Looking Ahead to October 6, 2019 -- Offering Gratitude Through Food

After worship this Sunday we will be having a potluck lunch. All are welcome.

This being the first Sunday of the month we will be taking up our 2nd Offering for the Local Outreach Fund. We will also be celebrating the Sacrament of Communion.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Exodus 16:13-21
• Mark 6:35-44 
• Acts 2:44-47

The Sermon title is Who’s Hungry?

Early Thoughts: They say an army marches on its stomach. They also say that the potluck meal is almost a sacrament in some churches (and given the ancient wisdom that a sacrament is a visible sign of invisible grace I find it hard to argue).

Both the Exodus reading and the Mark reading this week talk about abundant food when everybody thought there was either none, or not enough. And then God shows them there is enough and more. More than once I have heard people fretting that there was not enough food set out on the potluck table and then in the end everybody eats their fill.

There is enough. There is more than enough. Indeed there is abundance.

That is the message of Scripture. There is enough to satisfy AND enough to share (or perhaps only/especially if we share). I don't think we really have a problem of "not enough"  in the world.  I think we have a poor definition of "enough".

Which brings us back to gratitude. The belief that we have enough, or better yet and abundance, feeds our gratitude and that in turn makes us more likely to offer to others from what we have. An attitude that something is scarce or that we don't have enough (whatever we think enough might mean) makes us less likely to offer to others out of what we have. And let me be clear. The actual countable amount is not the important piece, it is how we feel about the amount that matters.

We know we all need food to live. And we know that there are foods we need for our comfort (I have yet to find a way to move chocolate from this category into the food we need to survive but I keep trying). So we are called to be thankful for the food that sustains our lives. Hopefully, when we are recognizing the giftedness and privilege of the food we have we are moved to ask hard questions about why we have and others do not. We have to ask the stewardship questions.

We give freely when we truly believe we have enough to share. We give cheerfully (and 2 Corinthians 9:7 reminds us that God loves a cheerful giver) when we believe that we are not getting the short end of the stick. We give faithfully when we believe that our gift is helping to accomplish God's mission in the world.

Food can just be a necessity of life. It can also stand for so much more. Where do you find surprising abundance in your life? When were you sure there was not enough only to find excess? And what do we do when that happens?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to September 29, 2019 -- Offering Gratitude through Creation

This week our Stewardship series leads us to a look at Creation.



And remember we have a coin collection for Mission & Service.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Genesis 1:26-31
• Amos 5:21-24

The Sermon title is How Are WE Doing?

Early Thoughts: Gratitude can spur us to many things. At the World Religions Conference earlier this month the Imam who was speaking made a wonderful connection between gratitude and compassion while answering a question about compassion fatigue. I think that gratitude also makes it easier for us to be good stewards. Gratitude reminds us what we have to be thankful for. Gratitude reminds us of what gifts we have been given. Then I believe that gratitude enables us to ask the question "what do I do now ?" with different eyes.

The difference a year can make...

Our stewardship of creation has been in the news a lot this year, what with forest forest in the Arctic and the Amazon, record heat in Europe, and the phenomenon centered around Gretta Thunberg. And we have to ask indeed "How Are We Doing?".


Many of us interpret the first commandment in Scripture "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." not as freedom to do whatever suits us best but as a commandment to take care of the creation that the Creator repeatedly calls Good. So how have we done?

Most scientists would say not so good. Some say we are on the eve of destruction, that the tipping point is near. What might the Creator say?

Is God using people like Gretta Thunberg to send us a message?

In the Amos passage we have a God who tells the people that they have failed to live as they should. Through Amos God tells the people that they have their priorities totally wrong. They have committed to the rituals and motions laid out in the law but have failed to live out the spirit of the law. To live in God's way means to live in relationship with our neighbours. To live in God's way is to live symbiotically with the creation of which we are a part.

When it comes to creation what might it mean to let "justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream"?

It is a hard question for a nation like Canada which really has always been a nation whose economic backbone has revolved around resource extraction (trees and rocks and petroleum). It is a hard question in a world culture where people see the need to make a change but have grown very accustomed to the benefits of an unsustainable lifestyle.

