Ministerial Mutterings

World Day of Prayer

2012-02-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

Each year on the first Friday of March people are invited to join together in an ecumenical service highlighting issues around women in the world. Each year the service relies on resources and information from a specific country (this year the country is Malaysia). For more on the World Day of Prayer click here.

This year the Grande Prairie World Day of Prayer service will be held at St. Paul's United Church at 7pm on Friday March 2nd. The title for the 2012 service is Let Justice Prevail. Over and over again Scripture makes it clear the God cares about justice, that God's hope is that the world will be a place where justice shall flow down like water.

One of the Scripture passages being used on Friday is the story of the woman who refuses to be quiet until she gets justice. Sometimes the squeaky wheel does get the grease. And so, as I prepare to reflect on Friday, I can't help but ask -- do we need to squeak a little bit more?

Looking Forward to March 4 -- 2nd Sunday of Lent

2012-02-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

1 Chronicles 15:25-28
Exodus 3:1-6
Psalm 42-43 (Voices United p.768)
Luke 4:14-20

The Sermon title is Worship, What is it Good for?

Early Thoughts: Every week people gather together to worship. Why? To what purpose? In many congregations there are [sometimes heated] discussions about the way we worship. Is there a right way and a wrong way?

Why do we worship? What is the point? How should we worship? Why are the various parts of a worship service there? Questions like these are frequently asked in churches all over the place. And they are questions that have many different answers.

There is no way to fully explain why we worship the way we do in one sermon. But we will explore the questions above and maybe some others. In the exploration we may well find that the answer to one will shape the answer to another.

We worship for many different reasons. We come to worship looking for different things. And what we seek to find will shape what we think is the “right” way to worship. How we find we can best meet God will determine what we think is appropriate and what is inappropriate.

There is a term used in the church -- "worship wars”. This refers to the fact that differing expectations about worship content and style can often cause great conflict within a congregation. This conflict often comes out in discussions about music but it can also touch on prayers, how Scripture is presented, what a good sermon is, on any part of the service. The problem is that both sides in these conflicts think they are right and the other is wrong.

But of course they are both right. And neither is wrong. It all depends on our own needs and tastes. This Sunday we will look at some of what shapes our worship services. And, as a speaker reminded me at a worship event a few years ago, what one person loves about worship (say a favourite hymn) may well be what another person can't stand.

Come and join in our discussion about worship. Just be prepared, the congregation will be invited to take part in the sermon!

--Gord

Dust and Ashes

2012-02-22T21:31:00.000-07:00

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Today in many churches (and schools) (and on street corners too) people came forward to have ashes smeared on their forehead. In many cases this action would have been accompanied by the traditional words "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return".

In my life I can only remember for sure having attended one Ash Wednesday service. And that is the one I led when Ash Wednesday was the last Wednesday of February during the year when Riverview was holding an evening service on the last Wednesday of the month. There may also have been an Ash Wednesday service while I was in my first and second years at St. Andrew's College but I can't remember for sure.

Why ashes? Traditionally the Ashes used on Ash Wednesday come from burning the Palms used for Palm Sunday the previous year. In part the Ashes remind us that the world still is not what it could be, that the world is still--to use theological language--held captive by sin, that the Reign of God has not yet fully come. And so, as we embark on the journey that leads to betrayal and arrest, trial and conviction, hilltop cross and garden tomb we pause to remember that we are flawed human beings living in a flawed system (reading/watching/hearing the news on any day of the week reminds us how seriously flawed). Lent is usually seen as a season of reflection on the world and our place in it. Within that reflection is a time to name how we have missed the mark and how we might try better. An Ash cross on our forehead is a way to start that reflection.

In closing on the Ash Wednesday I leave you with the words of my favourite Ash Wednesday hymn, words are by Brian Wren with music by Ron Klusmeier (find it here), it is #105 in Voices United:

Dust and ashes touch our face,
mark our failure and our falling.
Holy Spirit, come,
walk with us tomorrow,
take us as disciples,
washed and wakened by your calling.
Take us by the hand and lead us,
lead us through the desert sands,
bring us living water,
Holy Spirit, come.

Dust and ashes soil our hands
greed of market, pride of nation.
Holy Spirit, come,
walk with us tomorrow,
as we pray and struggle
through the meshes of oppression.
Take us by the hand and lead us,
lead us through the desert sands,
bring us living water,
Holy Spirit, come.

Dust and ashes choke our tongue
in the wasteland of depression.
Holy Spirit, come,
walk with us tomorrow,
through all gloom and grieving
to the paths of resurrection.
Take us by the hand and lead us,
lead us through the desert sands,
bring us living water,
Holy Spirit, come.

As we start to walk toward the agony of the cross and the glory of the empty tomb, I encourage all of us to be honest about our role in the world -- the good and the bad, where we get it right and where we fall short. Only through honesty can we find the way to make better choices.

Looking Forward to February 26, 2012 -- 1st Sunday of Lent

2012-02-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

For Lent this year we are doing a series of looking at things we do as part of the church: Communion, Worship, Prayer, and a look at what we Believe.

Everyone is reminded that we have our Annual Meeting following worship this Sunday.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

1 Corinthians 11:23-28
Mark 14:22-25

The Sermon title this week is Communion Court

Early Thoughts: Why do we serve Communion the way we do? Is there a "right" way to do it?

These questions have come up many times in the history of the United Church of Canada. We are the product of a blending of some very different theologies and practices. For sermon time this week we will be having a drama written by Rev. barb janes. In this scene Wesley (representing the Methodists) and Knox (representing the Presbyterians) come before a Judge to settle the issue of how the United Church of Canada will celebrate Communion. There are some inaccuracies in historical positions within this dialogue but it does show some of how we got to where we are.

Complicating matters of course is that every congregation tends to put their own "spin" on how communion is served.
--Gord

Looking Forward to February 19, 2012 -- Transfiguration Sunday Year B

2012-02-13T13:19:00.001-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Psalm 50:1-6 (VU p.775)
Mark 9:2-9

The Sermon Title is: When God is Revealed

Early Thoughts: How do you respond when all of a sudden God is revealed to you? Is it a terrifying thing? Or is it comforting?

More importantly, does God being revealed move you to action or does it freeze you in place (either out of fear or out of a desire to stay in that place and time)?

The story of the Transfiguration is fairly straightforward, as a narrative anyway. Trying to determine the meaning of that narrative is a whole other question. And because of the ambiguity in what it means there are a variety of ways we can preach on it/explore it. Which is probably good, since the Lectionary has us read the story every single year.

Here we stand on one of the thresholds of the Church year. Since the beginning of January we have been in the Season of Epiphany, a time when the themes of light and call are highlighted. We have heard stories about Jesus calling disciples, gathering followers to his vision of the world. Next week we start on the road to Jerusalem, arrest, conviction, and execution. As we start to change moods we are invited to join Jesus, Peter, James, and John on the mountain top. To prepare us for the time of trial that is coming we are invited to stand in the continuing presence of God; who is of the Past, the Present, and the Future.

But what does it mean to stand there? What does it mean to witness God being revealed? The ancient Israelites found the very prospect terrifying. So much so that they ask Moses to go into God's presence on their behalf, so that they don't have to witness it directly. The words awful and awesome come from the same root. And both are used to describe that feeling of being in the glory of God. So maybe we are astounded and stunned and afraid when we find ourselves on the mountain-top.

Or maybe our feelings are more of comfort and safety. Maybe that place is so wonderful that we want to stay there. Maybe, like Peter, we want to build a dwelling and remain.

Or maybe we are hope-filled. Some commenters suggest that Peter is remembering an old belief that the Reign of God would come during the Feast of Tabernacles, a festival where little booths were built around Jerusalem. There was an old tradition that Moses and Elijah would return at the beginning of GOd's Reign and so Peter is reacting to seeing God's Reign being made real and actual. Obviously it is time to build booths (and surely Jesus and Moses and Elijah should not have to build them for themselves).

I think all three of these responses are real and valid. Fear, or comfort, or hope are honest responses to the glory of God. But the really important part of our response is how it changes our lives.

Mountain top experiences happen to many of us, in some form or another. Many of us have stories of times when we knew, just KNEW, that God was with us. Times when we knew we were Beloved. Times when we knew that we were not alone. And for many of us it is those times that keep us going when the way is hard. When we know that God is with us, that God is active in the world, we can find the strength to wrestle with the hardships of life, even the roads that lead to a cross on a hill (remembering that Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow him).

What are the mountain top experiences in your life? Were they quiet and subtle or were they bombastic and glowing? Where do you go to recapture that sense of connection? And how does God being revealed make a difference in your life?

We'll explore these sorts of questions on Sunday. Come and join us won't you?
--Gord

Minister's Annual Report

2012-02-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

A year goes past and the tree grows another ring,

and as a year goes past there are other songs to sing.

And as the sun in May chases away the cold,

another year has past, another story must be told...

(from The Needfire: A Celtic Celebration Written by Rick Fox)

And what is the story we tell this year? What is the story of our life together as a community of faith? Is it a story of laughter or of tears, of hope or despair, of life or death? I admit, that was a trick question, because the story of our life together has included all of those things.

Over the past 12 months we have shared celebrations. This church has seen baptisms and marriages. It has rung with songs of praise and the laughter of children. We have also gathered people together to say farewells to long-time members of this community. We have held each other in prayer and love. We have shared the ups and the downs of life. That is part of our story.

The majority of the story lies in the everyday. The story of our life together is a series of weekly worship services, monthly committee meetings, daily conversations, regular social events. Places where we seek to hear God's voice, places where we see God at work in our midst, places where we are built up and strengthened as we seek to live as people of faith. And then there is more...

Another part of our story is our place in the community. Even as we need to ask what that place is, and what it could be, we can rejoice that we have a place. Our story is one of a building that is heavily used by community groups, with the notable addition at the end of the year of the HIV-North drop in program 2 afternoons a week. Our story is one of a people who willingly share of themselves with the community around us. A simple stroll through the lobby during this past December would have shown just how willingly we share with our community.

And if the poem outlives the poet then one could say

That tomorrow's song springs from life that's lived today...

(from The Needfire: A Celtic Celebration Written by Rick Fox)

As the circle of life continues to spin, the end of one year marks the beginning of a new. A final (for this report anyway) part of our story is that your Church Council has started including in each meeting a time to have what we are calling “Visioning Discussions”. This is time set aside specifically to look at how God is calling us to be a faith community in the 21^st Century.

Having just finished a year where we celebrated 100 years of continuous ministry on this site, we now look forward to the next anniversary party (and Sarah actually asked when that would be when we are the way home from the Elks hall after the party this year). Part of our story lies in the future.

What does 2012 hold for us? Well we will spend time as a congregation exploring the question of a 1/2 time staff person. Do we need this, what would (s)he do, can we afford it? It is my hopeful expectation that the summer of 2012 will see a lift installed. What else will a new year bring? Where we are now has grown from the root planted 100 years ago. Where we go from here will grow from where we are today. May God be our leader and guide – and may we be willing to follow where God would have us go.

Gord

Looking Forward to February 5, 2012 -- 5th After Epiphany

2012-01-30T11:22:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings for this week are:
1 Corinthians 9:16-27

The Sermon Title is A Man for All Seasons??

Early Thoughts: Can you truly be all things for all people? Should you even try?

This section of Paul's letter follows on a number of verses where Paul is defending the fact that the communities he has founded provide him with material/financial support (apparently there were some in the Corinthian community who took offense at this). But in these verses he takes a bit of a new tack.

Paul can be a difficult person to understand. He can be a difficult person to agree with. But it is undeniable that both the book of Acts and Paul's own letters (along with the traditions of the church) make a clear statement that Paul was very accomplished at sharing his message in a way that reached whatever community he was speaking to at the time.

In these verses Paul claims that this ability to tailor his message to specific audiences comes from his ability to see life as they see it. He claims he can be a man for all seasons, a part of any community, he can (in his words) be all things to all people.

Paul casts this as a sign of his freedom/enslavement in the Gospel. But modern thought would tell us that trying to be all things for all people generally won't work. Do that and you come across as insincere. People want to know the REAL you, not some face you put on like a mask.

And yet I wonder. Some of our most "successful" politicians are successful precisely because they can make the common populace feel like he/she is "one of them"--even when looking at basic facts and statistics make it openly clear that they are not from the same background, socio-economic status, or world. To be an effective leader and communicator you have to get to know the people with whom you work. You have to know what concerns they have, what questions they ask, what language they use. This, I think, is what Paul did so well. There is no sign that Paul was being insincere or non-genuine (although he may well have been accused of doing so). But he was able to take the pulse of a community and translate his message into that idiom.

ANd so the challenge I lay before all of us is to figure out how to be a person for all seasons, to be "one of the boys", to make connections witht he people with whom we work. If we want to communicate we have no choice.
--Gord

February Newsletter Piece

2012-01-24T18:46:00.003-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was one of the 140 or so people who gathered in Teresa Sargent Hall for a presentation by Peter Kageyama, author of the book For the Love of Cities. The event was sponsored by City Council to start a discussion (or multiple discussions) about why people love Grande Prairie and how to build affection for the city within the residents of Grande Prairie.

AS I have reflected on that session I have come up with a couple of questions I would like to pose in this newsletter. And maybe they will grow into an ongoing dialogue.

The first is to ask if you love your church. And if so why? If you could write a love note about St. Paul's what would it say? And maybe more to the point, what would make you love the church more? How did you fall in love with the church?

This sounds like a discussion question to me. I think we as a congregation will benefit and grow by hearing how St. Paul's has made an impact on our lives. And so I am offering a challenge. I know that Valerie is often looking for submissions to the newsletter. And so I challenge people to write their response to one of these questions: “What St. Paul's means to me?” or “Why am I a part of this congregation?” and send it to Valerie for use in a future edition. I am sure that if you asked nicely she would even publish it anonymously if you wanted. (note I have NOT talked to Valerie about this so she may think I am out to lunch).

The other question has to do with our relationship with the larger community. How attached are we , as individuals and as a group, to the community around us? Are we offering love notes to the city of Grande Prairie? Do we make an impact (hopefully positive) on the city by our presence?

As it happens this links with a discussion we are planning to have at our next Council meeting. Before Christmas we decided that we would include on every Council agenda, near the beginning of the meeting, some time for visioning-type discussions. The first of these happened in November when we talked about the need for and role of a Pastoral Care Committee (which still exists in our structure but has become defunct over the years). This month we talked about providing transportation assistance on Sunday mornings.

Next month we are going to discuss this question “If St. Paul’s were not here, what difference would that make to our community?”. If we were to disappear would anybody notice? Council has been asked to think about this over the next month in preparation for our discussion. I invite you to ponder that question as well. And if you have thoughts on the answer feel free to jot down a few notes and pass them on. Of feel free to attend the Council meeting (guests and observers are always welcome) and join in the discussion.

So that's where I am this week. Lots of questions but no answers. Maybe next month I'll come up with answers and no questions??
--Gord

Looking Forward to January 29, 2012 -- 4th Sunday After Epiphany

2012-01-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

A reminder that we have a potluck lunch following worship this week.

The Scripture Readings this week re:

Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Mark 1:21-28

The Sermon title is Is This Valid Teaching?

Early Thoughts: There are all sorts of people offering all sorts of teachings out there. Many say they are doing so in the name of God. How do we know which ones are valid or authoritative?

Prophets are a big part of the Scriptural witness. AS the story of faith is told, Prophets play a major role in helping the people understand what God asks of them, and in letting the people know where/how they have missed the mark. But in the story of faith we see three sets of prophets. One set are the ones like Jeremiah, Micah, Elijah, Isaiah -- the ones considered to be true prophets. Another set are the official court prophets, the ones who seem more likely to tell the king what the king wants to hear. The third are those prophets who continue to follow the old religions of Canaan. It is likely (in my mind anyway) that the writer of Deuteronomy has this diversity in mind as he writes this passage about a "prophet like Moses" who will come some day. In the course of time, Christians would remember the promise of a prophet like Moses. And as they reflected on the stories of Jesus they would come to believe Jesus was the one promised (and the Gospels tell us that even during his life Jesus was compared to another great prophet in Jewish faith history -- Elijah).

The Gospels often state that the people saw Jesus speaking "as one with authority". This is different for seeing him as having power. Authority is delegated, it is given, it can not be seized. People hearing and seeing Jesus knew that his teaching was valid becuase they sensed that he had been given Divine authority to do these things. They saw that his authority was different from the other leaders in their community.

Which brings us back to our opening questions. What makes us believe that someone has authority? What makes us choose one teaching as valid and another as invalid? There are many voices calling to be heard. And so we have to use discernment to determine where God is speaking -- both inside and outside our faith communities.
--Gord

Looking Forward to January 22, 2012 -- 3rd Sunday After Epiphany

2012-01-16T10:48:00.001-07:00

This week is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and so the Children's Time will be called One Church – Many Buildings

The Scripture Reading this week is:

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

The Sermon title is Supporting Others in Faith

Early Thoughts: What do you do when the understanding from one culture clashes with teh understanding from another culture? What if newer members of your community find that culture clash confusing?

In the world where Paul lives and writes meat was much less available than it is today. And in many cases the meat at the local butcher shop came from an animal that had been offered as a sacrifice at the local temple. So what?

Well it appears that for some members of the Christian community in Corinth this was an issue. If the animal had been offered as a sacrifice did that mean that eating the meat validated the sacrifice -- making it an instance of idolatry? Maybe they were recent converts and had spent many years with that understanding of sacrifice. Maybe there were people who ate the meat knowing it to just be meat while others chastised them for backsliding. OR maybe it was simply a culture clash born out of different understandings. However the issue presented itself (likey all of these things in some combination) it was enough of an issue that someone in the community decided to ask Paul to give a definitive answer. This passage is his answer.

Sometimes Paul is less than clear. Sometimes he doesn't really seem to give a clear answer. But then sometimes clear answers are over-rated. In the end Paul doesn't care about meat offered to idols. But some people in his world do. And so he tells us to act in ways that support the faith of others.

What are the "meat offered to idols" issues in our world today? Where do we have to be careful lest we lead others into a misunderstanding? In the end we are still called to act in ways that support the growth of our sisters and brothers. The challenge of course is in figuring out exactly what that means. And too often there are no clear-cut, definitive answers.
--Gord

Looking Forward to January 15, 2012 -- 2nd Sunday After Epiphany Year B

2012-01-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Reading this week is:

Psalm 139 (VU p.861)

The Sermon Title is Holy Knower, Wholly Known

Early Thoughts: Is it a blessing or a threat to say that we are so closely known?

This Psalm is one of my favourite passages in all of Scripture. It influences much of my prayer life, and has for many years. There is great comfort in these words. And yet I wonder if there is some discomfort there as well.

We all have secrets. Things we don't want to admit to ourselves, let alone to another. According to this Psalm, God knows all these things. We all have hopes we dare not name lest we somehow jinx the chance of them coming true (or set ourselves up for crushing disappointment when they don't come true). God knows these things too. We all have fears we dare not name aloud lest they become somehow more real by being given space. God knows what these are. This can be a discomforting realization.

