Mortals Ate the Bread of Angels

 

Summer Saturdays at Resurrection have included confirmation class in the parsonage yard. This summer we are taking a quick tour of the Bible. Last week’s lesson was the Exodus from Egypt with homework of reading about the wanderings of the people in the wilderness.  The class book, Manna and Mercy,  describes the wilderness wanderings as the people going to ‘wilderness school.’ There are three lessons to learn at the wilderness school before graduation: God gives manna for all. Hoarding stinks. And the gift of the sabbath.

All three lessons involved bread – manna. 

The section of Psalm 78 presented to us this morning is a verse of song that refers to the story of manna.  Reciting and praying the words are meant to turn our minds to the lessons of the wilderness, the lesson of bread.

The manna came from God – the doors of heaven were opened and manna rained down-  it was distributed across the ground, where everyone had equal access to it. It was not owned by anyone, it was a pure gift from God. Each day a family member went out to do the dignified work of gathering food to distribute to their household, to gather enough to meet the needs of their family; there was enough to go around for every household. There were some who didn’t trust the gift (or I guess trust God) and took extra to save for a later day.... well the extra bread rotted and when it rotted it stunk! No one was to hoard... there were consequences and everyone knew who took too much because of where the smell was coming from. And finally the day before the sabbath, people gathered two days worth of manna, so that they and God could rest on the 7^th day and enjoy each others company and leisure in creation.   

 

Jesus and the disciples left the feeding of the 5000 via boat. They went across the sea to the other side to avoid the crowds. Of course the crowds found them. The topic of discussion turns to bread--- and why not? Jesus has just provided a meal in the wilderness, taken everyone to wilderness school, reminded them of the Exodus wilderness school where God gave manna to all. The people would have made the connection.  The Exodus story was a primal people making story and the wilderness school lessons were founding principles and written in their covenant with God. The people would have recited, prayed, sung, the story -God’s gift of manna- many times growing up; through Psalm 78 and many other psalms which relate the same event. 

After this event the people who flock to Jesus ask:

What must we do to perform the works of God?

Jesus responded: this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom God has sent.

I don’t know that I would have been as kind as Jesus.  What must we do... well ... what did you learn at wilderness school? Love God and your neighbour as yourself. Meaning there is bread for all, make sure all have access, don’t hoard, and live so that sabbath rest can be enjoyed by all, with all, for all.  Missing the point, yet again, the crowd asks Jesus:

What sign are you going to give us?  At this point Jesus is very compassionate, once again I might have lost it. For goodness sake, Jesus just fed 5000 with 5 barley loaves and 2 dried fish...what kind of additional sign do you need?

 

I’m a little harsh on the people who flock to Jesus seeking signs and explanations ... seeming  to have forgotten the lessons from wilderness school.  When I look around the world today, when I look into the neighbourhood in which we live, we too want signs and explanations, and we have forgotten the lessons from wilderness school. Or if we haven’t forgotten the lessons from wilderness school, we are shy to live them, act on them, or advocate for them.

 

I think one of the most beautiful stories I have heard about a church performing the works of God – so about being bread-  was one I heard 3 years ago at National Church Assembly.  The story goes that:

 

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, was an established church in St. Petersburg, Russia.  It was built of wood and for generations had been kept up and loved by the people.  During World War II life was difficult in Russia, particularly for those on the margins.  The poor and those who were pushed off their lands congregated in St. Petersburg, looking for food and shelter.  As the war proceeded resources became ever more scarce; fuel to make small fires for warmth and the preparing of food was almost non-existent.  Citizens began to use pieces of board from the church to make their small fires so that they could survive … and guess what the church did?  They didn’t put up a fence, or hire a security guard, no chastisements were handed out – rather, the church allowed the people in need to use the resources they had to be bread so people could make bread; God’s kindom in that time and place, for the people, a people in desperate need. By the end of the war, the church building was close to gone, except for the boards too high to reach. The building was gone; the people survived. The church - God’s story – was alive. It was alive in the actions of the people. That’s what it means to be bread for the world.  It is a costly and compassionate grace.

An example – a living description of John 6: 33, For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

 

Think about the people of St. Mark’s church.  Consider their definition of church before the war, compared to after the war. The church was completely transformed through compassion and sacrifice, they became bread and gave life to the world. Are we prepared to be church in our time and place, even if it means sacrificing, and being completely changed /transformed in the process?

 

In the late 1800’s Francis Willard – an American educator, temperance reformer, women’s suffragist – lobbyist for an array of social and labour reforms-  said “indeed, if I were asked the mission of the ideal woman, I would reply: it is to make the whole world HOMELIKE.”

Translated to mother church, the mission of the ideal church is to make the whole world homelike.  What is home without bread, the baking, the sharing, the conversation while eating, the love given? What is home without compassion and making sacrifices?

 

I wonder if this is not what praying Psalm 78 is feeding us – a sense of home: for ourselves, creation, the whole human family, Mother Earth.  To remember and pray that, mortals ate of the bread of angels; God sent them food in abundance, is to be fuelled by sacred bread, miracle bread, the bread of life, love.... and once ingested – it is digested to a prerogative to share; into fuel for the action of sharing --- to live as bread.  As one of our communion prayers says: to give ourselves away as bread for the hungry.

 

For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

Experiencing the bread of God we are called to in turn give life to the world. God gives life to the world – manna- and wants to use our hearts, hands, and actions to do it.  This week remember and live the lessons of wilderness school: God gives manna for all. Hoarding stinks. And the gift of the sabbath... and through this living, God will use you, us, as bread for the hungry; giving life to the world.

Don't Let Small Minds Spoil the Banquet

God, 

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
    and all your faithful shall bless you.
 We will speak of the glory of your kingdom,
    and tell of your power,
to make known to all people your mighty deeds,
    and the glorious splendor of your kindom.  Amen.

