Conflict is inevitable, combat is optional.

 

It might be surprising to you but clergy these days when they are trained for ministry, one of the things that they have to learn is how to deal with and manage conflict within the life of the Church. Does that surprise you? One of the things that I have learned over the years, is that conflict, which happens within a person is inevitable. People deal with conflict within themselves all the time. Personal conflict gives rise to a number of really good pieces of music it, especially country music. The old hurting songs that talk about the wife leaving husband behind with kids to feed and crops in the fields that need to be harvested. The dog has died and the cat won’t speak to anyone anymore. “Picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille!”

If conflict is inevitable then combat is most often optional. We can choose how to act on what goes on inside us. And the way in which the Gospel calls on us to deal with conflict is interesting. It is put on the injured party to confront the other person and to try and gain satisfaction/relief from the situation. If that does not work, then try again with a couple of witnesses who may be able to help you work things out. If you cannot prevail to get a satisfactory outcome, then everyone goes before the church (local congregation and you try again to settle matters. If the offender does not listen will not act with contrition, then the offender is excommunicated and treated as a tax collector or a public sinner. Modern people at this point would think that this is where they could wash their hands of the offender. Would Jesus have? I do not think so. I believe Jesus would have continued to sort things out and draw that offender back into the life of the congregation.

I would point out to you that there are so many people, not only outside the Church who need forgiveness and thus of healing, but there are as many inside the Church who need the same thing. Are they finding it? And need and the desire for forgiveness goes well beyond the absolution of the Eucharist. Absolution is the reminder of God’s willingness to forgive, to heal and to bless as he is to remove sin and sent it as far as the East is from the West.

We need to consider God and his divine nature. The Father forgives iniquity, heals disease, redeems from the Pit. He crowns the faithful with steadfast love and mercy. God satisfies his people with Good as long as they live. The Father renews the youthful vigor of his people like that of an eagle. God is not foiled by numbers and is not stymied by our failures. In fact, he works all things to the good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. The Father by his very nature (and contrary to common thinking) leans always towards showing mercy and grace; slow to anger and swift to bless. Divine anger is swift to dissipate; bygones are bygones. God does not operate on an ‘eye for an eye’ basis, always looking to get revenge and to balance the books. He is sympathetic to our nature and our plight as people he created and that through sin, have been separated from him.

That reminds me of a parishioner, who in the middle of a Lenten sermon, got on her feet and rejected the idea that she was a sinner in a rather loud manner. She said to me, “I am just fine. God likes me just the way that I am. I am not a sinner.” Thing is, there is a misunderstanding about what a sin is. It is what everyone else does and you do not. It is more than about what we do, it is about what we do not do. It is the things that we did not do well and where we fall short of the mark. The Gospel calls us back to God, to come and be transformed into the creations he intended for each and all of us to become the marvelous creature we were meant to be. We are called to be more than right and work on rights, we are called to be righteous.

Lastly let me remind us all of what Jesus himself has said: “Love your enemy. Turn the other cheek. Do good to those who persecute you. If you are angry with your brother or sister, you are liable to judgement. If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. Do not resist an evil doer. (Be perfect (in mercy) as your Father in heaven is perfect (in mercy)”.

So how do we handle conflict? We have two ears and on mouth. We should listen at least twice as much as we talk. We listen so that we can ask clarifying questions to better understand what is being shared with us. We need to take care in how we speak to each other, including in social media. We listen o learn how we might serve another person and how to lead in various situations. Let us be known in this community (inside and outside this congregation) for how we genuinely love, how we genuinely love one another. Is that easy? No, but consider the alternative by looking around you. 

Jason+

THE LIFE OF THE ORDAINED DISCIPLE: The sanctified imagination

There is a necessity in having a sanctified imagination, that goes beyond “What would Jesus do?” That is the issue that Jesus is dealing with where the disciples are concerned in the Gospel (Matthew 16.21-28). Last week, Peter acclaimed Jesus as the messiah, God’s anointed One. But then Jesus orders the Twelve not to tell anyone else who he really is. Weird isn’t it? They finally get it right and now he is telling the not to talk about it. That is when Jesus begins to talk about his mission and how it will be fulfilled: by going into Jerusalem, being handed over; beaten, suffer, die and then three days later, rise again.