Every week our Explorer group sings the first verse of "This is Our Father's World". That hymn speaks of the "music of the spheres" ringing in our ears, of hearing God pass. It reminds us the the world is not ours. It is God's. We use it as a loan from God (or in some more secular language as a loan from our descendants). In an industrialized world we have lost the way when it comes to using it wisely. We may have started to see it as an entitlement or a tool rather than a gift. Where do we go from here?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to October 28, 2018 -- Stewardship Sunday #3

The Scripture reading for this week is Matthew 25:31-46

The Sermon title is Love Is A Verb

Early Thoughts: We think it is a feeling or an emotion. And so we wonder how we can be commanded to feel a certain way. After all, we are usually told that feelings are just feelings, we can not control what they are only how we react to them. How can we be commanded to love others? And yet the commandment to love others is at the heart of Christian ethical thought.

What if Jesus is talking about actions, as much (or more) as feelings? What if Jesus is talking about how we act towards others (which may well affect how we feel about them as well)? What if, in other words, love is an action?

After all, we know that actions can be commanded where feelings can't be.

It is said that stewardship is everything we do, every action we take, as people of faith. Stewardship is how we act with the gifts God has given us. Which means stewardship and love can not be separated from each other.

Maybe that is why the title for this year's United Church Stewardship resource is Loving our Neighbours.

In the passage we read this week Jesus reminds us that God is present in all of God's people. Loving God and loving God's people are intertwined. Loving God and loving God's people means doing concrete things to assist them when they are in need. Thought and Prayers are nice but not nearly enough of a response.

I do think it is a stewardship question.  How do you live out love as a verb? How do you use the gifts given to you in acts of love for God and God's creation?
--Gord

Looking forward to October 21, 2018 -- Stewardship Sunday #2

AS a part of our Stewardship campaign  we will have the young folk take up a coin collection for Mission and Service this Sunday. A chance to lighten the load of coins in your purse or pocket!

The Scripture Reading this week is 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

The Sermon title is What Story Would You Tell?

Early Thoughts: And now for something completely different....

THis week our time of reflection is going to begin by watching this video:



and then people will be invited to share the Good News stories about what is happening at St. Paul's.  What would you tell a visitor (doesn't have to be the Moderator) about what St. Paul's does?

When we remember the good things that are happening we remember what difference our gifts makes. And that is important. After all, we are far more likely to share our gifts and resources when we think they are making a difference.

So what excites you about what happens around here?
--Gord

Looking Forward to October 7, 2018 -- Thanksgiving Sunday

This week we mark the beginning of our Stewardship season by giving thanks.

The Scripture readings this week are:

• Deuteronomy 26:1-11
• Philippians 4:4-9

The Sermon title is Thank You

Early Thoughts: Why are you thankful? How does being thankful change how we live?

This week for our Stewardship campaign we begin by saying thank you. Thank you for all that people have done over the past year, and over the past 107 years, to make St. Paul's united Church what it has been and has become. Without the gifts shared by the people of God, Communities of Faith would not exist. So Thank You Thank You Thank You.

And yes, in part we say thank you because we hope/trust/pray that those gifts will continue to be shared.


But thanking each other for gifts is part of something bigger. It is a life choice. When we say thank you we remember that things are a gift, not something to which we are entitled. When we say thank you we remember that our lives are enriched by that gift. When we say thank you we live more with a sense of gratitude for abundance than a fear of not having enough, which often increases our contentment and happiness in life. When we live out of our thankfulness we are more likely to be willing to pass on the love which has been passed on to us.

Then there is the bigger picture. As we remember to thank each other for gifts, big and small, shared within our community we can more easily remember to look out and wonder where all those other gifts came from. Because of where we place it in the calendar we often jump to the conclusion that Thanksgiving is related to the Harvest being safely gathered in (though unless things dry up quickly this year that certainly will not be true). And it is -- partially. Certainly people of faith have had festivals of thanksgiving for the harvest for millenia, after all that harvest denoted food and survival. But they have also had feasts of thanksgiving for many other reasons.

Why are you thankful this year?

What gifts has God given you that demand you say thank you? What gifts has God given you that you take for granted? Most of us who gather for worship at St. Paul's have not spent hours driving a combine or or cutting hay or herding cattle. We join our neighbours who do those things in thanksgiving, but we also give thanks for many other gifts. And as I said above, when we remember to give thanks, even more importantly, when we make giving thanks a habit and regular practice, it changes who we are and how we live.

On the St. Paul's Facebook page I shared a challenge. I challenged the people who read and follow that page to make one Facebook post each and every day in October saying something for which they are thankful. I am using the hashtag #MonthOfThanks on my posts. I suggest that we can do that even without posting it on Social Media, we can name something(s) every day that make us thankful. And maybe it will get to be such a habit that we will continue beyond Halloween...

