A Thought For The Week Of April 30

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." The third Beatitude - and a very interestng one. Meekness is not something valued in our society. We tend to equate meekness with weakness. It's the strong who get ahead; those with brute strength who are willing to use brute force who succeed. And now Jesus turns our thinking upside down, as He often does. What's so great about "meekness?" That's what I find myself asking. But maybe that's it - maybe it has to do with the idea of turning our thinking upside down. Those who are meek know they have to rely on God. They can't do it alone. Those who depend on their strength and their abiliity to force others to give them their way aren't depending on God at all. They think they can do it all for themselves. They may gain "power" of some sort, but in the process they may also lose their souls. The truth is - I can't do it all for myself. Neither can you. Sometimes all of us simply have to embrace "meekness" and realize that, in fact, there's great strength to be found in being meek - not the strength of brute force, but the strength of the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to do the impossible. Have a great week!

April 29 2012 sermon - An Abundance Of Abundance

Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers , but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:7-10)

     I have to challenge an increasingly prevailing viewpoint right from the start: sometimes newer is not better! I remember many years ago watching an episode of the old TV series “All In The Family” in which Mike and Gloria are unpacking a bag of groceries. As they do so, Mike pulls a can out of the bag and looks at it and then he looks at Gloria and says, “Look at this can. It say 'new and improved.' Everything you buy these days says 'new and improved.' What were we using before? 'Old and lousy?'” You sometimes get that feeling don't you? If you don't have the newest, most up to date of every single thing then you're behind the times. You may even be running the risk of becoming “old and lousy!” Apple started taking pre-orders for their first I-Pad on March 12, 2010. On March 7of this year (a little less than two years after Apple started taking pre-orders for the I-Pad 1, the I-Pad 3 went on sale. And people started scrapping their I-Pad 2's because now they were old and outdated. It's a little bit crazy. Just because something's newer doesn't mean it's always better. In today's Scripture reading, Jesus says “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Those are nice words, but they don't quite capture what Jesus was saying. Newer isn't better in this case. I want you to hear the version of those words that comes from the King James Bible: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” I want to draw your attention to the word “abundantly.” It's pretty important.

     I don't want to bore you with a lot of New Testament Greek, but this really is important if we're going to understand the passage the way John wrote it. The Greek word he used is perisson. I checked the word out, and to make a long story short basically it means “beyond.” It means to go above and beyond something. It means something that is “excessive.” Although I usually shy away from the King James Bible because of its dated English, in this particular case older is better, and “abundantly” is right! John in this passage isn't talking about something that's merely full, he's talking about something that's full to overflowing and yet is still being filled. That's how John is choosing to describe the life we gain from Christ, and here's where the King James Bible gets it right. Having life “more abundantly” means something a bit different than simply having life “to the full.” John is saying not just that God meets our needs but that God goes beyond our needs. It means that God gives and gives and gives to excess – of the things we really need to live life as God wants us to live life. That's why I've entitled my comments today “An Abundance Of Abundance” - because God doesn't just give, and God doesn't even just give abundantly. God gives us an abundance of the things He gives – and God gives that abundance abundantly!

     But what is it that we gain abundantly from God? Maybe we have to eliminate some of the alternatives first. Usually, we make our own decisions about what we need, and then we devote ourselves to the pursuit of whatever it is that we've decided upon. When we do that, in a way we're playing God with our own lives; we've made ourselves our own god. We've decided that we know better, and the end result is that we enslave ourselves to the pursuit of these other things. I want to share another Gospel passage with you. This comes from Matthew's Gospel: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So Jesus challenges His followers to decide what it is that's important to them. So many people make the wrong decision. There are so many things that people believe will make their life worth living or at least barely live-able if they can only have those things in abundance. But neither “worth living” nor “barely live-able” are abundant living. What earthly things do we “store up” - or at least depend on, in the wrong-headed belief that these are the things we need? If the name of the demon who inhabited the man who lived among the tombs in Mark's Gospel was “legion,” then there may be a demonic element to this, because there are a legion of things we depend on that aren't God!

