Sunday, October 30, 2005

All Saints

Matthew 5

1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.
2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."


In the spirit of the day I have decided to test your knowledge in the area of patron saints. Before I begin, however, I need to let you off the hook with regard to saints, insofar as that within the United Church in particular and the Reform branch of Christianity in general, saints have faded into the background.

Today's celebration of All Saint's Day (November 1) is a vestige of something that once held great currency and is only now being recaptured in our tradition. What little saintliness we have left comes from the Presbyterian stream in church names such as St. Paul's or St. Andrew's. The Methodists tended to put greater emphasis on the saintliness of its current members and less on the saints of the past. For this reason we have a tradition to either recapture or ignore, the choice is ours.

In the Roman Catholic tradition, saints and saint making is alive and well. As well, the tradition of naming patron saints, saints with a unique affinity for a group or occupation remains central to Catholic practice.

I'll start you with an easy one: Who is the patron saint of Ireland? Scotland? England? Wales? Canada? Quebec? (Patrick, Andrew, George, David, Joseph, John) You may remember the patron saint of travelers from a couple of weeks ago (now de-listed, Christopher). Some are obvious, such as the patron saint of Popes (Peter) or carpenters (Joseph). Others have remained in the popular imagination, such as the patron saint of animals (Francis) or children (Nicolas).

Saints are made and not born (the same argument Tertullian made with regard to all believers). Saints display "heroic virtue" and a particular holiness to inspire others and reveal the ways of God. At first only martyrs to the faith were considered saints. This group included all the apostles and many of the early leaders of the Christian movement. This, however, posed two problems for the church. The first was the question of those who survived persecution and lived to old age. Remarkable believers who died peacefully in their beds were surely deserving of sainthood, but the practice did not allow for such a designation. The second problem was the confusion caused when someone not particularly deserving of the designation met a violent end. An early example was a priest who died in a bar fight. His drinking buddies (also priests) pressed to have him recognized as a saint and martyr and the church resisted. This led to the important clarification that a martyr must die for the faith.

So, you are quietly thinking to yourself, what are the chances that I could become a saint? Slim to none, I'm afraid. Unless you are willing to become Roman Catholic, you will need to satisfy yourself with the informal approach of the United Church. In the aftermath of the Second World War the Lutheran Church in Germany asked the Roman Catholic Church to consider making Dietrich Bonhoeffer a saint, considering his martyrdom at the hands of the Nazis. While not being rude, the response was negative. After 450 years on their own, they were told, surely they could come up with their own mechanism for making saints.

***

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Within the scope of the Bible there are several types of literature. From the Old Testament we have the Law of Moses, history and prophecy and important sub-texts such as Proverbs and Psalms. I call them sub-texts because they fall outside the main thrust of the Bible which is to recount the story of Israel and interpret the law. Proverbs and Psalms form part of what is called wisdom literature, books that teach virtue and form the most practical or "popular" part of the canon. The best summary is from the book of Proverbs itself:

2The purpose of these proverbs is to teach people wisdom and discipline, and to help them understand wise sayings. 3Through these proverbs, people will receive instruction in discipline, good conduct, and doing what is right, just, and fair. 4These proverbs will make the simpleminded clever. They will give knowledge and purpose to young people.

If I were to try to sum up wisdom literature in a sentence it would be something like this: The righteous prosper while the wicked suffer and fail. In this type of literature, the emphasis is on the peace and order of the household as a means to achieve blessing. Having a good wife, obedient children, helpful servants and so on will be the crowning mark of faithfulness and virtue.

One need only think of the Book of Job and his so-called "comforters" who make it their self-appointed task to help Job realize that his suffering must reflect some sin committed, if he can only remember. Job, as the book tells us, is blameless, and so the debate rages until God himself sees fit to intervene.

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" is not wisdom literature. "Blessed are the meek" is a Kingdom teaching, which in the realm of biblical literature is a whole different animal. The first question we need to ask is who are these people that Jesus speaks of, the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the persecuted? Where do they fit into the scheme of a life with God?

Those who love me inherit wealth, for I fill their treasuries.

The wealth of the rich is their fortress; the poverty of the poor is their calamity.

Wealth is a crown for the wise; the effort of fools yields only folly.

The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get.