And yet there is still comfort in knowing that God is not "out there" somewhere. God is also "right here", intimate, close.

And so is it a blessing or a curse that GOd knows us so deeply. What does it mean to be Wholly Known by the Holy Knower?
--Gord

Looking Forward to January 8, 2012 -- Baptism of Jesus Sunday

2012-01-02T11:31:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Acts 19:1-7
Mark 1:4-11

The Sermon Title is Baptism? What's that?

Early Thoughts: It is something we do on a regular basis (or at least a semi-regular basis) in our worship services. But what does it mean to put water on someone's head while saying some specific words? Why do we baptise?

In one sense it is easy. We celebrate baptism because Jesus was baptised and because at the end of Matthew's gospel (and only in Matthew's gospel) Jesus tells us to baptise people. Protestant tradition recognizes 2 sacraments -- Baptism and The Lord's Supper/Communion. And the criterion that is used is that these 2 have direct links to Jesus as his life is told in the Gospels. It is also worth noting that these two practices are shown to extend to the earliest days of the Christian movement.

So that is WHY we baptise people. But what does it mean? This Sunday our readings talk about Baprism. In Mark we read about the baptism of Jesus and in Acts Paul teaches about the difference between John's baptism (which was all about repentance) and Christian baptism. And so it seems logical that we take some time this week to think about the meaning of baptism.

From the earliest days of the Christian movement Baptism has been the Rite of Entrance. It is through Baptism that one became, part of the community. But beyond that there is a distinct lack of cohesiveness about what it means. Some traditions maintain that because it is the Rite of Entrance Baptism should be the choice of the person, and so they practice Believers (aka Adult) Baptism. Many other traditions (in fact most Mainline denominations, and arguably the majority of Christians worldwide) Baptise at any age, and this often means young children or infants are baptised. In that case the parents make the statement of faith on behalf of the child and then promise to raise the child with an awareness of (or within) the Christian faith.

One of my professors in seminary identified 4 distinct theological understandings of baptism within the United Church of Canada. Each one focusses on a different aspect of the sacrament. Some people see baptsim as all about the freely given gift of God. Some see it as focussed on those promises, the covenant. Some see it as primarily about belonging. And some see Baptism as one of those Rites of Passage, a way to mark a significant life-event. And in any one congregation there will be a combination of those understandings.

SO come on Sunday to think about Baptism. And also to remember your Baptism (if applicable) and/or the baptism of your child(ren) (if applicable) -- note that this may include a bit of water flying around. And after our reflection we will be invited to renew the covenant made at our Baptism, and re-made whenever we re-affirm our Baptismal faith.
--Gord

Christmas Eve

2011-12-20T11:29:00.000-07:00

WE have 2 services this year. One at 5:30 and one at 7:00.

At the 5:30 service we will tell the Christmas story, we will sing some carols, we will light some candles. And we will also have a different Christmas story A Special Place for Santa, followed by a special activity based on the story.

At 7:00 we will also sing carols, we will also light candles (at the beginning and at the end of the service), we will also hear and reflect on the story.

The Scripture Readings for this service will be:

Luke 1:26-38
Luke 2:1-20

The Reflection will be in 3 sections.
After the first Scripture reading we will hear about Mary's fear.
After the second Scripture Reading we will hear about the Shepherd's fear.
Both Mary and the shepherd are visited by an angel. And in both cases the angel starts out by saying "Don't Be Afraid". SO we need to ask what they might have been afraid of (other than an angel appearing and talking to you which would be a little off-putting in and of itself).

The 3rd section of the reflection is called Fear and Change Today.
The Christmas story is all about chagne. The promise of Christmas is that God breaks into the world, God comes to be among us, in order to change the world. This is encapsulated in my favourite of the magazine ads developed for the United Church of Canada Emerging Spirit campaign:

And yet change it truly terrifying for many of us, particularly when we can not control the change. SO we need to hear again the words of the angel. Don't be afraid.

God IS breaking into the world again this Christmas. God has hope for the world, hope that things will (some day in the near or distant future) get better. GOd is among us, coming as a weak and dependent child--with all the potential that childhood suggests, coming to spur us forward, coming so that the world will be changed. Do not be afraid! This is good news for all people. Hope will overcome despair, justice and peace will overcome inequity and violence, love will overcome fear and hate, joy will come even to the wilderness.

For unto US a child is born. And unto US a child is given.
--Gord

Blue Christmas

2011-12-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

This Sunday Clairmont United and St. Paul's United host our Annual Blue Christmas Service at 3:00 in Clairmont.

The Scripture REadings for this service are:

Psalm 121
Isaiah 40:1-4, 11

Early Thoughts: There is no time of year that is happy for everybody. It is just that simple.

And so what do you do when you don't feel the way the TV commercials tell you you should feel?

You give yourself permission. Life is not all joy and merry. Christmas isn't either. So we give ourselves permission to name the bittersweet, or just plain bitter, aspects of the season. And we look for comfort, for hope.

THE promise of faith is that we are not alone. In our joy and in our sorrow, in our hope and in our despair, when we are surrounded by friends and family and when someone is missing, we are not alone.

Through Isaiah we hear the promise of comfort, for our time of troubel comes to a close. THe Psalmist asks where to look for help -- and answers with God. WE are not alone. Whatever heaviness we carry into and through the Christmas Season we do not carry it alone.

ANd here is the secret, the one no TV special will tell you. The christmas story, the real one we find in Luke and Matthew, is not all joy and light either. It has people who are afraid, people who do nto know how they are going to get through. Life is not always what we want it to be. And so we give ourselves permission to lament, to name our losses, to mourn for what could have been, to acknowledge the pain. And we look to GOd for the comfort and the strength and the help to carry on.

Thanks be to GOd. In our Joy and sorrow, when the way is easy and when it is hard, Thanks be to God. Amen.

Looking Forward to December 11, 2011 -- 3rd Sunday of Advent

2011-12-05T11:54:00.001-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Luke 1:47-55 (VU p.898)
Luke 1:68-79 (VU p.900)
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

The Sermon title is Be Not Afraid, Justice shall be done.

Early Thoughts: Meek and mild? I don't think so. Mary's song announces a world about to be turned upside down.

Mary's song, the Magnificat, has been set to many tunes over the centuries. We are singing this one this week:

It is a song of defiance. It is a song of change. It is a song of revolution.

In Luke chapter 4 Jesus begins his ministry (as Luke tells the story) by reading from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. In fact he reads from what we call chapter 61. [side note: the original manuscripts of Scripture (both Hebrew and Greek) do not have chapter or verse number {nor punctuation} these have been added over the centuries, primarily for ease of reference]. Luke's Jesus is born to a woman with revolutionary ideas, and shares those ideas about justice throughout his ministry.

This fall we have heard a lot about Justice. Between the OCCUPY movements and the Federal Government's omnibus justice bill the news has been full of the word, albeit in very different (though arguably related) meanings. What do we mean when we say that Mary sings of Justice, when we say that Jesus preaches the coming of Justice?

More or less we are talking about economic and social justice. We are talking about asking the questions like "why do some have so much while others can't have enough to survive?" We are talking about wondering why some people are treated like they are of less importance, less worth, than others. To deal with these question means turning the world upside down, both in terms of economic assumptions and in terms of social/class/"in crowd" structures.

Over and over again Scripture talks about taking care of the "least of these". It is arguable that the main theme of Scripture is about living in a just society, that the Peace of Christ comes not through victory in battle but through justice for all. At Christmas we celebrate God's breaking in to the world around us. And so we have to sing with Mary. We have to proclaim that Justice will be done. We also have to ask ourselves where we are part of the problem and where we are part of the solution.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to December 4, 2011 -- Advent 2B

2011-11-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

From the Jewish Scriptures: Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72 (VU p.790)
From the Gospel: Luke 3:7-18

The sermon title is Be Not Afraid, Prophetic peace be with You

Early Thoughts: What is this peace for which we pray? Prophetic passages often seem wrathful and angry, not peaceful. But is there peace to be found there?

Every parent wonders about it at one time or another. What sort of world will my children grow up in? Will it be better or will it fall apart? Will my children and their friends know peace or conflict, prosperity or poverty, contentment or anxiety, hope or despair?

The Scripture promise is that of a world of peace. But this peace is a differenrt vision than the peace of empire (be it Davidic/Judean, or Babylonian, or Roman or American). Imperial peace is based on crushing the opposition. Imperial peace is based not the iron fist keeping the "rabble" in their place. The books we call Scripture were largely written as a protest against domination and Imperial peace. SCripture's vision of peace is based in justice and abundance for all.

The peace we wish for our children is that broader vision. The peace we are promised is what Isaiah describes often, including the passage we read this week. But how do we get there? How do we prepare the way for the reign of peace?

Biblical prophecy is an interesting animal. It really is not (as many assume) about predicting the future. More it is about truth-telling, calling people to account, naming the consequences of behaviour. Andso a lot of prophetic language appears wrathful and mean. John the Baptist is an excellent example. Apparently John is unfamiliar with diplomatic niceties and gentle language. Instead he calls the powerful in his world a brood of vipers and talks about an axe that will cut them down. Little wonder that John's career came to an untimely and bloody end.

But if we are serious about working towards the peace promised by scripture we need to pay heed to the role of the prophet. Only when we listen to the voices that name our reality for what it is can we see what might need to be changed. Only when we are willing to have our own culpability in the world's disfunction brought to light are we able to move forward. The prophets have a key role in preparing the way for God's work to happen.

What needs to happen to pass on true peace to our children? What preparations do we need to make? In three weeks we celebrate the birth of one who was called the Prince of Peace. At Christmas we remind ourselves that God breaks into the world to try and create the world God envisions. As we prepare for that in-breaking, how do we prepare for the vision?
--Gord

Occupy Christmas -- A Newsletter Piece

2011-11-22T20:44:00.003-07:00

It started last winter. A wave of unrest that toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt and (with a little more trouble and violence) Libya. The media christened it the Arab Spring and Western politicians and commentators were falling over themselves praising the movement to democratic ideals and civil rights that it seemed to represent (although how well those ideals and rights will be lived out is yet to be seen).

Then the phenomenon crossed into the Western democracies themselves. A group of people, disgusted with the way the current political and economic systems were operating, announced that they were going to Occupy Wall Street. This was their way of speaking out against the social inequality that is a reality in the Western world. This grassroots movement has since spread across the United States. And even up here in relatively law-abiding Canada parks in our major cities have been taken over by protestors in the same spirit. Their goals may be unclear, their methods may be controversial, the parks may be getting cleared out, but just as in Tunisia and Egypt it seems that an unstoppable force has been unleashed. Change is in the air. A new world is being born, these are just the first labour pangs.

Change is in the air. A new world is being born. Even without the Arab Spring and the Occupy movements I would be drawn to those sentences at this time of year. Because the Advent/Christmas story, indeed the whole of the Christian story is about the new world being born, the change that is in the air.

Any day now we can expect to hear, if we have not already heard, the opening salvos in the annual “War on Christmas”, the debate about what the mid-winter festival really means today. I invite us all to sit this one out, in a way. Personally I don't care if schoolchildren sing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” or “Away in a Manger”. I don't care if the store clerk says Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays or Happy Hanukkah. The culture wars have grown tiresome – partly because those wars have lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas is about God breaking into our lives. Christmas is about us allowing ourselves to hear about and celebrate a world-changing event. For unto US is born in the City of David a Saviour...Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace among those of good will.

As I see it, the basis of the Occupy movement is that those people are committed to their cause, so committed that they will camp in a park in sub-zero temperatures to help see it come to reality. They will stand up and occupy not only that park but a place in the public discourse, a place in the public worldview so that others may see the world differently. They want others to see a new possibility. And they refuse to leave until they know that they have been heard.

This year I invite us all to Occupy Christmas. Stand up and name that the world is being changed by the baby who is being born. Set up your tent in the public forum and share the vision of a world where simple things like peace and hope, love and joy guide our choices. Claim a space in the public discourse and refuse to go away until your voice is heard, until others share the vision of a just world laid out by the Prince of Peace. That is the way we proclaim the true power and possibility of Christmas

Change is in the air. A new world is being born. For unto US a child is born and unto US a son is given and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, the Prince of Peace.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Looking Ahead to November 27, 2011 -- First Sunday of Advent YEar B

2011-11-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year! This Sunday we mark the beginning of a new year by the liturgical calendar as we begin again to await the birth of a child who will change the world.

The Scripture readings for this week are:

Isaiah 65:17-23
Revelation 21:1-4 (Responsive Reading)
Mark 13:24-37

The Semon title is Be Not Afraid: A New World is Coming

Early Thoughts: Advent means waiting, but what are we waiting for? Is it just a baby born long ago or is there something else?

It seems a little bit strange. As the rest of the world ramps up into a frenzy of gift buying (although maybe not so much this year) and baking and decorating the church starts its season of preparation with a discussion of the end-times. No wonder people sometimes wonder if the church is in step with the world. (Of course a strong argument can be made that the church should not be in step with the world but that is a whole other area for discussion.)

In order to explain why we have this happen we need to ask a whole set of questions. What are we getting ready for? Is Christmas just about the story in Luke's gospel? What hope for the present and future does Christmas offer?

In terms of faith Advent and Christmas are not only about the story of a child in the manger. The power of Christmas is that it speaks of a birth here and now. When we celebrate the birth of Christ we are celebrating God breaking into our world again. The incarnation is not a once and for all event, God becomes incarnate in every human birth (to quote a favorite Advent hymn).

The Scripture passages talk about the coming of a new world, a new time. The new world is coming. The Promised Land is in sight. Every year at Advent we prepare for God to break into our world again, we prepare for the world to be changed.

Because let's be honest, if God being active in the world means anything it means that we will be changed. The world right now may seem chaotic and troubled. There may be many reasons to be afraid. But Advent and Christmas remind us to Be Not Afraid, a new world is coming
--Gord

Looking Ahead to November 20, 2011 -- Reign of Christ Sunday

2011-11-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Psalm 95 (VU p.814)
Matthew 25:31-46

The Sermon title is Who Are We Ministering to?

Early Thoughts: Back at the beginning of our faith story Cain asks (after killing Abel) "Am I my Brother's keeper?"(Genesis 4:9). Arguably the answer that Scripture points to is YES. We are our brothers' (and sisters') keeper. We have a duty and responsibility to care for our neighbour, to feed them when they are hungry, to support them when they struggle.

It is possible that this duty is made clearer in this Matthew passage (which is one of my favourite passages in all of Scripture) than anywhere else in our faith. In my opinion this passage describes how we act when we live as if the Reign of Christ/Kingdom of God/Kin-dom of Heaven is a reality in our midst. THis passage answers the question asked by a lawyer in Luke's Gospel "Who is my neighbour?", it rells us what to do and why. It is a call to action.

During Advent we will be collecting stuff for our partner agencies in town. This Advent collection is part of how we live out our call to care for our neighbours. And so this Sunday we will use our reflecting on the call to care as a kick-off for our Advent campaign.
--Gord

Something New!

2011-11-12T16:42:00.001-07:00

I learned on twitter today that the United Church of Canada is trying something new.

WEll new to the UCCan. Other agencies having been doing things like this for years.

A catalogue for giving charitable gifts. You can read more about it here

Looking Ahead to November 13, 2011 -- 22nd After Pentecost, Proper 28A

2011-11-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30

The Sermon Title is: How Do You Use YOUR Talent?

Early Thoughts: Are you afraid to take the risk? If you had to make an accounting tomorrow and justify how you have used what you have been given would there be a talent you had buried in a hole somewhere?

At some time or another we are all afraid to use what we have been given. Maybe we are afraid we won't get credit. Maybe we are afraid of looking foolish. Maybe we are afraid of moving backwards instead of forwards. But at some point in our lives we all have the fear of risking our talent.

But in the end, the parable tells us, an accounting will be demanded. In the end we have to explain the choices we made about how we use our talents. Near the beginning of his Gospel, Matthew has Jesus proclaim that nobody lights a lamp to hide it under a basket. Here, in the days before his death, Jesus tells the story of one who is punished for letting his fear keep him from making good use of the stuff with which he has been entrusted. HOw do you use your talents?

It is a question of stewardship. It is a question of taking a risk. It is a question of faith. We have been given much. What will we choose to do with it?
--Gord

SErmon Videos

2011-11-07T09:11:00.002-07:00

NO, not from St. Paul's. At least not yet (maybe that can go on the wish list for the future?)

But here are some from a colleague in the US

Looking Ahead to November 6, 2011 -- All Saints' Day Celebration

2011-10-31T11:49:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Revelation 7:9-17
Psalm 78: 1-7 (VU p.792 Part 1)
Matthew 5:1-12

The Sermon title is Saints of Peace

Early Thoughts: What is a saint? Who are the saints in your life and history?

From Dictionary.com we get:

saint [seynt]
noun
1. any of certain persons of exceptional holiness of life, formally recognized as such by the Christian Church, especially by canonization.
2. a person of great holiness, virtue, or benevolence.
3. a founder, sponsor, or patron, as of a movement or organization.
4. (in certain religious groups) a designation applied by the members to themselves.

And further down the page it notes that the word comes the same roots as sancitfy, or to make holy.

SO who are the saints in your life, in your history?

In the Revelation passage for this week we see some of the saints. They are those who have stood firm in what they believe is right, even at the cost of their own death. In the Matthew passage we are given a potential description of what the saints might be like. Traditionally the word Saint has been used (within some strains of Christian thought) to refer to specific people who have been recognized by the church for their gifts. On the other hand the idea of the communion of saints (small s) has also been used in Christian tradition to refer to all those who have gone before us, the cloud of witnesses who have formed and reformed our communities.

So who are the saints in the life and history of your commmunities?

This Sunday is also the SUnday before Remembrance Day. The point of Remembrance Day is not so much to remember teh dead, but to pledge Never Again. Through the eyes of faith I see peace as being something distinct from what happens when the guns fall silent. Peace in that form could simply be because the strongest crushed the weakest. But with the eyes of faith peace means a win-win solution. Faith calls for true peace, peace through justice, peace where all get what they need for life (and that in abundance). How do the saints in our lives help lead us to peace?
--Gord

A Funeral Sermon

2011-10-27T14:09:00.002-06:00

Sometimes in our lives,

we all have pain, we all have sorrow

But, if we are wise

we know that there's always tomorrow

These opening words from the song “Lean On Me” speak to where we find ourselves today. We come here today to lament T's death. But the odd thing, even if we may not feel it yet, is that we lament with hope. We lament a sudden, unfair, death; we rage against the cruelty and randomness of it all. But we also proclaim that there is hope, as people of faith we stare into the face of death and proclaim that life is the final victor.

There are some very hard realities we have all been forced to recognize this week. We have been forcefully reminded that life is not fair, that sometimes people die far too young, and sometimes people make choices which have disastrous consequences for others in the world around them. And, having been brought face-to-face with these realities, having no choice but to deal with them, we have to choose how we will respond.

