All washed up!

Coming to this night and to this time of year I cannot help but stop to reflect on the years that I have been in ministry and the people that I have served and served with over time… the feet that I have at least symbolically washed if not literally and the people who have washed mine. In particular I remember the being in a church in Newfoundland, working our way through the Thursday evening and the liturgy. When all those who had wanted to come up to have their tootsies tickled with some warm water, a bit of soap and a cloth, I moved to start putting things away only to have a parishioner pipe up and ask, “Sir, who washes your feet?” When I realized (and rather quickly) that the question was in earnest, I invited those who would like to return the favour to come and do for me what I did for them. Sure the water was warm and there was a certain amount of reverence to the whole proceeding but I will never forget the smiles and the laughter… Yes! There was laughter and we were still in church!

The people who participated in that service still remind me of who we washed each other’s feet. A moment that while deeply personal to be sure, helped people to understand better the connection that we need to have with Jesus through his life, death and resurrection. It too is deep, personal and gratifying. But at the same time then, we can look to go deeper in that relationship and really begin to understand what it means to be a follower of the Lord Jesus. And in doing so, we need to ask ourselves a couple of simple questions: (1) how are you at serving others and (2) how are you at self sacrifice?

For those who are in public ministry, it is assumed that we know how to give but what about how to receive? If we don’t start from a point of being the one who needs to receive, then how do we have anything to offer? Jesus tells the Pharisees when he is in conflict with them about whether a blind man should have been healed on the Sabbath, “the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

For me that is why foot washing, the smiles and the laughter that come with it are so important for all of us. We talk in the Church these days about “baptismal ministries” but how many of our people do we help to see that they are doing ministry throughout their everyday lives. Ministry is at least in part about sharing the things, the gifts, the love that has been shared with us. Ministry is about being intentional with sharing what God has given us with others. Many will look at this week as a sign of failure and weakness. Yet it is not a moment of tragedy and deep loss but of triumph and of fulfillment. We need to remember that salvation comes to us through God taking the lead and embraces the God hating world that has wandered away from him. The only way in which we can aid others to understand how much God loves them is to serve them and to, when it is right and necessary, make sacrifices for them.

Jesus himself sets such a pattern for us: giving ourselves in service and in sacrifice, in love and obedience to God and a willingness to see and bear one another’s burdens. Life is not gained by hording but by giving; not by grabbing but by releasing; not by ruling by serving. And as the Rev. Canon Michael Green once noted, “ too often the Church has worn the robes of the ruler rather than the towel of the servant.” Therefore, as I heard somewhere else recently, “You cannot be full of yourself and be full focused on others.”

True love knows the cost of sacrifice and goes ahead and makes the gift and way. It is the standard by which we ought to live the Christian life and it is the way in which we will draw others to come and to know Christ and to realize they are already known by him. We are, as his Church, chosen and called by him. We are neither a surprise nor an accident. We are washed and ready to go; waiting for what is to come.    

Becoming more than "active"

In my reading to get ready to preach in Holy Week, I came across a curious little note. The note suggested that in today’s Church, an active Christian is someone who goes to worship about twice out of five Sundays and is never seen at a Maundy Thursday or Good Friday Service. Such a claim made me stop and think. Is it possible that we need to have a bit more pain and suffering in our Christianity to get people to understand just who Jesus is. After all that’s the question that is asked in the city of Jerusalem when Jesus comes in to make his claim on humanity. He comes riding not an animal of war (i.e. a great white stallion) but a humble honest and peaceable animal in riding a donkey. And it should be noted that in coming on such a beast and in such a manner, Jesus was making a pointed if silent claim to his kingship over the house of David and thus over Israel.

As Scott Hoezee puts it: Jesus' entry into Jerusalem is like a flashbulb going off in a dark room. Most of us know what that's like. You are sitting in the middle of a very dark room when suddenly, maybe as a prank, somebody pushes the test button on a camera's flash. Just before the flash, the room is so dim you can hardly make out what is what. But in the instant of the flash, you can see everything with vivid clarity: the chairs, the curtains, the pile of papers on the end table. For just a moment you see it all. But then, as your eyes reel from this shock of illumination, it all fades and the room seems darker than it was before the flash.

