Earth and Sky Third Sunday of Easter Earth Day sermon

Have you ever read “The Tipping Point”, by Malcolm Gladwell? In this book, Gladwell looks at how little things can make a big difference, how small details turn a local fad into a national trend, or a single illness into an epidemic. Gladwell identifies the “tipping points” that create big changes, events that weight a trend or belief and create a large shift: what works in marketing, like how college officials got kids to get tetanus shots, and why children’s television programs work. One of the “Tipping Points” Gladwell describes in the book is the “sticky message.”
Sticky messages are memorable; sticky messages are useful and practical. They fit into our lives and make good sense. A “sticky message” stays with people, and compels them to respond and to act.

Gladwell looked at children’s television programs. Why, he wondered, do kids love Sesame Street and Blues Clues? Turns out that the people who created Sesame Street and Blues Clues
figured out how to make the message “sticky” with one simple idea: If you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them. The message on these programs is simple . It doesn’t have to be clever, but it does have to be literal and clear, and in the form of a story. Kids love to hear a story over and over again. They like stories to be repetitive, because the story is a new experience each time they hear it. “Sticky messages” show us that there is a simple way to package a message. So we have “stickies”.

Listen to words from John: “See what love God has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”

In Romans 8, Paul says: "We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now--- creation awaits with eager longing the revealing of the children of God.”

"The whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now..creation awaits the revealing of the children of God." From its earliest days, the human race has sought to control the natural world, to bend it to whatever purpose we determine should be used for our benefit. Rather than being seen as a gift from God, in the last couple of centuries particularly, it has become nothing more than a commodity, something to be used as a means of profit. Every year thousands of species of God's creatures - all part of creation - have become extinct at the hands of the human race.

“As international corporations have moved into poor nations, the natural resources have been taken and the environment has often been poisoned in the process. The result is not just damage to the earth and the creatures of the earth, but to human beings as well. I believe that by the latest count of the United Nations, 12 million children under the age of six die every year over the world. Many are killed in conflicts - Afghanistan and the Middle East-- but most of them die from starvation, polluted water or other environmentally caused conditions and diseases. While this is happening, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In 2009, the gap between the richest people in the world and the poorest has never been greater - and that gap is expanding.”

You cannot have healthy people on a sick earth-- and not only nature but the human race is groaning like a woman in labour. When I first went to Japan in 1970 - the city of Tokyo was approximately 16.5 million people. The bay was so full of sludge that there were bets as to what would happen if a plane taking off Haneda, which was the airport then - landed in the bay. It was ugly - there were lines of demarkation in the water as the sediment and pollution got thicker and thicker. Most days you could not see a block down the street - and I was introduced to allergies and smog. As of 2005, the population of the whole urban agglomeration which makes up greater Tokyo and environs is approximately 26.8 million. The population of all of Canada in the same year was approximately 32.6 million. Today, the bay in Tokyo is relatively clean, and so is the air. Smog days are rare; fishing in the rivers is again possible. Pollution in this huge city, has been cut dramatically. Garbage is incinerated, with zero emissions.

Let’s contrast this with Greater Toronto - a small city, just over 5 million. In 2004 we had 14 smog days. In 2005 we had 48. Of that, 50% is trans-border and trans-boundary pollution; but a huge 36% is caused by residential and commercial. April 19th, 2008 was the first warm day of the year, and interestingly enough was the first smog alert day in 2008. Now, of course, I am stringing a lot of things together - but for me it shows a trend.....and not a good one by the way. We don't want incinerators around, citing possible pollution, yet we send our garbage elsewhere to be dumped. And we think that's better?

I can never read the passage from Romans without thinking of the late Isaac Asimov. Asimov was a prolific writer, and a man who understood ecological responsibility long before the reset of us started to turn “green”. Asimov wrote a science fiction story about the planet as an organism in itself, and humans as a disease making the planet sick. Like all organisms, the planet’s immune system kicked in and it began to eliminate the diseased cells, in order to restore itself to health again. It isn’t that far out - as we make a mess of everything, in our own immediate interests - the reactions are coming more often. Asimov also wrote a non-fiction book called “Our Angry Earth”, in which he predicts that we have already gone too far, and now cannot reverse the damage.

What have we seen? Stronger and more frequent hurricanes, all over the world. Heavier snows in more unstable weather. More tornados and wild storms in the southern US. Tornado alley now in Ontario. Sea levels rising as the polar ice caps melt. And while there is some speculation that the sun has warmed a teeny bit, the data supports the conclusion that the bulk of carbon emissions causing this global warming are created by humans and our activities.

