God does answer prayers. Although we may not get the answer we want, that is because God answered in a better way. Of course, one needs to be open to God's answer not just what you are expecting. The season of Lent provides many of us with that wake-up call.

Prayer can take many forms whether that is praying a set prayer, reading scripture, or just being in the presence of God. Whether 5 seconds, 5 mins or 5 hours- God hears us!  As St. Ignatius Loyola summarized " We must speak to God as a friend speaks to his friend, servant to his master; now asking some favour, now acknowledging our faults and communication to Him all that concerns us, our thoughts, our fears, our projects, our desires and in all things, seeking His counsel."

Almighty and every living God, you invite us deeper into your world, your people, your Lent. May this be one of outward focus; seeking you in those we often ignore. Help us live a Lent focused on freedom, generosity and encounter. Give us hearts hungry to serve you and those who need what we have to give. Amen. Author Unknown                                                                                                           

                                                                      ------Sarah Stanton

A Rocking Chair Dream

 

When young people come to me requesting to get married, I have a little project that I have them do individually that has them consider their family tree, family traits, beliefs, and the relationships within the family. The couple comes together to share and talk through their individual projects, with guiding reflection questions from me.  At the end of the session, I ask where the couple sees themselves in 5 years, then 10 years, and 50 years?

Along the way there have been couples who don’t include the partner in their 5 year explanation of where they will be or what they will be doing.  Those marriages usually don’t last.

In small towns and rural parishes, the answer – more than once- has been: ‘on our veranda, side-by-side in our rocking chairs.’ On further reflection – the couple points to ‘together’, whether that means in their own house, in an apt., a nursing home or hospital room. And if nothing else, side-by-side, in rocking chairs.

Isn’t that a beautiful image? To come to the latter years of one’s life with a relationship that can just be; where one can sit quietly in another’s company and simply watch the view; in peace, comfort, and contentment?

 

This morning we were told the story of Abram, along with wife Sarai, and nephew Lot, packing up their households and going to a God-promised-homeland, a place flowing with milk and honey --- a future dream where one can sit on their own veranda, side-by-side, with the people they love and watch their fields, the land; in peace, comfort, and contentment. Abram was a man of means.   He had the resources to be able to leave on a journey that would take months. He had pack animals to carry their possessions, provisions, and the people who went with him:  family, hired-hands, and slaves.

In the story we hear of Abram’s complaint of lacking an heir.  It seems crazy to take the risk of such a journey, to go to a new place, when one has no heir to inherit the land. Reading between the lines of the story, it is not that Abram doesn’t have an heir that is the most upsetting to him, it is an internal prejudice that his heir would be Eliezer of Damascus. In the Bible people whom one respects are referred to as so-and-so-the-son-of-so-and-so; here Eliezer is not the son of…; he is mentioned fatherless as, Eliezer of Damascus.  This is prejudicial language given to a slave, someone who is property; to use this term is to see a person as socially dead.

 

Regardless of this hiccup - Abram, whether or not he has a child, has the resources to live the ‘rocking-chair dream.’

 

But for many in Abram’s time a ‘rocking-chair dream’ was beyond imaginable. To lack children -an heir- would be problematic and cause a couple a lot of stress and fear.  It had nothing to do with having someone to hand on possessions to, but rather having someone to care for them as they aged, or provide food and shelter if they became sick or unable to work; grown sons were social security for wives/mothers and young children who had no income of their own. An heir was their social security net.

 

 

Translating the Abram story to the Canadian context, I think about the movement of people during pandemic. People leaving urban centres or busy lives--- being able to work from home was the incentive to take the opportunity to buy homes on the East Coast. It takes resources to move from one province to another. I have a couple of friends who did this very thing. My friends have an image that life will be good – flowing with milk and honey- as they transition towards retirement. They have the resources to believe in ‘a rocking-chair dream.’

 

But for many a ‘rocking-chair dream’ is beyond imaginable. Hardworking people in regular jobs are using more than 50% of their paychecks for rent. Rent in Halifax has jumped in the past year, where if you were lucky to have a 2 bedroom apartment for $1000/month; it is now over $1500 a month. The average 2 bedroom is approximately $2000/month. Renovictions are in the news too, where apartments are renovated, rents raised, and the people who had lived there can no longer afford to be there. Making minimum wage and working 40hrs a week for a month is just over $2100 a month. Regular workers are forced farther and farther from their jobs to find affordable places to live. And places to live -any kind of place- are in short supply.

Those who have relationship resources (families, friends, co-workers) have turned to multi-generational arrangements or communal living out of necessity, whether it is two households merging and sharing resources, or elders moving in with adult children, or adult children moving back home. There are people on constant journey: staying 3 months at one friends, then moving to a family member’s house for 3 months, then to another house for 3 months.

Thinking about the long view is troubling when facing survival in the present. Security is for those who have resources and this too can be troubling.  How many of you have done the math, to figure out if you have enough pension to last though to death? And if you live longer than the age you use to calculate your monthly pension, what then? 

The current reality is that verandas or front porches are inaccessible luxuries, even balconies are in short supply. A ‘rocking-chair dream’ is beyond comprehendible.  Sitting side-by-side on a park bench is difficult too, as benches in cities are becoming homes.

 

As always, the Bible doesn’t just tell a story, to tell a story; the story has a moment of turning, where the story and peoples’ understandings are flipped upside down. In the making of covenant with Abram, God tells Abram that he will have blood descendants and that there will be a period of 400 years where those descendants will be slaves. Abram’s prejudice toward ‘slave’ would become prejudice against his own. God is clarifying that lineage and slave do not disqualify people from inclusion in God’s covenant family.

