Wednesday, May 11, 2011
May 8th Sermon
Since today is Mother's Day, I thought I would begin with a list someone has made which they have called "Murphy's Laws of Parenting." See if you can identify with any of these:
1. The later you stay up, the earlier your child will wake up the next morning.
2. The gooier the food, the more likely it is to end up on the carpet.
3. The longer it takes you to make a meal, the less your child will like it.
4. A sure way to get something done is to tell a child not to do it.
5. For a child to become clean, something else must become dirty.
6. Toys multiply to fill any space available.
7. Yours is always the only child who doesn't behave.
8. If the shoe fits . . . it's expensive.
9. Backing the car out of the driveway causes your child to have to go to the bathroom.
10. Do any of these strike home?
It isn't easy being a Mom. I chuckled when I read a story by a Mom named Mary Jane Kurtz. Mary Jane says that when she was a young, single mom with four children, it was difficult to get them all ready for church on Sunday. One particular Sunday morning as the children started to complain and squabble, Mary Jane stomped from one room to the other, saying out loud why it was important they go to church as a family and have a good attitude. Suddenly, she noticed all four children huddled together and laughing.
"What's so funny?" Mary Jane asked.
"Mom," they said, "every time you slam down your foot, smoke comes out. It must be the wrath of God!"
In reality, it was the powder Mary Jane had sprinkled in her shoes. But it worked. She says they made it to church on time that morning and practically every Sunday thereafter.
I'm not suggesting that any of you busy Moms sprinkle powder in your shoes. I'm just reporting on Mary Jane's experience.
What we don't want to do on this Mother's Day, 2011 is take our Moms for granted. I've cited it before, but the best example I know of that is the Mother's Day card that reads like this: "Forget the housework, Mom. It's your day. Besides, you can always do double duty and catch up on Monday!"
It is easy to loose sight of what is important in life, isn’t it?? How often do go through our day thinking of something really important that must be done and miss out on something spectacular. I know I have been running around thinking I am working to get something really important done only to realize a couple days later that I have missed a family member’s birthday, or I haven’t called on a good friend in 3 months. When in my mind it might be 3 weeks. Truth is sometimes we can become a little blind to the things around us. We miss what is right under our noses.
"What's so funny?" Mary Jane asked.
"Mom," they said, "every time you slam down your foot, smoke comes out. It must be the wrath of God!"
In reality, it was the powder Mary Jane had sprinkled in her shoes. But it worked. She says they made it to church on time that morning and practically every Sunday thereafter.
I'm not suggesting that any of you busy Moms sprinkle powder in your shoes. I'm just reporting on Mary Jane's experience.
What we don't want to do on this Mother's Day, 2011 is take our Moms for granted. I've cited it before, but the best example I know of that is the Mother's Day card that reads like this: "Forget the housework, Mom. It's your day. Besides, you can always do double duty and catch up on Monday!"
It is easy to loose sight of what is important in life, isn’t it?? How often do go through our day thinking of something really important that must be done and miss out on something spectacular. I know I have been running around thinking I am working to get something really important done only to realize a couple days later that I have missed a family member’s birthday, or I haven’t called on a good friend in 3 months. When in my mind it might be 3 weeks. Truth is sometimes we can become a little blind to the things around us. We miss what is right under our noses.
Picking up Olivia to babysit. Blinded by rushing – went to their old house
This is why I love the gospel reading this week. Two of Jesus’ disciples were walking along retelling the events of the events leading to Jesus death, just like any of us experiencing a trauma; we must retell the story until the horror of it all becomes real. They meet up with a stranger, now we know it is Jesus but from their grief or disbelief they are unable to recognize him.
How do we recognize the Risen Christ among us? Might Christ speak to us through the stranger on the road? Through discussion over the scriptures? Through the breaking of bread? Might Christ speak through a healing? an unfamiliar image? a powerful moving event?
And when we have an incredible moment of recognition in the midst of ordinary experiences like these, can we find the courage to speak of it to others as Cleopas and his companion did? Or do we remain silent and keep it only for ourselves.
In his book The Mind's Eye (2010), Oliver Sacks explores how the plasticity of the human brain compensates for different types of blindness. As in previous books like Musicophilia, Sacks weaves together clinical anecdotes from his practice as a neurologist, letters he's received, scientific studies, memoirs by blind people, and the results of brain imaging techniques. His longest chapter includes entries from his personal journal about his own experience of ocular melanoma.
