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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.