Re-formation - a Sermon for October 27

Re-formation

October 27/2013 Joel 2:23-32 and Luke 18:9-14

We were driving down the peninsula yesterday morning and Rob made a comment about the tamarack trees, and how he did not really notice them in the bush until this time of year when the leaves on the deciduous trees are almost gone and the needles on the tamarack are starting to turn.   -all of a sudden the tamarack are standing out, in the midst of all the other coniferous trees you can now see a sea of yellow and they are becoming very noticeable.  The changing of the tamarack trees is one of the final signs that winter is approaching, the days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder, the world around us is changing - re-forming- winter is not far off

·         and we know it in the colours of our surroundings,

·         and we know it in the temperature,

·         and we know it in the smell of the outside world

This re-forming of the world is a natural process we call it changing seasons, we expect this re-formation of the world, it is normal and natural.  Every year we anticipate four seasons to come and to go.  It is, however, easy to forget that change is normal and natural, especially when everything around us feels like the same old thing and our days have become routine.  And yet change is constant and the world is reforming all around us minute by minute.  I was made very aware of this fact last week when I spent time with my new granddaughter Stella. What a contrast from Erica- here was this small delicate squishy newborn, and her aunt Erica, only 16 months older, but three times her weight, walking, babbling, strong and firm- so much growth and development in a few short months.  Erica's ongoing development is a continual reminder that not only is the world in constant but human beings are also being re-formed and re-formed on a ongoing basis.  God's creation is in a constant state of re-formation.

Today is reformation Sunday – the day when we recognize that religion re-forms too, and so does faith, and culture and that every once in a while a  shift happens that is so profound the world as we knew it looks completely different.

500 years ago, a shift happened and people and communities and the western world were re-formed.  The central character behind the transformation / reformation was Martin Luther.

Luther held deep questions about God, faith, grace, and salvation.

                -he wrestled constantly with his questions

                -how could God forgive him…a sinner

                -what could he do to earn God’s grace

                -what would happen when he died

It was while Luther was studying Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that some of his questions were answered

You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith writes Paul.  This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed.  It’s not something you did that you can be proud of. Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.

God grace was a gift, it was not something you earned and it was given without strings

                -no conditions

                -no qualifications

                -no hidden “gotch-ya’s”

                -no small print

                -no “if I do this…then God will do that”

               

There was absolutely not one thing Luther could do to earn God’s grace.  It was…and continues to be for us today…a free gift.  This was a radical theology in the world 500 years ago, and this message, which got momentum behind it because the printing press was invented in that time and all of a sudden the word of God became available to anyone who could read and not just the church. The idea that grace was gift, and that scripture was the number one source when it came to God – these radical ideas changed the church.               

That time is known as the reformation, and it is about a re-formation of how God was talked about, of how the bible was interpreted, it was a major shift in theological thinking

                -a major shift in the way church functioned and

                -a major shift in understanding God.

A re-forming of ideas, culture, faith and religious practice.  The world shifted because the people discovered that God was not done with them yet.

The people to whom Joel the prophet is speaking are also living in a time of re-forming.  it is the period of the exile, the people of God have been forced from their home, removed from their land,  removed from their culture, removed from their religious centre, the temple in Jerusalem, it and the world as they knew it has re-formed.  Joel is speaking to them today.  Joel is an obscure prophet, his prophecy takes up only three short chapters in the bible, and most of his words are threats, accusations and general words of despair about the distance the people of God have moved away from God.  And yet, right in the middle of all the doom and gloom the prophet reminds the people of God's restoration, of God's ability to reform the present situation from a place of alienation and a place of disconnection and a place of isolation from God.  Right in the middle of despair and lament and sorrow and grief for the former things comes a promise of hope.

“:26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

2:27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

2:28 Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.”

Hope is returning to the people who live in exile.  Hope is returning because God is not done with them yet – God is going to re-form God's people and you can know that because the young men will see visions and the young woman will  prophesy and the, the elderly will dream dreams, and the world is going to change.  And it did, the exile ended after the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians, and under the Persians kings the People of God were allowed to return to Jerusalem, where able to rebuild the city, permitted to rebuild again the temple - the house of God on the mount of the former pillaged temple.  God was not done with them yet - not by a long shot.