Sacks explains how people can be blind in different ways and for different reasons, from birth defect, accident, injury, or disease. Lilian developed "visual agnosia" late in life. She could recognize the tiniest letters on an eye doctor's chart, but couldn't read words or music, even though she was a famous pianist. People with "object agnosia" can't recognize common objects like their own car, even though their visual acuity is normal. Sacks himself has "prosopognosia," the inability to recognize faces. People with "deep blindness" lose even their interior mental images.
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus suffered from blindness. They talked about Jesus, recalling who he was and what he had done the preceding three years. They even talked to Jesus, who walked with them for seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Nonetheless, "their eyes were prevented from recognizing him" (Luke 24:16, NASB). They thought that Jesus was a political liberator (24:21), clueless that in him God had "reconciled to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, all things visible or invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities" (Colossians 1:16–20).
The story is a disturbing reminder of how we remain oblivious to God's presence even when he's right beside us. Jesus rebuked the two travelers as "foolish and slow of heart" (24:25).
The Emmaus disciples were blinded by their mistaken expectations about what God was doing in Jesus. The relentless and powerful lies of culture blind us to God's presence. Our family of origin shapes us in ways known and unknown, both good and bad. Geography shapes us by the power of place, friends we must start talking and sharing how we experience the risen Christ. It is not something to keep to ourselves. So many of us are afraid to share what we have seen, heard, felt for fear that someone will think we are a little off our rocker. Why, as Christians, are we so afraid? Why are we so hesitant to talk about our faith? We are the church, we are all on this journey of life together – we need to hear from one another of our faith experiences otherwise what are we doing? What difference does it make to say we are Christian? We are Christian because it matters, we have experienced the risen Christ in our lives and or in the lives of others around us. We have seen the affect that Jesus has on people, including ourselves. But if we are not like Cleopas and the woman at the tomb, if we are afraid to share and speak of our experiences and our faith, then the future is pretty bleak for the Christian Church. We have such a gift as Christians, we can share and tell our stories….Here is one I will share with you. I have bee struggling with a simple health issue and it has been getting me down. I had to change medications again and was feeling very discouraged when I left the doctors office. I was very discouraged. Now I should say that I had my ipod in the car, it was on the seat beside me. I had been playing Linnea Good songs for the girls that morning as I drove them to school and the Y. The ipod was still there on the seat beside me over here. I was looking straight ahead, feeling badly when all of the sudden a song started to play on the ipod…Linnea Good’s Patients – which says Have patience with everything that lies upon your heart unresolved try to love the questions in themselves don’t go searching for answers that can’t be given now, don’t go chasing after reasons when in truth you don’t know how. Have patience with all that lies a burden on your heart….God speaks to us in so many different ways. Sometimes they are dramatic experiences like that one was for me, other times they are more subtle but either way we all have them or we would not be here in church. We know this Jesus we believe in makes a difference in our lives and in the lives of other people as well.
To keep the faith alive, we need to boldly share the stories, our experiences, our faith. We can’t sit back and just expect that we can speak of other people, retell the bible stories, say I believe and not back it up with why and how. Our world is thirsty for the risen Christ to be known and to learn how to see and hear. I can’t do it alone, I am not enough but we are together, all of us sharing our faith – even if we just practice here among ourselves – at bible study or the spiritual journey group, or coffee time – then when we feel practiced and a little more secure, we can tell others why we believe, why we go to church, who it is we worship and why. This Jesus we call the risen one, is alive and in our midst to bring new life, to help us live this life despite what we have to face. Life comes and it is hard, it is full of challenges and not always what we want but Jesus is with us, guiding us, listening to us – now let’s listen in return, see him in return and then go and tell…tell so that others may know that their experiences are real and they are not alone and together we can celebrate and give thanks to God for the gift of knowing Jesus.
Thanks be to God.
Amen
Sermon May 1, 2011 Signs of Resurrection
Sermon May 1, 2011
Signs of Resurrection
Well this week has been full:
Twister ravaged south
Royal wedding
Election on the way
Stanley Cup
John Paul to be beatified Sunday
Lybia Syria Afganistan, Haiti, Japan
Flood waters – on the rise in Canada and here at home in NB
And that is just a scant review of the news. And just last week we gathered to celebrate Easter, the day of resurrection.
