(Like all of us, Paul – one of the leaders of the early church, really struggles with religion. On one hand, he is good at it -- trained as a Pharisee, skilled in theological debate, zealous in maintaining the religious practices and institutions of his day. But on the other hand, when he is drawn in to the way of Jesus in the world, comes to see how Jesus understands God, and experiences in himself the same Spirit that filled and moved Jesus, Paul comes to see that faith and faithfulness to God are more about life than about religion, and more focused on living well in and for the world than on maintaining and protecting any particular religious organizations and practices. In his letters to the church, Paul tries to pass on this understanding to others, and it’s what the reading today is about.)
Today is a good day
to give thanks for those not here.
And I don’t mean
because with fewer people here this week it’s easier to find a parking spot
close to the church…and to sit in someone else’s pew for once. Or because there’s more elbow room…and fewer
people to have to share the peace of Christ with.
I mean today is a
good day to give thanks for those who are not here because they have spent
themselves all week, or some of them are spending themselves today in all the
volunteer work that has to be done for us to be part of the Peach Festival, and
to benefit from it. Our pie booth, panzeroli
booth, and face painting – not to mention all the other parts of the Festival
some of our members are involved in, would not be there without the thousands
and tens of thousands of volunteer hours that are given. And it’s hard to imagine either Fifty United
Church or Winona being what they are without the success year-in and year-out of
the Peach Festival.
I wonder, is this
part of what Paul would call “worshipful work” and a bodily sacrifice of time
and talent, of experience and resources equal in holiness and spiritual worth
to any ritual offering that someone might make in the holiest of Temples?
We all have a part
to play in the drama of God’s love being lived out on Earth. Each one’s part is meaningful in light of the
whole. And all of us benefit from what
others are able to contribute to the overall effort.
Which means the
lines we often draw between things don’t always make sense, or are hard to maintain. Like the lines between holy and unholy,
churchly and worldly, sacred and secular.
In fact, I read somewhere recently that because we believe God is in all
things, and is the creator and redeemer of all things, there really is nothing
on Earth or in all the cosmos that we can call “secular” or devoid of spiritual
significance – that all things are part of God’s good purpose and have a place
in his will – and that something becomes “secular” only when we fail to see
God’s glory in it and to seek God’s purpose for it.
I made it to
peach-peeling only one morning this week.
Monday I was home with Japhia; Wednesday I was leading a funeral at Don
Brown’s. But Tuesday I was here and I
was struck by how good it felt to be part of the community that was gathered
there. The space was tighter than in
previous years, but the numbers I think were greater and the spirit as rich and
open as ever.
It was a wonderful
gathering of all kinds of people and little sub-groups – some of whom get
together often, others only for peeling peaches. One woman from the Parkdale area has come the
last few years after buying some of our pies at the Festival, finding out how
they are made, and wanting to help out.
Peach-peeling is her only connection with us, but she was welcomed as
much as anyone else, and her contribution was of absolutely equal worth to
anyone else’s.
And isn’t that what
church, and what the kingdom of God are kind of about? About all kinds of people coming together
around the common cause of making a difference for good in the world – each one
offering what they are able, each one doing what they are capable of, each one
honouring and respecting what the others offer towards the whole, and everyone
being blessed and enriched by the part they play – even if they’re not here on
a Sunday morning, even if their name is not in our church roll or our email
list, even if they don’t ask for offering envelopes or sign up for PAR.
As
Paul says, in the words of Eugene Patterson’s translation of Romans 12,
As aware as we are of
God’s mercy towards us and all life, here’s what to do: Take your everyday,
ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work,
walking-around-in-the-world, [peach-peeling, Peach-Festival-volunteering] life
– and place it before God as an offering, as holy and worthy as anything anyone
would ever offer in the holiest Temple.
Embracing the holiness and worthiness of what God gives you – and gives
you to do in the world, is the best thing you can do for God.
I think about this sometimes when we
think of our church mission and outreach.
On our website and in our annual reports, we list all the things we do
and that we support officially as a congregation – things like Wesley Urban
Ministries, City Kidz, the Stoney Creek Food Bank, the Support for Syrians and
sponsorship of the Assad family, and Fingers-n-Toes.
But what about other things that are
done by some of our members – not necessarily in the name of the church, but in
the name of the God and the Christ that they worship and come to know here, in
the strength and by the leading of the Spirit that’s nurtured in them at least
in part by what we do here – like the Medical Ministries trips that have become
such a part of the lives of Robyn Hunt and Elizabeth Woods, like the VanDuzer’s
trips to build homes in the Dominican, like Bicycles for Cuba that Peter and Rosalia
Bohonis supported and were part of for years, like the palliative care that
Jane Franks offered throughout the community through Rose Cottage in addition
to all the work she did more “officially” here when she was Co-Ordinator of
Pastoral Care, like Deb Furry’s and Leslie Jack’s work of rescuing animals that
are injured, disabled or abandoned along roadsides and in ditches and in
shelters all around Niagara.
And that’s only a scratch on the
surface of all that the members and friends of this church bring to the life of
the world and to the sharing of God’s love for it, and God’s good purpose in
it. Don’t these things – and so many
others, deserve a place on the website describing who we are as a church, in
our annual report of what God has called and helped us to do and be in the
world, and even in our worship and what
we offer of our lives in praise to God?
And then even things more “secular”
and everyday and ordinary – like the ways people carry out their jobs – whether
it be teaching and nursing, or insuring people against loss, or keeping the
books of small or large businesses, or the million other things that are done
in this world either with an awareness of God’s love for all life, or without
it – either in a humanely mature way that actually blesses and enriches
everyone around, or in an immature, self-centred way that does no one any good.
Again as Paul says, in the words of
Eugene Peterson,
In whatever you do in
the world … let yourself and the way you do what you do, be changed from the
inside out, by fixing your attention on what God wants and what God is up to in
any situation you are in. Instead of
letting your culture drag you down to its level of immaturity, let your
attention to God help you be mature and a witness to others. [And again, this makes all your life, all you
do an offering to God – something you can gratefully lift up to God as
something as holy and worthy as anything anyone would offer in the holiest
Temple. And embracing the holiness and
worthiness of what God gives you – and gives you to do in the world, is the
best thing you can do for God. ]
Worship of God is so much bigger than
just Sunday morning service.
Christian service is so much more than
just church work and official church programs.
There really is no significant line to
be drawn between holy and unholy, churchly and worldly, and sacred and secular.
And today is as good a day as any –
maybe a better day than most, to be thankful for those who are not here this
morning.
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