Why did you say thank you today?
--Gord

Looking Forward to October 8, 2017 -- Thanksgiving Sunday

Since I was away at a Presbytery meeting on the first Sunday of October, we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Communion this week.

The Scripture reading for this week is Deuteronomy 26:1-11

The Sermon title is Memory and Gratitude

Early Thoughts: Can you be thankful if you don't remember?  Probably not.

This passage from Deuteronomy, a common one for Thanksgiving Sunday, is not really about giving thanks -- at least not at first reading.  It is about remembering. And it is about giving from what you have.

The remembering what God has done is a common theme in the stories of the Israelite people. Does that mean they tended to forget to remember? Remembering is often a conscious act, it is something we choose to do (or choose not to do). BUt if we don't remember what happens?

I am not thinking here of Santayana's dictum that those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it (though I tend to find wisdom there). I am thinking of how remembering or forgetting tie in to both our gratitude and our stewardship.

If we forget then are we aware of why we are grateful? I suspect not. If we forget the path that has led us to this point, the gifts shared and given to help us along the way, then it is easy to not express our gratitude.

ANd if we forget the gifts shared and given that helped us along the path it is easier to think that we did it all by ourselves. And then to wonder why others can not do the same for themselves.

Memory is at the base of our gratitude and our stewardship. In the Deuteronomy passage the act of remembering is intrinsically tied to the act of offering the first-fruits to God's service. Practically speaking it appears that this offering goes to feed an support the Levites (religious workers) and Priests as well as those who are in need. AS they remember they are thankful and they give from what they have received.

What memories make you thankful? What gifts do you pass forward as you remember and are grateful?
--GOrd

Looking Forward to September 24, 2017 -- Stewardship Begins

Over the next three Sundays we will be exploring our Stewardship as a congregation. We will be leaping off from the resource produced by the United Church of Canada We Sing Thanksgiving.

This Sunday after worship all are invited to stay for a potluck lunch in the large/east basement.

The Scripture readings this week are:

• Exodus 16:1-18
• Matthew 20:1-16

The Sermon title is What We Need...

Early Thoughts: Years ago the Rolling Stones told us:

You can't always get what you want,
You can't always get what you want,
You can't always get what you want,
But if you try some time, you just might find,
You get what you need.

Turns out Mick Jagger is a theologian! Who woulda thunk it?

Israelites Gathering Manna

The story of manna and quail in the wilderness is a story that reminds us that we just might (will?) get what we need. The people don't really believe it. Indeed some of them try, despite being explicitly told not to, to hoard some of the manna, to save it for the next day. After all what if it doesn't fall tomorrow? But it does. And for the next 40 years the people are fed, God provides what they need.

In the Parable we have a group of day labourers. All of them, those hired in the morning and those hired just before quitting time, get paid the same. And so the people who worked all day are a little bit upset. This doesn't sound fair, in our world where we expect that reward or compensation is somehow linked to effort and labour. Surely any ethical employer would pay those who work longer more...right?

Depends on your ethics.

Like most of Jesus' parables, the story of the day labourers is tying to give a glimpse of what it means to live as people of God's Kingdom. The amount paid to each of those labourers is the amount that is needed to buy food for that day, the amount needed to live another day. In the Kingdom of God people get what they need. That is the ethical guideline. People get what they need.

So what does this have to do with stewardship? Well there are a few ways to come at it.

One is to talk about the difference between wants and needs. A lot of us have trouble with teat from time to time. (And it does NOT help that there is an entire multi-billion dollar industry committed to making us think things we want are in fact things we need.) We need basics. We need the basic stuff for survival in some measure of security and comfort. Everything else is a want, although there are varying priorities in our wants. BUt if we have trouble seeing the difference it skews our impression of whether we can share what we have.

And that is the real connection between these stories and stewardship. If we believe and trust that we have/can get what we need then sharing is easier.  If we are not sure of getting what we need we are more likely to try and save our manna for a second day, we are more likely to get irate when we work harder.longer than those lazy good-for-nothings and don't get any farther ahead.

As people of faith we are asked and challenged and commanded to take the gifts we have been given and pass them on for the betterment of out neighbours. As people of faith we are reminded that  the common good is as much of a priority as our own personal safety. What we do with the gifts we have been given is our stewardship. We might be good stewards, we might be bad stewards. But I firmly believe that our level of trust or anxiety about having what we need is a big help or hindrance in our ability to see what we might have to share.

