Right Here/ Right Now - a Sermon for July 21

Right Here / Right Now

July 21, 2013         9^th After Pentecost        Luke 10:38-42

PIKE BAY

Well, have you recovered from Wednesday – my oh my you sure were busy over the last week preparing and putting on the country dinner and in the midst of the heat and humidity too.   From my perspective it was a success, plenty of good food, lots of conversation, it seemed like a gathering of friends and neighbours and plenty of empty plates as the food was polished off.   One of the wonderful things that happens in this congregation is this meal pulls you all together, gathering – preparing – setting up –serving all of you working together, bringing in food, setting up tables – each of you working with your strengths.  And in the midst of the dinner were you enjoying  yourself?  Did you take time to sit and eat and visit with your friends and neighbours?  Or did you find it was just a lot of work, and you could not wait to get home to get your feet up?  Did you take the time to step back from the hub-bub and think – hey – this is a pretty amazing moment right now – look at the community gathered – look at God in our midst.

 +++and what if Jesus had showed up.  (And he bought a ticket at the door from Glen and Gary), in the midst of the serving –  would you have been able to leave your post and take a breather and sit at his feet - even though there was more food to put out, and dishes to wash and coffee to serve – and your shift does not end for another 30 minutes – and do you think that you might get resentful of those who were sitting down?

Could you sit there and listen and take in the moment or would the dishes be calling you from the sink – the dirty plates on the table, would they be begging you to clear them, and would you be counting pie pieces making sure that there was enough to go around in case anyone wanted seconds.  How hard would it have been to stay in the moment and be in the right there – the right then – sitting at Jesus feet?

LION’S HEAD

Did any of you manage to get over to Pike Bay on Wednesday for the dinner – it is quite the operation to pull that off – in a congregation where the average age would be in the late 70’s. But they did it and they did a wonderful job – good food, friendly atmosphere and empty plates at the end of the meal. 

Most of us have been involved in a venture such as the Pike Bay Dinner – Many of you help out at the fish dinner – anyone who is a Lioness has been part of such an event or the hospital auxiliary – where a large group of people band together to create an event where people are served a wonderful meal.   It takes a lot of planning, a lot of workers and often a lot of pies – but the community gather and shares a meal and conversation happens – and friendships are restored – it is a good thing as Martha Stewart would say.  It is easy though in the midst of the hub-bub of the cooking and the serving and cleaning up to get so caught up in the production of the meal one can forget to enjoy the moment – to take it all in and to appreciate the community gathered – and to see  God in your midst.

When company comes it is an important thing to get everything ready – it is what hospitality is all about, and it ensures that your guest feels welcome and valued.  In Jesus time this was true as well and it also was a cultural imperative, being able to host a guest well – besides preparing the food, there are also rituals of welcome that are required, rituals around foot washing and table placement, and which hand to use to eat the food.  Martha knows all the different aspects of hosting a guest in her home – and she knows how much work it is – because remember – this was two thousand years ago –before dishwashers and dish soap  and before running water, electricity and central vacuums.   – everything is done by hand from the grinding of the grain, to the milking of the goat to the fermenting of the yogurt.  Company is coming and there is much to do – the story as written by Eugene Peterson:  “^38-40 As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word he said. But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen. Later, she stepped in, interrupting them. “Master, don’t you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand.”

^41-42 The Master said, “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.”

One thing only is essential - I think this is one of the things that made Jesus special and unique – his ability to live in the right now, to not worry about the past or anticipate the future and to know what that one thing was.  Over and over again he reminds his disciples that they should focus on what is happening – then and there and not get caught up in other things - he tells them – they will not have him for long, so appreciate the moment – and he sleeps while they all worry about storms, and he preaches while they worry about food for the crowd – and they worry about the cost of perfume used on his feet  -and they want to build tents on the mountain for Elijah and Moses – and they worry, and they worry and they worry  that there is not enough wine for the guests, that the daughter of Jarius has died, that the woman is a Samaritan, and that that the children will bother Jesus - and they worry so much about the little inconsequential things they miss the miracle –the miracle of being in the presence of Jesus, and witnessing the incredible journey that they are on right now.  Martha, Martha says Jesus this morning –be with me now, be with me here – do not worry about the unimportant things –right here / right now is where you should be focused.