For a few hundred years later along come the greatest reformer the world has ever seen.  Jesus is the great re-former.  His life and death changed the world forever.  And the world shifted - Right from the beginning - re-formation as God came to the world like he never had before - and not in fanfare and brass bands but with the announcements of angel messengers.  And God did not come into the world in a royal court with the power of the culture, and the prestige of a worldly king- no - God came in simple-ness and earthiness, and his coming was announced to shepherds and magi from the east, not at all what the people were expecting - but still - God came - and the man Jesus short life here on this earth, re-formed the way that the world understood God - but not by lengthy tombs and brilliant publications of new philosophical thought - no - Jesus changed the world by a lifestyle choice and sharing stories and befriending the prostitutes and tax collectors and seeing beyond the cultural divides.  He healed the sick, made the blinded see and touched the unclean.  He embodied his faith and wore it around his neck like a mantle so that you could not see the difference between the man and his way of life.  And he challenged the very fabric of his cultures understanding of God and who God was and how God wanted people to live in the world.

Take for instance the story we heard this morning, Jesus is with his disciples and they are talking about prayer - talking about how to maintain a relationship with God, and he tells them about another story - this time he uses examples - a Pharisee and a tax collector - a Pharisee is the one who know how to pray - at least according to society - it is their role, they are the ones in their culture who are steeped in scripture, who spend their life interpreting the word of God, and teach others how to live that word of God.  And the tax collector - a parasite in Jesus time, one whose fortune was made on how much they could expropriate from the people - and craftiness and dishonesty was a common character trait for someone to be successful as a tax collector - so - both of these men go to pray - the one that you expect to pray properly, correctly, with reverence and relevance –says "thank you God that I am not like that man - thank you that I am good, and righteous, and live a good life - thank God I am me and not that other man.  And the tax collector says:  have mercy on me - a sinner.  It was very simple prayer - nothing very flowery about it.  And even though both prayers were sincere, and both prayers were honest, or as honest as these men knew to be, but says Jesus, the one who humbled himself - the one who recognized his limitations, the one who needed God more - he is the one who is blest.   Prayer says Jesus is about re-formation - recognizing what is really going on in your life - and witnessing that there are times and places and moments that are not lived as God would have us live, that there are choices that have been made that have moved us away from God instead of closer, that we need mercy because in one way or another we are sinners.  But wait says Jesus - there is more for not only does God understand the choices we have made, and not only does God love us, God also forgives us too!

My family reformed this week - after two and a half years, Michelle was finally legally adopted.  In a way it was quite anticlimactic - we had been anticipating this moment for about a year now - that was when the forms where finalized and sent in to await the courts - a year ago.  And it was a short moment - it took all of about 10 minutes from the time the judge arrived until the time when we left the courtroom - the drive down to Walkerton took so much longer.  And all the judge did after asking a few questions was sign about seven sheets of prepared forms, and then the day carried on like it had before.  So all in all on the surface it seemed as though not much changed, Michelle lives in the same house, has the same clothes, goes to the same school, on the surface it appears to be the same - but it is not...For with the signature of Judge Harrison, Michelle's life changed forever.  The first big change that happened was that her name changed - she has a changed first name, a new middle name and a new last name - and her last name connects her to the family that Rob and I have created together.  My children are now her brothers and her sisters, Rob's sibling are now her aunts and her uncle’s.  She gets grandparents and second cousins, and a whole bunch of people I lovingly refer to as the Craig clan.  With one stroke of the pen her life has been reformed - and that is the way it is with God, one moment things are one way and the next they are another - the world shifts, changes, reforms - because God is not done with us yet.  

Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Held in God's Heart - October 20

Held in God’s Heart

October 20, 2013 Jeremiah 31:  27-34 and Luke 18: 1-8

I have just returned from Halifax – my plane touched to the ground at Pearson International airport at 12:00 yesterday afternoon.  I spent last week in Nova Scotia falling in love.  I met a new life, who by virtue of birth is now a part of my life – I met my first grandchild – her name is Stella – she is my son’s daughter – she looks just like her mom.  She is small and delicate and beautiful and precious.  And she has managed in the three short weeks of her life to have many, many people fall in love with her.   Babies are good at that, I think that is probably why we as a human species thrives – babies are good at having people fall in love with them.  I am not sure that I was prepared for becoming a grandmother – some of you may know that I am still very much in parenting mode as my youngest daughter is only 16 months old – and it seems a bit strange to think that my baby daughter is already an aunt but my son is 27 so in the grand scheme of things it does actually make sense and I need to just accept that I am old enough to be a grandma.  When I said goodbye to Stella yesterday morning – she was just waking up, and she was held in her mother’s arms – still in the squishy stage of being a newborn –I realized that I would be taking a part of her with me – because she now rests in my heart – and no matter that we have over 2000 kilometers between us – she and I are connected now – and no matter where she goes and what part of the world she grows up in (and because my son is in the Navy – it could be quite far away) she will always hold a place in my heart – she is written there – Stella Christine, daughter of Hannah and Rhys – granddaughter of me – child of God.