The STones were right. We can't always get what we want (and of we are honest that is probably a good thing). But the promise of God's Kingdom is that each of us gets what we need. And then we can use our gifts to support each other.

--Gord

ANd to help with the earworm I planted earlier:

Looking Ahead to April 9, 2017 -- Palm Sunday, Stewardship 3

The Scripture readings this week are:

• Luke 19:29-40 
• Matthew 5:13-16

The Sermon title is Called to Shine, Called to Season, Called to Praise

Early Thoughts: A parade! Do we stand and watch and wait or do we join in?

Is the Palm Sunday story a stewardship text?  Not usually. But it might be.

As Luke tells the story, Jesus tells those who oppose him, those who want the mob to calm down (either to avoid arousing the ire of the Roman soldiers or simply because they disagree with the mob) that if the crowd were silent the stones themselves would cry out. Sometimes [often?] the presence of God in the world is so overpowering that we simply HAVE to respond.

SO how do we respond?

WE often talk about Palm Sunday as the story of a parade. But I think it is more the story of a carnival (Marcus Borg and John Crossan describe it as carefully orchestrated street theatre). A Parade is often a more passive event for many.  It goes by while the crowd stands and watches. Palm Sunday is a time when everybody is getting involved, indeed it is this level of participation that seems to raise the eyebrows of some of the powerful.

When God is evident in our midst the call is to respond, to get involved, not only to watch in awe and wonder.

Is God in our midst? How will we respond?
--Gord

Looking Forward to April 2, 2017 -- Stewardship #2, More Salt and Light

The Scripture readings this week are:

• Luke 11:33-36
• Luke 14:34-35

The Sermon title is Called to be True



Early Thoughts: What does it mean to let our light shine (or let God's light shine through us)? How do we know if we have lost our saltiness?

A couple of weeks ago I asked the sermonic question "why do you give?"  One answer I suggested that day was that we give in response to knowing that we have been blessed.

But there are other reasons why we give. There are other way we encourage each other to give.

One way the church used to get people to give was to foster a sense of obligation or duty (or possibly guilt). And for some generations this was effective. Many people suggest that this is not a strong incentive anymore.

In our world these days people want to know that their gifts make a difference. Think of how many stories get published each fall (in what I tend to refer to as "please give to our charity" season) discussing which organizations have the best record in terms of administrative spending.

Which brings us to letting light shine through us, and remaining salty and zesty.

Centuries ago a theologian said that we are now the hands and feet of Christ:

AS a community of faith we want people to join in the work God has laid before us. One way to have that happen is to invite them, to ask them to share their gifts. An equally important part of getting people to join in the work is to show that it matters.

When we let God's light shine through us, when we intentionally set out to be salt to the world we make a difference. We show that change is possible. We show that we are committed to the ministry to which God has called us. And that makes it more likely that others will see something worth sharing in.

We are called to be light and salt. We are called to make a difference in the world. That take commitment. We often wish others would join us in the work. Showing that we believe it makes a difference, showing that it accomplishes something, showing that this is a good use of gifts (be they time or talent or treasure) is one of the best ways to grow the community of faith-filled workers.

Let us not hide the light. Let us not lose our saltiness. Let's remain bright and zesty.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to March 19, 2017 -- Stewardship #1, 3rd Sunday of Lent

This year in Lent we are taking some (well many) of the Sundays to talk about Stewardship. The theme of the Stewardship resource we are launching from is Salt and Light.

The Scripture Readings this week are

• Acts 2:44-47
• Matthew 5:1-16

The Sermon title is Called to Share



Early Thoughts: How are you Blessed? How do you share your blessings?

I suspect we might answer that first question differently than Jesus...I mean look at those first few verses of Matthew 5 (the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount as it happens). DO those sound like reasons for blessing?

One of the challenges of faith is to find where and how God is present, both when it seems obvious and when it seems that God is absent. And when we recognize that God is with us we recognize a blessing. When we recognize how God is in the moment with us we can see the world differently.

And that is the first step in being salt and light to the world.

In a couple of weeks we will talk about the salt that has lost its saltiness and the light that is hidden. This week we need to ask how we share the blessings God lays before us.