Many figured that it was time for the great showdown; that Jesus would finally confront all the wrongs of the nation and would usher in a new and great and glorious age. There is no doubt that had to be on the minds of some, including Judas Iscariot and the Twelve. Jesus’ entry into the city reminded the people of what happened in the days when the city was captured by the Greek Antiochus Epiphanies in 175 BC and how Judas “The Hammer” Maccabeus and his family became heroes of the people for standing up to their oppressor, freeing the city and reconsecrating the Temple after it had been so badly desecrated. Flipping tables, scattering money and driving out animals and people might seem mild by comparison in terms of a ‘real revolution’.

Jesus shows and makes his claim upon all of us. Most people like to stake their claim, make their fortune and have their fame. This is what others expected of Jesus. He would initiate a war to liberate the oppressed, create a class struggle dividing people into friend and foe and thus make a revolution. The problem is they didn’t and I think we still don “get it”. Jesus has no money, on political power or ambition. People have not listened to the message or to the heart that has brought them a message from God. They are still trapped in their own hearts, ways and thoughts of personal gain and glory.

We see this in Peter and Judas. There were many similarities between the two men: they were both of the 12. Both had been in ministry with Jesus and for Jesus for a length of time, since the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. They preached and taught; they healed people of their sicknesses and drove out demons. Both were there at the last meal, had their feet washed and watched everything, heard everything Jesus said and did.

Yet when their faith is tested, when the cost of being his disciple is at its highest, both failed to follow. Judas perhaps thought that he could force Jesus into using some of his power to do what he wanted – to get rid of the Romans with one powerful “zot” and fire from heaven. Use violence to rid themselves of the oppressor. It is only later that Judas realizes that Jesus will not fight back, will not use his power to claim an earthly kingdom that Judas begins to understand the depths of his betrayal. His grief at not seeing what he wanted and Jesus not fighting back plunge Judas into hopelessness and eventually death.

Peter wanted to be bold and strong too. He professed to be willing to be there right a Jesus’ side, all the way; even if it meant going to his own death. He was warned that he would not be faithful, that he would fail and yet he pressed on. And perhaps that is what made the difference. Peter kept his eyes on Jesus and how he lived for Jesus in the days after his failure to be faithful. Jesus reached out for Peter and restored him to a healthy relationship not only with himself but also with the rest of the Church. And Jesus did this through not only his words but even more so his actions.

What does that have to do with us? Jesus makes the same appeal for us to join him in his great parade into the kingdom. Have you fallen short? Have you walked or wandered away? Have you been willful and demanded that you get your own way? First, remember that with God there is mercy and that mercy triumphs over judgment. Then come and join us. Come celebrate the glory of the king and find that there is something more to the Christian life than just being “active” that you might really live in Jesus’ name.

In Lazarus Moments

One day, as the church parking lot filled up, people were surprised to find the doors to the church tightly locked. And there was a sign on the door. It read: “I’ve been preaching here for three years about how we should live out the gospel in our daily lives. You must have heard the message. Now go out and do something about it!”

I have often wondered about our North American culture and our fixation on the end of things and on death. Consider what the most popular shows on television these days are about: death! “NCIS”, “CSI”, the various incarnations of “Law and Order” not to mention the aptly named shows “Bones” and Body of Evidence but to name a few. When I was studying for ordination, it was a big deal to come home on Tuesday nights after class (with Tim Horton's Tea of course!) to watch “House”. I used to like how Dr. House had all the answers, even when he didn't. I used like how he could somehow, some way because of how brilliant he was, cheat death and get his patient to live. But as it kept happening over and over again, I began to realize that he could not stop the inevitable – he could indeed “cheat” for the moment but the moment would not last. He could stave off death but he did not have the power to stop it much less prevent it.

I think that is what we look for God to do to: to prevent death. We as a culture want God to stop death right in its own tracks and cause death itself to cease to exist so that we don’t have to endure it anymore. We can sense the separation and we know the heartache that being separated from God causes. And I think that is why both Martha and Mary say to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” We seem to want to live this life forever instead of looking to what God is preparing for us in the future and moving towards it. We fail to lift our eyes up to the hills and to look for the presence of God in the midst of everything that is happening and think of God, his glory and desire his presence to make everything new again. Maybe we should take the time to consider that very thought – what do we lift up our eyes for? Where do we go for our strength when the storms and winds of life come?

