Why life is the way it is

Thanks to the Folks at "Rumours" - I thought this was worth posting here:

On the first day, God created the dog and said: “Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.”


“That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?”

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said: “Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.”

“Monkey tricks for twenty years?” asked the chimp. “That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?”

And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said: “You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.”

“Whoa!” said the cow. “That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?”

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created the human and said: “'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years.”

“Only twenty years?” wailed the human. “Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?”

'Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it.'

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

In thinking of the people of Japan...

I thought that I would repost this blog. I wrote in the aftermath of the tragic earthquake in Haiti - and I think of home too which has been on alert since this has happened, waiting for word of whether the tsunami hits home or not. 

In the cold light of last night’s disaster and the loss of our fire department and in the wake of the Haiti earthquake and what we have been striving to do in the face of human suffering near and far, I thought that it might be good to respond to some questions that have been brought to me around the question of where is God in the middle of disaster? Where is God when we are hurting and suffering?  I want to acknowledge that I have been reading a fair bit of Bishop NT Wright’s work lately and so I thank him for his thoughts as I try to work through what I am hearing in making some sort of response.

First of all, we like to think that we live in an inherently good world. In fact there may be some who will point out that God call creation not only good but very good when he was finished. What we fail to recognize often is that this creation not only humanity but all of creation has been affected by the fall and the entrance of sin into creation. It is no small matter that the Saviour needs to enter into our humanity and work redemption through the frailty of human flesh so that God can freely offer salvation to anyone who wishes it. The restoration of righteousness (of the relationship between God and humanity) comes with a price. There was a need to deal with the falling short on the part of humanity because we chose to depend on ourselves rather than to trust God to provide. We chose ourselves over having a relationship with God. In the process, the good that was in humanity and that of the rest of creation was marred. The image was still present but spoiled. And so in order to restore that image and that relationship, grace had to be given, mercy had to be shown and salvation has to be offered.

A word does need to be said about how we fell and the role of evil in that fall. Evil’s greatest strength is not in the manufacturing of evil, but in the subversion of what is best. What this means is that evil can do evil but it is more likely that evil would rather tempt humanity so that they choose good over the best. The serpent’s conversation with the woman shows us that we might have already been leaning towards wondering what it might be like to be more like God, wanting to be on our own. Evil showed us that this is possible that we could achieve things on our own and that we could in some manner be self sufficing. In doing so we have put ourselves and our own wills ahead of what God desires for us. And at the same time we have lost many of the qualities within the sustaining relationship with God that we so desire – health, long life blessings. Through Christ, God has made the way back to him possible. It should also be said that evil is not the opposite of God – God is above both good and evil. There is nothing equal to or with God. Not evil and not the devil.      

Second of all we like to think the world is getting better and better. This is a recent idea called “process theology”. We seem to believe that evils are solvable like an equation or some kind of scientific experiment and therefore can be handled by technology, education and the development of the rest of the world into the westernized ideal of democracy and capitalism. Everyone else has to be like us and that way everyone will be better off. We continue to ignore evil until it smacks us in the face and then we are surprised by its appearance. The reality is that we don’t know how to deal with the presence of evil in our communities or in our own personal lives. We thought it had been taken care of. So  when disaster strikes, like the earthquake in Haiti, genocide in Yugoslavia or Germany, a tidal wave in South East Asia, a teenage girl is murdered by a peer or a community loses its fire station to a fire we struggle with how to react.  North American society has been rocked in the last 10 years by so many things that reminds of how life is outside of our comfy, insulated cocoon.  

Third of all, spiritually the war is won, but life beyond the cross is a “mop up” operation. Bishop Wright would point out that we in those moments tend to react and lash out because we are hurt. We hit back without considering what the consequences would be and we move to fight wars without considering whether they are just, accuse people of selling themselves to the devil without being prepared to wage spiritual warfare on their behalf. Jesus offered himself on the cross as an offering for sin, “once offered, a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.” Evil has been totally defeated. But like in any conflict there is “mop up” to be done. Evil still has the ability to tempt and to thwart as it always has, but it can no longer win. Evil can still hurt and destroy but it cannot overcome love nor corrupt the truth. People ask where is God in the midst of all this? God is here with us. He is with the parent who sits in the dust of what is left of a shanty home and cries over the loss of children. God is with the solider in the fields of Southern Afghanistan who lies broken and dying after being attacked with an IED. God is with the firefighter who can only stand back and watch as the station house he has spent so much time in, working to build up, as it goes up in flames and smoke. God is with those who recall a young life that was too shortly lived.

