Moving into the Land and into the Promise

When I sat down to read the lessons at the beginning of the week, I was somewhat captured by the few verses of the Book of Joshua and what was going on in them (Joshua 5. 9-12) The children of Israel have moved out of slavery in Egypt, through the wondrous rescue from Pharaoh on the shores of the Red Sea and then into the wilderness at Sinai where things got “hinky”. At Gilgal, God removed the reproach of having been enslaved and the issues of the wilderness where the previous generation had been a royal pain in the divine backside. This new generation was on the verge of an eisodos – an in-breaking and the taking possession of the Land that God had promised to them through Abraham hundreds of years before.

The passage though short, is important to the life of the fledgling nation. It is a story of moving from scarcity to abundance, from the manna and other things that God has provided to sustain them into living from the Land that God is giving them. The Jordan River has been crossed. Joshua has the mantle of Moses and has taken charge of things. Moses has died and passed into legend having seen the Land but not being allowed to enter himself by the LORD. There is the first celebration of the Passover in the Promised Land and a time of thanksgiving for what is now behind the people of Israel.

This is a moment of pain and promise: there is an already but not-yet-ness about where they are as a nation. They are starting to live from the land and there are changes in the way things are happening, including worship and diet. There is the anticipation and hope of conquest that will come when the city of Jericho falls. There will be thoughts of building the great society and temple for God in the midst of the nation. But at the same time, the people of Israel are also continuing to be that royal pain in the divine backside. With war there will be injuries, pain and suffering and death. Yet there will still be the promise of what God holds for the nation that will draw them forward. The eisodos will happen and the Israelites will take possession of the Land but what kind of nation will they be?

As a congregation, we are in a similar place to those ancient Israelites. We have overcome a lot of hurdles in recent years Things are, out of necessity I would suggest, transforming because they need to so that we might be ready for whatever it is that God has next for us to do. Therefore let us not live as if God was never at the cross nor has never dealt with the betrayal of those he created or with the death of his own Son. It’s not true. We are on the cusp of a new eisodos into this society and this world and God is in the lead. The new eisodos will require us changing our point of view (pov) and starting to see things the way that Christ sees them.

We are called to help people in this world to see Jesus Christ. How do we, his Church, do that? The true Church is known for its faith in the face of pain and suffering and for a life that is dedicated to the service of God almighty and of others. The grace that God gives to us, his Church, is not meant for us to wallow in memories of ministry that used to be. Grace for this moment is not to get back to the future – to reclaim some glorious point of the past. Rather, it is for the moment that we might share it with our neighbours, friends and family that through us, they might see Christ in action. This grace and mercy for the Church is meant to see us through what St. Paul would call, “Light and momentary troubles”. It is the continuation of the pain and the promise until the fresh eisodos is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus.

Don’t be lemmings who just follow the herd over the edge. Be willing to see things as Christ sees things. Be ready to march into the Land, eating from the good of the Land and worshiping God as God desires. Be ready to follow Christ where he might lead. God is calling us to and be ready to be the Church that God has created us in Christ that we must become. With that life there is a promise and in that life there will be both praise and pain. Let it be.

Jason+

The more lively liturgy

Lately, people have been asking “Why the church cannot be full and things be livelier in the service?” So I have been thinking about that issue and many other issues that impact the life of the Church on an ongoing basis.  It fits with what happens in the Gospel for this coming Sunday when the people tell Jesus about what a murderous Governor they have in Pontius Pilate and what he did to worshippers in the Temple (Luke 13.1-8).

Jesus asks the crowd, “Are these people worse than other people? Or did they deserve this death as opposed to living a good long life and quietly dying in bed many years from now?” Jesus then questions the crowd about the unsuspecting 18 people who died when the wall tower on the way to Siloam fell apart and fell on them. “Were these people punished more than others who deserved to be punished?”

I think one of the important parts about this whole encounter is the view that people have of death and therefore of life in general and of this life in particular. We as people tend to live like this life is all there is and that there is nothing other than this life. If you carefully consider how Jesus lives, preaches and acts, he does so in the full knowledge that there are things in this life worse than death. Jesus calls on people to stop and recognize that this human life is fragile. We need to know that this life is limited, finite. We need to take in that God came to us in the fragile frame of his Son to call us back to him and we nailed him to a cross for it because our will, our way and this life were more important to us than what lays ahead in the life beyond death.

