Flight Insurance - a sermon for June 23/2013

The inspiration you seek is already within you.  Be silent and listen (Rumi)

Flight Insurance

June 23/13  Year C - 5^th after Pentecost -  I Kings 19

Coming back to church after being on maternity leave for a year has been wonderful, thank you for kindness as I merge back in. It has been great to see you all again and to catch up a little bit,I look forward to re-connecting with more of you. I am excited to know where God is calling us to now in the ministry of Pike Bay and Lions Head United Churches. Part of what I did to prepare for my return was to re-engage my ministry brain – try to get it out of baby brain by making some goals about what I hope to do over the next little while.  I have been reading a wonderful book  on preaching, called Preaching that Matters – it is written not by a preacher as most preaching books are -  instead it is written by a member of the laity - Lori Carrell, who is a professor of communication at the University of Wisconsin.  She has spent many years studying the effects of  sermons on it listeners and has discovered a few things in the process – the most important thing that she feels that she has discovered is what  people expect when they come to church.   Do you know what it is?  – the number one expectation people have when they come to church? ---------They expect to be transformed – they expect to be met by God and be spiritually transformed in this hour and they are expecting the sermon to do that.   

Although she is American and has pulled her statistics from the US she surveyed hundreds of preachers and thousands of lay people over course of a few years.  I think her results are as relevant for us up north as well.  We come to church because there is something that we do here that is different than any other activity we participate in during the week.   Our number one reason for being here is not to be entertained or informed or to be taught some interesting facts about the bible, and we are not only here for fellowship and food and catching up with our neighbours – although all these things are important, they are not the number one reason why we are here this morning – we are here wanting God to get in and change our life.  And not only that, we expect that something new and wonderful and God given can happen to us  in this short period of time so that when we focus our attention on the words in the sermon and open ourselves up to the holy spirit in our midst we anticipate that transformation.  

Spiritual transformation – a pretty large expectation,  a bit intimidating from  my point of view –none the less -  I get the truth of it because I have been just like you – I have sitting in the pew for the last year expecting something as I worshiped – and you know what - sometimes I received what I expected – sometimes I left worship being transformed, being lifted, being re-connected, being reminded that I am child of God and God is not done with me yet.  Spiritual Transformation is what we are seeking, this type of transformation is what Elijah is seeking as well –he just doesn’t know it yet.  Elijah in this part of his story is so discouraged and distraught he is on the point of giving up, he is so despairing he plunks himself under the broom tree and says – God take me now – cause I am done– but God doesn’t  – because God is not done with him yet .  It is time for another transformation.

I think that all of us at some time or other in our lives gets to this place this place where we need another transformation -  where everything feels like it is not worth it and no matter what you do or where you go everything feels dry, despondent, dreary.  That’s the place where we meet Elijah this morning.  It is a bit of a contradiction – actually because he has just come from a high place – remember the story from the first of June – on top of Mount Carmel – having it out with the 450 priests of Baal – pitting God against them – the alter, the bull, the trench and the 12 buckets of water to which God sends fire – fire to consume not only the bull, not only the wood but also the stones alter as well – and all was turned to ash.  And God is the winner in the great God against the gods contest  and therefore Elijah won as well– and he also got rid of his enemies – the  450 priests of Baal where slaughtered that day also – we will kind of gloss over the that atrocity – and focus instead of Elijah’s state of mind as he comes from this place of victory and runs smack into the understanding that the queen of Israel – Jezebel is not a happy woman because her priests have been destroyed and so she vows that she will get Elijah – make him pay - and do to him what he has done to her priests.

So, Elijah is running for his life as he goes out into the desert.  And he is afraid– he is afraid for his existence and he is exhausted, and he is down, way down – down to the point where all he wants to do is end it all – he has no more ability to continue,no more energy for life and parks himself under neath that broom tree to await his demise.  Unfortunately for him - God is not done with him yet and sends him an angel with some food, and water to sustain him, twice, and it is enough sustenance to take him on a forty day and forty night trek across the wilderness to mount Horab.  40 days and 40 nights is biblical language for ‘the time it takes for something to shift – 40 days in an ark for the land to appear, 40 years in the desert to find the promise land and later for Jesus 40 days to prepare and move into intense ministry.  Forty days and nights Elijah crosses to the mountain – where he goes and holes up in a cave to await – wait for whatever is next.