Thing is, for Peter and the rest of the Twelve, they had their own visions of what was ahead and it did not include things like suffering, pain and death. They had what they thought was a reasonable understanding of the way forward. With Jesus in the lead there was a good prospect for victory and for Israel to become its own nation. They would break the wheel of violence, hatred and retribution and they would have their kingdom back and things would be good again. That was their vision of the kingdom. Jesus focused his sights, his thoughts on another way.

Jesus’ kingdom is built upon mercy and forgiveness on faith hope and love which allowed for him to break the cycles of hatred, violence, and war. Such a vision sets Jesus against the current system and its status quo. A system that worked to end his life and roll right over him. It is a situation that Peter and the others could not have imagined much less chosen to collide with and disrupt. The Twelve could not see that a cruciformed life that offers more that the status quo could be a better life. After all, who in the wider world doesn’t know the phrase, “Eat right, exercise daily and die anyway”? The way to life into that cruciformed life is to learn to give your life over to Christ first and then to others so that they can rise and live. Because it is not we who live but Christ in us.

What is needed in this moment, is a sanctified imagination. Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. And we need to focus more on what Christ wants and less on what we want. If we make time to spend with him we are going to find that we want is going to change is not circumstances but what we want because we are closer and closer to Jesus. We will come to want more and more has he does. Our wills shall align and we will seek to do for others as he does for us. Therefore, in this moment, “Our focus needs more focus.”

Can you imagine God raising Christ from the dead? Can you imagine your life in this moment without him? We trust and we act not because the end of the world is near but because Christ is amongst us already. Can you imagine life without Christ and without the hope he brings? Try asking for what he wants in your life, in your church, and then act on it in some small way. See what Jesus calls you to next.

 

Jason+

The Life of the Ordained Disciple: Gotta have faith!

 

In recent months, I have been watching Christian apologists (people who are schooled in the defending of what the Church believes) answer questions put to them and how they deal with all of the hot button issues of our time – from “How can we think that there is a God; to “Am I going to hell?”; to “Why can’t you affirm same sex relations?” I am not going to tackle those important issues here except to talk about God and what it means for us as humans to have faith in God.

So let me begin with the question asked in the Gospel, “Who do people say Jesus is?” There is a long list of thoughts: a good man, a good teacher/rabbi, healer and exorcist, wonder worker, prophet, and potentially the messiah. There are some who believe that he is John the Baptist come back to life or a prophet from long along like Elijah, who has come to usher in the new Davidic Age (the good ol’ days) by getting rid of Rome and becoming their own country again.

Other Gospels (Mark in particular) thinks of the journey of being a disciple is the answer to the question, “Who is Jesus?” Whereas in Matthew, we concentrate on the place where the question is asked: Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea is home to all of the known religions of the world in that day, including the Temple of Pan, all of the Greek stuff, all of the old religious stuff from the past and all of the new stuff too. Jesus is interest in asking the question is two fold: What do you believe and what are you committed to?

Faith is not something you can earn to put in the bank. Faith are not bonus you keep on a card to earn free stuff. Faith is about a relationship that you have with something or someone else. After all, who in their right mind questioned whether their vehicle would start and bring them to Church and will take you safely home after the service is done? How many times have you sat where you are now and did not check to see if the pew would hold you up? It is a relationship that you have come to trust. And you trust your car and you trust your seat because it has not failed you… right. Neither has Jesus! We come into this place to declare to the universe that we are in relationship with the living God and that Jesus Christ is Lord. And some good news? Faith is not about points or deposits it is about trusting in and participating in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus on a daily basis. When we are faithful through trusting Jesus and participating in him, we have the whole thing which means that he has the power and the grace not us. Jesus is the powerful One. In Jesus, we are made complete and we are competent to proclaim his Good News.

So how does this work out in life? How do we know that we have faith? Well, you are probably sitting down to read this message. Did you check the device you are sitting on before you sat down? A pew or a computer chair. Had you sat there before? Did you check it out then too? I am certain that where you are sitting now, you have done so before, perhaps many times before. You have learned to trust that device. Learning to trust Jesus Christ works in the same way. You may not even know how many times you have trusted him to come through for you – and unaware of answered and unanswered prayers and how that has affected your life. Maybe, it is time to recognize that you are a person of faith – a mighty man or woman of valour. Maybe it is time to take a step forward, a step out, a step up and do something that you believe God is calling you to no matter how big and how little you believe it to be. Then watch as God uses it for his kingdom and his glory. And then do it again and again.