Indeed, the whole creation is groaning in labour pains. But what is to be born? A new generation of environmentalists? No. The Epistle to the Romans tells us that the creation awaits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God. Who is that? It's us, folks! The children of God are those who have been born of the spirit, and who honour God as parent and creation as the gift it was meant to be. The whole of creation awaits those who live not by the law of violence and greed, but by the law of love.

In the resurrection, new life as demonstrated in Jesus, God has also shown us that as children of creation, we have a role to play which is witness to the great love of God in creation. Jesus came as a witness to that love, and that creation. As Easter people we are called to no less.
We have a hymn in More Voices - Called by Earth and Sky.....

Called by earth and sky, promise of hope held high,
this is our sacred living trust, treasure of life sanctified.
Called by earth and sky.

Precious this gift, the air we breathe, wind born and free.
Breath of the Spirit, blow through this place, our gathering and our grace.
Called by earth and sky.

Precious these mountains, ancient sands; vast, fragile land.
Seeds of our wakening, rooted and strong, Creation’s faithful song.
Called by earth and sky.


Sources:

1. Sermon for Earth Day, by Rev. Franklin E. Vilas, Dmin. Preached on April 21, 2002 at St. Paul’s Church, Paterson, NJ.

2. Excerpts from “A Sticky Gospel”, by Rev. Christian Berry, First Presbyterian Church, Sterling Illinois.

Holy Humour Sunday April 19, 2009

Last Sunday we didn't have a sermon, but rather jokes and fooling in our service. Here is the bulletin from that celebration. Our general "theme" was cruising and ships.


Feast of Fools Day!!!!!
Holy Hilarity Sunday!!!!!!
Bright Sunday!!!!!!

“Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself ‘Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah who is ninety years old, bear a child?’” Genesis 17:17

“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.” Ecclesiastes 3:4

Boarding the Ship

Call to Worship
Alleluia! Jesus is risen!!
The joke is on the Devil, the whole world laughs!
Death has been defeated by life.
The joke’s on death. Let joy ring out!
Alleluia! Come celebrate!
We come, to worship, to laugh and play, to celebrate.

*Opening Hymn “Easter Celebrations” (To the tune Jesus Christ is Risen Today)
Rising early in the morn, Alleluia!
Smiling at the Easter dawn, Alleluia!
Lent is o’er, the fast is done, Alleluia!
Now is time for food and fun, Alleluia!

After Mass we fill our glass, Alleluia!
Hunt for eggs in the long grass, Alleluia!
It’s a day to dance and sing, Alleluia!
For we greet the Easter spring, Alleluia!

All the want that we’ve endured, Alleluia!
Now our shopping has procured, Alleluia!
Cake and sweets and chocolate things, Alleluia!
All washed down with many gins, Alleluia!

*Processing of the Easter Light

Cruising Together

Prayer of the Day (Together)
God of Delight and Merriment, thank you for the gift of laughter. As we open our mouths to smile or grin, open wide our hearts to your surprising joy. Tickle our funny bones, we pray. Poke holes in our too-serious outlook. Teach us to relish each moment. Sparkle spirit through our entire being, and infect every particle of creation with holy hilarity. We pray in the name of Jesus, whose rich, warm laughter surrounds us always.

*Hymn “Now Our Lent is Done” (to the tune of Now the Green Blade Rises)
Now the days have come when all our fast is done.
Holy Week is past us, pilgrims every one .
Strength, Christian, strength, for Easter now has dawned.
Now our Lent is done, and we have Easter morn.

Forty days restraining from temptations wide.
Tastes and habits training, abstinence from pride.
Pleasure and pastimes we have put to scorn.
Now our Lent is done, and we have Easter morn.

After mass this morning, homeward we will run.
Full of grace arisen, and an Easter bun.
Eggs wrapped in foil, and sherry on the lawn.
Now our Lent is done, and we have Easter morn.

The Jokes of the People

Offering Our Thanks
Offering
Invitation to the Offering
Offering (All of our gifts will be brought to the table.)
Offering Hymn “Coffee, Coffee, Coffee” (to the tune of Holy, Holy, Holy)
Coffee, coffee, coffee, praise the strength of coffee.
Early in the morn we rise, with only thought of thee.
Served fresh or reheated, dark by thee defeated,
brewed black by perk, or drip, or instantly.

Though all else we scoff, we come to church for coffee;
if we’re late to congregate we come in time for thee.
Coffee our one ritual, drinking it habitual,
brewed black by perk, or drip or instantly.

Coffee the communion of our church’s union,
symbol of our sacred grounds, our one necessity.
Fell the holy power of our coffee hour,
brewed black by perk, or drip or instantly.