Each and every one of us has undergone, will undergo,or  is presently living times in times such as these.  Times off challenge, times of despair, times of sadness – it could be because of the end of marriage, or a health crisis –yours or your loved one, or the death of a loved one, or a financial crisis, or our children are struggling, or the loss of a dream, or even for no obvious reason at all - each and everyone of us will spend some time in the desert in our lifetime. – but we are people of God, and part of what we do here in this church each week is remind us that we are people of God and that means something – especially in our desert times – that God is with us – we are not alone.

Ten years ago I was in similar place to Elijah –not that I had a queen trying to get me killed – still, I was at one of the lowest points in my life to date.  My fifteen year marriage was ending –and I was lost and confused and alone and afraid, scared for my life as I did not know how to live on my own – I had moved from  my parents home to my husbands home.  Now all of a sudden I was living alone and making all the decisions not only for myself but also for my three teenage sons .  The separation of my husband and my self was causing a separation in the congregation I was serving and so it became apparent after a couple of months  that I needed to leave my job, my home, and move – fear – and I felt that I needed to move quickly so that I could get my boys enrolled in their new schools as early in September as possilble – more fear.  I accepted an appointment in Tara and they agreed to let me move into the manse three weeks early – I obtained permission from Blind River to waive the 90 days and from the time that I knew I needed to leave until the time I arrived on this side of Lake Huron –and disembarked from the ferry in Tobermory  less than a month had passed.   I was running, running for my life scared out of my mind unsure of everything that I knew and I was on my own.  But I was fed while on the run – I had a prayer in my head – that kept repeating while I reminded myself to breath – We are not alone, we live in God’s world – the first line of the United Church creed – and butterflies  fed me too -  everyday during that summer and fall I would see at least one butterfly and I would remember the prayer  and I would remember to breathe “I am not alone”  and something about that was enough, enough to move into the next day.  Enough to make it to the mountain - It is time for another transformation.

Elijah has arrived at the mountain and waits there for the Lord.  There is certain amount of mystery around what happens next for Elijah – there is wind – hurricane forces winds enough move rocks on the mountain – and there is earth shaking and rock splitting in an earthquake – and there is fire – fire to consume – It seems to me thought – that it is next moment that has all the power -  for Elijah is about to experience the extraodinary, Elijah is about to experience the silence – a silence so profound that God gets in.   – the shear silence – God – nothing – no wind, no rain, no heat, no sound –  there is God!

 It is, I think, hard for us  to understand  just how quiet shear silence is.  We who live lives filled with noise, where silence is rare and shear silence is rarer still – but imagine if you will for a moment that all the machines are shut down and the power bars too so the hum gone, and the kids are quieted and asleep, and it is the middle of the night, and there is no wind or rain and the wave on the shore are not lapping – and the crickets and the owls have gone to sleep – it is that time inbetween – after the last night creature has gone to sleep but before the early morning birds begin their wake up calls – there in that moment between night and day – there is the silence that Elijah heard– the divine silence – where the presence of God is palpable, where the presence of God is in our very breath – breathing in the sacred, breathing out the divine - its in our very core- sheer silence – shear God!

And there in that moment – in that breathe where Elijah and God encounter each other – that is the moment of transformation and Elijah is never the same again.  For that is what happens to us when we encounter the divine, we are transformed and never are the same again.  Oh, we may look the same, we may have the same face, carry the same afflictions, live in the same community and do the same job – but we are changed on the inside because no one – I repeat – no one can met God and not be transformed. 

