Monday 26 August 2013

A Thought For The Week Of August 26

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you." (Genesis 12:1) Horseheads, New York. I always wonder how towns get their names. I checked this one out. Apparently, Horseheads gets its name from the number of bleached horses' skulls found there. Why there are a lot of bleached horses' skulls there I have no idea, but that explains it! I'm in the midst of a 2 day drive. Currently in Scranton, Pennsylvania en route to Ocean City, Maryland for a few days of R&R at the beach. When you drive (especially off the main highways) you discover interesting paces like Horseheads, New York that raise questions in your head. I found myself wondering what it must have been like for Abram. He, of course, was nicely settled in his home - when God suddenly told him to leave. I'm discovering interesting things and places while on vacation, knowing that in a few days I'll be back in the comfort of my own home. This wasn't a vacation for Abram, and he had no idea where he was going, except that he knew he wasn't returning. He had adventures and excitement and more than a few questions ahead of him as he journeyed, and (even though Genesis doesn't say it) he must have had at least a few doubts as he set off into the unknown. I find the unknown fun - as long as I can depend on my trusty GPS to get me to the place I want to end up in. Abram had none of that. He had only trust in God to guide him and to bring him safely to ... well .. wherever it was God was sending him. That remains a pretty good analogy for faith in general. The journey God places us on isn't usually that dramatic, but it does result in a lot of discoveries and it can raise more than a few doubts and sometimes we just plain wonder what God is doing with our lives. But, eventually, we learn to trust - to let God guide us to wherever it is that God wants us to be, doing whatever it is that God wants us to do. That mystery is a part of what makes a life of faith so exciting, isn't it. And we make the journey only by faith and trust. So, in the words of a wonderful hymn written in 1989 by Sylvia Dunstan, "Bless now, O God, the journey that all your people make ..." Have a great week!

Monday 19 August 2013

A Thought For The Week Of August 19

"Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel." (1 Chronicles 21:1) In some reading I was doing this morning I discovered that the United Methodist Church in the United States has gone a little bit statistics crazy - not unlike baseball. Apparently it was started by Will Willimon, a former bishop and now professor. In the Conference in which he was bishop, congregations now make weekly reports about attendance, baptisms, offerings, etc., etc., so that different churches can be compared. Apparently, Willimon's argument is that it's a sign of the "vitality" of the churches. Having received my most recent degree from a United Methodist seminary, I'm going to claim the right to reflect on this. And so I wonder. I've always been intrigued by the fact that David's census of Israel was motivated by Satan and that God was angry - very angry - that he had done it. Why? Taking a census sounds reasonable enough. But consider David's motives. He probably wanted to know how many fighting men he had - so he was trying to determine Israel's strength by numbers. But real strength doesn't come from numbers; real strength comes from faithfulness to and trust in God. The story in 1 Chronicles is one of those stories we don't really like. It depicts an angry, vengeful, punishing God. But the real point of the story - as unpleasant as it is - is that we must always trust God rather than using worldly ways of measuring our success or failure. In times when the church is, indeed, suffering from declining attendance and increasing deficits, we would do well to remember that. Otherwise, we'll start trusting in other things, and we might well lose hope - which those of us who believe in a resurrected Saviour should never do, regardless of how insignificant we might seem from a worldly point of view Have a great week!

Monday 12 August 2013

A Thought For The Week Of August 12

"But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." (Luke 5:16) I'm going on vacation for the next three weeks. I'm looking forward to the break from the weekly routine. Everybody needs a refresher every now and then. I often take note of our "workaholic" world, where people often seem completely unable to let go of their "work" for even a moment. Technology plays a part in that. Lots of people take their cell phones on vacation, check their e-mails, etc., etc. I don't do the cell phone thing. I admit that I check my e-mails and sometimes get Facebook messages from church folks when I'm supposed to be on vacation. It's the way of the world, I suppose. But I think it is important every now and then to have some "sabbath" time: some time away from the business and hustle bustle and just relax, spend time with family and spend time with God. Summer's a great way to do that. And for those (at least those Christians) who seem to feel guilty about taking time for themselves - you have to try to remember that Jesus did it too. I don't know if he considered it a "vacation" but he set aside time for himself (and had he been married and had children I suspect he would have set aside time for them as well) and he set aside deliberate time for God - and he made sure that he wouldn't be interrupted while doing so. I'm not disappearing for three weeks, and I'm not withdrawing to a particularly "lonely place," but I am going to have a chance to re-charge my energy and to renew my spirit. I hope all of us have had the chance to do that this summer - or that you'll get a chance soon. If Jesus needed it, then surely we do too! Have a great week!

