Reflections (A Newsletter Piece)

When you look in a mirror what do you see?

At some point(s) in our lives many of us have an uneasy relationship with the mirror. We try to avoid them whenever possible, because we are uncomfortable with what we see there. Others may go the other way and spend too much time at the mirror – either because they are very comfortable with what they see or because they are strenuously trying to change the picture.

But what do you see when you look in the mirror?

That is a question about how we understand ourselves. And there are two directions I think we can go from that question.

In the past whenever I have talked about a mirror in a sermon it has been with Michael Jackson’s song Man in the Mirror ringing in my ears. Which seems odd at first sine I am not a terribly big fan of Michael Jackson, and musically the song is not any where near my favourite. But the lyrics....

I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I'm asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you want to make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself, and then make a change

In a world where we often see so many things that need to be changed (or that we think need to be changed) and yet at the same time feel powerless to do anything about it Jackson’s song reminds us that we have power. There are many theories about how change happens in a culture. Some change needs to happen at a systemic, government level. Some change starts with us. I tend to believe that any long lasting change starts with us as individuals. Either we change our own way of reacting to life or (maybe and?) we push for changes on a broader scale. Either way, Jackson reminds us that it is not enough to blame everybody else for the problems we see. As many a parent or teacher has reminded a young person “you can not control what Sally does, you can control what you do”. As people who live with privilege and power we need to be able to look in the mirror and admit that maybe we are part both of the problem and the solution.

I still believe all of that. But it is not the only helpful message we can get from a mirror.

One Sunday this summer I was worshiping at my childhood church and the place for the prayer of confession talked about a mirror. I was intrigued and wondered where the worship leader, Rev. Tyler Powell, was heading.

Tyler talked about looking in the mirror. He talked about how many people, when they look in the mirror, are prone to see their flaws. That may mean seeing the scars life has left on our face. Or it may be the anxious and acne-prone teenager seeing all the blemishes. Or it may be the person who carries inside themself some deep shame or guilt and they see a terrible person looking back out of that mirror. I think Tyler was right. Humans can be really good at being judgmental, particularly about themselves. But...

Tyler then reminded us that everyone sitting in that sanctuary that day was a beloved child of God. And he asked what it would mean to look in that mirror and say to yourself, “hey there is a beloved child of God looking back at me”. What do you think God sees when God looks at you? Does God only see the flaws? Or does God see the beloved, if imperfect, child?

If we are honest we know that the person staring back at us from the mirror could possibly do better. We know that there are things we could so but don’t. We know that there are things we probably shouldn’t do but do anyway. But do we remember who we are underneath all of that? We are, each and every one of us, a beloved child of God. Which part will we focus on?

It is my belief that if we start our reflections on that face in the mirror with the second of these two things, trying to see ourselves as the beloved child God sees we start working towards the first, challenging that person to make a change in the world. And even if it doesn’t, then at least we start by reminding ourselves of our true identity. We are flawed. We are imperfect. But first and foremost we are beloved children of God. That is who God sees. And who are we to argue with God?

What do you see when you look in the mirror? What does God want us to see? I believe God wants us to see the beloved child, able to go out and live in God’s Way and make a difference in the world.

--Gord

Looking Ahead to September 1, 2019

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

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Hebrews 13:1-3
• Luke 14:1, 7-14

The Sermon title is Radical Hospitality

Early Thoughts: What does it mean to be a good host? To be a good guest? For hospitality to work we need to be both.

Hospitality is one of those things that makes it possible for us to live together.  In some parts of human history the need to be a good and willing host was truly a matter of survival. That may be less true for many of us now but it is still true for us as a community.

And yet there seems to be a lot of rhetoric that goes directly against hospitality. There are those who claim immigration is somehow a bad thing. There are those who think some people are more welcome than others. There are voices who advocate tossing out those who, in their opinion do not add to/take away from the quality of life in our community. (I have got to stop reading posts about the homelessness issues/ tent city and the drug issue in GP because I keep getting enraged at the comments).

I fear that we, as a culture, have become less welcoming, less hospitable as we have also become more suspicious about those we define as "them". Then I read Hebrews 13. Or I remember the story of Abraham and Sarah entertaining three strangers (Genesis 18)  or even the story of Lot in Sodom (Genesis 19 -- Scripture itself tells us the the sin that led to the destruction of Sodom was a lack of hospitality [Ezekiel 16:49, Matthew 10:13-15]). And when I read these stories I am reminded that we are to welcome the stranger.

What about the other side of hospitality? What about the guest? In this passage from Luke Jesus gives some hints.  And my summation of those hints is "don't think too highly of yourself". This morning as I re-read the Luke reading for this week I am once again given the impression that a great deal of what makes hospitality work is to not think too much of ourselves. Both as guest or host we need to keep ourselves humble.