The Jokes of the People

Response “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah” (sing twice)
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My oh my what a wonderful day,
plenty of sunshine going my way,
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay.

Mr. Bluebird’s on my shoulder,
It’s so grand, it’s actual,
highly satisfactual,
zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
Wonderful feeling, wonderful day.

Going Back Down the Gangway to Land

The Jokes of the People

*Hymn “Joy to the World” VU 59

Blessing
I’d like to leave you with one last thought this morning. Beware of joy stealers and killjoys! They are everywhere! Keith Barnett wrote: “Nowhere is it told of the devil that he wants us to experience joy. Circumstances can rob us of our joy, if we allow them. Things and money certainly can be thieves of our joy. People can be the greatest thieves of all.” Don’t let circumstances, things or people rob you of your Easter Joy!!!!

We will celebrate Easter every day of our lives. Thanks be to God for resurrection and for life!!!! Alleluia!!!

Commissioning “Go Forth and Keep on Giggling” (to the tune of Sent Forth By God’s Blessing)
Go forth and keep on giggling, perhaps even trying wiggling,
we learn how to live more graciously when we lose face.
There’s nothing complicated in folks giving thanks for blessings,
in folks celebrating Jesus whose footsteps we trace.
Laughing frees us from pompous notions that we are
more special than other people in whom God’s light shines
as bright as in us. We make life so much harder
when we separate ourselves from the God
who will always feed us; so climb on the bus.

In large ways and in small ways, for straight people and for all gays,
God graciously opens windows of hope and new life.
Surprises all around us, unleash possibilities that
we never imagined could be achieved without strife.
Prejudice, animosity are completely eradicated and
we double over laughing, for Christ is alive.
So let us never waver for God holds us all in favour,
there’s good news for all Creation, and that ain’t no jive!

Hymns and prayers today are taken from:
The Pharisaios Journal, www.pharisaios.co.uk; The Fellowship of Merry Christians; materials collected by Rev. Sandra Sellars, Saskatchewan; and Rev. Terri Powell Bracy, Warren, Michigan.

"Is it Real?" Easter Sunday 2009 John 20:1-18, Gospel of Mary Ch. 9, Mark 16:1-8

MARY COMES TO THE TOMB

The wet earth clings to my feet

on this early morning errand

that weighs me down with death.

I have not slept; my food is tasteless;

my heart aches, aches.

How can it be in this fractured world

that morning still comes?

I wince as sparrows gather at my window, singing,

and I wish my own mind were so small that,

like these birds, it could not grasp

the barrenness of this bleakest dawn.

I am finished with love, dead as the tomb

that is my hopeless destination.

That place is sealed, shut tight as my soul,

yet I am drawn there.

For it is where I left my love behind.

I need to return, alone in my misery,

perhaps to find a shred of him

to carry in my fisted heart.

But someone else has already come.

Who is this that stands in the way

of my mourning?


A few weeks ago a friend of mine lost her husband to cancer. As we talked this week, some of what she said has echoed in my mind. She had never felt this kind of pain before in her life, she said, and didn’t know where to go with it. Because they knew it was coming, he and she together had been able to plan, and had time to say goodbye. But, she said, in the bereavement group she has met people who lost their loved ones suddenly and tragically, and didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye.

Whether or not there was a chance to say goodbye, nothing will ever be the same again. It’s right about now, right at Easter, when my friend is asking deep in her very deepest soul, if resurrection is real - and if it is, what does it mean?

Well, to preach resurrection is also to preach about Good Friday, and a whole sequence of events.
Someone I know in the church once tried to suggest that we should preach only the good news of Easter, and leave Good Friday out of it. I am not of that persuasion. In my belief, Easter means nothing unless we go through the events of the previous days, however painful they are. Easter is, in a sense, a kind of “bipolar” celebration. We are in the process of grief because the one we love is gone, and yet we are ecstatic because we know that the one we love still lives on. We have to go through the Passover evening of Thursday, the crucifixion of Friday, the waiting through the Sabbath, and waking to an empty spot in a graveyard on Sunday morning - and then celebrating!

So we recap the story a little. Jesus had been brought to court and sentenced to death. His death was by crucifixion, the normal means of execution under the Roman occupation. The crucifixion happened on a Friday, which meant that the Sabbath began at sunset, and that fact complicated the burial. Normally, there would be a time of preparing the body with care. But since no one is allowed to work after the beginning of Sabbath, there was only enough time to find a tomb and bury him. No time to take the herbs and spices and wrap the body properly.

Two gospels are given us for texts this week - and I decided to play with them a little because they are so very different. In the Gospel of John, Mary first goes to the tomb alone, with no plan in mind. She just needs to be where Jesus was laid - to grieve and to think. When she finds the tomb empty she runs to Peter, who then runs to see, leaves again - and then Mary sees Jesus and speaks with him.

