Looking Ahead to October 27, 2019

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Jeremiah 14:19-22
• Psalm 51 (VU p.776)
• Luke 18:9-14

The Sermon title is Confession – Good for the Soul?

Early Thoughts: It is challenging. It is sobering. But it is vital. We have to be honest with ourselves, with each other, with God about who and what we are. Only then can we really move forward into who God is calling us to be.

For all of Christian history the practice of confession has been central to living out the faith. Some people chafe against it, saying we should not be encouraged to be so "down". And indeed sometimes the encouragement to confess has been done in such a way that it sounds like encouraging folk to think they are worthless. We can go too far in naming our own shortcomings.

But the other side is that we start to think we are "holier than thou" -- see the Pharisee in this week's Gospel reading. And than is not a path to growth.  It is, however, a path to be labeled as hypocritical.

The core of the Christian Gospel message is that we are all beloved by God. Very close to the core is that we are forgiven by God (which is a big part of being loved just as we are). We are not perfect. None of us is.  Some days we come closer than others at living in God's way. Some days we miss the mark big-time.

WE are not called to be perfect. We are called to be faithful. We are called to live our lives as faithfully as we can. And part of that is having the ability to be self-reflective, to look at ourselves and be honest about who we are. Not to tear ourselves down -- honest self-reflection acknowledges the successes as well as the failure -- but to keep ourselves appropriately humble.

Confession is indeed good for the soul. Just remember that we are also forgiven.
--Gord

Looking Forward to June 30, 2019

As this Sunday is the day before Canada Day and a week after National Indigenous People Day we are sort of combining the two as we are invited to reflect on what we are as a nation, what we want to be as a nation, and what our role as members of a faith community might be in that.

The Scripture readings this Sunday are:

• Psalm 69:17-36
• Psalm 72 (VU p.790)
• Revelation 21:1-8

The Sermon title is: Who Belongs?

Early Thoughts: National days are a challenge for the church.  History has shown that when the church thinks it needs to celebrate patriotism to the nation it tends to move away from the values of the Kingdom. And yet in addition to being citizens of the Kingdom of God we are also citizens of a country. Scripture calls us to live where we are placed and, in the words of Jeremiah to the exiles, "seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare" (Jeremiah 29:7).

How are we called to be a part of Canada? How are we called to work for the welfare of the many communities of which we are a part?

In some ways I think this has been a more complicated question for the United Church because in our founding mythology is this understanding that we were to be a truly national church, a "church with the soul of a nation" as Phyllis Airhart termed it in titling her look at our history. In our attempt to be that truly national church we have indeed helped shape the nation through our advocacy for the social gospel. But in our understanding of what it meant to be a national church we as a denomination have also fallen prey to the idea that we had to share the goal of turning everybody into good White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. And that led us into a questionable space, particularly in our relationship with those people who had been here long before any Methodists or Presbyterians set foot on the continent.

I think that as citizens of God's Kingdom we are called to promote the values of the Kingdom, the kingdom where, as Isaiah has told us, the wolf will lie down with the lamb and a child will play over the den of the adder and they will not hurt or destroy on all [God's] holy mountain. That is what God is at work doing, leading us to the Kingdom. I believe that as citizens of the Kingdom specifically living in a country named Canada we live out that calling by helping to shape this country, to call it out when it fails to uphold the values of the Kingdom and lament where we have failed, to offer a different perspective and approach, to face the past and present honestly and commit ourselves to a new future, and to share the word of hope in a new heaven and a new earth. We need to be both bold and humble.

I believe God is at work in the United Church, God is at work in Canada. Sometimes God is at work despite the United Church, despite the policies of the nation. What kind of a nation is God calling us to help build?
--Gord

Looking Forward to October 14, 2018

This Sunday we will welcome new members to the St. Paul's family through the Re-Affirmation of Baptismal Faith (aka Confirmation). And so we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Communion. There will also be a potluck lunch following the service.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• James 1:22; 2:14-18
• Romans 12:1-2, 4-13

The Sermon title is Membership Means...

Early Thoughts: What does it mean to be a member? Some of us grew up with American Express commercials that told us "membership has its privileges". Is that true of the church?

Privileges? Not so many. But to be a member of the church challenges how we live (in theory at least).