We are promised that someday heaven and earth will be brought together and the sea between them will be no more. There will be nothing of the former life and that every tear will be wiped away. We will come to that which we are promised in God, someday. In the meantime, let us make sure that we concentrate on God and on announcing that Jesus is Lord to this world that needs a Saviour so much and live as the message of hope that this world is so desperate to hear.     

Dealing with temptation

The intrepid salesman had finally got his chance to make the really big sale… the kind that makes careers and “legendary” reputations.   As he was ushered into the office of the executive buyer, an assistant brought in a can of soft drink, placed it on the desk, and left again. The atmosphere was cordial, and he knew he was giving his best presentation ever. Then the assistant tapped on the door, re-entered the office and spoke briefly with the executive.  She stood and said, "I apologize, but I have to tend to a matter.  I'll just be a minute or two." And she followed her assistant out of the room.

The sales representative saw her family pictures on her desk.  Then he noticed a contract on her desk.  She had evidently been studying a bid from a competitor.  Leaning forward, he could see the column of figures, but it was obscured by the diet soda can. He was tempted to move the can and see the bottom line of his competitor's bid.   After wrestling with himself a while, he finally decided to take a peek. As he lifted the soda can, he discovered that the can wasn't filled with soda at all.  Instead, the bottom of the can was not attached to the top and the can filled with thousands of little pellets that gushed out, and ran all over the desk cascading down onto the carpet.  His attempt to short cut the competition was exposed.  

We all face temptations every day. And perhaps from time to time we encounter a temptation that is very great and hard to pass up that we then find is very costly to us in some and often many ways. In those moments after we have been found out, we so desire to have a second chance, a “do over” because we know what to do the next time. Perhaps the sad thing is we have not yet done it. And that is where Jesus comes in. Jesus is portrayed as the second chance – the second Adam. It is the ultimate in the “do over” department. Jesus follows the leading of the Spirit and goes out into the wilderness where the nation was in times past to deal with their mistrust, their failings, to discover who God is and thus who they were because of whose they were.

This important because we need to recognize that Jesus has just had his identity confirmed in his baptism by the Father. He has been told who he is. Now he has to live it. Matthew’s Gospel portrays Jesus as the devout and pious person who goes out into the wilderness to, in a sense, confront his demons. The tempter does come with a series of tests which will push Jesus to assert his true identity or accept the identity the world wants to give him. When taken as a whole, the temptations assert Jesus’ true identity because the tempter repeatedly says to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God…” Secure in the knowledge that he knows not only whose he is, but even more from the knowledge that he is loved by his Father, Jesus responds with Scripture and with the lessons that the nation of Israel was taught in that wilderness. Israel remained in the wilderness for forty years learning these lessons and as a punishment for their mistrust of God in spite of the ways in which he had broken the power of the Pharaoh and brought the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. Both the Israelites and Jesus emerged from that experience to accept the role and the mission that God would have them fulfill, having strengthen and purified their relationships.

Taken separately, the temptations are tests to see whether Jesus might put his trust somewhere else – that was the failure of the first Adam. The serpent calls into question God’s trustworthiness and apparent unwillingness to be more forthcoming about revealing the master plan but he does not lie to Adam and Eve. The fist Adam seems to believe that there was more to life than God was telling and realized that it was possible to know more and so ate from the forbidden tree. Adam was tempted and chose to give in and to try and make a go of things himself instead of trusting God to be faithful and to provide. Adam through the eating of the forbidden fruit did become more like God knowing good and evil. And then humanity had to take the consequences of the mistrust allowed to grow in human hearts. Jesus is tested as to whether he will allow mistrust to grow within him. Will he make a display of his power? Will he put God to the test by endangering himself before his appointed time? Who will Jesus worship?   The tempter appeals to Jesus’ strengths not to his weaknesses to try and get him to mistrust God and to go it alone and do it himself.  