 

The words I needed to hear this week came in the final moments of a continuing ed. course I’ve been taking on Social Media Marketing. The instructor encouraged students to embrace the following lifestyle hack:  don’t let small minds convince you that your dreams are too big!

DON’T LET SMALL MINDS CONVINCE YOU THAT YOUR DREAMS ARE TOO BIG!

 

 Think about those words in relation to Psalm 145.

Don’t let small minds convince you that your understanding of God, or God’s vision, or God’s abundance, or  God’s grace, or  GOD’S DREAMS ARE TOO BIG!

If you take the time to pray the selected verses (10-18) of Psalm 145, and you pray slowly, letting the words reach the inner workings of your brain and heart; and then once at the end, begin again; and then pray them once more... one will have a sense of God on a grand scale, a God full of abundance; a God who is far larger than we can contain and comprehend. The Psalmist -the writer of this prayer was convinced and proclaimed boldly the vastness of God and God’s dreams.

 

I needed to hear these words this week because I felt many moments of being overwhelmed. A lot of that came from various news sources and platforms. Whether COVID variants, spread, rise of cases, --- bringing border, travel, and economic tensions;  extreme weather, heat, flooding, fires, mudslides, typhons; unrest in Tigray, Afghanistan, South Africa; and unbecoming actions like political slander, protests, shootings, fines for not wearing bikini bottoms, forceful removal of homeless camps and huts, racially fueled unsportsmanship, jokes about the holocaust.. what is going on in our world?!

 

If I was to describe my younger inner-self, it would be like Suzy; full of spunk and an abundance of hope, with the belief that dreams and prayers come true; and that the world --- if we just all got over ourselves--- could live in harmony, where everyone’s needs are met, where war is a distant memory, and everyone cared for creation and each other. Suzy would say that this dream is not too big.

Somewhere along the way, my younger inner-self, was slowly convinced by small minds that dreams can be too big; that big dreams should be tempered, modified, brought into reality... at least this week that is how I felt.

 

That day Jesus was on the hillside teaching and healing, people were flocking from all over.  Jesus was teaching God’s dream,  encouraging the coming of God’s kingdom: people received their sight, demons were cast out, sins were forgiven, water was turned to wine; outsiders like women, Samaritans, and Gentiles were welcomed; those who thought themselves high and mighty were put in their place; harsh criticism was given to those who used the Law for their own gain, rather, than, for the love of God and people; and with 5 barely loaves and 2 dried fish Jesus fed a crowd of 5000.  Jesus was not listening to the small minds trying to convince the world that God’s dreams are too big.

 

Mom and I go for a daily walk and this spring and summer have noticed an abundance, particularly of flowering things.  The past few weeks one need only go for a walk on the peninsula of Halifax – look up- or use your nose- and you will note that the Linden trees are, heavy with flowers; so much so that the trees look almost yellowy as you see the flowers rather, than, the leaves.  I have to admit, I’m not so keen on the abundance being given by Linden trees.  I really don’t like the smell and in fact continue to wear my mask when walking – it helps me breathe. Yes, I am allergic to the Linden’s abundance.

Perhaps people are generally allergic to abundance or not so excited about it because it would mean living with a different frame of mind, with an attitude of there being more than enough, something for everyone, no need to hoard or use items to hold power over others, no need for taking, no fuel for consumerism, no need to get ahead, or put away for a rainy day. 

When it comes to Linden trees, I could hold a grudge, be annoyed, hold uncharitable thoughts, hate the tree, curse abundance, wish for scarcity, and take my right to protest until they are all chopped down...however; I can choose to embrace abundance in a different way.  Life ---  is not all about me and my needs.

The Linden tree’s abundance also brings an abundance of food, look into one of these trees – or use your ears- and you will note thousands of insects particularly a diversity of bees and moths; and on the ground eating up the wilted tree detritus, snails and all sizes of flies.  The abundance of the Linden tree is a whole ecosystem in and of itself.  With that knowledge I can have a love-hate relationship with the Linden’s and their abundance – I can make some sacrifices -itchy watery eyes, wearing a mask, taking anti-histamines- to preserve and take pleasure in the abundance the Linden’s give to other creatures; and the shade and oxygen provided to green the urban ecosystem.

 

Jesus, in feeding 5000 people with 5 barley loaves and 2 dried fish, followed by walking on water – is putting people in the middle of God’s dream, a new reality that embraces abundance in a life that is not all about me and my needs, but, rather, in a place beyond the impossible.  Jesus is teaching the disciples to not be afraid and to boldly embrace unfamiliarity – a world where 7 items can feed 5000 and a person can walk on water.

Too often ‘familiarity’ breeds the idea of ‘right,’ and the ‘unknown’ ‘unusual’ is understood as a threat and labeled as ‘wrong;’ the small minded convincing dreamers that their dreams are too big.

And get this, Jesus doesn’t use the resources of the rich.  John is specific about identifying the loaves as barley loaves – the bread of the poor. If you have been to the Fortress of Louisburg in Cape Breton you will know what I am talking about.  When going for food at the recreated settlement, the main fair is a vegetable root stew with round, hard-crusted, dense, wholegrain loaves of bread --- good for soaking in the stew juice –this is  common fair.  Rich bread was more fragile and spoilable, white and fluffy, soft crusted. Here Jesus uses the familiar food of the poor, barley loaves and dried fish, to perform a miracle.  Although white bread may be called ‘Wonder Bread,’ it is not the bread of miracles. Jesus shows that abundance is in the hands, the bread baskets, the fish racks, and the packed lunches of the ordinary and the poor.  This is the last place the world would think to source a miracle; to find abundance and food for all.

And yet, there it is...

The truth of God’s dream is in 5 simple nutritious hard crusted loaves of bread and the calloused-from-work hands of 5000.

 

2000 some odd years ago, something extraordinary happened. In the breaking of bread and fish, using the resources of the poor, Jesus lived God’s dream of abundance and in doing so fed the multitude, who then fed more, and more... and today we still tell and are fed by the story.