One of our choices is to express our sorrow, our anger, and our grief. We join our voices in songs and prayers of lament. We name openly our loss, and our anger, and our confusion. We give ourselves permission to ask “WHY?” and to wonder what life will be like now. This is not only a natural choice but it is a good choice to make. It is only by expressing these feelings and asking these questions (even if the questions have no answers) that we are able to cope with them. To try and pretend they aren't there, or to try and suppress them because it doesn't feel good to express them only hurts us in the end. And so I encourage people today of all days to let the tears and anger and wondering flow through you.

Another choice is to tell stories and share memories. People here know T in different ways. He was a son, a brother, a student, a friend. Share the stories about time spent together. As we share stories we have a chance to balance the hurt and the anger over last weekend's collision with memories of happier times, possibly even bringing a smile or a chuckle to our lips. Sharing stories, keeping memories alive, helping each other to know T better – this too is a good choice to make.

There is another choice to be made. Will we lament with hope or despair? Will we choose to believe the claim that we can stare into the face of death, even unexpected, premature, tragic death, and proclaim that life still wins? It doesn't make sense after all. How can we, as I suggested earlier, lament with hope?

There is, in my mind, only one way we can lament with hope. We can only do it through faith. We can only do it by reminding ourselves of the promise we find in our faith stories, stories of people who often found reason to weep and lament and worry, but who also had hope. We only do it by reminding ourselves that we are not alone.

Every Sunday people gather together in this place to remember the story of Jesus, the one who promised his friends that there was something beyond death. At one point Jesus is talking to his friends and talks of going to prepare a place for them. Going to prepare a place means that there is a place for us. It is our promise that something lies beyond death. This is good news. Even in the face of tragedy this promise can give us hope.

Writing to the church in Rome, Paul proclaims his conviction that nothing, NOTHING can separate us from God. Nothing in life, not even death can separate us from the God who watched us grow in our mother's womb, who has shared every step, every breath of our lives. Here is more hope. If death can not separate us from God then there must be something beyond death. Something beyond the tragedy not only for T but for his friends and family who have been left to mourn his death.

“Yeah sure”, I can hear some of you saying. It's easy to talk about hope. Easy to talk about faith. Easy to talk about God. But where is God in these times? For that I return to “Lean On Me”, the chorus this time:

Lean on me, when you're not strong

I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on.

And later

we all need somebody to lean on.

In times like this God speaks these words. In times like this God is the one who helps us get up in the morning, who helps us stand up when the weight of the world crushes in on our shoulders.

The book of poetry we know as the Psalms contains much wisdom for times such as this. In Psalm 46 the poet says that God is our rock, our refuge, a help in times of trouble. Even when the earth shakes and life seems uncertain God is our rock and refuge. In Psalm 121 the poet looks up at the seemingly barren hillsides and asks “where will my help come from”. Think of that image, down at the bottom of a deep valley, surrounded by high hills that seem insurmountable. That sounds to me like a good image for the depths of grief we feel at a time like this. And the Psalmist knows that his help will come from God, that God is always there, that God is not asleep at the switch, that God “will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.”

God is not there to stop the tragedy from happening, as much as we might want that. But God is there to help us climb back out of the valley. Even when the world is falling to pieces around us, God is there to help us put the pieces back into some sort of order. And this is a cause for hope.

Last weekend our community was rocked by a tragedy. 4 young men lost their lives. Another lies in a hospital bed. Another will have to live his life with the memory of what has happened. There is so much grief and hurt and anger in our city right now. SO many people asking the hard questions. So much need for healing of broken spirits. But we are not alone in our grief and anger and wondering. God is with us. God is with us in the e-mails and Facebook messages that I and many others have received from people across the province, country, and continent sharing prayers. God is with us in our midst as we gather together to share memories and share our grief. God is with us, God will be with us, as we deal with the events of last weekend. God is the one we can lean on, the one who gives us strength when we can go no further on our own. God is there to help us find the life that lies beyond death.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Looking Forward to October 30, 2011 -- 20th After Pentecost, Proper 26A

2011-10-24T11:48:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Micah 3:5-12
Matthew 23:1-12

The Sermon Title is Actions Speak Louder...

Early Thoughts: It is a classic complaint about the church "they are all hypocrites". Why do you think that is? What is our best response? (other than the rather snarky "always room for one more" or "then you'll fit right in")

That accusation is leveled because people listen to what we as people of faith say about loving and caring for each other and holding up a better (or at least different) way of living. Then they look at how we actually behave. And all too often they see a discrepancy between the two. And as we have all heard many times, actions speak louder than words.

THe role of the prophets in Scripture is to reminds people what their actions say about them. The prophets remind people that words and ritual are not what God wants. God wants right action, justice to be done, people to be cared for. REtired United Church Minister Rev, John Shearman says about this Micah passage:

Micah, of whom little is known other than that he was a rural Judean, holds an important place in Old Testament prophecy. He lived in the late 8th century BCE when Assyria threatened the existence of both the Northern and the Southern Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. His prophecies declared uncompromising justice as God’s sole interest at a time when more popular prophetic voices sought to please their political masters and accepted bribes for doing so.
Power has a strange way of attracting popular support by means of solicitous propaganda. We confront this every day, even in the most democratic societies, giving it the curious name of “spin.” As this passage points out so graphically, ancient Israel had its spin doctors too. They were called false prophets who sought favours by saying what their political masters wanted to hear.
The challenges of Micah’s prophecies were decidedly different than those desired by Israel’s leaders. In an era of great political and religious corruption and compromise, faithful Israelites had to struggle to maintain the purity of their faith tradition rooted in the justice and righteousness of Yahweh that required faithful obedience to the Covenant.
A growing gap between rich and poor characterized the age of Micah’s contrarian prophecies. Naturally, the rich and powerful sought to continue the comforts they enjoyed no matter how much it violated the nation’s religious heritage or whatever the cost to those less powerful than they. They found plenty of favourable support in the twisted prophecies of those whom they could bribe. At the same time they worshipped hypocritically believing that they were safe in God’s providential care (vs. 11). (found here)

Sound familiar? THink the same could be said about the world today?

Jesus makes the same argument against the religious authorities and teachers in his world. They were big on the showiness of being teachers, they were quick to name possible breaches of the Law. But they forgot that they had to live out God's Justice.

In the end, actions speak louder. ANd so if we don't want to appear hypocritical, we have to get our actions to match what we claim we are all about.
--Gord

Looking Forward to October 23, 2011 -- 19th After Pentecost, Proper 25A

2011-10-17T13:57:00.001-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Deuteronomy 5:1-22
Matthew 22:34-40

The Sermon Title is Rules For Life

Early Thoughts: Love is a verb. Rules are needed for living together. What rules guide your life?

There are, of course, many rules that guide our lives. Some of them are written down in the by-laws and constitutions of organizations to which we belong. Some of them find their way into law codes. Some of them are "house rules", rules of the "while you live under my roof..." variety. ANd then there are those unspoken rules that we have simply absorbed.

This week we hear a lot about rules. Rules that have been talked about so much and for so long that we think of them as automatic. At least in theory.

Over the last couple of weeks we have heard a lot about rules in the media. More specifically we have heard a lot about people who think that the rules guiding our collective lives are not fair. The rules seem to favour those who have lots at the expense of those who have less. And so people fill the streets to call for a change to the rules of the game.

JEsus was born into a culture that had a lot of rules. 613 of them are in the Torah. These rules covered every aspect of life. They talked about how to live day-to-day, how to care for each other, how to farm, how to run the society (no separation of church and state in the ancient world). And so someone, seeking to test or possibly to trap, Jesus asks which is the greatest commandment. OF all these 613 which one stands on top? Jesus chooses two. From Deuteronomy 6:5 he pulls "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" and then he pairs is with Leviticus 19:18 "...you shall love the neighbour as yourself". ANd to this day people of faith consider these to be the rules which stand at the top of how we are to live. And so these rules need to shape every other part of our lives, both personal and communal) At least in theory.

What does it mean to follow these rules? IS it possible to COMMAND us to love? Not if we continue to think of love as a feeling. Nobody can command us how to feel. But that is not what the commandment means. NOwhere in Scripture are we told how to feel about another. Here we are told to love each other, not to like each other. Confused yet?

The way to understand these commanments is to see love as the verb. We are not told how to feel, we are told how to act. And that can be commanded. [As an aside, this is the basis behind human and civil rights legislations. The legislation can not tell us how to feel about others but it can set limits about how we act toward each other. The hope then is that by acting appropriately towards others our feelings/presumptions/biases about them will change for the better.] So Jesus is reminding us that the greatest commandment is to act lovingly towards God, neighbour and self.

Does that overarching rule guide everything in our lives? HOw can you tell? What makes you doubt it? How does that overarching rule colour our response to the Occupy_______ demonstrations?

It sounds remarkably simple. In practice it ends up being remarkably difficult. But the essenced of Scripture, with all the rules we find there. Comes down to these three things. Love God. Love your neighbour. Love yourself. And they come in a package. It is impossible to do one of them without the others.

What rules guide your life?
--Gord

Sermon From October 16, 2011

2011-10-17T09:15:00.001-06:00

Open singing the chorus:

Chorus:

Da-da-yeinu, da-da-yeinu

Da-da-yeinu, Dayeinu dayeinu

Dayeinu

Da-da-yeinu, da-da-yeinu

Da-da-yeinu, Dayeinu dayeinu

That is the chorus of a traditional Jewish Passover song. Dayeinu means “it would have been enough”. Each of the 15 verses lists one of the great gifts God gives during the Exodus story and then says “Dayeinu”.

At Thanksgiving it seems a good time to ask what would be enough? What would have us cry out “Dayeinu”? Do we have an awareness of what enough might be anymore? After all, our entire economy seems to be based on convincing us we never have enough, that we always need more. Is that what gets in the way of thankfulness? Partly perhaps. Hold on to that thought. We'll come back to “enough”. But first let's look at thanks giving and what might get in the way.

If you believe the news reports it would be easy to believe that we have little to be thankful for. In economy-related news alone we hear of riots in Greece and Italy, mass demonstrations in multiple US cities under the #OccupyWallStreet banner, repeated warnings about the possibility of another global recession. Even our own Canadian economy, we are told, is too fragile to withstand even a short labour disruption in the airline industry. Then there are the stories in our own backyard, the people we see struggling in our own community. What does it mean to be thankful in such a time as this? What is there to be thankful for?

It has been said that there are only two basic prayers. One is “Help” and the other is “thank you”. And yet it always seems so much easier to remember the first and forget the second. In bad or troubling times it is far easier to wonder what will come next, to wonder if we are going to get out of this mess than to stop and count our blessings But it is only when we count our blessings that we remember to give thanks.

The Scriptures we have just heard speak to the difficulty in saying thanks in the good times. In Luke we hear the story of some lepers who are made clean. To be made clean means to be re-admitted to the community. In their excitement and joy they forget to come back to give thanks – the only one who does is an outsider already, a Samaritan who would be unable to follow the instructions Jesus gives anyway. The story reminds us to pause in the times of unexpected joy to remember our blessings.

Deuteronomy highlights a different, and likely a more common issue. Deuteronomy warns the people “do not forget!”. Amnesia is the great threat. When all the great things of the land have come true there is the temptation to forget that the land is a gift from God. When times are good it is too easy to take the blessings for granted. When times are good it is to easy to believe the age-old myth – so prevalent in North American social thought – of the “self-made person”. Foreseeing that temptation, Moses says to the Israelites “DO NOT FORGET”. Moses warns the people to always remember that God has done all these things for them , to always remember that they did not get where they are by themselves or by their own efforts. It is only when we remember our blessings that we can remember to give thanks.

In a way this brings us back to (and answers) the question of how do we give thanks in a world of chaos. When employment is scarce, when families wonder where the next month's rent will come from, when the news fills us with worry and anxiety about the future, how then can we fill our hearts with thankfulness, with praise, with gratitude? How do we give thanks when we see so many reasons to not give thanks?

How? Well the same wisdom that we find in Luke and in Deuteronomy still holds. We can only give thanks when we take time to remember what we have to give thanks for. In times of uncertainty and chaos we need to intentionally think about what blessings we do have. We need to clearly name our blessings so that we are able to give thanks. And so that brings us back to the question of “what would be enough?”. In this era of crisis, what is it enough for God to have done? In a world where we are constantly told that we need to go and buy “MORE” or “NEW, IMPROVED” can we remember what the base of enough is? What gifts make us sing dayeinu?

1) If our God had merely made us

Formed us, blew life's breath into us

Simply gave us our existence

Dayeinu.

Chorus:

As Fraulein Maria told the Von Trapp children when they asked to learn to sing: “Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read you begin with A B C when you sing you begin with Do Re Mi”. And in the life of faith you begin with? Our story starts with creation and so we give thanks to Creator God for life itself. If God had only given us the gift of life and set us free to face whatever life threw at us by ourselves then even that clockmaker God would be worthy of our thanks and praise. Even just life itself and nothing else would have been enough.

2) If our God had only fed us

Gave us food and drink to nourish

Fruits of earth for us to cherish

Dayeinu.

Chorus:

At some point last weekend, many families sat down at tables full of food. For many people the feast almost seems to be the main purpose for Thanksgiving. But when you think about it, when people of faith gather together for a meal how does the meal start? With grace, with a prayer of thanks. Even before we know if the food is good or not we give thanks that there is food. God not only gave us life, God gives us that which we need to sustain life. Thanksgiving is seen as a harvest festival by many to celebrate the miracle of growth but also because we know that even if God had only provided us with food that would have been enough.

3) Or if God had brought us freedom

Freed us from sin and oppression

Merely made us free for service

Dayeinu.

Chorus:

Freedom. An old Star Trek (the Original Series) episode called that a worship word. And indeed the faith story is one of freedom. God frees the people of Israel from slavery, reminding us that God's vision is of a world where none struggle with oppression. God commands that no member of the community is ever to be bound in servitude forever, reminding us of a different economy, one where our value is in our existence not our productivity. God redeems those who are exiles, reminding us that we can always come home again. And God frees us from guilt and shame and sin, reminding us that there is always a new start, a second chance to get it right. Freedom, that indeed would have been enough.

4) If our God gave us companions

Family and friends for comfort

So that we would not be lonely

Dayeinu.

Chorus:

The three “peoples of the Book” as Muhammed called us (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) share many things. We share a common God. We share a similar morality. We share a community focus. Our faith is not one that can be lived in isolation. Our faith calls us to live in community, caring for and with each other, being cared about by each other. In wedding sermons I often comment on the fact that humanity seems hardwired to seek out companionship and support. And God creates us so that this companionship and support is available. For community, for friends and family, we give thanks. And indeed that would have been enough.

5) Or if God gave us vocations

Tasks to do that give life meaning

Helped us feel that we had purpose

Dayeinu.

Chorus:

We all need to feel useful. We all need to know that our lives have meaning and purpose. Some of us find that in our career, but not always. But each of us has a vocation (that is with an o, not vacation with an a). There is something, or a set of somethings, each of us can do that make a difference in the world. When we discover what God is calling us to do and find a way to do that then we feel much better. For the knowledge that we have a purpose, for those things that make life meaningful rather than just existing, we give thanks. And most certainly all these things would be enough, dayeinu.
But of course the great cause for Thanksgiving is not that God does all these things. The greatest cause for thanksgiving is that God does them all over and over again and more. On Thanksgiving Day we pause again to think of all the ways that God gives us life in great abundance. God continues to bless us over and over and over. And in response to all these blessings we say thank-you not only once a year but regularly, daily, whenever we are made aware of our blessings. And for each of those blessings we say not only thanks but dayeinu, it would have been enough.

6) But our God provides more blessings

Gives us life in great abundance

And so daily we say thank-you

Dayeinu.

Chorus:

A Primer on the Mission and Service Fund

2011-10-13T09:44:00.002-06:00

Looking Forward to October 16, 2011 -- Thanksgiving Service

2011-10-11T10:05:00.002-06:00

Because we had our Centennial celebration last week, we have chosen to have our Thanksgiving service this week.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

From the Jewish Scriptures: Deuteronomy 8:7-18
Psalm 65 (VU p.782)
From the Letters of the Early Church: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
From the Gospel: Luke 17:11-19

The sermon title is Dayeinu!

Early Thoughts: When is it enough? Do we know? How does that knowledge (or lack thereof) impact our ability/willingness to give thanks?

There is a song sung at Passover that says If our God had simply...Dayeinu Dayeinu means "it would have been enough. The verses of the song go through a list of the various things God has done for God's people and each time says "That would have been enough". But of course God keeps doing more.

I think Dayeinu is a song of thanksgiving. It is a song that reminds the singer of all the things that God has done. And so I ask what verses we would sing. What would we name that God has done and say "that would be enough"?

What does "enough" mean anyway? Does enough mean all our needs are met? Does it mean all our wants are satisfied? In a world where we are deluged with advertising that suggests we always need something else are we even able to recognize "enough" anymore?

Thanksgiving is a time to recognize what "enough" means. Thanksgiving is a time to remember how God has gifted us. When we once again remember what "enough" means, when we can start to believe that "that would have been enough", we are better able to give thanks. Thanksgiving may have begun as a harvest festival but it is about far more than harvest. Thanks giving is an act of faith, a way of life, a different way of seeing the world.

Join us this Sunday as we explore when we could say Dayeinu. And who knows, there may be some singing involved in that exploration...
--Gord

Looking Forward to October 9, 2011 -- Thanksgiving Sunday, 100th Anniversary

2011-10-03T10:13:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:
Joshua 4:1-8
Psalm 127
John 15:5-11

The sermon title is Remembering Forward

Early Thoughts: Looking back we give thanks. Looking forward we wonder what will come.

In all parts of life we need to look in both directions. We need to know from whence we have come and where we are going. The challenge is to know how to look both ways.

Why do we look back? Do we look back to see where we were or where we want to be again? What do we see when we look back? Maybe we see the struggles of the past as a foundation. Maybe we see the triumphs of the past as a goal to meet. Do we see a Golden Age that we are nostalgic about?

Why do we look forward? What do we see when we look forward? DO we see a future full of hope or a future of struggle?

Significant anniversaries are times for celebration. But they also carry a danger. The celebration encourages us to look back fondly, to tell the stories, to share the memories (both real and mythic) that have shaped the organization. But the danger is that we may wax nostalgic and fret about how we can re-create teh glories of those days.

The past is the past. It has shaped us as a community. It has led us to this point. But it is not the present and it is not the future. The most important way we honour the foundation laid by those who have gone before is by remembering forward. To remember forward is to commit to using the foundation laid before us to build on for the future. WE can't and shouldn't recreate the past. WE need to be who God is calling us to be today and tomorrow. But by remembering forward we honour the gifts given by countless others before our time. By remembering forward we build on what they have done.