WE are called to share those blessings. The early church had a particular understanding of what that might mean, as they attempted to live as a communal organization -- everybody contributing what they had for the benefit of all.

How else might we share the taste of God that we have been given? How else might we let the spark of divine light that energizes our souls shine through the shadows of life?

Stewardship is, according to one definition, everything you do after you say "I believe". Stewardship asks what we do with the gifts that flow to us. A big part of how we handle those gifts lies in out attitude...

If we believe the narratives of the world around us, stories that lead us to be fearful and anxious, tales that tell us to watch out for ourselves, our stewardship might be marked by defensiveness and wall building and protecting what (little) we have.

Or we could believe the narratives of faith, stories that tell us we are blessed, tales that tell us not to worry (as folks were reminded on Sunday March 12 with a reading from Matthew 6). Those narratives lead us to a place of greater ease of mind, a place where it is more natural to offer what we have for the service of others.

IT will not always be easy. Life is not always easy. There are days where we feel far from blessed. There are times when those around us feel far from blessed, when the taste of life is ashes, when that shadows grow dark and cold.

We are called to be salt and light.

God seeks to restore flavour to lives that have grown tasteless, to shine the light that can not be overcome into the dark places. God challenges us to be the hands and feet that help to make that happen.

WE share the blessing of life. We share the gifts we have been given to help God's mission to flourish. What do you have to share?
--Gord

Looking Forward to March 5, 2017 -- Annual Meeting Sunday, 1st Sunday of Lent

This year during Lent we will have a number of services looking at Stewardship questions.

This being the first Sunday of the month we will celebrate the sacrament of Communion.  We will also make our monthly Second Offering to support our Local Outreach Fund.

The Scripture reading this week is Matthew 28:16-20.  We will also read together our congregational vision and mission statements.

The Sermon title is Called To Be Church

Early Thoughts: In the Faith Statement we call the New Creed (other denominations have included it in their worship materials, often calling it United Church Creed) we proclaim that:

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,
       our judge and our hope.

Great. Now what exactly does that mean? How do we live that out?

On this Annual Meeting Sunday I ask that we give careful consideration to that quest. Both to look back at how we did it over the last year and as we look forward to how we will do it in the year to come.

The reason we have vision and mission statements is to guide us as we respond to God's call to be the church. They are there to test all our decisions and actions against. They help us choose how we stewards the gifts God has given us.

Also, during the sermon time there will be time to thank each other for all the ways we have participated in living out our call to be the church, for all the ways we have given of our time and talent over the past year.

WE are called to be the church...
--Gord

June Newsletter

What ministry are you doing right now, this week, each day?

That is the question asked by Already Missional: Congregations as Community Partners by United Church minister Rev. Dr. Brad Morrison.

A few months ago I attended a webinar Brad led as he was working on this book and found his thesis intriguing. And then once the book came out a group of clergy on Facebook decided to have a study of it together. So while I was going to wait and read it on my Sabbatical I started it earlier than planned.

I finished it this morning and am quite impressed with what I found. I am thinking that it would be a great book for Council to read and talk about or maybe for a book study in the fall involving folk not currently on Council (or possibly both?).

The book is a new take on how we as a congregation live out God's mission in the world. Normally when that discussion comes up it focuses on the congregation creating some new (or revitalizing an old) program to help us get out there and become active in the community. Which is a great idea – on the surface. But in the end many of those programs just don't happen, for a variety of reasons.

At the same time people of faith are living their lives and doing what they do. Hopefully those lives are impacted and informed by their faith, rooted in how they have come to understand God and God's hope for the world. Where in those lives are they doing ministry? Where in those activities are they participating in God's mission?

In short, rather than create new opportunities for mission, can we celebrate and support the ways we are already missional?

And so I ask again, what ministry are you doing right now? Or maybe that should say what ministries.

Maybe it is parenting. Maybe it is helping people run errands. Maybe delivering meals for Meals-On-Wheels. Maybe you are helping connect people around a common cause to create a better community. The options of how we can be, and are, already participating in God's mission in the world are Legion.

Then comes the next key question.

Assuming that people are already participating in God's mission in ways big and small in their daily lives, how can the church support you in that?

It is my experience that many United Church people are VERY active in their local community. Sometimes we recognize this as ministry, often we don't. What might it mean if we started to see these things as ministry? How might it change our attitude to what we do? How might it change our understanding of how we, the congregation of St. Paul's United, are a part of the community of Grande Prairie? How might it change how we see ourselves as the church?

