Thy will be done ... or, "woe are they who run from what they believe" (sermon from Sun, March 13, 2022)

Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:9-10; 26:36-46 

Holy living – what we might call Christian living or spiritual living, did not come easy for Jesus.  

From the day of his baptism in the Jordan River when he committed himself to the flow of God’s kingdom in the world, until the day years later when his life was poured out on the cross, Jesus struggled to stay true to God’s good purpose for the well-being of the world.  The Gospels tell us that it was through constant and repeated prayer that Jesus was able to let his life be a channel of God’s love for others. 

In the first reading (Matthew 6:9-10), Jesus teaches this way of prayer to others around him.  In the second reading, we see him praying, as he taught others to do. 

“This is how you are to pray:‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ “ 

Later in the Gospel, in Matthew 26:36-46, after the Last Supper with his disciples and as he prepares to be arrested, we read this: 

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”  He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.  Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”  Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”  When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So, he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” 

 

Meditation 

Today, we listen to three lines of the Lord’s Prayer, with the single intention of opening up space inside us, for the kind of life God breathes into each one of us, and into the world through us. 

Line 1: Hallowed be thy name …or as it might be construed from the Aramaic: Focus your light in us, that your name may be known in the world. 

This line of the prayer raises the question of what you want to be known for in the world.  What name and way of being you choose to hallow within yourself.  And by what name you want to be known.

A few weeks ago I was given a book of Lenten readings by a member of the Quilt Club whose priest was handing them out to his church.  It’s called Rediscover Jesus: An Invitation, and the introductory story to the book is titled “Are You Jesus?”   Here's the story:

It was the biggest moment of Paul’s life, and it had gone well.  He couldn’t wait to tell his wife and his boss.  As he rushed out of the Brooklyn office building with the rest of the team, they noticed a vacant cab – a rare sight during rush hour.

Eager to get to the airport to catch their flight home, they bolted toward the cab, yelling to get the driver’s attention.  But as they made their way across the sidewalk, they inadvertently knocked over a small produce stand.  The rest of the team seemed oblivious until Paul stopped and turned around to go back.

From beside the taxi the others called out to Paul, “Come on, you’ll miss your flight.”

“Go ahead without me,” Paul replied as he made his way back across the street toward the sidewalk covered in produce.  At that moment, he realized that the woman who had been behind the produce stand was blind.  She was just standing there crying softly with tears running down her face.

“It’s OK, it’s OK,” Paul said to her as he got down on his hands and knees and began picking up the fruit and vegetables.  There were a hundred people passing in each direction, but nobody else stopped to help.  They just scurried off wherever they were going.

When the fruit was all back up on the stand, Paul began neatly organizing it, setting aside anything that was spoiled.  Now he turned to the woman and asked, ‘Are you OK?”  She nodded through her tears.  Then, reaching for his wallet, he took out some bills and passed them to the woman, saying, “This money should cover the damages.”

With that, Paul turned and began to walk away.

“Mister,” the woman called after him.  Paul paused and turned around.  “Are you Jesus?”

"Oh, no,” he replied.

The woman nodded and continued, “I only ask because I prayed for Jesus to help me as I heard my fruit falling all over the sidewalk.”

Paul turned to leave again, only now his eyes began to fill with tears. 

For a long time he wandered around looking for a taxi.  After finally finding one, he sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic all the way to the airport.  He had missed his flight, and because it was Friday night, all the other flights were full.

Paul spent the night in a hotel by the airport.  This gave him time to think.  He couldn’t get one question out of his head: When was the last time someone confused you for Jesus? 

Line 2:  Thy kingdom come…or, as it might be construed from Aramaic: Let your direction rule our lives, clarifying our intention to be co-creators with you of the world as it is meant to be. 

On the way in to church Thursday morning, on CBC radio I heard an interview of a young man from Hamilton, named Wyatt Raitt.  The interview was by Matt Galloway of The Current, which is being broadcast right now from Poland, to help tell the stories of helpers in the crisis of refugees from Ukraine.

Wyatt was also in Poland, having just spent two days traveling from Hamilton to help a friend’s 7-year-old daughter be saved from the war.  The friend is someone he met a few years ago at school in Ottawa.  Alexander was from a town just east of Kiev, was studying in Canada, and Wyatt had a few interactions with him, partied with him a few times, heard a few stories about his family back home, and says that Alexander helped him out a few times.

When the war broke out, Alexander went home to help his little sister get out and be safe. Their dad had died a few years ago, the mom was missing since 2017, and Alexander wanted to get Arila, his 7-year-old sister, out of harm’s way.  On social media he messaged everyone he knew, saying he was taking his sister south from Kiev to the border town of Medyka in Poland.  Could anyone be there to receive her and take her to Gdansk, while he went back to fight?