This weekend we remember those who laid stones before we came. This weekend we re-commit ourselves to be growing branches of the vine. This weekend we remember forward as we launch ourselves into a new century. As a part of our celebration we will plant a tree. And so I remind you of the old wisdom that you always plant a tree for those who will come later, when it has had time to grow into maturity. Building a faith community is the same thing.
--Gord

What is the Church? Newspaper piece

2011-09-22T15:33:00.002-06:00

The dedication service of McQueen Presbyterian Church was held on October 8, 1911, with capacity attendance. Its name honored the Rev D.G. McQueen, who had played an important part in the creation of this mission. It was a proud moment for the Rev. And Mrs. Forbes – their first church in their new mission field... (And We Come After page 19)

McQueen Presbyterian would, in due time, become St. Paul's United Church. And our current building is on the same parcel of land as that original log church. 100 years of continual ministry on the same corner where Alexander Forbes originally drove a stake labelled “Presbyterian Church” in 1909!

On that corner have now stood a variety of buildings. First was the log building which now stands in the Museum. Then, 14 years after that first dedication, the congregation built a new building to house a growing community. In the early 1950's a Christian Education building was built. Then the current sanctuary was built in 1956. Finally the Christian Education building was demolished and the “new” wing was built in 1986-87. But none of these buildings have been the church.

That is right none of these buildings, nor any of the other buildings around Grande Prairie that bear the name “Church” are the church. They are merely structures where the church meets. So what is the church?

When I was first in Junior Choir we learned a song whose first verse went:

The church is not a building the church is not a steeple
the church is not a resting place the church is a people

That is where the church is. The church is in the people who gather in buildings large and small, sharing stories of faith, singing songs, and then going back out into the world. The church is not in what happens on Sunday morning it is in what happens 7 days a week. As St. Paul's celebrates its centennial this Thanksgiving weekend we remember how it has lived out being the church. We remember that as long as Alcoholics Anonymous has been in this area, there has been a connection with St. Paul's. We remember that folks from this congregation helped get the Community Dorm started, and the Native Friendship Center. We remember that folks from this congregation have served the community in many ways, sometimes under the name of the congregation but more often simply because they were moved to serve. And many other congregations in this community could tell similar stories. This is the church.

The church is present in the world to help God transform the world. We aren't called to be an insular members-only place. We are called to welcome all, to recognize the gifts that all have to offer. The church is called to have an impact on the world, on individuals and on communities.

After he had won the civil war and wrested the kingship of Israel from Saul, David promised God that he would build a grand temple in which God could live. God told him NO. God asked why God would need such a dwelling now when God had never needed it before. God continues to remind us that our buildings are not the church. They are tools that help us BE the church.

At this point in time, as the people with whom I try to be the church celebrate the centennial of our buildings, I have one question for all of us. How is God calling us to be in the world today? Who is God calling us to be today and in the years to come? Here is a hint, taken from the Gospel of Matthew:

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ ...Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

At the time of this anniversary we have stories of thanksgiving to tell about how those who came before us have been the church in this place. What stories will those who come after us tell about the impact we made on the world?

Looking Forward to September 25, 2011 -- Proper 21A 15th After Pentecost

2011-09-19T10:17:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Exodus 16:2-15
Exodus 17:1-7

The Sermon title is The Back to Egypt Committee

Early Thoughts: When the early excitement of the journey fades into drudgery what happens? When the promise of change gets lost in the process of change do we lose heart? Does the comfort of the familiar (even if unhappy) trump the possibility of the yet-to-come?

They were terribly hungry and thirsty you see. Out in the middle of the desert with no food or water and no end in sight to their journey. You can see why they might start to lose hope. You can see why they might start to wonder about whether it was really worth it. Were there no graves in Egypt? they cry out. Why bring us here to die in the desert?

Of course they do continue across the desert. It may take a couple of miracles (bread from heaven, water from a rock) to get them past this hurdle but they keep going. They meet other hurdles and they keep going. It takes 40 years, long enough that no adult who left Egypt crosses into the Promised Land. None of those who first catch the vision and the hope actually see it come true. But as long as they resist the temptation to go back to Egypt, back where life was unhappy but possible, back to the relative comfort of the familiar the hope goes on. And in the long term the hope holds out.

In many ways the story of the flight (when it lasts 40 years does it remain a flight?) across the desert mirrors the way humans process change, both as individuals and as communities. A few years ago Jim Taylor wrote:

Canada and the U.S. are both in the middle of election campaigns. Typically, the campaigns have degenerated into attacks, on the party or the person. “They” – that is, the other guy(s) – are leading you in the wrong direction.
Opinion polls suggest that people want to go back to what they remember as a better time, when they felt confident, a time with less stress, less uncertainty.
La plus ca change, la plus c’est le meme chose – the more things change, the more things stay the same! Two refrains recur through Exodus:
– first, the people complain;
– then Moses pulls off another miracle to prove that the Lord cares for them.
On the shores of the Red Sea, at the rocks of Massa and Meribah, here in the wilderness, the people whine, “We would have been better off staying in slavery in Egypt.”
The Bible is more than history. The Bible is a story about us. Some parts ring true at one time, some parts at another time. At this particular time, I think we are the Israelites, constantly crabbing about our leaders.
Moses wasn’t always popular. But he always had a vision. Do our leaders have a vision? If so, what is it? And do we share it? Or would we rather return to slavery?

And I believe he speaks the truth.

When people first catch the dream, the vision of change, there is a sense of great excitement but when things don't just happen as fast as the dream that excitement can fade. In that time of transition uncertainty becomes the rule. We know we aren't where we were, we haven't yet got to where we were promised, and we aren't really sure we will get there. People generally don't like uncertainty, it leaves them uncomfortable and anxious. And as it appear that the dream was wrong or faulty we want to get back to a time when we had certainty. There is a comfort in the known, even if in our heart of hearts the we knew that the old way wasn't really right for us. When the world gets turned upside down we really want to go back to the way things were (and sometimes nostalgia blurs how things were so that they become the "good old days" even though in those days too we longed for an earlier time).

There is something within all of us that yearns at times to go "back to Egypt". When our personal lives are being changed (new job, new town, retirement...)there is a part that wishes we could stay where we are. When our community needs to redevelop/reinvent itself we ask why can't it be like when our kids were young. And churches are possibly more prone to back to Egypt committees than many other groups. With our placing an importance on tradition, with faith touching so close to people's hearts, with the church being something many people feel they have more control over than other institutions (also why the church is often one of the last things to close in a dying town--everything else the decision is made elsewhere). The desire to go back to a "better time" or a "happier time" looms large whenever the church (local congregation or national denomination) starts to make changes.

But what is the vision? What lies beyond the dis-comfort and the uncertainty of the wilderness of change? If we can avoid the temptation to drop out of the process where might we get to? Are we willing to stick it out?
--Gord

Looking Forward to September 18, 2011 -- Proper 20A 14th After Pentecost

2011-09-11T15:15:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Jonah 3:10-4:11
Matthew 20:1-16

The Sermon title is Labour Relations, Kingdom Style

Early Thoughts: Do we really get what we deserve? Do we really deserve what we get? Not just in the world as we know it but in God's economy.

I am pretty sure the answer to both questions is no (at least in God's economy). And that is a good thing. It is what we call grace.

BUt there is more to this parable than giving thanks for what God has given (without worrying if we deserve it or not). If, as I believe, the Kingdom of God/Heaven is here and now among us (as well as coming to fulfillment) and this parable (as do many of Jesus' parables) starts with the phrase "the kingdom of heaven is like" than what does the parable suggest about how we should interact??

In Jesus time, as in our own, a day labourer needed a full day's paid work to have enough money to eat for that day. Someone who is not picked up until mid afternoon would not expect to make enough that day. But in the economics and labour relatoins of the kingdom they all get a full day's pay. When the kingdom comes to fulfillment all will get what they need to survive. When we live in the kingdom way all are given enough.

But, many of us would say, it isn't fair! Jonah says the same. The Ninnevites were horrid people. They (in the minds of many Jewish folk) deserved to be destroyed. But there is a wideness in God's mercy and grace. A wideness that eliminates questions of "deserving". It isn't fair Jonah says. It isn't fair that they get saved and the bush which gave me comfort gets destroyed. It isn't fair the workers hired at dawn say, we worked longer and harder! It isn't fair! IT isn't fair!

2 questions come to mind. What does "fair" mean? And whoever promised life was going to be fair?

Still, I can hear the union grievance being filed at the vineyard office. Maybe we'll talk about that some more on Sunday.

And maybe we'll see what words of wisdom the children have about fairness.
--Gord

September Newsletter

2011-09-06T15:14:00.003-06:00

The time has come....to speak of many things...

With apologies to Lewis Carroll, I have no opinions on shoes or ships or sealing wax. I do have opinions on cabbages and kings, but those will wait for another day. I don't know if the sea is boiling hot or if pigs do not have wings (but I have my suspicions). But I do know that it is September. And September means it is start-up season.

Sunday School starts on September 11, with some new curriculum and an new organization. As a congregation we need to offer our support to the leaders and members of the Sunday School and Youth Group as they meet and learn and grow. While we are talking about education, watch for news about upcoming Faith Study options. Any fans of Les Misérables out there? I think it would be a great topic for a study. And congregations across the country have been asked to look at the simple question of “What does the United Church of Canada believe?' Or maybe that is not so simple a question after all.

And of course as the weeks pass there are big events coming closer. A month from now we will be celebrating our 100th Anniversary as a congregation. Don't forget to register so we know how many will be at the celebratory supper! Do you have stories that need to be told about the history of this place? What is it that makes this place special? And of course the big question is---while we celebrate what others have left for us, are we thinking about what we will leave for those who will come later?

Then there is the REALLY big one. The event that will take a lot of work, but the work can be spread among many different people. In March (which is really only 6 months away) St. Paul's will be visited by a 150 or 200 people for the conference Junior High Youth Rally. These people will sleep here, and eat here, and have fun here, and lead us in worship. But they need support. They need food to be prepared and served and cleaned up. They need a team of First Aiders to be available, just in case. They need chaperones to sit in the church while they sleep to answer questions and provide support. They need people to ensure the bathrooms are restocked with paper products and the floors are kept passably clean. They need people to lead them in workshops. They need transportation around town. If you are interested in planning for or assisting with this event please talk to Paula Anderson or myself. A representative from the Conference Youth and Young Adult Ministry committee will be coming for a site visit in late October.

And of course our committees and the Council are starting to rev up again. This will include the Committee fair on September 25th – a chance for the Committees and Working Groups in the congregation to let you know what they do in our life together.

The time has indeed come to speak of many things. In our life together we share so much. WE learn and grow together as people trying to live in God's Way. Let's explore life and faith together shall we.

And let me know if you see a pig with wings won't you?

Gord

Looking Forward to September 11, 2011 -- 13th After Pentecost

2011-09-05T20:30:00.000-06:00

This Sunday we mark the beginning of another year of Sunday School. We also celebrate the sacrament of Communion.

The Scripture Readings this week are:
Exodus 14:19-31
Exodus 15:1-13 (VU p.876)
Matthew 18:21-35

THe Sermon Title is Victory, Mourning, Forgiveness

Early Thoughts: When our enemies suffer and we feel victorious what is the appropriate response? Remembering of course that we bear the name of the one who taught forgiveness of those who hurt us and love of enemy.

This Sunday marks the 10th Anniversary of the terrorist attacks known as 9/11. As I remember that day, one of the images that people in North America found so disturbing was people in the ARab world dancing in the streets. However a few short months ago people were dancing in the streets of Washington DC in response to the announcement that the man generally blamed/credited with orchestrating the attacks of 2011 (and several others over the years before that) had been killed [some of us would say assassinated].

Is this the way we respond to the suffering and death of our enemies? Is this the way GOd wants us to react?

Reading the Exodus passage one could easily come to that conclusion. THe Exodus story (written of course by the people of Israel) tells of how God is with the people, leading them forward, fighting on their behalf, destroying their enemies. Little wonder that the people sing and dance (I suspect the Egyptians would have a very diferent version of this story, maybe of the terrorist rebels who slaughtered their people?). But there is a rabinnic tale of how God might have reacted.

The story goes that it was the angels in the heavenly court who orchestrated the Exodus event (apparently God was out of town on business?). God came back just as the waters destroyed Pharoah and his army. The angels were very proud of what they had accomplished. Then one of them noticed a tear in the Divine eye. "Why do you weep, your children the Israelites are free?" "I weep because my children the Egyptians are weeping".

The Matthew passage reminds us that we are to forgive as we have been forgiven. It also reminds us that we don't always do that so well. When we have been hurt how are we to react? When we have "won" how should we react?

Ten years ago the world had a choice of how to react. We all know what choices were made by people wielding great power and influence. Was there a more "Godly choice"? Where do we go from here?

2011-09-03T11:43:00.002-06:00

August 2011 Newsletter

2011-07-28T11:28:00.001-06:00

(Full dsiclosure, this is a re-working of a newsletter piece I wrote in Atikokan 3 years ago, as they prepared to celebrate their 55th anniversary)

Do you know why the Israelites wandered around in the desert for 40 years?
Because even then men wouldn't ask for directions.

It is a joke of course, one that makes light of a stereotyped vision of how men and women operate differently. But the joke came to mind recently because sometimes life feels like one journey through the wilderness after another. Sometimes we wonder when, or if, we will reach the Promised Land. Do we know which way we are going?

I suspect that is just what those ancient Israelites felt like from time to time. They had been told that there was something good to come but they just couldn't seem to get there. You have to think that they wondered if this Moses really knew how to get there. Did he have a map and directions?

In his book Reading the Bible Again for the First Time Marcus Borg suggests that the Exodus story is one of the 3 “meta-stories” of Scripture. It is one of the 3 basic stories that builds the foundation of Scriptural faith. And as such it is not something that happened once, it is an experience that echoes throughout the history of the faithful. Those elements of wandering, promise, and liberation continue to make up part of our story.

This October St. Paul's turns 100. Over those years there have been times of wilderness wandering and times of knowing we were in the Promised Land. Over those years there have been times when we knew where were going, times when we were pretty sure, and times when the road ahead was pretty well lost in the fog. When the road is lost in the fog, what happens?

If we are honest, sometimes, when the road is lost in the fog or the Promised Land seems more dream than reality, we want to stop and go back. Moses constantly dealt with people who wanted to go back to Egypt. The challenge is to keep wandering, to keep looking forward with hope, to resist the temptation to go back to the comfort of the familiar.

So where are our wanderings taking us here in 2011? What Promised Land is in our future? I honestly wish I could say I knew. But I can't. Mind you, I am not always sure Moses and the people knew what the Promised Land would be either. They just knew it was out there. They lived in hope. They lived in hope that they would get there someday.

So that is our task today. As we join with our neighbours near and far to struggle with an world in turmoil we live in hope. As we wonder how best to minister to God's world with limited resources we live in hope. As we try to re-vision what it means to be a community of faith in a rapidly changing world we live in hope. We hope for liberation. We hope for the time of abundance. We hope for that time when God's justice and peace are a reality not only here but around the world. We are people of hope.

As we start off into another year where we tell again the story of a child in a manger, a cross on a hill, an empty tomb, and a new community may hope carry us forward. In the face of a world of uncertainty, of a time of wandering in the wilderness, may hope in the Promise keep us walking. And may the God of hope, the God of promise walk with us as support and guide. And let's try to remember to stop and ask God for directions so we can keep a clearer idea of where it is we are supposed to be going.

Because we really don't want to wander around aimlessly for 40 years do we?

Looking Forward to July 31, 2011 -- 7th Sunday After Pentecost

2011-07-25T11:59:00.001-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Isaiah 55:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21

The Sermon Title is What do you Have?

Early Thoughts: There is so much need in the world. There are so many places asking for out time, our talent, our treasure. It can be overwhelming can't it?

Jesus hears that a friend (cousin? mentor? teacher?) has died. And so he wants to go off to a private place. But it doesn't work, word gets out, and the crowds descend upon his refuge.

Jesus could have kept going farther but instead he sets aside his time and meets the people where they are. But the kicker comes later in the day, as meal time falls. The disciples encourage Jesus to disband the group so they can go obtain food. Jesus says, "well if they are hungry then give them something to eat"

Give them something to eat. Give them what they need. the words echo through the centuries. And the response does too -- "we can't do that, we do't have the money" -- a response not voiced in this version of the story but surely in the minds of the disciples.

Well what DO you have? What can you do with that? Jesus takes what they have and feeds the multitude. We could spend hours debating what really happened on the lakeshore that day and still miss the point. What do you have? What resources are available? Give them something to eat. Help as you can. The instruction remains.

It is the basis of faithful stewardship -- use what you have as best you can to help meet the needs of the people around you.

SO, in the face of the needs around you, what do you have?

WHat Observer Readers Believe:

2011-07-15T10:56:00.000-06:00

Each year the United Church Observer does a survey. Here are the results of this year's:

Or in print form

A RElevant Poem

2011-07-11T14:33:00.000-06:00

As I mull the story of the Tares among the Wheat for Sunday (and the difficulty of knowing the weeds from the good plants) I am reminded of a poem (admittedly the first stanza is most relevant):
All that is gold does not glitter
Not all those who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither
Deep roots are not reached by the frost

From the ashes a fire shall be woken
A light from teh shadows shall spring
Renewed shall be blade that was broken
The crownless again shall be king.

Looking Forward to July 17, 2011 -- 5th Sunday After Pentecost

2011-07-11T14:26:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:
Psalm 139 (VU p.861)
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

The sermon title is Not more Weeding!!!

Early Thoughts: It is enough to throw any gardener or farmer into a rage. You look out at your nicely planted land and see weeds filling the rows. What to do?

In teh parable for this week the landowner gives odd instructions. Leave them be for now. LAter, when harvest comes, the weeds will be sorted from the grain. But for now, to avoid damaging the field (the community?), to avoid uprooting the good plants with the weeds let them be. It doesn't make sense. Wouldn't there be a chance that the weeds will choke out the good grain? AT the very least they will rob moisture and nutrients.

There are a few questions that come to mind: Why cant' the weeds easily be separated from the good plants? In a modern context, remembering the definition of a weed being "a pant growing where you don't want it" is there a danger of removing the wrong parts?

Some have said that Matthew's gospel tells more about how to live as a church community than any other. And so I have to wonder if the field is in fact the community. The story does not say that all are acceptable in the field. It says that the dividing will come later, when the harvest comes, when the plant is shown for what it truly is. In so many of our communities (religious and secular) we are pretty quick to weed out the "troublemakers" as soon as they are identified as such. But if we always did that we would weed out the Martin Luther Kings of the world pretty quickly--to our detriment. If the field is the community and God is the one doing the harvesting, how dare we, as part of the field, claim to know what is a weed and what is not?

OTOH, maybe we are the harvesters. And the story calls us to use wisdom to know the good from the bad. THere might be a sermon there too.

Or are we left asking ourselves if we are teh land owner sowing good seed or the enemy sowing weeds?

Lots of possibilities here. Be we weeds or wheat. Be we harvesters told to wait a bit before pulling things up. Or if we have to try and discern what it is that we are sowing--remembering the old adage that we will eventually reap what we sow.