Right here/right now is a tough place to be sometimes, especially when the moment is difficult.  My mother’s death was one such moment for me and my family.  We were given a few hours notice of her impending death and so me and my sisters came home from all over Ontario– Robyn from Toronto, Judy from Thunder Bay and me from Lion’s Head.  We all arrived about the same time – joining my son and my father who were already there and then each of us took turns - going in and spending time with mom.  Still, there were things to do though – food to be bought, meals to prepare, supplies to gather up and although mom had someone with her at all times, various task were being performed throughout the day. I had Erica with me so caring for a four month old baby was a wonderful distraction.  Finally though, around about 5 pm we could no longer avoid the inevitable and all of us together finally gathered in my mom’s room.  For the next 10 minutes we watched as the breath left my mom’s body.  She waited for us to stop all the busy tasks that we were using to avoid facing her death.  She waited for us all to be together, in one room, focused on ‘one essential thing’ which in that moment was that sacred time when my mother passed from this life on to the next.  When we finally stopped putzing around the house doing all the busy work, my mother gifted us with the opportunity to walk with her to the threshold between her life and death.  I will cherish this moment forever. I could have kept busy with tasks and been in the kitchen, washing some dishes or cooking potatoes for supper – but if I had, I would have missed a one time opportunity to be in the sacred space where my family was held by God and we said goodbye to my mother’s earthly life.

It was a time for my family to stop and be in the moment, to let go of our busyness and to be - Kay Heuy writes in her online reflection Weekly Seeds:  “We live in a world that seems to equate busyness with importance or even value; a long to-do list, especially when it's finally completed, gives us a sense of satisfaction and even security…at least, until we start on a new list of tasks to be completed. For many, our days are packed, one after another, with many things, and our minds are full and overflowing, worried and distracted, like Martha, by many things. But Henri Nouwen once wrote that our lives, while full, are often unfulfilled. "Our occupations and preoccupations," he said, "fill our external and internal lives to the brim. They prevent the Spirit of God from breathing freely in us and thus renewing our lives." Can you imagine what life would be like, even for a little while, without all of the things that keep us busy? Can you imagine time--without any distractions, any to-do lists--time for our internal lives, hours spent in being with God, abiding with God, tending our relationship with God, listening to the quiet still voice of God still speaking to us, deep within our hearts?”

What does that mean for us here and now –  how we can take a moment for ‘the better part’ –the King James version of the bible translates it “a needful thing”  isn’t that a beautiful phrase – one needful thing – and such a deep important question.  What is the one needful thing that we need to be doing in this moment.   This is our weekly worship experience and in this moment we needfully should be relaxed and open to the movement of the spirit of God in our midst- so we should not be taking a head count on who is here and who is not here – nor should we be planning our lunch or pulling together the list of things we need to pick up at Hellyers on our way home.  What we should be doing is sitting at Jesus feet – that it to say we should be relaxed and open to the word of God in our midst, we should  praying like we mean it, singing our hymns lustly and open in the times of silence to the voice of God speaking directly to you.  This is our time apart from the world where we come to be refreshed and restored and strenghthed to be sent out again into the world with what we need to love and serve the Lord.

David Lose at working preacher reminds us:  “Martha is doing exactly what was expected of her -- she is working hard to extend hospitality to her guest.....(Martha) has forgotten,(though) ..., that ultimately she is valued and loved not because of what she does, but because of who she is. That is not her intent, of course, but amid her concern to care for Jesus she forgot to listen to him, the One who might remind her that she is a beloved child of God.

 This may not seem a fair characterization, and Jesus’ words may still seem needlessly harsh. So let’s be clear: there is nothing wrong with doing ... the previous story of the Good Samaritan ended with Jesus telling the lawyer “go and do likewise.” But amid all of our doing we, also, can get distracted, lured into thinking that we ultimately will only find our true value and purpose in and through what we do, rather than in who we are, God’s beloved children.”