Be assured that wherever we run to – whenever we choose to run – however far we run  – God will find us – not only find us, will be with us as we run – and when we stop and finally listen, we will have the opportunity to transform – to be changed – Elijah was changed – transformed into a different prophet who left his fear behind and went out to anoint new kings and to face the queen he was afraid of, the queen who was trying to have him silenced and killed– And Elijah now has the ability to name the abuse of power that he witnessed from Ahab and Jezebel.  I became a transformed after my time in the desert and encounter with God in the silence into a adult woman able to handle my own problems and deal with my life relying on myself.   This is our flight insurance – our flight assurance – that God goes with us into our deserts and God meets us in our despair and God then sends us out as transformed people to serve in a new way – or to live into a new reality or just to be a bit more experienced and confident in our ability to handle the tough times.  

Like Elijah, we too belong to God and like Elijah, God is not done with us yet. God wants to transform us -  and it is God that will help us make those changes and give us the gifts we need, the strengths, resources and our church community to go from this place to live in the world as a newly transformed person.  God meets us in the silence – listen.

Back at Work

As you can see from my last post - I am back at work - part of my promise to myself is a new pattern - one that blogs my sermon's and another that has my sermon done earlier - mid Saturday afternoon - done - earlier than usual but not early enough - there is always next week ~H~

Sermon - Jezebel in my Ear

Jezebel in my Ear

June 16     4^th After Pentecost (1 Kings 21 – Naboth’s Vineyard)

Isn’t crazy what’s happening in the world with the leaders of our countries – you don’t know who to trust, I mean look what’s going on – the US president is saying it is okay for regular ordinary folks like you and me to be monitored and so the intelligence agencies he commands are secretly collecting Americans' private phone and internet records.

The president of Syria is using chemical weapons against his own people – and the president of Turkey is using tear gas and water canons, against his own people and now is threatening worse things to come.   The Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei  is blowing off the world concerns that the election in his country was not democratic or transparent, and some are wondering whether their was any point to voting at all because the results seem fixed.

But we don’t have to look out beyond our borders to find folks in power who are making questionable choices.  Take the Senate.  Please take the Senate..ba-da-m-pomp.  This cast of characters and their expense claims has got the country talking about the value of the Senate, and whether it should be based on appointments and just what are your moral and legal obligations when you take on a role such as this.  My father told me a joke which I am still not sure is appropriate from the pulpit but I am hoping for a little forgiveness because this is my first Sunday back.

So – a priest lay dying, and when asked if he had any last wishes he said that he wished for Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau to come to his death bed. They were called for and they came and were ushered into the priest’s bedroom.  The priest did not speak to them just gestured them forward and had Mike Duffy stand on one side of him and Patrick Brazeau stand on the other.  He still did not speak and the two men were getting restless just standing there, finally, they could not take the silence anymore and asked as politely as they could, why they had been called to his deathbed. The priest finally spoke and said, well my brothers it’s like this – I wanted to die like Jesus with a thief on my right side and another on my left.

And we know of course that it is not just our appointed leaders that are making news – this mayor has taken notoriety to whole new level and is even being featured on American late night talk show jokes.

And you wonder what is the world coming to – how could it have gotten so bad- it didn’t used to be this way – things used to be better and people were more honest and had integrity and we could trust our leaders to do the right thing - but did it....what about The Air Ambulance Scandal or how we handled the Walkerton Water issue, or Robocalls – when you google “Canadian Political Scandals they have information on over 50 different scandals some that date back to the leadership of Sir John A. McDonald – and that only includes Canada since confederation – I imagine scandal were happening, corruption was present in British North America, and New France as much as it is today – It seems that the adage about power is timeless that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely as witnessed in the ancient story we just heard from the book of Kings.

 Around about 850 BC the King of Israel was named Ahab and he had married Jezebel the daughter of the King of Tyre, more than likely as a political alliance that was common in those days.  Jezebel was a follower of the Baal religion of her people. 

Now the story goes like this – beside the palace of the king and queen was a vineyard – a lovely and productive piece of land.  The king admired this land and wished to own it himself so he approached the owner – Naboth and asked for him to sell him the land. Naboth refused because he did not feel that the land was his to sell.  It was family land, passed down to him from his father’s lineage and he believed that God had gifted the family with this land therefore it was not his to sell. 