Jason+

THE LIFE OF THE ORDAINED DISCIPLE: THE FEAST OF CRUMBS

 

Are you aware that from crumbs there can be a great feast? Are you aware that it is not what you put in your stomach that corrupts you and your life but rather what you hold in your heart and let out of you that makes you unrighteous? What you speak and ask for, affects your life and the lives of those around you, including what you have with God. In the Gospel this week (Matthew 15:10-28) we get a vision of were the men following Jesus are in their faith and following of the Lord Jesus.

In the first part of the story, the Twelve communicate to Jesus that those listening to his teaching, especially the Pharisees, were offended by what he said. Jesus was questioned by those who followed his as to whether or not this is a concern for him. In reply, Jesus told this friends that he was not because the blind will lead the blind into the ditch, and they will not get where they are going in spite of the best of intentions. They will not catch nor pass you on the way to the Kingdom. I perceive this as a reminder to the Church that you can claim to have faith and therefore trust in the Lord but unless you exercise that trust and step up to do that thing God is asking of you, your faith is dead. If you are doing lots of things at Church but are not taking the time to spend not only with the Lord but also with in the community of believers to which you belong, then your works, however noble, are empty.

Moreover, I have been taught that when one preaches, the preacher needs to make the congregation glad that the came to hear or angry at what they have heard. I have had people over the years tell me that preaching is boring, is irrelevant, is pointless. I suspect that the reason for this is that such folks have tuned out because, if there is clear teaching of the Scriptures and there is clear proclamation of Jesus Christ, that what they here is going to make them angry because it is not going to match with what they believe personally. So they choose to be deaf and blind so that they do not have to be responsible for what is going on. Difficulty is, in failing to hear there is no opportunity to go and do and therefore to obey God. This makes members of the Church, not disobedient but rather irrelevant. We miss out on all those things that God has prepared for us. We do the Lord’s will not because we want to be blessed to receive. We have been saved, blessed, and enabled to see and to serve. Failing to do so has consequences not only for you but for those who need to be rescued, healed, and made whole.

This brings us to the rest of the lesson for this week. There is a woman who understands who and what Jesus is and is determined to find mercy for her little girl. She has the faith that is needed to persist in asking Jesus to do for her, what her daughter needs. What does she need? The little girl needs to be released from evil. She works at things, calling out to Jesus for mercy and is met with silence. Finally, the Twelve ask Jesus to dismiss her because she is being disruptive to what they are doing and there is no rest for her and no avoiding her demand. She was willing to stand between the life of her daughter and her daughter’s destruction so that she might save her life. Is this not what the Church should be doing? Comforting the grieving, feeding and giving drink to those who hunger and are thristy, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and those in prison, and befriending the lost and the lonely where we find them?

In a real way, we are being shown what it means to trust in Jesus and it does not mean that we have to feed five thousand people. It doers not mean that we have to heal hundreds of people. Trusting does not even mean that you need to walk on water with Jesus. Seeking for jesus to have mercy on another is not just about that one life but about us all. It is especially for that one life and for the lives that this one life will touch over a lifetime. It is about the children that can come and jointhe nation and the nations welfare. It is not just about the present predicament but all that is to come. This woman persists because she can see by faith that there is enough for her daughter and for herself. This is the reverse of Jesus challenging his disciples to feed that multitude on the other side of the lake. The unnamed woman actively proclaims the same things that the Twelve did in the boat.

Jesus finally answers her, showing her faith to the Twelve. Jesus gives the woman the mercy and the relief she seeks. She returns to her home to find her daughter whole.

Where does that leave us? We don’t have to plead with Christ to make people whole, but we do need to ask and we do need sometimes to persist on praying, caring and sharing with people so that they can receive whatever  it is that God has for them. As the Scriptures remind us, Jesus said, “Go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” God desires to feed, heal and bless his people. Let us go, that we might join in that feast, crumbs, and all.

 

Jason+

The Life of the Ordained Disciple: People don't walk on water

                                             

Maybe it is not noticeable but there are people walking on the water in the Gospel (Matthew 14:22-33) this week. People do not walk on water, do they? People can, sail, boat, swim on water. There is kayaking, fishing swimming and treading water but what about walking on water? They can and do when they walk with Jesus. Often things are loss on us when we think about Jesus these days and we think about Peter walking on water, believe that for Jesus, walking on water is a perfectly normal thing to do. it is Peter doing the abnormal thing. Thing is, people don’t walk on water.