Looking Forward to July 10, 2011 -- 4th Sunday After Pentecost

2011-07-04T11:45:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings for this week are:
Isaiah 55:10-13
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

The Sermon Title is Seeds Everywhere!

Early Thoughts: How do we plant? Do we carefully find the best places or do we scatter and hope?

It seems that only a very foolish gardener or farmer would sow seeds like the Sower in this parable. What a waste to scatter seed on the path, or in rocky soil, or among weeds! Well it is unquestionable that sowing by hand can be a challenge -especially on a windy day- in a culture where all sowing is done by hand people would ecome very practiced at ensuring the precious seed went only where it had a good chance of being productive.

THEre are a variety of places we might place ourselves in this parable. Are we the seed, scattered whereever we might fall? Are we the various soils? Are we possibly even the sower? Matthew offers an interpretation of the parable, offered (as the story is written) to a select group in a private time--insider knowledge perhaps? But rarely can it be said that a parable has only one meaning. MAtthew's version has us as the soil, responding to the seed (the Word) in various ways. But what if we see ourselves as the seed? The seed scattered to the world to bear fruit? Or what if we are called to be the profligate sower, spreading our resources broadly, trusting what may happen?

On Sunday we may well explore these various options. It is a parable after all. Parabolic meaning is only found in exploration and testing.

Looking Forward to July 3, 2011 -- 3rd Sunday After Pentecost

2011-06-28T10:20:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Psalm 145 (VU p.866)
Romans 7:14-25

The Sermon Title is The Devil Made Me Do It???

Early Thoughts: Sometimes Paul gets it right, hits the target squarely in the gold. ANd this seems to be one of those times.

HOw many of us have ever said" oh I know I shouldn't but...."? True often we say it openly for stuff that is relatively meaningless. But we say it inside for more important things. Or else we look back with regret and ask "why did I do something so stupid?!" Paul understands, in fact Paul does the same thing.

This passage brings us to the heart of our understanding of human nature. Why, when we have been taught a better way to live, do we continue to stray from The Way? Do we really have the ability to choose not to "sin"?

Volumes of theological text have been written about this question. Blood has been spilled over it. People have debated, people have removed others from the community because of differing views on this question. And yet it keeps coming up in our lives. And so it seems we have to discuss it every generation as we seek to understnad who we are as individuals and as creations of God.

So how do you understand yourself? How much choice do you have in your actions? Can you choose the right? More accurately -- do you?

ANd in the end do we try to escape accountability when we claim we can't help ourselves? Is it just an excuse to say "The Devil Made Me Do It" or is it a statement about how the world works?
--Gord

Looking Forward to June 26, 2011 -- 2nd After Pentecost

2011-06-20T10:36:00.022-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Genesis 18:1-8
Hebrews 13:1-3
Matthew 10:40-42

The Sermon Title is Welcome In...

Early Thoughts: At the core of Christan Life and ministry is hospitality. For when we welcome anyone we welcome God.

But if we are honest, how good a job do we do at welcoming in the church? I mean really welcoming. NOt just those who are "like us" or who have a message that we agree with. But how well do we welcome people who are different or who have a challenging message, or who start telling us how we need to change the way we operate.

The Matthew passage this week comes just after Jesus has commissioned the disciples. He is sending them out to teach and preach. The message they carry will not always be well-received. And so I can't help but think that even as he points out how blessed those who welcome the disciples will be he is also hinting that this welcome may be an exception rather than the rule

If we are going to grow in faith, we need to ask ourselves these hard questions. If we are to grow in faith we need to ask ourselves how well we deal with difference. THat is the side of welcoming we don't talk about as often as we should. So this week let's talk about it.

Looking Forward to June 19, 2011 -- 1st After Pentecost

2011-06-13T10:25:00.000-06:00

This Sunday we will celebrate the ministry of Church Camping.

The Scripture Reading for the week is:
Genesis 1:1-2:4a

The Sermon Title is: Camping Ministry, God's Creation

Early Thoughts: This summer thousands of children will attend camps run under the name of the United Church of Canada. Why? Millions of dollars are poured into site maintenance, utilities, staffing, insurance, supplies. Good use?

I suppose I should name my bias up front. I spent a total of 6 summers on staff at church camps (5 in Alberta, 1 in Saskatchewan). There were also 3 summers when I spent most of my days off volunteering out at the lake. Church camping is responsible for my entering the ministry. So I have a fairly strong bias in favour of this ministry.

CAmp ministry is one of the UCCan's greatest outreach ministries. In my experience many of the children who come to camp are not "church kids". But at camp they get a chance to experience a different way of living as we tried to model a form of Christian community. Church camping is also a chance to introduce many urban kids to the outdoors. Working at Camp Maskepetoon, on Pigeon Lake, we would have some kids who had never been outside at night without streetlights, or had never had a chance to walk through the forest. And so part of our program was making use of our surroundings.

CHurch camping also provides a chance for people to explore who they are as leaders. Either as volunteers or as paid staff, many young people heve their first leadership experience in a camp setting. WE develop the leadership of the next generation by giving them chances to be leaders.

Camp is a life-changing event for many people. Camp can be a safe place for someone who needs it. Camp, when done well, can be a place where people of all ages feel free to be themselves (or to explore what it means to be themselves) instead of trying to be what others say they should be.

Camp is a very important part of our presence in this country. The camp program I worked with in Ontario was created precisely to provide a different theological perspective than any of the other church-based camps in that area (many of whom, including us, rented the same space -- a Kiwanis owned camp site). Our life as a church would be lessened if we didn't have camps.

FOr the record. Did you know that there are 70 United Church Camps across the country (well sort of -- some of those are rental only sites and some [like the one I just mentioned] don't appear on that list because they don't have a fixed site). This is in addition to all the VBS programs run by various churches. If each camp has an average of 50 campers and they have 7 camps a summer that would be 24 500 campers (plus paid and volunteer staff) touched by the United Church this year. Oh and of those 70 camps, 112 of them are in Alberta) You can find out more about United Church Camps on this page

Church camping--a good use of our resources.
--Gord

And of course there is another way to look at camping in general:

Looking Forward to June 12, 2011 -- Pentecost Sunday

2011-06-06T10:41:00.031-06:00

This Sunday we will celebrate the Sacrament of Communion. The next time we do this will be in September.

The Scripture Readings this week are:
Numbers 11:24-30
Acts 2:1-21

The Sermon Title is Spirit-Filled, Hot and Windy?

Early Thoughts: What is our response to those who claim to speak when moved by the Spirit? Do we honour their words or do we dismiss them as a lot of hot air?

As we know all too well this year, fire and wind are dangerous. They can be a destructive combination. ANd yet they are both classic images for God. They occupy a central place in the Scripture readings on this, the 2nd most important Sunday of the Christian Year.

Still it can be said that even as images of GOd/God's Presence it is important to remember that fire and wind can be dangerous. Allowing oneself to be moved by the Spirit of God can be dangerous and risky. IT can lead us to do and say things that others find ridiculous or threatening. It can lead us to find ourselves on the outside looking in, taking a position contrary to the "norm".

However we are a people of Pentecost (I'd say Pentecostal but that has a different meaning these days). This means we are a people who are shaped by the wind and fire of God. THis means we are called to let God's fire burn in our bellies/souls and God's wind fill our sails, drive us forward.

THe question remains though. Will we be seen as hot and windy, on fire for the kin-dom? OR will we simply be seen as hot-headed windbags?
--Gord

Article on St. Paul's

2011-06-01T11:18:00.000-06:00

WIthin Alberta Northwest Conference there exists a body whose purpose is to tell the story of the United Church (and our Methodist and Presbyterian forebears) within the area served by the Conference (all of Alberta, the BC Peace, Yukon, Northwest Territories). Each year they publish a Journal with articles sent in by UCCan folks in the area. They also have a web-presence in the form of this blog.

Earlier this year the 100th Anniversary Committee had submitted a write up about St. Paul's United (nee McQueen Presbyterian) Church for the 2011 edition of the Journal. This article was accidentally missed but has been posted on the blog. You can find it here

KJV Turns 400

2011-05-31T10:11:00.000-06:00

As an addendum to yesterday's post....

In preparing for Sunday I found a website dedicted to the KJV turning 400. You can check it out here

Looking Forward to June 5, 2011 -- 7th Sunday of Easter

2011-05-30T10:43:00.001-06:00

This year the King James Version of the Bible (also called the Authorized Version) turns 400. In honour of that we will read our Scriptures from the KJV this week and spend time talking about how we approach Scripture.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

2 Timothy 3:14-17
Revelation 22:16-21
Psalm 119:105-112 (VU p.841 Part 5)

For Children's Time we will have a variety of Bibles up front to look at--one of which is very special.

The Sermon Title is The B-I-B-L-E

Early Thoughts: OK, be honest, did any of you start singing this song when you read the sermon title? Well here is a video version of it for you to sing along with (done "boy band" style):

But really, what is the Bible? How do we, as people of faith, make use of it? Is it "the Word of God" or is it words about God that contain a Word from God? Where did it come from? How do we interpret it? Is the Bible "true"? And what do you mean by true

These are important questions for us to talk about. They are also questions for which faithful people have a wide variety of answers.

The KJV is an important artifact in English literature. By some studies (see this article) it is still the most common version of the Bible on household bookshelves (although I suspect that this may be due to inherited Bibles rather than because everyone is buying KJV for personal use). It was not the first translation of Scripture into English, but it was the first one with the official stamp and permission of the monarch (which is why it is called the Authorized Version). And the committee that worked on it tried, as best they could with the scholarship of the early 17th century, to be as accurate as possible. Some people still remember the shock and horror that many felt a half century ago when the RSV came out and changed the translation of some much beloved verses --there were some who called the RSV an atheist text and an abomination. To this day there are a few people who maintain that the KJV is the only proper English version of the text to read, study, and use.

But we need to look beyond one version. The KJV is an artifact from another time. There are more accurate translations. And more importantly there are translations that are written in the language we actually speak (which was the whole point of the KJV in the first place). We have Scripture in our language so that we can read and study and discuss it. Which brings us back to the questions I asked earlier.

TO find out how I answer those questions, you'll simply have to come on Sunday!

In the meantime, here is a song that grows out of the Psalm passage for this week:

--Gord

PS> here is a thread from WonderCafe about 18 months ago discussing the Bible. I referenced the same song in its title...

June Newsletter

2011-05-28T22:01:00.000-06:00

Spin me a story in spinning you'll find.

One strand is yours another is mine.

Each alone has beauty to see;

reflecting the joys of what we believe.

Only when shared do stories take form.

Join in the telling a new strand is born.

By weaving the fabric a richness we'll see,

woven into God's great tapestry.

Whether it is as our child heads off to bed, or gathering friends and family to remember a loved one, or at a faith gathering, or simply something to read as we relax on the beach we are story-people. Despite all the science and technology we use everyday it is stories that really tell us who we are. And so we all have stories to share.

This is especially true for us as people of faith. Our faith is not passed on through complex theological concepts or philosophies. Our faith is passed on through stories, stories from Scripture, stories from the life of our denomination, stories from our congregation, and our own stories of exploring faith, of encountering God in our lives. And so we have stories to share.

150 years ago Katherine Hankey wrote these words:

I love to tell the story; more wonderful it seems
Than all the golden fancies of all our golden dreams.
I love to tell the story, it did so much for me;
And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.

I love to tell the story, for those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.
And when, in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song,
’Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.

(“I Love to Tell the Story” verses 2 & 4)

Hankey knew something too many of us have forgotten. She knew that as people of faith we have a responsibility to tell the stories of faith to the people around us. And just like the stories we tell at family gatherings it really doesn't matter if people are hearing them for the first time or for the 100^th time. We all have those stories we love to hear over and over again – like the child who knows her favourite story book by heart but still wants it read every night.

In theological language telling the stories of faith is called evangelism, sharing the Good News. That is a word we tend not to use much these days. But it is my considered opinion that we need to reclaim our evangelical heritage. We need to start telling our faith stories more. We need to tell our faith stories to help each other grow stronger in faith, to deepen our relationship with the Holy One. We need to tell our faith stories so that people we have not yet met can hear how our relationship with the Holy One has changed our lives. We need to be sharers of Good News, not to increase the number of people in church or dollars in the plate, but because we are people of story. Only if we share our stories can we share our understanding of God's vision for the world in which we live, in which we do our ministry.

Spin me a world that is free from all wrong.

Peacefulness reigns, all conflict is gone.

Hungry souls are fed by our love,

inspired by the hope of the dove.

This is God's world for us to weave.

Picture the future then start to believe.

Spin me a story in spinning you'll find,

one strand is yours, another is mine

(“Spin me a Story” verse 3)

What stories will we share as we try to live out this life and world transforming faith we call Christianity?

I love to tell the story, ’twill be my theme in glory,
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.

(“I Love to Tell the Story” refrain)

Looking Forward to May 29, 2011 -- 6th Sunday of Easter

2011-05-23T11:14:00.000-06:00

This Sunday we will celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism

The Scripture Readings this week are:

1 Peter 3:13-16
Psalm 66 (VU p.784)
Acts 17:16-34

The Sermon Title is Cosmopolitan Faith

Early Thoughts: How do we share our faith in a world where there are so many options? Well we could do worse than model Paul.

Paul is best known as the (somewhat self-appointed) "Apostle to the Gentiles". The stories we have of him tell of how he travelled all around the Eastern end of the Mediterranean spreading the Gospel (Good News) of the Risen Christ. Here in this passage from Acts we see how did this in Athens.

WHat is most notable is that Paul is willing to meet people where they are at. He speaks to them in a "language" that they understand. He relates the Gospel of hope he has to share with their life and (perhaps more importantly in Athens) philosophy. HE is invited/hauled in front of the intelligentsia to share his position and he does so respectfully. At the end we are told that some scoffed, some said "we will tak about this again" and some joined.

Some people have suggested that the world of 2011 is, in some ways, much more like the world in which Paul lived and ministered that the world of 1911. This may be particularly true when we come to the area of religion and spirituality. Paul could not assume that his audience would know the story of his faith--neither can we. Paul could (indeed had to) assume that his audience would include people froma variety of faith and philosophical background--so can (should?) we. The Roman Empire was a very Cosmopolitan (citizen of the world, belonging to the wider world) environment, it was fed by ideas from all around the Mediterranean. Today's global village is much the same.

And so we once again have to understand how we share our faith, our story, our hope in a world which is much less homgenous than the world our grandparents knew. Here is one person's advice to those who are preaching in this environment:

In many respects we may be preaching to similar audiences these days. The traditional elements of the biblical narratives may be familiar, but the religious meanings and interpretations beyond the biblical records are not so familiar or may need to be updated. The need to open the meaning of religious experiences as they have come to us through the study of the scriptures, preparation of sermons, prayer and other elements of worship is the essence of our homiletical task. Like Paul, we need to plumb the depths of our own religious experiences, then use the best skills of rhetoric that we have learned to convey the meaning of those experiences so that others may gain insight and meaning from what we say from the pulpit.

SO this Sunday we will explore what it means to have a cosmopolitan faith. But don't worry--we won't read from the magazine of that name.
--Gord

Slave Lake Fires

2011-05-18T08:45:00.000-06:00

The following is a Pastoral Letter from the Rev. Peter Chynoweth, President of Alberta Northwest Conference:

May 16, 2011

To: The people of Alberta and Northwest Conference
Subject: Prayers and thoughts for the people of Slave Lake

Many of us in the Conference awoke on Monday morning to news of the destruction that has occurred in Slave Lake as a result of raging wildfires pushed in to the town by winds of up to one hundred km per hour. As the day progressed we heard estimates that a large percentage of the town was destroyed, including many key buildings and churches, but more importantly, the homes of hundreds of Slave Lake residents.

With the town having been evacuated it is likely that many Slave Lake residents do not yet know what happened to their homes.

I know that you along with me are praying for the residents of Slave Lake as they face the devastation and grief of so much loss. All reports so far have indicated that despite the tremendous speed at which this catastrophe has happened, and the large number of homes, businesses and other buildings that have been destroyed, there has been no loss of life. We can hope and pray that this small blessing in the midst of such ruin will continue to hold true.

The work of re-building will take not only hard work, but also the strong commitment of many people, and a strength of will that will be hard to find in the midst of such loss.

We all know that the church is more than a building, but for those people who have lost their place of worship, it will be an especially traumatic time. However, the church is more than a building and I know that the church is also more than the people in a particular community. And so I invite us as the church to be with the people of Slave Lake, offering the hope and presence of God in all the different ways that are possible.

Please hold the people of Slave Lake in your thoughts and in your prayers, and be encouraged in whatever way you can to offer whatever other assistance you can.

We also hold in gratitude everyone who has responded to this crisis, and made things just a little bit easier in the midst of shock, loss, fear and disbelief.

We will continue to monitor the situation in Slave Lake, with particular concern for the community of faith, and we will provide updates as soon as we can, along with any information we can provide about ways that you can help in the days to come.

And to the people of Slave Lake, may you know the power, strength and love of God in this time, and may God's presence be made known to you by the people of God who are standing, praying and working with you in this very difficult time.

Sincerely,

Peter Chynoweth
President, ANW Conference

Prayers For Our Siblings

2011-05-17T10:02:00.000-06:00

WE have all heard/read the news from Slave Lake. Many of us have friends or family living in that community. And so I encourage us all to hold the people of that community in prayer. Hopefully by Sunday we will have heard more.

Looking Forward to May 22, 2011 -- 5th Sunday of Easter

2011-05-16T21:56:00.001-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Acts 7:54-8:1
Psalm 31(VU p.758 Parts 1&3)
John 14:1-14

The Sermon title is Which Way? Which Truth?

Early Thoughts: How do we reconcile this passage (especially verse 6) with the realities of living in a pluralistic society?

It is a challenge. On one hand the realities of pluralism requires that we be open to people from other backgrounds and traditions. On the other we have Scripture which proclaims that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We have John's Jesus saying "no one comes to the Father except through me" (of course earlier in the same Gospel John--chapter 10, the "Good Shepherd" chapter-- has Jesus saying that he has sheep in other flocks).

Can these two be reconciled? Or can we only use this passage as an excuse for Christian exclusivism, for Christian bigotry (as has been done too often in the past)?

I think there is some room for Christian exclusivism in a pluralistic world. Indeed I think it is mandatory. It depends what we mean when we say Jesus is the Way. DO we mean that Jesus is the Way for all people? Or do we mean that Jesus is the Way for people of Christian faith? I see arrogance in the first statement (an arrogance that I am not sure the Gospel writer would have meant, other than in relation to the Jewish community that appears to have recently kicked the Christians out of the synagogues when the Gospel was being written). In the other I see a mandatory statement of faith, for Christians Jesus IS the Way. But this does not mean we have to make him the Way for Jews, Muslims, Hindus etc.

And besides, we also have to remember that following the way/truth/life of Jesus has not always been obviously life-giving. This week we also read of the martyrdom of Stephen, the 1st Christian Martyr. Saying JEsus is the Way can come with a price.

