Commandments and Communion

Commandments and Communion

World Wide Communion Sunday - October 2 / 2012

When I was a little girl we always ate dinner at the dining room table.  Breakfast and lunch were served on the kitchen table, but dinner was at the dining room table.  Most of the time it wasn’t fancy, we used our everyday dishes, but eating at the dining room table put the meal in a different class.  Here we had to use our knife and fork properly – we had rules – 

·       no singing at the table,

·       no chewing with your mouth open,

·       if you would like something you must say “please pass the potatoes” 

·       no elbows on the table,

·       you must wait for everyone to finish before you can have dessert  

·       you must finish your first course if you expect to have dessert!

When I was a child these rules seemed ridiculous, and I remember lots of times when my mother or father would correct our behaviour.  I used to resent it, and often wondered why we just couldn’t eat in the kitchen where the rules were not so strict – I also noticed that sometimes in other people’s homes they did not have to worry about how they held their fork or if they chewed with their mouth open.  My son Ethan shared a story about a co-worker of his who chews with his mouth open and when it was mentioned to him that it was kind of offensive – he responded that ‘it makes his food taste better to eat that way’.  I have grown to appreciate my parent’s instructions – I know how to eat politely at any dinner table – my manners and the way I hold my knife and fork, have stood me well over the past decades.  I have not embarrassed myself or others with rude behaviour at a dinner table.  The structure and norms taught to me by my parents, has made eating politely just something I do.  They ended up being rules / structure that gave me freedom instead of restrictions.  

We have been following the Israelites on their journey in the desert – on their journey between slavery and freedom – through the desert, and through their places of struggle and disenchantment with their new life.  Remember where we have been – people crying out to God to release them from slavery – and Moses comes forth to lead them out of the land of Egypt – toward the promise land – but after they cross the sea, after they have been in the desert for a month or two the excitement has worn off and the reality of what it means to become something else – someone else – no longer a slave but now a citizen off to find the promise land – but also no longer have food, shelter, schedule, purpose provided to you by your master – when the Hebrew people begin to understand the price of freedom – the begin to understand just how hard change is and that to be transformed from slave to free is a painful process.  We are hungry Moses, give us food – we are thirsty Moses – where is the water – we need organization we need a structure for how to live - this is what is happening in the reading today – as the people get more and more ancy – God comes to them once more and gives them ‘the law’ –  in the shape of two stone tablets bearing the words that we call ‘the ten commandments’

Moses brings a different type of grace to the people this morning – as he meets God on the mountain and receives the next gift – the ultimate gift – the gift the keeps on giving as the words have become timeless and have meaning and are as relevant for Hebrew people in the middle of the desert as they are for us right here at St. James ~Rosemount in the middle of Kitchener.

These words are our words too – these words

·       this framework /this set of rules /these policies and guidelines /these laws

The ten commandments have become sacred to generation after generation right back to the Hebrew people journeying in the desert and right forward to here and now, in this time and in this place.  These words of God, given to Moses, presented to the Hebrew people have been used to set laws in nations, have been used to determine guidelines of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, have been used to place judgement on some people choices, have been used and reuses and used again in so many times and my so many generations that I wonder if we can even appreciate what these words would have sounded like to the first hearers – the question becomes how much baggage do we bring to these sacred words that they are distorted by our interpretations.  When we listened to the scripture story this morning how many of us instead of feeling the gift and blessing and grace these commandments offered instead feel the heaviness of law and judgement and condemnation that these words pull up from inside us instead.  

What if the 10 commandments is not a list of regulations but instead a series of supportive instructions about how to live on this earth in a way that not only honours God but also our neighbour, honour our selves and also the earth and all living creatures.  What if the ten commandments is not a list of rules that God uses against us and tick – tick – tick – tick when any of us covet or use the Lord’s name in vain or dishonour one of our parents or head on out after church to do some grocery shopping.  What if God had in mind way back then – and still has in mind for us today – was a framework – a filter which offers a way to live in the world which respects God, and others and self and Creation.  What if what God was doing was offering a life giving framework of respect and love, much like my parents instilling in me table manners?