To live as citizens of the Kingdom means, in part, to practice hospitality. Indeed it is one of the 12 practises cover in the book  Practicing our Faith (need to re-read that chapter this week). It means to recognize that God is present in the act of hosting. It means that we might have to rethink and relearn some of our assumptions about what it means to be a good host and a good guest.

One model would be the communion table. We in the United Church hold an open table, where all are welcome. We do this because we recognize that God is the real host and that God welcomes all to come and eat and drink. Let us eat and drink together, and let us be transformed in the process.  The hope for the future of our culture lies, i part, in how we practice radical hospitality.
--Gord

Looking Ahead to August 25, 2019

This week we are celebrating the sacrament of Baptism.

The Scripture Readings for this week are:

• Psalm 103:1-8
• Psalm 71 (VU p.788)
• Luke 13:10-17

The Sermon title is Be Free

Early Thoughts: In one of the episodes of Star Trek (TOS) Kirk and company are on a planet captured by what appears to be a tribe of uncivilized folk. Part way through the episode Kirk happens to say Freedom, and one of the tribefolk says "that is a worship word".

Despite the fact that from that point on the episode becomes a rather jingoistic presentation of the US as the great hope for freedom in the face of what appears to be that planet's Asiatic Communists I think that the tribesman was right. Freedom is a worship word.

God's desire for God's people to be free is woven throughout Scripture. We find it most notably in the story of Exodus, which is clearly about freedom from slavery. We find it also in rules around slavery itself and the idea of the Jubilee year. We find it in Paul's letters where he calls people to freedom in Christ (though his rhetoric in Philemon is a bit unsure where he stands on slavery as a social construct). And we find it in this Gospel reading. Jesus does not talk about healing or curing the woman, he talks about setting her free.

In Christ we are set free. Free from what and for what is a matter of debate, one we may touch on this Sunday. But we are free. Free to be who God has created us to be. Free to live out God's Way in our world. Maybe even free to make unhelpful choices.

From what do you need to be freed so you can live out God's call in your life? From what have you been freed? What might freedom look like for you?
--Gord

Looking Ahead to August 18, 2019

The Scripture Reading this week is: Hebrews 11:1-12:2

The Sermon title is Faith in the Cloud

Early Thoughts: We talk a lot about the cloud these days.  People debate the wisdom of keeping documents in "the cloud" for security reasons.  Almost 2000 years ago the writer of Hebrews also told us of the importance of the cloud.  But I think he meant something different.

There is something important and valuable and, dare I say, holy about remembering those who have gone before. Nothing we have simply sprung out of nothingness. None of us sprung out of nothingness.  We, as individuals, as families, as communities have a history. And that history has shaped who we are. (Sometimes helpfully sometimes less helpfully).

So we need to pause and remember those who have gone before.  What have they taught us through their faith and their example? What foundation have they laid for us to build on? In this chapter the unknown Christian who wrote this text invites us to remember our forebears in the faith (though he spends a lot of time in Genesis and then skips a whole lot of time). We remember and we consider and we give thanks. WE also remember and are reminded that God has been at work long before we showed up on the scene and will be at work when we ourselves are gone.

But as the text before us suggests, there is another side to our remembering. At the beginning of chapter 12 the writer refers to the great cloud of witnesses. Sometimes we call this the communion of saints. Sometimes I refer to it as the fellowship of the faithful. A blessing I use during a committal service reads:

Go peacefully into that abiding place prepared for us.
Go gently into God’s deepest presence.
Go confidently into that communion of all who have gone before and may they hold you precious until we meet again.

When we remember those who have gone before we also remember that we are not alone. We are surrounded by that great cloud of faithful witnesses. That can strengthen us, being reminded that we are not alone tends to have that effect.


There is one caveat. Sometimes we remember those who have gone before and want to repeat their success by doing what they did.  I don't think that is what this passage calls us to do. WE remember that we are part of a tradition, we also remember that in that tradition are many who set out in a whole new way (Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Paul...). We remember their courage and faith to help us gain courage to step out in our own new way.


A few questions come to my mind this week:

1. Who makes up your great cloud of witnesses? Who are those heroes of faith and life that keep you going?
2. Who makes up the cloud of witnesses for the community of faith called St. Paul's United Church? Who are those people who are or have been a part of our community that laid a foundation for us to build on?
3. Remembering that one generations present is another generation's past. What do we hope to pass on to those who will follow us as we become a part of their great cloud of witnesses?

See you on Sunday!
--Gord

Looking Ahead to July 7, 2019

The Scripture readings this week are:

• 2 Kings 5:1-14
• Psalm 30 (VU p.757)

The Sermon title is The Little Things

Early Thoughts: Sometimes we look for the big splash and miss the answer. Sometimes we think we are too important for the small stuff.

The story of Naaman being healed is a story of little things. Without the advice of a slave girl, a captive, a nothing, the story wouldn't even happen. And then the cure is so simple Naaman thinks it is an insult.