Written in hearts is a God thing to do –the reading from the book of Jeremiah is all about being written in God’s heart –“31:33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  I think this is one of the most important covenant that God makes with the people – because it is filled with such hope – this is a troubled time for the people of Judah – a time when all around things are bad – Jeremiah has been warning the people for years – that if something did not change soon well then there would be problems – God would not keep accepting these people who scorned him – God would no longer be able to tolerate those that worshipped others gods, and ignored the laws and practice pagan customs. God would not want anything to do with those who forgot who they were and where they came from and what God had done for them – forgot that they were delivered from slavery and walked through the water and were fed manna in the desert - forgot that they were God’s chosen people – Jeremiah had been warning them – predicting all sorts of disasters and destruction and finally it had all come to pass. 

In 596 BC the nation of Babylon, what is now present day Iraq, invaded Jerusalem and enslaved the upper echelon of Judean society just as the Assyrians had done to the Northern Kingdom of Israel 200 years before. The people were removed from their homes, from their culture, from their lifestyle and marched to Babylonia and entered into a life of servitude to the Babylonians.  This abrupt change of lifestyle – the loss of freedom and the mass deportation as you can well imagine challenged the people and they struggled to find a sense of identity, a sense of who they were and whose they were in their new living situation.  All the devastation Jeremiah predicted had come to pass except

– and this is a huge exception – the world did crashing down in the nation of Judah but God did not desert them – God did not abandon them – no – just the opposite – God made a new covenant and wrote them in his heart and God promised – one more time – promised that God would be their God – and they – the people of Judah – the people of the law – the ancestors of those who walked into the desert with Moses - the same people who had been disloyal and unfaithful  and untrue – they were still the people of God.  And not only that – they were written in God’s heart.  Our God is a persistent God when it comes to his people, never abandoning them no matter how far they stray – Over the years time and time again God persists in being our God in spite of our attempts to thwart him.

The covenant spoken by Jeremiah over 2500 years ago still stands today – still stands after all this time of people pushing God away.  God is still there – God is still here and we are his people and he is our God and it is written on his heart.  God is still here – and it is evident in the foundation of hope that permeates our culture.  And God is still here and it is evident in the in the world around us – in the majesty and diversity of creation – just look out this window – even in the grey and the rain – life is teaming out there, plants are breathing and drinking up the rain, birds and bugs are dancing in the branches of the trees, leaves are turning glorious colours and falling to the ground to make mulch in order to feed more bugs to feed the birds – the circle of life just beyond the glass –

And God is here – in this room with us – look at us – this rag tagged bunch of folks all from different backgrounds, all from different families, all at various life stages – some old some young, some male, some female,  - all of us – beloved children of God – all of us with enough faith in this God to get out of bed on this (dreary day) and make the effort to come to this place of worship – and to hold up the relationship we have with this God who has us written in his heart –

And God is here in this world –

·        and we know it when we find joy in situations that seem overwhelmingly sad,

·        and when we see peace come to situations that are volatile,

·        and when hope is felt in the midst of despair,

·        and when love is the only answer in response to hate

·        and when forgiveness happens in spite of resentment.

God is here no matter how much we push or how much we ignore – God is persistent is his love for us – his beloved children.