J Ellisworth Callas wrote a book called – “  The 10 Commandments from the Backside” it is about reframing the 10 commandments – instead of a negative list of all the ways not to be, and not to act and not to behave, what he does is shift from a negative to a positive focus and, for me this reframing speaks more authentically of what I believe is God’s desire for us as humans beings living on this earth.  They cause me to rethink what God is really asking of me living my life on this earth in the midst of all of God’s creation.  So, instead of

You shall have no other God before me // God shall have all of you

You shall not make yourself an idol // you shall adore the mystery that is beyond comprehension

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.// you shall enter into God’s name

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy // the Sabbath will keep you

Honour your father and mother // you shall accept the blessings of the past so that you can have a future

You shall not murder // you shall embrace life

You shall not commit adultery // you shall cherish the sacredness of your mate

You shall not steal //you shall become a larger person

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour // you shall bless and be blest by truth

You shall not covet your neighbours’ house, wife, slaves, ox or donkey // you shall rejoice in your neighbours having.

When we reframe and hear these life giving words from the positive instead of the negative – we are given a glimpse of the kingdom – we are given an opportunity to see what God really had in mind for this world and it’s people and creation  embracing life, accepting the blessings, cherishing sacredness, rejoicing in the having of another – the kingdom of God – which we are blessed to live in

This Sunday is the closest this year to the Jewish celebration of Yom Kipper the day of Atonement for those of the Jewish faith– Friday was the Kol Nidre service which is the prayer said before the service begins.  On this day the community asks and receives forgiveness from God.   – a fellow preacher was sharing that she attended such a service Friday evening – ‘at the beginning of the service a number of members of the congregation were invited to the bima to hold the Torah scrolls while the prayer was sung.  She was overwhelmed by the looks of joy on the faces of those holding the scrolls and the notes of longing and faithfulness in the voice of the cantor.  She then reflected on how it powerfully reminded her that the commandments that are so often reduced to a list with all the excitement of a section of civil code they are in fact an expression of God’s deep and abiding love for us and God’s desire for us to remain in this covenant as a living, dynamic, reciprocal relationship. These commandments are about a reciprocal relationship – that gives as well as receives – much like the meal that we are about to partake – it declares that our relationship with God it is living and dynamic and reciprocal.

And in Christian communities this morning all over the world, people just like us are participating in a practice that reminds us that we are living in God’s  vineyard – and that we are not the owner, but the owner wishes to be in intimate relationship with us – the owner care and loves us and desires us to embrace life, to cherish sacredness, to rejoice in our neighbours having and to belong to God, adorning the mystery that is beyond comprehension. 

This act of communion is about re-membering – re-membering who we are and whose we are .. we are God’s people…re-membering where we live and who is the owner .. the earth is God’s vineyard  …and re-membering that we are all part of a continuum of creation from our brothers and sisters in the desert, experiencing first the life giving words to the men and the woman around the table in the upper room sharing the simple meal with Jesus to us sitting in these pews this morning about to partake of breads baked or bought by members of this congregation, sharing their heritage.  We re-member that God is with us here and now – and God will be with us and our children and our children’s children, children. This meal unites us as one people – first individually – unites us with Jesus as we recall how he to shared this meal and from that place went to Golgotha – and unites us to each other- each of us in this building, the babies in the nursery to the 90 year olds in the pews as we re-member that we are all in this together – this church – this congregation – this denomination – this Christian community – this meal reminds us that we are united in more than name, this meal unites us with others in other churches and other denominations, in other countries, in other languagues and cultures and in other faith groups – this meal unites us with God – re-membering that we are one people, one human species that all live in the vineyard of God…. 

Jan Richardson writes:  “World Communion Sunday reminds us that Christ calls us to a table where the welcome is wide. He offers us a space with bread and wine in abundance to give solace to our sorrow and to stir our joy. Even as Christ invites us to this table, he does not mean for us to linger here forever. He gives us sustenance in order to send us forth, carrying a space of welcome within us, called to offer it to those we meet”[1]  come to the table and remember who you are and whose you are – come to the table and find nourishment and hope – come to the table as you are for you are all welcome…..Amen   

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[1] Jan Richardson:  The Solace of Other Tables:  The Painted Prayerbook.com