I look forward to continuing this discussion in the fall.

Blessed Summer!

Gord

Thank You List

Here is the list of thank-yous from last Sunday's Sermon:

• those who worked on the Garage Sale
• those who made the Beef Dinner happen
• Worship Committee
• CD Committee
• Social Events Committee
• Finance & Stewardship Committee
• Property & Maintenance Committee
• Ministry & Personnel Committee
• Outreach Committee
• Healing Touch
• Labyrinth
• Volunteer Drivers
• Prayer Team
• Council Members
• Offering Counters
• Worship Assistants (greeters, readers, after-church coffee)
• those who come to clean and tidy
• those who visit others
• musicians
• UCW
• Pancake Supper
• Financial Supporters

For all that you do to make St. Paul's a vibrant community.  THANK YOU!

Looking Ahead to May 20, 2012 -- 7th Sunday of Easter

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Acts 4:32-5:11
• Psalm 1(VU p.724)
• Ecclesiastes 5:8-17

The Sermon title is Money, Money Money




Early Thoughts: "It's a rich man's world" so the song goes.  And in some ways it is hard to argue with it.  Money (actual bills or virtual cash) plays such a key role in our lives.  Some might even say it controls our lives in many ways.

What is your relationship with money?  How do you interact with it?  Do you even think of it as a relationship?

It is my belief that we all have a relationship with money.  That is to say that money is more than just another tool we use in our daily lives.  The key thing (to me anyway) is that if we recognize that we have a relationship with money then we can start to shape the relationship -- because that is how relationships work.

Often when we talk about money we use transactional language.  We talk about purchases and  balance sheets and bank statements and tax returns.  But we also need to talk about how money makes us feel (I have a very clear memory of two people I used to work with talking openly about indulging in "retail therapy").  WE need to use relational language as well as transactional language.

Before the Annual Congregational Meeting I named my belief that the most Spiritual document we would talk about at that meeting was the financial report and budget.  The same holds for our personal relationships with money. Where/how we spend it or don't spend it (or save it or don't save it) (or give it away) says more about our priorities than pretty much anything else in our lives.  And so talking about money is essential for our spiritual health.

This week's sermon is not about convincing people to give to any one specific cause (such as St. Paul's United).  This week I invite us all to enter into a time of looking at our relationship with money.  And ask how that relationship is shaping us -- and/or how we are shaping it.  As I say, it is not a financial question, it is a spiritual question.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to May 6, 2012 -- 5th Sunday of Easter

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Exodus 20:8-11
• Deuteronomy 5:12-15 
• John 15:1-8 

The Sermon title is Take A Break! 

Early Thoughts: Think back over the last two weeks. How many days of rest did you have? How many days were there when you bought nothing?

When I was in my early teens, I remember a great debate about Sunday shopping in Alberta.  It seems so quaint now, given that many places are open 364 days a year.  AT one point, less than 30 years ago (and much more recently in some parts of the country) we still had a feeling that 7 day a week commerce was not a good thing.

Nowadays we seem to have made the opposite decision.  Now it seems odd to many people to contemplate NOT being able to shop 7 days a week.  But which was the better way?

Why does Scripture command, not encourage but command, us to stop everything (and yes that means everything) for a day every week?  I think it is about health and priorities.  It is not healthy to try and go full speed all the time.  But that is commonly understood (if not practiced) these days.  Sabbath means more than that.  Sabbath is not only about resting.  Sabbath is about stepping out of the whole economic system.  And so Sabbath-keeping makes a very clear statement about where our priorities lie.

Look up to the questions I asked earlier.  What do your answers say about you?  Are we able to step out of the need to be constantly productive (Sabbath keeping is not about not doing our daily work, it is about a complete day of rest--no laundry or toilet scrubbing either)?  Are we able to put off that purchase until the next day (or plan ahead and make the purchase the day before) and not touch wallet or credit cards for 24 hours?

And what would happen if we did?  Some voices claim that a day off has negative economic effects.  But really would overall purchases be that much less?  What would happen to us as individuals?

The old laws about keeping Sabbath (or the Lord's Day) were based on an assumption that is no longer valid.  But the idea of Sabbath-keeping as a life practice is still a good idea.  The difference it that now WE have to make the choice.  Are we willing to take a break?
--Gord

Looking Forward to April 29, 2012 -- 4th Sunday of Easter

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Exodus 16:1-3, 13-18 
• Psalm 23
• Mark 6:30-44 

The Sermon title is How Much Do YOU Have?  