In Mark, Mary sets out on the first morning of the new week with two others, taking along the spices and herbs to dress the body. When she arrives, the tomb is open, the body is gone, and a young man in white tells her Jesus is no longer there, he is risen - but to go and tell the others. Mark’s Gospel ends there - they leave but don’t speak about it to anyone. They are afraid.

Now, both experiences were real to those people. In John’s Gospel Mary relays that she saw and spoke to Jesus - and indeed, even in the text outside the Bible, what we call the ‘extra-canonical’ texts - the Gospel of Mary - she talks about her experience and things Jesus said to her.

However, in Mark - the oldest of the four Gospels, none of this is included. Mark has three women going to the tomb to complete a ritual which should have been done prior to the burial. Jesus is gone, the three women are witnesses to that. They aren’t sure what has happened, but they surely don’t believe he is resurrected.

What was Mary thinking about? Seeing the stone moved, had she thought, "O look, someone took care of removing the stone for me!"? No - instead, she was frightened when she realised the stone wasn't where it was supposed to be. Without even looking in the tomb, she became concerned that she couldn't do what she came to do! I believe she was feeling that pain greater than any she had felt before, and she didn’t know where to go with it - so she went to the place where she believed he still was - to be as close to him as she possibly could. But she was frustrated in not being able to anoint the body - it would have been her goodbye, and even that chance was taken away from her. She couldn’t process it all, and she and the others ran away frightened.

In Mary’s cry “They have taken him and I do not know where they have laid him” is the cry of a woman in pain and confusion, not able to see how she is going to go on, going through motions of keeping busy, trying to do the things which would be normal because she can’t think of what else to do - and everything feels dead and empty.

Now the problem wasn't the empty tomb. The problem was what Mary, the women, Peter, John, all of them, were expecting to find. Both Peter and Mary came to the tomb expecting to find a corpse. When it wasn't there, they were confused. When John arrived at the tomb, he was looking for resurrection. He saw the cloths and walked away almost believing.

But all of them were asking one question - is it real? What is real about it? Did Jesus really come back, or is it a big hoax? The early Jews believed in resurrection at the “last day”, when the trumpet sounded and the dead would be raised. That whole belief was called into question. We still ask today, is it real? Every time someone close to us dies we ask it again.

Did Jesus really somehow miraculously get up and walk out of the tomb? No. I don’t think he came back and walked around looking like the Jesus they remembered. He died! I believe that is part of why Mary didn’t recognise the person she thought was a gardener. He died! His physical body died, but he lived. Is it real that our loved ones, who are gone from this world, live on in another way? I believe it is real. It isn’t a reality we can grasp, because it is different from this one, but just because we cannot see it or feel it or even touch it, doesn’t mean it isn’t real. Jesus’ physical body was not resuscitated, he didn’t get up and keep on going. But his spiritual person, that part of him who made Jesus who he was - that lived.

In his first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul spoke about resurrection. He wrote “But some ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" How foolish! What you plant does not come to life unless it first dies. When you plant a crop, you do not plant the body that will be, but a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. God gives it a body; to each kind of seed its own body. All flesh is not the same: people have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds and fish another. There are also heavenly and earthly bodies; the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one kind, the splendour of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendour, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendour.

So it is with resurrection. The body that is sown is perishable, but is raised imperishable; .......it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”

So yes, it is real. Resurrection is real. The pain of parting, the pain of living after a loved one has died, does not go away. But resurrection is part of our faith. These early witnesses - the other disciple, Peter, and Mary Magdalene - remind us that coming to faith is not an assembly line product but a dynamic process; faith comes through a complex of interactions between our personalities, contexts and histories. Whether through an immediate decision to encounter resurrection, or through a long and circuitous route, God will lead us home to that incredible mystery.

Good News for Easter, good news for all those Easters in our lives...that was the message of the first morning, and the message this morning as we go about life again. Hallelujah!



Sources:
1. Poem by Rev. Timothy Haut, Deep River, Connecticut

2. Material from the sermons “Looking for the Wrong Thing in the Wrong Place” by Rev. Randy Quinn; “Why are You Weeping?” by Rev. Thomas Hall.