The king did not like this refusal and he took himself into his chambers and had a big sulk because he did not get what he wanted – in the midst of his sulk the queen comes in to ask him what’s wrong and when he tells her that Naboth won’t sell him the vineyard, Jezebel is irritated, and in Eugene Petersons words from the Message:  “ Jezebel said, “Is this any way for a king of Israel to act? Aren’t you the boss? On your feet! Eat! Cheer up! I’ll take care of this; I’ll get the vineyard of this Naboth the Jezreelite for you.”

And so she schemes a scheme, plans a plan and plots a plot where she hires a couple of men of questionable character to spread some lies about Naboth at formal dinner and the lies they spread upset the guests of the meal so much they stoned him to death.  When news came to Jezebel that Naboth was dead she informed Ahab that he could now get the land as Naboth was dead – which Ahab did as fast as his little feet could carry him.  Not once did Ahab inquire of his wife how all of this came about, not ever did Ahab ask by what means Naboth met his fate.  All he cared about was the procurement of the land.

You know who are we to judge this king – as indicated at the top of this sermon we are witnessing many of our present day kings and queens, leaders and rulers making questionable decisions based on what appears to be greed and selfishness and corruption.  

I want to apologize to Jezebel right now – she has been much maligned and honestly I think she has been given a bad deal – truthfully – I think she was a woman of her times – she was born into privilege, and raised to believe that she was above others and had rights and entitlements that were due to her as her birth right.  Yet her name has become synonymous with evil, corruption, avarice, seduction and all things bad.  So I am going to use her name in vain as a representation of that voice in our minds that convinces of us that doing wrong is doing right.  The voice the convinced Ahab that the land should be his and he should have it no matter what.

The voice of Jezebel – the voice that says to us – we have the right, we are entitled, justice is only from my perspective, no one has the right to deny me what I want – that voice – Jezebel’s voice – is within each of us.  It is the voice the justifies our bad behaviour – the voice that coats over our responsibility to another, the voice that tries to convince us that it is our right to have so much when others have so little, that we deserve our prosperity and wealth when so much of the world lives in poverty, that it is our right to waste our resources even though people are dying o f starvation.   That we can continue to reap the earth of its resources even though our grandchildren will suffer, that a child who dies of starvation or malnourishment or a curable disease is another part of the world is not our issue , that victims of crime, torture, violence or oppression are responsible for their own plights– that’s some of the  big stuff where  Jezebel’s voice gets us off the hook.

But there is the little stuff too, where Jezebel sticks in her opionion -  that is the stuff around our everyday decisions that we make because it is convenient or cheaper or not as much work, or easier– or nobody saw us so we can treat it like it never happened...

When I was 13 years old we lived in Alberta.  I have an aunt who lives in Edmonton and I spent a week there that year as a pretext to help out Mr Miller, my aunt’s father-in-law who was babysitting his grandchildren while my aunt worked in my uncles office.   One day we were picking up my cousin Jon from the daycare he attended in the mornings.  As he was parking Mr. Miller hooked bumpers with the car in front of him.  He spent the next 15 minutes prying the bumper back on the other car so that he could un-hook his own car, this was in the day of metal bumpers – anyways – he got released, picked up Jon from the daycare, and drove away.  I was shocked to say the least that he did not try to find the owner of the car, he did not leave a note on the windshield to explain what happened and how he could be contacted – in fact he left the bumper still bent and sticking out, not even putting it back where it belonged.  When I cautiously questioned him – and remember I am 13 and he is in his 50’s – he informed me that it was not his fault, it was the fault of the other driver because he had parked his car in the wrong spot.  Therefore he was not responsible.  And Jezebel said  – drive away in self righteous indignation because the other car’s owner parked illegally.