So where does this leave us? We too need to learn the lessons of the wilderness. We too need to learn the discipline of the wilderness so that we move to purify our relationships with God; that we might be stronger and bolder as witnesses to Jesus’ life death and resurrection. We are tempted to give in and to just be ourselves rather than the holy people God desires to make us. And like Jesus we can learn the lessons of the wilderness to remind each other of the necessity of placing our trust in God because we know whose we are and that we too are loved by God. And lets remind each other that we’re on the way back to that Garden where we will wait and watch as Jesus faces the temptation again only to hear the answer, “Not my will but yours be done”. 

Living Lent out loud!

Perhaps you remember the movie “Chocolat”? It is about a woman who blows into a French village to open up a chocolate and candy store. The village into which the woman enters is a much stayed, totally religious, and above all very traditional community. Everyone knows what is expected of them and no one challenges things or steps out of line. In some sense it might be considered by the religious as a bit of a utopia. But as the movie I think reminds us, being alive and being alive to God can be a bit of a messy business!

Perhaps that is why I have been feeling of late that this upcoming Lenten season needs to be different in some ways from at least some of the other Lents we have been through. I have yet to hear of any talk about what people are giving up (or taking on for that matter) for Lent. It is an old and worthwhile discipline. Perhaps you might have noticed that the people who are really living are dressed in brightly coloured clothes while a good many in the village remain in the grey and drab. It helps us to see who is living and who is seeking and who needs to. Now it is not always that easy so we need to stop, to look, to ask and to listen before we can move forward. We need to see things the way that other people see things. It is what we should both as individuals and as a community be doing so that there is fuel for prayer. The colours and the chocolate are used to help us see what passion is all about and who we might use it in our relationships around us: with our spouses, with our children, with our friends and neighbours, with those in authority around us. But how does this help us live out loud in this Lent?

First, we need to remind ourselves that like the growing light of the day, the kingdom of heaven is also grow in power and influence in the world. The kingdom grows because the Word of God is living and active in the world, some time quiet and almost imperceptible and at other times bold and brashly striding forward, knocking, seeking and finding.

Second, we need to be more aware of how we are living out our lives and the impact that we are having (or not having as the case may be) on the people around us. We need to recognize that not all the world is a stage. There are moments when we need to draw aside and pray quietly in our rooms. There are moments when we need to deny ourselves certain things to be good stewards and to creation new passions as well as demonstrating some self control. Have you ever asked yourself why you take up again a thing you stopped and did without during Lent. Shouldn’t this season be about letting things go and about taking new and good things up for good and for ever?

Lastly, shouldn’t we work at making sure that we pray with simplicity, live like life is worship denying ourselves taking up our crosses and recognize that everything that we do is an act of worship where God is concerned? These are some of the things I want you to come and explore with me in this Lenten season. Come and let us live out loud for Christ and his kingdom!       

Rise up, go preach - life is back down the mountain!

We end the season of Epiphany as we began: with considering who Jesus is and is for us in the light of God’s revelation of himself. We could marvel at the wondrous things the shepherds and the Magi said and did; coming from far and near to see this thing that had happened and to witness to God’s active presence in this world. Perhaps now we need to pay attention to how Matthew’s Gospel sets up this particular mountainside encounter.  The Gospel writer notes that six days after the pivotal events in and around Caesarea Philippi when Peter had made his great confession of Jesus as the Christ, (Mt. 16.16) Peter along with James and John accompany Jesus on a side trip up a “high mountain”. The disciples knew that something was up because they knew through Scripture that important people in the faith met God on mountains – their curiosity and excitement was palpable as they quietly trudged along.

As they hiked up the trail of this mountain, they noticed that Jesus began to changed, not all at once mind you but discernibly nonetheless. His face was glowing brighter and brighter as they moved along. Jesus’ clothes became so white that the garments gleamed like a lightning strike. High up the mountain, the quartet came to a small flat place where they found Moses and Elijah waiting for them. The appearances of these other men was similar to Jesus own appearance. The three sojourners looked at one another in fear and wonder but whispered nothing. Luke’s Gospel tells au about the discussion between these men: that they were considering the choices Jesus has made and about the coming departure, which included Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension (Lk. 9.31).