It is quite a leap from "Blessed are the poor" to "the poverty of the poor is their calamity." Clearly Jesus is casting a new vision, a vision quite unlike the vision that dominated his (and every) age. 2"Teacher," his disciples asked him, "why was this man born blind? Was it a result of his own sins or those of his parents?" Neither, was the answer, because in the Kingdom the link of cause and effect has been broken by wisdom turned on its head.

Part of the revolution of this new thinking is that we already know that it is true. We already know that the link between righteousness and prosperity is broken, as is the link between wickedness and ruin. We already know that life is not that simple, that the simple linkages have been disproven time and time again. Rather than become frustrated, however, we need to alter the way we think. Whenever are tempted to ask, "what did I do to deserve this?" we need to resist this line of thinking. This, of course, is a tall order, because the impulse to assign blame, especially self-blame is so strong.

***

Who are these people: the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the persecuted? These people are you and me. Jesus spoke to his friends and knew that they were not destined to be rich or powerful or widely embraced by popular society. He spoke to his disciples and friends and imagined what they would experience and what they would endure and tried to prepare them by casting an alternate vision to the one that they had been marinating in all their lives.

They were labourers. They were on the margins, from a marginal place where little hope existed for prosperity or long life or the other marks of having favour with God. But they did find favour, they found favour through the power of a relationship and the power of a new vision.

If you read the Beatitudes and imagine the attentive faces of those closest to Jesus you begin to sense the immediate relevance of the words. They would follow Christ's path and experience all the things described: receiving mercy, seeing God, begin filled, being called children of God. This is not a call to greatness is the world's eyes, this is greatest in God's eyes. This is living out another path that favours mercy and purity, making peace and accepting that the world won't always understand why we do what we do.

So, you are quietly thinking to yourself, what are the chances that I could become a saint? Pretty good, actually. Good in the sense that the practice of sainthood is outlined in Matthew 5 and very likely reflected in the kinds of things you are doing already. Whenever you comfort those that mourn, support the meek, embrace the pure at heart or seek peace you are walking the walk and talking the talk. You are among the saints.

Now you're getting all humble on me. Surely I can't be a saint, you're beginning to think. I'm no Francis or Peter or Tutu or Rosa Parks. I'm not among the great ones of God, whose lives shout faithfulness and praise. But you are. The moment you were baptized you began a personal relationship with God, a relationship based on the alternative vision Jesus set out and not on the values of this world.

When you were marked as God's own, you became one of the humble listeners that day on Sermon Mount. You became "blessed" because you were forever linked to the Kingdom vision of Jesus. You became an heir to the promise of forgiveness and grace that allow for living amid the contradictions that the good do not always prosper or the wicked fail. You became a saint. Amen

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Proper 25

1 Thessalonians 2

4For we speak as messengers who have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He is the one who examines the motives of our hearts. 5Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you very well know. And God is our witness that we were not just pretending to be your friends so you would give us money! 6As for praise, we have never asked for it from you or anyone else. 7As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but we were as gentle among you as a mother£ feeding and caring for her own children. 8We loved you so much that we gave you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.

Matthew 22

34But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they thought up a fresh question of their own to ask him. 35One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36"Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?"

37Jesus replied, "‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’£ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’£ 40All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."



I've decided to begin today by allowing you to collectively show off by naming for me the Ten Commandments. You may need time to think, so I'll share a couple of anecdotes. The first comes from Jay Leno and his popular "man on the street" interviews. He asked a college student to name one of the Ten Commandments and without missing a beat the student said "freedom of speech."

My second anecdote comes from Thomas Cahill and his book "The Gifts of the Jews." In his book he makes a couple of observations, the first being that the number of commandments and the number of fingers you possess are the same by design. Something to think about the next time you have little to do but stare at your hands. His second point is that the purpose of keeping the Sabbath (number 4) is to allow generous amounts of time for lovemaking.

Not only did I just give you one of the ten, but I gave you a whole new way to conceptualize Sunday. Back to the list.

No other gods
No idols
No misuse of God’s name
No Sabbath labour
Honour your father and mother
No murder
No adultery
No theft
No false witnessing
No coveting

To be fair, it is tricky to remember all ten, fingers or not. Add the fact that the Roman Catholic Ten Commandments are different from the Protestant Ten Commandments, and you have a recipe for confusion. I'll say more about this when Exodus 20 comes up in the lectionary next, some time in the next three years.

It's remarkable that when asked, Jesus neglected the Ten Commandments in favour of two found outside of Exodus 20, in this case from Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19. Listen again:

"Teacher, " the man asked, "which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?"