We are God’s beloved children, first – last – and in between.  And it is so easy in our day to day routines for us to lose sight of this fact - ...

Death beds, hospital rooms, doctors offices, knocks on the door at 3 am, even graveyards have a way of moving us into the moment where the busyness of our lives comes to a screeching halt and we are right there / right now – but Jesus reminds Martha who reminds us-  that throughout the day an ordinary regular day it is always a good time to stop and pause and ask that question ‘ What is my one needful thing – that is what I have to pay attention to in this moment?’  and in the midst of that moment – God gets in –grace happens.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Out of order - Sermon for June 30 - When I'm calling You-ou-ou-ou

When I ‘m Calling You-ou-ou-ou

June 30/13         6^th after Pentecost       2 Kings 2:1-15

About thirty years ago I was student at Trent University in Peterborough.  It was difficult time for me. It was the first real time on my own. I lived in residence.   I went through a wild time, lots of drink, lots of late nights, lots of avoiding the school work.  And about half way through the year, one Saturday night, I reached the bottom , I have no memory about what started this off – but I began to cry, and I cried and I cried and I cried, all night long till one or two in the morning – I cried until there were no more tears left.  I cried because I was sad, I cried because I was lonely – even though I was surrounded by people, I cried because something was missing.  I cried till I fell asleep.  The next morning I remember waking up – and going to breakfast – it is a pretty quiet place Sunday morning on campus – not many people around.  A couple of the people that I ran into that morning were going to church so I went with them – to St. Andrew’s United Church – (Mike’s church if I am not mistaken)  I have no idea what was said that day or what was sung or who the preacher was – what I do remember is that it felt right being there – right enough to return the next week, right enough to make church a habit for the rest of the year, right enough for it to be the beginning of my journey with the United Church, and I have been a part of a United Church congregation in each of the communities that I have lived in since.  It was a call to me to return to the place my mother brought me when I was a child. It was a call to find a place for me that grounded me and connected me   It not my first call and certainly not my last call, but at the time it was significant enough to ground me in the presence of God.  It was my first call to religion, speaking of religion in the truest sense of its meaning without all the baggage our culture has attached to it. 

The word religion comes from the word   – re-ligare, which means  to re-connect – to re-member what is dis-membered:  our own selves, the deep life within us that is a strong “religious” impulse despite whatever our outward  lives may exhibit.  Let me re – phrase this -  to re-member our dis-membered selves – that deep life that is within us that searches for a re-connection to that which is bigger than ourselves – simply put – our reconnection to God. Call is listening for the voice, the silence, the prodding, the moment, when God gets in and something sacred happens and a new direction is discovered.  It is as psychologist William James meant when he described religion as “the attempt to be in harmony with an unseen order of things,” to remember what we already know.  Becoming who we are at whatever stage of life we are in – to learn to listen to God, and to hear God calling us to do and be now in this time in our life.  We as human beings long for this connection, this re-membering.  The church is part of what human beings have developed  to help  facilitate re-connection – reconnection to each other and reconnection to God.  

Greg Levoy defines the purpose of calls  to summon us away from our daily grind to a new level of awareness, into a sacred frame of mind into communion with that which is bigger than itself.  And call has nothing to do with how old we are because you can be 5 or 95 and God will call, or whether we have been called before, because God calls over and over again, and God calls out to everyone – not just those who are called to ministry or missionary work or a religious vocation. God calls to ordinary regular folks like you and me to live and work in the world in way that is pleasing to God.

Now you may be sitting there saying – been there done that –she is not talking to me this morning because I have done my time, or what would God want with an old soul like me – but God does want and God does call – there is no getting out of it because you are old or retired or finished with all that  - but that is not how it works with God. 

We as generation of human beings are very lucky.  At no other time in our history have we had so many options, and those of us in this part of the world, with so many resources at our disposal have so many opportunities that our great grandparents did not have.  We are able to not spend every waking moment of our days seeking the stuff that we need just to survive – that is to say – we have enough wealth that we can have leisure time, time to do things for the sake of doing them.  I read a paper this week on call at a later stage in life, the author indicated that this phenomena of many years of retirement is new to our species:

“Historians note that retirement is a relatively new concept. Until the

twentieth century, few people retired, in the modern sense of the word.