What we need from God is mercy. Authentic, reliable mercy. Why do we need it? We need mercy because we are frail and prone to sin. We miss the mark and fall short of what it is that God asks of us. We forget who God is and we don’t love our neighbours as ourselves. We have not done those things that ought to have been done and we have done those things that we ought not to have done and there is no health in us; no salvation in us. We need mercy and we need a saviour. We need God’s mercy because God’s judgment is real. That is why we need God’s mercy to be genuine and powerful. We have fallen down and fallen short. We cannot get up. There is not one of us righteous, not even one.

Suffering and pain in your life are not an indication of a bad life. It is an indication that we live in a world that is affected by sin, death, and the grave. We need to know God’s mercy through hearing the Word from Scripture and by participating in confession and absolution. If you want the liturgy to be relevant, ask yourself what you want God to forgive you for. Then ask for it and then live like a person who has received it. If you really want your prayers answered, do you keep asking until you believe that you have an answer? Or is it a one and done for you, thinking that because it didn’t get answered right away? Have you considered that God is working on an answer to your prayer that not only answers it but goes well beyond to help and to bless others in the process?... That the answer that comes back is better than the prayer that was prayed – even if the answer might have been “No”?

Being religious or calling one’s self spiritual does not make you right with God. God does that through his own Son Jesus. Jesus came to make us holy – to set us aside as God’s one people, a holy nation and a royal priesthood who serve him. God shouts in our joy and he whispers in our pain and suffering to cut through the fear, disbelief and despair that happens because we think there is no hope and too many believe that this transitory life is all there is. God calls to us to show us mercy, grace and blessing that we might make a difference in this world. People are dying. People are scared and fed up. It is perhaps time we as God’s Church become the light and the community of mercy and grace that God can make us to be. Maybe it is time to call this city to repentance and belief because God is drawing close to us. Maybe we start with ourselves so that people can see God at work in us. Wouldn’t that make our services more lively?

Jason+ 

Outta our way, we're on a mission from God

What would it take, to scare you off doing what God has called you to do? What would it take for you to run in the other direction from what you know is God’s will for you? This week’s Gospel begs such a question (Luke 13.31-35). Pharisees come to Jesus and till him that Herod is plotting to kill him. Therefore the Pharisees urge Jesus to “Stop this noise and find a safe place to hide until things blow over.”

If you’ll bear with me for a moment, there are a couple of things that I think we can learn from here, using the barnyard analogies that Jesus used to shed some light on things. First, one needs to remember that Herod Antipas and the Pharisees have no love for each other. The Pharisees perceive Antipas as an extension of the hated occupying Roman Empire and as an outsider because Antipas is the son of an Idumean. Herod has no use for the Pharisees and thinks of them as religious zealots. So when the Pharisees come to Jesus, we can perceive the threat against his life is real. Like his father (Herod the Great) he has no use and gives no truck to those who might try to claim his throne.

Jesus’ response to the announcement that Herod wants and is trying to kill him gives rise to an interesting response: “Go tell that fox ... That sly and crafty man that I will finish what I have started. He cannot touch this!” If you know the Gospel of Luke, you know that Jesus and Herod will eventually meet and that even Herod will find Jesus “not guilty”. Jesus will be proclaimed in Luke’s Gospel as the “Innocent” and the “Rejected” Prophet. But if we go deeper, we see how Jesus has confidence in His Father to help him get to the goals that are set for the kingdom, and his commitment to making that happen. There is a fox, and that fox is apparently in the hen house. But this is not the time to pay attention to him – not yet. It is time work at protecting the children of the City and to focus on what is ahead rather than trying to be crafty and political to get what we want. It reminds me of that great one liner from the Blues Brothers’ movie, “Outta our way, we are on a mission from God!”

Second there is the issue of rejecting the message and the messenger – doing so has consequences. It would seem logical, that the purpose of any journey is to reach the destination of the journey. A journey has a purpose and s destination that one must reach. Anything else would seem to be wandering aimlessly. So if I leave my house to go to the grocery store and the post office and then come home but never do, is that not a wasted trip? Remember that Jesus has set his face like flint (stone) towards the goal of reaching Jerusalem (Luke 9.51), the Cross and the Day of the Resurrection. If Jesus does not get there; if he does not rise from the grave then there is no rising and we are all dead people. Jesus makes this journey so that we can have healing and deliverance from sin and death. He also was raised from the dead so that we can draw others into that same life, to know that same forgiveness and mercy and learn to really, truly live this risen life that has been given to us.