3. Gospel of Mary: Papyrus Berolensis 8052, Papyrus Oxyrhyncus. Contained in the Nag Hammadi Library.

Parades and Purposes - Palm Sunday 2009 A Haggadah

Sixth in a series based on "Christianity for the Rest of Us" by Diana Butler Bass

Mark 11:1-11
As they came closer to Jerusalem, they rested at Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two disciples ahead, and told them "Go to the village ahead of you. Just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it back. If anyone asks you why, say that 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.' " They went, and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people asked, "What are you doing?" They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it so he could ride it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"
"Hosanna in the highest!"
******************************************************************************
Jesus wandered away from the others into a small field and sat down wearily under a tree in the shade. Two disciples had gone off to look for the colt, the others were flopped about, tired and napping a little. He needed some space to collect his energy. The time was coming, events were moving inevitably to a violent end. He knew some of the disciples had already figured it out, but were hoping against hope that something would happen which would change everything for the better. He also knew they weren’t expressing their fears to him. He had tried to speak to them, but it seemed like they didn’t want to hear it. He felt so alone, as if even God had left him. He wanted to go to Gethsemane, where he was always at peace, and just clear his head.

He thought back over the short three years of ministry. What a struggle that had been. He had spent years trying to avoid the call, but God would not let go. In that insistent way, God kept nudging him. John, his cousin, was executed, and someone had to step in - and he knew John expected it would be him. The religious leaders had become too accustomed to the power they wielded, the politics of living under Roman rule. They had to be called back to the law of God. When he finally accepted the call, and went to be baptised, it was the hardest thing he had ever done. Yet he knew in his heart that it was the right thing to do. He had a call. It would require all his strength and courage. It would mean working from the ground up to encourage people to re-assess their lives and their ways. The religious leaders would not be happy. They enjoyed a position and power, which Pontius Pilate and Herod allowed to continue so long as they didn’t try to rock the political boat.

As he sat there thinking, the faces of people in his life rose in front of him - a blind man who learned to see, a leper who learned to live beyond the restraints of an ignorant society, a woman by a well, a woman who touched the hem of his cloak, people on a hillside sitting in the sun listening, Peter, Mary - dear Mary who stayed by him when everyone else questioned. The people everywhere, wanting part of him. He never really understood the strange power he had to make things happen, but he didn’t doubt that it came from God. Nevertheless, sometimes he wished it would go away, so he could just return to Sepphoris and Nazareth, keep on working as a builder and have a normal life. Ministry on the road was anything but normal.

He fell asleep in the warmth and the gentle air.
******************************************************************
The two disciples returned with the colt, but not wanting to wake him, set out some water from the well, and tied the colt again under a tree.

As Jesus awoke, and saw the colt there, the whole of reality came rushing back in on him again. As he glanced at the angle of the sun, he realised it was time to move so he could get into Jerusalem and see the temple before going out again for the night.

As usual, as soon as people knew he was around, the crowds began to gather. The disciple spread a couple of cloaks on the colt, and Jesus mounted. Peter led the colt, and the others walked alongside. People by the road began to spread their cloaks in the path. Some of the people cut branches off the trees and bushes along the road, threw them in the road, and waved them in the air as he passed, with shouts of “Hosanna!” and “Blessed is the one who comes in God’s name!” and “He is the one who will save us!”

Listening to the crowds, he wondered. He had thought ministry was about transforming lives. He thought some had been transformed - at least, certainly the people he had touched, and who had touched him. But the temple and the leaders, would they have been transformed? Would they remember to live the spirit of the law rather than hiding behind their own interpretation of the letter? Would they put their own safety and comfort first, or would they listen and reach out to the community around them?

He knew that even as he came into Jerusalem through the lower gate, the equivalent of the servant’s entrance, Pilate and his centurions would be riding in on their huge horses through the upper gate, making as big an impression as possible, making it clear to the Jewish population that no insurgency would be tolerated this Passover.

So here he was, in a parade. Riding into the city, up to the temple, being cheered and hailed as a messiah, the one who would free people from the Romans and take back the city. Why had he ever started out on this strange journey called ministry? The road ahead was murky - oh he could see literally to Jerusalem, but would it end with violence? Or would it end with transformation of lives and people? What was really the purpose? He had touched many lives, he knew that. But people being people tended to drift into comfort zones rather than pushing the edges. He had thought his purpose was transformation, and yet he couldn’t see it really happening. In three short years he had worked hard to heal people’s pain, bring them hope and optimism, give them purpose. How could he do that if he wasn’t sure of his own purpose? And when he left them, would they unite as one? Would they understand what he had meant as he taught them? Would they be able to carry on, or just wander off to their own lives again?

Sighing again, he put those thoughts out of his mind, pushed the doubts away, and smiled at the crowds.