     Let me say that I don't throw around words like “demon” and “demonic” lightly – nor do I intend them as a joke. I'm quite serious. I have an open mind to what the New Testament means when it refers to demons – whether they're actual supernatural entities with an independent existence or whether it's a way of referring to those often everday things which by their very nature get in the way of our relationship with God. What I can't deny is that the New Testament refers to them – over and over and over again, and in a number of ways; not always with the word “demons.” When Paul speaks in Ephesians of the “principalities and powers” he's referring to the same things. And, in today's passage from John (echoed in that passage from Matthew that I shared with you), the “thief” Jesus referred to is, I believe, the same sort of thing. We may not know exactly what a demon is, but we know from all these references what a demon does. A demon steals from you. If something takes away your freedom rather than enhancing it, it's demonic. If something ties you to the service of a “cause” (however noble the cause may be) so that your identity revolves around the cause, rather than freeing you to be a disciple of Jesus and a child of God, it's demonic. If something restricts your life rather than allowing you to live it, it's demonic. And so many things do that - so many everyday things.

     How many things are there that can control us and enslave us? Countless – or, dare I say it – legion! How many people depend on money to the point of serving it? Greed is a demon. What about health? By all means eat right and exercise properly, but some people become so fearful about their health that they lose their enjoyment of life because they're so afraid of losing their life or their quality of life. Hypochondria is a demon. Some people depend on food. For some, food becomes the only thing that calms them – we all know the phrase “comfort food.” And for others, food becomes a deadly enemy, and they do everything possible to lose more and more weight by avoiding it. At either extreme, both gluttony and anorexia are demons. Some people are totally dependent on drugs or alcohol to find their way through life and to ease some sort of pain from their past or their present. Addiction is a demon. Some people are obsessed with the pursuit of power and they'll go to almost any ends to achieve it, regardless of what those ends might be. Corruption is a demon. Some are dependent on numbers. We put our faith in numbers. We need numbers. We measure success by numbers. The church is especially guilty of that – almost obsessive about how many members we have, how many attend services. The “number” becomes a demon. They all become demons because they all draw us away from God; they all disfigure and defile our lives rather than enhancing them. They're all things that may make life more live-able, but they don't give us life to abundance. The only way to satisfy ourselves with them is to be enslaved to them - or at least to their pursuit, so that our entire life revolves around them. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” By enslaving us to the pursuit of things that will never truly satisfy and that can never be a guarantee of anything, that's exactly what happens. But the good news is that there is a choice. We don't have to surrender to these demonic forces that are all around us, whatever they may be for each of us individually. We don't have to, because we can choose Jesus, and Jesus gives life and freedom.

     “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. ” Or, as the King James Bible puts it: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Jesus offers us an abundance – and an abundance of that abundance. And what does He offers us an abundance of abundance of? Himself! He's the One Who frees us, Who liberates us, Who enhances our lives, Who gives us and dignity and respect. Anything that takes away from those things is the work of “the thief,” and if we find that our lives lack those fundamental qualities – then we're victims of “the thief” and if we seek to take away those things from others, then we're in league with “the thief.” But no more! It doesn't have to be that way! We live as children of God. God has given us Jesus. He fills us with His life and He releases us from the power of “the thief,” who only takes away from us and leaves us unimaginably and desperately needy. Jesus on the other hand fills us to overflowing with goodness and mercy and love and compassion and joy and peace and hope. Jesus grants us an abundance of dignity and respect – and He does it abundantly. This is life as God wants it lived – with an abundance of abundance of all the things that really matter and that set us free from all that steals and kills and destroys.