In the end this week is part 1 of two sermons about faith in a pluralistic world. The realities of life demands that we talk about this dichotomy--accepting of others but secure in our faith. This week we talk about Christian exclusivism and particularity. Next week we will hear about Paul preaching in Athens and the reality of living in a cosmopolitan world (and no, not the magazine).

Is Jesus the Way? Yes. But what does it mean to say that? Come on Sunday and join the discussion.
--Gord

Looking Forward to May 15, 2011 -- 4th Sunday of Easter

2011-05-09T11:26:00.000-06:00

This Sunday we will celebrate the Sacrament of Communion.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Psalm 23 (which we will sing to VU 747 -- the Crimond tune)
John 10:1-10
John 21:15-17

The Sermon title is The Care and Feeding of Sheep

Early Thoughts: Are we sheep? Or are we shepherds? What if we don't really want to be either?

The 4th Sunday of the Easter Season each year (the Easter Season has 7 Sundays, starting on Easter Sunday and leading into Pentecost Sunday) is called "Good Shepherd Sunday" because each year we read Psalm 23 and a portion of John 10 where John is exploring the Shepherd image/metaphor as a way of understanding who Jesus was and is.

The image of a "good shepherd" runs through Scripture -and other literature from the same area and era- as the model of a good leader. And yet it is a difficult image for many of us today. If our leader is a good shepherd then what does that make us? Well sheep of course, and that is not generally seen as a complimentary image.

But this image takes an interesting twist when we pair it with this passage from the end of John. In this passage the Risen Christ turns Peter into the new shepherd, calling him to feed the sheep. Theologically it is a small step to suggest that the task of all who seek to follow the Way of Jesus are called to be both sheep and shepherds. We are called to follow the Good Shepherd but also to care for those around us.

What do shepherds do? How do they take care of sheep? And what does that mean we are called to do? I'll do some checking on the first couple questions and get back to you on Sunday....
--Gord

Looking Forward to May 8, 2011 -- 3rd Sunday of Easter, Mother's Day

2011-05-02T21:20:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Psalm 116(VU p.836)
Luke 24:13-35

The Sermon title is Gathering Around the Table

Early Thoughts: A family meal can be so much more than a way to get nourishment. It can be a religious/spiritual event!

There was a time in human history when meals were a family affair. Sometimes it was a nuclear family. But often, especially for Sundays and definitely for high holidays, it would be an extended family gathering.

ANd there is something special about the family table. At that table the life of the family is discussed. At that table the stories of family history are told, re-told, modified. At that table the family is strengthened and brought together. And sometimes at that table the family is rent apart (if we are being honest), sometimes at that table the family disagreements are re-hashed.

One of the things I lament is that the idea of placing importance on a family meal seems to be fading in our society. WE lose something. We lose a chance to pass on our stories, we lose a chance to strengthen the bonds of family. And some owuld suggest we lose something else...

In her book The Great Emergence Phyllis Tickle suggests taht one of the sea-changes in the church relates to the loss of Sunday family dinner. Tickle envisions those family dinners where church was discussed, children were asked about Sunday School, the faith was passed on (and if your Grandmother was anything like mine there was little room for questioning the faith that was passed on). As those dinners go away then the way the faith gets passed on changes.

ANd this makes sense, for those who had that type of family dinner. THe Scripture story is clear that for the earliest followers of THe Way gathering for a meal was a critical part of how the story was told, how the faith was celebrated. Indeed this week's story suggests that for some people it was at one of those meal gatherings that Easter was experienced for the first time.

MEals. More than just taking in nutrition. A chance to pass things on. A chance to buidl relationships. A chance to strengthen our family--however we choose to define that term.
--Gord

May Newsletter

2011-04-30T13:30:00.000-06:00

I have long believed that one of the great gifts the church has to offer is that it is one of the few places in our lives today that or can be truly inter-generational. At church gatherings small children can find surrogate uncles, aunts and grand-parents. At the same time adults can find surrogate nieces, nephews and grandchildren. Church life can provide chances for young to learn from old and old to learn from young. That is these things can happen if we let them, if we help them.

So how do we create an environment that enables a truly inter-generational church? What does it mean to have a place that is truly friendly to seniors, middle-agers, young adults, teens, children, and pre-schoolers? Can we make all feel welcome and at home?

In some ways this is simple. In some ways it it incredibly difficult. For now though, let's pretend only the first sentence is true.

To create that environment all we have to do is set aside time and space in our gatherings where the needs of all to be named and met. Where it gets complicated is that we also need to find that time and space inside the same physical and temporal boundaries. That is to say that even when we are all in the same building (or even the same room) during the same hour we find the time and space for our varying needs. We have to find ways to accommodate people whose hearing is fading and find background noise highly distracting and also young children who need to move around and explore their environment (which tends to make noise). We have to find ways to let different musical and liturgical tastes be expressed in our worship. We have to find ways to allow those who need to run/dance/bounce around the building (sometimes without paying really close attention to who else is around or who is moving where) do so safely with those who have mobility or balance or vision limitations. We have to find ways to allow people to express their needs openly and hear the needs being expressed by others. We have to find the balance point if and when those needs conflict. Really, that is all we need to do.

Well not quite all. We also have to pause and ask if our use of resources (including money and personnel and energy) states openly that we are trying to be welcoming to all ages. And in that line I have 2 opportunities. One is that hopefully one Sunday in May a willing volunteer (yet to be named) will take over service leadership after the sermon so that I may go downstairs and spend time with the Sunday School and/or Youth Group. This is an idea I shared last year during my interview. I was called to minister with all of the people of St. Paul's and part of doing that is spending time with different groups. The other is a really BIG opportunity for service.

Last fall the Conference Youth and Young Adult Ministry Committee asked if St. Paul's would consider playing host to the Junior High Rally in March 2012. The Council discussed it and said that yes we would. This means that a couple hundred young people and their leaders will take over this building for a weekend next March. Other churches have said that hosting these event is a transformational experience. However it is a lot of work as well. WE need people to work on food, people to organize First Aid coverage, people to help with keeping the washrooms clean and stocked, someone to arrange workshops (and people to lead them), people to help with transportation, hosts/hostesses, supervisors/chaperones for overnight (so the leadership team can sleep) and others. We will be looking for help from all of you. This is a great way to fill the building with energy, to support the work of the larger church, and to remind some of those people from Southern Alberta that there is great life up here north of the Yellowhead highway.

As a congregation committed to nurturing the faith of all generations we continue to move forward, laying the foundations for those who will one day celebrate the 125th anniversary of St. Paul's!

Looking Forward to May 1, 2011 -- 2nd Sunday of Easter

2011-04-26T11:29:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week (the day before a Federal Election) are:

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Luke 20:20-26

The Sermon title is Making Choices

Early thoughts: How does our faith inform or influence our vote? How should it?

It is a difficult question isn't it? Some people maintain that to be faithful you HAVE to support one side of the political equation. Others insist the ONLY faithful response is to support the opposite side. What makes it more complicated is that our Scriptures are not written with a modern representative democratic government model anywhere in view. And so it is hard to say that Scripture speaks to how one should make voting choices. Or is it?

To begin with we have to make one thing plain. No political party platform equals the path that leads to the Reign of God. Not the Conservatives, no the Greens, not the Liberals, not the NDP, not the Democrats, not the Republicans, not the Labour Party, not Israel's Likud, NONE of them. Despite claims that may get made the Reign of God is not affiliated with any political party on the face of the earth. And so a faithful response to an election does not mandate a vote for any one person or platform. The best way I have found to express this is the subtitle of Jim Wallis' book God's Politics -- Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It.

However, while Scripture does not contemplate the realities of living in a democratic society and the practicalities of voting, Scripture does share a vision for how the world could/should/will be. AS people of faith we are called to embrace that vision. As people of faith we are called to live as if it is there. In Deuteronomy Moses reminds the people that they have a choice. They can live as God would have them live or not. As we prepare to vote on Monday we have a choice to make. Faith calls us not to automatically vote for any specific party. Faith calls us to consider how we get closer to the world as God would have it be. Faith calls us to cast our ballot in a way that we honestly believe leads down that path. Faith calls us to vote not solely based on "what's in it for us" (despite the fact that so much propaganda tries to sell us on that point) but rather on what is the best for the society as a whole.

And may we have the capacity as a society to live together civilly and respectfully with whatever the result may be.
--Gord

2011-04-24T07:30:00.001-06:00

Christ Is Risen!

He Is Risen Indeed!

Life has Defeated Death!

Happy Easter!

Looking Forward to April 24, 2011 -- Easter Sunday

2011-04-18T13:39:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings this Sunday are:
Psalm 118:14-24 (VU p.837 Parts 2&3)
John 20:1-18

THe Sermon Title is A Resounding YES!!!

Early Thoughts: On Friday the Darkness fell (the service on Sunday will begin with a re-cap of how we got to the garden tomb). But with the dawn comes a new light, new hope, new possibilities.

On Friday we heard how well the world can say NO to God's hopes, to God's plans, to God's vision. But God has the final say in our story. And to the apparent surprise of Jesus' friends God's final word was a loud, resounding, ebullient YES!!!! No matter how insistent the powers and the principalities were, are, and will be God's YES continues to echo off their walls and their fences and their fortresses. God is continuing to bring light and life, hope and love to replace darkness and death, despair and fear.

That is the glory of Easter. That is the truth of Easter. The truth of Easter is not based in debating what "really" happened. It is in the ongoing YES that God sends out to the world. It is in the radical change that comes in our lives when we can hear that YES. It is in the life that springs up when we least expect it, calling us from our grief, calling us from our ordinary lives, calling us to proclaim that there is another possibility.

Join us this Easter to celebrate once again God's loud, joyful, ebullient YES! ANd may our praises and God's hope ring out over all the earth!
--Gord

Looking Forward to April 22 -- Good Friday

2011-04-18T12:37:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings for Friday are:

Psalm 22:1-18
Matthew 26:31-27:66

The Sermon title is The World Says NO!

Early Thoughts: Why did Jesus die? (for one look at this question see this article) Why do we tell this story? What is the value in remembering the torture and death of another human?

These are the sort of questions that come to many minds this week each year. And yet it is my contention that we HAVE to tell this part of the story if Easter is going to mean anything. Resurrection faith only makes sense if we acknowledge the power of death in the first place.

Jesus of Nazareth offered a different vision of how the world could be. Jesus offered a choice between loyalty to the old ways or embracing God's ways. Jesus challenged the powerful in their bad choices and their failure to care for all of God's people. And in response the powers of his world said a loud NO to Jesus. And so they had him killed.

But that is not the only reason we tell the story. It is not just a set-up for Sunday. We tell the story because, in many ways, it is still happening. The world is still being offered a choice of "how then shall we live?". And all too often the world continues to say NO. Crucifixions still happen (metaphorically speaking). And we forget that at our peril.

Come Friday morning to hear again the story. But come also to allow ourselves to be challenged about what COULD be. Come and be challenged about whether we are part of the world saying NO or if we are willing to chance the cross. Dark and depressing the story becomes. Dark the path that leads, eventually, to light. But the dark is part of our story. It is part of who we are. And so we need to acknoweldge it.
--Gord

Looking Forward to April 21, 2011 -- Maundy Thursday

2011-04-18T11:29:00.002-06:00

The Scripture Passages for Thursday are:

John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Exodus 12:1-14
1 Corinthians 11:23-26

For this service we are mixing our worship and our potluck. We will have reflections on the three stories:

The washing of the feet: a story that calls us to be servants to each other.A story that tells us such servanthood is a sign of the love we have for each other. After we reflect on this story we will pause before our meal to wash each other's hands.

The First Passover: In Mark, Matthew and Luke the last meal Jesus shares with his friends is a celebration of the Passover. This was a meal of memory and teaching. It recalled the story of being freed from slavery. But beyond memory it also reminded people that they too were set free from bondage.

The Eucharist: From the earliest moments the movement that became Christianity was marked by table fellowship. Indeed it was one of the markers of Jesus' ministry that he met at table with anyone -- to the apparent dismay of some onlookers, as the Gospel accounts attest. Here Paul passes on the developing tradition that would eventually become our Communion meal. Again a meal of memory. Again a meal of freedom. It has been said, with some justification but still not quite accurate, that the Communion meal is Christianity's equivalent of the Jewish Passover. What is certain, and has often been lost in Christian tradition, is that the earliest celebrations of the memory meal were part of a "whole meal deal", not just a symbolic meal during worship. And so this Thursday we will reconnect the Communion meal with the full meal.
--Gord

Digital Exodus

2011-04-18T10:53:00.002-06:00

There was one for Christmas! Now here is one for Passover!

Looking Ahead to April 17, 2011 -- Palm Sunday

2011-04-11T10:57:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings for this week are:

Zechariah 9:9-13
Matthew 21:1-11

The Sermon title is Here Comes the King!??!

Early Thoughts: Cheering crowds and waving branches and a carpet on which to ride. Surely this is a coronation procession of some sort. Right?

Well maybe. And maybe not. And maybe it depends on your point of view.

As the story is told it has all the hallmarks of a triumph. We have cheering crowds, we have echos of royal processions as described in the Jewish Scriptures. And yet there is a shadow over the whole scene.

Some portray the entry into Jerusalem as an intentional act of political street theatre, a deliberate challenge to the authorities. SOme view it as what we have been taught in Sunday School--the entry of a king. Some view it as sort of an accident -- something that got bigger than intended.

THis week we remember the story of the entry. But we also remember that if this is a kingly procession it is an altogether different king. And it lead to a very strange coronation ceremony. Between the triumph of this week and the bright light of next Sunday will come the time of testing and the falling of darkness. We have to remember the shadow that is starting to fall even as we wave the palm branches and sing the Hosannas.

Here comes the King? Maybe. Depends on where you stand.

Looking Ahead to April 10, 2011 -- 5th Sunday of Lent

2011-04-04T11:02:00.001-06:00

The single Scripture Reading this week is John 11:1-45.

The Sermon title is Wake Up!

Early Thoughts: What is dead? What needs to be raised? Is life the winner in the end?

That last question is key. Does life really win??????? After all there is so much evidence to the contrary. So much of life seems to be spent marking the passing of so much that we hold dear. Can we, with confidence say that life wins?

It is an article of faith that we can. It is a base part of Christian faith that life wins -- in the end. But saying that life wins does not take away all the struggles that lie along the path to the eventual victory.

There are a lot of preaching possibilities in this passage. Like the Gospel readings of the past few weeks, one could easily spend a month on this passage alone. We have a Jesus who tarries and lollygags so that by the time he arrives Lazarus is dead--and is then chastised for doing so by Martha and by the crowd. We have Jesus' proclamation "I AM the resurrection and the life". (We could preach about different understandings of resurrection found in that exchange.) We have Jesus weeping -- out of mourning or out of frustration that people don't see? WE have Jesus' comment early in the story about walking in darkness versus the light of day. WE have the sleeping/waking imagery. And of course we have the raising of Lazarus itself. Where do we go?

This year I think we pull in bits from many of those places. We talk about the hard road to the eventual victory of life. We name that sometimes it seems those who could help are not as responsive as we would wish. We name our grief and frustration. And we remind ourselves that life will win--in the long run.

What is dead in our lives today? Are we ready to hear the voice saying "come out!"? Are we willing to admit that life will win? Are we willing to take the chance that comes with proclaiming life, new life in Christ? Because as John's story flows this raising of Lazarus is the final straw. If Jesus is bringing life then he must die.

But of course that is not quite the rest of the story.

Come on Sunday ready to talk about life that still wins.
--Gord

April Newsletter

2011-03-24T13:35:00.000-06:00

A Saturday People

At the end of this month the high point of the Christian Year arrives. Friday the 22nd to Sunday the 24th is the Holiest weekend of the year. And yet while Friday and Sunday are the days that get the most press, I think that it is Saturday where we spend most of our time.

On Friday we gather to remember the power of the world to say NO. We remember the story of trial, conviction and execution. We reflect on the whys and the meanings of the death. WE pause to remember the ways the world continues to say NO to God's hopes for the global community. Then, especially in many churches where there is no Easter Vigil, we sort of go our own way on Saturday, maybe doing some preparation for Sunday with the Easter Bunny and the grand worship. Then comes Sunday, the theological high point of the year.

On Sunday we sing and rejoice that God counters the world's NO with a resounding and reverberating YES. On Sunday we tell of life that still wins, of hope beyond despair, of breaking the bonds of death. It is the heart of Christian faith. We are called to live as Easter people, as people of resurrection faith. Surely the life of faith is lived out in a Sunday manner? Not in my mind. I believe that we live our faith on that forgotten day, the pause in the story, the day of uncertainty. Saturday.

Saturday is a day of wondering. It is a day of not knowing what is going to come next. To live in a Saturday mode is to be caught between despair and hope, between life and death, between no and yes. And so, when I look at the world it seems a much better description of life as we live it.

Living on Saturday is both comfortable and uncomfortable. It is comfortable because it is the known, the familiar. To move into living fully on Sunday would mean leaving that familiarity behind. But what we are familiar with is the discomfort of uncertainty, of worry, of the “what if”s. It is uncomfortable to hover between hope and despair, between life and death. It is uncomfortable to live always wondering if hope is going to be fulfilled. But, on the other hand, we were never promised that life was going to be comfortable.

Some traditions have an Easter Vigil that can cover the whole of Saturday. It is a time when people use prayer and Scripture and song to help them wait. They wait for the coming of Sunday's dawn. They wait for the coming of God's YES. So it is with us for most of the year. We wait for our hopes to be fulfilled. We wait for the many ways the world says NO will be changed into God's YES. We wait in the grey area between life and death. But we wait in hope and in trust. We wait because we know there is something worth waiting for.

And so I invite all of you to join in Saturday living. Some times we will feel closer to Friday's death and darkness. Some days we will get a glimpse of Sunday's brightness and life. But most of the time we are in the twilight. And as we wait we share together the words of the hymn that covers Saturday time:

Stay with us through the night, stay with us through the pain.

Stay with us, blessed stranger till the morning breaks again

Stay with us through the night, stay with us through the grief.

Stay with us, blessed stranger till the morning brings relief.

Stay with us through the night, stay with us through the dread.

Stay with us, blessed stranger till the morning breaks new bread

Looking Forward to March 27, 2011 -- 3rd Sunday of Lent

2011-03-21T13:24:00.000-06:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Exodus 17:1-7
John 4:5-42

The sermon title is Turn on the Tap

Early Thoughts: Have you ever been REALLY thirsty? The thick tongue, the pasty feel in the mouth, the headache, the lethargy... What do you do then?

These passages are all about water and thirst. Both on a literal and on a metaphorical level.

Water is vital for life. Only lack of air will kill us faster (once you remove traumatic injuries from the equation that is). On a metaphorical level the Living Water God offers to us through Jesus is vital for healthy Spiritual life.

The irony is that while the tap is there to be turned on so many of us go thirsty at times. Why? What would it take for us to see the tap and turn it on? What would it take for us to hit the stones of our world to allow the living water to flow?