Promises and Reflection Fifth Sunday in Lent Psalm 51:1-12

Fifth in a series based on Christianity for the Rest of s, by Diana Butler Bass


This week’s lectionary texts deal with two things in our spiritual lives - God’s commitment to us as we grow in faith, and our prayer to God to help us grow in faith. Coincidentally the two chapters in the book we are studying deal with reflection and beauty. Rather than preach a whole sermon today, we are going to do a different exercise - I am going to give you a few quotes from the book, and then we are going to break into smaller groups and talk to each other.

You might remember that when our Presbytery came to look at congregational life in Glen Ayr, one of the recommendations of that visit was that as a congregation we needed to spend more time in reflection on who we are, and in spiritual education and development. Now, most congregations tend to think that if they show up on Sunday morning, and maybe attend a Bible study once in a while, where the minister tells them what the Bible says, they are getting a spiritual education, and growing in faith. That isn’t true. Yes, the minister is a teacher, called for a certain expertise in interpretation and theology, but there is more to Christian development.

Here’s a bit from “Christianity for the Rest of Us”, a book about how mainline churches are quietly transforming themselves and becoming part of the neighborhood again. This is a quote:

‘The Christian life of the mind is not, however, merely some disembodied or mystical experience. “What got me excited when I first came [to this church]” said one Florida Methodist, “was that God was very real here, that it wasn’t just words. People really, really meant what they were doing.” Along with theological generosity, the practice of reflection in the congregations on my journey expressed the active intellect. The people I met clearly loved words and ideas, but the strove to connect words with action, to authenticate words by works of mercy and justice.”

Another church goer commented that “theological reflection taught her that learning about Christianity was not enough, you have to learn Christianity.”

An Arizona man said “God didn’t ask us to check our intellect in the parking lot when we drove in and the service started.”

...and in fact, I would observe, God created our intellect, and intended for us to use it, not just to reflect on everything else, but reflect on ourselves too. Theological reflection - a practice of using our faith to reflect on life, and using our life to reflect on faith.

So this morning, I want us together in small groups to do some theological reflection (slide into groups of four or five). What I would like you to do is use Psalm 51 (printed in the bulletin). Read it quietly to yourselves for awhile, and think about what the words might mean to you. I will give you a few minutes to do this. Then, in your groups, as you feel comfortable, please reflect with others on what this passage might mean for you in your life today.

Sources: Diana Butler Bass “Christianity for the Rest of Us” , pp. 187 and 191.

Contemplation and Testimony March 22, 2009 Fourth Sunday in Lent

Fourth in a series based on Christianity for the Rest of Us, by Diana Butler Bass.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.
Henry David Thoreau

The essence of any religion lies solely in the answer to the question: why do I exist, and what is my relationship to the infinite universe that surrounds me?
Leo Tolstoy

Silence. It isn’t something we do well in the United Church. Silence makes us nervous, after a minute or so. I went looking for biblical references to silence, in terms of contemplation, and found one which fit - from the Book of Revelation, chapter 8, verse 1 - “and when he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” We have references in the gospels of Jesus going off by himself to pray and meditate. Sitting in silence, fasting in the desert, wrestling with a call to give his life. From reading between the lines, we can guess that Jesus used meditation, and contemplation, as a way of staying focussed and spiritually healthy when things threatened to come apart.

When we talk about contemplation in the church, we tend to think of it as unproductive silence. We tend to think of boring people going around saying nothing, taking a vow of silence. A quick look in the lists will find us many orders which employ and engage in contemplation, but not necessarily silence. Among them are the Augustinians of the Midwest (Order of St. Augustine) which is a religious order, but there is also Augustinians of the Rosary, a religious order for laity and professed members who live out their vows while remaining in the world. There are the Capuchin Sisters of Nazareth - a joyful order of apostolic contemplative sisters who live in community and who work with the youth and in parish missions, and the Companions of St. Luke Benedictine, an Anglican Community based on the Rule of St. Benedict. It is open to single and avowed partners, both men and women. The Priory honors the past with rich traditions, but also recognizes the needs of a contemporary society. Just in case you thought the contemplative orders were all Christian, there is also the Sacred Order of Living Paganism, which is a spiritual order of brothers and sisters dedicated to deep Pagan learning and service.

Look up the meaning of contemplation - it means thoughtful observation, deep consideration, purpose or intention, prospect or expectation. That’s a little more than sitting in silence, or doing nothing.

One of the most noted of the Christian mystics, Hildegard of Bingen, was both a contemplative, a mystic, and one who constantly testified, through her music, her visionary art, and her writings and words. She was the leader of her sister community. When her immediate superior refused to allow her and the community more freedom and independence, she went over his head to get approval from Archbishop Henry I of Mainz. She was hesitant to share her visions, confiding only to one sister. At the age of 42, she received a vision she believed to be an instruction from God, to "write down that which you see and hear."