September 28 - Flow

Flow

September 28 / 14

Exodus 17: 1-7                                                 

This was moving week – and I thought that I was prepared for this –  I have moved many times before and this move, thanks to you, is easily handled because it is part of the United Church compensation package.  I thought that everything was well in hand – because the movers were doing the packing and taking care of the carting from one house and to the other all I had to do was tell them what stays and what goes– so when Wednesday came – packing day, and they were to arrive between 9 and 9:30, plenty of time thought I – although I had a presbytery meeting the night before, and did not get home from the drive until after 11 – But I got a good night sleep and I got up in good time.  I  got the girls off to school, Erica off to daycare, was back by 8:45 to have my breakfast and my tea and then time to prepare myself  – but just when I sat down the doorbell rang – it was the movers- they were there, early, and  from that moment on everything felt like it went out of control, the rest of the week has felt like I have been rushing to catch up – I am not sure what I am trying to catch up too – but there has been this sense of not being fully ready and not at all prepared for what our family is doing.  And there has been this niggling feeling all week that if I had just had the 15 or twenty minutes to myself – to prepare myself for what was coming - then I would have handled it better.  If only the movers had not been early then I would have been ready, and the last few days of tremendous stress and chaos would have been calmer and had more flow…

I wonder if that is how the Hebrew people felt this morning, out of control and stress out.  They had thought that they wanted to be free from slavery to the Egyptians -  they had thought that they knew what they were getting into – but it all happened so quickly – one minute they were in Egypt and the next Moses hastened them along, getting them to hurry up – because the hard hearted Pharaoh had finally changed his mind and let them go – maybe if they had had more time to prepare, more time to get ready – that when they came to the place where they were today – according to one scholar – only about three months into the journey, would they have been able to handle it better?  They may have been less threatening to Moses, and more understanding when they began to get very thirsty. 

Old Testament Professor Nancy DeClasse Walford writes:  Thus, a weary and downtrodden people left a life of oppression--but a life of familiarity--and journeyed into the Sinai desert led by a man they hardly knew. They hoped to arrive safely in the land that had been promised to their ancestors, a land they had never seen. Each step took them further away from the known and deeper into the desert unknown--men, women, children, and livestock.

The Egyptians pursued; the water was too bitter to drink; food was scarce; the water ran out altogether. Doubt set in; fear overtook, and the people complained and quarreled. In each instance, God provided: deliverance, sweet water, food, water from the rock. These were the early days of the wilderness wanderings, and God persistently guided the people and provided for them.[1]

Doubt set in – fear overtook…., they weren’t ready – but could they have been?  I think the thing of it is that life is not something that you can be ready for – I was not prepared for the emotions I experienced when I watched all our belonging being packed up and moved from a beloved home and treasured location.  The Hebrew people were not ready for the hardships of the dessert and were also not ready to trust in God whom they had not seen for a long long time – for they had not witnessed God like Moses had and were forced to trust Moses, a man whom they barely knew with their lives, and the lives of their children.  It is no wonder, when there was no water that fear set in and doubt overtook….and they started to complain, and to threaten and to regret their decision. 

We have all been there – that place where life is not what we had anticipated.  Where the direction we are headed is not what we signed up for.  Life has a way of handing us curve balls – and unanticipated problems and sometimes outright tragedy.  We have all been so thirsty we cannot think straight –

·       we could be thirsty for love,

·       or withered by grief,

·       we could be parched in despair

·       or desperate for security or safety

·       we could be dried out inside, feeling lost and alone

·       or dehydrated from years of neglect

But God was there, and God heard, and God responded – God was in that desert with the Hebrew people and out of a rock – water flowed and thirst was assuaged and the people drank until they could drink no more.  God came and saved them yet again.  Water flowed from a rock – and the Hebrew people drank and were thirsty no more – at least no more that day.

Sometimes the hardest thing we have to do is remember who we are and whose we are.  It is easy to forget when the thirst gets deep and hard that we are not alone in the desert that God is with us, just as he was with the Hebrews. It’s hard in the midst of fear and doubt to trust that God will provide and that water will come, even from the most unlikely of places.

I am grateful for this opportunity today to celebrate with you the lives of three people whom have been in the past contributing members of this congregation.  I know that for some of you it especially hard today, as your grief is re-awakened.  But what a great example of God’s love enacted here, that these precious lives that have touched so many here continue with their gifts to bring life to the church – like water from a rock – a bench by the labyrinth offers rest and restoration – and a defribulator may give life to someone whose heart has stopped and in the music, which opens us up in profound ways and God is able to break down barriers so we can get a little bit closer to our Creator.  Thank you, families of Rick, Fern and Steven, may we honour your loved ones by using their gifts well.