Perhaps we need to consider that God desires to breathe new life into the dry bones of this exiled age. Maybe we need to boldly proclaim to our community, “Thus says the LORD, I will cause breathe to enter you and you will live! I will breathe life into you who have stopped dreaming and ceased hoping; you who have settled into your comfortable armchairs and couches with your comfortable lives. I will breathe rejuvenation into you who have work commitments, stacks of dirty dishes on the counter and piles of laundry laid out on the floor. I will bring to you who think that the best days of your life are behind you the wine of fresh vigour. The Lord says to you, “Rise up” from the little graves where you are content to sleep and wait for something better to come along. Arise, and discover that the Spirit is blowing on you, restoring and renewing your life and vitality. Arise and live with because the world needs you to rise up and live with hope so that they might see and know that God is not done with us just yet.

Seeing and experiencing “Lazarus moments” ought to stir us to action – to present to this hurt, fearful, sick and dying world, the Christ who would rather die than be in glorious eternity without them. We ought to be motivated to reach out to people not to just bring them in the doors of our buildings but to help them walk through the gate and into wider, bigger life with Christ. After all who would have thought that when Jesus faced towards the yawning darkness of the entrance to that tomb and boldly, purposefully called, “Come out!” that it would actually happen? Who would have believed that death itself could be undone so that we are raised to new life and let lose to really and truly live and serve the Master.

Thanks be to God that he can not only put the stopper back into the bottle of tears, praise God that there is always life where there is hope in him. Let us go and boldly proclaim that hope in Jesus’ name.

Go Light Your World

There is a great little quip that I found over at Lindy Black’s “Sermon Fodder” that I thought I would start with this week…. It has been suggested that the origins of denominations occurred when the healed blind men met each other. At first they were all excited about the miracle of sight that Jesus had given them, but as they talked about how Jesus had healed them, they began to discover some significant differences. For some, the healing came with simply a touch from Jesus (Mt 9:29; 20:34). Another proudly boasted that he had enough faith so that Jesus didn't have to touch him to perform the miracle (Mk 10:52). Another meekly exclaimed that Jesus not only touched him twice, but also "spit on his eyes" in order for him to see clearly (Mk 8:23). The final one really felt embarrassed to admit that even though a touch wasn't part of his healing, Jesus' "spit" wasn't enough. Jesus had mixed his saliva with dirt and put the mud on his eyes and then told him to go and wash in some pool of water (John 9:6-7). Since each one thought his healing was normal and better than the others, they divided into spittites and non-spittites; muddites and non-muddites; little muddies, some muddies and lot muddies, touchites and non-touchites. Denominationalism was born.

But then it occurred to me that maybe we might be missing the point; that we might be failing to see what we are supposed to see and not just what we want to see. Confused? Please allow me to explain. The sacraments are the ways in which we become aware of the presence of the Almighty in the midst of us. We see and know God presence chiefly in the celebration of Eucharist and Baptism. We recount the saving acts of God in human history and we recall what God is doing among us so that we can celebrate not only what we have had in the past but also what we have in the present and the hope we have for the future. The healing of a man who has been blind from the moment of birth, while maybe not directly known as a sacrament, is at least sacramental. That is to say, it should make us keenly aware of the presence of God among us and that we should be able not only to see God but also to acknowledge and give thanks for the divine presence that surrounds us.

What makes you aware of the presence of the Almighty? Is it a glorious sunset? A problem that seemed insurmountable is suddenly overcome? Watching the face of a sleeping child? It is both significant and crucial to know that Jesus saw the man – really saw him. Jesus saw him and like a bright light turn on in a darkened room he came to this man and gave him light and new life. Instantly the formerly blind man and all the people around him saw this great and wonderful thing. And then they had to do one of the most human things – they questioned why it happened and how exactly this incredible thing came to be. Over and over the man told his story: the one the call Jesus came and made mud and put it on my eyes and then sent me to wash at Siloam. Now I see you!

Take the time to stop and really see where the kingdom might be breaking through and work to help the Light shine brightly so that others might see Jesus and through Jesus see the way home too. Go light your candle, take it to the darkness and reach out your hand for someone else to take it. The Church is not call to husband a small bonfire that only a few can get around. The Church is called to carry torches to reach out to those who are helpless needy and worn. And in the process we might discover some light for ourselves too. So let us do so in Jesus name. 