Today I Will Be Adam - A Poem

Call me crazy, but today I was inspired to write a poem. I've never written poetry. I rarely read poetry. But, for what it's worth, here it is:

TODAY I WILL BE ADAM

Today, I will be Adam -
At the beginning, alive but never having lived,
Open to all possibilities, amazed by all things.
For nothing has ever existed to me.
I see the sky: blues and whites and greys.
Clouds floating, birds soaring.
I see the ground: greens and browns and yellows.
Grass growing, ants crawling.
I see it all in wondrous tones of being.
I hear the sounds around me;
I feel - everything: wind, sun, hot, cold, pleasure, pain.
I feel in my heart: love, joy, hurt, pain, fear - perhaps even hate.
And all (again) for the first time.
All new, all exciting, all disturbing.
Today I experience my God again -
The One Who brought me forth:
Who walks with me; Who talks with me; Who never lets me go,
Though I may sometimes wander.
Today I am part of everything.
And everything is a part of me.
It is for me, and I am for it.
God is for me, and I am for God.
Today, I will be Adam -
And not just today,
But every day.

The Worst Thing

In some reading I'm doing for my DMin residency this summer I came across this quote from David F. Ford that seemed relevant to a lot of people - myself included. "It is not true that the worst thing that can happen to us is being wronged, wounded, or even killed: The worst thing is to do wrong." Sometimes we let the wrongs that have been done to us be an excuse for us to wrong others either in thought or in deed. We aren't responsible for what others do to us. But we are responsible for what we do to others.The Holy Spirit can heal us from what others do to us, but what we do to others can cut us off from the Holy Spirit.

A Thought For The Week Of April 23

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." (Matthew 5:4) The second Beatitude. That may be the one verse of Scripture I use more often than any other in my ministry. It's a regular at funerals - usually part of the interment or committal service. And why not? It's a reminder to those who are mourning the loss of a loved one that God is with them and that they will make it through. But I think it's talking about more than just the death of a loved one. I think it's talking about grief, despair, hopelessness - the greatest pain you can imagine; the greatest loss you can suffer. Whatever that might be. In the midst of it all (in the midst of any trouble or sickness or trial - or anything else) you have the assurance that you never face it alone. God is there. God will lift you up. God will comfort you. Those who face no trials or troubles can easily forget about God. But when they come up, God is there. Maybe it's our times of mourning that remind us of God's presence and love. If you're facing some terrible hardship this week - God's there. Whatever the next few days hold in store for any of us, God will walk with us all the way. Have a great week!

April 22 2012 sermon - Christ Is Risen So We Are Rising

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens – and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground – the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:4-7)

     Since – as the children know - this is, indeed, Earth Day, this passage – which speaks of the creation of the earth and all things on it, including us – seems appropriate. This passage is about life – it's about God creating life, sustaining life, nurturing life. The passage is a reminder to us that life itself comes from God, and therefore it's a reminder to us that we're supposed to celebrate life in all its diversity – with both its promise and its challenge – and that we're supposed to live life in such a way that we also celebrate the God who's given life to us. We're also meeting here today two weeks after Easter Sunday and now in the midst of the Easter season – which is perhaps the greatest celebration of life there is. Easter is not just a celebration of life, and it's not even just the celebration of Jesus' resurrection (although it's certainly that.) Easter is a celebration of victory. Easter celebrates hope's victory over despair and life's triumph over death. Easter is the promise of eternity given to all of us because Jesus' resurrection was for all of us. Jesus' resurrection demonstrates to us that God chooses life. Long ago, the Book of Deuteronomy tells us that a choice was placed before the people of Israel by Joshua: “... I have set before you life and death ... Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord Your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life ...” The good news that we celebrate today as followers of Jesus is that this choice is no longer before us. Why is that good news? Because the choice has been made for us – by God! In the resurrection of Jesus, God chooses life for His people. That's what resurrection is about. “Because I live, you also will live,” Jesus said. There's no choice there. We don't have to wonder. We don't have to be unsure. Assurance doesn't have to be an elusive thing. “Because I live, you also will live.” Sounds pretty definite to me! And it's supposed to sound pretty definite to us all! The choice has been made. It's been made by God. There's no doubt about it. Life wins! Every single time. It never goes to overtime and there are no seven game series in this. Life simply wins – because God chose life for us by raising Jesus from the dead! That's why proclaiming that “Christ is risen” is so important – because if Christ is risen, then so will we be raised – not just to eternal life (although I believe that's also assured to us) but to a new quality of life and a new way of life right now. Rising to that new life is both our challenge – because we're the ones who have to live it, after all – but it's also our destiny – because it is, in some way, God's will for us. It's always been God's will for us. That's why, in this morning's reading, I took us all the way back to the Bible's beginning, where we learn that it's always been God's will to raise us to life.