 

By Jesus’ time, Abram’s descendants had been slaves in Egypt, been exiled/enslaved to Babylon, Assyria, Persia, and were now living in occupation under the Romans. The Gospel of Luke continually has Jesus sitting side-by-side with the widow, the orphan, the sick, the destitute, women.  He tells parables that turn stories upside down, where the theme includes breaking down prejudice and clarifying that lineage, slave, marginalized does not disqualify a person from inclusion in God’s covenant family.

 

From today’s reading Luke reminds readers that Jesus is connected to the prophets – living as a prophetic voice and acting prophetic action. Jesus tells listeners, “How often I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

The marginalized, the precariously housed, those sleeping on the streets, the underemployed, hear the words as comfort, because they have experienced Jesus being a mother hen to gather, shelter; giving comfort, hope, and promise to those who have been excluded from God’s house and covenant people. Those with resources ignore Jesus, and have no will to listen, because the listeners know the covenant and the image of God as mother hen is connected to God’s ‘rocking-chair dream.’  The ‘rocking-chair dream’ is about a living covenant: love God, love neighbour.

Early in the Gospel, Luke provides the theme and direction of the Gospel message by quoting a passage from Isaiah: the spirit of the Lord anointed me to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, give sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free, and proclaim year of Lord’s favour. It is a message that is received by those marginalized; divisive and controversial to those with resources;  and dangerous for those who act out this Gospel – for Jesus’ it led to capital death.

 

In our context, when speaking of those seeking affordable housing, the precariously housed, the homeless – there is prejudice. God is clarifying that having resources or a lack thereof does not disqualify someone from inclusion in God’s covenant family. We are reminded of the importance of relationship – whether to friends, family, the enslaved, the marginalized- and that relationship is a resource.

How can we as individuals and a faithful community be life-giving and provide ALL with hope: to see and realize comfort and stability, able to participate in the ‘rocking-chair dream?’

Church relationships, sharing our spaces, being willing to give up personal freedom to lend a room, rent a room, house relations, immigrants, help youth and seniors find affordable housing, help off-set rent for someone in the community, offer a bed for 3 months, loan a trailer, have a live-in caregiver, combine resources with others, those who live alone consider sharing apartments- so apartments open up for others; and then outside our own homes to lobby, fill out HRM visioning surveys, advocate for a living wage, demand affordable housing. 

Are we going to allow the readings from today to unsettle our notions and prejudices? Are we going to allow the Gospel to up-end our practices to consider housing ourselves in different ways, to cooperatively act and live to relieve housing stress?

 

When I think about a ‘rocking-chair dream,’ in latter years sitting side-by-side in another’s company simply taking in the view; in peace, comfort, and contentment --- I can’t help but think of the sprawling verandas on farm houses where there is room for more than two rocking chairs. Where there is room for many, many chairs; many couples, many families, many relations.

 

This is the dream, the big picture, God is calling Abram to; calling us to be a part of;

Building – a veranda – where all are invited, all are included, to come and relax; in peace, comfort, and contentment – gathered together under God’s mothering wings.

 

A Carton of Eggs - The Donkeys

 

 

When I think of the donkey, I am reminded of Jesus’ entrance into the Jerusalem- now known as Palm Sunday. The thing that strikes me the most about this specific story is the fact that in Mark 11:2-3, it is written “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you

enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ’why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and send it back shortly.” In Mathew 21:7: it states, “They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on it.” Although these two passages don’t

specifically mention Jesus riding the two donkeys, in Zechariah 9:9, it specifically

mentions “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

 

But what does this represent? I used to imagine Jesus riding in with one foot on

both donkeys, like Prince Ali in the movie Aladdin. You would imagine that such an

important person such as Jesus would ride in on a horse or carriage, yet he decided to

ride on two donkeys. He didn’t want to seem like a king. He wanted to represent peace

and humbleness.

 

During Lent we are told to reflect on our relationship with God. When we’re

humble, we concentrate more on others and less on ourselves. As an example, Jesus

was crucified and died for forgiveness of our sins.

 

Dear Lord, Thank you for being an example of humility. Help us to recognize when our

pride and stubbornness get on our way of being more like you. We pray that our words

and actions reflect humility toward everyone. Amen

----Meagan Stanton

A Carton of Eggs - Coloured Eggs

 

 

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me,

you will know my Father also.

From now on you do know him

and have seen him.”

 –John 14: 6-7 NRSV

 

The container is open! I look at the beautiful eggs nestled in their spaces and my curiosity arises very quickly. The image is on my computer so I click on a few of the eggs to see if they will open! Not today, but the promise remains. There is more to come.

For now, I sit in the moment and contemplate the image on my screen: the beautiful colours draw me in and I’m reminded of childhood treats in my Easter-basket. The bright orange was my favorite, the hard candy outside was such a contrast to the white fluffy confection inside. I ponder what sweetness/bitterness I will encounter on this Lent to Easter journey? I anticipate discoveries and teachings that await us as our hearts open to receive the unfolding, shell breaking, loving promise of Jesus.

But for now – in this time, I sit in the moment, breathe deeply, and feast on the colourful image of promises yet to be revealed.

 

Gracious and loving God, your faithfulness hovers over all creation and your promises are sure. Soften and pry open the shell that shields my heart so I may be filled with faith and longing for the completion of your loving and gracious promise that there is more to come. Amen.

                             ---- Pastor Pam McNeil