Sunday 11 August 2013

August 11 sermon - Your Questions And My Answers

Instead of a sermon this morning, I took questions from the congregation and tried my best to answer them, without the opportunity to be prepared. Here are the questions and answers, as best as I can remember and recreate them.

(1) We sang "All Things Bright And Beautiful," but did God also create the dark things and the things that aren't so beautiful?

Yes, God created everything. The Book of Colossians says that "The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him." So everything that exists has its origins in God. We are also told in the story of creation in Genesis that everything God created is good and that God gave us dominion over all that had been created. Therefore, things created by God become less than good and beautiful depending on how we choose to use them. So, for example, if the atom is indeed the "building block" of creation, we know that human beings have used the atom for both good and evil. This is related to the idea of human free will. God will give us all good things, and all things that God gives us are good. How we use them, however, may be good or bad. The hymn, of course, speaks of "all things bright and beautiful" because it's intended to be celebratory. Monty Python, of course, did a paradoy of the hymn called "All Things Dull And Ugly." Which actually serves to make the point - everything created is good, regardless of how we perceive them; everything has a purpose. But we can use them according to God's purposes or in defiance of God's purposes.

(2) What does it mean to say that Jesus went to hell?

There are some suggestions from Scripture that Jesus went to hell, especially Ephesians 4:8-10 and 1 Peter 3:18-20, but those scriptures aren't entirely clear as to what they're referring to, whether sheol or hell (they aren't the same thing.) The idea that Jesus went to hell comes more from The Apostles Creed, which says that "he descended into hell ..." I think the intent of the statement is that God, incarnate in Jesus, is in solidarity with the human condition, and God must experience those things which humans could experience - including the possibility of a descent into hell. Deciding what's actually meant by "hell," of course would take a long time, but it's essentially a spiritual state of separation from God.

(3) Why did Jesus drive an evil spirit into a herd of pigs, and why were the men herding pigs in the first place? 

The reference is to Matthew 8:28-33:

"When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 'What do you want with us, Son of God?' they shouted. 'Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?' Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons begged Jesus, 'If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.' He said to them, 'Go!' So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region."

The demons would have been driven into the herd of pigs probably because Jesus was Jewish, and pigs were considered unclean under Jewish law. What better place for demons? The men herding the pigs were likely not Jewish. Jesus in this passage is "in the region of the Gadarenes." So this is probably one of the few times in the Gospels where we see Jesus interacting with non-Jews. Not being under the Jewish law, they would have no objection to herding pigs. As to why pigs were unclean, most seem to believe that this arose from concerns about public health. Pork meat kept in less than ideal conditions (and the desert regions are hot) can be very dangerous to human health.

(4) Why don't we recite The Apostles Creed in church? 

Some churches do, and some don't. In the United Church today if we do recite a creed, it's more likely to be "A New Creed" - a Creed written by and for the United Church in the late 1960's. I tend not to use Creeds at all, simply because the United Church is, in theory, non-credal - which means that a person does not have to subscribe to a particular "creed" to belong to the United Church. There is no required doctrinal litmus test, in other words. Basically, the United Church believes that the New Testament is a sufficient basis on which to "hang one's faith," so to speak. Some United Churches do recite various Creeds. I generally don't have us do that, simply because to recite a Creed on a regular basis, when the members of the congregation aren't required to subscribe to the Creed, gives the impression that the Creed is supposed to represent what each individual must believe as a member of the church. I do believe Creeds can be helpfully used by people in personal devotions, though.

The non-credal status of the United Church was one of the main sticking points between the new United Church and the Presbyterian Church at the time of church union in 1925. The United Church decided to be non-credal, but the Presbyterian Church had been a credal church (the Westminster Confession) - and one third of the Presbyterian Church decided in 1925 that it couldn't join a non-credal church.

(5) What does it mean to say that Jesus' body ascended into heaven?

