Sermon from Sunday, February 15, 2015

Scripture:  Mark 9:2-9

 

Does anyone today see the glory of God as the three disciples did – when they followed Jesus up a mountain and saw him radiant with heavenly light, shining with the wisdom of the Law and the prophets – and where a voice from heaven overwhelmed and silenced their stuttering attempt at worship with the command to listen and to follow his way to Jerusalem, to a confrontation with the powers of the day, and to the cross? 

Does anyone today see the glory of God as Moses did – when in the wilderness on the way to the promised land he alone dared to go up Mt Sinai into the cloud and the fire, to be in the presence of God, where his own face took on a heavenly shining that the people could not bear to look at, and where he was given the Ten Commandments to give to the people gathered below to guide them and help then live as God’s people against the ways of other people and other gods around them? 

Does anyone today see the glory of God in that way, and with that effect? 

A month ago much of the world joined the States in observing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to celebrate a man who followed a call of Christ to confront the powers and the mindset of our day, and a call of God to come up to a mountain to see what he needed to see to guide his people rightly.  In a speech in Memphis on April 3, 1968, he said: 

I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days

ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been

to the mountaintop.

And I don't mind. 

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life.  Longevity has its place. 

But I'm not concerned about that now.  I just want to do God's will. 

And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain.   

And I've looked over.  And I've seen the Promised Land.  

I may not get there with you.  But I want you to know tonight,

that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!  

And so I'm happy, tonight.

I'm not worried about anything.

I'm not fearing any man!

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!! 

The next day he was shot and killed.  But as he said, he just wanted to do God’s will, and he knew God’s will for himself and his people in our time because many times in his life he was up on that mountain witnessing the glory of God and God’s good will, being given what was needed to guide the people who waited down below. 

I don’t think I want to see the glory of God as he did.  It’s pretty costly and once you’ve seen it can you ever turn back?  Maybe there’s a reason why God invited only Moses to go up into the cloud and fire of Mt Sinai, and why Jesus took only three of his disciples up the mountain with him. 

I like my epiphanies and theophanies more tame.   The glory of God in a sunset or sunrise is something I can handle, and brings me deep peace and reassurance.  The light of God in a child’s or a partner’s or a friend’s face is warm and inviting; it helps me embrace and be embraced by the goodness of life.  The beauty of God in an iris or a monarch butterfly or a flock of geese flying overhead moves me to praise and wonder, and to a freshened commitment to care for the Earth God has called into such wonderful being.  For me, the truth of God in communion and in heartfelt worship is close enough to heaven for now. 

And maybe for most of us, that’s enough – maybe all we can handle of the fullness of God’s glory without being totally overwhelmed and undone.  And at the same time, maybe also all that we need to stay on track, open enough to God and God’s way to be freed enough from the allure of lesser, more selfish ways of living. 

The people of Israel received two things from Moses’ time on the mountaintop: a glimpse of how scary it can be to be face-to-face with God, and the Ten Commandments as a reasonable and realistic way of living in right relation as the people of this awesome God.  And what the other disciples of Jesus received from the three who went up with him was a second-hand account of the encounter, told to them after his death and resurrection, to help them through that rough time and be open to whatever slighter and more manageable epiphanies God might have for them along the way. 

And maybe that’s one of the purposes of an amazing story like this – to help us be open to the smaller, maybe less amazing, but no less holy epiphanies that are part of all our lives, that help strengthen us for the challenge of faithful witness and holy living against the powers and mindset of our day. 

Early this week I was in the car in the parking lot of a bank in Dundas, waiting while Japhia was doing some business inside.  On the radio I heard a story about Mister Rogers explaining how he could remain so hopeful and gentle in the world as it is, and honestly talk so often about it being a good day in the neighbourhood.  He said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ ”  

At that point the announcer led into a song called “Good Souls” by Starsailor.  And I was led into an overwhelming awareness and understanding that yes, that is the kingdom of God – the reign of God on Earth, in and through the helpers on the edge of every bad thing that happens.  Almost immediately I was then led to the searing and humbling memory (how can any real epiphany not be humbling?) of three specific times in my life when I failed – when I did not have the courage, or maybe the love or the faith, to take the risk of being a helper to someone in a time of sudden crisis.  And after that, all I felt was a simple prayer of confession (and how awareness of God's reign not involve confession?), asking for help in growing into a new way of being. 

The details and the specific content and direction of that moment are mine.  But I don’t know – was it an epiphany, different in scale but not in meaning to the mountain-top epiphanies and theophanies of God’s special servants?   