Unlikely Messengers

The woman coming to the well of Jacob outside the town of Sychar was an unlikely messenger. But we do need to be aware of the highly imaginative and unwarranted descriptions in the past of this woman which may distort or warp our understanding of what took place at that well. It is easy to brighten her nails with colour (red being the most likely candidate), darken and thicken her mascara, deepen the blush on her checks, plunge her neckline and shorten her hemline. To be sure, Jesus knows she has been married five times and now "has" a man who is not her husband, but what are the particulars? Deaths? Divorces? Legal tangles? Or is it promiscuity? What if she had buried five husbands? What if she had been thrown out of her houses by successive men and completely disowned? We do not know. All we know for certain is that Jesus, as is his custom in John, reveals special knowledge of the individuals he encounters and alerts them that in meeting him they may encounter the transcendent. Jesus does not urge the woman to repent or change her behavior. He simply reveals that he really knows her and her life and then makes her aware of whom he really is and the kind of life he offers. Nothing more but then there is nothing less here either.

Jesus starts by striking up a conversation with the woman (John 4:5-42). A male Jew speaks to a Samaritan, and not just a Samaritan but an unescorted Samaritan woman. Such a person was a total mortal enemy of any God fearing, Jewish man of that day. Added to this, were disagreements about where to worship so that one could worship properly: some wanted to worship on one hill in Samaria while others insisted that it had to be on another the hill in Jerusalem. If the walls are to come down there has to be some ground on which a conversation is to happen. What is more common to people of every language, race and nation than necessity of water?

Jesus then offers her a drink of living water. Strange to us perhaps but the conversation moved from the physical need to have water to the need to have the Spirit to live and to worship God. The woman wanted this water, this drink that Jesus spoke of but did not fully understand the implications of drinking in the Spirit. She was not resistant to it the way that Nicodemus had been.  Like any human being she wanted to pursue the physical because that what change her life. She would not have to do everything the hard way anymore. All of us can relate to that, we want the physical things that the world has to offer; we want what we perceive to be good and helpful precisely because we see it, we know it and it is familiar and reachable. But Jesus is offering more than indoor plumbing so that the woman can hide away from people and from God.

The water was changed into wine at the wedding in Cana. Now water becomes living water for a person who is in need of freedom and life. She is not asked to repent of her past or even her present. According to John, she starts to change because she discovers that she is known by God and that God is watching and interested in her and her life. This woman’s life changes not because of demands made from a pulpit or an altar for some form of human piety or perfection though both Jesus and the woman acknowledge that the state of her life needs to change.   This woman’s life begins to change because she is allowed to discover the joy of the presence of Christ in her life and allows her to begin to see Christ in her community (Remember the baptismal covenant? Seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbour as yourself?). This is why she goes to the very people she has been avoiding, and who for the most part have been avoiding her, and says to them, “Come and see the man who told me everything I have ever done!” Even if they weren’t look specifically for Jesus at that moment there must have been something in the invitation that drew these people out of the town and to that well to see this man. She draws them into the presence of Jesus and then learns who he is for themselves. She was the most unlikely of messengers.

But where does all of this leave the rest of us? With the apostles of course! Some of them are now apparently upset that the townsfolk might have been tending to Jesus’ need and robbed them of the opportunity to do what they perceive is theirs and theirs alone to do. Jesus clearly points out to them that they need to be aware of what is going on around them spiritually; to see that they are going to reap harvests where they have not worked for it. We as a Church can choose to focus on what we are doing or not doing internally and allow that to be our focus or we can look up. In essence they’re going to draw in all the people who have been waiting for the moment that they to discover that Gods knows them and is amongst them and their communities. They are going to be the ones to establish the new community and to rebuild the relationships that have been long since served between God and people… all they need do is open their eyes and be ready.  

The goal of this Church outside of worship is to live the fourfold action of planting, watering, praying and reaping – to be the Good News of God in the world – just as we celebrate the fourfold action in our worship of taking, offering, breaking and giving through Eucharist. We too, in our time and in spite of all our weakness, shortcomings and foibles, are called to be unlikely messengers of God’s good news. We are called to live out our liturgies beyond the walls of our church building; to draw others into the presence and liturgy of God.  Let us live that good news out loud this week. 