I want you to watch something that comes from a sermon aid website:
Sermon Brainwave Youtube clip. (3:12)
Sometimes we forget just how much it matters that Easter came, Jesus the Christ rose from the dead. It is a story many of us have heard all our lives and I wonder if we don’t sometimes forget, miss, or just plain overlook the significance of this. On Good Friday, I talked about how the crucifixion was the ultimate example of God’s our pouring and self giving act of love. Through the mystery and wonder of the death and resurrection of Jesus we discover and are reminded again and again, year after year that God’s love for us is stronger than any other force there is. That death does not have the last word that the risen Christ brings new life, that God loves us and calls us out of our tombs – those events, memories, illnesses, fears, doubts – things in our lives that are preventing us from living as God’s beloved children. Through Jesus, we are called, like Lazarus, to break out of the rocks that hold us down and find new life, new possibilities.
You see the resurrection of Jesus is more than an event that happened a long time ago. Our lessons we hear the Spirit speaking through an early sermon, and we hear how Jesus came to be among his friends to give them hope and courage to go on and to give Thomas what he needed in order to believe. Signs of the resurrection, that Jesus’ life and message didn’t end on the cross but continues to give people life and courage then in biblical times and, I say today.
Where do we experience signs of resurrection, life being more powerful than death? Jesus lifting people from their tombs and finding new life??
I was reminded last Sunday that Moncton under went its own resurrection when Eaton’s closed and the CN closed shop…many people were out of work but new life came, resurrection life broke through and new life has came to the city.
Resurrection is happening all around us, where do we see it??
We see it each spring, in the crocus, the tulips, the grass turning green, the leaves coming on the trees; you see it every time someone goes to AA or a drug rehab centre, whenever a marriage is capable of being repaired, when friends or families are able to put past hurts behind them and celebrate the gifts of life, when two people – hurt by love – find the courage to love and marry again, when there are peace talks, when a smiled is offered to a stranger, when a person is given another chance at life, when a man or woman is able to live with dignity and respect despite their illness, when a homeless person gets a meal, when Haitian children get new clothes, when someone who is at the end of their rope sees a butterfly or call from a friend, or remembers the gifts of music.
Folks resurrection is never far away. Jesus Christ is alive today, not just in our hearts, not just in community but everywhere – giving strength, encouragement, hope, and life…do you see the living Christ, do you see, can you hear, look and listen the signs are there for us if only we look, if only we embrace the hope and possibility. Thanks be to God – Jesus Christ is risen, thanks be to God indeed!!!!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Seeing with the eyes of compassion
God’s ways are so often surprising that we just need to expect that. God’s ways are rarely what we expect or what we are use to in our world. Today we hear that a Shepherd becomes king, blind people see, and powerful leaders are blinded by their own self-importance and jealousy.
The world could easily remain this way with no one thinking that there is anything wrong at all. But God comes to turn us around, to challenge our notions of what ought to be, and to teach us to see the world with clarity and with compassion, so that everything can change.
As human beings we know there are truths that even the eye cannot see but with the soul there is a spiritual vision that helps us discern the true from the false, the right from the wrong, the joyful from the joyless, and the healers from the destroyers. The blind man in today's gospel had that inner vision. He also had the courage to bear witness to the one who had helped him see. Do we?
In today’s readings we are reminded of the pecking orders that exist in the world – who belongs and who doesn’t. This happens in the church too sadly. Many people choose exclude themselves before anyone else can. People who can't see or hear well stay away, people with allergies, people who need walkers, wheelchairs, back trouble etc sit at the back, those who have deep hurts, grief, mental health issues and pain may stop attending. Not to mention the fact that we all have different beliefs and we wonder if we are going to be accepted.
Sometimes it takes tremendous courage just to show up at church.
Well this morning’ Gospel story is about a man born blind. He lived in Jerusalem, and he was a beggar, he was set apart, he was not part of the in crowd, he wasn’t allowed to run for politics or even be involved in any real community events, he was an outcast. On one particular afternoon, he was sitting against one of the temple gates. It was a great feast day and there were plenty of pilgrims I the holy city. The blind mad always made a killing form the exhilarated tourists as they hurried to worship at the great temple. He may have loved those days when he carried home his fat bundle of coins. But when asked by Jesus what he could do for him, he said he wanted to see.
A person born blind, experiences the world radically differently than we do. They rely on other senses, they perceive the world and environment differently than those of us with sight do.