Maybe that is why the Twelve though Jesus was a ghost. Ghosts float and they do not have to obey the rules, like gravity. They float and pass through walls. They are other worldly and because of that, they produce fear in people. Jesus left his perch on the hill as he watch the disciple work at making it back to the other side of the Lake. Jesus had sent them away because there was a plan afoot to take him and make him king by force (revolution). Jesus had spent the time in prayer and dealing with his grief in the presence of his Father. He came onto that lake through the wind and the waves renewed, because he spent time with his Father.

Jesus walked out to the boat and to his disciples on the lake. What had Jesus been waiting for? What was Jesus praying for? What was he walking for? The boat was already many stadia away from land – well out into the Sea of Galilee. They were sailing against the wind and the water is rough. The conditions, not unlike the ones we sail in, are hard and dangerous. They are taking a risk in doing what Jesus has asked of them. Nonetheless, they are not alone. Jesus has been watching and praying. Jesus is coming to them through the storm. When the disciples saw him doing this they cried out in fear because they though that they were done for; that death was their fate.

It is interesting that they know it is Jesus as soon as he speaks. And Peter, being Peter wanted to attempt the same: to walk on water. Much can be made of why he wanted to but let’s consider that Jesus called him over the gunnels all the same. Peter did fine walking on the water until he took his eyes off of Jesus and started looking at and considering the storm and the fact that he was out in it. He cried out again for Jesus to save him, just like they did when Jesus was asleep on the pilot’s cushion and they were in a storm. Peter is rebuked for failing to live the faith that he has learned and the trust he had in Jesus at first.

One last thought? When Jesus and Peter came back to the boat, they were walking on the water together. They got into the boat together and together the disciples proclaim Jesus to be the Messiah and worshipped him right there in the boat. They went on to the other side where things continued as they had before. People were being healed. People were losing their demons. People were being made whole. And the power of the Father in Jesus made it so. People were being changed by know the healing and the love of God.

Maybe people need to walk on water.

Jason+

The life of the Ordained Disciple - The One legged cup of Tea

In living as an ordained disciple of Christ, there are lots of challenges. It is at its most challenging than when I sit the in kitchens, living rooms and other living spaces of those who follow with me. For example, I remember going to see a family who was coming for baptism. They had a little boy who was born into the family and they wanted to have him welcomed into the Church, so tht he could come and participate with the rest of the family. I remember that visit because the wife, sitting in a chair across the room from me, was visibly shaking because of my presence. It might have been because we were of different ethnicity and therefore cultures. There where differences in things like height, gender, and education. But we had two things in common – the desire to be followers of Jesus and the desire to welcome the little boy into the life of the community that was our congregation. The family through experiencing hospitality of the Church received a welcome and thus depended their faith and their commitment to the life into which Baptism drew them.

I can recall times when I have been welcomed into a home and the mid day meal has just been finished but my host haul every back out to make sure that my needs are looked after – including the rabbit that still had the head on. There would be tea, bread with jam, and cookies of all sorts. It was difficult to say no and not just because of the cooking and the baking. It was hard to say no because people were offering their hospitality to care for me and sharing their lives with me. A very deep relationship comes to be a part of the congregation as the pastor moves around and shares in this way with the people he is to care for. There is a deep and abiding mutuality in sharing your life with another, which to me is what a welcome and hospitality are all about. There needs to be more hospitality shown in the life of the Church, regardless of the doctrines and opinions that each person holds. After all, Jesus himself said, “whoever welcomes you, welcomes me. Whoever welcomes not just me but the One who sent me.”

Part and parcel of being an ordained disciple means that I work to create sacred space, a living altar if you will, where people can bring their hopes and fears, their troubles and thoughts and make them known to God. Pastoral visits can be such a thing that is long remembered by those who participate n it. Such an example is a lady, very dear to me, who was also my warden. I would often (unintentionally) be there at dinner time and a bottle of stew would be heated up for my mid day repass. The family still recalls those moments and the man of the house would blame my youngest son for getting crumbs under his own chair – even when I was there without my family. There would be lots of laughter and the occasional tear or struggle.