Early Thoughts: Do you believe you have enough? Too much? Not enough?

Each of us has a choice. We can look at the world through a lens set to see abundance or through a lens set to see scarcity. And those lenses really do change what we see. It is sort of like the difference between an optimist and a pessimist. The optimist sees a pile of manure and gets excited--there just must be a horse around. A pessimist looks at the same pile and only sees a lot of messy, smelly, tiring work.

Some days it is very hard to see the abundance. Sometimes our lives seem to be nothing but scarcity. Certainly the advertising industry would like us to believe that. "If you only have ______ you will be happy" they say. The ads we see every day continually tell us that we are lacking something.

And of course sometimes life throws us a curve that makes it really easy to become convinced not only of scarcity now but ongoing times of scarcity. Say, for example, the closing of a major employer.

The people Jesus was speaking to understood this. Daily they struggled to get enough. When you have no food life is hard. But all of a sudden Jesus breaks some bread and shares some fish and all are fed with basketfuls left over.  The people wandering the desert knew what it was like to have nothing (and they had a memory of having had something).  Then Moses tells them that meat and bread will come to them, enough that all can be fed. I wonder how easy it was for them to believe it?

Our faith story promises us life, and that in abundance. The challenge is to see what we have in abundance each and every day. The Global Rich List tells us that we are all recipients of more abundance than we know ($28 000 annual income puts one in the top 10%). We can, if we choose,look at the world and see great abundance. We can, look past the scarcity messages (and realities). And we benefit when we do that.

How we view the world affects how we interact with the world. When we look around and see that things are scarce our common reaction is to hold tightly to what we have and to fight strongly to get more. But when we look around and see great abundance we automatically feel more inclined to share the wealth. WE end up being happier, more at ease, more relaxed. Living life in a scarcity mode is tense and worrisome. Living in an abundance mode makes it easier to deal with what life throws at us.

We will not always have everything we want. Sometimes we won't always have what we need. But we still can choose to focus on what we lack or on what we have in abundance. What choice will you make?
--Gord

Looking Forward to April 22, 2012 -- 3rd of Easter, Earth Day Worship

This week we mark Earth Day in our worship and reflection.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Genesis 2:4-10, 15-22
• Psalm 104:24-35 (VU p.827 Part Two)
• Revelation 22:1-5, 17

The Sermon title is Tending the Garden

Early Thoughts: Scripture begins and ends in a garden. In between is a bunch of stuff about how we are to behave in the garden.

In the first story of creation (we are reading from the second story this week) the newly created humans are told to "be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28).  It appears we may have taken that verse a little too literally.  Particularly those things like "fill" and "subdue" and "have dominion".

And I think that is because we, especially those of us in the "modern" West, have interpreted that verse to mean that we own the Earth and can do with it what we wish.  But over and over again the Scriptures remind us that the Earth is NOT ours.  The Earth belongs solely to God.  And we are tenant farmers at best.  So how are we doing at caring for the garden?

Well?  Honestly.  How are we doing?  If the performance review was tomorrow how would we fare?

I am suspicious it would not be a passing grade.  I suspect it would be one of those meetings that end with "you have [fill in a time span] to improve or...".  Currently, on an annual basis the global population is using 140% of what the planet can provide in a year.   It is pretty basic math to show that this is not exactly a sustainable plan.  Some would say that our addiction to our current lifestyle (and our selling/propagating that addiction all around the globe) has the highway of progress heading into a cul-de-sac.  Some would say it is heading straight into a brick wall.  Either way it is a dead end, the difference being that at least a cul-de-sac is built to facilitate turning around.

If we are gardeners or, to use a more familiarly theological word, stewards [and on Sunday I'll let you know how that relates to the pig sty] then we are here not simply to use/abuse.  We are here to care for and tend.  On Earth Day at least maybe we can pause to think about how we do that.  Yes we celebrate the gifts around us.  Yes Earth Day is a time to give thanks for the world around us.  But as people of faith, even just as parents and grandparents wanting to leave SOMETHING for our heirs, we have a duty to do more than give thanks.  We have a duty, a response-ability to look at where we are hading and figure out a way to change the endpoint.

This Sunday come with your ideas about how we might do that.
--Gord

Something New!

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

A Primer on the Mission and Service Fund