37Jesus replied, "‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’£ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’£ 40All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."

It's all so clear and seems so definitive, so "last-wordish" that I'm tempted to define it as one of those passages that speaks for itself and doesn't require interpretation or preaching. "The words have power," my mentor Douglas would say, "let them speak." Of course the danger for preachers is that if we going around saying that the passages speak for themselves then we would soon be out of work. Instead we ask the text questions and try to answer them in an effort to find deeper meaning in the scriptures.

The first obvious question is 'what is the relationship between these two commandments?' Do they stand alone, or are they inseparable? The answer, I think, can be found elsewhere in the scriptures, in this case 1 John 4. The author of 1 John has strong feelings on the matter:

20If someone says, "I love God," but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we have not seen? 21And God himself has commanded that we must love not only him but our Christian brothers and sisters, too.

In other words, you can't profess to be a child of God and refuse to get along with the other children. The command to love neighbour grows out of the command to love God, giving it a focus and highlighting a practical implication. You can't have one without the other.

Still on this topic, if I was trying to define the most common "sin" of the United Church, I could begin with this passage. Listen again and you may hear it:

"‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Sometimes I think we took the phrase "a second is equally important" and ran with it. We are famous for our ability to "do" and less famous for our ability to "be." We love to "seek justice and resist evil," to "love and serve others," and all the other aspects of our ministry to others that seems to come so naturally. It seems to be central to our make-up (or pathology) that when confronted with the twin ideas of "worship and work" we choose the latter over the former. It has become our comfort place.

I want to share with you a few sentences from the author Marva Dawn. She is a professor of worship.

To worship the Lord is -- in the world's eye -- a waste of time. It is indeed a royal waste of time, but a waste nonetheless. By engaging in it, we don't accomplish anything useful in our society's terms.

Worship ought not to be construed in a utilitarian way. Its purpose is not to gain numbers nor for our churches to be seen as successful. Rather, the entire reason for our worship is that God deserves it. Moreover, it isn't even useful for earning points with God, for what we do in worship won't change one whit how God feels about us. (p. 1)

Perhaps in your mind you are disagreeing right now and thinking "worship is never a waste of time" and by thinking this you are proving Marva Dawn's point. By attending a service of public worship, by entering this place where God is praised you are engaging in a counter-cultural act. You are engaging in an act that doesn't increase Canada's GDP, GNP, or any other marker that begins with G and ends in P. Your participation today seems incomprehensible to many, a throwback, the vestige of an earlier age.

Perhaps we wonder about this ourselves. Perhaps in our uncertainty or even discomfort with worshiping God for the sake of worshipping God we dress it up. Perhaps we blend commandments and say "we worship on Sunday to get inspired to do good things all week long." And this may be the case. Or perhaps not. Worship, the desire to love God with all your heart and all your soul and all you mind can be a "stand alone" activity. It is, after all, the first and greatest commandment.

A helpful reminder on this topic came to me through the theologian Beldon Lane in the form of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. If there are any former Presbyterians out there (that actually includes all of us, if you examine our United Church DNA) you will be familiar with the first question (ignore the archaic language, please)

Q. What is the chief end of man?

A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Remembering that this is a summary of Reformation theology, and that part of the purpose of the catechism is to defeat any suggestion that you can earn your salvation through doing good works, the emphasis is squarely in the first commandment and not the second. In fact, "love your neighbour" gets a mention in question 42 before the text returns to a detailed look at the Ten Commandments.

My point here is that few of us, if pressed to define the purpose of life, would answer "to glorify God." We might say "to be a good person" or "to serve others" or "to live in a godly manner" but likely not "to glorify God." In the same manner, when asked why we worship, we will try to come up with all sorts of practical reasons that the world might see as valuable, rather than the simple reason that "God deserves it."

One of the most important things to remember when we re-emphasize the need to love God with all our hearts and all our souls and all our minds is that the feeling is mutual. "We love him, because he first loved us," the author of 1 John says, recognizing that creation was first and foremost an act of love. It is in this spirit that we open our hearts, for God the great teacher has much to reveal.

I want to give the last word to St. Augustine, saying what I only struggle to say.

You awake us to delight
in your praises;
for you made us for yourself,
and our hearts
are restless until they
rest in you. Amen.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Proper 24

Matthew 22

15Then the Pharisees met together to think of a way to trap Jesus into saying something for which they could accuse him. 16They decided to send some of their disciples, along with the supporters of Herod, to ask him this question: “Teacher, we know how honest you are. You teach about the way of God regardless of the consequences. You are impartial and don’t play favourites. 17Now tell us what you think about this: Is it right to pay taxes to the Roman government or not?”