The story is to empower us to not be afraid, to boldly embrace living the miracle of God’s dream.  Psalm 145 reminds us of the abundance that is God and God’s dream.

To not fear, do not lose hope, dream big!

Proclaim God’s abundance. Live the miracle of life and do not let others convince you that your dreams are too big .. for they are not, they are but a reflection of God’s abundant dream!

 

God,

Your kindom is an everlasting kindom, and your dominion edures through all generations.

You are faithful in all your words, and gracious in all your deeds.

Praise be to you. Amen.

 

 

 

On Becoming Naturalized

 

For many summers I worked at Camp Edgewood, one of the Ontario sister camps to Camp Mush-a-Mush.  My favourite summers were those when I was the craft and nature program person.  I loved nothing more than sharing the gifts the forest and various eco-systems on the camps 52 acres provided: the camp director coming to me to forage burdock leaves to rid campers of the prickles from stinging nettle; to source yarrow to apply to poison ivy blisters; the wonder in the children’s eyes at the smell and taste of wild ginger root; the fun of painting one’s skin with blood root.

And then there were the items we could eat like dandelion leaves, lily flower pods, bramble berries, elderberries, and common plantain.

From the hardwood forest, to the cedar stand, the grassy limestone cliff, to the succession environment of the pond system, I felt at home when at the camp.

 

Today’s readings, Psalm 23 and exerts from Mark 6, have me thinking about my days at home on those 52 acres – territory of the Attawandaron people and the Mississaugas of the New Credit.

My experience of the land represents the feeling and image I have when hearing and praying Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd/ I shall not want. There are green pastures, still waters, an abundance of food and feasting, relationship, comfort.

The land is also the place I see going when I hear the words from Mark’s gospel,

Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while.

 

In a week, a counsellor had an afternoon off, and each night, time to split with their co-counsellor in the staff cabin after campers were in bed. There was not much time to ‘rest a while.’  It was like the Gospel -  For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

And because we did not want to look for a different summer job, and deep down we loved what we were doing, we had compassion because they -the campers- were like sheep without a shepherd.

 

We have been exploring the Psalms as Jesus’ prayer book and relating specific Psalms to what Jesus is up to in the Gospel for the day. Jesus’ prayer life – praying the Psalms- affected him; how he perceived the world, God in the world, living faith, his responsibility and actions in the world.

Jesus was an indigenous person in his place and time. Jesus, along with other Semites and Arabs, were of the land – the Greeks and Romans were the colonizers. Praying the 23^rd Psalm Jesus was tired, as were his disciples and the throngs of people who gathered around, waiting for God’s kindom – a place of rest, with green pastures and still waters, an abundance of oil and feasting for all.

 

Earlier I mentioned one of the plants that was part of my camp home – the Lord is my shepherd space, so to speak- the plant common plantain.  Recently I learned very interesting things about plantain, in First Nations communities it is known as White Man’s Footsteps. I thought because of how connected it was to the land, its relationship in the eco-system, that the plant was indigenous to Turtle Island... meaning always part of the land. Come to find out, that although now naturalized,  it was once a foreigner, an immigrant.

I have been reading the book “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Kimmerer; this is where I have learned more about the common plantain.

Common Plantain was called ‘white man’s footstep’ because it grew like a weed behind whatever path white people left trailing behind. Often ‘foreign’ species cause trouble as they move in. We know about that from plants today like purple loosestrife choking out marshlands, goutweed aggressively forming dense growth that kills diversity in the ground layer, and garlic mustard that produces a chemical toxic to a rare native butterfly. Plantain had a different attitude.

 

Praying the 23^rd Psalm talks to the heart, mind, and spirit about resting; being content; living in abundance; where one is in relationship to their surroundings and happenings.

As plantain stayed it chose to be a good neighbour, a wise plant. Its strategy, attitude, was to be useful, to fit into small places, to coexist.  To not be invasive – and to not focus on only taking- but rather to participate in and find a way to bring healing.

As it stayed and made itself at home people learned its gifts: that it was good as eating greens in the spring, a healing poultice for cuts, burns, and insect bites in the summer; the tiny seeds good for medicine for digestion. Its leaves can halt bleeding and stop infection ---- the plantain is a  generous plant; living with abundance. It is has naturally made it self at home in green pastures, by still waters, in the deserted places.

“After 500 yrs of being a good neighbour” it has been forgotten that it was once a foreigner. It belongs.

 

Psalm 23 is about belonging.

Belonging is about giving and taking, participating and working in relationship to bring healing and wholeness.

Belonging is being naturalized to place ---in relationship; fed and feeding, healed and healing... living the intention of gifts and responsibilities.

What an abundant ecosystem!

 

When praying – thus living Psalm 23- the events of Mark 6 means no guilt should be felt when stepping aside to rest because of the reciprocal nature of relationship. When in relationship there is give and take, time to rest when others work, time to give compassion when others step away, to ask for healing and mercy when needed, to give healing when their is brokenness around, when you are tired of telling the story someone else picks it up. The ecosystem is a cup overflowing, a table prepared in the presence of enemies (not to make us different from enemies, but a table of abundance to share, to continually offer in the hopes that enemies will have a seat at the table – will set aside fear,  turn from destroyed and chaotic paths left in their wake, to a place of rest – to a deserted place- to the Lord is my Shepherd kind of place).

 

We have a choice as foreigners on this planet, where trees and rocks and watersheds are thousands of years older than we, we can naturalize and belong.  We can be like Common plantain with an attitude to live in the spaces, to find something to offer, to be useful,  to coexist.

 

And coexisting --when in the contented place of rest - even if not sitting beside still waters and in green pastures but rather getting off a boat to see a crowd of people where there should just be a deserted place because you and your group are tired... it is there that one will find an abundance of compassion because you are settled in; you belong, you are connected to a strength greater than yourself.  