After learning that I was diabetic, I created this new thing that a old timer called “a one legged cup of tea”. I would ask for the mug, the tea bag, the hot water, and a spoon (the leg!). I did this to do as I suggested above, to create sacred space and time between a parishioner and myself so that I could accept their hospitality and be apart of their lives for a short time.

This sometimes makes me think that we need to make every Sunday morning a back to Church service – not just for the newcomer and for those who have been away for a while, but for those who have been here for weeks, months and years on end. We gather on Sunday around the Lord’s table for a meal and to celebrate all the good thing going on and to pray for all the things that need to be prayed for because what we pray matters. As St. Paul would point out, “We walk as yet by faith, not by sight” and thus we need to communicate with God about the things going on around about us because “We only know in part and only see in part.”

And maybe I need to point out that the Church – the missional community here on earth – is to the Divine mission, as burning is to fire. The Church is not on a mission. The Church does not have a mission, it belongs to God. The Church is mission. It exists for the express purpose of drawing into its fellowship those who do not already belong to it. We live our everyday lives in such away that the world will see and hear Christ and consider him and his kingdom. We do this, one legged cup of tea at a time.

Jason+

The life of the ordained disciple

Have you ever stopped to consider what it takes to be an ordained disciple of Christ? I ask that question of you as well as of myself, no matter what your order is.  There is a simple challenge that every ordained person has to live with every day: how will I live out the dying and rising of Jesus this day? Jesus in the Gospel (Matthew 10:24-39) calls those who would follow him to not find their life but lose it for his sake. Jesus calls for total commitment even if it means your life. There is nothing and no one more important to the disciple than the Master. And every servant is watched and there is nothing that goes unnoticed, not even when you give a cup of cold water to someone who needs it.

The life of the ordained disciple is one that is called (perhaps not unsurprisingly) to total commitment. That commitment means that there is always the potential of a cross and of death as well in the near future. The Gospels often note such a thing. After all, whatever fate befell the Master, the servant ends up waiting for it. Ministry calls for such servants to be vulnerable and left to cultivate a dependence upon God the Father on a daily basis. The disciple looks to the Father for provision and for protection. The disciple is given authority to heal the sick, exorcise evil, cleanse the leper, and raise the dead. We are called to recognize that we are to be peacemakers and not peacekeepers and that peacemaking can be a rather messy business.

Because of that, fear of the messiness if not fear of everything in general, is the biggest disabler of ministry and worship. It is a driving force in our economy. It is used by politicians to gain and hold power by making people of afraid of what could happen if they do not remain. Fear is often used to maintain the status quo. There is fear in the Church because of shrinking numbers in congregations. There is fear because there are shrinking budgets. There is less and less energy giving to seeking the least, the last and the lost and more and more concentration on self preservation and on maintaining life as it used to be.

Maybe every Sunday needs to a back to Church Sunday? It is for certain that the Christian faith lives only one generation at a time. So what are we going to do in the present to pass things along to the next generation of Christians? Let me give you an example of what I mean. When I was little, my father would sit on the edge of my bed at bedtime and teach me to pray this way: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep…” I would make my list of people I wanted God to bless mommy, daddy, sister, grandmas and grandpas, aunts, and uncles, and so on. I mention this because when I was older and away from home, jet lagged and all that I was late going to bed one night while visiting with my parents. As I pasted their room on my way to bed, I could hear my father beside the bed, pray the same prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep … God bless…”

It was for me as an ordained person, the beginning of the immersion of my life into the life of Christ. And while I have learned how to pray extemporaneously, What I remember most is the light and the deep sincerity of those moments of shared prayer and what it would have meant in the lives of those who were remembered.

Moreover, Christian discipleship and leadership are not about this like titles and positions, except that they announce who a person serves and who a person is meant to lead. So for example, I am a Rector and a parish priest. I serve the people of my parish. I am also a Dean and I serve and care for the clergy and people around me in the Diocese as an experienced priest and pastor, providing leadership in concert with my Bishop and fellow clergy through teaching, preaching, and proclaiming Christ. It is not about being good or saying and doing the right things to get into heaven. We proclaim good news and we do go deeds because the Light and the Truth are already in us, leading us to the life and the land that God is preparing for us. Remember that salvation is a gift to be received and not a prize to be sought and won.

Jason+