Water is life. And so I have to ask: For what do you thirst?
--Gord

Looking Forward to March 20, 2011 -- 2nd Sunday of Lent Year A

2011-03-14T12:33:00.001-06:00

So many possibilities this week. And remember that the CGIT are having their Mission Lunch following the service!

The Scripture Readings for the week are:

Psalm 121 (VU p.844)
John 3:1-17

The Sermon Title is Born of Spirit, Born Again

Early Thoughts: Born Again Not a term we use often in our tradition. Certainly a word that has, through common usage, come to have a particular theological ring to it. What might it mean to us to use it more?

In his book The Heart of Christianity Marcus Borg spends an entire chapter on the idea of being Born Again (maybe I should just read the chapter on Sunday???) because it is such a key term for faith. And yet because we are uncomfortable with how some people have used the term we have given it up. Still it is unquestionable that becoming a person of Christian faith involves being re-born, or born anew, or born from above.

To be a person of Christian Faith is to embrace a new way of living, a new life. This is what it means to be born anew. It means to leave one way behind and to start a new way. This happens through the work of the Spirit. And so it is uncontrollable. It sometimes takes us by surprise (as it apparently does with Nicodemus) and pushes us to do things that we never would have done before. The stories of people in faith who have had this happen are Legion.

How are we being born anew/from above/of Spirit/again? Does our new birth impact how we react to and interact with the events of the world around us? (Libya, Japan, homelessness in Grande Prairie...)
--Gord

Also this week we will pause for a moment to look at Japan. What is happening? What is/could be/should be our response? Where is God? I encourage us to look at the last question in light of the Psalm reading which promises that God is with us in our hardship (although those last verses are a bit more problematic...)

COvenanting Service

2011-03-14T10:26:00.000-06:00

I have received the honour of being invited to preach at a covenanting service this coming Sunday.

The Scripture Readings for the service are:

Jeremiah 29:11-14
John 13:1-20

Early Thoughts: What are we doing in this service? What does it mean to look forward to a future of mutual worship, service, growth and life in faith? What does it mean to be the church in the world today?

It is my belief that the model of serving together is the most healthy, most helpful model for ministry today. Not a minister serving a congregation. NOt a leader and followers. But serving and learning and growing toghether. It is my belief that Jesus tried to model this in his ministry, at least some of the time.

On the night before his death, Jesus pauses to wash the feet of his closest friends. Despite their lack of comfort, despite their confusion, despite their objections. Jesus knows that this is a lesson they need to learn -- sometimes one leads from the front, sometimes one leads by serving, by taking on a role of subservience.

AS this new ministry begins you all are going to be trying to understand how you will be church together. Everyone in a community of faith is a leader (for better or for worse) at times. Everyone in a community of faith is a follower (for better or for worse) at times. Everyone in a healthy community of faith needs to be willing to serve and to be served, to love and to be loved, to care for and be cared for. This is the faith to which Jesus has called us. This is the ministry to which Jesus has called us.

Leadership in the 21st Century is a bit of a strange animal. Many of us wonder at times (often? most of the time?) what is being asked of us. Are we asked to be the guru? the one in charge? the vision keeper? the vision setter? a companion on the road? the expert? all of the above? I think it is the last one at different times. And once again this is what I see Jesus modelling in the Gospels.

God has called communities of faith together. God has called certain people into leadership positions within these communities. God has, I sure hope, a plan for the growth of these communities (remembering that growth can mean a wide variety of things). In order for God's hopes to come to fruition we need to embrace our roles within our faith communities. We all lead, we all follow, we all companion. We all serve--even those who sit and wait.

Japan

2011-03-14T09:38:00.000-06:00

This is an excerpt from a posting on the General Council website Dated March 12, 2011:

The situation in Japan remains fluid. The extent of the devastation and damage is still not fully known. Attention is now also on the nuclear power plants in the quake area and the possibility of serious damage that could present dangerous consequences for people living near them. The United Church continues to monitor the situation closely and is ready to offer support as we are able to United Church personnel and partners.
While Japan has a well-developed emergency response protocol and capacity, the magnitude of the disaster presents serious challenges. Any donations received at the General Council Office, designated for earthquake relief and reconstruction in Japan, will be gratefully received and used to support United Church partners in this work. Donations can be made online or mailed to:
The United Church of Canada
3250 Bloor St. West, Suite 300
Toronto, ON M8X 2Y4

For ongoing updates about the UCCan response you can click here.

How To Rate a Church???

2011-03-14T09:32:00.001-06:00

Well OK, that is not the title the author chose but I think it works.

Bruce Reyes-Chow, from the Presbyterian Church in the USA, has written a well done piece on The List To Take When Church Shopping.

I think it is worth looking at whether actively church shopping or not. How does your faith community stack up?

Looking Forward to March 13, 2011 -- 1st Sunday of Lent

2011-03-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

We will be celebrating the Sacrament of Communion this week.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Matthew 4:1-11

The Sermon title is Who am I?

Early Thoughts: What is the story of Jesus in the wilderness about? Is it about resisting? About obedience? About self-exploration?

Yes. It is about all those things. In fact, both passages are about all of those things and probably more too -- Scripture passages rarely have one meaning or even one set of meanings).

One of the developmental tasks we all have to do in life is figure out who we are (and who we want to be). One of the developmental tasks in the life of faith is to add a third question -- who is God calling us to be? Is God calling Jesus to be a feeder of the hungry? A miracle worker? A leader/ruler of the nations? Who is Jesus meant to be?

Jesus knows that he is meant to be NONE of these. All three have potential. All three could be attractive (otherwise they would not really be called temptation would they?). But Jesus is clear that he is meant to be someone different. And so he rejects and refutes all that the tempter has to offer.

So who are WE called to be? What temptations get in our way? Is one the temptation to be independent, not needing God? The story of Adam and Eve seems to suggest this archetypal temptation is part of our nature. Is one the temptation to believe that we know better than those who give us advice? Is one the temptation to focus on the wrong thing/person/activity?

It is my belief that we can read the story of Jesus in the wilderness as a type of Spirit-Quest. Many cultures in human history have had a practice where a child who is about to enter adulthood goes on some sort of Spirit-Quest to learn who he or she is. For Children's Time this week we will hear one story of this type of event. I believe Jesus goes out from his baptism to explore who he is and who is will be.

Do we need our own Spirit Quests? How do we stop and listen for the voice of God (either directly or through the tempter) guiding us to determine who we are meant to be?
--Gord

Some Mindless Bible fun

2011-03-07T11:31:00.001-07:00

Check out the Brick Testament. The Bible told in LEGO bricks!

Apparently someone has LOTS (too much even?) of time on his hands!

Looking Forward to March 6, 2011 -- Transfiguration Sunday

2011-03-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 99 (VU p.819)
Matthew 17:1-9

The Sermon Title is Shock and Awe

Early Thoughts: How do we respond when God is revealed in our midst?

Every year, on the last Sunday before Lent starts, we read the story of the Transfiguration. Every. Year. Which makes it a bit of a challenge for the preacher. Because it is a rather difficult story to preach on. Do we talk about mountain top experiences every year? Do we challenge people to leave the mountain?

It is my belief that we do both. As people of faith, we need to seek out the mountain top times, those times of knowing that we are in God's presence. But we need to be aware of how they may hit us. THey may come when we don't expect it, or in a way we don't expect. THey may come as a shock. THey may fill us with peace, with fear, or with awe (or all of the above).

ANd yet no matter what we have to be aware that those moments of connection are often fleeting. THe challenge is to allow them to empower us. Peter wanted to stay on the mountain where it happened. ANd that is so tempting. But it isn't how life is lived.

IT strikes me that the community of faith, the church if you will, has a responisibility to have people find the opening to these moments. Note that I didn't say to provide them. THe role of the church is to help people be open to them -- after all, we can't control when they will happen. Many of my moments have not in fact been in church services, some of them have not even been in church-related settings.

For Sunday, I invite you to think about when you have known GOd's presence, and what that was like.
--Gord

Book Review -- Faith in a Time of Change

2011-02-28T20:21:00.001-07:00

Faith in a Time of Change: Selections from EmergingSpirit.ca Edited by Michael Kooiman. ©2010 United Church of Canada 127 pages.

This book was created as the United Church of Canada's Emerging Spirit project reached the end of its lifespan. In addition to the magazine ads and the WonderCafe website (the most visible parts of the campaign) this project included the website emergingspirit.ca. One of the features of that site was a series of daily blog posts, a selection of which have been put into this book. In an Introductory piece Michael Kooiman describes how the selections were made and how the book was put together.

In editing the book Kooiman has attempted to group the entries by topic (although he also admits that this is in some ways a futile effort). And so we have sections: The Church in a Time of Change, Seeking a New Vision, Hospitality in the Emerging Church. A Call to Be Stewards, Worship and the New Church, Reflections on Leadership, and Emerging Theology. Writers for the book all have brief biographies at the back and are a mix of ordered and lay, male and female, young and old (just as one might expect in a United Church of Canada publication)

As I sit down to write this review it strikes me how difficult it is to review something like this. There is no one coherent argument or topic being addressed, instead there are all sorts of related and not related topics. There are posts that openly contradict each other –such as in the leadership section where one post ponders the creation of “A Program for Excellence” such as we find in elite athletics and two pages later another post calls us to consider “Rejecting Excellence”. Both well written, both worth reading, both raising salient points.

And yet it strikes me that as we try to listen to where and who God is calling us to be as a church this is the very type of volume we need to read more often. One that intentionally has no one clear, coherent argument or vision, one that does not claim to give us the “right” answer (when first typing this I mistyped and wrote fight answer – a Freudian slip perhaps?). This is a book that makes the reader think, both about the church as it is and the church as it might/could/will become.

When I started reading Faith in a Time of Change (thought it would be nice to get the title in again) I thought I would try and note my favourite entries to include in this review. I couldn't. Every time I pick the book up and flip through it again a different entry jumps out at me. Luckily it is a fairly quick read because I may find myself revisiting it over and over again. And more than likely I will highlight different things in my heart and soul each time.

Did I agree with everything I read? No. Did I disagree with everything? No. But I repeatedly found myself wishing I could sit down for coffee and discussion with the writers. “What did that mean? “ “How did the trial work?” “Could you say more about...?” “Why would you say...?” were questions that I heard myself asking in these imagined discussions. And in the end that is why I liked the book so much.

If you want a book that will tell you how to be a “successful” church (and I have no idea what successful means in that phrase) in today and tomorrow's world look elsewhere. And, might I add, good luck since personally I doubt such a thing truly exists. But if you want a book to spark discussion, something that could be shared with your Board or Study Group and get people talking then you would be well served by Faith in a Time of Change. The writers ring out as being honest and faithful, occasionally wrestling with hard stuff and trying to find comfort with a degree of ambiguity. And that, in my opinion, is just what we need as the church today –in fact we need it more than someone claiming to have the quick fix.

Finally, as a child of the Star Wars generation (who still thinks we were best served by the original trilogy) and who has often used the Force as a theological image, I have to say that any book whose cover photo appears to have Force lightning shining from a stained glass window is worth a look.

Rev Gord Waldie
Remember, the Force will be with You – always.

March Newsleter

2011-02-23T14:08:00.000-07:00

Fat, Ashes, and Giving Up:

A new month begins. And early in this month a new season begins. No, not Spring (that will have to wait until March 21st). But Lent does begin soon. A time of preparation for the retelling of the Easter story of Triumphant entry, arrest, trial, execution and then new life.

Lent begins with Fat and Ashes. Well sort of. (Incidentally, I seem to remember reading somewhere that you can use fat and ashes to make Lye Soap, but I digress.) The day before Lent is Mardi Gras, which literally means Fat Tuesday. Traditionally it was a time to use up things like fat and eggs before the long fast of Lent began. Now it is either a time to have Pancakes (remember to come to our Pancake Supper on March 8!) or, if you are in New Orleans or Rio de Janeiro, have a great big blowout party. And the Ashes?

The first official day of Lent is Ash Wednesday. Traditionally Ash Wednesday is a time to begin the Lenten time of reflecting on our lives. We mark our foreheads with ashes to remember the fact that we do not always live as God would have us live. It is a service of repentance. Traditionally the ashes for this service come from burning the palms from last year's Palm Sunday celebration. Where once the Palms were signs of hope for a changed world now they remind us that we and the world are still in need of being changed.

And then we are into the 40 days (not counting Sundays) of Lent. This is a season of reflection. There is a tradition of “giving something up” for Lent. This maybe a food item, or an activity, or a habit. Some see this as an onerous obligation. Some see it as remarkably freeing. Why give something up? Well maybe as an act of personal discipline. Maybe pushing ourselves to go without something for a period of time helps us get control over our lives. Maybe we give something up to remind ourselves that not everyone gets all that they want or need. Or maybe we give something up because it is something that God is telling us we don't need at all.

Other people “take something on” for Lent. This could be a spiritual practice like daily prayer and Scripture reading, or doing “Random Acts of Kindness” each day, or some other way of changing how we interact with God and our world. This too can be onerous or liberating.

As we enter into this season of preparing for the festival at the heart of our faith I challenge you to ask what you may need to give up or take on. How do we need to prepare ourselves, as individuals and as a community, for the story of death and new life? Between the ashes (symbolic since we are not having an Ash Wednesday service this year) of last year's hopes and the waving of new palms what needs to be changed?

As Jesus walks the road to Jerusalem and the cross we walk with him. This Lent, may the journey to the cross and beyond to the empty tomb change us.. And through us, may it change the world.

Fat and ashes and giving up (or taking on). A strange combination. But then God works in mysterious ways.

Gord

Study Leave

2011-02-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

I am not leading worship this week. Instead I am off to Saskatoon for St. Andrew's College Annual Winter Refresher.

For details of this year's event see here

See you next week!

Looking Forward to February 20, 2011 -- 7th Sunday After Epiphany

2011-02-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Psalm 119:33-40 (VU p.839 Part 3)
Matthew 5:38-48

The sermon title is Go Deeper, Go Further

Early Thoughts: OK, that makes little to no sense. Are we supposed to be some sort of passive doormat?

In a word---NO. Not a doormat. Instead of saying "do not resist an evildoer" a better translation is suggested by many as "do not violently resist an evildoer". The actions Jesus describes are in fact actions designed to shame the other, and so are acts of resistance. In an honour-based culture such as 1st Century Palestine to shame an oppressor is is to resist them, it makes them lose face and status.

Jesus is calling people to live out the love of friend and enemy. Acting for justice is a key part of that. Jesus calls us to look past retribution, to put aside ideas of "an eye for an eye" and seek another answer. As it has been said--following eye for eye and tooth for tooth leaves the world blind and toothless. And that is not what God's hope for a just and loving world is all about.

So how do we live out the love of friend and enemy? How do we non-violently resist injustice? How do we respond when we are resisted? These are the questions I will ponder between now and Sunday. I invite you to do the same.
--Gord

Looking Forward to February 13, 2011 -- 6th Sunday After Epiphany

2011-02-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

This week we will celebrate the Sacrament of Communion.
We will also be joined by the members of Northern Lights Presbytery who will be meeting at St. Paul's on Friday and Saturday.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
1 Corinthians 3:1-9

The Sermon title is Choose God, Choose Life!

Early Thoughts: Do our choices matter? You bet they do! And so we are called/urged/commanded to choose life, and that in abundance.

Chapter 30 of Deuteronomy contains one of my favourite passages in all of Scripture. The book of Deuteronomy is written as Moses' farewell discourse to the people of Israel, ending with his death. Here Moses tells the people that they have a choice. Choose wisely and they will be blessed, chooses foolishly and they will be cursed. Life vs. death, blessing vs curse, abundance vs. scarcity. Choices matter. Choices matter not just for the present but for the future, not just for us but for our children.

And then we have Corinth. Poor, divided, conflicted Corinth. Paul seems to have had a challenge with this church. At the very least they have divided loyalties. But Paul tells them that they have made the wrong choice. They have chosen the man who taught them instead of the One they were taught about.

So how shall we choose? When we have options, can we see which way lies the path of blessing and which way lies the path of curse? It sounds easy to say, but how easy is it to make that choice? This essay speaks to that (here are the opening paragraphs):

"Choose life!"
Just two little words from Deuteronomy 30:19. They sound so simple. The Deuteronomist even says that the choice between life and death, blessing and curses, is "not too difficult for you or beyond your reach" (30:11). The apostle Paul makes a similar appeal to wealthy Christians: "Take hold of the life that is truly life" (1 Timothy 6:19). And then there's Jesus, who says, "I've come that you might have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).
These words sound simple, but our human experience proves otherwise. After all, we're only "poor creatures, now a wonder / a wonder tortur'd in the space / betwixt this world and that of grace" (Herbert). In the most mysterious book of the Bible, Ecclesiastes, Qoheleth describes his search for true life. He pursued all the obvious pathways — intellectual study, work, every imaginable pleasure, civic projects, and even righteousness itself. In the end, it all felt like chasing after the wind, a meaningless "futility of futilities."

Talk to you on Sunday --if you choose to attend that is ;)

--Gord

Looking Forward to February 6, 2011 -- 5th Sunday After Epiphany

2011-01-31T11:45:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:
Psalm 112 (VU p.834)
Matthew 5:13-20

The Sermon title is Light on the Salt???

Early Thoughts: Salt of the earth, light to the world. Are these descriptions we are ready to embrace? Is this who we are?

Salt is an essential for life. In the ancient world salt was the way to preserve food. Our bodies need a certain amount of salt to function properly. I just looked at the Wikipedia page about salt and it is fascinating (for instance did you know that globally only 17.5% of salt produced is used for food?).

Salt enhances flavour, it melts the ice on our roads, it attracts moisture--either drying things out or moisturizing them (ever left a bag of chips sit open on a humid summer day?), it has anti-microbial properties. And Jesus calls us to be Salt to the world, to be something essential for life. What does that mean? Can we honestly say that we do it?

And then there is light. While John's Gospel says Jesus is the light of the world, here Jesus says that his followers are the light of the world. And then goes on to remind them that a light gets set up high to shine throughout the room--not hidden under a basket. What do we do with our light?

This week is our Congregational Annual Meeting. A time to look back at the year that was and ahead to the year that will be. And so the Salt and Light are perfect passages for this Sunday. How are we as a congregation Salt and Light to the world around us?

Do we really enhance the "flavour" of life? Do we shine bright? And how will we continue to do so?
--Gord

February Newsletter

2011-01-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

I have a challenge for you. Some Sunday morning take a close look around the sanctuary. Note who is there. Note who isn't there. Now ask yourself why.

Why do we come? Why don't others come? How do we ensure that the people who come occasionally feel that they too are a part of the community? These are key questions as we look forward to the church of the next 100 years.

And of course there are many answers to those questions. But one of them, for some people, is the building itself. No matter how welcoming our words sound if the building itself provides a barrier then people will not feel welcome. If the building keeps some people from being able to participate fully in the life of the community then they will not feel welcome.

And so there are certain things that become mandatory for the health of the community. Not optional, not nice additions, but mandatory parts of how we operate.