God cares deeply for each of us and helps move us from places of fear and doubt to places of trust. God provides for us and reveals Godself to us, and then God asks us to trust when the good provision doesn't come as quickly or in quite the form as we would like. Look back, remember the provision of God in the past journey; it will come again in future journeys. For "I am the LORD your God." And I am with you and you shall be my people and I will be your God – Thanks be…Amen 

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[1] Nancy DeClasse-Walford:  Working Preacher.org,  http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=160

Community Building - A Sermon for Pentecost 15

Community Building

September 21/14

Years ago I when I was serving in my first pastoral charge in Blind River, an Anglican Church in Sault Ste. Marie had biblical scholar, author and priest Herb O’Driscoll up in our area to lead a workshop on the future of the Christian church.  We in the United Church were able to piggy back onto his time in the Sault, and have a one day workshop of our own, tacked on to the end of his time with the Anglicans.  A group of enthusiastic United Church ministers gathered in the Sanctuary of Willowgrove United Church, to gain insight from this learned leader.  What struck me then and stays with me until this day is how he talked about ministry of the future – this was in the late nineties, the church had begun to loose members, with shrinking budgets and smaller Sunday Schools – but still the idea that if we do what we did 10 or 20 years ago just tried a bit harder than all would be well and we could fill up our pews, and collection plates.  We still believed that we could just tweek what was happening in our congregations and life as we knew it would return to the glory days of 60’ and 70’s.  I also think that most of us also felt that if we were just the right type of preacher or the most amazing pastoral visitor, or a fabulous community development specialist than we could single handed turn our declining congregations around and the people would return in droves with their hands full of dollar bills just aching to be placed on our collection plates. 

How naive we were!  Herb O’Driscoll quickly put our minds on other things - he was good to remind us that our ministry was not actually our ministry – we were called to serve our Creator

·       called to serve the church and called to serve God with the example of Jesus Christ as our guide.  He also reminded us that we were the one’s

·       called into this present time, not the glory days of the past,

·       called to serve as a servant leader not as a supreme being or a flawless head honcho

·       called to be one of God’s people set apart for leadership yet still apart of the congregations were we were leaders.  

Moses he said was our example.  And he said that Moses was our best biblical example because the times that we were about to go into – actually the times that we were in presently were in although we were not fully acknowledging yet that we were there – these times were wilderness times – and we were desert wanderers, roaming around in a desert with no real path to follow, not real direction to go in – just hoping that were we were going would eventually lead us to the promise land - putting in time until we were ready to go into the promise land – He then reminded us that throughout the wanderings, God was there – and not only that, God also was our guide – our guardian through the desert – and we as leaders need to trust and rely on that presence.  But then he said – and here the part that I carry with me – he said that the leadership we were called into was one of walking with – walking with

·       not out front shouting directions – four paces left – turn to your right – come on everyone – follow me this way!

·       not at the back herding the people like sheep, with dogs nipping at their heels and corralling the people into pens at night

·       not distance and aloof – like an army general making directional plans from the safety of the bunker while the masses go out to check to see if the strategy is sound.

·       And certainly not like the Pharaoh or the kings ruled the people, oblivious to their needs, and separate from them by fortified walls and guilded chambers

No – O’Driscoll said – church leadership in the 21^st century required its leaders to be fully immersed in the community, walking with, experiencing the ups and the downs, willing to put yourself out there to try new things and to have them fail – able to walk with assuredness when the anxiety of the group was high – able to be in relationship with all of the people, in their brokenness and fears, their wisdom and their beauty, their anxiety and their sacredness.

Todays’ Old Testament lesson is a great example of that type of leadership in the midst of an anxious and fearful community.  The Hebrew people have been on the move for a while now and the store sthat they have brought with them from Egypt have reached the end.  Stomachs are grumbling, children are crying, fear is beginning to take hold – the fear that they will not have enough food to sustain them and that they will perish out in this wilderness.  What a few days ago felt like freedom and new life in the desert now with a food scarcity crisis – now it feels like a prison, a place that confines and restricts and may be a place of death instead of life?  You know – it is understandable – this high anxiety – these freaked out people lamenting what they lost – because even though they were slaves, even though they their lives were limited and controlled by the Egyptians – at least they had food, at least they had bread!  But no more – now they can not count on the Egyptians to feed them – now they have to rely on someone else – on something else – on something else entirely – now they have to rely on God – rely and blame God!