In belonging one understands at all levels that all belong in the ecosystem. Naturalization creates a circle of healing where there is hope, even for foreigners who as yet disregard the land and leave a trail of chaos behind them. As the displaced cross the land, plants and people, both indigenous and naturalized, will continue to teach, to offer healing, ... until by the Creator’s abundant grace working in relationship all belong.

Until the fruition of this promise -Until that day – let us continue to pray Jesus’ prayer book, specifically Psalm 23, with hope and confidence that the words naturalize us into the gifts and responsibilities of belonging in God’s abundant ecosystem.

Happy praying.  Amen.

The Great Reversal

Last weekend the Eastern Synod met in Assembly under the theme: Behold I am doing a new thing. One of the speakers, Diana Butler Bass, took these words from Isaiah and redirected our attention to the similar words found in Jeremiah. Isaiah’s prophetic word emphasizes God’s work and the new thing about to happen through God’s hands, and when complete is a reversal specifically of the environmental crisis --- deserts will reverse to lands flowing with milk and honey. In Jeremiah, Behold I am doing a new thing, is prophetic word that emphasizes the responsibility of people, and when in its fullness is a reversal specifically of economic and social constructs --- the example given is completely upturning the system to be lead -ruled- by women. This in 600BCE.

In today’s Gospel we witness what happens when ‘the great reversal’ is emphasized and brought into being.  Jesus is preaching in his home synagogue; no one has trouble with this – he was invited to speak, to take his turn. The problem is the deeds of power through his hands; the power is reversing the status quo, the so-called balance that has settled out in the community. The problem is that people  -the other people; those people- are having individual reversal of  whatever has made them outcasts; reversal such that coming back into the community they are creating fear and tension with those who see no need for reversal.

And the synagogue community is not kind: to say Jesus is a carpenter.... is to say he’s JUST a labourer; to say this Mary’s son (with no mention of Joseph).. is to say Jesus is a bastard.  The community is not being kind! Who does this guy think he is, how can he have so much wisdom?  The community is not welcoming of the reversal happening through his hands.

So my quandary this week, as we continue praying through Jesus’ prayer book,

considers how Psalm 123 plays out in the community.  I think that prayer 123 contains words  that enact and empower ‘the great reversal.’

Psalm 123 is a prayer for deliverance from enemies, a rescue from oppression. It contains a threefold appeal to God for mercy.  The Psalmist is quite clear that the opponents are the wealthy (the at ease) and the arrogant (proud). It is a song of Ascent, included in Psalms recited by those on pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem.

Okay, so- this psalm would be prayed by Jesus.  This prayer would be recited by the synagogue community; individually and as a group. This psalm would be prayed, perhaps sung, by neighbouring synagogues and communities. The prayer would be on the lips of priests, Pharisees, scribes, Sanhedrin officials.  The prayer would be in the mouths of the widows and the lepers. --A prayer for deliverance from enemies, a rescue from oppression--

Prayer 123 has moved through the lips of those whom I would consider oppressed, but, also on the lips of those who were the oppressor. The Psalm was spoken by Jews in concentration camps, as well as their Christian captors; by slaves cutting cotton and by slave owners whipping workers. The Psalm has passed through the lips of Indigenous children and by the church running residential schools.

In Jesus’ time Psalm 123 was recited – prayed- by the people of Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem; a people under Roman occupation and oppression. Within their own community the religious leaders and officials  - the wealthy and established – prayed this prayer along with those who by the official religious system were oppressed and labelled outcast, just a labourer, bastards.

 Do you see how this Psalm is making me queasy and has my tummy in knots?

With the truth of residential schools, with growing incidents of Islamophobia, with BlackLivesMatter and #metoo, with people sheltering in parks, with food insecurity, with refugees the world over seeking refuge and finding no welcome, with the disparity of COVID vaccine availability ---

Can I seriously pray Psalm 123, for deliverance from enemies, a rescue from oppression- from “those at ease” and the arrogant?  In the big picture, am I not “at ease” and arrogant?

Metaphorically I sense the prayer as the oppressor being ‘evil’ or ‘the human condition,’ perhaps stated ‘all that is wrong with the world;’ a power outside the realm of my control. This does not make Prayer 123 any less problematic, or ‘okay’ to be my prayer by any stretch of the imagination.

And this is exactly the power of words and prayer.

To be in a such a state of wanting to ask for mercy and being appalled in the same breath, to be oppressed in a spiritual or metaphorical way, while being complicit  in the oppression of others --- praying the words are changing my understanding of relationship with God and others, pushing me to look  not just for bestowed mercy from God but also at my responsibility in bestowing mercy. The prayer is working ‘the great reversal.’

Bonhoeffer wrote: “if we are to pray aright, perhaps it is quite necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart. Not what we want to pray is important, but what God wants us to pray.”

Diana Butler Bass, continued in her presentation to Synod Assembly, by getting to the importance of the words, Behold I am doing a new thing  ... the church and society is in a liminal space. Looking behind there is a vast wilderness of dry bones; a landscape carved out by systems (injustices) that became normalized, COVID protocols and behaviours that have become in some ways comfortable, a church that was circling inward to protect itself and live in a theology of scarcity--- turning from the wilderness,  stretched before humanity is a new land, flowing with milk and honey, an option for fresh air, new life; new ways to entertain, experience, hear and share the Gospel. The liminal space is a vantage point for both options where there is choice to return for another decade to circle in the wilderness or courageously step into the new thing God is doing.

Through the centuries people of faith have prayed Psalm 123 – while in enslaved and in captivity, while wandering in the desert, while disapproving and belittling prophets, while being wealthy – at ease and arrogant, while being occupied and in political unrest, while committing atrocities in the name of God, while suffering, while lamenting.  The words have worked in the hearts and minds of people. Power has come from the words.