And we must countenance that there is going to be struggles and pain. There will be afflictions and suffering for delivering such a message to our city and our culture. Such a message that calls this culture, this people to repentance (starting with this congregation and this priest) is not going to be popular or welcomed. And because people have forsaken the mercy of God, their house (temple) has been devoid of God’s presence. It will eventually be razed and removed from the earth. This is why it is important to consider carefully the message that God is sending to us through his prophet. God will have mercy on those whom he will have mercy. We are called to strive to make it through the narrow door and into the banquet before the door is shut and none will be able to open. Live life n such a way that you will enter through the narrow door and so that your life is not just an offering, but an act of worship.

Jason+

Cliffhangers!

Home. It is the place where we don’t have to ask if we can come in and where there will always be a welcome no matter where you have been, how great or bad you are, or how late it has gotten. There is hopefully a place like that for all of us that we call home. And the way that Luke describes Nazareth like that for Jesus. It was the place that nourished Jesus from the time he was little until he left to find his cousin John receive baptism and go into the wilderness.

When he comes home again he does what he has been doing all along: he goes to the Synagogue and is invited to preach – because they have heard about what he has done elsewhere. There is a certain amount of expectation that he is going to do something spectacular because, after all he is one of them. He follows his usual pattern but only to a point. They applaud him for his kind words and declaring that salvation is coming and that there is going to be freedom.

Bu then things get harder and worse and difficult because Jesus also tells them that there will be no grand demonstration of grace and power because they were expecting something without really believing in him. Jesus then goes onto point out that enemies of Israel were save in the days of both Elijah and Elisha but not any of the widows and orphans in Israel. In doing so Jesus pointed out to them that the Gospel is for those who know their need of God and his salvation and are ready to received it – regardless of who they are. The Good news of God is meant not just for the few or the nation. It is meant for everyone who knows their need of God and is willing to put their faith in Jesus.

Having been accused of wanting a dog and pony show and worse of being faithless, many in the own are enraged and they move Jesus out of the synagogue out into the streets and to the edge of the hill on which their town is built so that they can throw Jesus off of it and stone him to death. The situation becomes in a real sense, a “cliff-hanger”. Yet Jesus walks away and takes his disciples and makes for Capernaum.

What does this all mean? Well, I think first what we can take from Isaiah and from Luke is the understanding that God is in control. And just as importantly, he has anointed his servant and sent him as an ambassador from him to us, to you and to me. And Jesus has been sent for a purpose: to fix the broken hearted, to free those bound by sin and despair and to find those who are lost and in need of God’s salvation and bring them home to the Father. Most of all, Jesus and by extension, his Church,  is sent to proclaim jubilee – freedom from all debt and a clean slate in life so that one can begin again.

And if God is in control, then it is God’s mission that we are on, not our own. Did Jesus himself not say to his own disciples, "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” (John 15.16 ESV) I take this to mean that God wants spiritual fruit from all of us not for some of us to be religious nuts.

One of the things that I think is important for us in terms of remembering, is to realize that God is not calling us to be what we were in the 1970’s and 80’s. Many think that this was the golden aged of the parish and the diocese. It is often thought of as the “good old daze”. Either we own our past or it will own us. Those days carry powerful memories for many including myself but we are not there anymore and if we continue to put our hand to the plow and keep looking back we are going to find that we are of no use to the kingdom to which we are called.

We must become a fresh revelation of the man Jesus Christ to the city in which we live. As a pastor, priest and teacher of the Church, I present Christ to all of you through word and sacrament so that together, we can represent Christ to this city. We can do these things because we have sought and seen Christ in worship and prayer together. Thus, as we live our lives, others can be shown who Christ is through who and what we are and are becoming.

We must treat others better than ourselves – those who are less honourable with dignity and with more honour; to share the pain and difficulties of another. In short we are not to live like the rest of our culture but rather to live as God would have us live. Even if that means that we must live counter culturally to the world around us and potentially in conflict with the wider culture. Be prepare to be more like Jesus and understand that we may become a sign to be spoken against, even within the Church.

Most of all, remember that the Gospel is meant for every person you meet. Live so that you can shine the light and the life of Christ in your own life; so that others may see Christ in you and give glory to our heavenly Father. We do this for him and for the sake of the coming kingdom.

Jason+

Miracles are possible, but they are not cheap.

The Gospel this week could be preached on in several different ways. Most would probably deal with the ideas around marriage and the culture we live in. Others might home in on things like motherhood and family life and what our communities might look like if this or that was to happen. I remember treading that line in front of my newly elected Bishop during a sermon a number of years ago now at a Diocesan ACW Conference. People wanted me to speak out and to confirm at least their suspicions about other people if not expect me to confirm their entrenched positions. But that is not where I am heeded this week. I am headed into service and to serve the Lord and his people in ordinary time.