An unimportant person, a small task. they make all the difference.

As I prepare to preach on this story again I am wondering what little things, what "unimportant people" do we miss?

There is no reason to expect that Naaman would listen to his wife's slave girl. There is little reason that a powerful general would think to go to a conquered nation for help. But he does both.

Why would Elisha choose to offer to help a general of Aram? The response of the king of Israel makes sense. It does seem like a set-up. Many a conflict -- from the back alley brawl to international war -- have erupted from such set-ups. But why would Elisha choose to step in?

Why would proud Naaman agree to bathe in the Jordan after making such a big fuss about the insult Elisha has offered. Naaman is used to people fawning on him. Elisha doesn't. Naaman wants to be treated like the important person he is. Elisha says "go take a bath". You could easily see him stomping off in high dudgeon. But he once again takes the advice of those who are beneath him and is cured.

Classics theology suggests that one of the major sins of humanity is Pride. Pride is said to be what leads Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3 -- pride that they would be like God. Pride is what is said to lead the people to attempt to build the tower of Babel (a project that worries or even frightens God). Pride makes us think too much of ourselves and too little of others. Pride can get in the way of relationship, can get in the way of healing what is broken. Naaman shows that pride can be challenged and even broken and healing can follow.

Where does pride keep us from being healed?
--Gord

Summer Newsletter

Are we too afraid to take risks? Is the desire to be safe holding us back?

These questions have been floating through my mind since our last Council meeting. At that meeting Martha provided the devotional and that is what brought those questions to my brain

The devotional started with a reading of the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:13-30. To refresh your memory, this is the parable where three servants are given money to care for. One is given 5 talents and doubled the money. Another is given 2 talents and also doubled the money. The third is given 1 talent but is afraid of what might happen if the money is lost and so simply hides it away, making nothing – not even interest. The king rewards the first two servants richly but the third is punished. As individuals, and as a community, where are we in this parable? Is it better to play it safe or to take risks (hopefully educated, well-considered risks)?

Martha then shared an article by Dan Hotchkiss with us. In the article Hotchkiss suggests that churches are very risk-resistant. Most often, as Hotchkiss lays it out, this shows up when someone has an idea for a new program. While other non-profits often have a system where innovative ideas are weighed against the mission of the organization and a decision is made whether or not to allocate resources to them (because realistically all new ideas will need resources allocated to them if they are to happen) the church tends to freeze as soon as resources are needed.

Risk is a challenge. How do we know if a risk is acceptable? How do we know if it is worthwhile?

The third servant resonates with me. I tend to be very risk-resistant (and to be honest I think I am getting moreso as I age). Playing it safe, protecting what you have, make sure you don’t lose. These sound very sensible to me. But there is a problem.

Where do you grow when you play it safe, stay with the comfortable, protect the status quo? Simply put, you don’t. And in many cases you lose ground. The servant in the story buried the talent in the ground. It did not lose value but it also gained no interest. Which means that it did not keep up with inflation. When organizations play it safe we protect what we already have. We stay in a comfortable place. It keeps us with the familiar. But we lose ground.

What risks do we need to take if we are going to thrive as a community of faith?

This leads me to the question I asked in the “Words from Gord” section of the meeting. I asked “To keep us fresh and avoid falling into a maintenance mindset what should we do differently?”. One of the dangers I have seen n the church is that we fall into a rut, I know I do anyway. And that seems easy. But I don’t think it is being faithful to our calling.

We need to be able to try new things, or at least try doing old things in new ways, if we are to grow. I am sure we all want to grow. That may be in numbers or in finances. It may be to grow in our understanding of what it means to be people of Christian faith. But to grow we have to do things beyond maintaining what we already have.

The first two servants in the parable could have lost it all (which may have made for a very different parable). They were willing to take a chance. In many stories of churches that have grown I find there was a time when someone convinced them to risk losing something valuable. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. But rather than worry about the risk they took another one. This, I think is the path forward for St. Paul’s, for the United Church of Canada, for the Church Universal.

I am not naturally adventurous. Far from it. But when I am realistic I know that continuing to be the church as we have been, to continue to maintain what we have, is a path to decline. For us to pass on this church to the next generations we need to be willing to take risks, to step out of the comfortable, to take the chance that something might fail miserably and then shake ourselves off and try again. And yes, to a degree that terrifies me.

I am not suggesting we become careless. The apostle Paul teaches that we have been passed a treasure in clay jars. We have to consider and research and discern what risks to take. But we have to be willing to take them. I need your help to step out and try different things.

What risks do we need to take? What risks are we afraid to take? What risks will we take?

Who’s in it with me?

Gord

{PS: the great irony is that doing nothing different, to keep maintaining they way we have been is a risk too. There is always a risk whatever choice we make.}

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