It is a good thing to be troubled by the prayer ... it is troubling the waters of our hearts ... God is troubling the waters of our hearts... calling us to responsibility to courageously embrace the new thing God is doing... and yes it requires us, mercy shown through human hands, just as the disciples went to heal – showing God’s mercy and love.

‘the great reversal’ is God’s reign, God’s vision of kindom come to fruition. It doesn’t just happen and it is not second nature to human beings. Whether oppressed or oppressor Psalm 123 unites human prayer without judgement of where one is, or the multiple of places one is, on the oppressed/oppressor spectrum; the same is true for communities. God hears unconditionally and equally. God hears the cry for mercy as the speakers -to varying degrees- wake to the call to be responsible (not at ease, not arrogant).

As we have prayed Psalm 123 and take time individually to pray it throughout the week, may the words disturb us to be courageous in participating in the ‘great reversal.’ God says, Behold, I am about to do a new thing

 

 

 

 

The Gospel According to the Letter S

 based on the resurrection from Luke's Gospel

Seeing sunrise, the Society of Marys, slipped silently with special savory salve to sanctify their Shepherd's shell in the sacred steppe.

Surprised - the Society stopped, shocked! The sepulcher's security stone sat sideways, standing spearate.

The Society, seeking their Shepherd, searched the surrounding space.  Seated in the shady sepulcher, simple seraphs spoke, summoning the Society.  The seraphs shared the serious story of the Saviour --- Son of God; stressing the Saviour's sayings, stories, signs, and satisfying shortages.  Their speech's summit: the sabotaged Shepherd succumbed, sanctioned by sanctuary shaman, society sorts, and stately senators; savagely scourged, scorned, shamed, scarred, and slaughtered!

Silenced, suspended in space, then SHA-WHAM-- swiftly sprouting, the Shepherd stood, shifting to Saviour.

Spurred, the Society's stretched senses, seized the spectacular scoop.  Stirred, they sprinted to spread the sensational story.

The Shepherd's students, skeptical of the scintillating saga spoken, speculated the Society was scammed - the story a sham.

Spunky Peter swiftly scampered to the sepulchre. Seeking substantiation, searched the sepulchre, sightig swaddling strips and stark space. Significantly strengthened at the sight peter stated, "the Shepherd survives, Saviour!  Splendid!

The Gospel According to the Letter G

 based on the Luke's version of the resurrection

 

Greeting the genitive glow, the graceful group of Mary’s gathered to go to the glistening garden with their grieving gift; grainily ground gums.

Going into the glum graveyard, the graceful group gasped.  The grave’s gigantic granite gateway – gone!

The group gazed into the gaping grave.

Gleaming gents gently gestured the graceful group to give-ear. Gregariously, the gents gabbed:

God-in-human-guise, the Galilean guru’s goal ---- grow and guide a group with the galvanizing grip of God’s grace.  Go through gritty grime of gross gestures, be gruffly goaded, and gravitate to gory gutting by guileful, gutless, and greedy – guides, gurus, generals, and governors- guys generating guilt on God-in-human-guise.

 Guilty!  So, gruesomely gutted!

 

Good Friday gone --- a grave grovelling ghost --- then genuine glorified regeneration!

 

Grasping the Gospel the graceful group,  -giggling, grateful and glad-  gossiped the guargantum good news to the Galilean guru’s guys.  The guys, gob-smacked, glowered at the graceful group, guessing the group gullible to the gents’ gabbings.

Good grief guys. Get-with-it! It’s God’s greatest gift of grace generously given!

 

Grappling the Gospel, Peter galloped, got going to the grave.  The guy, gloriously greeted by ground-breaking goodness.  The grave, gaping!

God-in-human-guise’s good grace, growing.  Groovy!

 

...it involves a canoe

 I have a parable on the tip of my tongue...

...it involves a canoe.

 

And as parables go it is most certainly a metaphor for the kindom of God, although I do not have all the pieces figured out; like the kindom of God, the parable of the canoe is a work in progress.

 

I started the week thinking about the storm at sea with the anxious disciples waking Jesus, demanding that he do something – this, set beside ponderings of World Refugee Day and the stories from past congregation members who were Displaced Persons from WWII, who boarded all kinds of boats and seafaring craft, hopping from harbour to harbour, seeking safe passage to far off lands to settle and rebuild their lives. The stories were of families boarding separate ships to escape quickly, ships that were sunk by the machines of war, hiding in underbellies of boats for weeks on end, months of rolling seas and motion sickness, witnessing deaths and burials at sea, and the wishing -praying- for land.  

I wonder where was Jesus on these ships full of refugees – where was he sleeping?

 Jesus, wake up and do something, please?

These are not the questions I heard in the stories of once Displaced Persons.

The stories were bone chilling, and yet, the deeper the cold penetrated the more the story included talking of faith, of prayer, of reciting psalms, of singing hymns, of experiencing the presence of angels, of feeling that one was not alone in the storm and chaos at sea. Jesus was already awake and in their midst; in the midst of putrid air, salt ravished skin, shrunken bellies, the infestation of rats, in sickness and in death. 

 

I have a parable on the tip of my tongue...

...it involves a canoe.

 

In my Bible, Psalm 107 has been given the title, “Thanksgiving for a Return From Exile.”

This morning we heard one of four cases presented in the psalm, the case of those fearing storm and sea. The others cases are: the case of those who hunger and thirst, the case of those in darkness and gloom, and the case of those suffering in sin and affliction.  Each is a vignette of deliverance where those in the circumstance described are redeemed  and all benefit from God’s saving work. The hungry are fed, the gloom-mired are liberated, the dead in sin are given life, the fearful are hopeful. The thrust of the Psalm -in praying this psalm- a congregation, the community, is to embrace and understand themselves as redeemed.

Redeemed is the starting point – regardless of the condition or case a remedy is at hand- God’s unconditional covenant loyalty, God’s steadfast love is at hand, present, and soaked in during the journey.