18But Jesus knew their evil motives. “You hypocrites!” he said. “Whom are you trying to fool with your trick questions? 19Here, show me the Roman coin used for the tax.” When they handed him the coin, 20he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”

21“Caesar’s,” they replied.

“Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to him. But everything that belongs to God must be given to God.” 22His reply amazed them, and they went away.

I'm thinking of forming a union. I'm going to call it the International Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Subsequent Born Children. Who are we? We're not first born, I'll tell you that. How do I know, aside from the fact that I have an older brother? I'll tell you: photographic evidence. Or to be clearer, a lack of photographic evidence.

First born, you know who you are. You know what you looked like. There are countless photos of you: sleeping, smiling, walking, sitting, and doing nothing at all. Subsequent born, where are our photos? My mother will leaf through old pictures and the dialogue is always the same:

Me: Is that me?
Mother: Sure it is. No, wait, that's your brother.
Me: Is this one me?
Mother: Ahhhh...no.
Me: Surely this is me.
Mother: I'm not sure, honey. Does it really matter? I mean, you and your brother look so much alike.

I look in the mirror and can see myself, so I know I exist. The problem is finding something that confirms that I was once a baby. In the absence of photographic evidence, we subsequent born are left to ponder the possibility that we arrived as children rather than infants. Perhaps one day we just wandered in off the street.

Now, to be fair to parents, especially the "first born shutterbugs," the first kid is a novelty. Who knew a child could do so many things? Once the novelty has worn off, the camera goes away. Perhaps our union will begin by teaching subsequent born infants to do unique and surprising things. "Quick, honey, get the camera. The baby seems to be writing a novel or finding a cure for some incurable disease."

***

20Jesus asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on this coin?”
21“Caesar’s,” they replied.
“Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to him. But everything that belongs to God must be given to God.” 22His reply amazed them, and they went away.

There seems to be an informal rule in biblical interpretation that the shorter and more enigmatic the passage, the more interpreters who claim to have the definitive understanding of the text. Few passages are as quoted and yet as widely misunderstood as "render unto Caesar."

Let's see: Pay your taxes; support the government; separate church and state; be a good citizen. Maybe all of these. Maybe none. I wonder if the statement was more in the realm of a Zen Buddhist koan, "a puzzling, often paradoxical statement, used as an aid to meditation and a means of gaining spiritual awakening." (dictionary.com) The Zen master will pose a koan and send the novice away, to allow him to find meaning or solve the riddle.

Perhaps Jesus was posing a kind of koan, to give us something to puzzle over 2000 years later, of maybe just as a way of escaping a difficult situation. I think I favour the latter.

The context, of course, is Roman occupation. The occupying army brought its currency with it and insisted that all commerce occur in Roman coins. For the Jewish population, this was problematic as much for the use of Caesar's image on the coin as for the inscription: Tiberius Caesar, son of the Divine Augustus.

Describing Tiberius as the son of God was blasphemy and using the coins was treason to the cause of Jewish independence . Ditto from the Roman point of view. Rejecting Roman coins was an act of treason because it undermined Roman rule. Jesus' religious opponents simply banded together with some Roman supporters and posed an impossible question. Either response to the question "is it lawful to Roman tax" would lead to treason.

Having successfully mystified his audience, we are still left with the task of finding meaning in the text. "Give therefore to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, and to God the things that are Gods" must teach us something. Maybe we need to break it down to its constituent parts.

Whose image? Pictures in the ancient world were rare. Some cultures rejected portraiture and most others limited the practice to the most powerful and wealthy. There is a unusual mosaic portrait in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul where Christ in seated between the Empress Zoe and her husband. What makes this image unique is that Zoe had a number of husbands, and each time there was a change, the former guy was chipped away and the new guy was inserted in his place. Sobering thought, really.

Whose image is this? Jesus' question, coin in hand, points to the image of Caesar, and his logical conclusion that the coin belongs to Caesar. Now imagine Jesus pointing to any of the people that surrounded him and asking the question "whose image?" The literal answer would be John or Mary or Mordecai and the non-literal answer would be God's image. We bear the image of God and therefore, following this reasoning, we belong to God.