Diana Butler Bass says that many church growth specialists (and probably some of us) think that successful churches keep everyone entertained in worship. Silence is seen as a turnoff. Tradition in the church reserved contemplation and silence for a handful of people. It has not been encouraged among congregations. No wonder we are uncomfortable with silence. John Fiorni, who teaches at Johns Hopkins University, says that noise is described in Latin as horrovacui, or fear of nothingness or emptiness. In our lives, we tend to fill up every moment with some kind of noise - talking, music, whatever. In our worship, we have to fill up every moment with prayer, music, preaching - and we rarely sit in contemplation. But to be spiritually healthy, we cannot reserve this for just some sort of spiritual elite. If contemplation means deep consideration, purpose or intention, then every congregation should be engaging in periods of contemplation in order to determine the purpose and intention, the reason the congregation has for *being*. Far from being an odd thing that only a few people do, it should be something we all do. The church offers us seasons, such as Advent and Lent, to take advantage of the opportunity to do some “intentional reflection”, and pay attention to God.

But contemplation doesn’t just mean silence. It also means times of speaking. Testimony. There’s another scary word for us, because we get in our head visions of televangelists rattling off rote “testimonies” of faith, and calling people into emotional commitments to something, whatever. Testimony is another thing, like silence, that we don’t do in the church. We think faith should only be a private thing. And of course, in the United Church, we don’t “do” testimony. We don’t say what we believe, unless it is included in an order of service, and we say it all together so no one sticks out. I wonder if any of us would have the courage to stand in front of our congregation, and say openly what we believe. Well, of course I can - to a point. Preaching, teaching and leading are all parts of testimony. Confession is a part of it, of course. But I am thinking of testimony in terms of telling others about our journey in faith, how we got to where we are now, what this community of faith means to us in the journey.

The disciples and followers of Jesus, in the Book of Acts, went from place to place testifying to their faith. Acts 8 says “When they had testified and proclaimed the word of God, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.”

Diana Butler Bass talks about the advertising campaign of the United Church of Christ, called “God is Still Speaking”. She notes that the Christian story is not about distant historical events, although these are part of the basis of faith; rather she says the Christian story of the power of faith is something which has relevance here and now. Stories of discovering faith, living faith, struggling faith and risky faith.

She notes sociologist Anthony Giddons claims that each of us not only ‘has’ a biography, we live a biography. The great philosopher Hegel spoke of the universe unfolding; likewise, our lives unfold as we live them. In fact or lives, and our faith journeys, are narratives. When we are able to see ourselves in the narrative, we can gain confidence in speaking about it.

I wondered, as I wrote this, how many of us spend time in contemplation, reflection on purpose and intent; and how many would be willing to speak about their life journey in front of others. Or book leads us to churches where people are willing to risk. In this Lent, a time of meditation and reflection, would we be willing?

Believing and Living the Promise Third Sunday in Lent John 2:13-22

Third in a series of sermons on "Christianity for the Rest of Us" by Diana Butler Bass.


Jerusalem, - a city of over three million people, packed with even more people who have walked across the Negev, the Shepelah, from the Mediterranean coast, and the Tigris /Euphrates basin, to commemorate their liberation from oppression in Egypt.

From the time of Moses, when the law was given, sacrifice was part and parcel of Passover. But many people didn’t want the hassle of getting animals across the desert, and maybe losing the animal altogether. Many people preferred to buy in the city, and save time and effort.

Why animals being sold in the Temple? The historian Josephus suggests that a feud between the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas, the High Priest, forced the Sanhedrin from their office space in the Temple. In retaliation, the Sanhedrin invited merchants to sell animals outside the Temple area, near them. Not to be out-retaliated, Caiaphas allowed merchants to sell animals and exchange money inside the Temple precinct. Worshippers could not use official secular money - they had to exchange it for Temple money. So the outer courtyard where the Gentiles came to worship was full of animals, tables and the sound the secular coinage being exchanged for kosher coinage, and the Temple precinct was as well. A place of worship was turned into a trading post. Neither the Jews nor the Gentile converts could worship.

Jesus entered Jerusalem. He didn’t go there very often, and maybe hadn’t kept up on the inner politics of the temple. He went planning to spend time in worship and prayer, and found instead a market where the poor were being charged exorbitant prices, and brisk commercial enterprises. He grabbed some cords and tied them into a whip, set the animals loose, hurled the tables of the money-changers over, sending the money all over the ground, and screamed “You have turned this place of worship into a shopping mall."

I bet it was difficult for people to decide if they should applaud Jesus, or be embarrassed at his behaviour. This was pretty unusual, even for Jesus. Most of the worshippers probably wanted to come for some comfort, and calmness. Not only could they not get it in this already noisy place, but the whole day is shot when Jesus has a tantrum and brings everything to a spectacular halt.