 

Okay back to the pieces of the canoe parable.

 

Getting in a boat, any kind of boat, other than a canoe, no matter how excited I might be for the adventure, how calm I appear, I start in a private fear that I will feel ill later on, and will need time to recover. I will likely get tired and grouchy and not be very nice to be around.

But put me in a canoe and I am happy.  I love canoes and canoeing. I do not get motion sick in a canoe.

With lifejacket on and paddle in hand, I settle into a canoe, legs crossed as I lightly sit on the front of the provided seat. I place my paddle in the water and with ‘j’, ‘s’, and ‘c’ strokes gently glide the canoe forward in the waterway. As I paddle, the troubles of life seem to drip off the paddle, swirling away in the eddies that flow from the boat. The canoe sits in the water, embraced by the water on either side; you can touch the water, move through it, see into it. With your own hands the paddle strokes can take you anywhere you want to go.

I realized this week I like canoeing because in a canoe I feel close to nature, as if the Creator is hugging the boat – and me, and together we are on a journey -an adventure of awe and wonder. I feel connected, at peace, that all is right with the world; canoeing is a moment of how I imagine God’s kindom to feel.

I also realized – much to my annoyance- that I like canoeing because in a canoe (for the most part) I have control.  And this is where the parable of the canoe should have a pithy turning of the image.  But that is beyond me... because I am stuck wrestling with the concept, and very real reality, that I like to be in control.

 

The hardest part of the storm and waves of the past year, for me, centred around control – or the lack of my ability to control circumstances. I was not in a canoe.  I was in some sort of a large barge, frigate, or ocean liner, being tossed about feeling sick, discombobulated, and not able to do anything to stop swaying or the storm.

The less control I feel that I have, the more anxious and fearful I become.

 

I guess I should have been praying from Jesus’ prayer book, Psalm 107, where the focus is to accept ones lack of control and wash oneself in the understanding and faith that one -that peoples- begin redeemed; that God’s steadfast love and covenant loyalty are at hand.  Having this prayer in ones’ heart, in a sense, controls one’s response to the case, crisis, or storm wherein one finds themselves. I can control what I pray. I can’t control how it will or won’t affect me when full of fear or find myself in short supply.

 

I have a story that I have told you many times before, it is of a man who set up a competition between two famous painters.  The painter’s task was to paint a scene that illustrated a true picture of peace. The one artist painted a lovely idyllic scene in soft pastels, with green pastures, a babbling brook, cute little sheep, and soft puffy clouds hanging in the sky.

The other painter painted a sparrow with her nest tucked tightly in the ‘v’ between trunk and branch.  The mama bird was sitting peacefully on her nest, seemingly unware, that the tree leaned out over a raging spring river, with white water overflowing the banks and swallowing the bottom of the tree. As the paintings were unveiled, the first artist was given praise for the peace presented in the work – the crowd relaxing sighed together. The second work received a gasp! How can this be peace?  In the end the second work won the competition ... peace and faith are confidence and assurance amidst the storms of life that you have no control over.

 

I have a parable on the tip of my tongue...

... it is about a canoe.

 

I remember a family canoeing adventure, where the river became too shallow for two people to be in the canoe.  My brother volunteered to take the lead ropes of the canoes and carefully walk up the river until we found deeper water. Mom, dad, and myself walked along the shore. All was great. Without having to portage the canoes we reached deeper water. My brother had done a great job, just wet to his knees.  As we settled into the canoes, my brother while trying to get into his canoe, somehow caught his foot on the side rail and fell into the river. He was soaking wet. You can have the best laid plans, and seemingly be in control ... until one is not.

 

I am still working out the parable of the canoe.  I am still working out my relationship with matters of control. I wrestle with taking the risk to let go of fear, and even with the strong possibility of sickness, to board the large barge, frigate, or ocean liner and encounter God, God’s covenant loyalty, and in the midst of storm – uncontrolled by me - to hear the words of Psalm 107 rise from my heart.  The same words used to compose the hymn, Eternal Father, Strong to Save, that has me cry every time I hear it. I lose control ... and it feels good as I feel waves of liberation and life and hope drown me.

 

And when in my happy place, in the canoe, here too I wrestle with control.  Sometimes I need to stop paddling -to let go – and see where God takes me. Or to let someone else paddle, the community sharing in the kindom.

 

I have a parable on the tip of my tongue...

... it is about a canoe.

 

...it is about God’s covenant loyalty and the fullness of the kindom of God.

 ... it is a work in progress.

 

 

Sprawling Is the Kindom

Today’s sermon is brought to you by the word:  Sprawling (spell out) 

In the Public Gardens there are a number of  sprawling rhododendron; one in particular – when standing at the bandshell, looking at the coffee house, glance right and there is a massive sprawling group of rhododendron.  What captures my attention with this group of shrubs – is its WELCOME.  It beckons children, to run underneath and through the little trails hidden inside; a dozen or more could easily be engulfed in the branches. The access holes are tiny, for those who are younger than three. Once inside the bush it is its own world.  City noise is hushed, the air is cool, and you have a birds-eye-view of the world from a hidden fort. The children have fun hiding from their parents and chasing each other; playing make-believe and running with fairies.  Besides the children, this section of the garden is home to all kinds insects – bees, and a variety of birds, including flickers – which I have not seen in too many other places in Halifax.

When I hear the parable of the mustard seed and the massive sprawling shrub that grows – I think of the rhododendron in the Public Gardens; their beauty, their shade, the laughter of children, the enjoyment by onlookers, the home provided for creatures of all kinds. It is a beautiful image for the wholeness of God’s kindom.

 

For those not so nature oriented, consider the image of a person sprawling on a couch, wearing comfy lounging clothes, everything they need – tv converter, cell phone, gaming equipment, snacks, beverages, reading material- all within reach; and bodily taking up every inch of the couch. The sprawl-er is totally in their own world and has no concept of being in another’s space or being watched; they just are enjoying, being, grounded in their space and time. This is the parable of mustard shrub; grounded - it is pushing its boundaries, expanding out, reaching.  Being in all its glory. This is an image of the wholeness of God’s kindom.