Years ago when I was on my internship in Ottawa at Trinity United Church –I was a country bumpkin come from Northern Ontario – come to live in the big city for a few months –  I was quite unfamiliar with urban life – I was part of the ministerial, as part of my learning goals.  The ministerial also was a Bible Study group decided that they would participate as a group in a protest that was being staged on parliament hill – they were protesting housing reforms that the Mike Harris conservative government was enacting – This was my first ever protest – and quite frankly – I was nervous about the whole situation.  The Premier was in town at the Westen hotel and a large group of concerned citizen walked through the streets and stopped in front of the hotel where a stage with sound equipment was set up – and thus began a series of speeches.  All sorts of different groups spoke – those connected to assisted living, those who were part of housing co-ops, those who had interests in geared to income housing – pretty much anyone who had concerns about affordable and attainable housing for all people regardless of income status.  Well into the afternoon a member of the ministerial got up to the microphone – her name was Anne and she was one of the ministers at Glebe St. James United Church.  I will always remember her words- she said:  “my people tell a story – my people tell a story about a widow who went to a judge and because she kept coming she was granted justice”  My people tell a story –this was the first time that I really began to understand what it meant to be a people of God – I realized when she was using the phrase over and over again – my people tell a story – that I was people – and that they were people and that all the people that stood in that street today – stranger and friend alike – we was all people – and it was our God she was talking about – and this story of persistence – this was my story – this was their story – this was our story.  And all of a sudden it mattered to me whether or not the person standing beside me had affordable housing.  And all of a sudden it mattered and I got it – and God was there.

Our God is persistent like the widow and will track you down

·        When you are lost – God will find you

·        When you stumble – God will be there to catch you

·        When your life seems to be meaningless – God stays with you until it matters again

·        When life seems to be crashing down around your ears – God is there, patiently waiting to dust you off as you pick yourself up.

Our God is persistent like the widow and will never leave you!

My people tell a story about God, your God, my God who

·        whenever the hungry are fed

·        whenever the lame walk

·        whenever the oppressed are served justice –

·        whenever God’s will is done and God’s people are loved

God’s heart is lifted.  It gives me comfort to remember that much like I carry Stella on my heart – my beloved granddaughter – I am carried on God’s heart as God’s beloved daughter and we are carried in God’s heart as God’s beloved people.  Thanks be to God for a love like that.  Amen.

Doubly Blessed

Doubly Blessed

October  13/13           Thanksgiving Sunday           Luke 17:  11-19 and Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

When I was growing up, we moved a lot – my father liked new challenges so he frequently shifted positions that required a move for my family.  I went to 10 different schools between Kindergarten and Grade 13.  I got used to being the new kid in class, I got used to not knowing the culture and having to learn new ways.  Most of my experiences of being the new kid in class were okay – after a few weeks I would find my way, meet some people I could connect to and blend my way into the society of that particular school.  There was one time however, when I did not blend – when I remained on the outside, when the feeling of being an outsider, an outcast did not subside.  Fenelon Falls High school carries the dubious honour of being my place of separation.  I was in my second year of Grade 13 – although I had graduated – my marks were such that I need to upgrade to go to University.  I moved in with my aunt who had small general store – I worked for my aunt for my room and board and went to school.  Fenelon Falls school used on an every other day rotation of classes – so I only went to school every other day.  I also was only updating two classes so the situation set itself up for separateness – especially because I am in introvert and the more anxious I become the more introverted I become. I moved into a school were the  kids had known each other for years and the social groups had long since been arranged – and quite frankly I did not make a good effort to try and fit in – I hung around the periphery of things. No one was mean, but no one was friendly either. It was a social situation doomed to failure – and by the end of November I was miserable going to school was painful for me -  I remember one day when I was overwhelmed with loneliness and I left the school and went to the park alongside the river and I cried for an hour – I felt so out of the circle, so alienated from my peers, so alone and outcast from the group – I was miserable.  Looking back I realize that most of my teenage angst was self inflicted, but the emotions I felt at this time seemed so real – being alone, being an outsider, no one caring who I was or what I felt, outside of the group, outside of the culture – an outcast – like the lepers in today’s story. 

I can’t even imagine what it is like to have leprosy and in spite of my teenage angst which may have felt like being alienated from the culture, I have never had to live my life like the ones Jesus encountered today – they are truly outcast, sent out from their communities, sent out from their families and former friends and forced to live lives of alienation and separateness.  In a time of lack of medical understanding – you fear what you don’t know, and leprosy is a contagious skin disease, and the only way 2000 years ago they knew to protect themselves and their children from the disease was to force those inflicted with the dreaded disease out of the community and into isolation. To make them outcasts.