Do you know what “ordinary” time is and means to the Church? Ordinary time is that space where there is no major celebration or festival going on. No Christmas. No Easter or Pentecost to deal with – just ordinary time in which we get to see and to learn to follow the Lord Jesus. The Gospel for Sunday (John 2.1-11) is a lesson in learning how to listen and do as God tells you.  Obedience we call it. To listen and then do as directed. To not listen and not do as we are directed in God’s ways, does not make us disobedient. It makes us irrelevant. God can use that but it is not the same as listen, understanding and doing as God the Holy Spirit compels us.

Mary is the person I would focus on here. When she is told of the problem – there is no more wine – She goes to Jesus with it. Not to the Steward/MC. Not to the host of the feast. She goes to Jesus. And seemingly, Jesus gives her a hard time (grief) tormenting over being asked to deal with it. “What is the fact that there is no more wine got to do with you and even more so me? My time is my time.” Now I am fairly certain that Jesus had a smile on his face when he said this and I am certain that he was teasing her. He also I am certain recognized that his mother’s faith in him, not just as her child but know that he could handle what was given him – it is why she was depending on him. And we know this because after he teased his mother Mary, she turned to the household slaves and gave an instruction as a person of authority: “Do whatever he tells you to do.”

It took some celebration time to get those large washing jugs filled: 60-80 gallons each. While glasses were clinking and people were reveling, the household slaves were packing the water in from a well somewhere in the community. And they did as they were instructed, filling each vessel to the brim and each could hold no more. And there was I am sure, some fear and awkwardness when they were sent to the MC with water they had just brought in. It is only when the MC taste the water now turned into wine (not knowing the background to all of this) goes to the groom and compliments him for being a great and kind host. Why? Because the household is bringing out better and better tasting wine instead of bring out the inferior wine because nobody can taste or cares about the difference.

What does this tell us about God? And what should it say to us about our relationships with Jesus, individually and as a Church. Well, first we need to pray. We need to ask God for “those things that are requisite and necessary for the body as well as the soul.” Then we need to trust that God is going to do something with those prayers. I have heard the concerns of many in the parish that we cannot replicate the same minor financial miracle of last year and do what was done last year. But then I would point out that we didn’t know how we were going to survive last year either. But by the grace and will of God, we did. And in doing so we were blessed. And not only were we blessed but we blessed the Bishop, the Diocesan Executive Committee and the other parishes by giving what we had to give.  We need to recognize that this is God’s church and that we are God’s people. We are indeed blessed. And because God is blessing us we need this “ordinary” time to be a blessing in this place, in this city and beyond. We must, if we are to be effective in our faith, good listeners and then put what we believe we are hearing into actions that will glorify God and draw people into his kingdom.

I leave this piece of Scripture with you to think about: 

Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2For he says,

“In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. 11We have spoken freely to you,^a Corinthians; our heart is wide open. 12You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. 13In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also. (2 Corinthians 6:1-13 ESV)

Jason+

Is there any hope?

“Is there any hope?” That was the question that was put to me by a friend and colleague. We were having a meal together after a long day of meetings filled with facts and figures, joys and sorrows in life and ministry.  We spent hours sharing, talking and eating. Eventually I answered his question and said, “Yes there is hope. But remember: Love God and pray for the Church.”

When I look at the descriptions that Jesus lays out for us in the Gospel (Luke 21.25-40) it might be frightening. It might be hard to remember that there is good going to come from the upheaval of not only this world, but of the entire cosmos. Looking at the state of the okiumene (Empire, the world) it is easy to get discouraged and doubtful. We spend some much of our lives trying to making ourselves feel safe and secure. Yet the world and its ways always seem to manage to ravage what we have and what we are leaving us on the side of the road like an abandoned child.

We do need to stop and recognize that there are things that we can do and situations we can exercise authority in but we can never have control. And when we recognize that we see that there is nothing in this world, this transitory life that we can honest have dominion over. Nothing of this world, this life is permanent: not the sun, the moon, the stars, this planet. Not the kingdoms, empires or nations of the earth. Nothing will remain. There will be signs that this life will pass away. There will be signs that things are about to change. No one will be left out of the judgment – not one person.

But lest you think that we are left without hope, we are not.  That is why we are getting ready for the coming of the King – and I don’t mean Elvis either, thank you, thank you very much. God decided that he was going to send his Son to “stabilize” the situation (and yes, the pun is intended). Jesus is our hope and there is no one and nothing better than that. The King is coming and is coming soon. We can expect to see great and awful things happening. Signs in the sun and the moon and the stars. We will see things happen between nations and kingdoms both earthly and spiritually including wars and rumours of wars. There will be earthquakes, acid rain, global warming and so on. Things are not going to get better soon. They will more than likely get worse.