 

Today we once again focus on the prayer book of Jesus; this time prayer #92 – a Psalm that plants an image of the kindom of God, alive and expanding. The Psalm is really quite spectacular in its imagery and meaning. Praying this Psalm, is praying as in the Lord’s Prayer, ‘your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.’

 

Psalm 92 is one of few psalms assigned to a particular occasion and more specifically a day.  It’s title is: ‘A Song for the Sabbath Day.’ And there are three important pieces to note:

The first are the references to creation. When the psalm says ‘your work’ or ‘the works of your hands’  the author is speaking to God as creator;  creating, being God’s work. Not only that, but if one reads the whole Psalm you will see that the name of God appears 7x in the Psalm. The creation story is laid out in the form that God took 6 days to create and on the 7^th day rested.  Creation -God’s work- takes 7 days.

The second piece to note expands from God’s work of 7 days – to focus on the 7^th  when God rested, the Sabbath.  A day when people offer prayers, music, worship in the house of the Lord – in the time of the Psalm in the Temple.

The third piece expands the image one more time by describing the courts of the Lord where creation flourishes – that is in the divine presence. The Mishnah describes this psalm as “a song for the world that is to come, for the day which is wholly sabbath rest for eternity.” The Psalm is eschatological.  Sabbath is not only the 7^th day but also a symbol of the ‘rest to come’, like our communion liturgy says, “a foretaste of the feast to come.”  At the feast, at the sabbath rest of eternity, there is a fullness of promise. Vs.14 states- in old age the faithful will still produce fruit and always be green and full of sap ---- the relationship and movement of creation, sabbath, creation comes full circle; in the fullness of time  – in the ultimate coming of the kindom.

 

Proclaiming prayer#92 is an act of faith – we declare God’s steadfast love while we wait for the fullness of the promise, God’s flourishing kindom.  It is images from Jesus’ prayer book – the Psalms- that Jesus draws on when speaking in parables -like the parable of the mustard seed as an interpretation of Psalm 92. And it is the praying of the image from this Psalm that keeps me hopeful and faithful when it would be so easy to throw up my hands and say, “I give up. I quit.” Today’s readings continue to foster hope in me because I can truly picture the fullness of the metaphor of the sprawling tree; some would call it naivete or wishful thinking but I do fathom the possibilities of the wholeness of creation and kindom.

After the hate, disrespect, lack of understanding, no effort at relationship that manifests itself through human life, and these past few weeks has been brought into the open --- Islamophobia, deaths at residential schools, it is so easy to for the image of kindom to be swallowed in shadow and be wiped away. However, the image of the kindom described using trees has been repeated so often in scripture – so often by me in reading scripture, hearing the image used by those around me, in liturgy, and in hymns; that there is a seed that has been planted deep down inside me, and in you.

I read this phrase this week:  “Once a seed is planted it is a mystery being revealed.”

And I suppose this has been my experience as I wrestle with the horrors of hate, racism, attitudes of superiority, being complacent in systems that hurt and destroy. Deep down inside seeds have been planted and unannounced to me they have grown– the kindom has put in deep roots and in times like these now wants to push its growth outward like sprawling of bush.  The kindom seeds want to expand -to sprawl- from me. Praying this psalm reminds us that we are growing – sprawling – from being in the divine presence.  And this is so important, as the passing on of the hope of wholeness, is an ever a greater task. It is difficult to see and experience hope in jungle of life. To proclaim the psalm, this psalm, is to act in faith of that which is not yet realized, and in recent weeks not seen.

 

So that you remember this point, if none other, I have left an important aspect of this Psalm to end the sermon. This psalm is communal in nature and values relationship. So much so, that talking about kindom is only talked about within an image and practice of community.

 In my ministry I have heard many people, in a confessional sort of way, tell me that they are not a church person, but none-the-less are a good person. I won’t argue that there are good people who are not connected to a religious or faith community.  However; being a good person is not the call of Jesus, or the call that comes from Jesus’ prayer book. Faith and call are not an individual activity. For instance, I am sure there were good people at residential schools, but that did not stop horrendous acts or the inherent evil in the system; even though good people, and actions that they did or didn’t do, may have momentarily made a difference, but, did nothing to address the overall horrors within the system. To change a system it really takes speaking and acting as a  community.

Prayer #92 confronts us with the fact that Sabbath is a community event, kindom is a community event – it can not be done alone, no matter how good a person might be.  The psalm makes this clear: when speaking of formal worship and praising God, there is a list of instruments playing, -lute, harp and lyre- one person can not possibly play all these at the same time – there is need of a group working together, listening to each other, to make sabbath music that declares the steadfast love of God.  Love is relational!  The kindom of God is relational.

 

Let us crawl in under the sprawling rhododendron. Breathe in this image of the kindom of God. Pray, ‘your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’

Be blessed to expand the kindom, a Sabbath that sprawls into the rest of this week, sprawls into your way of living and being, sprawls through you where you continually face the troubles of the world, the irritants, human failures with a continued declaration of God’s steadfast love; making this declaration as an act of faith for the kindom yet to be... and praying that it may happen soon, in the present, as we work together in community.

The Gospel According to the Letter 'R'

 Right-off the reliable remnant, the requisite Marys, roamed to the rock-hewn resting-place of the retired, to realize the required requiem rituals.

The rock-face of the rock-hewn receptical was rendered reachable for the rock roof was rolled right away. Relieved the remnant reverently relaxed into the recessed resting-place; revealing a Rabbi-less room, with remaining relics - rags.

Rapidly the razzle-dazzled reaction reverted to review radiant revelators who reassured the remnant and requested reflection: "Why reach to reveal the resusitated in the rotting? The Rabbi is not in rigamortous, rather, risen!"