Similar to the question about Jesus descending into hell, the term is relating a mysterious spiritual experience. The reference to the ascension is in Acts 1: "After he had said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight." It's also a credal statement: "he ascended into heaven." It isn't entirely clear to me that the Acts 1 reference refers to Jesus' resurrected physical body. I wonder whether it even could have referred to that, since heaven is a spiritual "place" (for lack of a better word) and whether a physical body could exist there is doubtful to me. I do believe that the earliest disciples had an experience of Jesus being taken into heaven. What happened to Jesus resurrected flesh I don't know - and, as with many things about our faith, that will likely remain a mystery. But I see nothing in either scripture or the creeds that requires belief in the ascension of Jesus' actual resurrected flesh and blood, although I believe that when Christ returns, he will be in a physical form, and I believe that we also have some aspect of "fleshliness" to our eternal life. With the Apostles Creed, in other words, "I believe in the resurrection of the body."

Monday 5 August 2013

A Thought For The Week Of August 5

"Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord." (Ephesians 5:19b) Earlier today, I was involved in an exchange with a friend in which I suggested that one of the main problems we face in our society is that people are far too negative. It seems that we're always willing to criticize; we're all too often to jump when we experience something we don't like - but we don't balance it enough by affirming the things that work, the things that bring us joy; the things that fill us with a sense of peace and happiness. Maybe that's just human nature. And I suppose that it's because our gut reaction is to simply sit back and quietly appreciate the things we like, but to jump and lash out at the things we don't like. It's a shame, because it does make for a lot of negativity in the world. As I was thinking about that, I found those words from Ephesians 5. In those words, we find that joy and happiness are things that need to well up from deep inside us. Those of us who are Christians have a lot to be joyful about - especially the love that God gives us and the freedom we have to enjoy our life of freedom. Unfortunately, even we Christians fall down a lot on that point and we let our gut reaction to the things we dislike rule us. I see far too many Christians who are so consumed with criticizing other Christians (and never mind those who aren't Christians at all) for not being "true" Christians that there really doesn't seem to be much music coming from their hearts. Negativity may come from the gut, but we need to let our hearts rule, and as children of God our hearts need to be filled with joyful song so that our first thought is to celebrate that which is good, rather than simply to criticize that which displeases us. Have a great week!

Sunday 4 August 2013

August 4 sermon - The Poverty Of Riches

One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. People curse the one who hoards grain, but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell. Whoever seeks good finds favor, but evil comes to one who searches for it. Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf. (Proverbs 11:24-28)

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     When I began my series of sermons on forgiveness last month, I started with a reference to The Lord's Prayer, and today I want to do the same, focusing on a different set of words: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Those are a very interesting few words; seven words that may help explain the old saying “be careful when you pray because you just might get what you pray for!

     The words probably had a different meaning for the original followers of Jesus 2000 years ago when compared to how we at Central United Church in the 21st century would understand them if we read them accurately and if we then really went out and sought to actually apply them to our lives – which most of us probably don't (and which I really haven't thought of myself until recently.) In Jesus' day, many of His followers were poor. Jesus had a great attraction for the poor. He treated them with dignity and with love. He treated them as people – when most of society would have treated the poor little better than stray dogs, throwing them a few scraps perhaps every now and then. In that context, when Jesus taught His disciples (most of whom were poor) to pray “give us this day our daily bread,” the words are a plea – they're a request to God to make sure that the person praying has enough to see them through the day. Today, we often think of the words in a similar way. In fact, I've spoken about them in a similar vein to that. The idea being that the prayer teaches us not to be concerned about the day after tomorrow, but just to ask God to make sure we have enough for today. In other words, let's not be selfish in what we ask for.

     That's a great principle – and it sounds really good, and it sounds very Christian, doesn't it. And yet, as I was doing some devotional reading and taking some time in prayer recently, working with the Lord's Prayer as a guide, I suddenly realized – that's not what it says at all. I don't know why that came to me as a blinding realization. The words are actually pretty clear when I read them and apply them to myself now, but somehow the Holy Spirit had to remove some blinders from my eyes to let me really grasp what this prayer actually says to most 21st century Christians in most of the Western world.