     a-dam . That's the Hebrew word. It can mean a lot of things. In English we think of it as a name – Adam – which has caused us perhaps to misinterpret what the passage has been trying to tell us for thousands of years. In Hebrew, it's not commonly used as a name. I did a bit of research and discovered that it's really not in use in Israel, for example, as a name – because in Hebrew it's a word. It means broadly “mankind” or “humanity.” If we think of the word in that way, we start to see that the story we read isn't about the creation of a specific person; it's about the creation of all humanity – it reveals truths about humanity (about our nature, our origins and even our destiny.) It also tells us about ourselves and about how to live this life God has given us.

     a-dam comes from the earth. We – humanity – are essentially of the same stuff as the earth. That's  basic science these days, and it's revealed here to be true as well. The word a-dam comes from another Hebrew word “a-dam-ah” which means “earth.” We are of the earth. We have a kinship of sorts with the planet and with all the creatures on the planet. We're all of God. When the United Church's New Creed tells us to “live with respect in creation,” that's presumably a part of what's meant – if we can't live with respect in creation, we can't really live with respect with one another because we are all of the same stuff. And if we can't live with respect with one another, then there's no real relationship, and that's what God seeks to create – relationship. We were created to be in relationship – with God and with one another. That's our destiny. Relationship with God. That's our present reality – the relationship with God guaranteed us by the resurrection of Jesus, which promises that Jesus wasn't only “God with us” at the manger in Matthew 2, but that He remains “God with us” long after the empty tomb – because He's still with us. God desires relationship with us. If life is about living with respect and right relationship how do we do it? How do we achieve it? The creation story is rich with advice.

     Of course, literally Adam is brought out of the earth (formed out of the earth; one with creation) but it seems at first that nothing happens. The story in that sense is pretty bare bones. It seems as if Adam's body is formed but it lies lifeless in the dust; little more than a corpse – until something happens. God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” point here is that our life comes from God. There is no life until God's breath enters us. This isn't God's Spirit, although it's a similar concept. The word for God's Spirit in the Old Testament carries the idea of an uncontrollable wind. This word means a controlled breath. The point is that God's work in creating Adam and all humanity is deliberate and planned and purposeful. There is a point to our existence, and right from the start that point revolves around relationship with God. Think about the imagery. How do you breathe life into someone else? “Mouth to mouth!” What an intimate portrayal of the connection between God and humanity! And the end result is not just that Adam and humanity is formed out of the earth – we're lifted from the earth and granted special status as those with authority over the earth – a word that means we have responsibility and accountability for how we live out our relationship with the rest of creation, because we really are of one stuff with the animals, the plants and the earth and with one another. No true spirituality can promote mere exploitation of anything. Real spirituality acknowledges the connections and ensures that we care for each other and for the earth from which we came. The earth is for us. It feeds us and nourishes us and provides us with a home. But we are also for the earth. We have to take care of it, because God has entrusted it to us. But there are so many things that can get in the way of the relationships we enjoy with God and with all that's around us. 