The ones to whom Jeremiah is speaking to today are also outcasts, they are in exile.  In 596 BC the nation of Babylon, what is now present day Iraq, invaded Jerusalem and enslaved the upper echelon of Judean society just as the Assyrians had done to the Northern Kingdom of Israel 200 years before. The people were removed from their homes, from their culture, from their lifestyle and marched to Babylonia and entered into a life of servitude to the Babylonians.  This abrupt change of lifestyle – the loss of freedom and the mass deportation as you can well imagine challenged the people and they struggled to find a sense of identity, a sense of who they were and whose they were in their new living situation.  It is to these displaced and confused people that Jeremiah is writing today.  ... to gather them together, to hold them in their separateness, to remind them that they are God’s people, and that means something, that matters – and then to urge to them that they make the best the situation that they are living in – to find love, to create families, to embrace life in Babylonia, and live well until the time comes when they can return to the promise land.  They are entreated to remember that they are God’s people, that God is not done with them yet – that there are many things to be grateful for in spite of the hardships, in spite of the challenges, in spite of the exile.

Grateful in spite of being outcast – grateful in spite of the challenges of life, grateful.  Today is Thanksgiving, and a time when we are called to gratitude – a time when we look at our lives and how we live and where we place our priorities and look to say thanks for the blessings that we live in and amongst.

David Lose at Working Preacher:  Thanksgiving is like that. It springs from perception -- our ability to recognize blessing -- and articulation -- giving expression, no matter how inadequate it may seem at the time, of our gratitude for that blessing. And every time these two are combined -- sight and word -- giving thanks actually grants a second blessing. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I think gratitude is the noblest emotion. Gratitude draws us out of ourselves into something larger, bigger, and grander than we could imagine and joins us to the font of blessing itself. But maybe, just maybe, gratitude is also the most powerful emotion, as it frees us from fear, releases us from anxiety, and emboldens us to do more and dare more than we'd ever imagined. Even to return to a Jewish rabbi to pay homage when you are a Samaritan because you've realized that you are more than a Samaritan, or a leper, or even a healed leper; you are a child of God, whole and accepted and beautiful just as you are.[1]

We are children of God and our lives are beautiful – in spite of or maybe even because of the challenges and the hardships that we face and endure.  And we are to be grateful for our challenged and hard lives, because within them are a multitude of blessings, within our lives everyday are gifts of God grace and beauty.  We only need to be open to them –

·         It begins with dawn, the glory of the sun returning – that lights the sky – and even on a day like today when the clouds hang heavy- there is beauty in the grey

·         And we are blessed with family, and friends and those we love and who love us in return even when we are unloveable – all of us have someone in our lives who loves us and whom we love.

·         And we are blessed with beauty, this is part of the world is an amazing beautiful spot – with the lakes and the trees and rocks and the escarpment.  I will always remember a story I heard from Ruth Hellyers daughters as we were sharing moments of her life before her funeral – Ruth would drive her daughters to school and herself to work via ithmis bay so that she would have a moment each time at the stop sign where the view looks out over the water and to the cliffs and she would each time say how beautiful it was –never taking it for granted – gratitude

·         And we are blessed, and we are blessed and we are blessed – every day, in so many ways.

And when we name our blessings it makes them more real – when we thank God for our blessings it reminds us that they are indeed from God and that they are gift and grace and do not come to us because of something that we do, or that we earn them or that are entitled to them – God’s grace, God’s blessings are gift.  And the lepers teach us that even if we do not say thank you the grace and healing is still freely given and ours to enjoy – but the 10^th leper shows us that when we take the time to acknowledge and thank God the blessings become more – they become doubly blessed.  When we are grateful, we see things differently, the world shifts our perspective changes – the gifts remain the same – the grace is sufficient but we change because our perception is different and we see the world in a new light.  We see the world through the lens of gratitude.

Fredrick Buechner writes:  “Listen to your life.  See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.  In the boredom and pain of it not less than in the excitement and gladness of it.  Touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis of all moments are key moments and life itself is grace.”

All moments are key moments – moments when the Christ can come and offer healing and life itself grace.  It is the place where the kingdom of God gets in and we feel the blessings.

What things in your life are you grateful for right now – where has God blessed you?  What in this morning has you saying thank you?  Take a moment and turn to the person beside you – and share it.

Thank you God for our blessing – thank you God for our life, thank you God from whom all blessings flow – we are grateful for our life, for our world and for you.  Amen.

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[1] David Lose:  http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?m=4377&post=2796