Are visions and glimpses like these of God’s reign on Earth part of all our lives?   

And if so, how do we remain open to both the reassurance and the challenge, both the comfort and the call they bring to us?

Sermon from Sunday, February 8, 2015

Scripture:  Isaiah 40:21-31 and Mark 1:29-39

Sermon:  Rise and shine!  Daylight in the swamp!

 

Rise and shine!  Daylight in the swamp! 

As kids these words rose up to our bedrooms every Saturday morning in our father’s voice if we were not up and out of bed and ready to join the day by 8:00.   

It wasn’t any grand plan he was asking us to get up for.  It was just normal stuff of weekly chores, keeping up with things in the house and yard, and then whatever play and fun things might come after that.  Our dad wasn't into major home make-overs; he just cared -- but cared deeply, about things being maintained, and things working the way they are meant to work.  And given our dad’s refugee childhood, and his several experiences of displacement and dispossession over his life, to him it was the best thing in the world to have a home of your own to wake up in, and a house and a yard of your own to take care of.  And he did a good job of it for his sake and even more for ours.  He helped make and keep the part of the world where he was, good. 

Looking back on this now, I admire him for his faithfulness, persistence and creativity.  I also appreciate his invitation and desire for us to join him in caring for what we had and were given.  I remember how good it felt on the Saturdays when I actually managed to get out of bed quick enough to be able to join him at the kitchen table for breakfast before starting what needed to be done that day, rather than come down late, eat breakfast by myself and then have to catch up to him.  I miss that, and I miss his Saturday morning call. 

"Rise and shine!  Daylight in the swamp!"

These words – and the same desire to join in the work of making and keeping the world good come to us from God as well.  Right from the start, God has never intended to take care of the world alone.  All the way through God invites us get up, rise up from the ooze, and be part of the good work.  And our salvation is, at least in part, our being set free from whatever keeps us down or holds us back from joining God in the work. 

In the Gospel reading, Jesus is beginning his work of unveiling the kingdom of God on Earth, and in a few brief encounters he sets the tone for the rest.  After being baptized in the Jordan, spending 40 days in the wilderness sorting things out and then starting to gather disciples, he goes to Capernaum where one sabbath day he teaches in the synagogue and heals a man there of an unclean spirit.  Teaching and setting-free are the way, and from the synagogue he goes to the home of two of his disciples where, in the words of the Gospel, 

Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever … [so Jesus] ³¹came

and took her by the hand and lifted her up.  Then the fever left her,

and she began to serve them.

Now on one hand we may say how typically patriarchal this is: that no sooner is the poor fevered woman healed than she gets up from her sick bed to serve her guests.  Is that why Jesus healed her, and what he healed her for?

 

And the answer is – in a larger sense, yes.  In this story Simon’s mother-in-law is a model of what we all are called to.  All of us suffer a variety of limitations, inhibitions, weaknesses, sin, selfishness, secular attachments, fear and sicknesses that keep us from really participating in the work of making and keeping the world good – from joining God in the daily delight and eternal joy of taking care of Earth’s goodness.  And it’s to help deliver us from all these things that Jesus comes – that the Word of God is spoken to us and en-fleshed for us.  “Rise and shine!  Daylight in the swamp!” is what Jesus is about, and our salvation, at least in part, is about our being set free from whatever keeps us from joining God in the good work to be done. 

 

Sometimes, though, it’s not just our own diseases and demons and distractions that keep us in bed and out of the picture.  Sometimes it’s the way the world works, and the way things are structured – the powers of the day, that seem to be in the way of living out God’s reign on Earth.

The people of Israel were in that situation in the time of Isaiah 40.  At the time of this prophecy the people have been in exile a long time.  Because of their unfaithfulness to God’s way enemy armies over-ran their kingdom, foreign powers took them captive, and they have lived for some time in the belly of somebody else’s empire.   

Like my father several times in his life, they have been displaced and dispossessed.  The world is in the hands of others who do not want their input or their interruption in the way things are made to go.  They are pawns in someone else’s game, and they fear they will never again have a hand or a say or a role to play – just as we feel and as we fear today.  Also, the gods of the rulers of the day do not have the same concern for the goodness of Earth as God has, and the people fear for the goodness of life on Earth – just as fear as well.

 

Which makes what the prophet says all the more relevant to us as much as to them, when he says, “Rise and shine!  Daylight in the swamp!" 