Most people worked until they wore out. With an increasing number of

people in our society today who can expect twenty to thirty years of life

after retirement, and many of those years with relatively good health, we

are faced with new questions about the meaning, purpose, and tasks of

later life.

We have time, we have resources, we have opportunities, we have choice, choice to be open to the voice of God and listen to where we are called now.  And we have choice - choice to listen to the call and respond or not.  Call is listening for the voice, the silence, the prodding, the moment, when God gets in and something sacred happens and a new direction is discovered.

Today we meet Elisha on the verge of a new call – up until this time he has been the student, the mentored, the observer of the prophet Elijah.  Years ago he was plowing in his father’s field the first time the call came to him, Elijah walked by and placed his mantle on Elisha – who had in that moment the choice about whether to stay in the fields and continue to plow following in the footsteps of his father – he made the bold choice, to leave behind all that he knew and become someone else, become the apprentice of the great prophet Elijah – who as you may recall, defeated the 250 priests of Baal and had angered the queen.  It was a dangerous choice to make, in a way, going against the power of his day.  But today he has another choice to make – today he is called again, but this time he is called into a leadership role – this time he has to leave behind his known position as student and strike out on his own and become the prophet he was meant to be.

We join the story as Elijah realizes that it is time for him to die – time for him to leave this earth.  He knows it and he tries to spare Elisha the pain of parting, so invites him to remain behind as he journey’s to the next town – from Gilgal to Bethel – from Bethel to Jericho and from Jericho to the Jordon, at each place Elijah give Elisha an out, and at place Elisha remains firm with Elijah – I will go with you  - even though the company prophet’s are almost taunting Elisha – don’t you know- can’t you see, aren’t you aware – Elijah about to go away– are you ready –be silent says Elisha – shut up – I don’t want to talk about it – I don’t want to know – 

I wonder what Elisha is so afraid of – why he so instant on ignoring the inevitable – pretending that this is just a normal day and he and Elijah are off to do normal prophet things.  And so they come to the Jordan.  Elijah rolls up his mantle strikes the water, which part and off they walk across the river on dry land – a Moses thing to do.  On the other side of the river– Elijah turns to Elisha and asks what can he give him as his parting gift – what final words or actions can he receive from his teacher, his mentor – Elisha asks for double what Elijah has – a hard thing says Elijah –but possible – possible if – if he is able to watch what he is afraid of most – able to watch as Elijah life on earth ends.  So here he is – the moment he has been dreading and he has to decide – will he or won’t he -–will he or will he not face his fears- will he or will he not leave behind the Elisha the student to Elijah – will he or will he not face his fear of being alone, being responsible, making the decisions , having to figure out what God is calling – relying on himself  instead of Elijah –if he can watch Elijah go – which is true biblical story telling fashion is quite a spectacular sight to see with flaming horses and a chariots and whirlwinds – and he did – he faced the fear of death to the old – faced the fear of being alone – faced the fear of relying on himself – faced the fear of not being ready and not being enough – and picked up the mantle of Elijah, walk back to the Jordon, struck the water and walked through on dry land to the other side and his new life as Elisha the prophet.

God calls...God calls people, young and old, male and female, Christian and non-christian – Call is listening for the voice, the silence, the prodding, the moment, when God gets in and something sacred happens and a new direction is discovered.

God called

Mary Delany, when she was 72 God called her to become an artist.  She was a paper cutter, she cut and piled small pieces of paper on top each other to create the colours that she wanted to make  flowers.  Her flowers were true copies of plant life.  She made over 1700 prints in the 15 or so years she was productive.  Mary Delany lived from 1700 - 1788, at a time when woman did not have careers, unless they were in service. Yet not only did she reach popularity with her contemporaries, her work  impressed the king and queen that they gave Mary  a house to live in and a pension of 600 pounds a year which was quite a sum in 1700’s. Some of her paper flower mosaques as she called them still hang in the British Art Gallery.  God called Mary to make flowers with paper to share her gift of beauty with the world.