     Remember that Adam had to be lifted out of the earth; in a way placed above it by the very breath of God. We're still in the process of being lifted; of rising with Christ from death into life. One of our problems is that we get stuck in so much muck and mire in our every day lives that we often miss out on every day life! We become so consumed by the details of what's happening at any given moment that we miss the big picture. Sometimes – too often in my own life, I admit - we even let those details get in the way of God. Think about this. a-dam had to be lifted out of the earth - and not just formed from the earth - by the very breath of God in order to become a living being. If we want to extend this concept to our own time and circumstance, does the Spirit of God in a way not have to lift us out of the earth and set us apart (not above) for a very special purpose? Is it in this purpose that we find meaning in life. What is the purpose of life – in simple terms? "The chief end of man is to glorify God" says the Westminster Catechism. We are called to enjoy a relationship with God; we were created for that very purpose. We cannot enjoy that relationship as long as we are stuck in the mud and mire around us, as a-dam was before the breath of life came from God. In the same way, God gives us life; God lifts us above the everyday problems and trials and challenges (not freeing us from them, but lifting us above them) to be able to see God in the midst of it all and to be able to proclaim God to all who need to be freed from that which enchains and imprisons them - everything from actual human oppression to the simple but powerful demands of the time clock which often keep us too busy to really enjoy our relationship with God, instead demanding that we be constantly moving on to something else, some higher purpose, some more meaningful activity than fellowship with God and God's people. This breath of life that God breathes into us frees us to focus on our real purpose - to be in relationship with God, and when we do that we find ourselves also in relationship of one sort or another with all that God has created, seeking to liberate it as well - fellow humans, animals, plants, the land itself - to glorify God rather than to simply serve us.

     That's called life. That's life as God intended it to be – at peace, at liberty. It's we who choose to be enchained and imprisoned and reduced to mere existence by what goes on around us. The Spirit of God wants to enter into us, just as the breath of God entered into a-dam. The Spirit of God wants to free us from mere existence and raise us to actual life. God brought a-dam forth from the earth into life, where he found himself with God. God raised Jesus from the tomb into life where He found Himself with God. God raises us from whatever holds us in bondage and oppression and into life where we find ourselves with God. That's life. That's life as God intended it to be. Freed from mere existence to enjoy life with God. It's one of the lessons of creation – we are one with all that exists and called to relationship with all that exists. It's one of the lessons of Easter – that Christ is risen, and as a result, we are rising!

Who Represents Christianity?

"... there are legions of folks out there yearning for a spiritual community and thinking they know enough about being a Christian not to want to be one. And who can blame them when everything they know about what Jesus taught is what Jerry Falwell said or Pat Robertson preached." (Rev. Susan Russell, Episcopal priest, Pasadena, California)


Susan Russell and I would have some differences of opinion. Her focus is too much on the inclusion of the LGBT community in the church. It's not that I have anything against that principle, but it should simply happen because we proclaim Jesus and live according to his teachings. When we make it a cause, it seems to me that we actually undermine what Jesus would have wanted by making that cause, rather than God and neighbour, our central focus.


But in general terms, I love those words. It raises the question: who represents Christianity? The secular world does seem convinced - it's the Falwells and Robertsons  and those in sympthy with them, because they get the publicity of the media, I assume because the media knows that these folks are controversial and will generate interest. Setting aside - not out of disinterest, just to look at it from another angle - the LGBT issue, isn't it more provocative to talk about someone who thinks Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake because they made a deal with the devil 200 years ago than to hear the voices of the many well meaning people of faith who actually want to get down in the dirt and help Haitians rebuild. Those folks are more representative of the Christianity I know than are those who think the Haitians are guilty of dealing with the devil.


So - who speaks for Christianity? To me, as someone who knows the Gospels fairly well, I'd say it's simple. Those who represent Christianity are those who love God and their neighbours as themselves. If someone's words or actions are inconsistent with those two things, I don't see how they can represent Christianity to the world. And, frankly, if all I knew of Christianity was the Falwell or Robertson kind, I'm not sure I'd want to be a Christian either.