In the Gospel, John has Jesus fired up that a place of worship had been turned into a marketplace, a money-making event. He defended Jesus’ actions as a case of confronting extortion and worship-gouging, and using the temple as a place to work out hostilities. Not only had the time of Passover been turned into a time of making more money for the temple, but the real core of the festival - the promise of God that there would be freedom from oppression - had been subsumed into oppression of others by the religious leaders. My vision of Jesus in this instant is that he was vein-popping furious.

In John’s gospel we’re right in the middle of a worship war. It isn’t about selling Fair Trade coffee after the service, raising funds for an outreach project. It is about far more than that. It is about God’s promise to the people, and the people believing the promise, only to be squeezed into another kind of oppression by the very ones who are supposed to be helping them grow in faith. It is about personal hostilities, and corporate greed being lived out even inside a place of worship. Jesus brings the focus right back to the purpose of worship and justice, and how they are lived out in the world.

There’s a clue here about the promise, too. Jesus was asked to show a miraculous sign that his authority is from God. Jesus responded, "OK, I’ll give you a sign. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again. Top that one."

What no one realised, except perhaps Jesus, was a clear intimation of the renewed promise of God. John of course painted the listeners as really thick - all they could think of was the physical temple being completely razed, and Jesus somehow magically putting it all back together. Jesus, once again, left them with a zinger loaded with meaning.

On that day Jesus challenged an entire system - the street address that locked God to a specific place on earth, the way business was done, and the confidence placed in a structure that was supposed to last forever. He walked in, claimed a new authority, and another locus of worship: Jesus named himself as the new temple in which the Spirit of God lived.

There are two things outstanding in this reading for me. First, the issue of justice, which was among the commandments given to Moses, and contained in the Torah. Or perhaps I should say the issue of a gross injustice being perpetrated by a group of religious leaders who had themselves lived as slaves, and were now making slaves out of others who only wished to worship and live in peace.

In the book “Christianity for the Rest of Us”, Diana Butler Bass quotes theologian and biblical scholar Walter Wink, about the powers of the world - and I think this quote gets to the core of what really hit Jesus in that moment. Wink says:

“The Powers That Be are not, then, simply people and their institutions as I had first thought; they also include the spirituality at the core of those institutions and structures. If we want to change those systems, we will have to address not only their outer forms, but their inner spirit as well.”

In his sermon “Who Said You Could Do That?”, Rev. Thomas Hall asks if we run through our orders of worship and are more concerned about doing it right, than whether our whole being is attuned to worshipping God.

In the issues of justice, and belief in a promise, have we allowed lesser authorities to supplant God? Doing justice means first that we have to believe in the promises of God. If we believe the promises, then we move into the world witnessing to others about the peaceable realm of God.

I think in the moments when Jesus turned everything upside down, he realised the connection of worship and justice. If we believe the promises God made, then our worship has to reflect in every way a commitment to those promises. The result of that worship is to motivate us to live that out by engaging the spiritual centre of those powers which push God to the side.

The whole story of church renewal and transformation is a story of being willing to engage again with our faith, and make a commitment to discipleship which takes us outside the boundaries and outside the box. A fantasy? Perhaps - but Paul tells us in Corinthians that God’s foolishness is wiser than our wisdom - and we are encouraged, and exhorted, through faith, to engage any powers which prevent the coming of the realm of God.

I’m going to close with a piece of music called “Nella Fantasia” - “In my fantasy”. The words are by Chiara Ferrau, music by Enrico Morricone. It was originally written as a music score for the movie “The Mission”, about a Jesuit priest in Brasil in the 18th century. The words offer a broad hope, even for life today. The piece speaks to our promises of justice, and a spiritual world where that justice is the foundation.

In my fantasy, I see a just world.
Where everyone lives in peace and honesty.
I dream of souls that are always free.
Like the clouds that float full of humanity
in the depths of the soul.

In my fantasy I see a bright world
where each night there is less darkness.
I dream of spirits that are always free,
like the clouds that float.

In my fantasy exists a warm wind
that blows into the city, like a friend.
I dream of souls that are always free,
like the clouds that float full of humanity,
in the depths of the soul.


******************************************************************************

Sources:
1. Diana Butler Bass, Christianity for the Rest of Us. HarperSanFrancisco, 2006.
2. Walter Wink, The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium (New York, Doubleday, 1998.) 4.
3. Rev. Thomas Hall, from the sermon “Who Said You Could Do That?”
4. Nella Fantasia, by Chiara Ferrau and Enrico Morricone.