Then we have what I like to think of as a classic “Peter” moment when peter decides to act and opens his mouth, interrupting the discussion, “ Lord is it good for us to be here. If you wish I can do something useful like building tents…” And as Peter is speaking they’re all suddenly aware of the cloud that has enveloped them and there is a booming voice that shakes the mountainside, “This is my Son, whom I love; with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” In one fell swoop the Father has silenced Peter and the disciples fall to the ground now in abject fear and trembling. And as fast as it had all happened, the cloud, the voice and the holy men were gone and the disciples were there alone with Jesus with his appearance returned to normal.

We should also notice some remarkable things are noted at the end of lesson.  First Jesus went over and touched these three mice, saying to them, “rise up, don’t be afraid.” In Matthew, the touch of Jesus is for healing and restoration. The path has been made clear and the argument about what is going to happen is over – even if the disciples aren’t clear as to why just yet. Second, The frightened men looked and realized that the moment was over and they were being called to live again, having been raised up by the Master. The way in which the Gospel writer puts it, these three have been raised from death and have been forever changed by this encounter. They will not see things the ways in which they used to see them or Jesus because of this mountain top moment.  

  

So what might this have to do with us? We too need too need to be raised up. We too need to stop being afraid because we have been in the presence of the Almighty. We too need to pick ourselves up and move back down the mountain with Jesus. Life goes on back down the mountain. People need to hear that God is amongst us, that God is reaching out to touch us. People need to know that we have not been abandoned and that God’s plan and grace are at work in us. And if we need any affirmation of just that from the world around us, consider the Monty Python video I include with this week’s blog.

Pax Dominum! Rise up and don’t be afraid! Rise up and go preach the message! 

Don't worry - be blessed!

Perhaps this makes me a bit of a hack, but every time I come to this passage (Matthew 6:24-34) I cannot help but think of the Bobby McFerrin 1980's hit, "Don't worry, be happy". I like the song: it’s simple and it is catchy, especially the whistling bits. But As I re-listened to it now some twenty five years later, something struck me. There is nothing behind the reason for people not to worry. As another song of my youth might say, "we're here for a good time not a long time, so have a good time; the sun doesn't shine every day." So long as we can have a good time, so long as we are having fun we are okay. Don’t let life get you down, don't get bummed out.

Early in ministry, I would talk to friends who were commissioned and ordained at about the same time as I was and we would essentially say the same thing… if we could only have as easy as doing beach ministry. There would be lots of fun and sun with lots of time in the water and in the sand. Then life and ministry would be good. Instead we get to worry about who we are going to get to Vestry meetings, and how we are going to fix the hot water tank at the Rectory and how are we going to stay on budget and… well let’s agree that the list is long. There are lots to take care of and lots that can be worried about without putting too much effort in the find of issues.

Even in the Church we have our concerns about how to be salt and light in the world, how we are going to fulfill the Law, how we are going to handle our anger and deal with reconciliation when we have messed up. We are going to have to consider how we deal with our adulterous hearts. We are going to have to have to hope that the strength comes to us to be able to withstand persecutions so that we can expose unjust authority. We are going to have to learn to love those who don’t love us, and that we don’t want anything to do with. We are going to have to figure out where our allegiances are and decided what paths we are going to take. There is so much to take in some times.

In this very moment Jesus calls us, his body, his Church to something more, something deeper than a life of beach ministry or a ministry through a life of worry and potential misery:

    

″If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds. ″Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them".                                 - Matthew 6:25-29 The Message (MSG) Copyright © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

Coming into the life of the kingdom is not like trying to make your way in the world. The world wants to compete with God for the desires and affections of the human heart. This is probably the single biggest challenge the Church faces. People aren’t so much looking to for something deep spiritually, something that might fill the void they feel and try to fill. Often people seem to be looking for a good time that reaffirms what goes on in the rest of life. In fact I can remember a parishioner some time back telling me, “Preach what you want, but don’t talk about cabins. I love my cabin and I need my cabin. Don’t tell me I cannot have my cabin.”So I asked, “Who has your heart then, God or your cabin?” All of us faces these battles for our affections, it is not unique to just one our two of us.