Remember the Rabbi's Rule: restoration resources, route to renewal, and rabble-rousing retorts that reaped ramifications recommended from renigade religious representatives and regal Roman rulers--- the Rabbi - restricted, ruffed up, ridiculed, ruined - ravagely wrecked! Remaining removed, to return, restored, raised !

The remnant realized the reliability of the radiant revelators recitation - the Rabbi's return, really real!

Rapturously rivited, the remnant rushed to relay the radical revelation to the Rabbi's ranks. The ranks retorted, "The Remnant is reveling in raving rambles. Ridiculous!"

Receptive Peter, rapidly ran. Reaching the resting-place, reconnitoring the receptical, realized no remains.  The Rabbi, resurrected!

Praying Politically Subversive Statements

 

Jesus went home; and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat.  When Jesus’ family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’    Mark 3: 20

 

Jesus’ family is worried about him, so they go to him – perhaps to see for themselves or to talk sense into him or to protect him from the crowds. There is real concern for people are saying Jesus is out of his mind while others are saying that Jesus is possessed by the devil. Jesus is certainly drawing attention and crowds: perf0rming miracle after miracle, touching the sick, eating with sinners,  casting out demons, and telling what sound like prophetic parables that include dangerous kingdom talk.

It sounds overwhelming, chaotic: imagine being surrounded by large groups of disenfranchised people those looking for God’s steadfast love by means outside of the Temple, the Temple officials wanting a return of control of power over the people, people in the margins needing healing and words of hope, the insurrectionists who think Jesus might just be the military Messiah they are dreaming of.

 

I picture a scene of:  logging protestors, anti-maskers, pro-Palestinians, Pride flag bearers, BlackLivesMatter marchers, drummers calling for truth and reconciliation, people placing pairs of tiny shoes for Indigenous children’s lives lost, all gathered in a park around the tents of the homeless and precariously housed – all there because Jesus has something to say or be for the cause, the circumstance, directly affecting their life. Arriving and standing on the sidelines poised, ready, are eager reporters, curious bystanders -phones out to record, and flack-jacketed law enforcement. And in the middle of this crowd is Jesus standing on a picnic table, portable mic in hand – speaking kin-dom truth, while the disciples act as body guards pushing the crowd off the table.

 

And this is why the Psalms (otherwise known as the Psalter) was Jesus’ prayer book;

and for the summer will be our prayer book, our focus.

 

This past week I was reading a blog about Bonhoeffer where the author described the Psalms as politically subversive statements. Continuing to say that Bonhoeffer – following in the steps of Jesus- used the Psalms as a prayer book; praying the Psalms led both, Jesus and Bonhoeffer, to actions that had them face execution.  Praying the Psalms is a powerful way to join in the work of God, the kin-dom, -- but it is dangerous to pray politically subversive statements.

 It is dangerous because, as Mother Theresa once said, “I use to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know prayer changes us, and we change things.”

 

The powers-that-be do like when ‘WE’  including any person I mentioned standing in the park around Jesus on the picnic table, change, and then change things. Praying the Psalms is a continuation of the revolutionary work of Jesus passed on through the ages in a community of Spirit joined by the steadfast love of God that endures forever.

 

Bonhoeffer in his book, “Life Together,” explains ‘the secret of the Psalter,’ where those who pray (not read, but pray) the psalms learn three things.  First a person learns what prayer means by praying the Word of God including God’s promises; secondly one learns what one should pray; and thirdly one learns to pray as a fellowship.

 

Over the years, I have heard two opinions about the Psalms, both opinions often held by the same person: that the psalms are comforting so should be used all the time, while others are over the top and should be entirely excluded. The Psalms present joy, that for some is too high; pain that is too sharp; sufferings that are too distant; expressions that are too harsh; thoughts that are too private to share aloud - politically incorrect or impolite to speak aloud even though the thoughts have passed through the mind.

 

Bonhoeffer described the Psalms as prayer for the community – a fellowship – which for Christians is centred with Christ. A paraphrase of his thought goes something like this:

Each of our individual prayers is but a minute fragment of the whole prayer of the church.  As we pray a psalm, we enter the prayers of Jesus -the very ones Jesus prayed - and so we are transported to enter into Christ’s sufferings when he prayed the psalms – we are with Jesus singing the Psalms after the Last Supper, with Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, with Jesus crying from the cross. When we enter the prayers of Jesus we encounter in that prayer place others who also have prayed with Christ. Our prayers do not end in Jesus’ earthly moments, our connection then moves outward to Christ’s entering the sufferings in the current world through those praying the Psalms in the circumstances in which they find themselves – at a death bed, in the refugee camp, in residential schools and in the remaining trauma, in forgotten burials mounds, in an AIDS hospice, in an internment facility, in the courtroom, behind bars; we enter the prayers, the lives of others who are praying from their experiences that are beyond our own – we enter the sufferings of all, a fellowship of prayer that extends way beyond our boundaries and sense of comfort. This profound fellowship, profound prayer, changes us... so that we change things.

 

Jesus was not out of his mind or possessed by devils, he was empowered.

Praying the politically subversive statements of the Psalms, entering the extremes and depths of human emotion, connected to the promises of God, embraced in the Word – God’s steadfast love enduring forever and ever, had Jesus prophetically and boldly preach and bring the kin-dom of God to the present.

And yes, it was dangerous...

the sick were healed, the possessed were set free, the hungry were fed, the powers-that-be were put in their place, hope was given, grace shared;

the marginalized were included, people were not forgotten, differing views stood side-by-side, gross injustice was named,

 and a fellowship of unlikely groups came together to listen, to pray, to enter each others’ sufferings,  to change... and thus change things, for the healing of the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him.  A crowd was siting around him; and they said to Jesus, “ your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And Jesus replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, Jesus said, “here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Mark 3: 31-33