     “Give us this day our daily bread.” If we take those words literally – absolutely literally – we're not simply not pleading with God, we're not simply being unselfish by not asking God for too much. We're actually asking God to take things away from us. Read them again - “Give us this day our daily bread.” The fact is that for virtually everyone here today that's really a silly and meaningless prayer, at least in the way we usually interpret it. Honestly – how many of us have any worries about our daily bread – or tomorrow's bread, or next week's bread for that matter. I'm not saying that we're filthy rich, but daily bread generally isn't our concern. At our house, the usual debate isn't about whether we're going to be able to eat tonight – it's about what we're going to eat tonight. If we worry at all it's because we don't feel we have enough variety. “Well, we could have chicken. Or sausage. Or pasta. Or hamburgers. Or we could go get a pizza. Or we could order Chinese. But it's always the same old thing.” When your concern is over only having 5 or 6 menu items to choose from, pleading for “daily bread” is downright silly – and perhaps even insulting to those who really don't know where their next meal is coming from. So if the prayer is to mean anything – if it's to have any challenge for us – then let's understand, we're asking God to take away some of what we have. Because to have too much – even too much of a good thing – is, in a way, a form of poverty. It's a “poverty of riches.”

     I love the Book of Proverbs. It's a marvellous treasure of wisdom and practical advice that in most respects is as relevant today as it was when it was first put together, and we really don't make use of it often enough. Most of Proverbs isn't written in such a way that you can refer to very many “passages” in the same way that we might speak of Jesus' parables, of the various teachings in Paul's letters. They're rapid-fire one after the other gems of wisdom. Often they're not even related from one proverb to the next. But all the verses that we read today have a similar message: worldly riches are no sign of blessing and worldly riches are no guarantee of happiness. They can in fact be quite empty. It depends on how you use what you've been blessed with.

     These verses from Proverbs aren't a comparison of the rich and the poor. It's assumed that all the people being spoken of throughout the passage are not necessarily rich, but that they do have enough. In fact, they have enough to share with others. So the issue isn't rich vs. poor. The issue is generous vs. selfish. Too often, having a lot pushes us (sometimes even without us realizing it) onto the selfish side of the equation, because we become consumed not just with what we have and not just with being successful but with gaining more and more – and we sacrifice our souls to do it; we sacrifice our relationships with those around us to do it; we sacrifice our relationship with God to do it. We start to justify our actions, even when those actions are unjust toward others.

     Douglas Oberhelman is CEO of Caterpillar. He recently received a 32% wage increase to bring his salary in 2012 to $22.4 million. The raise was a reward for maximizing Caterpillar's profits. How did he do that? In part at least, by imposing a wage freeze on Caterpillar's workers and shifting a lot of jobs to lower paying countries. Things like that aren't uncommon in our economy and society. The push for profits makes real human beings a liability rather than a benefit; things to be cut and cast off in the name of making ever and always more – and more – and more. People don't count; only money counts. Anybody remember John Deere? Now – not that my politics matters – but I'm not a socialist. I understand the benefits of a free market economy and I support a free market economy. But how does that story about Caterpillar fit into the Proverbs passage? What does it say about our world and how it's organized? Do we see any gospel values being lived out there? Is there any sign of God in that? I'm just asking the questions.

     Back to “Give us this day our daily bread.” Do we understand what we're asking for? Are we prepared for the answer? Do we realize that having so much actually has the potential to reduce us to spiritual poverty by making us grasping rather than grateful, or selfish rather than giving? Remember the proverb: “Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.” If you “trust in your riches,” you cling to them – because what else do you have? “The righteous,” on the other hand, “thrive” because they understand that their riches aren't what counts. It's what they do with them, it's who they bless with them, it's the presence of God in their lives – those are the things that count. How many of us are actually willing to take those words of the Lord's Prayer seriously when we apply them to ourselves and to our own circumstances? Let's face it - I don't want to be “poor.” I don't want to have uncertainty about my “daily bread.” I don't want uncertainty about next week's or next year's. I don't want to have to pray about those things. No one does. I'm not sure we really mean it when we say it. But at least it does challenge us to reflect on what's really important in life. And, fortunately, there was someone who was willing to give up everything. That's Jesus – Who we remember and Whose example we honour today in Holy Communion.