God calls us when we are 70, and God calls us when we are seven.  God’s voice can come in many shapes and forms.  Call is listening for the voice, the silence, the prodding, the moment, when God gets in and something sacred happens and a new direction is discovered.

Janina Fialkowska (Yanina – Filoowska) call to play chopin came from an thing.   When she was  younger and exploring around in an antique shop in Poland, she came upon a plaster mold of Fredrick Chopin’s hands.  She picked it up and noticed right away that Chopin’s hands were similar in size to her hands.  As she held them and looked closer she realized that that her hands almost looked exactly like Chopin’s hands.  She said that when she made this discovery how could she not become a concert pianist.  Janina focuses much of her life work playing Chopin.  God called to her in a plaster cast.

God calls, and calls and calls – and sometimes it takes us years to listen.  For much of her life Siobhan Dowd, was called to write – what she focused on instead was helping others write, she ran a prision writing program, for many years.  When she was forty two she finally wrote her first novel.  Two of her first novels for young adults received much critical acclaim.   She died at 47 of breast cancer after having written only four novels.  God calls at the beginning of life and at the end of life too.

I have been reading:  The End of Your Life Book Club:  By Will Schwalbe.  It is a memoir about the final year or so of his mother’s life and the books that they read and discussed together to pass the time as waited for her chemo treatments.  Will’s mother Mary Ann is a great example of a woman who responds to a call in this the final part of her life as she is dying from pancreatic cancer.  In spite of all the discomfort of her illness and treatment, Mary Ann is called to create a library in Afghanistan .  One of the books that Mary Ann turns to in her final days for comfort and support was Daily Strength for Daily Needs – a book of days that we compiled in the late 1800’s. The final page had a quote from F. W. Robinson, a 18^th century British novelist that speaks to the ability we all have to listen and heed God’s call even when we feel all our resources are depleted.

F.W. Robinson writes:  “It is not by regretting what is irreparable that true work is to be done, but by making the best of what we are.  It is not be complaining that we have not the right tools, but by using well the tools we have.  What we are, and where we are in God’s providential arrangement, - God’s doing, though it may be Man’s misdoing; and the manly and the wise way is to look your disadvantages in the face, and see what can be made out of them.”

God calls throughout our lifetime from the first tentative calls as children on how to live in the world, about caring and kindness and treating all people with respect, to our calls in teenage hood and adulthood around choices we make from careers to partners, from life directions to lifestyle choices, God calls.  God calls and calls and calls until the final call home.  

The final few months of my mother’s life were physically difficult for her.  Her breast cancer had metastasized in her liver.  She choose to try another round of chemo but after first dose, it was obvious that the chemo was making her sicker than her illness so she stopped taking chemo, knowing that the cancer would finally win and win sooner rather than later.  July and August of last year was her time of rapid decline. And in the midst of this God called – God called my mom one last time and said – your time is short – get ready for what is next and do what you need to do.  My mom was called to prepare for her death.  And so she did.

We planned her funeral – her family loved to sing, so she planned a hymn sing in the middle of the service – fifteen minutes to sing a couple of verses of 15 hymns – favorite of hers.  She handpicked her choir – she handpicked the minister, and had both the choir director and minster out to speak with her about the service in August.  She even decided on the menu for the post funeral luncheon.  We talked as a family about her wishes, she made a living will, she had the funeral director out to discuss plans – she spent time that summer with everyone in the family –my mother answered her final call with courage and dignity.