The powers that be, he says, are not nearly so fixed or unending as the people fear they will be.  It is God who created the heavens and Earth who is eternal, and the powers of this world all come and go.  Empires, kingdoms and nations all rise and fall – no exceptions.  Princes, kings and rulers of all kinds have their day and all at some point also come to their end of their rope – no exceptions.  In the words of the prophet, in relation to God who sees and ultimately oversees all, we all – from prince to pauper, from power-broker to pawn, are all mere grasshoppers. 

And the good news – the wake-up call, the invitation and encouragement to rise-and-shine is that it’s the grasshoppers who know this about themselves and about God, who don’t put all their eggs in their own little power basket, who wait for the Lord instead, who wait to know and to commit to God’s way of making and keeping the world good, who will be the ones to rise up and lead the way for the rest. 

It takes faith, as well as openness of heart and mind and life, to live that way.  It means being set free of whatever inside us and out in the world holds us back or keeps us out of the picture. 

But have you noticed what happens for those who are set free, and who do claim a role in the work?  For those who get up in time to join God at the table, and start together with God on the new day’s work of making and keeping the world good?   For those who give themselves time to hear the call of God to the work of the day every day of their lives? 

Does it seem to you that they more than others, in the words of the prophet, really do

…renew their strength,

…mount up with wings like eagles,

…run and not be weary,

…walk and not faint?

It seems to me this is not so much promise as observation, not just optimism and hope but the lived experience of those who do take the time to listen for God’s invitation each day to Rise and Shine, because in doing that they let themselves be reminded that there really is daylight in the swamp, and they are happily called to be part of it.  

It’s these people who more often than not get up not with the all-too-common groan, “Oh God, it’s morning already…” but with a gratitude that says, “Thank you, God, that it’s morning again!”  And not because they’re better people.  I can only believe it’s because they take the time to listen for the voice that calls up the stairs to them.

 

So So I wonder, which is more true of us?  The groan that says, “Oh God, morning again…”?  Or the gratitude that says, “Oh God, thank you.  Morning again!" 

Towards Sunday, February 8, 2015

Scripture:  Isaiah 40:21-31 and Mark 1:29-39
Sermon:  Rise and shine! Daylight in the swamp!

He brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of earth as nothing...but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.  (Isaiah 40)

 

This passage comforts us in times of personal distress and trial, reminding us of God's promise to see us through and give us new strength.

 

In its biblical setting the promise is political and spoken to the people as a whole.  Israel is in exile, victims of their unfaithfulness to God.  Overwhelmed by foreign princes and the powers of the day, the people feel abandoned by God and without purpose any more -- consigned to the dustbin of history. 

 

But the prophet reminds them that princes and powers come and go, and as weak as God's kind of power seems at times, God is the abiding power over all.  All princes come to the end of their rope at some point, and it's the people who wait for God's day to come 'round who then rise up, run with vigour, and lead the way.

 

Q:   What powers, patterns and princes of oppression and death do we lament today as being so powerful that they cannot be resisted?  Can we imagine their fall from power?  What makes us part of the people who help lead in God's new way of being in the world? 

 



 

In the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus said, "Let us go on to the neighbouring villages so I may proclaim the message there as well, for that is what I came out to do."  (Mark 1)

 

Timing is everything in this story.  The day before was the Sabbath, and it was a remarkable sabbath of teaching and healing in the synagogue and in a private home.  The power of God to heal and renew life is clearly afoot in the world in a new way.

 

So come sundown -- the end of the sabbath and the beginning of the first day of the new week, all the village comes to the house where Jesus is, to share in the gift of healed life.  Then near dawn, Jesus starts moving out to heal the world. 

 

It is, after all, the first day of the week.  God made the world in the first week; now in this new week it is time to re-make and heal the world God made.

 

Q: What is my spirit's song on Monday morning?  A groan about having to start a new week?  Or gratitude for the chance to start a new week?  

 

 

 

 

Sermon from February1, 2015

Scripture:  Deuteronomy 18:15-20 and Mark 1:21-28
Sermon:  Finding the Way Together

So is it good news or bad for the people of Israel when God promises to send them another prophet like Moses?  And is it good news or bad for the people of Capernaum when Jesus chooses their synagogue as the starting point for his work of revealing the reign of God in the life of the world? 

On one hand, Moses was a great prophet and the people owe everything they have to his leadership.  They are free of bondage and entanglements to the Egyptian empire.  They have a land of their own they are about to live in.  They have God’s law to guide them in their life together.  They are a special people in the world, who know what it is to live in relationship with God and to live life on Earth the way it’s meant to be. 

