Looking Forward to January 1, 2016 -- New Year's Day, 8th Day of Christmas

The Scripture readings this week are:

• Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
• Revelation 21:1-6

The Meditation title is There Is A Time...



Early Thoughts: As midnight strikes we take one calendar off the wall and put the new one up...

A new beginning. A place for reflecting on what was.

For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven says Qoheleth, the Preacher, the writer of Ecclesiastes. Is this a piece of hopeful wisdom? Is it a reason to despair?

2016 has passed. And it was a year for the history books.  More than one person has commented on the amount of musical talent lost during the year (David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, George Michael, Alan Thicke...). We saw a US election that was...interesting. And we wait to see what will flow from the new administration (some waiting with hope, some with utter dread).

What is this a time for? As the chronometers of our lives continue to tick, what season is this?

And then there is God's time. We mark time with clocks and calendars and schedules. And we believe and trust that God is active within this time line. But there is another type of time. Kairos.

Kairos is a time when God acts. (for more about Kairos see the Wikipedia entry here). Merriam-Webster defines it as: a time when conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action :  the opportune and decisive moment

What is God doing right now? In God's eye what is this the time for? Why is this time significant?

Ther is a time...for what exactly?
--Gord

Looking Forward to December 24, 2016 -- Christmas Eve

This Saturday we will have 2 services. One at 6:30 and one at 8:00.

The early service is a shorter, and somewhat more chaotic, service aimed at families with younger children. It will include some prayer, some carols, and the telling of the Christmas story via an impromptu pageant.

Photo Credit

The later service is our larger service. It will include the singing of carols, pieces from both voice and handbell choirs, prayers, a video, the reading of a poem by Maya Angelou, and conclude with lighting candles and singing Silent Night by candlelight.

The Scripture Reading is Luke 2:1-20. Here it is in the King James Version because, well some of us just hear the story told in that language.

The Meditation is titled Peace on Earth.

Early Thoughts: It is right there in the angel proclamation. Peace on Earth.

Centuries earlier Isaiah promised the coming of a child who would be called the Prince of Peace.

Each year we tell the story and share the hope for Peace on Earth.

So why is it so hard to find? Why have 2000 years gone by since the Jesus event and we have yet to really live into Peace on Earth?

It could be easy to despair, to give up hope. It could be easy to say the Peace on Earth is a fool's dream. Or maybe we could couch our despair in religious language and say that Peace on Earth will only be a reality when the Reign of God comes to full bloom on earth, that in the meantime the best we can do is to be a less-violent as possible.

But Christmas tells us different. At Christmas we are reminded that God has not (and will not) given up on the world. Once again God breaks into our lives, bringing the promise and the possibility of Peace on Earth. As people of faith, hope and love we continue to listen for angel song, we continue to run with the shepherds to see the one who has been born. Jesus, Emmanuel (God-With-Us), Messiah, Prince of Peace.

Blessed Christmas

Gord

Photo Credit

Looking Forward to December 11, 2016 -- Advent 3, the Annunciation

The Scripture Reading this week is Luke 1:26-49

The Sermon title is Congratulations!

 

Early thoughts:  Hi Mary, favoured by God. Congratulations! You are having a baby!

Or maybe a more classic formulation:

Hail Mary, full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

But what did Mary think? Did it really feel like a congratulations moment?


Mary is an interesting character in the faith story. Strong yet humble. Virgin yet mother. And, according to the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, she herself was conceived sinless. What do we do with her?

For many years some in Protestant circles have not done much, because to be too Marian was to approach Papist practices. But that seems to be ebbing, we seem to be talking about Mary a bit more. Still I am not sure what to make of her, what to make of this announcement.

Much of the talk about the Annunciation scene is about what God is doing (sensible since in the end that is the main topic of Scripture -- how is God active in our world). But if we take seriously that God is in relationship with God's people, a people who have free will, we have to talk about Mary's role in the story.

I suspect most teen girls in this day and age (or any other age for that matter) would not feel that congratulations were in order when they first got the news that they were pregnant at the wrong time. I wonder how many would feel blessed at first?

Luke's account of Jesus' birth focuses our attention squarely on Jesus' mother, Mary of Nazareth. Maybe to fully explore Luke's story and Luke's understanding of what God is doing we should take a closer look at her too.
--Gord

Looking Forward to December 4, 2016 -- Advent 2, the Promise of Jubilee

This being the first Sunday of the month we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Communion.

The Scripture Reading this week is Isaiah 61:1-11

The Sermon title is Jubilee!

Early Thoughts: Free the slaves! Cancel the debts! Liberate the oppressed!

Scripture shows us that God has some strange ideas. Particularly where economics is concerned. Scripture [specifically Deuteronomy 15] shows us that God advocates for Sabbath years, a time where debts are cancelled and slaves are freed. And in Leviticus 25:8-55 God commands a Jubilee year on the fiftieth year (after a sabbath of sabbaths) when not only is the land left fallow (which hopefully has happened at other occasions as part of good land management) but all land is returned to the families to whom it originally belonged [Jewish families that is, not the Canaanites from who it was wrested to be distributed amongst the people of Israel]. Read about these rules for yourself here. Together the Sabbath year and the Jubilee year make a statement about freedom, about economics, about how we build a caring society.

As far as I have ever heard, there is little evidence for the Jubilee year happening on a regular (or even ever) basis.  I suspect the rules of the Sabbath year were at best unevenly followed as well.

But what if they were? Would that be a sign of God's Kingdom breaking into the world?