Ways to Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity!!

 Thanks again to the folks at Rumours; I thought that since we are part of the way through Lent, that we might need a laugh or two. Here are some ways with which you could help to keep an appropriate level of insanity in your life: 

* At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down

* Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.

* Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."

* Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For three Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine 

Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

* In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Smuggling Diamonds"

* Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."

* As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.

* Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat. Look serious.

* Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."

* Sing Along At The Opera.

* Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme?

* Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.

* When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won! I Won!"

* When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling "Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"

* Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go."

* Capitalize Almost All of Your Words Whenever You Write Something. If Someone asks Why, Tell Them It’s In The Bible. Leviticus 1:5.

Living out loud in the small moments

Controversy. We seem to feed on it in North American society. And it seems to have become increasingly worse in our current life with 24 hour news channels, charging into places and staying in places to give the latest pictures and updates for public consumption. Such coverage also brings almost relentless vilification of the authorities involved when fresh information is not forth coming on an hourly clockwork basis.  For example, there is a major disaster in one part of the world. An earthquake moves an island eight feet. A tsunami is created that wipes out villages, businesses, human lives while the media is critical of the electricity company because they are more focused on doing their jobs and thus helping people than they are about their media relations at the moment. Imagine that.

And we don’t have to go somewhere else in the world to find controversy. Here at home there is much discussion and reaction to the hit that Zdeno Chara laid on Max Pacioretty. Pundits criticize it, many bemoan it as just another bad moment in violent sport and the league doesn’t seemingly care about how it looks so sponsors threaten the owners’ bottom line if they don’t “get it together”. Or there is always the political life of this country and the antics of those who are to lead our civil governments playing she said, he said.

So it is no wonder that Nicodemus might be a little confused when he pays Jesus a compliment for all the signs and wonders he has done and the ways in which he has helped people. Jesus answers back with, “I tell you the truth: you must be born from on high if you are going to see the kingdom of heaven.”    Nicodemus is confused by such a response, asks a question, “Do I have to do it all over again? Is that what you expect?” Jesus expands on this notion and says to Nicodemus, no you must be born of water (baptism and repentance) and of the Spirit to see the kingdom. You need to be born from the Spirit, from on high.

  

It is not what we are commonly taught in the Anglican Church today. And I am not sure that I was taught it Sunday School of yesteryear either. It took a spirit-filled person being put (by God) in my path to get me to ask some of the questions that were fuelled by a natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge that in turn caused me to start living the life from above.

There was an evangelistic mission in the parish where we were living a few weeks before my Nicodemus moment. I remember the day I started living my faith well. It was December 9^th 1982. We were living in a Northern BC town called Houston. I was active at the small, quaint little Anglican Church as a server. This particular morning I was at the Church for the 8am service at which there were only three people: the parish priest, a woman I did not know who sat at the back and myself. After the Eucharist, I was setting up the altar for the next service when I heard the parish priest say to the lady at the back of the church, remember, God so loves you that he gave his only Son, so that you might not perish but have eternal life… After the lady left, the priest and I walked across the street to a local restaurant to have a slice of toast and tea. Pensively chomping on a slice of toast, I ask the priest, “What do you mean when you say God loves me?” David explained that God loved us so very much that he had to be with us and to bring us home. He loves you too much to leave you out in the cold and alone. He sent Jesus to bring you home. At that moment, something clicked. And I began to put it all together for the first time.

Like Nicodemus, I had been a good Anglican. I had been baptized and gone to Sunday School and to Church. I was active in my congregation but it wasn’t until, sitting in that place, that it struck me that what God did through Jesus; it was done was for me. And I have spent every waking moment of everyday since that moment discovering and rediscovering just how much God really does love me and what he can enable me to do for him. And like so many other moments that have happened since then, I am discovering that what really counts is how we live out the little moments that follow the big moments when God is revealed to us in some great and awesome way. It is not about how well you debate an issue or how passionate you are about a cause. Nicodemus is proof of that. He took time to come out from the shadows into the light, but he was there when he was needed most and realized what Jesus had done for him. Let's allow the thought of how Jesus has lived and died for us empower our observation of Lent and let’s live our lent out loud for him.