While Jesus was busy skating through the tricky question of blasphemy and treason, he takes care to remind the people around him that they belong to God. In other words, ignore the coins and get on with the business of belonging to God and discovering all that it means. If I belong to God it will have implications for my work, my family life and even in the way I spend my money. It will require a new way of thinking.

Whose inscription? The irony here is intentional. The earliest readers of this text would have known that the coin said "Tiberius Caesar, son of God." They would have delighted in the fact that the one whom they worship as the Son of God was holding a coin that claimed the opposite. It would have strengthened them in an era when the earliest and most popular creed of the church was also the simplest: "Jesus is Lord."

When they went about saying "Jesus is Lord" they were really saying "Jesus, not Caesar, is Lord." Jesus is the lord of my life, not a Roman king who demands to be worshipped. Jesus is Lord, not Tiberius, not his money, not the marketplace, not the Prime Minister and certainly not the President. Jesus is the Lord of my life.

***

Looking at the rare baby picture (there are a handful) I know that I was created in the image of God. I know that this comes with implications: how I live my life, where I place my loyalty, what value I ascribe to each experience. Looking into the face of others, I also God's image. I see God in an infinite number of shapes and sizes, in colours and modes of dress, in every social and economic group. I see God in the face of the people I care for and (despite myself) in the faces of the people I struggle to care for.

This is our call: to see God's face in everyone we meet. To give them to God in our service and in our prayer. To always give thanks. Amen.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Proper 23

Deuteronomy 8
7For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land of flowing streams and pools of water, with springs that gush forth in the valleys and hills. 8It is a land of wheat and barley, of grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, olives, and honey. 9It is a land where food is plentiful and nothing is lacking. It is a land where iron is as common as stone, and copper is abundant in the hills. 10When you have eaten your fill, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11"But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and laws. 12For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, 13and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, 14that is the time to be careful. Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.

The pattern is well known to each of us:

I had a terrible case of...
But then I discovered...
And now...

Anyone who has ever watch more than a minute of television can fill in the blanks. "I had terrible dandruff, but then I discovered Head and Shoulders and now I'm dandruff free." You too can be an ad writer. Let's try it together:

I had a terrible case of...
But then I discovered...
And now...

This simple and well-worn formula works on the highly attuned sense on inadequacy that each of us feel. My teeth are not white enough. My dishes are not white enough. Even my whites are not white enough. Am I the only one who puzzles over the concept of whiter whites? Thank goodness I'm colourblind, although I'm not altogether certain that this makes me exempt from having whiter whites and brighter brights and all the other things that rhyme with unspeakable cleanliness.

***

7For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land of flowing streams and pools of water, with springs that gush forth in the valleys and hills. 8It is a land of wheat and barley, of grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, olives, and honey. 9It is a land where food is plentiful and nothing is lacking. It is a land where iron is as common as stone, and copper is abundant in the hills. 10When you have eaten your fill, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

It seems that the Bible is not beyond the time-honoured approach that many an ad man could understand. Walter Brueggemann, Old Testament scholar, draws the connection between the familiar pattern in advertising and a biblical formula regarding giving thanks. The pattern is as follows:

1. A review of a crisis that God has solved.
2. An account of a rescue from trouble, which is fully credited to God.
3. An invitation that the community join in thanksgiving. (p. 211)

Looking at all of Deuteronomy 8, we find all the elements are there:

Remember how the LORD your God led you through the wilderness for forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would really obey his commands.

Do not become proud at that time and forget the LORD your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry.

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land...when you have eaten your fill, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.

The pattern--crisis, rescue and thanksgiving--appears throughout the scriptures: in the historical writings, in the Psalms, and in some of the prophetic writings. It is a pattern that is familiar beyond the trivializing realm of advertising and finds itself in everyday life. How often do we recount personal stories that follow essentially the same pattern. Something bad happened; we were saved; thank heavens for that. As a mode of story telling, it makes good text. We convey our stories using the conventional pattern because it honours the resolution by framing it in a dramatic way.

The biblical text usually goes further. Re-read a variety of crisis-rescue-thanks passages and you will also find a set of warnings. Think of the drug ads that list all of the possible side effects that may occur. Can a drug be any good if the list of side effects is longer that the list of benefits? And I love it when the side effects contradict one another. "May cause drowsiness or sleeplessness." Or the standard "Do not operate heavy machinery." Am I to presume that heavy machine operators take a lot of medication?