And Jezebel says:  I can leave my garbage here because the township moved the bins

And Jezebel says:  I will shop at a store that I know uses child labour or unsafe labour policies because it is cheaper and more convenient

And Jezebel says:  I do not need to declare this other source of income on my income tax form

And Jezebel says:  I can download a movie and watch it for free

And Jezebel says:  If I don’t do my best no one will know

And Jezebel says:  I can pretend I do not see the homeless person with their hand out

And Jezebel says:  My kids are better than yours and should get first kick of the can in all instances

and Jezebel says, and Jezebel says, and Jezebel says...lay there in that bed and I will get you what you want.

The point is we all sin in this way – we all have that voice in our head that tries to get our way whether it is the right and proper thing to do.  We all step over the line when we listen to our inner Jezebel and now we are called to own it and acknowledge it and to shift our thinking and our doing.

Let’s return to the story – for it does not end with Ahab getting the land – that is just the preliminaries, the real story is what comes next – for enter the prophet – enter the voice of God.  Elijah says to Ahab- ““I have found you out. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord,”  you sold yourself to do evil – even though you just laid on the bed while Jezebel did all the planning, you sold yourself to evil.  Even though you just laid on the bed as a plot was hatched and two men falsely accused Naboth – you sold yourself to evil, even though you just laid on the bed when Naboth was stoned to death – you Ahab - sold yourself to evil.

Kay Heuy writes:   “we often try to forget what we may be dimly aware of, just as Ahab tried to forget what he knew quite well, that if we stand by and let others do things that benefit us, we are participating in wrongdoing all the same. We may wish it weren't true, but the story of Ahab reinforces that liberation theology teaching about God's preferential option for the poor. We may not have the power of kings and queens, but we do have some power, and with it comes the responsibility to use it for good and not for our own selfish ends. This seems to be what the story of Ahab and Jezebel and Naboth and Elijah is teaching us: that our actions have consequences, and that all of this matters to God.”

It matters to God....it matters where we leave our garbage and where we spend our money, it matters how we treat our children and how we treat  the stranger we meet on the street.  It matters which car we choose to drive and how many plastic bottles of water we choose to drink. It matters to God what we claim on expense forms when the tax payers are fitting the bill and it matters to God that we are honest and take responsibility for messing up.  It matters to God how we live and how we treat each other and how we treat the earth and all its creatures.  It matters in the big things and it especially matters in the small.  God cares and continues to send prophets to remind us just how much he cares.  It mattered to God then and it matters to God now!

So when the voice of Jezebel  comes to our ear – we are called to put that voice away and say:  “sorry honey” your wrong – I am a child of God, just like Naboth was, just like you are and I have no more rights or privileges than anyone else.   And if she is persistent, and sometimes she is, God will find a prophet to send to you.  And if Jezebel’s voice is too loud, listen harder; listen deeper, because underneath all the noise of Jezebel –there in the deep deep silence – there is God.  And you will recognize the voice of God because it is the one saying:  ‘the last shall be first and the first shall be last, and the lion will lie down with the lamb, and blessed are the poor, and the greatest of these is love, and a little child shall lead us – the voice of the prophet – the voice of God speaks with kindness instead of anger, offers a hand instead of a fist, shows tolerance instead of judgement. The voice of the prophet, the voice of God cares for you, cares for others and cares for the world.  The voice of the prophet – the voice of God can drown out the voice of Jezebel every time.

I want to leave you with some images shared with us by a recent Canadian prophet, Astronaut Chris Hatfield.  These are images he took from the spaceshuttle.   Chris’ prophetic voice speaks about the amazing, beautiful, incredible planet that our Creator made for all of his creatures.  He reminds us that borders and boundaries are made by humans and not God.  His images share the grandeur and intricacies that we share with the whole human population and every other creature too – from the smallest of the smallest gnat to the largest of the largest blue whale.

the voice of the prophet – the voice of God speaks with kindness instead of anger, offers a hand instead of a fist, shows tolerance instead of judgement. The voice of the prophet, the voice of God cares for you, cares for others and cares for the world.  The voice of the prophet – the voice of God can drown out the voice of Jezebel every time.