Now the Gospel goes on to tell us that Jesus wasted no time. He scooped up a handful of dirt, spit on it, and made a muddy paste. Now that may sound gross to you and me but in those days saliva was believed to have healing properties and the saliva of a holy man was thought to carry special powers.
Jesus spread the paste over the man’s eyes and told him to go wash it off in a pool on the south side of Jerusalem. A couple of his friends walked the mad to the pool, and when the muddy paste was washed off; the blind man could see.
Can you just imagine for a moment what it must have been like for him? Only a second ago, he was unable to see and now he sees like he has never seen before, his world has changed, his perception, his view and understanding of the things around him radically changed forever.
Radical change and transformation in life is a wonderful thing that can happen to all of us. That’s one of the reasons the hymn Amazing grace is so powerful to us all.
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.
I wonder if you can identify with this story of the blind man finding his sight. Have you ever felt excluded, not a part of the team, or clique, not really welcome? What does that feel like? Feels terrible, lonely, fearful, vulnerable exposed.
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.
I wonder if you can identify with this story of the blind man finding his sight. Have you ever felt excluded, not a part of the team, or clique, not really welcome? What does that feel like? Feels terrible, lonely, fearful, vulnerable exposed.
What do we need to over come those feelings?
Have you ever been blind and then find yourself transformed and able to see in a new way? I’m not talking about physical sight here; I’m talking about spiritual or psychological blindness and then seeing with new eyes.
Let me share with you a very simplistic example. I love to work with my hands, I love to make things. Well my father has always worked with wood – my mom has always worked with a variety fabrics. Now here is what my mind did – men work with wood in work shops and women work with fabrics. One day it was like scales dropped from my eyes and I realized that so long as my father was ok with it there was no reason that I couldn’t go into the workshop and learn how to turn wood.
I have heard other people share that they believed that they always believed they were a failure, unable to do anything but a teacher or a coach took and genuine interest in them and theirs turned around – suddenly they could see themselves and the world like never before – they had been blind but now they see.
We live in a world which is constantly changing. Our perceptions and expectations of the world are being challenged more frequently than ever before. We see more, read more, experience more than any generation before us. That has its challenges but it helps us too.
How many times have we found ourselves changing our minds about something we believed very strongly because we encountered that situation ourselves. Right? Many times I have heard people say one day that they don’t agree with homosexuality and a week later they find out someone they know and love is gay and suddenly there is not doubt, there is no discussion about right or wrong – you know in your heart, in your gut, you see with new eyes what the blind man saw – a new world created by the love and grace of Jesus.
When the blind man was questioned, quizzed and tested about what had happened, what Jesus had done to him, his final remark was “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see.” He didn’t need explanations or answers he trusted what he knew he trusted his experience, he trusted his gut – he believed in Jesus who changed his world.
This week in the news we find ourselves overwhelmed again with stories of hated and war. We had the horror of hearing or seeing a pastor in Florida in small congregation burning a Holy Book – the Koran. The result has been for many Muslim people great pain and hurt that someone could treat a sacred and much loved religious object with such hatred and animosity.
Sometimes we have the tendency to believe that belonging to a religious faith is about protecting it, that it is somehow up to us to make sure that nothing else jeopardises what we feel is most important to us, no one threatens our God.
Well I believe in the very core of my being – in my soul – that God doesn’t need me to protect Christianity. God is far greater and bigger that than. God is beyond my imagination but what God needs me to do is to live a Christ like life and there is a difference between that and protecting the Christian faith. Following a life of faith is all about how we encounter the world – and see ourselves connected with creation. The essence of Christianity is summed up Luke 10:25-28
25And one day an authority on the law stood up to put Jesus to the test. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to receive eternal life?”
26What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you understand it?” 27He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your strength and with all your mind.’(Deuteronomy 6:5) And, ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ ” 28“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do that, and you will live.”.
It was the early church fathers and rabbis who said that any interpretation of the scripture that bred hate and distain was illegitimate – this won’t happen easily we have to make it happen.
Wherever you hear someone in the name of religion in sighted hatred – the religion is illegitimate. We are called to be people of compassion all people of all faiths are called to be people of compassion that is what will change the world from one of violence and hatred to new life and hope,
This week there is no conclusion to the sermon, there is no way to tie this up in a tidy fashion. Simply live open to the Spirit so that your eyes continue to see, where you have been blind you find sight and live with compassion – the core of our faith – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Lent 3 Making room for your Spirit
Sermon:
The scripture stories we are blessed with this morning are so important to our spiritual development. The image of our deep need for water seen in the Israelites very honest story of how our needs take over and sometimes we loose sight of the larger picture and then the Samaritan woman who, as an outcast, we can only imagine the loneliness and pain in her soul at a deep deep level. Yet she meets Jesus and has a profound conversation with him, one that can change your life if you let it.