This is why are challenged to seek and search for God and make God first. When we seek God and make God our first priority, we find that what we need (not what we greed for) comes into focus and into play. When we ask according to the will of God, God has promised to provide. When we seek out God we will find him because he is right near us. And when we are ready to walking through those doors all we need to do is knock because God can open every door that is closed to us otherwise.  

God calls us to trust him because he knows what our needs are – he knows that we need our daily bread and God is willing to give it that we would be nourished and sustained. And if we know that God is going to sustain us then how should we face the day ahead? We still have those things to face but at the very least we can recognize that we do not face them alone. We may never be responsibility and worry free, but we can trust God to be there with us, to guide us and protect us. God will certainly be there to empower, embolden and to bless us in the risks that we need to take so that our hope increases and our faith is encouraged and livened up. Most of all remember that we are not asked to do the impossible. We are asked to do what God has asked us to do and leave the rest to God. As the Late Mother Teresa once said, “If you cannot feed a hundred then just feed one.” So don’t just worry: take courage and be blessed!  

Going to hear the Rev.!

I came across this during sermon prep this week and thought that it might be interesting to consider, especially since I have done a lot of itinerant preaching in my early years o ministry. I give thanks for my current parish whom I have know for some time know and for the ways in which we have conversed over the years. It is helping me to perfect my craft as a preacher. 

One of the main things we do as a Christian community, is gather for worship. Ideally, the one who is pastor to the community should also be the preacher.Of course, pastors need Sundays off for a variety of reasons and so around this neck of the woods, I often get invited to preach.I call it “preaching around” which sounds vaguely promiscuous.” That’s because it is. I've always understood preaching as an intimate act between pastor and the gathered community. Preaching at its best happens when the preaching springs out of the life, the hurting, the joy, the passion of the community. It’s almost in the category of pillow talk.I don’t feel good about preaching except in my own home congregation. In other congregations, I go in, have my say and leave. That’s it. I don’t know who they are. They don’t know who I am. And I’m not there afterwards to pick up the pieces.Do I enjoy it? Of course I do. And the feedback I get from the congregations where I preach is that they like it too. I can whomp out a pretty good speech.

But when they discreetly hand me an envelope with a cheque in it, I wonder if there’s a bit of a gigolo in me. I get my jollies. They get their strokes. I take my money and leave. Wham! Bam! Thank you Ma’am.

Of course that’s overstating the case. But every theology of preaching I’ve ever read says that preaching is not entertainment and it’s not education. Preaching is not a sacrament, but it is sacramental in that through it the Word may happen. When a sermon is faithfully preached and faithfully heard, there is the Gospel. I’m not convinced that happens when I go into a strange church and do my thing. I've wondered about that when I find myself worshipping in another congregation. When I’m traveling, I visit lots of different churches and I've heard sermons that were mostly entertainment, or mostly education.

Some are almost caricatures. High profile preacher. Lots of pizzazz. Lots of jokes. Lively, entertaining sermon. “You gotta come and hear our Rev,” the folks are saying. “Really good!” So people come and “hear the Rev.” The best two-buck show in town. Those churches are full on Sundays. But the people in the pews are an audience, not a congregation. The other extreme. Sermons are well-researched, reflecting the latest relevant social concerns. Every point is tightly argued. A few in the congregations find this very helpful. Most shut off their minds. The sermon dies on the steps of the chancel. It’s all good, worthwhile stuff but it gets nowhere.

On the other hand, I have worshiped in congregations where I felt like a guest in someone else’s home. That’s exactly as it should be. There were in-jokes and references and history and relationships I didn’t understand. The sermon was not designed to impress me. I was welcome to listen but the preacher was in conversation with the community. The sermon sprang out of a deep and caring relationship. On many of the faces I could see deep participation. I recognize this and warm to it. I know it from my home congregation. A community confronting the Gospel together.

From “Sermon Seasonings,” Wood Lake Books, 1997