Warning:

If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods, worshiping and bowing down to them, you will certainly be destroyed. Just as the LORD has destroyed other nations in your path, you also will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.

The greatest temptation in the context of these passages is misplaced thanks. In many ways, it makes sense. Imagine you are an ancient near-eastern farmer and you are worried about your crop. You are busy praying to God for a good harvest. You know, however, that your neighbour over the next hill is praying to another god, maybe a more specific god like a harvest god or a wheat god, and tell me that you wouldn't be a little bit tempted.

For years my parents had a little St. Christopher thingy on their dashboard that some previous owner left there. When challenged on not being Roman Catholic, not being in the habit of praying to saints, or even the fact the St. Christopher has been de-listed from the official list of saints, my parents remained unrepentant. "We're doing okay so far," they would say, "so the thingy stays." End of discussion.

Back to our ancient near-eastern farmer, the temptation to utter a little prayer to Baal (which can be easily translated to mean "other neighbourhood gods) was very great. God, our God, however, is a little particular about such things. Re-read the ten commandments and you will recall that idolatry is something that God won't tolerate. Most often, it is rooted in our inability to give thanks where thanks is due.

Today, of course, idolatry is bigger than ever. Self-congratulation and an unwillingness to thank God for the things we enjoy is epidemic. Read anything that is even vaguely related to personal finance or success in the marketplace and you will find that familiar theme of misplaced thankfulness. After we have given thanks for self-directed RRSPs, a low prime rate and the so-called success of the big 5 we seem to have little time left for the Creator And Maker of All.

***

At Passover, Jewish families pause to remember the Exodus and give thanks for rescue from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. The format is most often question and answer, with the youngest child asking the traditional Passover questions and the father or leader of the ritual providing the answers. Let's listen in:

How is this night different from all other nights?

For on all other nights we eat both leavened and unleavened bread, but on this night only unleavened bread. On all other nights we eat meat that is roasted, boiled or cooked; but on this night only roasted. On other nights we eat many dishes, but this night we have only these before us.

Why is this night so special?

This night is like no other in our year, for this night is special to the people of Israel. This was the night when we passed from death to life, from slavery to freedom.

Notice the immediacy of the language and the extent to which it seems to ignore time. "This is the night WE passed from death to life, from slavery to freedom." Not our ancestors: we were released from bondage and entered into freedom. Why?

The language is immediate because for God time does not exist. Time is a human construct designed to make us late for things. Time is an artificial means to send things to the past that properly belong in the here and now. For everyone who sits around a table and considers Pharaoh there are obvious ways to define bondage. Bondage to patterns of behaviour. Bondage to things that bring us temporary distraction. Insert your bondage here...

From Walter Brueggemann:

As Pharaoh is a harbinger for all such oppressors, so the narrative makes clear that Pharaoh in the end is always defeated. This narrative and its immense generativity represent the most compelling mode the Bible has through which to enunciate the decisive conviction that the world and the reality God are deeply intertwined, so that the well-being of the world is a gift of God's glory.

***

We give thanks because we are surrounded by immeasurable bounty. We give thanks because God is endlessly generous with things we need from the food on our table to the forgiveness we crave. It is a familiar idea that God knows our need before we ask it, and sets it before us.

We are most thankful for minds to know God and minds to discern God's desire for us. At thanksgiving, amid the celebration of bounty, we don't lose sight of the families we serve through the foodbank, for example, and look to God for the strength to continue this ministry and work to an end to all foodbanks. We seek God's help in freeing families from the bondage of poverty. We cannot do it alone.

May God bless us as we gather together to express thanks. Amen.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Proper 22

Philippians 3
If others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! 5For I was circumcised when I was eight days old, having been born into a pure-blooded Jewish family that is a branch of the tribe of Benjamin. So I am a real Jew if there ever was one! What's more, I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. 6And zealous? Yes, in fact, I harshly persecuted the church. And I obeyed the Jewish law so carefully that I was never accused of any fault.
7I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ 9and become one with him. I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God's law, but I trust Christ to save me. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!
12I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. 13No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be,[c] but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.


Where, in your house, do the most meaningful conversations take place?
Growing up, the conversation place was always the kitchen table. Whether during a meal, or simply the place where a quiet cup of tea was shared, the kitchen table seemed to be the first choice on most occasions. As I grew older, and we moved to a larger house that included a formal dining room and a living room away from the television, the meeting place remained the kitchen table.