God calls – you and me – from the time of our first breath until our last – God calls. Listen for the voice,  the silence, the prodding, the moment, when God gets in and something sacred happens and a new direction is discovered.   God calls - listen

Sermon - July 14, 2013

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Pentecost 8     July 14, 2013   Luke 10:25…

One day, just after I was born – almost 50 years ago, my grandfather was walking home from work.  He was a butcher and he lived in Melbourne Australia.  He had a heart attack out on the street – but this was in the day before cell phones and 911 – and he fell onto the sidewalk clutching his chest. The people around him did nothing – they either did not know what was happening, or did not care what was happening.  It was the same day that JFK was shot so maybe they were all pre-occupied with what was happening in Texas – but never the less my grandfather fell onto the sidewalk and there he lay for a long time as the people in the streets walked around him to continue on with their business.  My grandfather died that day.  I don`t know who found him or helped him, but someone must have because my grandpa died at home and my father and grandmother were with him.  Somewhere on the streets of Melbourne that day there was a stranger loved his neighbour and my grandpa was able to die surrounded by love.   

The disciples and Jesus are in the midst of a loving moment right now, they have just returned from being sent out and it has been a successful mission.  They were well received, people were healed, peace was passed and the disciples are joyous on their return.  But in the midst of the celebration they are interrupted by a lawyer who stands up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” ²⁷He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” ²⁹But then he asked …Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

My neighbours in Lac Magentic have been suffering this past week.  I have been following the  crisis on the news, and by Wednesday it seemed to have reached a crescendo –that was when Ed Burkhardt the chairman of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway line went to LacMagentic to speak to the townspeople.  He was inundated by reporters – and until the police finally escorted him away – there was a very painful 45 minutes where he seemed unable to say anything right.  Oh he used words like`` sorry`` and ``wish it had never happened``  and he shared that he too felt awful – but he also laid blame, and suggested that the train’s engineer was responsible for the crash.  I think in his heart he was trying to be a neighbor to the to the people of Lac Magentic – but what he ended up being for the people was a blundering, blaming big businessman – he would have been better off to have stayed at home and keeping quiet.  He may have thought that what he was trying to do was considerate and loving but it wasn`t. 

Because blaming is not loving nor is it being a neighbor – and being insensitive to the high emotions of the people in the midst of a terrible crisis is not a loving action either.  It felt like his foray into Lac Megentic was his personal quest for absolution, so that Ed Burkhardt could let go of the guilt and shame of what his trains did.  And it appears that the people of Lac Magentic were able to sniff out his fear his shame, and his lack of empathy.   

Loving our neighbour should be simple thing, but it is not.  Loving is not easy, whether we are loving ourselves, our families, or complete strangers – loving is complicated – and messy.   I also realize that when I use the word love, I am speaking of an emotion that we all feel in one way or another and have all experienced differently from each other, and so there is a certain amount of ambiguity when you use the word love. 

“Brene Brown in her book called the The Gifts of Imperfection: speaks of love as though it is an absolute necessity for all human beings to have in order to exist, and she writes:

“A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all woman, men and children.  We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved and to belong.  When those needs are not met, we don’t function as we were meant to.  We break.  We fall apart.  We numb.  We ache.  We hurt others.  We get sick….

 “Love:  We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honour the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness and affection.

Love is not something we give or get:  it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.``  Pg 26

 And Jesus says “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

So how do I love my neighbour

And Jesus told a story about a man who was beaten up and left for dead on the side of a road, and as he lay there suffering a priest walked by – and for reasons that probably made a lot of sense to the priest – stuff about cleanliness and purity – stuff about proper and right – he walked around the beaten man and continued on his way – and next – a Levite – and he too for reasons not given, but I am sure made perfect sense to him – choose to walk on and leave the man for dead.  The next to come was a Samaritan – and he made a different choice – he had compassion on the beaten man and bandaged him, and treated his wounds, took him to a safe place, and made sure that he the resources he needed to heal – and then made a further commitment to return and cover all of the costs. 