One challenge is to ask oneself "how active a member am I going to be at this point in time?". To be a member of any organization means to take part in its life and work. For some people that means a lot of volunteering, for some it means showing up. For many of us the way we are a member, how actively involved we are, changes over the years depending on what else is happening in our lives. But to be a member means supporting the organization in whatever way works for us in that season of time.

That is true of any organization. But to claim oneself as a member of a church raises other questions. In the United Church Creed (aka the New Creed) we read, in part:

We are called to be the Church:

to celebrate God's presence,

to live with respect in Creation,

to love and serve others,

to seek justice and resist evil, 

to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen...

 This speaks to what membership means. Membership means we gather with others to celebrate that God is with us. Membership means that we recognize that the rest of Creation is just as important as we are, that we are all created by the Creator (though the actual logistics of such creation are fuzzy). Membership means that we remember the commandment to love each other, and that loving each other is as much or more about how we act towards them as what we feel about them. Membership means that we work with the people around us to name those things that are wrong/unjust/evil. It means we work with others to build a society where everybody is treated justly. It means we actively resist when the world seems to be going the wrong direction.

Membership means that in the stories and teaching of Jesus we find clues to help us live in God's way, and that we share those teachings in some way. Attached to that last one, membership means that as we live with Jesus, as we live as people of faith, we allow space for God to work within and change us. We allow God to reveal a different way of being in the world than our new feeds and advertising shows us. It means we sometimes intentionally choose different priorities, this is what Paul is talking about when he says "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable..."

There are also things that membership in the church does not mean. It does not mean we agree with everything said in church (worship or meetings or study groups). It does not mean we stop exploring and asking questions. It does not mean we have to pretend to be perfect. ANd I am sure each reader can think of some others

SO what does membership mean to you?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to July 2, 2017 -- A reflection of #Canada150

This Sunday we will celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism.

The Scripture passages we will hear are:

• Psalm 72:1-14
• Jeremiah 29:4-9

The Sermon title is What Kind of Nation?

Early Thoughts: National holidays are a bit of a conundrum in the church.  On the one hand (many would say the dominant hand) we in the church are called to recognize an allegiance beyond nationality, we are called to be citizens of the Kingdom first and Canadians (or Americans or British or...) second. On the other hand, when something is a large event (celebration even) can we truly ignore it?

Then there are questions about whose party it is....

On July 1, 2017 we recognize 150 of a political entity. 150 years since a group of British colonies officially joined together to form the Dominion of Canada. That is what the day commemorates. Technically you could say that the day is only #Canada150 for Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia since all other provinces joined later.

We are not commemorating the length of time Europeans have been present on the continent (Montreal marks 375 years since Ville-Marie was founded this year, and other communities are older than that). And to be really obvious, our Indigenous neighbours have been on the continent for 1000's of years before that. We are not even marking 150 years of colonization (though the reality is that colonization have been an integral part of our history) since that too goes back long before Confederation. We are marking 150 years of a political entity, nothing more, nothing less.

But even then, how do we bring our faith to bear on the commemoration? After all, despite what some people may claim, Canada is not a "Christian nation". We have no national religion, no national church. Our laws are not shaped to conform with any one theological position. So what does our faith have to say about what it means to be Canadian?

This is when I start to think it would have been easier to not build a service to reflect on #Canada150....

But the reality is that something is missing from all the party preparations. There has been, in the official resources, a focus on celebrating what Canada has accomplished -- as evidenced in April when we heard all about the battle of Vimy Ridge on it's centennial -- but a lack of encouragement to stop and reflect on who we are as a country, how we have gotten here, and at what cost. I believe that as people of faith, as people who are called to be citizens of a larger Kingdom, as people who have a faith story which points us to a way to live in community we are placed to have that reflection. SO that is part of what we do this weekend.

And then I remembered the passage for Jeremiah. As their world is crashing around them, as they are being lead off into exile, the people have a choice. They can lament. They can resist. They can make life miserable. Or they can, as Jeremiah says, " seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.". AS citizens of the Kingdom who happen to reside in and are governed by the nation of Canada I think that Jeremiah's challenge lies before us as well. We need to seek the welfare of the nation, as residents of a democratic society to seek the welfare of our communities is to be active in helping to shape those communities.