Moses, Moses – what do you think you are doing – bringing us out here in the desert, out here to starve – we would have been better to die in Egypt at least we would have bread In our stomachs.  How dare you lead us to our destruction – how dare you kill us all with hunger. 

 

You know one of the hardest things about being in community is blame game – we think that there is something going wrong – so let’s look around to find someone to blame – because it we do that then there is no need for us to take responsibility for whatever the problem is – nor is there any need to try and find a new solution because someone else is responsible.

Moses is living in the midst of the blame game in today’s reading –

·       let’s blame Moses because we think God leading us to our death from starvation –

·       let’s not look around and see what abundance actually surrounds us –

·       let’s us not see whether there is another way to find food or another possibility for substance and of course

·       let us blame God  for denying us what we feel we justly deserve

the blame game, the game where we forget who we are and whose we are….

Paul in the letter to Romans today has a message for the Hebrew community– hope – for in hope we are saved – and he reminds us that hope is about what is not seen – what we can not see yet – hope is about God and what God can do and trusting that God will do something, and that something is going to save.   - When the Hebrew people’s bellies began to rumble they let go of hope and started to grumble…

I think that this might be a good time to wonder about how much we too, like the Hebrew people when things start to get tough and the community around us begins to rumble we too loose hope and start to grumble….

And I bet you we do not need to look far or long to find examples of this within our own community – 

·       times when things were tough and tough got going – often walking out the doors never to be seen or heard from again

·       times when things got heated and people got burned and went away to nurse their wounds

·       times when decisions were made that not all agreed with at some took their ball and went home

·       times when things were dull and malaise set in and people drifted away

·       times when leaders made mistakes or said the wrong thing or offended

·       times when more attention was paid to this cause and less paid to that one

good times, bad times, and times in between. - This community of faith has been through it all and this community of faith has increased and decreased as the blame game is played.

Grumble, grumble, grumble – Moses we are hungry – what has God done to us now! 

In hope we are saved writes Paul:  and hope is what is not seen – we belong to God, a great and abundant and incredible Creator that is not restricted by our small vision and lack of imagination!  We belong to God, our community belongs to God and it is in whose name this community was created, in whose purpose we the people of God gather – it is God who gives this community hope, and meaning, determination and vision – it God in Jesus and the Spirit – Paul writes that is interceding with sighs too deep for words --- I love that line --- sighs to deep for words

God knows – God knows our grumbles – God hears our sighs

·       we are hungry

·       we are lost

·       we are frightened

·       w are anxious

·       we don’t know what to do next

·       we are afraid

God hears – God knows – God is here walking with us, in our midst on this wilderness wanderings that our community is going on right here – right now – God is with us, we are not alone – we are never alone!

And we will be fed – maybe the food will be unlike any food we have had in the past –

Maybe the food will only come each day, and there will be not enough to gather and keep but just enough to assuage our hunger for the day and then…we will have to trust once more that tomorrow will take care of its own.

And maybe we will be found – that the journey that we are on will begin to feel familiar – and even if we do not see our destination – even if the road ahead is not clear – because we walk with God, we will trust that the way will be clear and pathway unobstructed – or if we find an obstruction between us all we will find a way to clear the path, knowing that God is in the midst of this community

And maybe our fear will diminish and we will be able to live in the present unknown reality where tomorrow is a mystery but today is okay, and all we need for that day is with us.

And maybe the way to what is next will be provided, as in idea or an inspiration or thoughts that comes in the night – and this community will be able to hear the voice of God through the inspiration and creativeness of those in our midst – maybe we will need to learn a new language, the language of art and poetry of children’s voices and musical notes…

And maybe we will learn to trust, and learn to let go of our fear, and to know deep-  deep within us that God has not left the building, that we are part of the community of faith, and that the people who walked with Moses, and the people to whom Paul was writing to – that they are all part of this one community of God’s people where all things work together for good  for those who love God. 

We are a community of faith – each and every one of us sitting in these pews today – each and every one of us written down on our membership lists, each and  every one of us who call this church their own – we are God’s people on a journey, walking together through this time and this place where all the food all the sustenance that we need for living a godly life will be provided and all the hope that we need – especially the hope of things unseen is here – we are pilgrims on a journey – with our God to the promise land.  Thanks be…Amen.