And Jesus asks:  Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” ³⁷He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

But what if I am afraid of my neighbor because sometimes my neighbour is scary

A few years ago I was on a trip with the Algoma presbytery youth – one of which was my eldest son Rhys.  We were travelling to London from the Sault – we stopped just north of Toronto at the McDonalds at the highway way station – there was a lot of laughing and joking and pushing each other around.  We had been on the bus for a few hours at this point. As we were standing in line waiting for food.  There was a man who was ahead of our group and with the jostling, I accidentally trod on his toes – I apologized immediately and he was gracious in his response, letting me know that it was not a big deal and told me not to worry about it. A couple of minutes later – the jostling continued and this time it was my 16 year old son that bumped the man – this time he spun round grabbed my son by his collar and threatened to punch him – my son’s disarming charm and Rhys holding up his hands and not threatening him back the man decided to release him and went to order his big Mac – I stood there stunned – and not a little afraid – and confused about the abrupt change in this man – it took me a while to realize that the man was afraid of my teenage boy so he assumed he was being attached and needed to defend himself from this group of threatening bully boys instead of a careless accident by some thoughtless teenagers.  He saw my son as a threat not as a neighbour.

So how do I love my neighbour when

Sometimes my neighbour has a different culture, and I do not understand their language or their customs, or why they make the choices they do. 

And sometimes my neighbour has a different sexual preference than me and

sometimes my neighbour has no shoes and dirty fingernails and bad breath, and no home,

and sometime my neighbour is morbidly obese, or mentally ill, or developmentally delayed or old or young or first nations or asian or arab. 

Sometimes my neighbour looks and sounds like me but has hurt me or treated me badly. 

Sometimes my neighbour is my brother or my sister or my son or daughter that I haven`t spoken to in three years. 

And sometimes my neighbour is me – and I have shame and guilt about something I did in my past.

It is not easy, in fact sometimes it is really, really hard to love our neighbour – a few years ago I was visiting my son Rhys in Vancouver with Elizabeth, who was 8 months old.  It was the end of the visit and I was driving back to the airport in a rented car on my own.  Rhys gave me instructions which I did not follow – something I do quite frequently – and I found myself not on the way to the airport but instead I had driven into downtown Vancouver – most of you are aware of the reputation of Downtown Vancouver – I was aware of the reputation, I was going in the wrong direction and I had a deadline of a plane to catch – I was panicked – I need to turn around – so I did and as I started heading north again, back from where I came from, I notice a woman in the middle of the street, crying and yelling and trying to get away from a man who was threatening her.  I knew what was going on, I knew it was bad, I knew that I needed to do something to help this poor woman - but my fear made me drive away without doing anything at all– I am still haunted by the look of fear on that woman’s.  I did not love my neighbour that day – but I did make it to the airport on time.

So, what Ed Burkhardt could have done differently at Lac Magentic to love his neighbours this past Wednesday, was to allow his vulnerable self to be seen and known. He needed to address the pain, the sorrow, the shock, and the grief of the people – He needed to love them in this time instead of seeking to free himself of blame and shame.  If he had been able to apologize like he meant it, take responsibility for his – and the mistakes of the company he heads, and maybe offer some aid, he would have been received differently.  If he could have opened his arms and his heart and be empathetic – feel their pain and sorrow without being defensive that would have gone a long way to help the people.  And if all that was too hard, – He could have just been there, talking to the people one on one, and not making it an press opportunity, bearing  witness to the sorrow and shock and grief and pain and anger and all the emotions that people feel in times such as these –bearing witness is a loving action.

So what does it look like – this love, this love of self, this love of neighbor, and how do we love like that…

To love like that means to act with kindness instead of callousness

And patience instead of rudeness

Loving like that means that often humility is the better choice instead of boastfulness

And Tolerance instead of intolerance, respect instead of disrespect

Try open mindedness instead of judgment, and understanding instead of fear

Forgiveness is always the better path instead of revenge and instead of resentment and instead of malice, and leave the retribution to God.

Try to Love instead of hate or instead of apathy or instead of emptiness

 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

Even though that woman`s face still haunts me, I know that every day I have many more opportunities to love my neighbour.  Sometimes it is as simple as sharing a smile or a kind word.  Other times it requires more effort – and sometimes it loving my neighbour is very very hard.  But no matter what, I know and you know that each and every time we encounter another human being it is our opportunity - our chance to put this into action and love our neighbour, to care for our neighbour, to show kindness to our neighbour.  Thanks be to God for this opportunity.  Amen