So I ask: What kind of nation do we want Canada to be? How does the nation Canada currently is reflect those aspirations, and how does it vary from them?

In order to seriously ask those question we need to take seriously that a large number of people who live within the political entity are not celebrating this year. We need to take seriously the ways that Canada has not been a nation of which we can be proud and ask how we can do better.

WHat does our faith say about how we live together?
--Gord

December Newsletter #2

What If...?

A month ago I was talking to someone who told me that if he ever won the lottery he would show up in my office with a cheque for a few million dollars for us to use for a specific project (and this person had a very specific project that he would ask us to take on – I am not telling you what that was).

That discussion has been sitting with me ever since. Not surprising since I often think about what we as a congregation could do if a windfall of money came our way. Actually, the way the thought process usually happens for me is “gee if only we had the money we could...”

I tend to have a lot of dreams. Expensive dreams.

But I am also sure I am not the only dreamer in this congregation. And so I am going to ask you the same question I asked at our November Council meeting.

If someone walked in the door tomorrow and said “here is $2 000 000, use it to do ministry in Grande Prairie” what project(s) would you have us take on?

And now I will tell you why I ask.

One of the challenges of life in a faith community is that we get used to doing what we always do. And sometimes we forget to ask ourselves what holes there are that we could possibly help fill in. It is my belief that to be faithful to the God who calls us to take part in God’s Kingdom we have to be ready to try out new things from time to time. As the community changes so does our activity.

Where are the holes in Grande Prairie? Which ones might we be able to fill (and are some of those things we could help make happen even without the imaginary benefactor)?

I am not expecting the $2 000 000 to arrive any day soon. But still I wonder, what might we do with that money? What might we do even in its absence?

Gord

Looking Ahead to March 17, 2013 -- 5th Sunday of Lent

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 55:1-9
• John 12:1-8

The Sermon title is The Church in the World:Poverty and Wealth  

Early Thoughts: Read that Gospel passage. Hands up those who agree with Judas!!

This Gospel story is troubling. Whenever I read it I find myself agreeing with Judas -- and I really doubt that was John's intention. But really, his complaint makes sense. Why waste all that money on perfume for the feet when it could buy food for someone who is starving?

And Jesus' response is truly less than helpful. "You will always have the poor with you" I mean really, doesn't that sound like saying "You can't solve the problem so feel free to waste money on other stuff". And yet the witness of Scripture is uniform. WE have a responsibility to care for the least among us. WE have a duty to work towards the eradication of poverty. Jesus himself points out this duty several times in the Gospel accounts (poverty is by far a larger issue in Scripture than sexual ethics). What's up?

The question of wealth and poverty is a hard one. The question of what to do about resource distribution is a hard one. But since we live in the world with all its inequities we have to ask ourselves about these questions. WE have to ask why the poor are always with us. WE have to discuss what to do about that unfortunate fact.

Join us on Sunday as we try to explore these questions and deal with the fact that we may be cheering for Judas after all.
--Gord

Looking Forward to March 3, 2013 -- 3rd Sunday of Lent

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Joshua 24:14-24 
• Psalm 1 (VU p.724)
• Matthew 5:3-12 

The Sermon title is The Church in the World: IN But Not OF  

Early Thoughts: Christian faith is full of paradoxes and oxymorons. Chief among them is the idea that we live in the now and the not yet when it comes to describing the here and yet coming Reign of God. Another is this week's sermon title.

As people of faith we have little choice but to live in the world, unless you feel called to set up a stand-alone community and isolate yourselves--which I would argue goes against the life and vision of Jesus. But at the same time we are challenged to have a different set of priorities from the rest of the world. In the end we need to be worldwise but not worldly. And in 2000 years we have never done a good job of figuring out what that means.

It probably doesn't help that for much of Christian History in the West the nations/kingdoms/empires have been, nominally at least, "Christian". In that context it became very tempting for the church to fall into the trap of believing that the way the world ran was the same as the way the church should run, especially when the Bishops and Princes of the church were also Secular rulers and Princes (many bishops and abbots had --or still have-- seats in the English House of Lords, the Papal States were a separate country, the Church hierarchy routinely helped the absolute rulers of Europe put down the "rabble" in Peasant revolts to name just a few examples). Even as the governing systems moved toward democracy it was often hard for the church to provide an alternate view of how things could be.