But on the other hand, Moses really was a fearsome person.  He was capable of murder, and had committed it.  He was not afraid of being an outsider.  He lived beyond boundaries himself, and insisted the people do too.  He led them into a terrible wilderness and for forty years led them through very trying times.  Through it all he demanded they have faith in a God of great power to save them, but beyond human understanding and control. 

Now that they are about to enter the promised land and hopefully settle down and start raising families, do they really want another prophet like Moses? 

And what about the people of Capernaum?   

On one hand, it’s quite a feather in their cap that Jesus chooses their synagogue for his coming-out sermon, and the starting point of his great ministry of revealing the reign of God at work in the world.  He gives them a place in history and in the story of God and God’s people.  He inspires them with his powerful message and blesses them with his healing presence.  Unclean, damaged spirits are healed and holy light enters every dark corner of their gathering.   

But on the other hand, this means they must change.  Over the years, like all synagogues and communities of faith, they have made their compromises with imperfect ways of being together and with the unclean spirits at work in their midst.  They have come to tolerate certain characters among them, and certain characteristics – not always the best, that are true of them all.  There is a lot they have agreed to just cover up and not really talk about. 

And when Jesus shows up and starts preaching God’s truth with a directness and power they are not used to, the equilibrium they have achieved is disturbed.  Jesus challenges their compromises with sinfulness and dysfunction.  The lid is taken off and suddenly just because the Word of God has become clearer to them than before, they are clearly not just the nice little synagogue with happy members that they seemed to be.   

And are we any different?  The places we come to for a sense of goodness and peace in the world – whether church or home or family, don’t they sometimes turn out at times to be just as troubled as the rest of the world?   Like the synagogue in Capernaum, do we sometimes tolerate dysfunction and make compromises with unclean spirits among us and with less-than-a-gospel-way-of-being, and just agree not to talk about it?  And are we always ready to listen to and to follow the prophets God sends today – prophets of justice, peace, and the healing of all the world, or like the people of Israel do we sometimes want God to send good managers instead so we can settle down and just be content for a while in our part of the promised land? 

It takes courage to come to a place like this where we are today and really be open to God – to come into the Light, to stand under and to stand up against the Word of God, to be in a place where we let the Spirit of God stir within us and speak to our own heart from within. 

But maybe that’s why we come – why we come to worship, why we come for fellowship with other believers, why we listen and sing and pray as we do, why we bring our children to be baptized, why we risk being together in silence before a God beyond understanding and human control, but whom we trust – not always know, but trust to be full of love and only love.  There is something within us that is courageous, that wants to know God’s truth in the midst of our confusion and our culture’s misdirection, that wants to be enlightened and reminded of how life on Earth is supposed to be when we forget and even though we can’t commit entirely to it, that wants healing for the brokenness and dysfunction and dividedness we so often feel in the world and within ourselves, don’t know what to do about, and try to hide from others. 

And when we think about being here today – baptizing these little ones, Jacobson, Kay-Lee and Maeva – and the responsibility we have accepted to help nurture them in Christian faith, hope and love, maybe the best way we can do this, and the truest thing we can ever try to teach them or pass on to them, is not to pretend we know all the answers or let them imagine we are always good and perfect, but to tell them and show them where we go to hear the truth when we feel confused or misdirected, whose prophetic voice and leadership today helps us to see God’s way of life for the world even though we don’t follow it perfectly, and where and to whom we go when we need healing for our broken and divided lives.   

The reason I emphasize this is that when I was first a father, I thought my job was to know everything, to have all the answers for my son, and to be able to teach him everything he needs to know.  But that was a pretty heavy burden for me to bear.  It was a heavy burden for Aaron to bear.  And it was a heavy burden – too heavy a burden, for our relationship to bear. 

Now, though, I am learning that the better thing for me to be able to do is to be able to tell him where I go to hear the truth when I am confused, whose prophetic voice and leadership helps remind me of how life on Earth is meant to be lived today even though I don’t commit entirely to it, and where and to whom I go for healing when I need it. 

So I wonder where do you go to hear the truth when you feel confused?   

Whose prophetic voice and leadership today helps you see at least a bit of God’s way of life for the world?   

Where and to whom do you go when you need healing for what’s broken and divided in your life? 

I encourage you to think about these things.  Your children and grand-children and others who look up to you, need to know.