I think Isaiah has Jubilee-plus in his mind in chapter 61. The year of the Lord's favour will certainly be a Jubilee year. The time when all will be set right is certainly a sign of (and a call for) Jubilee. It will be more than that though. Not only will land be returned (land is life in many cultures) and economics made level again but there will be healing and rejoicing and freedom. This is what it means to look for the Kingdom of God. We look for Jubilee.

I invite you to read Luke 4:14-31. The beginning of the public ministry of one Jesus of Nazareth. How does he begin his ministry? With Isaiah 61 and the year of Jubilee-plus. When God breaks into the world Jubilee comes. To Christian eyes Isaiah 61 is a foreboding of Jesus, a foretelling of what is going to happen in the life of the man from Nazareth.

Where do you see signs of Jubilee in the world? Do you see any?
What would it mean for Jubilee to become a reality here and now?
Is that the path to actual peace in the world? Is justice a pre-condition for peace?
Christmas is coming, are we ready for the world to be changed?
Are we ready for the possibility of Jubilee?
--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

December Newsletter

Be Afraid?

Watching the news for, well my whole adult life, I have come to realize that apparently selling people on fear is a very potent way to motivate them. And so...

And the angel appeared in the midst of the congregation and said:

“BE afraid, be very afraid! For unto you is born this day a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And he will cause you to rethink your entire lives!”

Not quite how we remember the Christmas story going is it? For years I have reminded people that more often than not an angel’s appearance begins with an exhortation NOT to be afraid. Scripture reminds us that we need to live in hope and trust and not be afraid. Fear does not lead to the Kingdom.

And yet... I wonder. Maybe we should be a little afraid. At least if we take Christmas and Jesus seriously.

Between Christmas and Easter this year the Narrative Lectionary is going to lead us through the Gospel according to Luke. Luke has long been my favourite of the 4 Gospels, in part because it contains classic stories such as the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son and the Emmaus Road but also because Luke makes plain the social justice that accompanies the Kingdom.

In this Gospel Jesus will begin his ministry by reading a passage from Isaiah that proclaims the beginning of the Jubilee year. In the Jubilee year debts are cancelled, slaves are freed, land is returned to its ancestral owners. The Jubilee year, the coming of the Kingdom, turns our economic order upside down.

In this Gospel we have Mary’s song. Mary sings of the proud being toppled from their thrones and the lowly lifted up. Mary sings this song knowing that the child she carries in her womb is the one who will do these things. The final verse of my favoured musical setting of Mary’s song reads:

Though the nations rage from age to age, we remember who holds us fast:

God’s mercy must deliver us from the conqueror’s crushing grasp

This saving word that our forebears heard is the promise which hold us bound

‘til the spear and rod can be crushed by God who is turning the world around

(verse 4 of My Soul Cries Out More Voices #120)

Be not afraid, for there are tidings of great joy for all the people. Soon will be born a Saviour, Christ the Lord. God’s presence will be revealed in a child in a manger.

But at the same time, be a little afraid, because God is at loose in the world. Be a little anxious, because God is making changes in the world. Be watchful, the Jubilee is coming, the time when the economic order will be turned over to ensure that all have what they need for life, and that in abundance.

Christmas is coming! God is breaking into our lives! For that we rejoice. And as we wait for the Baby Jesus we watch for the changes God will bring.

Blessed Christmas!

Gord

Looking Forward to November 27, 2016 -- Daniel in the Lion's Den, Advent 1

The Scripture readings for this week are:

• Daniel 6:6-27
• Joel 2:28-29

The Sermon title is God Saves

Early Thoughts: Psalm 121 laments "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help."

It then answers: "My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth."

This week we have a story of jealousy/insecurity. And a story of faithfulness in the face of threat. And a story of God's salvific power. Oh, and a few lions thrown in for good measure.

Living in exile, Daniel has become influential and powerful. And as often happens this makes some of his colleagues jealous and nervous. So they decide to get rid of him.

It is hardly unheard of for a power bloc in a society to manipulate the system and get a law passed that is targeted at a specific individual or group.  In fact it is rather common. Then the person/group have to decide it they will play it safe or if they will continue to be true to who they are, knowing that this puts them in jeopardy.

Daniel chooses the latter. And Darius is caught in the trap. (The fact that Darius is so easily played suggests his strength is not in leadership)

But God intervenes.  And Daniel is not broken and consumed by the lions.  Then Darius has an attack of leadership and destroys those counselors who played him so well (which may be very politically expedient since it also ensures they will not plot against Darius himself in the future) before praising the God Daniel follows.

It is one of those stories many of us heard as children (though those versions might have omitted the wholesale slaughter of verses 23 and 24). But why do we continue to tell it? Specifically this week, as we head in to the season of preparation for the birth of Jesus. What does this passage tell us in 2016?

WE live in a world where jealousy and nervousness and insecurity and fear still drive and shape major policy decisions. We live in a world where it sometimes seems that playing it safe is wiser than wholeheartedly being who God has formed us to be. We live in a world where lion's dens come in a variety of shapes and forms.

We also live in a world of hope.

We live in a world where God is at work, sending visions and dreams. WE live in a world where the Kingdom is growing (slowly, sometimes with a setback or two) to full flower. We live in a world where we trust that, in the words of Dame Julian of Norwich, "all will be well".

One etymology of the name Jeshua (Jesus) is God Saves. We await the birth of God Saves.  That is where our hope lies. Even in the face of lions we await the birth of God Saves. Even in the face of threats that would push us to be less than who God has created us to be we have hope and confidence. We can share the visions and the dreams God has sent us because we have hope, because we know that God is in control (sometimes despite the seeming lack of evidence), because God is active in teh world.

Thanks be to God
--Gord