One of the seminal works to address the paradox of in the world but not of the world was H Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture. Mind you, said book is not an easy read by any means. This blog has a series of posts summarizing Niebuhr's points (the link is to the last in a series of posts, at the top of it there are links to the earlier posts).  Niebuhr outlines a variety of ways that the church of Christ and the world could interact.

In the end, there is a difference to being IN the world (not like we have much of a choice about that) and being OF the world. To be OF the world means that we accept as important what the world says is important. It means we accept the idea that things are as they are. But as people of faith we are called to offer a different perspective. We can, and certainly should, question the priorities of the world around us. We have the ability to suggest where things have gone off the rails both inside and outside the church. This is a part of being faithful. It was always important but now, in a changed world it is perhaps more important. Now the church has a less direct route in setting the agenda for our society (and that may well be a GOOD thing) and so we have to be more intentional in how we get our voice heard. But the blessing is that as the church moves away from the center of power it may also become easier to find the difference between living in the world and becoming too much like the world.
--Gord

Looking Forward to February 24, 2013 -- 2nd Sunday of Lent

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Matthew 28:16-21
• Mark 16:9-18

The Sermon Title is The Church in the World: Witness & Testimony  

Early thoughts: How do we tell the faith story outside of church?  Or maybe DO we tell the story of faith outside the church?

Part of the Christian Life is evangelism. Yeah, that's right, I just used the E word. Evangelism is one of those words that the mainline churches has not spent a lot of time on. The result has been that the Christian Right has been allowed to define what it means to be evangelistic (and now we are even more afraid to talk about evangelism for fear of being seen as the same as "them").

But really evangelism doesn't have to mean Jerry Falwell or Billy Graham on our TV screens. To be an evangelist means to be a bringer of good news. The writers of the Gospels were evangelists. Peter and Paul were evangelists, you can be an evangelist too. (somehow as I write this I have the old Dr. Pepper commercial running through my head "...wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?") If we truly believe that we have found Good News in our faith then why not share it?

"Oh but I could never do that! I couldn't stand around and talk about my faith." Well maybe not (and maybe it is easier to do that than many of us often think). But there are other ways to be evangelists. We can witness to our faith by how we act towards others. We witness to our faith when we stand up for an issue of justice. We witness to our faith when we challenge what is being said and done around us. And of course we witness to our faith when we talk about why we go to church.

Evangelism is not optional. Not only is it the way the church grows, but it is also part of how we integrate Sunday morning with the rest of the week. When we take the chance to be witnesses, to share testimony (however we do that) it allows our own faith to get deeper into our hearts and souls.

Oh and by the way...a big reason (probably bigger than the reputation of the minister) why people come to church is because a friend invited them. What do we have that we want to share with our friends and neighbours?
--Gord

Looking Forward to February 17, 2013 -- 1st Sunday of Lent

THe Scripture Reading this week is: Luke 9:51-62; 10:1-6

The Sermon title is The Church in the World: Gospel in One Hand, Paper in the Other 

Early Thoughts: Why do we need to be aware of the world around us?  Why not go ahead in our own way?

Admittedly these question are asked more for rhetorical value than anything else.  Obviously we try to link faith to life right?????  It would be foolish to try and do other wise?????

One of the great theologians of the 20th Century was the neo-orthodox thinker Karl Barth.  Barth has long been reported to have said that we need to do theology with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other (although what exactly he said on the issue is unclear as this article discusses).  ANd for decades preachers have taken that idea to heart.  Mind you I suspect that the dictum needs to be updated, maybe to something looking a bit more like this...

A screenshot I built on my computer today...

But why is it important to know our context (I take it for granted that it is vitally important)?  In a word "relevance".  Faith is not a hived off part of our lives, faith is something that informs the rest of our lives.  If we do not ensure we are aware of what is happening in the world around us then it is too easy for our faith to become disconnected with our lives.

What questions do the events of the world (both around the block and around the globe) ask of us, of faith, of Scripture?  What challenges are raised up?  How should people of faith and the church (because sometimes those are different answers) respond?  We only approach these questions by keeping the Gospel in one window and sources of news/information in another.
--Gord