The kitchen table was also the venue for the heated social and political discussions that characterize the time my family spent (and spend) together. If a family could be described as a newspaper, we would be the Globe, the Post and the Star. Imagine three editorial boards sharing a meal, and you get a glimpse of the conversation. Now, you folks don't know me yet, and so you will need to wait and discover which paper I represent.

The other important function of meal times was to act as a kind of filter for friends and girlfriends. "I don't like it: your family fights too much" was usually a bad sign in that quest for relationship compatibility. This is how we communicate. It is who we are. And in my late teen years, when my family found the church, the table conversation became that much more interesting. It then became Globe, Post, Star and Observer.

***

I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God's law, but I trust Christ to save me.

Listening to Paul, we have entered in the middle of a conversation where the overall concern is claiming faithfulness. The debate within the church at Philippi concerned keeping the Jewish law as the number of non-Jews in their midst continued to expand. The church was searching for an identity, a place of common commitment, and some in the church had settled on circumcision.

It was a painful idea to say the least, and so the congregation turned to Paul to help them determine the heart of religious observance and there was a need to undergo such a drastic procedure. Paul begins with his religious resume, detailing his past as an enemy of the church. He was zealous in his desire to defend the tradition from the emerging Jesus movement, and does a bit of bragging to make his point.

Then he turns a corner. "I have discarded everything else," he said, "counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with him." In fact, "garbage" is the polite translation of the Greek. The more accurate word is "dung" or whatever expletive you prefer to insert in your personal translation of the text. Having discarded strict adherence to the law as the centre of his faith, he finds a new centre: "I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God's law," he said, "but trust Christ to save me." He goes further still:

As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!

***

My experience of pastoral care within the context of a congregation also leads to the kitchen table. It is the place we tend to gather when pain is shared and the texture of our life with God is explored. It is the place where (at our best) we can relax and let down our guard and experience the unity that God desires. Again, words from Paul:

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ? Seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we are all partake of the one bread. (1 Cor. 10)

The sacred meal that Jesus began was first a meal. Even in the early church there are reports that the "Lord's Supper" (as it was becoming) happened with a shared evening meal, and that the proclamation of the Word remained in the morning. Only later did the two become one, as the Lord's Supper became less physical nourishment and more spiritual nourishment.

As a meal, it is obvious that the same pattern of table fellowship that existed through the week would enter the weekly sacred meal. The same conversations, the same caring (maybe a squabble or two) and the same commitment to one another existed in the context of broken bread and shared wine. Paul reminds us that "we, who are many, are one body" when we take our place at the table. Having taken on Christ, sharing his meal, sharing in his death, we also participate in his resurrection. Your table becomes the communion table and becomes Christ's table at the heavenly banquet. Each table and every believer is one.

***

All of this has two implications. For the first one, I will allow the late Henri Nouwen to explain:

When we dare to speak from the depth of our heart to the friends God gives us, we will gradually find new freedom within us and new courage to live our sorrows and joys to the full. Nothing will give us so much strength as being fully known and fully loved by fellow human beings in the Name of God. That gives us the courage to drink our cup to the bottom, knowing it is the cup or our salvation.

In other words, communion is communion, and it only works when we bring the whole of ourselves to this table or any table. We find new courage to be the people God wants us to be when we are surrounded by people with the same desire and the same willingness to leave a guarded interior behind. We find new courage when we can "put on Christ" and become open to our tablemates, freeing them and ourselves to be authentic and vulnerable. Everything else is "dung," Paul would say, everything but out desire to live with Christ and make him known.

For yet another implication, I turn to my friend Bill Kervin. He wrote:

Ever-present God,
you come to us in a stranger's guise.
and are known in every breaking of bread.
Open us to your presence
in the faces of those whom we meet,
that we may see
in every welcome extended
and in all food shared
communion with you.
It is for the sake of the whole human family,
that we pray that this might be so. Amen.

Think of it as a prayer for a foodbank, where communion takes on yet another meaning, communion with all regardless of means or place or circumstance. "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers," the author of Hebrews reminds us: "for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." In the breaking of bread Christ is revealed, in the distribution of bread God's desire for justice is made known. We share food for the sake of the whole human family, joining what was once an empty table to this table.

At the centre of every table is Christ's longing: Longing to join with your family and take that extra place at the table; longing to build the fellowship of this table and reach more people in this community; longing for justice that will see scarcity at table become abundance; and longing that all tables, by God's grace, become one.

Amen.