Wyatt saw the message and answered yes.  Even though he’d never been out of North America, was known to get lost on city buses, and “tons of family” told him not to go, he went.  By the time he was interviewed by Matt Galloway, he was a day away from Medyka where he would be waiting for Alexander and Arila to arrive, and while he waited, planned to help out with others as much as he could.  He hasn’t heard from Alexander for a day or more, and together they aren’t even sure Wyatt will be able to receive Orilla from her brother because with the parents gone, legal documentation is kind of sketchy.  But they’ll figure it out as they go, he says.

“To me, it’s the best thing I can do … and it’s what I believe … and it’s one of the things he told me when we were at school, and he helped me.  It was a quote: Woe is he who runs from what he believes… Why would I run from this difficulty when I believe in helping others?  Why would I not commit to do what I can?” 

Line 3:  Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven … or as it may be construed from the Aramaic:  Unite our will for good to yours, that we may walk and work in this world as agents of your good purpose. 

This past Monday night our Church Council met by Zoom, and we began with a centering prayer to help us as a council to stand intentionally and quietly together in the flow of God’s purpose in the world and for our church.  The image in my mind was of standing together in the river of God’s love flowing through our lives and the life of the world, and opening ourselves to the flow of what God is doing around us and for us and through us.

The biggest item on our agenda was a continuing conversation around our priorities as a church as we come out of the pandemic and the COVID-closure.  Things are opening up.  People are coming out.  And while the new normal is still in flux, is a good time to sort out, identify and commit to the kind of church we’re going to be, and be known as in Winona.

The conversation was going well.  We were making plans for the next steps in committing to a few priorities in particular, dreaming up and designing programs to act them out in the community, and to make these new directions and priorities part of how we will be known by others.  We want to be meaningful and helpful in ways that matter to God and to people around us.

Then the war in Ukraine came up, and our desire to help.  Someone shared information about the Leaning Post Winery, just a few driveways down the road, becoming a gathering and collection centre for all kinds of relief – including medical supplies, to send directly to Ukraine and to Ukrainian refugee centres.  Different parts of what the Winery is doing were talked about.  How we might connect to it as a church.  Who the people were and why they were doing this.  What hours they are open.  Are they open on the weekend?  In the evenings?  How can we find out?  Someone started googling them on their laptop.

At which point I somewhat impatiently intervened, and not too subtly suggested that the secretary of Council didn’t need to minute our inquiry into the Winery’s hours of operation.  That this wasn’t really Council business.  And people took the hint.  We made some vague resolution to follow up.  And got on with our business of working out our next steps in clarifying our mission as a church, and how we want to be meaningful and helpful in the community in ways that matter to God and to people around us.

The terrible irony of my direction – or misdirection, of our meeting away from talking about the Winery was lost on me at the time.  In my fixation on our set agenda, I didn’t see how much I was acting like Paul’s colleagues in the first story – standing by the cab, pointing at my watch, and yelling out “we’re getting away from our agenda” while Council, like Paul, was taking time to attend to what was at hand.  Or how easily I was, to use the words of Wyatt and his friend, “running from what I believe” our church is called to be doing, by not following more fully and immediately the opening for mission that suddenly was just down the road from us.

There’s a prayer we have sometimes used at our Council meetings, and sometimes in worship.  I invite you to share it with me, and I invite you to share it with me now. 

One:    You found out what we were doing and you interfered.

            “Come and do it together, Come and do it with me,” you said …

All:      So thank you Lord for interfering in our private lives.

 

One:    You promised us nothing by way of success, recognition, possessions or reward.

            “These will come at the right time when you walk with me,” you said …

All:      So thank you Lord for promising us nothing.

 

One:    You gave us no resources, apart from ourselves …

hands meant for caring, lips meant for praising, hearts meant for loving…

            And the Holy Spirit to make us restless until we change …

All:      So thank you Lord for the essential gifts.

 

One:    Then, just when we’ve got it right as to where we should go and what we should do;

            Just when we’re ready to take on the world,

            You come like a beggar to our back door, saying, “This is the way.  I am the way”…

All:      So thank you Lord for coming again and keeping us right

and showing you care for us and for all people.  Amen.

 

Closing Prayers of the People (adapted from a Facebook meme circulated recently)

 

One:    Help us, O God, to get up off our knees.  Help us, and all people of faith,

All:      to come out of our churches, our mosques, and our temples.

One:    Help us to remember, O God,

that you can hear our prayers for peace, justice, and hope in the world just fine

All:      while we’re out creating peace, working for justice,

and giving hope to this broken world.

One:    Help us, O God, to grow into the understanding

All:      that humanity is the solution to inhumanity?

One:    Help us to understand that we are all drops of the same ocean:

All:      hurting together, healing together, hoping together.

One:    Help us not only to pray for hands to heal the hurting,

All:      but pray with hands that are healing the hurting.

One:    Not only to pray for arms to help the helpless,

All:      but to pray with arms that are helping the helpless.

One:    Not only to pray for feet to respond to need,

All:      but to pray on feet that are responding to need

One:    Not only to pray for someone to do something,

All:      but to be someone who does something.

One:    Not only to pray for answers,

All:      but to be and to live the answer.  Amen.