Sometimes in our lives we forget who we are. When we are born we know we come from God, our parents know it too, we even say this during our baptism liturgy we pray for the baby saying: “We welcome you as a member of God’s family. We welcome you with love that you may learn to love. We welcome you with joy that you may learn of Christ’s joy. We welcome you by your name that you may know who you are. We welcome you in Christ’s name that you may know whose you are. You are a part of our family and will always find a welcome place here.”
But as we grow up we are given other messages about who we are.
We are so and so’s friend, or not.
We are smart, or not.
We are handsome, beautiful, or not.
We are cool, hip, awesome, or not.
We are talented at something, or not
We are successful or not.
We are our career.
WE are a son or daughter, brother, sister, spouse, mother, or father.
Ever feel that you are nothing more than your roles/the categories you fit into.
And most often we go through life trying to be something, to live out those roles, those scripts. And what happens over time… it begins to feel like a box is closing in on you. All those roles circling round you and it gets tight fitting – (no you haven’t put on weight), it’s your soul, your spirit pushing back, wanting to be attended to.
It can get awfully uncomfortable, and usually we just work harder, see if we can get a promotion, or attention from that guy or girl in that cubical or desk over there even though we have a spouse at home, we look for a job with more money. Sometimes we turn to alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, food, anything to make us feel a little better.
But this morning, we hear something in what Jesus says to the Samaritan woman…he says in essence in John 4 verses 23-24
Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."
You see when we go to worship God, when we go to God in prayer – we bring ourselves, our roles, our scripts BUT what God seeks, what the Great I am, Mysterious One, Spirit wants to is just simply you, nothing else just you.
In our lives we have an opportunity like the woman at the well. It takes time and effort, it takes trust. Not just any trust but a real trust in God.
Demonstrate the trust “game”…. (stand with your back to someone and fall into their arms trusting they will catch you)
How many of you have tried this before?? Are you good at it with friends or colleagues, family members? That’s something to try at your next family reunion…
It is that kind of trust a trust that means looking ahead of you knowing in your heart God is there with you and when you strip away all those masks, all those roles, and scripts that we have been fed throughout our lives…taken on through out your life to feel good about who you are…when you take them all away…will there be anything there? What will we find? Will it be of value? Will it matter at all?
Well here is something I want you to think about this morning. Jesus told an outcast – someone who had more masks, roles, scripts of being unimportant, and shameful…he told her that she was welcome, that she had enough value and was loved by God to be an evangelist – to go and tell others that there is life in the spirit – life within them and thirst that can drive you to seek out more roles and masks are not necessary – let the water wash over you take those masks and roles away and you will find a unique, one of a kind, irreplaceable expression of God! Yes you, your face, your presence reflects the face of God in this world!
When you let it all go and fall back into God’s arms, what you will discover, let me say it again you are a unique, one of a kind, irreplaceable expression of God!
Think about that for a minute. You are an expression of God in this world, so is the person beside you, the person who you are angry with right now, the person who hurt you, the person who loves you…you are.
Isn’t that something our world needs to be reminded of? Isn’t that a message people around you need to be reminded of?
We need to practice this kind of spiritual development.
SO to start us off, I want you to turn to a couple of people. Listen carefully…
take turns,
decide who will go first.
Make eye contact…look them right in the eye and don’t speak until they hold your gaze and say: “You are a one of a kind expression of God”.
Now I will tell you something…when someone said that to me, my eyes welled up with tears because those words, that spiritual truth touched something very deep in me. So try not to be embarrassed if tears come to you or the person you are talking to…you are witnessing the healing of a soul. Stay there, give them a gentle smile. And when you are ready reverse the message…the one who spoke now listens and the one who listened now speaks.
I would like to suggest without being too presumptuous that you might want to spend some time with God this week in your prayer time or devotional time and practice taking off those masks you wear and remember that you are God’s beloved first and foremost, before everything else and continue to find healing for your soul and growth on your spiritual journey. You may want to practice this with members of your family telling them they are a unique one of a kind expression of God but I leave that with you.