One is to aid those of us (and it happens earlier and earlier in each generation) whose hearing is not what it once was. I am happy to announce that at the last Council meeting we agreed to order an FM system of Assisted Listening Devices. When the system arrives I will be happy to help people learn how it works.

Another big one is the lift. The lift that has been talked about here since the CE wing was built in 1987. The lift that is described in minutes of that era as an obligation. At our Annual meeting this year we will launch the campaign to start renovating the building. This will allow us to add a lift and to create an accessible washroom. Will this cost money? Yes. But it is no longer an option. If we are to be a fully welcoming inclusive part of God's community then we have to spend the money to get us there.

Being the community of God is challenging sometimes. It is tempting to think that “now is not the right time” for a project. But there is always a reason to put things off. Fortunately there is a stronger reason to not (other than the fact that the longer we wait the more it will cost). We do what we do because God is calling us to do it. God calls us to make our building serve our needs, God is calling us to broaden our community. Assisted Listening systems and accessibility projects are a part of that. And so, may God be with us as we move into an new and fuller understanding of what it means to be welcoming and inclusive of all.

Looking Forward to January 30, 2011 -- 4th Sunday After Epiphany

2011-01-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Matthew 5:1-12

The Sermon title is Foolish Wisdom

Early Thoughts: A crucified Messiah? Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth? Does this make any sense?

Well to be honest--no they don't. In fact Paul says as much in his letter to the Corinthian community. The message he shares is foolishness. But it is also truth. And therein lies the core of the conflict between the church and the world around us.

To be a follower of Jesus of Nazareth means to embrace foolish wisdom. It means to acknowledge that there is a different way of assessing things. It means to be willing to say that what the world around us calls wise may in fact be foolishness--even when the argument seems so compelling.

Once we can admit that we need to be foolish, possibilities abound. We take the blinkers off and see the world in a different way. We see how it could be instead of how it is. That is when the Beatitudes become more understandable. They describe how it could be when God's Reign has come to be real and active. In light of current assumptions they smack of utter foolishness, but in the time-that-is-to-come they will be wise.

What foolish wisdom is God sharing with the community of faith today?
--Gord

Looking Forward to January 23, 2011 -- 3rd Sunday After Epiphany

2011-01-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Isaiah 9:1-4
Psalm 27 (VU p.754)
Matthew 4:12-23

The Sermon Title is A Movement Begins

Early Thoughts: Why did they do it? What would make grown men suddenly jump up and leave everything behind?

There is something amazing about the stories of Jesus calling those early disciples. These poor fishermen suddenly leave their nets and boats by the lakeshore and follow this strange man they have never met.

The only possible answer to "why?" is that there is something compelling about Jesus and the summons he gives. There is something that draws people to Jesus, not just here at the beginning but throughout his life and throughout the Christian story.

Each of us knows what it is that draws us to Jesus. And it isn't the same for everyone. For the 4 fishers it seems there must have been a sense of charisma in this man. Did they know that day by the lakeshore that they would one day proclaim him as the Messiah, the Chosen One of God? Did they know that later he would be called God-Made-Flesh? Or did they just know that they needed to be with him?

Of course we can only guess what Peter and his friends were thinking or feeling. But we also have to be ready to ask ourselves what draws us. We have to be ready to share that feeling of being drawn with others, to tell our stories of leaving behind to join the Master.

That day by the lakeshore a movement started. A movement that has grown and changed but still continues almost 2000 years later. How do we respond when the movement comes to us and calls us to get up and go?
--Gord

PS: Here is a bit of poetry I wrote to go with these passages 3 years ago.

An Experiment.

2011-01-10T12:48:00.001-07:00

I have been recording sermons, for some future use. This weekend I learned of a place that I could post those files and so decided to try staring up. You can find it here (the link is also on the sidebar). If this works sermons will show up there regularly.

The site also allows an embeddable player, so I will test that function too:

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Looking Forward to January 16, 2011 -- 2nd Sunday After Epiphany

2011-01-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Isaiah 42:1-9
Isaiah 49:1-7

The Sermon title is Words of Purpose

Early Thoughts: Why are we here? What is our purpose?

These passages from Isaiah are from what are often called the "Servant Songs". They tell of one who is called to serve the Holy One of Israel in some very specific ways. Another one of the Servant Songs (Isaiah 52:13-53:12) is read on Good Friday each year and talk of how the Servant is struck down, wounded and suffers as a result of service to the Holy One. It is unclear who Isaiah saw the servant as, but plausibly Isaiah saw the nation as the servant. In the early years of the Jesus-movement the people reflected on these passages and on the life/death/resurrection of Christ and saw the Servant as Christ.

As I read these passages again it strikes me that I am reading a job description. This is particularly true of the Isaiah 42 passage. And so I have to wonder. If the community of faith is the Servant of the Holy One. And if these passages tell us what the Servant is supposed to be about. Then how would our performance appraisal go? When we compare how we are the community of faith against this job description what do we see?

And so I invite you all into a discussion of why we are here, of what we are all about.
--Gord

Looking Forward to January 9, 2011 -- First Sunday After Epiphany, Baptism of Jesus Sunday

2011-01-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Isaiah 40:3-11
Psalm 29 (VU p.756)
Matthew 3:1-17

The Sermon Title is The J&J Show

Early Thoughts: What is the relationship between Jesus and John? Not in terms of family but in terms of philosophy and being part of a movement.

If you had to list "odd" characters in the Biblical narrative, I am sure that John the Baptist (or the Baptizer) would be one of the first people you would think of. Matthew tells us he appears in the desert wearing garments of camel's hair and eating locusts and wild honey (I had a seminary prof who said he was tempted to write a book on diet and style according to John the Baptist). He preaches a message that is heavy on repentance and fire and brimstone. He practices a baptism of forgiveness for sins. His message seems much more judgemental and black/white than Jesus. And yet the tradition is very clear (all 4 Gospels recount or refer to it) that Jesus was baptized by John. Why?

In fact it appears that the early church asked why as well. There are a couple of possible issues. One is that Jesus being baptized makes it appear that he is a follower of John, which in turn suggests that John is greater than Jesus. At the same time, fairly early in the Christian era the theological statement that Jesus was sinless was made and accepted. But John's baptism was for the forgiveness of sins. So why would the sinless Jesus need to be baptized?

So what is the relationship between Jesus and John?

It does seem that Jesus was a disciple of John. And the flow of the Gospel account suggest he may have, in a way, served as John's successor. However he does appear to have altered John's message. But Christian tradition has always (or at least since the Gospels were written) maintained the John is a precursor to Jesus, the one who prepares the way. And so it does us good to ask who John was, both in his own right and in terms of his connection to the Jesus-story.

On Sunday we will continue the exploration.
--Gord

Looking Forward to January 2, 2011 -- Sunday Before Epiphany

2010-12-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

This week we will celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism

The Scripture Reading will be Matthew 2:1-23

The Sermon title is A Story of Visitors

Early Thoughts: What happens when a baby is born? Well lots of things of course. But one thing is that people want to come and visit and give gifts. In essence that is the root of the story this week, well if we overly simplify matters.

One of Matthew's goals in his Gospel is to show that Jesus, while being particularly Jewish (the new Moses in fact), is also the light to the nations. And so he has Wise Gentiles come to pay homage to the child "Born to be King". The gifts they bring are symbolic of royalty, priestliness, and a foretelling of death. That is half the story.

The other half is one we often forget to tell. If Jesus is born to be King, if Jesus is Lord, then Herod has an issue (or Caesar has an issue). Herod schemes to destroy the child. And so the family flees. But Herod, now knowing where the family is, proceeds to order the slaughter of every young male child in the area. There is no record of that happening (although it would fit with Herod's personality). In fact there is little reason to think that any of Matthew chapter 2 is history remembered. So if it might not have happenend, why does Matthew tell the story?

Matthew tells the story as part of his way of showing that the Jewish Jesus is light to the nations. Matthew also tells the story to show how being a person who follows Jesus makes a statement about the other power-players in the world. As people who follow The Way we proclaim that in Jesus, crucified and risen, we too find the one who is light tot he nations. We also proclaim that the powers of the world are not the real powers.

This is a story that starts in the children's pageant and ends in the darkness of power politics. The life of faith calls us to stay in both places, openly and unafraid.

Book Study

2010-12-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

Everyday Justice

This book calls us to explore the ethical implications of our lives. It chooses 7 topics (coffee, chocolate, food, cars, waste, clothing, and debt) and walks through some of the justice issues involved with each.

Such a book could well be a recipe for feelings of depression and powerlessness. AFter all it would be impossible to suddenly change our entire lives in almost any of those topics. But Clawson is prepared for that. She starts out the book by telling the reader not to panic. She is realistic enough to know that there are limits to what people feel they are able to do. ANd so he purpose of the book is to raise awareness and encourage people to do something, not everything -- "to tweak, not overhaul" as she says. OTOH, part of me wonders if focussing on the "Tweaking" may allow some readers to comfortably forget the need for a more complete overhaul -- tweaking is the start, not the endpoint.

One of the best parts about the book is that each chapter includes some concrete, helpful tips on how one can change, where to look, what to do to make a difference. Each chapter also includes a reference list (books, movies, websites) for more information.

We will be gathering to discuss this book on Tuesdays at 7pm starting on January 11th. Talk to Gord for more information.

Working Around the World

2010-12-20T14:51:00.002-07:00

Have you wanted to know more about what the United Church is doing around the world?

This site has pictures from some of our global partners, this is work supported by the Mission and Service Fund

Christmas Eve Worship

2010-12-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

We have 2 worship Services this Friday evening.

At 6:30 we have our "Joyful Jammies and Silent Nighties" service. This half-hour service will focus on story-telling and singing. In addition to the Christmas story we will hear about a Pig and a Drummer Boy who are trying to figure out what they have to offer as Christmas Gifts.

At 8:00 we have our Family candlelight Service.

The Scripture Readings will be:

Isaiah 9:2-7
Luke 2:1-20

The Meditation is called A Story For the Ages and will look at the fact that the Christmas story gains meaning when adapted to suit different contexts.

Looking Forward to December 19, 2010 -- 4th Sunday of Advent

2010-12-14T14:44:00.002-07:00

This Sunday we will celebrate life through the Sacrament of Baptism.
We will be blessed with music from both our voice choirs and from our handbells as we continue our Christmas preparations

The Scripture Reading this week is:

Matthew 1:18-25

We are a people of story. It is in stories that we remember the past. It is in stories that we give meaning to the past and the present. And so this week we have stories. One will be the Christmas story as told by the Donkey. And then, where we might normally put a sermon, we will be visited by Joseph and he will share his memories of the birth of Jesus. A flight of fiction and fancy perhaps. But we are inheritors of a tradition called midrash where new stories are spun off of old stories to explore questions raised but not answered by the original. And who knows where the new stories might take us....

This Sunday afternoon at 3pm we will remember life in a Blue Christmas Service, jointly offered by St. Paul's United and Clairmont United.

Telling the Old Story in a new Way....

2010-12-14T10:13:00.002-07:00

Ever wondered how the Christmas Story might play out in a technological world? Here is one possibility...

Looking Forward to December 12, 2010 -- 3rd Sunday of Advent

2010-12-06T12:27:00.001-07:00

This week we will celebrate the Sacrament of Communion.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

1 Samuel 2:1-10
Psalm 146 (VU p.868)
Luke 1:39-55

The Sermon title is Sing of Justice

Early Thoughts: There is something revolutionary about Christmas. The coming of the babe in the manger brings a new changed world. Are you ready for God's justice to break into the world? Are you ready for the kingdom to come?

We tend to have a romantic vision of Mary. From the moment of the Annunciation through to the stable she is seen as a meek willing servant of God. And the Christmas story itself is romanticized with sweet smelling hay and gentle animals and a baby who "no crying he makes".

But Christmas has a revolutionary side to it. In a column for the Atikokan Progress in 2002 I wrote:

...Mary sings a song that is nothing less than revolutionary. In Luke 1:47-55 Mary sings about the promise of God to overturn the tables of the powerful. Mary calls for the world to be reordered, for justice to be done, for the Reign of God to begin. This is the truth of Christmas.

On Christmas day we celebrate the birth of the child that sparked Mary 's song. As an adult this child would proclaim his ministry with words that echoed his mother's cry for justice (Luke 4:18-19). If we follow the path he followed, then we need to join in the struggle to fill the hungry with good things, to lift up the lowly, and to free those who are oppressed. On Christmas we mark the beginning of the revolution that will bring on the age of peace, the age where lion lies down with lamb and all have that which they need to live.

Christian faith is not mainly about individuals feeling good about themselves. It is not mainly about life beyond this one. Christian faith is mainly about how we live together in this life, it is about community. The path laid out by the Christ child is one of justice in this world. At Christmas we are flooded with requests for charity. But to truly celebrate Christmas we need to do more than write the cheques and donate the food.

The true Christmas gift is to make changes in society so that people don't need our donations to make it through the cold winter. What will our gift be this year?

This year, as we prepare once again to sing about angels and shepherds, I urge us once more to hear Mary's song of revolution. This year let us join in the revolution of faith - a faith that calls for a world renewed, a people restored, and a hope fulfilled.

This Sunday we will read one of the most revolutionary texts in all of Scripture. In fact reading it is rumoured to have been banned at times (I'll check into that and let you know on Sunday). Mary's song is a song of God's Justice. It is a song that calls for the world order to be turned on its head.

At Christmas we talk about light breaking through the darkness of oppression and inequity. We talk about God choosing to come to earth as a member of the underclass. We talk about the God who brings freedom to the captive, who dethrones the mighty, who sends messengers to lead us in The Way.

As the Christmas revolution takes hold, which side will we find ourselves on? How will we join in the songs of justice?
--Gord

New Things Happening at General Council

2010-12-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

As we move further into explorations of how to be a faithful church in the 21st Century, General Council is creating a Network for Ministry Development. While time will tell what this new tool actually does, information about it and the staff who are starting it up can be found here

Minister's Annual Report

2010-12-01T14:04:00.000-07:00

We are pilgrims on a journey, fellow travellers on the road;

we are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load

(verse 1 of “We Are Pilgrims” #595 in Voices United)

This year our respective journeys joined together. Patty, the girls and I would once again like to thank everyone for the warm welcome we received. And now that our paths are intertwined? Now where are we headed?

Well we have started that exploration haven't we. When I first led worship with you folks I invited us to keep one question in our minds – who is God calling us to be? -- and this is the question that I want to keep in mind as we chart the next steps in our journey.

We have this ministry and we are not discouraged;

it is by God's own power that we may live and serve.

Openly we share God's word, speaking truth as we believe,

praying that the shadowed world may healing light receive.

We have this ministry, O God receive our living.

(verse 1 of “We Have This Ministry” #510 in Voices United)

We have a ministry of sharing God's Word of light, life and love with the people of Grande Prairie and the wider world. It isn't always easy knowing best how to do that. We struggle with it daily in a thousand different decisions. But as we have started so we continue. WE explore how God is speaking to us in our times of worship, study, and work. Your Council takes seriously the task of providing leadership, of looking for where the path is headed. In discussions about how our building will look and operate, in discussions about what studies to have, in discussions about what impact we make on our community, in these and many other discussions we, the church, are exploring and living out that key question.

As I was going through the search and decision process a year ago the JNAC report of this congregation jumped out at me. As Patty and I read it we both saw that this was a place of life and possibilities. We both said “we could be happy there”. And indeed this has been what we have found in this first 6 months together. There is life here. There is ministry happening. As I look forward to the years to come I anticipate many twists and turns in the path of our journey. And I look forward to sharing them with all of you. And when the way gets tiring remember that we need not be discouraged. Our strength is not in our own efforts but flows from the grace and support of God.

As our journey winds and twists it's way towards the centre and then back into the world, may God walk with us every step, dancing when we dance, carrying us when we are tired, and spurring us forward when we are reluctant. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.

GORD

Looking Forward to December 5, 2010 -- 2nd Sunday of Advent

2010-11-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

The Scripture Readings this week are:

Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72 (VU p.790)
Isaiah 35:1-10

The Sermon title is Growth from Death

Early Thoughts: The world is cold and dark. Trees are leafless. The earth has gone to sleep. This is when we talk about growth?

As a matter of fact yes it is. The Isaiah passages this week talk about a shoot from the stump of Jesse and flowers blooming in the desert. They remind us that the Christmas story, which is but a part of the larger Christian story, is about life that conquers death, about growth when all seems lost.

Near the end of Lord of the Rings, after the Ring has been destroyed and Sauron vanquished, Gandalf lead Aragorn out of the city to a place of wilderness. Aragorn is searching for a sign of hope, that the kingdom will be restored and his line established. Gandalf counsels him to turn away from the city and look out into the barren wilderness. There Aragorn sees a sapling of the White Tree (it had been foretold that as long as the Withe Tree survived so would the line of Kings). In the midst of desolation hope for Gondor and Arnor is growing.

Another story. When they visit Godric's Hollow Harry and Hermione see an inscription "The last enemy to be defeated is death". By the end of the book we know what that means. Through embracing and defeating death Harry brings victory and peace.

A third. Near the beginning of Ursula LeGuin's novel A Wizard of Earthsea the young wizard Ged, while trying to show off his skills at school, accidentally releases a dark force into the world. Ged runs from this force throughout the book but in the end conquers it by realizing that it is the shadow of his own death. Victory came by acknowledging the reality of death.

And so we come to the Christmas story. Isaiah knows about death. Isaiah warns people about the darkness that is coming, the destruction that is coming. And yet Isaiah has a vision of what lies beyond the destruction. When all is laid waste a shoot will come up out of a dead stump. New growth will come. When all looks desolate a change will come and the desert will bloom. Joy shall come even to the wilderness.

If we let it, the fear of death and desolation can control our lives. It can lead us to that place of despair. But the life of faith calls us to look beyond the death and desolation that seems to come too regularly. Our statement of faith (A New Creed) closes with these words "In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God."

This Christmas what sign of new life do you see where you might have expected to see wilderness and desolation?
--Gord

A Virtual Retreat for Advent

2010-11-29T10:54:00.001-07:00

I am a part of a group of bloggers called the RevGalBlogPals. Today they are hosting a Virtual Advent retreat with different folks posting reflections on Lectionary readings for the last three Sundays of Advent. Here are the Links to the reflections so you can retreat as well:

Advent 2

Advent 3

Advent 4

Moderator's Advent Message....

2010-11-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

United Church of Canada Moderator Mardi Tindal shares a seasonal message:

Discussion Questions for Sunday

2010-11-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

During the sermon this Sunday you will be invited into a time of discussion. Here are the questions you will be asked to talk about with your neighbours:

What signs of daybreak or new hope do you see in the world around you?
What would your hopes and dreams for Christmas be this year?
How can you tell that God is active in the world today?

News From the Wider Church

2010-11-22T13:29:00.001-07:00

The General Council Executive met from November 13-15 to discuss issues related to the life of the church. A summary of what happened can be found here

Other information about General council Executive (or GCE) can be found here