Where is the hope? As I have said, it is in knowing that Jesus is coming and the sign of that is the cross. Jesus through his own life staked his claim to this earth and all that is in it. He brings with him his rule of the new earth and the new heaven. Our hope is in Jesus. The important part for us to play is to be willing and to actually seek out Christ to find in him something more profound than that which we call ‘Merry’ or ‘Happy’. We seek his presence. We want and desire his divine presence. We seek the serenity and calm of his presence. We seek to be in that place, in his presence for eternity. This is why it is our parish’s mission to seek, to see and to serve God in Christ – to find our perfect freedom. I pray that you rediscover the hope and the peace that God offers in Christ by loving us enough that he did not withdraw but give himself completely.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)

Jason+

Will you be a Charlie Brown?

Throughout the years that I was growing up, my dad had various nicknames for me. I came to realize that those names could be somewhat situational. For example, when we were discussing work, politics, religion (which for me were all the same thing!) or whatever, he would call me by my initials “R.J.” and at times when I was struggling, fearful or afraid of failing yet again, he would call me “Charlie Brown”. I was never quite sure as a kid, what he meant by that. And when I came to really understand who and what Charlie Brown was as a teenager, it became an irritant and a blessing all at the same time. After all, just how many times did Lucy coax Charlie Brown into trying to kick the football? And how many times did he try and fail? Every time she pulled that ball away! And why did Charlie Brown keep going back, over and over again? He goes back time after time because of the hope and possibility that this time might be different... that he would finally get his due and he would boot that ball over the moon. It is not in his nature to give up hope of to fail to return again.

What does this have to do with the widow and her mite? (Mark 12:38-44) Everything!

One needs to read this part of the Markan Gospel keeping in mind what Jesus has Jesus said about religion and religious people: There is no faith, no trust and no love in a self made person and in self reliance. Men and women of wealth were come to the Temple to in a sense, “Pay the Church”. They came and they gave our of their abundance, making a great show of how much they were giving by the noise of the coins they had purchased to pour into the Treasury. The Rich and powerful were pouring in the large amounts of coin in to the trumpets of the Treasury created quite a din as the coins made their way into the bank. The greater the gift, the greater the pride of the giver and the bigger show in giving. But this is not what God is looking for. As Jesus makes it clear, they gave out of their abundance and it has not really cost them anything. It has not pushed them into the hands of God but into a self reliance that God has blessed and so long as there is lots, there is no motivation to see what’s happening; with God and with others. What happens when their homeostasis shifts? What do they do then?

Jesus watch this all going on, then observed a widow who had bought two messily coins and dropped them in. They barely made a sound as they slid down the pipes. It was certainly not the great show that others had made but it was this widow that Jesus pointed out to the others has having gave more than anybody else. Everyone else had given out of their wealth, but she out of the little she had, gave all she had to give. Who of us, has done that? Who has run the race, kept the Faith and is ready to be poured out like a drink offering, offering all they you are and have? She came and offered what she has to give, and gave it to God as a sacrifice and as an act of worship, putting her life into God’s hands. How many of us are willing to do this?

Some of the scholars I have read say that she was giving for the last time and that she was going home to die. But I think that we make certain choices that do not guide us to a good conclusion. For example, we assume that she is old but we are not told that. Plus we assume that she is alone. This widow is not. Even if there was no family, God is with her and favours her mightily. And I think that this is a major mistake on our part – to think that God cannot see or hear and that God does not care.

I believe that this woman has learned how to put herself into the hands of God – to depend upon God. It is not something that any believer automatically does. It has to be learned so that it can be a habit and the generosity that comes from learning to give and to live sacrificially becomes a part of a person nature and character. We aren’t told but I think this is not the first time that she had done this – that she has come and given all that she has had to God, asking God to support and give to her. Choosing to give and to sacrifice so that others might live is what Jesus does and calls all who say that they believe in him to imitate him in his life, his death and his resurrection. We are called to participate in it all that – that we might be finally found in Jesus at the last Day.

So if I need to be a Charlie Brown, I accept that there are going to be things I am going to having keep trying and things I am going to have hope in because, for now it is beyond me and my reach. Why would I do this? Because it is a part of my witness in the world that God is at work in me and making me ready for him and the coming of his kingdom and the bringing of the eternity that we will spend with him. Will you come and be a Charlie Brown too?

Jason+